A remnant
Perhaps you are someone who likes to look through the remnant bin
at the local cloth store. After people have bought a certain number of
yards of cloth from a bolt, there is often a little bit left, a remnant.
The store takes it off of the cardboard it’s wrapped around, folds it up
into a little piece, and puts it with other small pieces into a bin in an
aisle. What’s a remnant good for? A few crafty people with vision
know. Little crafts, little clothes for little people, decorative parts
of a pattern—remnants are very useful to someone with skill.
When Paul mentions a remnant in Romans 11:5, he is picking up a theme of the pre-exilic and post-exilic Old Testament prophets. “So too, at the
present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.”
In Isaiah’s language, the remnant is the group of Israelites who
remain after the Assyrian invasion of Tiglath Pileser III (Isaiah 10:20–22).
They will have learned to rely on the Lord, not on political leaders, and
they will be the group of people brought back in the future to the land of
Israel (Isaiah 11:11–16). After the exile, Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and
Zechariah all refer to those who have returned from Babylon as the remnant.
Isaiah 11 has the remnant brought back from more places than
Babylon, so it is not a surprise that Paul looks at all of the Jewish people
around the Mediterranean coming to faith in Jesus as a fulfillment of Isaiah’s
prophecy even before Judgment Day. What would such small groups of
people, scattered and weak, be good for? The Lord is skillful enough to
know what to do with them.
How did they get chosen by God to come to faith in Jesus?
Paul assures his readers that they had done nothing to deserve it.
It was by grace, and if any works were involved, then grace would no
longer be grace. The Lord of the universe reaching into the bin of the
human population knows what he is doing, and he can turn a remnant from
disobedient and obstinate people into something wonderful.
But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did:
"Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of
the world." 19 Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses
says, "I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make
you angry by a nation that has no understanding." 20 And Isaiah
boldly says, "I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself
to those who did not ask for me." 21 But concerning Israel he
says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and
obstinate people." I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no
means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of
Benjamin. 2 God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don't
you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah-- how he appealed
to God against Israel: 3 "Lord, they have killed your prophets
and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill
me"? 4 And what was God's answer to him? "I have reserved
for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 5
So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6
And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no
longer be grace. Romans 10:18-11:6
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