By the REV. F. MACDONALD, M.A., Tolsta.
“And he came hither unto a cave, and lodged there; and behold, the Word of the Lord came unto him, and he said unto him, ‘What doest thou here, Elijah?'” (I Kings xix. 9).
THE Apostle James, in commanding the duty and illustrating the efficacy of prayer, adduces the example of Elijah. He tells us that Elijah prayed earnestly and it rained not. Now in so doing he anticipates an objection likely to be raised by his readers. He sees at once that they are going to say, “O but that was Elijah, one of the most outstanding of the Lord’s prophets.” By arguing in this way, the Apostle’s information about Elijah would tend more to discourage than to encourage them, so now, to meet their objection, James assures them that Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are. Such an assurance would encourage them to pray. While it would also save them from a very common error, viz., from entertaining mistaken ideas regarding the piety and character of the Old Testament saints.
They were great giants, undoubtedly, but they had their struggles, their failings, and their fits of depression as surely as others. We can raise them too far above the level of human infirmity; further than the Word of God permits us to do, and thus give a place to saint worship with its attendant evils. Now, if ever any man seemed to rise above the infirmities of human nature, it was Elijah. He appears to tower above the ordinary believer in faith and courage until we are filled with shame and fear for ourselves, and our faith. Yet we read of his being weary of life and desiring death, of fleeing by a sudden access of terror from the threat of Jezebel, and of his magnifying himself in prayer as being the sole remaining witness for God in Israel when the Lord had preserved a faithful remnant who had not bowed the knee to Baal. These facts bear out the truth of the Apostle’s assertion, while in no way depreciating the character of the prophet who appears again in the glory of Mount Tabor. The gracious rebuke in the above words presents Elijah as indeed a man of like passions with us; and it is to the consideration of these words I now invite your attention. In attempting to do so we desire, as enabled, to notice two things:—First, Elijah’s sin; second, Elijah’s chastisement.
Elijah’s Sin
I.(a) It goes without saying that this great prophet excelled in faith. By the prayer of faith he closed the windows of heaven; by faith he hid for many days by the brook Cherith, not succumbing to the pressure of an ever growing and protracted trial while there; by faith he taxed the faith of the widow of Zaraphtha and sojourned with her for a season; by faith he brought her son from the dead; and by that same faith he stood alone on Mount Carmel against hundreds of the prophets of Baal. It was no ordinary faith that insisted, in time of terrible drought, on flooding the sacrifice with water and subsequently in bringing down first, fire, then rain from the long-dried heavens. That Elijah had great faith, who will deny?
(b) In the wake of such a faith comes, as we would expect, courage. A dauntless man is this Tisbite. The fear of his God has all but swallowed up the fear of man, so that the prince and the peasant alike received from him the same stern, personal rebuke for their sins when that was called for. When he and the king meet, it is Ahab who cowers and quails before the prophet, not Elijah before Ahab. Obadiah might indeed have spared his gracious solicitude for this fearless prophet who had no intention of ever fleeing from the face of mortal man. Courage Elijah certainly possessed, a valour sufficient to inspire the hearts of his fellow sinners and stir them up to action. Now you may be on the point of asking, but what have Elijah’s faith and courage then to do with Elijah’s sin? I answer, they have much to do with his present condition, and sin as inferred and expressed in the question before us, “What doest thou here, Elijah?” It is the prophet’s faith that now falters. It is hardly credible but it is true; for the time being it is unbelief which has the upper hand. Where is the faith of Carmel now? Where the courage of other days? Unbelief prepares the way for the sin of cowardice so that before the flush of victory has had time to subside we find Elijah fleeing for his life from the face of the blood-thirsty Jezebel.
It was not at the most vulnerable point of his harness that this dart was aimed but at the least vulnerable. O, that we would learn how vain it is for us to spend untiring energy in keeping constant vigil over the sin which does so easily beset us, if we fail to guard zealously the graces in which we think we excel. How often have the saints of God been overcome, not where they were weak but where they were strong. Think of Job, of Moses, of Elijah. Satan is a subtle foe and is more than a match for any of Adam’s sons. The price of safety is constant and universal vigilance. To gain even a temporary victory over the faith and fearlessness of Elijah must have given the arch-enemy special satisfaction. He could now use such a defeat to attempt to prove that Elijah’s faith and courage were a mere facade and thus endeavour to weaken Elijah’s authority as the prophet of God and to intimidate others from following him. Let us realise, then, that the greatest as well as the least are but weakness itself apart from entire dependence upon God. Our past fidelity or courage are no guarantee that we shall always overcome. If left to ourselves for any length of time, we shall prove to ourselves and to others that it is not in him that walketh to direct his steps.
