Part 17 (1/2)
Elijah's faith must still rest upon the same immutable basis. ”I have commanded.” How truly blessed is this! Circ.u.mstances change; human things fail; creature streams are dried up, but G.o.d and His word are the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. Nor does the prophet seem to have been the least disturbed by this fresh order from on high. No; for, like Israel of old, he had learned to pitch and strike his tent according to the movement of Jehovah's cloud. The camp, of old, was called to watch attentively the wheels of that heavenly chariot which rolled onward toward the land of rest, and here and there halted in the wilderness to find them out a resting-place; and just so was it with Elijah; he would take up his solitary post by the banks of Cherith, or tread his weary way to Zarephath of Zidon in undeviating obedience to ”the word of the Lord.” Israel of old were not allowed to have any plans of their own; Jehovah planned and arranged everything for them. He told them when and where they were to move and halt; at various intervals He signified His sovereign pleasure to them by the movement of the cloud above their heads. ”Whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not; but when it was taken up they journeyed. At the commandment of the Lord they rested in their tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed” (Num. ix. 22, 23).
Such was the happy condition of the Lord's redeemed, while pa.s.sing from Egypt to Canaan. They never could have _their own way_, as regards their movements. If an Israelite had refused to move when the cloud moved, or to halt when it halted, _he would have been left to starve in the wilderness_. The rock and the manna followed them while they followed Jehovah; in other words, food and refreshment were alone to be found in the path of simple obedience. Just so was it with Elijah; he was not permitted to have a will of his own; he could not fix the time of his sojourn at Cherith, nor the time for his removal to Zarephath; ”the word of the Lord” settled all for him, and when he obeyed it he found sustenance.
What a lesson for the Christian in all this! The path of obedience is alone the path of happiness. If we were more successful in doing violence to self, our spiritual condition would be far more vigorous and healthy than it is. Nothing so ministers to health and vigor of soul as undeviating obedience; there is strength gained by the very effort to obey. This is true in the case of all, but specially so as regards those who stand in the capacity of ministers of the Lord. Such must walk in obedience if they would be used in ministry. How could Elijah have said, as he afterwards did, upon Mount Carmel, ”If the Lord be G.o.d, _follow Him_,” if his own private path had exhibited a wilful and rebellious spirit? Impossible. The path of a servant must be the path of obedience, otherwise he ceases to be a servant. The word _servant_ is as inseparably linked with _obedience_, as is _work_ with _workman_. ”A servant,” as another has observed, ”must move when the bell rings.” Would that we were all more alive to the sound of our Master's bell, and more ready to run in the direction in which it summons us. ”_Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth._” Here is our proper language. Whether the word of the Lord summons us from our retirement into the midst of our brethren, or from thence into retirement again, may our language ever be, ”Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” The word of the Lord, and the attentive ear of a servant, are all we need to carry us safely and happily onward.
Now, this path of obedience is by no means an easy one; it involves the constant abandonment of self, and can only be pursued as the eye is steadily kept on G.o.d, and the conscience kept under the action of His truth. True, there is a rich reward in every act of obedience, yet flesh and blood must be set aside, and this is no easy work. Witness the path of our prophet. He was first called to take his place by the brook Cherith, to be fed by ravens! How could flesh and blood understand this? Then again, when the brook failed, he is called away to a distant city of Zidon, there to be nourished by a dest.i.tute widow who seemed to be at the very point of dying of starvation! Here was the command: ”Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.”
And what confirmation did Elijah derive from appearances, upon his arrival at this place? None whatever; but everything to fill him with doubts and fears had he been looking at circ.u.mstances in the matter.
”So he arose, and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks; and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, As the Lord thy G.o.d liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”
This was the scene that presented itself to the eye of the prophet when he had arrived at his divinely appointed destination. Truly a gloomy and depressing one to flesh and blood. But Elijah conferred not with flesh and blood; his spirit was sustained by the immutable word of Jehovah; his confidence was based upon the faithfulness of G.o.d, and he needed no aid from things around him. The horizon might look dark and heavy to mortal vision, but the eye of faith could pierce the clouds, and see beyond them all ”the firm foundation which is laid for faith in Jehovah's excellent word.”
