Did God Reserve 7,000 Men?

God kept to Himself those that choose of their own free will not to bow to Baal.

Seven thousand men ... does not include the women and children which made up their families, after the Jewish method of reckoning (see Matthew 14:21). The true Israel numbered at least 20,000 or more, and possibly much more, if "seven" should be understood as a sacred number. Coffman Commentary

Seven thousand in Israel - That is, many thousands; for seven is a number of perfection, as we have often seen: so, The barren has borne seven - has had a numerous off-spring; Gold seven times purified - purified till all the dross is perfectly separated from it. The court and multitudes of the people had gone after Baal; but perhaps the majority of the common people still worshipped in secret the God of their fathers. Adam Clark

God chose the 7000 men to remain faithful to Himself. Elijah was not alone. Elijah thought only he was left, that all had abandoned the Lord. So there was a believing remnant at that time, but the remnant only existed because of God. all others had gone off to worship Baal. Paul uses that as an example for today also, that He will always foreordain a believing remnant in Christ from the jewish nation.

Romans 11:5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

This principle of election according to grace extends to both jew and gentile alike. And is dependent on God alone, not the will of the man.

Romans 9
22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

Calling and election go together, regardless of jew or gentile, both must be called and also elect to be saved.

1 Thessalonians 1:4
knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God.
2 Peter 1:10
Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;


From 1 Kings 19
14 And he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”

15 Then the Lord said to him: “Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. 16 Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. 17 It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. 18 Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

"Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace"

"Election of grace" refers to the gospel plan of salvation. The remnant of fleshly Israel that was saved by obeying the gospel (Acts 2:38) and were added to the church. The ones that God keeps, the ones that belong to God have always been those that choose to obey Him and not those arbitrarily selected for no particular reason.

jimmyjimmy said:

Wow! That was a pretty neat trick that exactly 7,000 chose Him.

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7000 is not being used as an exact number.

jimmyjimmy said:

"Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel--all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him." (1 Kings 19:18)

I have one question about this passage. Did God reserve 7,000, or, just by coincidence, did exactly 7,000 choose to reserve themselves?

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I would say God foreknew the moment in time when the number of Jews would reach the 7000 mark and He then decided to make that the point in time when he would bring judgement upon the rest.. Nothing God does is co-incidence to me.. I am sure the 7000 figure had a symbolic significance.. God has His preferred numbers .. 3,7,12, 40 and 1000 seem to be recurring numbers in scriptures..

Adstar said:

I would say God foreknew the moment in time when the number of Jews would reach the 7000 mark and He then decided to make that the point in time when he would bring judgement upon the rest.. Nothing God does is co-incidence to me.. I am sure the 7000 figure had a symbolic significance.. God has His preferred numbers .. 3,7,12, 40 and 1000 seem to be recurring numbers in scriptures..

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Millions of jewish people departed Egypt during the exodus.
God reserved-preserved 7000 men from worshiping Baal, the rest of however many there were, 10's, hundreds of thousands, millions, worshipped Baal.

sdowney717 said:

Millions of jewish people departed Egypt during the exodus.
God reserved-preserved 7000 men from worshiping Baal, the rest of however many there were, 10's, hundreds of thousands, millions, worshipped Baal.

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Romans 10
27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:

“Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
The remnant will be saved.
28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,
Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.”

29 And as Isaiah said before:

“Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed,
We would have become like Sodom,
And we would have been made like Gomorrah.”

The majority of the jews were not saved, specifically God just saved a remnant, which is a small number compared to the total number through their history, the rest were just like the ones God of whom scattered their bones in the wilderness.

There is also a believing remnant among the gentiles compared to all the gentiles who have lived through history.

And there is an EXACT number of gentiles who will be saved, known only to God.

Romans 11

25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:

“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
27 For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.”

jimmyjimmy said:

Wow! That was a pretty neat trick that exactly 7,000 chose Him.

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Read the census numbers in Numbers 1:21-46. They rounded large numbers all the time.

sdowney717 said:

Millions of jewish people departed Egypt during the exodus.
God reserved-preserved 7000 men from worshiping Baal, the rest of however many there were, 10's, hundreds of thousands, millions, worshipped Baal.

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God called the Hebrews a stiff necked people.. They where very rebellious against God.. All the way through the exodus from Egypt to the promised land they tempted God with their rebellions.. So much so that God caused them to walk in the wilderness for 40 years until the ones that rebelled had died.. God allowed their children to enter into the promised land.. The vast majority of the ones that escaped Egypt never entered into the promised land..

Adstar said:

God called the Hebrews a stiff necked people.. They where very rebellious against God.. All the way through the exodus from Egypt to the promised land they tempted God with their rebellions.. So much so that God caused them to walk in the wilderness for 40 years until the ones that rebelled had died.. God allowed their children to enter into the promised land.. The vast majority of the ones that escaped Egypt never entered into the promised land..

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There was also a severe famine during the time of 1 Kings 19, which would have killed a great many jews. God called for a famine on the land of Israel, because they were worshipping the baals. But God reserved-preserved alive 7000 men who had not kissed baal or worshipped baal. All the rest, who knows how many died, but I imagine many did. I recall it was a drought of no rain for three years. Would have completely dried up the land, much of everything would die. Those 7000 who were kept alive, must have been a trying time for them. We don't get to read of God's providence for them (but He did provide for them) , but we do for God taking care of Elijah.

1 Kings 17New King James Version (NKJV)
Elijah Proclaims a Drought
17 And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.”

2 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 3 “Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. 4 And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”

5 So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. 7 And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

Maybe there were 16,842 men who never bowed down to Baal, but God allowed 9842 to become martyrs, leaving enough as a critical amount to start again.

jimmyjimmy said:

Any proof of that?

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This is one way God can reserve a fixed number of 7000 and those 7000 also made free will choices not to bow to Baal. You asked the question like it was either or, with it being extremely unlikely exactly only 7000 chose not to bow to Baal.
There is not "Biblical" proof text but a lot more than 7000 could have not bowed to Baal and God kept 7000 from being martyrs.