{"id":20,"date":"2004-03-19T10:51:50","date_gmt":"2004-03-19T10:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eyoungwon.com\/journal\/?p=20"},"modified":"2004-03-19T10:51:50","modified_gmt":"2004-03-19T10:51:50","slug":"so-you-think-youre-the-only-one-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/so-you-think-youre-the-only-one-left\/","title":{"rendered":"So You Think You’re the Only One Left"},"content":{"rendered":"

So You Think You’re the Only One Left<\/strong><\/p>\n

And what was God’s answer to [Elijah]? “I have reserved for myself
\nseven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Rom. 11:4, NIV.
\n———————
\nPaul continues to deal with his assertion that God had not rejected
\nIsrael (Rom. 11:1). As we saw yesterday, he supplied two reasons for
\nGod’s nonrejection in verses 1 and 2. Then in verses 2 through 4 he
\nprovides a third, this time from history.<\/p>\n

“Don’t you know,” the apostle asks, “what the Scripture says in the
\npassage about Elijah-how he appealed to God against Israel: ‘Lord, they
\nhave killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one
\nleft, and they are trying to kill me’?” (verse 3, NIV).<\/p>\n

The context of Elijah’s complaint to God is the victory he had just had
\nover the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Immediately afterward he had
\nfled from Queen Jezebel in a state of absolute panic. Eventually he
\ntook refuge in a cave on Mount Horeb. God found the prophet there and
\nasked why he was hiding. That is when he reminded the Lord of Israel’s
\napostasy and that he was the only faithful one left (1 Kings 19:1-14).<\/p>\n

God told Elijah that the prophet didn’t know much about arithmetic.
\n“And,” asks Paul, “what was God’s answer to him? ‘I have reserved
\nfor myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.'”<\/p>\n

So Israel’s apostasy had not been complete. God had a remnant still
\nfaithful to Him. He had not rejected His people. To the contrary, He
\nhad “reserved” for Himself those who were faithful.<\/p>\n

Yet Elijah felt all alone and discouraged. I can identify with that. At
\ntimes it seems as though the church is a real mess. Why, did you hear
\nabout pastor so-and-so? Or do you know what the church voted to do?
\nSuch rumors fill the very air all too often. The real problem, though,
\nis that they are not always rumors but sometimes realities.<\/p>\n

In such times it is easy to despair. We identify with Elijah and think
\nwe are the only one left who is truly faithful to God. But at such
\ntimes we need to recognize that we don’t see the big picture that God
\ndoes. Just as in Elijah’s day God has a remnant in every situation,
\neven though we might not be able to identify them from our limited and
\noften discouraged situation. God is alive and at work in the church in
\nspite of its problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So You Think You’re the Only One Left And what was God’s answer to [Elijah]? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Rom. 11:4, NIV. ——————— Paul continues to deal with his assertion that God had not rejected Israel (Rom. 11:1). As we saw yesterday, he supplied […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-readingstudy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}