7000 Faithful

"I still have left in Israel seven thousand followers who have not bowed their knees to Baal or kissed the images of him." (1 Kings 19:18)
Elijah was depressed. Following the literal mountain-top experience of seeing God defeat the prophets of Baal, Elijah runs in fear from Jezebel and feels like he is the only faithful one left in Israel. God encourages him with this word - there are 7000 who are faithful. Elijah gets back in the battle after this exhortation.

But this week I was thinking of the 7000. Sometimes (usually!) I have a delayed realization of the obvious. Yesterday it hit me that we are never told that those 7000 were all together. I'd always pictured them huddled in some early mega-synagogue, worshipping God and awaiting His instructions. Ha! Instead, they were probably not unlike Elijah - alone, scared, and maybe even depressed.

Furthermore, we are never told whether they received the same encouraging word as Elijah. Suppose for a minute that you were one of those 7000 - and did not receive divine notification that there were 6,999 others? Suddenly a prophet comes through and speaks of having heard that there were 7000 faithful. You might hope he's talking of you, and wonder who else is out there.

I'm not sure what Israel's exact population was at this time - a battle near this time featured 10,000 Israelite soldiers, so the population was large enough to support that many in one battle. Suffice it to say that 7000 wasn't a huge percentage. Yet for God's purposes, it was enough.

Sometimes when we are in the battle we feel we are alone. We wonder who else is out there seeing things with God-glorifying lenses and fighting for His name's sake. Sometimes God speaks to us to let us know we are part of a larger remnant. Other times, we have to take Him at His word.

He told Paul in Corinth, "I have many people in this city." At other stops, Paul just had to look for those who were looking for God. Jesus had said, after all, that He had many sheep not of the fold of Israel - and Paul was enough of a theologian to know that missions was the task of finding those sheep ... with or without the divine specificity of Corinth.

You may feel like Elijah today - or like the 7000 who may not have received the encouraging word that they weren't alone. Take heart: God has always maintined a remnant. Whether He reveals that to you or asks you to take it by faith, regard it as truth and move forward in obedience.

Above all, stay faithful. Stay in the battle.