Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
— James 5:17-18
But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
— Luke 4:25-26
These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
— Revelation 11:6
I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
— Romans 11:1-4
The Life of Elijah, by A.W. Pink. The following contains content from his work.
Elijah’s Dramatic Appearance
Now Elijah appeared on the stage of public action during one of the very darkest hours of Israel’s sad history. He is introduced to us at the beginning of 1 Kings 17, and we have but to read through the previous chapters in order to discover what a deplorable state God’s people were then in. Israel had grievously and flagrantly departed from Jehovah, and that which directly opposed Him had been publicly set up. Never before had the favored nation sunk so low. Fifty-eight years had passed since the kingdom had been rent in two following the death of Solomon. During that brief period no less than seven kings had reigned over the Ten Tribes, and all of them without exception were wicked men. Painful, indeed, is it to trace their sad course, and still more tragic to behold is how there has been a repetition of the same in the history of Christendom.
The first of those seven kings was Jeroboam. Concerning him we read that he, “made two calves of gold and said unto them, It is too much for you to go to Jerusalem: behold your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Daniel And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Daniel And he made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made” etc. — 1 Kings l2:28-32. Let it be duty and carefully noted that the apostasy began with the corrupting of the priesthood, by installing into the Divine service men who were never called and equipped by God!
Of the next king, Nadab, it is said, “And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin, with which he made Israel to sin” — 1 Kings 15:26. He was succeeded to the throne by the very man who murdered him, Baasha — 1 Kings 15:27. Next came Elah, a drunkard, who in turn was a murderer — 1 Kings 16:8, 9. His successor, Zimri, was guilty of “treason” — 1 Kings 16:20.
He was followed by a military adventurer of the name of Omri, and of him we are told “but Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord, and did worse than all that were before him. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin with which he made Israel to sin, to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger with their vanities” — 1 Kings 16:25, 26. The evil cycle was completed by Omri’s son, for be was even more vile than those who had preceded him.
“And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him” — 1 Kings 16:30, 31. This marriage of Ahab to a heathen princess was, as might fully be expected, — for we cannot trample God’s Law beneath our feet with impunity, fraught with the most frightful consequences. In a very short time all trace of the pure worship of Jehovah vanished from the land and gross idolatry became rampant. The golden calves were worshiped at Dan and Beersheba, a temple had been erected to Baal in Samaria, the “groves” of Baal appeared on every side, and the priests of Baal took full charge of the religious life of Israel.
It was openly declared that Baal lived and that Jehovah ceased to be. What a shocking state things had come to pass is clear from, “And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him” — 1 Kings 16:33. Defiance of the Lord God and blatant wickedness had now reached its culminating point. This is made still further evident by, “in his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho” — v. 34. Awful effrontery was this, for of old it had been recorded “Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, cursed be the man before the LORD that rises up and builds this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation in his firstborn” — Joshua 6:26. The rebuilding of the accursed Jericho was open defiance of God.
Now it was in the midst of this spiritual darkness and degradation there appeared on the stage of public action, with dramatic suddenness, a solitary but striking witness to and for the living God. An eminent commentator began his remarks upon 1 Kings 17 by saying, “the most illustrious Prophet Elijah was raised up in the reign of the most wicked of the kings of Israel.” That is a terse but accurate summing up of the situation in Israel at that time: not only so, but it supplies the key to all that follows. It is truly saddening to contemplate the awful conditions which then prevailed. Every light had been extinguished, every voice of Divine testimony was hushed. Spiritual death was spread over everything, and it looked as though Satan had indeed obtained complete mastery of the situation.
“And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word” — 1 Kings 17:1. God, with a high hand, now raised up a powerful witness for Himself. Elijah is here brought to our notice in a most abrupt manner. Nothing is recorded of his parentage or previous manner of life. We do not even know to which tribe he belonged, though from the fact that he was “of the inhabitants of Gilead” makes it likely that he pertained either to Gad or Manasseh, for Gilead was divided between them. “Gilead lay east of the Jordan: it was wild and rugged; its hills were covered with shaggy forests; its awful solitude was only broken by the dash of mountain streams; its valleys were the haunt of fierce wild beasts” — F.B.M..
As we have pointed out above, Elijah is introduced to us in the Divine narrative in a very strange manner, without anything being told us of his ancestry or early life. We believe there is a typical reason why the Spirit made no reference to Elijah’s origin. Like Melchizedek, the beginning and end of his history is shrouded in sacred mystery. As the absence of any mention of Melchizedek’s birth and death was Divinely designed to foreshadow the eternal Priesthood and Kingship of Christ, so the fact that we know nothing of Elijah’s father and mother, and the further fact that he was supernaturally translated from this world without passing through the portals of death, mark him as the typical forerunner of the everlasting Prophet. Thus the omission of such details adumbrated the endlessness of Christ’s Prophetic office.
The fact we are told that Elijah “was of the inhabitants of Gilead” is no doubt recorded as a sidelight upon his natural training-one which ever exerts a powerful influence on the forming of character. The people of those hills reflected the nature of their environment: they were rough and rugged, solemn and stern, dwelling in rude villages and subsisting by keeping flocks of sheep. Hardened by an open-air life, dressed in a cloak of camel’s hair, accustomed to spending most of his time in solitude, possessed of sinewy strength which enabled him to endure great physical strain, he would present a marked contrast from the town dwellers in the lowland valleys, and more especially would he be distinguished from the pampered courtiers of the palace.
How young he was when the Lord first granted Elijah a personal and saving revelation of Himself we have no means of knowing, as we have no information upon his early religious training. But there is one sentence in a later chapter which enables us to form a definite idea of the spiritual caliber of the man-“I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts” — 1 Kings 19:10. Those words cannot mean less than that he had God’s glory greatly at heart and that the honor of His name meant more to him than anything else. Consequently, he must have been deeply grieved and filled with holy indignation as he became more and more informed about the terrible character and wide extent of Israel’s defection from Jehovah.
There can be little room for doubt that Elijah must have been thoroughly familiar with the Scriptures, especially the first books of the Old Testament. Knowing how much the Lord had done for Israel, the signal favors He had bestowed upon them, he must have yearned with deep desire that they should please and glorify Him. But when he learned that this was utterly lacking, and as tidings reached him of what was happening on the other side of the Jordan-as he became informed of how Jezebel had thrown down God’s altars, slain His servants, and replaced them with the idolatrous priests of heathendom-his soul must have been filled with horror and his blood made to boil with indignation, for he was, “very jealous for the LORD God of hosts.” Would that more of such righteous indignation filled and fired us today.
Probably the question which now most deeply exercised, Elijah was, How should he act? What could he, a rude, uncultured, child of the desert, do? The more he pondered it, the more difficult the situation must have seemed. And no doubt Satan whispered in his ear, You can do nothing, conditions are hopeless. But there was one thing he could do: betake himself to that grand resource of all deeply tried souls-he could PRAY. And he did: as James 5:17 tells us, “he prayed earnestly.” He prayed because he was assured that the Lord God lived and ruled over all. He prayed because he realized that God is all-mighty and that with Him all things are possible. He prayed because he felt his own weakness and insufficiency and therefore turned to One who is clothed with might and is infinitely self- sufficient.
But in order to be effectual, prayer must be grounded on the Word of God, for without faith it is impossible to please Him, and “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” — Romans 10:17. Now there was one particular passage in the earlier books of Scripture which seems to have been specially fixed on Elijah’s attention: “Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods, and worship them; and then the LORD’S wrath be kindled against you, and He shut up the Heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit” — Deuteronomy 11:16, 17. That was the very crime of which Israel was now guilty: they had turned aside to worship false gods. Suppose, then, that this Divinely threatened judgment should not be executed, would it not indeed appear that Jehovah was but a myth, a dead tradition? And Elijah was “very jealous for the LORD God of hosts,” and accordingly we are told that “he prayed earnestly that it might not rain” — James 5:17. Thus we learn once more what true prayer is: it is faith laying hold of the Word of God, pleading it before Him, and saying, “Do as You have said” — 2 Samuel 7:25.