(c) Now, if it was sinful on the part of the prophet to flee from the mere threat of a devil-possessed woman, it was as sinful to evade the obvious path of duty. In so doing he forsook the promise of God and exposed himself to manifold dangers. Whatever trials and persecutions may be encountered on that path, we may solace ourselves with the conviction that the divine help and protection are ours. Yet that was exactly what Elijah did, and that too at a very crucial point in his own and Israel’s history; he fled from the path of duty as surely as he fled from Jezebel. Let us all seek to lay this lesson to heart. It is vain for us to expect the blessing or the protection of God unless we are found in the way of duty. If finally delivered, as all God’s children shall be, it will only be brought about by the gracious intervention of divine love, and that by way of chastisement.
(d) Again, Elijah failed sadly in not following up the signal victory granted to him on Mount Carmel. His conduct in fleeing to hide was further aggravated by the fact that he needed not to question whether the Lord was on his side, for the Lord had just given a public and solemn proof that He was with Elijah in a very special sense. It was evidently Elijah’s duty, having gained a foothold, to fight it out to a victorious end against Jezebel’s idolatrous government. He certainly made sure of some of the prophets of Baal, but his subsequent conduct almost turned his triumph into defeat. Alas for Elijah, but such a sin is far more common than we realise. To every believer the Lord grants a great victory over the power of sin, corruption and lust in the day of his first espousals to the King of Sion, but how few realise the need of following up that initial victory by living a life of continual victory! How many must rather confess that they have sat down elated with the joy of such a triumph over spiritual wickedness in high places instead of seeking grace to use that conquest to the utmost of their ability. Does not the eager earnestness with which we sought the peace of justification exceed our desire for sanctification? Are we as anxious that sin should be destroyed as that it should be pardoned? If we through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live and that we must bear in mind in connection with our spiritual warfare. How often in the history of nations have we seen a glorious victory turned into an inglorious defeat by failure on the part of the victors to make good their triumph. A great statesman is known to have said that to win the peace was as important as to have won the war; and is it not so? Let us then seek the grace to make good our gains in our spiritual warfare against the world, the flesh and the devil. Let us seek to emulate David who could protest thus:—
Mine en’mies I pursued have,
And did them overtake;
Nor did I turn again till I
An end of them did make.
I wounded them—they could not rise;
They at my feet did fall.
Thou girdest me with strength for war:
My foes then brought’st down all.
It is only by grace we can improve the grace we receive.
(e) Once more, the man of God sinned against the faithful remnant in Israel. Their eyes were turned upon Elijah; their hearts rose or fell according as he triumphed or faltered. What of the good widow who in faith gave him her last morsel? What of the servant of God who feared the Lord from his youth up, and had jeopardised his life and position for the love he had to the prophets of the Lord? What of the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal? Has Elijah forgotten Obadiah and the widow of Zarephtha? What a lesson is here, especially for those who are public leaders in the Church! How doubly incumbent it is upon them that they be strong in faith, giving glory to God; that they disappoint not the hopes of the remnant in Israel. If the standard-bearer falls, what can the righteous do? If those who champion the Cause of Christ fall a prey to the fear of man, and forget their obligations, what will become of the weaker ones? It should be remembered that not only our gifts but our graces are given us to be used in His service and to edify one another. Why was Elijah blessed with such a faith and such a courage? Was it merely for the comfort of his own soul? Verily, no; Elijah should have considered the far-reaching consequences of his yielding to the pressure of the hour. Such a flight on his part, if made public, could not fail to tell sadly upon the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal. Shall we venture then to charge Elijah with the sin of giving place to self, that monster that assumes so many forms? Is not self-pity indulged in just another form of self-love, and at this stage of Elijah’s experience, is he not swallowed up in himself?
