1 Kings 18:17-36.
Christian Friend vol. 19, 1892, p. 283.
A complete section is given in this chapter, and it is necessary to perceive this in order to understand the significance of this striking scene. In the first verse Elijah is told to go and show himself to Ahab, "and," the Lord added, "I will send rain upon the earth." In the last verse but one we read that "there was a great rain." It is clear therefore that all the intervening circumstances have reference to what the Lord was about to do; and the connection is, as we apprehend, that judgment is visited upon the false god (Baal) and his prophets, before the restoration of blessing. Indeed, Obadiah, Ahab, and the prophets of Baal are all passed under review and dealt with, in their several degrees of guilt, before the Lord sent down again the rain from heaven.
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If God be for us, who can be against us? is an abiding truth for the soul; it is one easily repeated, but not so easily acted upon, unless faith is in present activity. It was, however, fully exemplified in the bearing and conduct of Elijah as recorded in this chapter. He thus, in the consciousness of being sent from Jehovah, and of having Jehovah with him and for him, courageously faced the monarch, who for long had been diligently seeking his life. And it is to be remarked that Ahab was evidently awed by the presence of the man he hated. All he could bring himself to say was, "Art thou he that troubles Israel?" Ahab knew that Elijah was the servant of Jehovah. Why therefore did he prefer this charge? For the same reason, doubtless, that many at Antioch would deem Paul a troubler, when he withstood Peter to the face, and refused to surrender the truth of grace; and for the same reason that many still are called troublers when they decline to depart from the word of God, while others are tempted to do so to secure tranquility.
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The answer of the prophet much deserves to be weighed in the presence of God: "I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim." Yes, the troublers of the people of God are those who set aside the word of God through their traditions, customs, and human regulations; not those who esteem obedience as better than sacrifice, and hearing the voice of the Lord as better than the fat of rams. On Ahab's principle Luther was a troubler of the Church, and many others, who have gone even beyond Luther in contending for the supremacy and all-sufficiency of the Scriptures; but in God's sight they were, like Elijah, His faithful servants - those who, amid surrounding corruptions, feared the Lord, and cared for the honour of His name. It is always necessary to maintain fellowship with God; but it is not necessary to walk with His people, unless they also are in unison with His mind.
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Ahab's submissiveness in summoning Baal's prophets at the command of Elijah shows how completely he was overmastered by divine constraint. Against his will, he was made the instrument for the accomplishment of God's purpose. Jehovah thus made the wrath of man to praise Him. The prophets of Baal were therefore assembled upon mount Carmel, and there was to be decided the solemn issue as to whether Jehovah or Baal was God. There was everything in the scene to strike the imagination, and to fill the mind with awe. On the one side a solitary man, a true Nazarite, alone and unaided; on the other four hundred and fifty of Baal's prophets, backed up by the presence of the king and all the influence of the kingdom. It was the Spirit of God leading Elijah to face the whole power and energy of Satan in the very home and seat of Satan's power.
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The people of Israel were also there; and they must be first made to understand the nature of the conflict, and the question to be decided. It would almost seem that some of them had been the subjects of exercise and searchings of heart, for Elijah's first words were, "How long halt ye between two opinions?" But whatever their secret thoughts, they were silent before the prophet's appeal to declare themselves either for Jehovah or Baal. Thereupon Elijah proposed a test. The prophets of Baal on the one side, and Elijah on the other, should prepare a bullock for sacrifice, "lay it on wood, and put no fire under," the idolaters should call on the name of their gods, and the prophet "on the name of the Lord: and the God that answers by fire, let him be God." It was impossible to refuse a test capable of such easy verification, and accordingly the people answered, "It is well spoken."
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It was a solemn moment, a great crisis in the prophet's history; for he had staked all, the existence of Jehovah Himself, as well as his own mission, upon the short and simple test which he had proposed. But strengthened by faith, confident in the power and faithfulness of the One in whose name he was acting, he instantly called upon Baal's prophets to proceed with their sacrifice. Having taken their bullock and dressed it, they called upon Baal from morning to noon to interpose and vindicate his claims. "But there was no voice, nor any that answered." More energy, they thought, as in all false worship, was demanded on their part; and they leaped upon the altar that was made. Elijah mocked them (for he knew that gods made with men's hands were only vanity), and by his taunts and irony provoked them to desperation, so that they cut themselves with knives and lancets "till the blood gushed out upon them." It was all in vain, for although they continued their "prophesying" until the time of the evening sacrifice, "there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded."
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It was now Elijah's turn; and let the reader ponder deeply every step in this wondrous scene. First of all he called the people to him, for he would have them to examine his acts for themselves, and make it impossible for them to doubt the reality of Jehovah's interposition. Next he repaired and built the altar of the Lord, and with twelve stones he included all the tribes of Israel in the representation before God; and then, after making a trench about the altar and preparing the sacrifice, he commanded the people to drench it thrice with water; and they did it so copiously that "the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water." Who that beheld what was done could for one moment doubt that only divine power could cause the sacrifice to be consumed with fire? The prophets of Baal had cried and prayed to their god in vain; it remained to be seen whether Elijah's intercessions would be equally unavailing, and for this the people waited.
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The time when the prophet drew near should be remarked. It was the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice; and this fact proclaimed that Elijah rested, not in his own services or prayers, but in the value of the burnt-offering (significant of the sacrifice of Christ) for the token which he craved. Observe, moreover, his pleas. He addresses Jehovah as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel; and his desire is that it might be known that day that Jehovah, spite of His people's apostasy, was God in Israel, and that he was His servant and had done these things at Jehovah's word; and in one last petition he poured out his zeal for the Lord, and his yearning for the people's restoration. The Lord heard and answered the supplication of His servant, and "the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench."
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The proof that Jehovah was God was irresistible, and the effect was overwhelming. As one man the people, when they saw it, fell on their faces and confessed, "The Lord, He is the God; the Lord, He is the God." Thus wrought upon by the visible display of Jehovah's power, they were ready instruments to Elijah's hand for the execution of judgment upon the idolatrous prophets. "Take the prophets of Baal," commanded Elijah, and "let not one of them escape." The people obeyed his word, and "they took them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there." God had risen, in response to the prayer of His servant, and His enemies were scattered.
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Ahab had been a spectator of God's vindication of His own name, and of the mission of the prophet. Though a crowned king he was as powerless to protect his servants as the meanest of his subjects. What he felt and thought is not revealed. Elijah was the manifest vessel of power in the scene, and Ahab, if not awe-stricken, was yet constrained to obey the prophet's word: "Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain." The name of Jehovah had been exalted in Israel through judgment, and He could therefore now satisfy His own heart in the restoration of blessing.
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The essential qualification of a servant is to be in communion with the mind and heart of God as to His people, also as to the message to be delivered, and, lastly, as to the object of the message - the glory of His beloved Son.