“He prayed earnestly that it might not rain.” Do some of our readers exclaim, What a terrible prayer! Then we ask, was it not far more terrible that the favored descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob should despise and turn away from the Lord God and blatantly insult Him by worshiping Baal? Would you desire the thrice Holy One to wink at such enormities? Are His righteous laws to be trampled upon with impunity? Shall He refuse to enforce their just penalties? What conception would men form of the Divine character if He ignored their open defiance of Himself? Let Scripture answer: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” — Ecclesiastes 8:11. Yes, and not only so, but as God declared, “These things have you done, and I kept silence; you thought that I was altogether as yourself: I will reprove you, and set them in order before your eyes” — Psalm 50:21.
Ah, my reader, there is something far more dreadful than physical calamity and suffering, namely, moral delinquency and spiritual apostasy. Alas, that this is so rarely perceived today! What are crimes against man in comparison with high-handed sins against God? Likewise what are national reverses in comparison with the loss of God’s favor? The fact is that Elijah had a true sense of values: he was “very jealous for the LORD God of hosts,” and therefore he prayed earnestly that it might not rain. Desperate diseases call for drastic measures. And as he prayed Elijah obtained assurance that his petition was granted, and that he must go and acquaint Ahab. Whatever danger the Prophet might personally incur, both king and his subjects should learn the direct connection between the terrible drought and their sins which had occasioned it.
The task which now confronted Elijah was no ordinary one, and it called for more than common courage. For an untutored rustic of the hills to appear uninvited before a king who defied Heaven was sufficient to quell the bravest-the more so when his heathen consort shrank not from slaying any who opposed his will, in fact who had already put many of God’s servants to death. What likelihood, then, was there of this lonely Gileadite escaping with his life? “But the righteous are bold as a lion” — Proverbs 28:1: they who are right with God are neither daunted by difficulties nor dismayed by dangers. “I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about” — Psalm 3:6; “Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear” — Psalm 27:3: such is the blessed serenity of those whose conscience is void of offense and whose trust is in the living God.
The hour for the execution of his stem task had arrived, and Elijah leaves his home in Gilead to deliver unto Ahab his message of judgment. Picture him on his long and lonely journey. What were the subjects which engaged his mind? Would he be reminded of the similar mission on which Moses had embarked, when he was sent by the Lord to deliver his ultimatum to the haughty monarch of Egypt? Well, the message which he bore would be no more palatable to the degenerate king of Israel. Yet such a recollection need in nowise deter or intimidate him: rather should the remembrance of the sequel strengthen his faith. The Lord God had not failed his servant Moses, but had stretched forth His mighty arm on his behalf, and in the end had given him full success. The wondrous works of God in the past should ever hearten His servants and saints in the present.
The Heavens Shut Up
“When the Enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him” — Isaiah 59:19. What is signified by the Enemy coming in “like a flood?” The figure used here is a very graphic and expressive one: it is that of an abnormal deluge which results in the submerging of the land, the imperiling of property and life itself, threatening to carry everything before it. Aptly does such a figure depict the moral experience of the world in general, and of specially-favored sections of it in particular, at different periods in their history. Again and again a flood of evil has broken loose, a flood of such alarming dimensions that it appeared as though Satan would succeed in beating down everything holy before him, when by an inundation of idolatry, impiety and iniquity, the Cause of God upon earth seemed in imminent danger of being completely swept away.
“When the Enemy shall come in like a flood.” We have but to glance at the context to discover what is meant by such language. “We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes. . . . For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us. . . . In transgressing and lying against the LORD and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward and justice stands afar off: for Truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter. Yes. Truth fails; and he who departs from evil is accounted mad” — Isaiah 59:9-15, see margin of v. 15. Nevertheless when Satan has brought in a flood of lying errors and lawlessness has become ascendant, the Spirit of God intervenes and thwarts Satan’s vile purpose.
The solemn verses quoted above accurately describe the awful conditions which obtained in Israel under the reign of Ahab and his heathen consort Jezebel. Because of their multiplied transgressions, God had given up the people to blindness and darkness and a spirit of falsehood and madness possessed their hearts. In consequence, Truth was fallen in the street-ruthlessly trampled underfoot by the masses. Idolatry had become the State religion: the worship of Baal was the order of the day: wickedness was rampant on every side. The Enemy had indeed come in like a flood, and it looked as though there was no barrier left which could stem its devastating effects. Then it was that the Spirit of the Lord lifted up a standard against him, making public demonstration that the God of Israel was highly displeased with the sins of the people, and would now visit their iniquities upon them. That heavenly standard was raised aloft by the hand of Elijah.
God has never left Himself without witnesses on earth. In the very darkest seasons of human history the Lord has raised up and maintained a testimony for Himself. Neither persecution nor corruption could entirely destroy it. In the days of the antediluvians, when the earth was filled with violence and all flesh had corrupted His way, Jehovah had an Enoch and a Noah to act as His mouthpieces. When the Hebrews were reduced to abject slavery in Egypt, the Most High sent forth Moses and Aaron as His ambassadors, and at every subsequent period in their history one Prophet after another was sent to them. So also has it been throughout the whole course of Christendom: in the days of Nero, in the time of Charlemagne, and even in the dark ages-despite the incessant opposition of the Papacy-the Lamp of Truth was never extinguished. And so here in 1 Kings 17 we behold again the unchanging faithfulness of God to His covenant, by bringing upon the scene one who was very jealous of His glory and who feared not to denounce His enemies.
Having already dwelt upon the significance of the particular office which Elijah exercised, and having looked at his mysterious personality, let us now consider the meaning of his name. A most striking and declarative one it was, for Elijah may be rendered, “my God is Jehovah,” or “Jehovah is my God.” The apostate Nation had adopted Baal as their deity, but our Prophet’s name proclaimed the true God of Israel. Judging from the analogy of Scripture we may safely conclude that this name was given to him by his parents, probably under Prophetic impulse or in consequence of a Divine communication. Nor will this be deemed a fanciful idea by those acquainted with the Word. Lamech called his son Noah, saying, “This same shall comfort us — or be a rest to us concerning our work” — Genesis 5:29-“Noah” signifying rest or comfort. Joseph gave names to his sons expressive of God’s particular providences to him — Genesis 41:51, 52. Hannah’s name for her son — 1 Samuel 1:20 and the wife of Phinehas for hers — 1 Sam 4:19-22 are further illustrations.
We may observe that the same principle holds good in connection with many of the places mentioned in the Scriptures: Babel — Genesis 11:9, Beersheba — Genesis 21:31, Massah and Meribah — Exo. 17:7 and Cabul — 1 Kings 9:13 margin being cases in point. Indeed no one who desires to understand the Sacred Writings can afford to neglect a careful attention to proper nouns. The importance of this receives confirmation in the example of our Lord Himself, for when bidding the blind man to wash in the pool of Siloam it was at once added: “which is by interpretation Sent” — John 9:7. Again, when Matthew records the angel’s command to Joseph that the Savior was to be named Jesus, the Spirit moved him to add, “All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophets, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” — 1:21, 23 compare also the words “which is, being interpreted” in Acts 4:36; Hebrews 7:1, 2.