A stage has been reached where it is I, I, I all the time; my feelings, my fears, my zeal, and so on until he actually said, “And I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away.” Beware of self-pity, dear friend. Beware of it mixing with your sorrow for sin, for it can poison the tears of penitence; beware of it when you think you are being persecuted without cause, for it can blind you to think that you are being persecuted for righteousness’ sake. It is a deadly monster often assuming the form of an angel of light. Oh, bring your self-pity and your self-comfort and your self-pleasing to the cross of Jesus. There and there only will you see, not only the awful guilt and ugliness of such a sin, but on the other hand, the glory of self-denial. The just and holy claims of God, the tender claims of a weeping mother, the cries of the penitent, the madness and ignorance of those who gloated in His agony—all these the Christ of God thought of and prayed over in His hour of greatest sorrow. Can you find the least trace of pity for Himself there? And having looked at Him, can you now cherish such a thing in your own breast? Can you justify it within hearing of Gethsemane’s groans, and within sight of Calvary’s agony?
O, then, let us indeed seek self-loathing in the dust of self-abasement, while we pray earnestly to be saved from self-pity.
To sum up, then, we find there is more in Elijah’s flight than mere infirmity. Some explain the prophet’s flight in a psychological way, as more or less the nervous reaction of the strain and glory of Mount Carmel. Now, while we do not overlook what was physical, we feel that there were other causes at work here. Could such a one as Elijah fail to escape the onslaughts of Satan? Never. Thus we find our worthy prophet made the special target of the devil. Self, unbelief, cowardice and lack of patience all manifest themselves as the great adversary strikes at Elijah, until the ever-gracious, ever-living God of Elijah comes to the rescue of His truly faithful though despondent servant. And how does he come to the weary prophet? He comes with the word of gracious rebuke. This leads us, in the second place, to consider as designed Elijah’s chastisement.
Elijah’s Chastisement
(a) Internal. In yielding to the temptation of this crisis—how Elijah exposed himself to that uneasiness and fretfulness of spirit which constitutes in itself a good part of his chastisement on this occasion. Being conscious of the fact that he had fled from the face of Jezebel and from the honourable path of duty, he left himself open to the accusations of his own conscience; and still more to the suggestions of his wily enemy. Satan had now ready access to his imagination and could reduce him to a state of despondency and nervous tension. That was in itself a sore chastisement for one who was wont to have a conscience void of offence towards God and man. How often may our darkness and despondency be a chastisement for our sloth and remissness in duty. Some always think of chastisement as something external, something that all can see, but such an idea is erroneous. And what of judgment also? How ready we are to confine our thoughts of judgment to what is external and future rather than to what is immediate and internal. To be left to oneself is a terrible judgment and is but the harbinger of that eternal and irrevocable judgment which shall be the portion of all who die out of Christ.
(b) By his sin Elijah lost the spirit and power of prayer. He still prays but what a difference. There is undoubtedly no lack of earnestness but it is no longer the earnestness of grace. It is not now the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man, the inwrought prayer of the Holy Spirit, but the prayer of the flesh. Both the object and the manner of his supplications are fleshly. What is it that he seeks so earnestly? It is freedom from the ills and trials of life, but who could not pray for that? Have we not heard such a prayer from the lips of the unregenerate? Is that the prayer that the Spirit would indite? Would it not be more like the prophet to plead for pardon and ask the Lord to over-rule his weakness and folly to the good of His cause? Yet no such prayer is heard. Again, there is no reference to the divine will in this request. Compare it with the thought-provoking, solemnising cry of Gethsemane and you will see its terrible deficiency. Surely then it is no small part of the divine displeasure with Elijah that he lost the true spirit and power of prayer and was left to plead in vain for such an inglorious deliverance. O, if the Lord had granted Elijah such a request as he asked for, he would have lost the honour of being carried to heaven in the chariot of fire. In looking back, we are sure that Elijah would praise his God for what He denied him as well as for what He had given him. What a mercy it is that the Lord does refuse to answer such prayers on the part of His erring people. Elijah was by no means the only one who erred on that score. Let us then search diligently into the nature of our petitions and let us implore continually the grace and direction of the Holy Spirit who is the only author of true, spiritual prayer. Let us remember what praise is due to Him who gave us neither according to our deserts nor our desires but according to His own infinite wisdom and love.
