Less than 8% of the population of Oahu believes that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Which means there are going to be many places Christians go on this island where we’ll feel pretty lonely. Maybe you’re the only Christian in your family. The only believer in your office, at your job site, on your team. Maybe it feels like you’re the only Christian in your whole school.
Elijah felt that way. He lived during the worst time in Israel’s history, when Ahab ruled with his girlfriend Jezebel. Jezebel was a priestess of Baal, one of the most wicked and bloodthirsty religions of the ancient world. You pled to Baal for fertility in your family and fields by having sex with temple prostitutes, out in the open courts in full view of the entire city. You worshiped by killing babies on the altar, and sacrificing them to Baal. This was what Elijah saw all around him when he walked around. They had torn down the altars to the God of Israel, and replaced them with shrines to Baal. So Elijah decided to give them a challenge.
They put an altar on Mount Carmel, and Elijah told the priests of Baal to pray for their god to light the altar with fire. They prayed, the cried, they cut themselves, they wailed, and … crickets. Nothing happened. Then Elijah had them pour water all over the altar to make sure there was no possible way for a fire to start by any natural means. He prayed a simple prayer to the God of Israel, and … fwoooosh! Fire fell from the heavens and consumed the entire altar.
Still, even after that incredible display of power, it didn’t seem like anything was going to change. The people of Israel still rejected the God of Israel. So Elijah ran away and cried out to God, “The people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” (1 Kings 19:10). He didn’t see any hope. Everyone was against God, and that meant everyone was against him.
I know people who have felt like that before. Harbor supports a church-planter in Southeast Asia who became a Christian about five years ago. When that happened, he was the only Christian in his entire tribe. There are 150,000 people in his tribe, and he was the only Christian he knew of! We asked him what biblical name he wanted to go by, and he chose the name Job. As the only Christian in his tribe, he suffered constantly. He felt a lot like Elijah.
But even Elijah wasn’t alone. God’s reply to him was, “I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19:18). Elijah thought God had abandoned Israel, and left him all by himself. He thought he was the only one who loved God. But God had seven thousand men just like him. Not one, not ten, not a hundred. Seven thousand.
And that gives us so much hope for today. As Paul reflected on Elijah’s cry of desperation he asked, “What is God’s reply to Elijah? ‘I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.” (Romans 11:4-5). The number of people God saves is always bigger than what it seems. God always preserves a remnant.
Now, here’s the thing: that the word “remnant” isn’t a very complimentary way for God to describe his people. What is a remnant? It’s the sludge that’s left at the bottom of your cup of coffee. It’s the one screw that’s always left over when you take something apart and put it back together again. “Dangit! Where was this supposed to go?”
That’s why Paul said, “Consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).
God takes the leftovers of humanity and chooses to use us for things we shouldn’t have any business being a part of. He chose twelve knuckleheads from Galilee to be his disciples, and it says in Acts that they turned the whole world upside down. Five years ago, Job was the only believer in a tribe of 150,000 people. But he started telling his family, friends, and neighbors about Jesus. And so this past Christmas, he baptized 30 people who saw their sin and their need for a savior, and they came to trust and love Jesus just like Job does.
There’s always a remnant, “chosen by grace.” And that remnant has been chosen to bring God’s message of grace to a grace-thirsty world.