It will thus be seen that the example of the Apostles warrants us to educe instruction from proper names — for if not all of them, many embody important truths, yet this must be done with modesty and according to the analogy of Scripture, and not with dogmatism or for the purpose of establishing any new doctrine. How aptly the name Elijah corresponded to the Prophet’s mission and message is at once apparent, and what encouragement every consideration of it would afford him! We may also couple with his striking name the fact that the Holy Spirit has designated Elijah “the Tishbite” — 1 Kings 17:1, which significantly enough denotes the stranger here. And we must also take note of the additional detail that he was, “of the inhabitants of Gilead,” which name means rocky because of the mountainous nature of that country. It is ever such an one whom God takes up and uses in a critical hour: a man who is out and out for Him, in separation from the religious evil of his day, and who dwells on high; a man who in the midst of fearful declension carries in his heart the testimony of God.
“And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word” — 1 Kings 17:1. This memorable event occurred some 700 years before the birth of Christ. For the dramatic suddenness, the exceeding boldness, and the amazing character of it, there are few of a like nature in Sacred History. Unannounced and unattended, a plain man, dressed in very humble garb, appeared before Israel’s apostate king as the messenger of Jehovah and the herald of dire judgment. No one in the court would know much, if anything, about him, but he had just emerged from the obscurity of Gilead, to stand before Ahab with the keys of Heaven in his hand. Such are often the witnesses to His Truth which God has employed. At His bidding they come and go: not from the ranks of the influential and learned do they issue. They are not the products of this world system, nor does the world place any laurels on their brow.
“As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.” There is much more in this expression, “the LORD God of Israel lives,” than meets the eye at first glance. Observe that it is not simply, “the LORD God lives,” but “the LORD God of Israel,” which is also to be distinguished from the wider term “the LORD of hosts.” At least three things were signified thereby. First, “the LORD God of Israel” threw particular emphasis upon His special relationship to the favored Nation: Jehovah was their King, their Ruler, the One with whom they had to do, the One with whom they had entered into a solemn covenant. Second, Ahab is thereby informed that He lives. This grand fact had evidently been called into question. During the reigns of one king after another Israel had openly mocked and defied Jehovah, and no dire consequences had followed; and so the false idea had come to prevail that the Lord had no real existence. Third, this affirmation, “the LORD God of Israel lives” pointed a striking contrast from the lifeless idols whose impotency should now he made apparent-unable to defend their deluded votaries from the wrath of God.
Though for wise reasons of His own, God “bears with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction” — Romans 9:22, yet He affords clear and sufficient proof throughout the course of human history that He is even now the Governor of the wicked and the Avenger of sin. Such a proof was then given to Israel. Notwithstanding the peace and prosperity which the kingdom had long enjoyed, the Lord was highly incensed at the gross manner in which He had been publicly insulted, and the time had arrived for Him to severely punish the wayward people. Accordingly He sent Elijah to Ahab to announce the nature and duration of His scourge. It is to be duly noted that the Prophet came with his awe-inspiring message not to the people, but to the king himself-the responsible head, the one who had it in his power to rectify what was wrong by banishing all idols from his dominion.
Elijah was now called upon to deliver a most unpalatable message unto the most powerful man in all Israel, but conscious that God was with him he flinched not from such a task. Suddenly confronting Ahab, Elijah at once made it evident that he was faced by one who had no fear of him, king though he were. His very first words informed Israel’s degenerate monarch that he had to do with the living God. “As the LORD God of Israel lives,” was an outspoken confession of the Prophet’s faith, as it also directed attention to the One whom Ahab had forsaken. “Before whom I stand”: that is, whose servant I am — cf. Deuteronomy 10:8; Luke 1:19. In whose Name I approach you, in whose veracity and power I unquestioningly rely, in whose ineffable presence I am now conscious of, standing, and whom I have prayed to and obtained answer.
“There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word” — 1 Kings 17:1. Frightful prospect was that. From the expression, “the early and the latter rain” — Deuteronomy 11:14; Jeremiah 5:24, we gather that, normally, Palestine experienced a dry season of several months duration: but though no rain fell then, very heavy dews descended at night which greatly refreshed vegetation. But for neither dew nor rain to fall, and that for a period of years, was a terrible judgment indeed. That land so rich and fertile as to be designated one which, “flowed with milk and honey,” would quickly be turned into one of drought and barrenness, entailing famine, pestilence and death. And when God withholds rain, none can create it. “Are there any among the vanities — false gods of the Gentiles that can cause rain?” — Jeremiah 14:22-how that reveals the utter impotency of idols and the madness of those who render them homage.
The exacting ordeal facing Elijah in confronting Ahab and delivering such a message called for no ordinary moral strength. This will be the more evident if we direct attention to a detail which has quite escaped the commentators-one which is only apparent by a careful comparison of Scripture. Elijah told the king, “there shall be no dew nor rain these years,” while in 1 Kings 18:1 the sequel says, “And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show yourself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.” On the other hand Christ declared, “many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the Heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land” — Luke 4:25. How, then, are we to explain those extra six months? In this way: there had already been a six months drought when Elijah visited Ahab: we can well imagine how furious the king would be when told that the terrible drought was to last another more years!
Yes, the unpleasant task before Elijah called for no ordinary resolution and boldness, and well may we inquire, What was the secret of his remarkable courage, how are we to account for his strength? Some of the Jewish rabbis have contended that he was an angel, but that cannot be for the New Testament expressly informs us that he was “a man subject to like passions as we are” — James 5:17. Yes he was, but “a man.” Nevertheless, He trembled not in the presence of a monarch. Though a man, yet he had power to close Heaven’s windows and dry up earth’s streams. But the question returns upon us, How are we to account for the full assurance with which he foretold the protracted drought, his confidence that all would be according to his word? How was it that one so weak in himself became mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds?
We suggest a threefold reason as to the secret of Elijah’s strength. First, his praying. “Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months” — James 5:17. Let it be duly noted that the Prophet did not begin his fervent supplications after his appearance before Ahab, but six months before! Here, then, lies the explanation of his assurance and boldness before the king. Prayer in private was the source of his power in public: he could stand unabashed in the presence of the wicked monarch because he had knelt in humility before God. But let it also be carefully observed that the Prophet had “prayed earnestly”: no formal and spiritless devotion was his that accomplished nothing, but whole-hearted, fervent and effectual.
Second, his knowledge of God. This is clearly intimated in his words of Ahab, “As the LORD God of Israel lives.” Jehovah was to him a living reality. On all sides the open recognition of God had ceased: so far as outward appearances went there was not a soul in Israel who believed in His existence. But Elijah was not swayed by public opinion and practice. Why would he be, when he had within his own breast an experience which enabled him to say with Job, “I know that my Redeemer lives!” The infidelity and atheism of others cannot shake the faith of one who has apprehended God for himself. It is this which explains Elijah’s courage, as it did on a later occasion the uncompromising faithfulness of Daniel and his three fellow Hebrews. He who really knows God is strong — Daniel 11:32 and fears not man.
Third, his consciousness of the Divine presence: “As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand.” Elijah was not only assured of the reality of Jehovah’s existence, but he was conscious of being in His presence. Though appearing before the person of Ahab, the Prophet knew he was in the presence of One infinitely greater than any earthly monarch, even Him before whom the highest angels bow in adoring worship. Gabriel himself could not make a grander avowal — Luke 1:19. Ah, my reader, such a blessed assurance as this lifts us above all fear. If the Almighty was with him, why should the Prophet tremble before a worm of the earth!? “The LORD God of Israel lives before whom I stand,” clearly reveals the foundation on which his soul rested as he executed his unpleasant task.