(c) A third chastisement Elijah had to bear was that he lost the hearts of the King and the people alike: the very thing that lay so near his heart. It was with this in view that he had dared to pray for three years of drought. To be instrumental in bringing Israel to repentance was the desire of his heart, but now he was doing the very thing that would defeat his objective, in fleeing from his post and desiring a speedy removal by death. Evidently the man of God had lost heart, but his conduct could not fail to encourage his enemies, while it would also damp the spirits of any half-hearted, undecided friends. Elijah’s conduct now was enough to obliterate any temporary impression made by the happenings on Mount Carmel. Surely that was a sore part of the good man’s chastisement on this occasion.
(d) Still further, we see the prophet seeking to wash his hands of a service which he so often felt to be a foretaste of heaven upon earth. O what blessed hours had Elijah already enjoyed in the service of His Lord and Master. Could he not say in his own measure that it was his meat and drink to do the will of his God, and could he not attest that his yoke was easy and his burden light? Did Elijah envy the greatest and most prosperous of men? I trow not. To be permitted to labour, to speak, and even to suffer for his Lord was esteemed by him the greatest honour that could be bestowed upon any mortal man. But now he has lost sight of the glory of suffering for the Lord and wishes to die. O, what a chastisement.
(e) The last but by no means the least of his chastisements was the Lord’s own rebuke by word of mouth. The angel of the Lord is commissioned to minister to Elijah. How gently the Lord deals with his dear servant. How considerately he prepares for Elijah’s physical needs, in allowing him to sleep undisturbed, and then in bidding him to eat of a meal prepared by an angel, in the solitude of the wilderness. Truly He knoweth our frame and He remembereth that we are dust. Arise and eat for the journey is too great for thee, said the angel to the prophet. And he arose and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the mount of God. It was then that the word of the Lord came to him, and He said unto him, what doest thou here, Elijah? The words are graciously tempered by what went before and they are in part explained by what followed. Elijah had been in danger of judging precipitately of his success or failure. In that connection he had looked for much from the storm and fire of Carmel, but the Lord now teaches him a much needed lesson by appearing in the still small voice rather than in the earthquake or the fire. The immediate obedience of the prophet shows us that he took to heart the implications of the rebuke and the encouraging disclosure made to him. To be hiding in the desert was no place for the least, let alone for the greatest of God’s servants.
It was indeed no time for fleeing and abandoning his post of honour. It was rather the time for immediate and well organised action. Ah, the Lord knows how to administer the rebuke. How effective are these few almost gentle words, What doest thou here, Elijah? The same One as said to Peter, Lovest thou me? knew what would go home to the soul of that great prophet and enable him to finish his course with joy in spite of Jezebel’s rage and all the malice of hell. Elijah has work to do yet. Soon he will be transported to heaven in a chariot of fire to be for ever with the Lord, but until that moment he must tread the lowly path of duty, performing the will of the Lord.
We may be ready to think that the rebuke administered to the prophet on this occasion was very mild and hardly proportionate to his error, but it was no milder than the Lord’s rebuke to Peter, and who will suggest that Peter’s sin was trifling? No, this rebuke given to Elijah was the very best that could be given. It is not for us to say how the Lord should chastise His own; He knows what rod to use, and He knows how and when to use it. The Lord does not dispute Elijah’s plea for his conduct; He simply passes it over in silence and instructs him with regard to his present duty. The rebuke is reiterated by the still small voice and what does it mean? Go back to your work, Elijah; go back to death if need be. Why should such an one as you flee from Jezebel? Is this, then, the place for one who professes to be so jealous and so zealous for the Lord God of Hosts?
The implications of the rebuke are manifold indeed. Now then, go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus with this assurance that I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed the knee unto Baal, and every mouth that hath not kissed him. O Elijah, you are not alone after all, and with thy God there is neither variableness nor shadow of turning, Say, then, to Jezebel, O man of God, in the words of thy fellow servant: Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall I shall arise; when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against Him, until He plead my cause and execute judgment for me: He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold His righteousness. Then she that is mine enemy shall see it and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the Lord thy God? Mine eyes shall behold her, now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
And what became of Jezebel’s threat? We hear no more about it but we find the Tishbite once more challenging the covetous Ahab for his sins with his wonted boldness, and prophesying that the dogs should eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. He has indeed risen again for the Lord had been a light unto him and the Lord had executed judgment for him. With holy propriety could Elijah now sing:
“My soul He doth restore again,
And me to walk doth make
Within the paths of righteousness,
Even for His own name’s sake.”