How precious, then, is the word of G.o.d! Well might the psalmist say, ”Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage forever.” Precious heritage! Pure, incorruptible, immortal truth! How should we bless our G.o.d for having made it our inalienable portion--a portion which, when all sublunary things shall have vanished from view, when the world shall have pa.s.sed away and the l.u.s.t thereof, when all flesh shall have been consumed as withered gra.s.s, shall prove to the faithful a real, an eternal, an enduring substance. ”Thanks be to G.o.d for His unspeakable gift.”
But what were the circ.u.mstances which met the prophet's eye upon his approach to Zarephath? A widow and her son starving, two sticks, and a handful of meal! And yet the word was, ”I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.” How trying, how deeply mysterious, was all this! Elijah, however, staggered not at the promise of G.o.d through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to G.o.d. He knew that it was the Most High and Almighty G.o.d, the possessor of heaven and earth, that was to meet his necessities; hence, though there had been neither oil nor meal, it would have made no matter to him, for he looked beyond circ.u.mstances to the G.o.d of circ.u.mstances. He saw not the widow, but G.o.d. He looked not at the handful of meal, but at the divine command; therefore his spirit was perfectly calm and unruffled in the midst of circ.u.mstances which would have crushed the spirit of one walking by sight, and he was able, without a shadow of doubt, to say, ”Thus saith the Lord G.o.d of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.”
Here we have the reply of faith to the language of unbelief. ”Thus saith the Lord” settles everything. The moment the spirit apprehends G.o.d's promise, there is an end to the reasonings of unbelief. Unbelief puts circ.u.mstances between the soul and G.o.d; faith puts G.o.d between the soul and circ.u.mstances. This is a very important difference. May we walk in the power and energy of faith, to the praise of Him whom faith ever honors!
But there is another point in this lovely scene to be particularly noticed: it is the way in which death ever hovers around the spirit of one not walking by faith. ”That we may eat it and die” is the language of the widow. Death and unbelief are inseparably linked together. The spirit can only be conducted along the path of life by the energy of faith: hence if faith be not in energy, there is no life, no power, no elevation. Thus was it with this poor widow: her hope of life was based upon the barrel of meal and the cruse of oil: beyond these she saw no springs of life, no hope of continuance. Her soul knew not as yet the real blessedness of communion with the living G.o.d to whom alone belong the issues from death. She was not yet able against hope to believe in hope. Alas, what a poor, frail, tottering thing is that hope which rests only on a cruse of oil and a barrel of meal! How scanty must be those expectations which only rest on the creature!
And are we not all but too p.r.o.ne to lean upon something quite as mean and paltry in G.o.d's view as a handful of meal? Truly we are; and it must be so where G.o.d is not apprehended by the soul. To faith it is either G.o.d or nothing. A handful of meal will afford, in the hand of G.o.d and to the view of faith, as efficient materials as the cattle upon a thousand hills. ”We have here but five loaves and two small fishes; but _what are these amongst so many?_” This is the language of the human heart; but faith never says what are _these_ amongst so many? but what is _G.o.d_ among so many? Unbelief says _we_ are not able; faith says, but _G.o.d_ is well able.
And would it not be well, ere we turn from this interesting point in our subject, to apply these principles to the poor, conscience-smitten sinner? How often is such an one found clinging to some vain resource for the pardon of his sins, rather than to the accomplished work of Christ upon the cross, which has forever satisfied the claims of divine justice, and ought therefore, surely, to satisfy the cravings of his guilty conscience. ”I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool; but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.” Such is the language of one who had not as yet learned to look beyond all human aid, straight to Jesus. ”_I have no man_,” says the poor, guilty, unbelieving sinner: but I have _Jesus_, says the believer; and he may add, Thus saith the Lord, The cleansing efficacy of the blood shall not fail, nor its preciousness diminish, until the time that the Lord shall have safely housed His ransomed forever in His own heavenly mansions.