The Brook Cherith
“Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months” — James 5:17. Elijah is here brought before us as an example of what may be accomplished by the earnest prayers of one “righteous man” — v. 16. Ah, my reader, mark well the descriptive adjective, for it is not every man, nor even every Christian, who obtains definite answers to his prayers; far from it. A “righteous man” is one who is right with God in a practical way: one whose conduct is pleasing in His sight, one who keeps his garments unspotted from the world, who is in separation from religious evil, for there is no evil on earth half so dishonoring and displeasing to God as religious evil — see Luke 10:12-15, Rev. 11:8. Such an one has the ear of Heaven, for there is no moral barrier between his soul and a sin-hating God. “Whatever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” — 1 John 3:22.
“He prayed earnestly that it might not rain.” What a terrible petition to present before the Majesty on high! What incalculable privation and suffering the granting of such a request would entail! The fair land of Palestine would be turned into a parched and sterile wilderness, and its inhabitants would be wasted by a protracted famine with all its attendant horrors. Then was this Prophet a cold and callous stoic, devoid of natural affection? No indeed: the Holy Spirit has taken care to tell us in this very verse that he was “a man subject to like passions as we are,” and that is mentioned immediately before the record of his fearful petition. And what does that description signify in such a connection? Why this: that though Elijah was endowed with tender sensibilities and warm regard for his fellow creatures, yet in his prayers he rose above all fleshly sentimentality.
Why was it Elijah prayed “that it might not rain?” Not because he was impervious to human suffering, not because he took a fiendish delight in witnessing the misery of his neighbors, but because he put the glory of God before everything else, even before his own natural feelings. Recall what has been pointed out earlier concerning the spiritual conditions that then obtained in Israel. Not only was there no longer any public recognition of God throughout the length and breadth of the land, but on every side He was openly insulted and defied by Baal worshipers. Daily the tide of evil rose higher and higher, until it had now swept practically everything before it. And Elijah was “very jealous for the LORD God of hosts” — 1 Kings 19:10 and longed to see His great Name vindicated and His backslidden people restored. Thus it was the glory of God and true love for Israel which actuated his petition.
Here, then, is the outstanding mark of a “righteous man” whose prayers prevail with God: though one of tender sensibilities, yet he puts the honor of the Lord before every other consideration. And God has promised “them that honor Me I will honor” — 1 Samuel 2:30. Alas, how frequently those words are true of us: “You ask, and receive not; because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts” — James 4:3. We “ask amiss” when natural feelings sway us, when carnal motives move us, when selfish considerations actuate us. But how different was it with Elijah. He was deeply stirred by the horrible indignities against his Master and longed to see Him given His rightful place again in Israel. “And it rained not on the earth for the space of three years and six months.” The Prophet failed not of his object. God never refuses to act when faith addresses Him on the ground of His own glory, and clearly it was on that ground Elijah had supplicated Him.
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” — Hebrews 4:16. It was there at that blessed Throne that Elijah obtained the strength which he so surely needed at that time. Not only was he required to keep his own skirts clear from the evil all around him, but he was called upon to exercise a holy influence upon others, by acting for God in a degenerate age, to make a serious effort to bring back the people to the God of their fathers. How essential it was, then, that he should dwell much in the secret place of the Most High, that he should obtain that grace from Him which alone could fit him for his difficult and dangerous undertaking: only thus could he be delivered from evil himself, and only thus could he hope to be instrumental in delivering others. Thereby equipped for the conflict, he entered upon his path of service endowed with Divine power.
Conscious of the Lord’s approbation, assured of the answer to his petition, sensible that the Almighty was with him, Elijah boldly confronted the wicked Ahab and announced the Divine judgment on his kingdom. But let us pause for a minute so that this weighty fact may sink into our minds, for it explains to us the more-than-human courage displayed by the servants of God in every age. What was it that made Moses so bold before Pharaoh? What was it that enabled the young David to go forth and meet the mighty Goliath? What was it that gave Paul such strength to testify as he did before Agrippa? From whence did Luther obtain such resolution that he would continue his mission? In each case the answer is the same: supernatural strength was obtained from a supernatural Source: only thus can we be energized to wrestle with the Principalities and powers of evil.
“He gives power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” — Isaiah 40:29-31. But where had Elijah learned this all-important lesson? Not in any seminary or Bible-training college, for if there were such in that day they were like those of our own degenerate time-in the hands of the Lord’s enemies. Nor can the schools of orthodoxy impart such secrets: even godly men cannot teach themselves this lesson, much less can they impart it to others. Ah, my reader, as it were at “the backside of the desert” — Exo. 3:1 that the Lord appeared to and commissioned Moses, so it was in the solitude of Gilead that Elijah had communed with Jehovah and had been trained by Him for his arduous duties: there he had “waited” upon the Lord, and there had he obtained “strength” for his task.
None but the living God can effectually say unto His servant, “Fear you not, for I am with you: be not dismayed, for I am your God: I will strengthen you, yes I will help you, yes I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness” — Isaiah 41:10. Thus granted the consciousness of the Lord’s presence, His servant goes forth, “as bold as a lion,” fearing no man, kept in perfect calm amid the most trying circumstances. It was in such a spirit that the Tishbite confronted Ahab: “as the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand.” But how little that apostate monarch knew of the secret exercises of the Prophet’s soul before he thus came forth to address his conscience! “There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word”: very striking and blessed is that. The Prophet spoke with the utmost assurance and authority, for he was delivering God’s message-the servant identifying himself with his Master. Such should ever be the demeanor of the minister of Christ: “we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen” — John 3:11.
“And the word of the Lord came unto him” — 1 Kings 17:2. How blessed! yet this is not likely to be perceived unless we ponder the same in the light of the foregoing. From the preceding verse we learn that Elijah had faithfully discharged his commission, and here we find the Lord speaking anew to His servant: thus we regard the latter as a gracious reward of the former. This is ever the Lord’s way, delighting to commune with those who delight to do His will. It is a profitable line of study to trace this expression throughout the Scriptures. God does not grant fresh revelations until there has been a compliance with those already received: we may see a case of this in the early life of Abraham. “The Lord had said unto Abraham get you . . . unto the land that I will show you” — Genesis 12:1; but instead, he went only half way and settled in Haran — 11:31, and it was not until he left there and fully obeyed that the Lord again appeared to him — Genesis 12:4-7.
“And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, Get you hence and turn you eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith” — 1 Kings 17:2, 3. An important practical truth is hereby exemplified. God leads His servants step by step. Necessarily so, for the path which they are called to tread is that of faith, and faith is opposed to both sight and independence. It is not the Lord’s way to reveal to us the whole course which is to be traversed: rather does He restrict His light to one step at a time, that we may be kept in continual dependence upon Him. This is a most beneficial lesson, yet it is one that the flesh is far from relishing, especially in those who are naturally energetic and zealous. Before he left Gilead for Samaria to deliver his solemn message, the Prophet would no doubt wonder what he should do as soon as it was delivered. But that was no concern of his, then-he was to obey the Divine order and leave God to make known what he should do next.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding: in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” — Proverbs 3:5, 6. Ah, my reader, had Elijah then leaned unto his own understanding we may depend upon it that hiding himself by the brook Cherith is the last course he would have selected. Had he followed his instincts, yes had he done that which he considered most glorifying to God, would he not have embarked upon a preaching tour throughout the towns and villages of Samaria? Would he not have felt it was his bounden duty to do everything in his power calculated to awaken the slumbering conscience of the public, so that his subjects-horrified at the prevailing idolatry-would bring pressure to bear upon Ahab to put a stop to it? Yet that was the very thing God would not have him do: what then is reasoning or natural inclinations worth in connection with Divine things? Nothing.
