To return a little on our steps, in the matter of the Apostle's doctrine of the divine Choice: the reference in this paragraph to the seven thousand faithful in Elijah's day suggests a special reflection. To us, it seems to say distinctly that the "election" intended all along by St Paul cannot possibly be explained adequately by making it either an election (to whatever benefits) of mere masses of men, as for instance of a nation, considered apart from its individuals; or an election merely to privilege, to opportunity, which may or may not be used by the receiver. As regards national election, it is undoubtedly present and even prominent in the passage, and in this whole section of the Epistle. For ourselves, we incline to see it quite simply in ver. 2 above; "_His people, whom He foreknew_." We read there, what we find so often in the Old Testament, a sovereign choice of a nation to stand in special relation to God; of a nation taken, so to speak, in the abstract, viewed not as the mere total of so many individuals, but as a quasi-personality. But we maintain that the idea of election takes another line when we come to the "_seven thousand_." Here we are thrown at once on the thought of individual experiences, and the ultimate secret of them, found only in the divine Will affecting the individual. The "seven thousand" had no aggregate life, so to speak. They formed, _as_ the seven thousand, no organism or quasi-personality. They were "_left_" not as a mass, but as units; so isolated, so little grouped together, that even Elijah did not know of their existence. They were just so many individual men, each one of whom found power, by faith, to stand personally firm against the Baalism of that dark time, with the same individual faith which in later days, against other terrors, and other solicitations, upheld a Polycarp, an Athanasius, a Huss, a Luther, a Tyndale, a De Seso, a St Cyran. And the Apostle quotes them as an instance and illustration of the Lord's way and will with the believing of all time. In their case, then, he both passes as it were through national election to individual election, as a permanent spiritual mystery; and he shews that he means by this an election not only to opportunity but to holiness. The Lord's "_leaving them for Himself_" lay behind their not bowing their knees to Baal. Each resolute confessor was individually enabled, by a sovereign and special grace. He was a true human personality, freely acting, freely choosing not to yield in that terrible storm. But behind his freedom was the higher freedom of the Will of God, saving him from himself that he might be free to confess and suffer. To our mind, no part of the Epistle more clearly than this passage affirms this individual aspect of the great mystery. Ah, it is a mystery indeed; we have owned this at every step. And it is never for a moment to be treated therefore as if we knew all about it. And it is never therefore to be used to confuse the believer's thought about other sides of truth. But it is there, as a truth among truths; to be received with abasement by the creature before the Creator, and with humble hope by the simple believer.
He goes on with his argument, taking up the thread broken by the "foot-note" upon grace and works: [Sidenote: Ver. 7.] =What therefore? What Israel,= the nation, the character, =seeks after,= righteousness in the court of God, =this it lighted not upon (οὐκ ἐπέτυχεν),[187]= as one who seeks a buried treasure in the wrong field "lights not upon" it; =but the election,= the chosen ones, the "seven thousand" of the Gospel era, =did light upon it. But the rest were hardened,= (not as if God had created their hardness, or injected it; but He gave it to be its own penalty;) [Sidenote: Ver. 8.] =as it stands written= (Isai. xxix. 10, and Deut. xxix. 4[188]), ="God gave them a spirit of slumber, eyes not to see, and ears not to hear, even to this day."= A persistent ("_unto this day_") unbelief was the sin of Israel in the Prophets' times, and it was the same in those of the Apostles. And the condition was the same; God "gave" sin to be its own way of retribution. [Sidenote: Ver. 9.] =And David says= (Psal. lxix. 22), in a Psalm full of Messiah, and of the awful retribution justly ordained to come on His impenitent enemies, ="Let their table turn into a trap, and into toils (θήρα), and into a stumbling-block, and into a requital to them;= [Sidenote: Ver. 10.] =darkened be their eyes, not to see, and their back ever bow Thou together."=