Elijah's complaint was not the last word. Paul asks this question to turn his readers from what Elijah saw to what God said. Elijah believed he was the only faithful one left. God's answer showed otherwise. The question sets up Paul's point for his own day: God still has a faithful remnant (Romans 11:5).

Paul gives God's answer at once: "I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal" (Romans 11:4; see 1 Kings 19:18). Then he applies it: "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace" (Romans 11:5). He adds that this remnant rests on grace, not works: "otherwise grace is no more grace" (Romans 11:6).

"The answer of God" translates chrēmatismos, which Thayer defines as "a divine response, an oracle." Barnes notes, "This word is used nowhere else in the New Testament." Gill connects it with "the still small voice of the Lord, which Elijah heard" (1 Kings 19:12). Barnes says seven is often used in Scripture "to denote an indefinite or round number," and suggests it may be so here, pointing to a considerable number left. In the Greek, Baal has a feminine article; Gill says that is why "our translators have supplied the word image." Baal was the idol King Ahab "served" and "worshipped" (1 Kings 16:31).

This question shows God answering a discouraged servant. Elijah spoke from what he could see. God answered from what He had done: "I have reserved to myself" (Romans 11:4). The remnant was not Elijah's achievement or even their own; God kept them for Himself.

Matthew Henry draws a lesson that still comforts: "Things are often much better with the church of God than wise and good men think they are." Paul draws the same comfort for his own day. The faithful in Israel were "a remnant according to the election of grace" (Romans 11:5), kept by God's choice and not by human effort (Romans 11:6).