“And the word of the LORD came to him.” Note it is not said, “the will of the Lord was revealed to him” or “the mind of God was made known”: we would particularly emphasize this detail, for it is a point on which there is no little confusion today. There are numbers who mystify themselves and others by a lot of pious talk about “obtaining the Lord’s mind” or “discovering God’s will” for them, which when carefully analyzed amounts to nothing better than a vague uncertainty or a personal impulse. God’s “mind” or “will,” my reader, is made known in His Word, and He never “wills” anything for us which to the slightest degree clashes with that heavenly Rule. Changing the emphasis, note, “the Word of the Lord came to him”: there was no need for him to go and search for it! — see Deuteronomy 30:11-14.
And what a “word” it was that came to Elijah: “Get you hence, and turn you eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith that is before Jordan” — 1 Kings 17:3. Truly God’s thoughts and ways are indeed entirely different from ours: yes, and He alone can “make known” — Psalm 103:7 the same unto us. It is almost amusing to see how the commentators have quite wandered from the track here, for almost one and all of them explain the Lord’s command as being given for the purpose of providing protection for His servant. As the death-dealing drought continued, the perturbation of Ahab would increase more and more, and as he remembered the Prophet’s language that there should be neither dew nor rain but according to his word, his rage against him would know no bounds. Elijah, then, must be provided with a refuge if his life was to be spared. Yet Ahab made no attempt to slay him when next they met — 1 Kings 18:17-20! Should it be answered, That was because God’s restraining hand was upon the king: we answer, Granted, but was not God able to restrain him all through the interval?
No, the reason for the Lord’s order to His servant must be sought elsewhere, and surely that is not far to ascertain. Once it be recognized that next to the bestowments of His Word and the Holy Spirit to apply the same, the most valuable gifts He grants any people is the sending of His own qualified servants among them, and that the greatest possible calamity which can befall any land is God’s withdrawal of those whom He appoints to minister unto the soul, and no uncertainty should remain. The drought on Ahab’s kingdom was a Divine scourge and in keeping therewith the Lord bade His Prophet “get you hence.” The removal of the ministers of His truth is a sure sign of God’s displeasure, a token that He is dealing in judgment with a people who have provoked Him to anger.
It should be pointed out that the Hebrew word for “hide” — 1 Kings 17:3 is an entirely different one from that which is found in Joshua 6:17-25 — Rahab’s hiding of the spies and in 1 Kings 18:4, 13: the word used in connection with Elijah might well be rendered “turn you eastward and absent yourself,” as it is in Genesis 31:49. Of old the Psalmist had asked, “O God, Why have You cast us off forever? why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?” — 74:1. And what was it that caused him to make this plaintive inquiry? what had happened to make him realize that the anger of God was burning against Israel? This: “They have cast fire into Your sanctuary . . . they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land . . . we see not our signs: there is no more any Prophet” — vv. 7- 9. It was the doing away with the public means of grace which was the sure sign of the Divine displeasure.
Ah, my reader, little as it may be realized in our day, there is no surer and more solemn proof that God is hiding His face from a people or nation than for Him to deprive them of the inestimable blessing of those who faithfully minister His Holy Word to them, for as far as heavenly mercies excel earthly so much more dreadful are spiritual calamities than material ones. Through Moses the Lord declared, “My doctrine shall drop as the rain, My speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass” — Deuteronomy 32:2. And now all dew and rain was to be withheld from Ahab’s land, not only literally so, but spiritually so as well. Those who ministered His Word were removed from the scene of public action — cf. 1 Kings 18:4.
If further proof of the Scripturalness of our interpretation of 1 Kings 17:3 be required, we refer the reader to, “And though the LORD give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not your teachers be removed into a corner any more, but your eyes shall see your teachers” — Isaiah 30:20. What could be plainer than that? For the Lord to remove His teachers into a corner was the sorest loss His people could suffer, for here He tells them that His wrath shall be tempered with mercy, that though He gave them the bread of adversity and the water of affliction yet He would not again deprive them of those who ministered unto their souls. Finally, we would remind the reader of Christ’s statement that there was “great famine” in the land in Elijah’s time — Luke 4:9-5 and link up with the same, “Behold, the days come, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. And they shall wander from sea to sea and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the LORD, and shall not find it” — Amos 8:11, 12.
“And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, Get you hence, and turn you eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan” — 1 Kings 17:2, 3. As we have pointed out, it was not merely to provide Elijah with a safe retreat, to protect His servant from the wrath of Ahab and Jezebel, that Jehovah so commanded the Prophet, but to signify His sore displeasure against His apostate people: the withdrawal of the Prophet from the scene of public action was an additional judgment on the Nation. We cannot forbear pointing out that tragic analogy which now obtains more or less in Christendom. During the past two or three decades God has removed some eminent and faithful servants of His by the hand of death, and not only has He not replaced them by raising up others in their stead, but an increasing number of those which still remain are being sent into seclusion by Him.
It was both for God’s glory and the Prophet’s own good that the Lord bade him “get you hence . . . . hide yourself.” It was a call to separation. Ahab was an apostate, and his consort was a heathen.
Idolatry abounded on every side. Jehovah was publicly dishonored. The man of God could have no sympathy or communion with such a horrible situation. Isolation from evil is absolutely essential if we are to “keep ourselves unspotted from the world” — James 1:27: not only separation from secular wickedness but from religious corruption also. “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” — Ephesians 5:11 has been God’s demand in every dispensation. Elijah stood as the Lord’s faithful witness in a day of national departure from Himself, and having delivered His testimony to the responsible head, the Prophet must now retire. To turn our backs on all that dishonors God is an essential duty.
But where was Elijah to go? He had previously dwelt in the presence of the Lord God of Israel, “before whom I stand” he could say when pronouncing sentence of judgment unto Ahab, and he should still abide in the secret place of the Most High. The Prophet was not left to his own devising or choice, but directed to a place of God’s own appointing-outside the camp, away from the entire religious system. Degenerate Israel was to know him only as a witness against themselves: he was to have no place and take no part in either the social or religious life of the Nation. He was to turn “eastward”: the quarter from which the morning light arises, for those who are regulated by the Divine precepts “shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” — John 8:12. “By the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.” Jordan marked the very limits of the land. Typically it spoke of death, and spiritual death now rested upon Israel.
But what a message of hope and comfort the “Jordan” contained for one who was walking with the Lord! How well calculated was it to speak unto the heart of one whose faith was in a healthy condition! Was it not at this very place that Jehovah had shown Himself strong on behalf of His people in the days of Joshua? Was not the Jordan the very scene which had witnessed the miracle-working power of God at the time when Israel left the Wilderness behind them? It was there the Lord had said unto Joshua, “This day will I begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you” — Joshua 3:7. It was there that “the living God” — v. 10 made the waters to “stand upon a heap” — v. 13, so that “all the Israelites passed over on dry ground” — v. 17. Such are the things which should, and no doubt did, fill the mind of the Tishbite when his Master ordered him to this very place. If his faith was in exercise, his heart would be in perfect peace, knowing that a miracle-working God would not fail him there.
It was also for the Prophet’s own personal good that the Lord now bade him, “hide yourself.” He was in danger from another quarter than the fury of Ahab. The success of his supplications might prove a snare: tending to fill his heart with pride, and even to harden him against the calamity then desolating the land. Previously he had been engaged in secret prayer, and then for a brief moment he had witnessed a good confession before the king. The future held for him yet more honorable service, for the day was to come when he should witness for God not only in the presence of Ahab, but he should discomfort and utterly rout the assembled hosts of Baal and, in measure at least, turn the wandering Nation back again unto the God of their fathers. But the time for that was not ripe; neither was Elijah himself.
