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T HE K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S Images of Baal and Ashtoreth, heathen altars and temples were everywhere throughout the land. From every hall arose the smoke from heathen sacri fices. Blasphemy filled every valley. Lust and licentiousness were rampant. (1) THE PROPHET’S MESSAGE TO THE KING, v. 1. The school of the prophets was closed. The whole nation— the people of God—was carried away by fanati cism. Elijah thought that he was the only loyal follower of God left in the land, and even God’s eye rested upon hut seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal. The measure of ini quity was full. Into this scene God projects a man. clad in coarse garments— a prophet of fire,— Elijah (Jehovah, my God). He was an Israelite, from Tishbe in Gali lee, who had gone to the other side of Jordan, among the fierce, wild, lawless people of that section— an ideal place in which to raise a sturdy man. (Moses, John the Baptist, Paul,— all received their training in the wilderness.) Elijah had watched with growing in dignation the sin of his people and had, perhaps groaned unto God for a mes sage for them. Suddenly, like a flash from a clear sky, without warning, he appears before the king,— as Melchize- dek appeared to Abram, Moses to Pharaoh, and John the Baptist to Herod,— and delivers his message, “ I have come to shut up the heavens!” What audacity! What presumption! He must have been reading the Scriptures, (Lev. 26:18, 19). “ And if ye w ill not yet for all thi* hearken unto me, then I w ill punish you seven times more for your sins. And I w ill break the pride o f your pow er; and I w ill make your heavens as iron, and your earth as brass.” (Deut. 11:16. 17.) “ Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other sods, and worship them ; And then the Lord’s w rath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield n ot her fru it; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you.”
To face a king like Ahab with such a message was heroic. Elijah and Ahab! What a contrast! One with the conscious approval of God; the other consciously condemned of God. A man that stands before the Lord need not fear man (Isa. 51:12, 13, 15). “ I, even I, am he that com forteth you; who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid o f a man that shall die, and o f the son of man which shall be made as grass? And forgettest the Lord thy Maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations o f the earth; and hast feared continually every day be- cause o f the fu ry o f the oppressor» as If he w ere ready to destroy? And where is the fu ry o f the oppressor? But 1 am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared; The Lord o f hosts is his name.” (Heb. 13:6.) “ So that w e may boldly say, The Lord is m y helper, and I w ill not fear what man shall do unto me.” Like a tempest the prophet swept in before Ahab, delivered his message, vanished. Like a whirlwind he swept out of the world. (2) GOD’S PROVISION FOR HIS MESSENGER, vs. 2-7. “ The Word of the Lord came to him.” God’s Word was law to Elijah. He was a servant. The command is “ Go, hide thyself,” so he went. What a contrast! He had turned the key that locked heaven’s doors and now he is to hide away from the king whom he had so boldly faced. God’s commands are strange. His ways are not our ways. He locked the heavens; hid His mes senger; set His seal to the message. The servant is not greater than his Lord, and Jesus did the same thing (John 8:59). “ Then took they up stones to cast at him ; but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, goin g through the m idst of them, and so passed by.” A desert place is a good one for a man who has a great commission (Heb. 11:38). “ Of whom the w orld was not w orthy; they wandered in deserts and in moun tains and in dens and caves o f the earth.” So Elijah went to Cherith (Separa tion). It is good for God’s people to know something of practical separation (2 Cor. 6:17).
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