Dail$ Devotional Home Readings Connected with International Sundaj) School Lessons FREDERIC W . FARR, D. D.
SUNDAY, January 1. I Kings 11:26- 43. The Revolt of Jeroboam. Jeroboam had the best opportunity to make his name illustrious. Instead he covered it with opprobrium. In tho beginning of his career he is described as a mighty man of valor and so in dustrious that Solomon made him ruler over the house of Joseph, v. 28. He is mentioned in history as Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin, on account of his grievous failure as king of Israel. How much better it is to be obscure, unknown and for gotten than to be remembered as a warning and have an infamous immor tality! It is also better to begin badly and end well than it is to begin well and end badly. Some lives are like a day that begins with a fair sunrise and ends with clouds and storm. Other lives begin like a day whose morning is obscured with dark and threatening clouds but whose evening is bright with a radiant sunset. MONDAY, January 2. I Kings 16:29- 33. The Wickedness of Ahab. It is said of Ahab that he did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him. He was a weak man and became the pliant tool of a cruel and depraved woman. When Ahab married Jezebel it was no doubt con sidered a splendid match, uniting the kingdoms of Tyre and Israel. No one can disregard the Divine prohibition of intermarriage with the ungodly with impunity. The penalty of misery anl disaster inevitably follows. Jezebel brought into Israel the hideous and cruel rites of her heathen religion. She filled the land with priests of Baal. The altars of Jehovah were broken down while His prophets were hunted and slain. The whole nation seemed apostate. Of all the thousands of Is rael there were but seven thousand whose knees nad not bowed to Baal. These were so fearful and silent that their very existence was unknown to Elijah in the hour of his greatest need.
TUESDAY, January 3. Deut. 11:13-17, The Preparation of Elijah. Elijah was a native of Gilead. He is called the Tishbite because he came from the obscure mountain hamlet of Thisbe. Gilead was a wild and rugged country east of the Jordan. Its hills were covered with forests and haunted by wild beasts. Elijah grew up like other lads probably as a shepherd of the hills. He was tall and vigorous with a sinewy strength that could out- race the swift horses of the royal char iot. Deeply taught in the Scriptures, he became possessed of an intense re ligious earnestness. He yearned with passionate desire that the people of Jehovah should honor the God of their salvation. When he learned what was taking place across the Jordan he be came very jealous for the Lord of hosts. What could a wild untamed child of the desert accomplish? He could pray at least and he did. James 5:17. With Deut. 11:17 in mind, he thought that the land had better suffer the terrors of famine than be filled with idol shrines. He was right. Physical calamity is infinitely less than moral delinquency. WEDNESDAY, January 4. James 5: 16-20. The Praying of Elijah. Elijah’s praying was strong, insistent and prevailing. He had graduated in the school of prayer before he is intro duced to us. In the desert places he had been alone with God. The Revised Version translates James 5:17, “With prayer he prayed,” i.e., with all the combined energies of prayer. It was no perfunctory official performance. His prayer has power to stay the benignant course of nature. James virtually says. “ Look at Elijah and see what prayer can, do! Let the righteous man put forth this energy to its full extent that men may feel its mighty potency.” God was real to Elijah. Prayer was the means to him of projecting God into the world to vindicate His name and deliver His servants. Moreover His prayer was in accordance with the Word of God and this gave him the intense conviction that it should be even as he
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