The Prophet needed further training in secret if he were to be personally fitted to speak again for God in public. Ah, my reader, the man whom the Lord uses has to be kept low: severe discipline has to be experienced by him, if the flesh is to be duly mortified. Three more years must be spent by the Prophet in seclusion. How humbling! Alas, how little is man to be trusted: how little is he able to bear being put into the place of honor! How quickly self rises to the surface, and the instrument is ready to believe he is something more than an instrument. How sadly easy it is to make of the very service God entrusts us with a pedestal on which to display ourselves. But God will not share His glory with another, and therefore does He “hide” those who may be tempted to take some of it unto themselves. It is only by retiring from the public view and getting alone with God that we can learn our own nothingness.
We see this important lesson brought out very plainly in Christ’s dealings with His beloved Apostles. On one occasion they returned to Him flushed with success and full of themselves: they “told Him all things, both what they had done, and what they had taught” — Mark 6:30. Most instructive is His quiet response: “And He said unto them, Come you yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while” — v. 31. This is still His gracious remedy for any of His servants who may be puffed up with their own importance, and imagine that His Cause upon earth would suffer a severe loss, if they were removed from it. God often says to His servants, “Get you hence . . . hide yourself”: sometimes it is by the dashing of their ministerial hopes, sometimes by a bed of affliction or by a severe bereavement, the Divine purpose is accomplished. Happy the one who can then say from his heart, “The will of the Lord be done.”
Every servant that God deigns to use must pass through the trying experience of Cherith before he is ready for the triumph of Carmel. This is an unchanging principle in the ways of God. Joseph suffered the indignities of both the pit and the prison before he became governor of all Egypt, second only to the king himself. Moses spent one third of his long life at “the backside of the desert” before Jehovah gave him the honor of leading His people out of the house of bondage. David had to learn the sufficiency of God’s power on the farm before he went forth and slew Goliath in the sight of the assembled armies of Israel and the Philistines. Thus it was, too, with the perfect Servant: 30 years of seclusion and silence before He began His brief public ministry. So, too, with the chief of His ambassadors: a season in the solitudes of Arabia was his apprenticeship before he became the Apostle to the Gentiles.
But is there not yet another angle from which we may contemplate this seemingly strange order, “Get you hence . . . hide yourself”? Was it not a very real and severe testing of the Prophet’s submissiveness unto the Divine will? “Severe,” we say, for to a robust man this request was much more exacting than his appearing before Ahab: one with a zealous disposition would find it much harder to spend three years in inactive seclusion than to be engaged in public service. This writer can testify from long and painful experience that to be removed “into a corner” — Isaiah 30:20 is a much severer trial than to address large congregations every night month after month. In the case of Elijah this lesson is obvious: he must learn to personally render implicit obedience unto the Lord before he was qualified to command others in His name.
Let us now take a closer look at the particular place selected by God as the one where His servant was next to sojourn: “by the brook Cherith.” Ah, it was a brook and not a river-a brook which might dry up any moment. It is rare that God places His servants, or even His people, in the midst of luxury and abundance: to be surfeited with the things of this world only too often means the drawing away of the affections from the Giver Himself. “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” It is our hearts God requires, and very often this is put to the proof. The way in which temporal losses are borne generally makes manifest the difference between the real Christian and the worldling. The latter is utterly cast down by financial reverses, and frequently commits suicide. Why? Because his all has gone and there is nothing left to live for. Contrastively, the genuine believer may be severely shaken and for a time deeply depressed, but he will recover his poise and say, God is still my portion and “I shall not want.”
Instead of a river God often gives us a brook, which may be running today and dried up tomorrow. Why? To teach us not to rest in our blessings, but in the Blesser Himself. Yet is it not at this very point that we so often fail-our hearts being far more occupied with the gifts than with the Giver? Is not this just the reason why the Lord will not trust us with a river?-because it would unconsciously take His place in our hearts. “Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: you are waxen fat, you are grown thick, you are covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation” — Deuteronomy 32:15. And the same evil tendency exists within us, We sometimes feel that we are being harshly dealt with because God gives us a brook rather than a river, but this is because we are so little acquainted with our own hearts. God loves His own too well to place dangerous knives in the hands of infants.
And how was the Prophet to exist in such a place? Where was his food to come from? Ah, God will see after that: He will provide for his maintenance: “And it shall be, that you shall drink of the brook” — 1 Kings 17:4. This God undertook for. Whatever may be the case with Ahab and his idolaters, Elijah shall not perish. In the very worst of times God will show Himself strong on the behalf of His own. Whoever starves they shall be fed: “Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure” — Isaiah 33:16. Yet how absurd it sounds to common sense to bid a man tarry indefinitely by a brook! Yes, but it was God who had given this order, and the Divine commands are not to be argued about but obeyed. Thereby Elijah was bidden to trust God contrary to sight, to reason, to all outward appearances, to rest in the Lord Himself and wait patiently for Him.
“I have commanded the ravens to feed you there” — 1 Kings 17:4. Observe the word we have placed in italics. The Prophet might have preferred many another hiding-place, but to Cherith he must go if he were to receive the Divine supplies: as long as he tarried there, God was pledged to provide for him. How important, then, is the question, Am I in the place which God has — by His Word or providence assigned me? If so, He will assuredly supply my every need. But, if like the younger son, I turn my back upon Him and journey into the far country, then like that prodigal I shall certainly suffer want. How many a servant of God has labored in some lowly or difficult sphere and the dew of the Spirit was on his soul and the blessing of Heaven on his ministry, when there came an invitation from some other field which seemed to offer a wider scope — and a larger salary! and yielding to the temptation, the Spirit was grieved and his usefulness in God’s kingdom was at an end.
The same principle applies with equal force to the rank and file of God’s people: they must be “in the way” — Genesis 24:27 of God’s appointing if they are to receive Divine supplies. “Your will be done” precedes “Give us this day our daily bread.” How many professing Christians have we personally known who resided in a town where God sent one of His own qualified servants, who fed them with “the finest of the wheat” and their souls prospered. Then came a tempting business offer from some distant place, which would improve their position in the world. The offer is accepted, their tent was removed, only to enter a spiritual wilderness where there was no edifying ministry available. In consequence their souls were starved, their testimony for Christ ruined, and a period of fruitless backsliding ensued. As Israel had to follow the Cloud of old in order to obtain supplies of manna, so must we be in the place of God’s ordering if our souls are to be watered and our spiritual lives prospered.
Let us next view the instruments selected by God to minister unto the bodily needs of His servant. “I have commanded the ravens to feed you.” Various lines of thought are hereby suggested. First, see here both the high sovereignty and the absolute supremacy of God; His sovereignty in the choice made, His supremacy in His power to make it good. He is a law unto Himself: “Whatever the LORD pleased, that did He in Heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places” — Psalm 135:6. He prohibited His people from eating ravens, classifying them among the unclean, yes, to be “an abomination” to them — Leviticus 11:15; Deuteronomy 14:14. Yet He Himself made use of them to carry food unto His servant. How different are God’s ways from ours! He employed Pharaoh’s own daughter to support the infant Moses and a Balaam to utter one of His most remarkable prophecies. He used the jaw-bone of an donkey in the hand of Samson to slay the Philistines, and a sling and stone to vanquish their champion.
“I have commanded the ravens to feed you.” O what a God is ours! The birds of the air and the fishes of the sea, the wild beasts of the field, yes, the very winds and waves obey Him. Yes, “Thus says the Lord, which makes a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters; which brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power . . .
Behold, I will do a new thing: now it shall spring forth, shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. The beasts of the field shall honor Me, the dragons and the owls — yes, and the ravens, too: because I give waters in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people” — Isaiah 43:16-20. Thus the Lord caused birds of prey, which lived on carrion, to feed the Prophet.
