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God's Emerging City
Today we see in the Church a rapidly growing Messianic movement – Jews who have repented of their sins and received Jesus as their Messiah. In the first century, Paul used the term remnant to describe Jewish believers; he was part of that company. And while he loved his Jewish nation, most of whom did not receive their Messiah, yet God called him to bring the gospel not primarily to them but to the nations.
Then in his letter to the Gentile believers at Rome, Paul asked a crucial question. Was Israel’s fall permanent? Or was God’s work among the nations part of His plan to graft her again into His purpose? The insight Paul received was profound.
I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
Paul was an example, along with Peter, James, John and the thousands of other Jewish believers in the first century that God had not cast Israel away. The existence of the Jewish remnant demonstrated God’s commitment to continue reaching out to the rest of their nation.
One example of His persistence was the church at Jerusalem as they continually evangelized their countrymen. They were so successful in their mission that James was able to point out to Paul the many thousands of Jewish believers who were also zealous for the Law (Acts 21:20). Notice also Paul’s heart of prayer for his own nation (Romans 10:1 - 3). Even though the apostle knew of Christ’s prophesied destruction of Israel’s temple and capital city, yet he continued to cry out for her salvation.
Clearly, God knew beforehand who would come to know Him from among the Jewish nation.
God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel…
First, it is important to recognize that the Jews foreknown by God were those He had predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). In other words, Paul is referring to those like himself who believed (or who would soon believe) in the Lord Jesus. Paul then goes on to point out from Elijah’s life the Lord’s ability to keep for Himself a faithful remnant.
On the other hand, notice Paul’s point that when Elijah prayed, he did not intercede for Israel but rather pleaded against her. One quick way to get into trouble with the Lord is to start appealing against His people. A better example of biblical intercession was when Daniel prayed and included himself among those who had fallen short. “Lord, we have sinned.”[6]
Over the course of many years the southern nation of Judah had a number of godly kings along with seasons of revival, while the wicked northern nation of Israel never had a godly ruler the whole time of their separate existence.[7] And it was in the northern nation, a land of great darkness, that Elijah ministered.
But when Elijah prayed amiss, the Lord proceeded to correct him. But what is God’s reply to him?
“I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
(Romans 11:4 ESV)
Elijah was a prophet in Israel during the time when Ahab and Jezebel governed. This ungodly couple sought to eradicate God’s prophets from the nation. Jezebel was not even a Jew; she was the daughter of a Sidonian king who had brought all of her pagan, idolatrous practices into Israel, even encouraging the worship of Baal.
So the Lord led Elijah to challenge the false prophets of Baal to demonstrate that He was the only true God. Everyone agreed that only the God who answered by fire was authentic. So the prophets of Baal leaped, danced around, and cut themselves, doing everything they could think of to inspire their god to send fire and consume the sacrifice. But nothing happened.
When it was Elijah’s turn, he simply opened up his heart to the Lord, prayed a simple prayer, and God sent down Heaven’s fire.
When the Lord moved in power, everyone got the point. “The Lord, He is God.” But when Jezebel heard that Elijah had killed the false prophets, she threatened to do the same to him. So he fled to a cave in the wilderness.
Paul, in writing to the Roman believers, references the prophet’s prayer in that cave.
Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, “Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life”? But what does the divine response say to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
When he said that they had killed God’s prophets, Elijah was not identifying with the people; he was pointing a finger at them. “Lord, they are in rebellion against You, and I am the only true servant of Yours left in the land. And, by the way, they are now seeking my life. Lord, Your purpose is really in trouble!”
While the apathy and heart attitudes of God’s people sometimes seem greater than His ability to fulfill His purpose, we must overcome the temptation to fall for the enemy’s lie. If we believe the lie, we will cease to intercede with God’s heart of compassion and will instead speak from doubt and frustration.
As a result, we can then be tempted to bring His word more from our own heart of displeasure with the present condition of the Church than from God’s heart of mercy. The truth is, at such times, we can do more damage when we speak true words from God mingled with our own frustration than if we had just kept our mouths shut.
So what was the divine response to Elijah? God had kept for himself and for His purpose seven thousand men as well as many women and children who had not bowed the knee to Baal in a time when multitudes had backslidden into idolatry.
Consider some of the darkest times in Church history (e.g., the Inquisition). God had separated and preserved a people in those days for himself. In our own generation, reports have revealed His ability to keep and establish a people for himself in Communist China when all missionary activity had been outlawed.
God will always maintain a remnant people. There has always been on Earth a bridal company set apart unto Him who love Him and want to please Him. We must never doubt His ability to keep such a people no matter what men or governments do. Herein is our confidence – the Lord our stronghold.
Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
By and large, Israel did not receive her Messiah. However, God had kept for himself a faithful remnant consisting of the twelve apostles, the one hundred and twenty who awaited the Day of Pentecost in an upper room, and the many thousands later added to the Church throughout the book of Acts. One member of that remnant was the apostle Paul. By His grace God had set aside for himself this man who was destined to change the world.
What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
What was it that Israel sought but never obtained? Primarily, they wanted their Messiah to be revealed. Then they wanted their nation to rise up behind Him, become the light of the world so that all nations would stream to Zion, and the Law could go forth to the ends of the Earth. They wanted what they thought the prophets had predicted. Yet when Messiah did come, both He and the kingdom He offered were not what they expected. As a result, they rejected the very answer to their prayers.
However, those who were chosen obtained eternal life and the rest were blinded. Why did God choose some and harden the rest? His strategy was simple. In His earthly ministry, when Jesus brought the heart of God to the multitudes, He knew that His Father would hide Heaven’s mysteries from the wise and intelligent and would reveal them to babes (Matthew 11:25 - 26).
As He ministered He knew that the humble would have ears to hear so as to respond and the proud and self-sufficient would not. In fact, He specifically trusted His Father to hide the truth from the proud and reveal it to the humble. Here was the heart of God’s strategy; it has not changed.
God’s method of “quality control” in His kingdom is that the humble hear and respond to what He says. The proud (those committed to protecting their own influential religious positions and agendas) will always sit in the midst of what He is saying with wrong heart attitudes. Then if they do not repent, they will ultimately (sometimes quickly, sometimes over a longer period of time) disappear from the scene of His activity. God’s call for all of us is to humble ourselves before Him and before each other so that He might extend His rule (not our agendas, ways, and initiatives) in us and through us.
Just as it is written: “God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.” And David says: “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, and bow down their back always.”
Just to be clear, David in these verses was not pleading with God against Israel from a heart of doubt or frustration. Rather, he was prophesying a coming judgment with insight into God’s heart.
I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.
The apostle was quite clear. Israel did not stumble so as to be totally removed from the purpose of God. In fact, it was by their transgression that salvation had now come to the nations. And God was now at work around the world in order to make Israel jealous.
God has in His heart a focused love for Israel motivating Him as He moves among us Gentiles. As He pours out His Spirit in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and all over the world, one of His objectives is to get Israel’s attention.
Did you ever feel someone you loved was not paying you the appropriate attention? Did you ever do something to try and make him or her jealous? God understands those emotions.
How far will He go and what exactly will He do to break through Israel’s blindness? In the next chapter we will consider just what God has determined to bring to fullness among the nations in order to get her attention.
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