Hence, if these pages should meet the eye of any poor, halting, trembling, fearful sinner, I would invite him to take comfort from the precious truth that G.o.d has, in His infinite grace, set the cross of Jesus between him and his sins, if only he will believe the divine testimony. The great difference between a believer and an unbeliever is this: the former has Christ between him and his sins; the latter has his sins between him and Christ. Now, with the former, Christ is the all-engrossing object: he looks not at the enormity of his sin, but at the value of the blood and the preciousness of the person of Christ: he knows that G.o.d is not now on the judgment-seat, but on the mercy-seat: if He were on the former, His thoughts would be simply occupied about the question of sin, but being on the latter, His thoughts are, blessed be His name, as purely occupied about the blood.
Oh for more simple and abiding communion with the mind of Heaven, and more complete abstraction from the things and thoughts of earth! The Lord grant more of both to all His saints!
It has been already observed that the man of faith must be emptied from vessel to vessel; each successive scene and stage of the believer's life is but his entrance upon a new form in the school of Christ, where he has to learn some fresh and, of course, more difficult lesson. But, it may be asked, what more trying circ.u.mstances had Elijah to grapple with at Zarephath than at Cherith? Was it not better to be cast upon human sympathies than to have ravens as his channel of supply? And further, was it not more pleasing to the spirit to be domesticated with human beings than to dwell in the loneliness and solitude of the brook Cherith? All this might have been so, no doubt; yet solitude has its sweets, and a.s.sociation its trials. There are selfish interests which work amongst men, and hinder that refined and exquisite enjoyment which human society ought to yield, and which it will yield, when humanity stands forth in its divinely-imparted perfections.
Our prophet heard no such words as ”_me and my son_” when he took up his abode by the brook. There was there no selfish interest acting as a barrier to his sustenance and enjoyment. No, but the moment he pa.s.sed from his retirement into human society, then he was called to feel that the human heart does not like to have its own objects in the least interfered with; he was called to enter into the deep meaning of the words ”_me and my son_,” which unfold the hidden springs of selfishness, which actuate humanity in its fallen condition.
But it will doubtless be observed that it was natural for the widow's heart to entertain thoughts of herself and her son in preference to any one else, and surely it was _natural_; it is what nature ever does. Harken to the following words of a genuine child of nature: ”Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be?” (I Sam. xxv. II).
Nature will ever seek its own first; nor does it come within the compa.s.s of this peris.h.i.+ng world so to fill the human soul as to make it overflow for the benefit of others. It is the province of G.o.d alone to do this. It is utterly in vain to try to expand the heart of man by any instrumentality save the abundant grace of G.o.d. This it is which will cause him to open wide the door of his affections to every needy applicant. Human benevolence may do much where abundant resources prevent the possibility of personal privation, but grace alone will enable a man to trample personal interests underfoot to meet the claims of another. ”Men will praise thee when thou doest well to thyself.” This is the world's principle, and nothing can make us unlearn it but the knowledge of the fact that G.o.d has done well for us, and, morever, that it is our best interest to let Him continue to do so unto the end.
Now it was the knowledge of this divine principle that enabled our prophet to say, ”Make _me_ thereof a little cake _first_, and bring it unto _me_, and _after_ make for thee and thy son.” Elijah was, in his address, simply putting in the divine claim upon the widow's resources; and, as we know, the result of a true and ready response to that claim will be a rich harvest of blessing to the soul. There was, however, a demand upon the widow's faith in all this. She was called to act a trying and difficult part, in the energy of faith in a divine promise, ”Thus saith the Lord G.o.d of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.”