But let us also admire here the wisdom as well as the power of God. Elijah’s fare was provided for partly in a natural and partly in a supernatural way. There was water in the brook, so he could easily go and fetch it. God will work no miracles to spare a man trouble, or that he should be listless and lazy, making no effort to procure his own sustenance. But there was no food in the desert: how is he to get that? God will furnish this in a miraculous manner. “I have commanded the ravens to feed you.” Had human beings been used to take him food, they might have divulged his hiding-place. Had a dog or some domestic animal gone each morning and evening, people might have seen this regular journeying to and fro, carrying food, and so been curious, and investigated the same. But birds flying with flesh into the desert would arouse no suspicion: it would be concluded they were taking it to their young. See, then, how careful God is of His people, how judicious in the arrangements He makes for them. He knows what would endanger their safety and provides accordingly.
“Hide yourself by the brook Cherith . . . I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” Go immediately, without entertaining any doubts, without making any hesitation. However contrary to their natural instincts, these birds of prey shall obey the Divine behest. Nor need this appear the least unlikely. God Himself created them, gave them their peculiar instinct, and He knows how to direct and control the same. He has power to suspend or check it, according to His good pleasure. Nature is exactly what God made it, and entirely dependent upon Him for its continuance. He upholds all things by the word of His power. In Him and by Him the birds and beasts, as well as man, live, move, and have their being; and therefore He can whenever He thinks fit, either suspend or alter the law which He has imposed upon any of His creatures. “Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead” — Acts 26:8!
There in his lowly retreat the Prophet was called upon to sojourn many days, yet not without a precious promise guaranteeing his sustenance: the supplying him with needed provision was Divinely assured him. The Lord would take care of His servant while hid from public view, and would daily feed him by His miracle-working power. Nevertheless, it was a real testing of Elijah’s faith. Whoever heard of such instruments being employed-birds of prey bringing food in a time of famine! Could the ravens be depended upon? Was it not far more likely that they would devour the food themselves than bring it to the Prophet? Ah, his trust was not to be in the birds, but in the sure word of Him that cannot lie: “I have commanded the ravens.” It was the Creator and not the creature, the Lord Himself and not the instruments Elijah’s heart was to be fixed upon. How blessed to be lifted above “circumstances” and in the inerrant promise of God have a sure proof of His care “Get you hence, and turn you eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that you shall drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there” — 1 Kings 17:3, 4. Notice well the order here: first the Divine command, and then the precious promise: Elijah must comply with the Divine behest if he were to be supernaturally fed. As we so often point out in these pages, most of God’s promises are conditional ones. And does not this explain why many of us do not extract the good of them: because we fail to comply with their stipulations. God will not put a premium on either unbelief or disobedience. Alas, we are our own worst enemies, and lose much by our perversity. We have shown that the arrangement here made by God displayed His high sovereignty, His all-sufficient power, and His blessed wisdom; as it also made a demand upon the Prophet’s submissiveness and faith. We turn now to the sequel.
“So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan” — v. 5. Not only did God’s injunction to Elijah supply a real test of his submission and faith, but it also made a severe demand upon his humility. Had pride been in the ascendant he would have said, Why should I follow such a course? it would be playing the coward’s part to “hide” myself. I am not afraid of Ahab, so I shall not go into seclusion. Ah, my reader, some of God’s commands are quite humiliating to haughty flesh and blood. It may not have struck His disciples as a very policy to pursue when Christ bade them, “when they persecute you in this city, flee you into another” — Matthew 10:23; nevertheless, such were His orders, and He must be obeyed. And why should any servant of His demur at such a command as “hide yourself,” when of the Master Himself we read that “Jesus hid Himself” — John 8:59. Ah. He has left us an example in all things.
Furthermore, compliance with the Divine command would be quite a tax on the social side of Elijah’s nature. There are few who can endure solitude: to be cut off from their fellows would indeed prove a severe trial to most people. Unconverted men cannot live without company: the sociability of those like-minded is necessary if they are to silence an uneasy conscience and banish troublesome thoughts. And is it much different with the great majority even of professing Christians? Alas, soul-satisfying, heart-ravishing communion with God, dwelling in the secret place of the Most High, delighting themselves in the Lord, is an experience they seem to be little acquainted with. “Lo, I am with you always” has little real meaning to most of us. How different the contentment, joy, and usefulness of Bunyan in prison and Madame Guyon in her solitary confinement. Ah, Elijah might be cut off from his fellows, but not from the Lord Himself.
“So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord.” Without hesitation or delay the Prophet complied with God’s command. Blessed subjection to the Divine will was this: to deliver Jehovah’s message unto the king himself, or to be dependent upon ravens, he was equally ready. However unreasonable the precept might appear or however unpleasant the prospect, the Tishbite promptly carried it out. How different was this from the Prophet Jonah, who fled from the word of the Lord; yes, and how different the sequel-the one imprisoned for three days and nights in the whale’s belly, the other, at the end, taken to Heaven without passing through the portals of death! Even God’s servants are not all alike, either in faith, obedience or fruitfulness. O that all of us may be as prompt in our obedience to the Lord’s Word as Elijah was!
“So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD.” The Prophet neither delayed in complying with the Divine directions nor did he doubt that God would supply all his need. Happy it is when we can obey Him in difficult circumstances and trust Him in the dark. But why should we not place implicit confidence in God and rely upon His word of promise? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Has His word of promise ever failed? Then let us not entertain any unbelieving suspicions of His future care of us. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not so His promises. God’s dealings with Elijah have been recorded for our instruction: O that they may speak loudly to our hearts, rebuking our wicked distrust and moving us to cry in earnest, “Lord, increase our faith.” The God of Elijah still lives, and fails none who count upon His faithfulness.
“So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD.” Elijah not only preached God’s Word, but he practiced it. This is the crying need of our times. There is a great deal of talking, but very little of walking according to the Divine precepts. There is much activity in the religious realm, but only too often it is unauthorized by and in numerous instances is contrary to the Divine statutes. “But be you doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” — James 1:22 is the unfailing requirement of Him with whom we have to do. To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. “Little children, let no man deceive you: he who does righteousness is righteous” — 1 John 3:7. Alas, how many are deceived at this very point: they prate about righteousness, but fail to practice it. “‘Not everyone that says unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven: but he who does the will of My Father which is in Heaven” — Matthew 7:21.
“And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook” — 1 Kings 17:6. What proof was this that “He is faithful that promised” — Hebrews 10:23. All nature shall change her course rather than one of His promises fail. O what comfort is there here for trusting hearts: what God has promised, He will certainly perform. How excuseless is our unbelief, how unspeakably wicked our doubtings. How much of our distrust is the consequence of the Divine promises not being sufficiently real and definite unto our minds. Do we meditate as we ought upon the promises of the Lord? If we were more fully “acquainted” with Him — Job 22:21, if we “set Him” more definitely before our hearts — Psalm 16:8, would not His promises have far more weight and power with us?
“My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” — Philippians 4:19. It is profitless to ask, How? The Lord has 10,000 ways of making good His word. Some reader of this very paragraph may be living from hand to mouth, having no stock of money or store of victuals: yes, not knowing where the next meal will come from. But if you be a child of His, God will not fail you, and if your trust be in Him, it shall not be disappointed. In some way or other “The Lord shall provide.” “O, fear the LORD, you His saints: for there is no want to them that fear Him. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing” — Psalm 34:9, 10; “Seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things — food and clothing shall be added unto you” — Matthew 6:33. These promises are addressed to us: to encourage us to cleave unto God and do His will.
“And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening.” Had He so pleased, the Lord could have fed Elijah by angels rather than by ravens. There was then in Israel a hospitable Obadiah, who kept a secret table in a cave for a hundred of God’s Prophets — 1 Kings 18:4. Moreover, there were 7,000 faithful Israelites who had not bowed the knee to Baal, any one of whom had doubtless deemed himself highly honored to have sustained so eminent an one as Elijah. But God preferred to make use of birds of the air. Why? Was it not so as to give both the Tishbite and us a signal proof of His absolute command over all creatures, and thereby of His worthiness to be trusted in the greatest extremities? And what is the more striking is that Elijah was better fed than the Prophets who were sustained by Obadiah, for they had only “bread and water” — 18:4, whereas Elijah had meat also.
Though God may not employ literal ravens in ministering unto His needy servants and people today, yet He often works just as definitely and wondrously in disposing the selfish, the covetous, the hard-hearted, and the grossly immoral to render assistance to His own. He can and often does induce them contrary to their natural dispositions and miserly habits to deal kindly and liberally in ministering to our necessities. He has the hearts of all in His hand and turns them wherever He will — Proverbs 21:1. What thanks are due unto the Lord for sending His provisions by such instruments! We doubt not that quite a number of our readers could bear similar testimony to this writer when he says, How often in the past did God in the most unlooked-for manner provide for our necessities: we had as soon expected ravens to bring us food as that we should receive from those who actually bestowed it.
“And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening.” Observe, no vegetables, fruit, or sweets are mentioned. There were no luxuries, but simply the bare necessities. “Having food and clothing let us be therewith content” — 1 Timothy 6:8. But are we? Alas, how little of this godly contentment is now seen, even among the Lord’s people. How many of them set their hearts upon the things which the godless make idols. Why are our young people dissatisfied with the standard of comfort which sufficed their parents? Why this hankering after a motor car, following the expensive fashions of the world in dress, and home furnishings? Money wasted on such things as vacuum sweepers and electric washers ought to have gone to the support of the Gospel. But God will not be mocked: view the rapidly mounting rates and taxes as a Divine judgment on carnal extravagance. Self must be denied if we are to show ourselves followers of Him who had not where to lay His head.
“And he drank of the brook” — 1 Kings 17:6. Let us not overlook this clause, for no detail in Scripture is meaningless. Water in the brook was as truly and as definitely a provision of God’s as the bread and meat which the ravens brought. Has not the Holy Spirit recorded this detail for the purpose of teaching us that the common mercies of providence — as we term them are also the gifts of God. If we have been supplied with what is needful to sustain our bodies, then gratitude and acknowledgment are due our God. And yet how many there are, even among professing Christians, who sit down to their meals without first asking God’s blessing, and rising up therefrom without thanking Him for what they have had. In this matter, too, Christ has left us an example, for on the occasion of His feeding the multitude, we are told that “Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed unto the disciples” — John 6:11. Then let us not fail to do the same.
“And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land” — 1 Kings 17:7. Weigh attentively those five words. “And it came to pass” means far more than it merely happened: it signifies that the Divine decree concerning the same was now fulfilled. “It came to pass” in the good Providence of God, who orders all things after the counsel of His own will, and without whose personal permission nothing occurs, not even the falling of a sparrow to the ground — Matthew 10:29. How this should comfort the children of God and assure them of their security. There is no such thing as chance with reference to God-wherever this term occurs in the Bible it is always in connection with man, referring to something taking place without God’s design. Everything which occurs in this world is just as God ordained from the beginning — Acts 2:23. Endeavor to recall that fact, dear reader, the next time you are in difficulty and distress. If you are one of God’s people He has provided for every contingency in His “Everlasting Covenant” and His mercies are “sure” — 2 Samuel 23:5; Isaiah 55:3.
“And after a while” or — margin “at the end of days” by which expression Lightfoot understood “after a year,” which is frequently the sense of that phrase in Scripture. However this may be after an interval of some duration the brook dried up. Krummacher declares that the very name Cherith denotes “drought,” as though it usually dried up more quickly than any other brook. Most probably it was a mountain stream, which flowed down a narrow ravine. Water was supplied it by the way of nature or ordinary providence, but the course of nature was now altered. The purpose of God was accomplished and the time of the Prophet’s departure unto another hiding place had arrived. The drying up of the brook was a forceful reminder to Elijah of the transitoriness of everything mundane. “The fashion of this world passes away” — 1 Corinthians 7:31, and therefore “here have we no continuing city” — Hebrews 13:14. Change and decay is stamped upon everything down here: there is nothing stable under the sun. We should therefore be prepared for sudden changes in our circumstances.
The ravens, as heretofore, brought the Prophet flesh and bread to eat each morning and evening, but he could not exist without water. But why should not God supply the water in a miraculous way, as He did the food? Most certainly He could have done so. He could have brought water out of the rock, as He did for Israel, and for Samson out of a jawbone — Judges 15:18, 19. Yes, but the Lord is not confined to any one method, but has a variety of ways in bringing the same end to pass. God sometimes works one way and sometimes another, employing this means today and that tomorrow, in accomplishing His counsels. God is sovereign and acts not according to rule and rote. He ever acts according to His own good pleasure, and this He does in order to display His all sufficiency, to exhibit His manifold wisdom, and to demonstrate the greatness of His power. God is not tied and if He closes one door He can easily open another.
“That the brook dried up.” Cherith would not flow forever, no, not even for the Prophet. Elijah himself must be made to feel the awfulness of that calamity which he had announced. Ah, my reader, it is no uncommon thing for God to suffer His own dear children to become enwrapped in the common calamities of offenders. True, He makes a very real difference both in the use and the issue of their stripes, but not so in the infliction of them. We are living in a world which is under the curse of a holy God, and therefore “man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward.” Nor is there any escape from trouble so long as we are left in this scene. God’s own people, though the objects of His everlasting love, are not exempted for, “many are the afflictions of the righteous.” Why? For various reasons and with various designs: one of them being to wean our hearts from things below and cause us to set our affection on things above.
“The brook dried up.” To outward appearance that would have seemed a real misfortune, to carnal reason an actual calamity. Let us endeavor to visualize Elijah there at Cherith. The drought was everywhere, the famine throughout the whole land: and now his own brook began to dry up. Day by day its waters gradually lessened until soon there was barely a trickle, and then it entirely ceased. Had he grown increasingly anxious and gloomy? Did he say, what shall I do? Must I stay here and perish? Has God forgotten me? Did I take a wrong step, after all, in coming here? It all depended upon how steadily his faith remained in exercise. If faith were active, then he admired the goodness of God in causing that supply of water to last so long. How much better for our souls, if instead of mourning over our losses, we praise God for continuing His mercies to us so long- especially when we bear in mind they are only lent to us, and that we deserve not the least of them.
Though dwelling in the place of God’s appointing, yet Elijah is not exempted from those deep exercises of soul which are ever the necessary discipline of a life of faith. True, the ravens had, in obedience to the Divine command, paid him their daily visits, supplying him with food morning and evening, and the brook had flowed on its tranquil course. But faith must be tested-and developed. The servant of God must not settle down on his lees, but pass from form to form in the school of the Lord; and having learned — through grace the difficult lessons of one, he must now go forward to grapple with others yet more difficult. Perhaps the reader may now be facing the drying brook of popularity, of failing health, of diminishing business, of decreasing friendships. Ah, a drying brook is a very real trouble.
And why does God suffer the brook to dry up? To teach us to trust in Himself, and not in His gifts. As a general rule He does not for long provide for His people in the same way and by the same means, lest they should rest in them and expect help from them. Sooner or later God shows us how dependent we are upon Himself even for supplies of daily mercies. But the heart of the Prophet must be tested, to show whether his trust was in Cherith or in the living God. So it is in His dealings with us. How often we think we are trusting in the Lord, when really we are resting on comfortable circumstances; and when they become uncomfortable, how much faith have we!?
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