And is it not thus with every believer? Undoubtedly it is; we must act in faith. The promise of G.o.d must ever const.i.tute the great moving principle in the soul of the Christian. There would have been no room for the exercise of faith on the part of the widow had the barrel been full; but when it was exhausted, when she was reduced to her last handful, to be told to give of that handful to a stranger _first_, was surely a large demand, to which nothing but faith could have enabled her to respond. But the Lord often deals with His people as He dealt with His disciples in the matter of feeding the mult.i.tude. ”This He said to prove them, for He Himself knew what He would do.” He frequently tells us to take a step involving considerable trial, and in the very act of taking it we not only see the reason of it, but also get strength to proceed. In fact, all the divine claims upon us for action are based upon the principle involved in the command to the children of Israel of old, ”Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward.” Whither were they to go? Through the sea. Strange path!
Yet behind this trying command we see grace providing the ability to execute it in the word to Moses, ”But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thy hand over the sea, and divide it; and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea” (Ex. xiv.
16). Faith enables a man, being called, to go out not knowing whither he goes.
But there is more than the mere principle of obedience to be learned from this truly interesting scene between Elijah and the widow of Zarephath: we learn, also, that nothing but the superior power of divine grace can lift the human mind above the freezing atmosphere of selfishness in which fallen man lives, and moves, and has his being.
The effulgence of G.o.d's benevolence s.h.i.+ning in upon the soul disperses those mists in which the world is enveloped, and enables a man to think and act upon higher and n.o.bler principles than those which actuate the moving ma.s.s around him. This poor widow had left her house influenced by no higher motive than self-interest and self-preservation, and having no more brilliant object before her mind than death. And is it in any wise different with mult.i.tudes around us? Yea, is it a whit better in the case of any unregenerate man on earth? Not a whit. The most ill.u.s.trious, the most intellectual, the most learned--in a word, every man upon whose spirit the light of divine grace has never shone, will be found, in G.o.d's estimation, like this poor widow, influenced by motives of self-interest and self-preservation, and having no brighter prospect before him than death.
The truth of G.o.d, however, speedily alters the aspect of things. In the case of the widow it acted most powerfully: it sent her back to her house occupied about and interested for another, and with her soul filled with cheering thoughts of life. And so will it ever be. Let but the soul get into communion with the truth and grace of G.o.d, and it is at once delivered from this present evil world, it is turned aside out of the current which is rapidly hurrying millions away upon its surface. It becomes actuated by heavenly motives, and animated by heavenly objects. Grace teaches a man to live and act for others. The more our souls taste the sweetness of redeeming love, the more earnest will be our desire to serve others. Oh that we all felt more deeply and abidingly the constraining power of the love of Christ, in this day of lamentable coldness and indifference! Would to G.o.d we could all live and act in the remembrance that we are not our own, but bought with a price!
The widow of Zarephath was taught this truth. The Lord not only put in His claim to the handful of meal and the cruse of oil, but also laid His hand upon her son--the cherished object of her affections. Death visits the house in which the Lord's prophet, in company with the widow and her son, were feeding together on the precious fruits of divine benevolence. ”It came to pa.s.s, after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him.” Now this son, as we know, had, in common with herself, stood in her way in the matter of her ready response to the divine claim as put forward by Elijah; hence there is solemn instruction for the saint in the death of this child.
So surely as we allow _any object_, whether it be parent or child, husband or wife, brother or sister, to obstruct us in our path of simple obedience and devotedness to Christ, we may rest a.s.sured that object will be removed. This widow had given her son a higher place in her thoughts than the Lord's prophet, and the son was taken from her that she might learn that it was not merely ”the handful of meal” that should be held in subjection to the Lord and in readiness for Him, but also her dearest earthly object.
It needs no small measure of the spirit of Christ to hold everything in mere stewards.h.i.+p for G.o.d. We are so p.r.o.ne to look upon things as ours, instead of remembering that all we have, and all we are, belongs to the Lord, and should ever be given up at His call. Nor is this a mere matter of rightful obedience; it is for our lasting benefit and happiness. The widow responded to G.o.d's claim on her handful of meal; and what follows? She and her house are sustained for years! Again the Lord lays His hand upon her son; and what follows? Her son is raised from the dead by the mighty power of G.o.d, thus teaching her that the Lord could not only sustain life, but impart it.