Part 18 (1/2)
Such was the wretched Ahab--wretched though favored with a diadem and a sceptre. He cared neither for G.o.d nor his people. In his sayings and doings, on the melancholy occasion to which we are referring, we find as little about Israel as about G.o.d. There is not one word about the people that had been committed to his care, and who ought, after G.o.d, to have been his great object. His earthly mind seems to have been unable to reach beyond ”the horses and mules.” Such were the objects of Ahab's anxious solicitude in the day of Israel's direful calamity.
Alas, what a contrast between all this low and groveling selfishness and the n.o.ble spirit of the man after G.o.d's own heart, who, when the land was trembling beneath the heavy stroke of Jehovah's chastening rod, could say, ”Is it not I that have commanded the people to be numbered: _even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed_; but as for _these sheep_, what have they done? let Thy hand, I pray Thee, O Lord my G.o.d, be on me, and on my father's house; but not on Thy people, that they should be plagued” (I Chron. xxi. 17).
Here was the true spirit of a king. David, in the spirit of his blessed Master, would expose his own bosom to the stroke, in order that the sheep might escape; he would ”stand between them and the foe;” he would turn the sceptre into a shepherd's crook; he thought not of his ”horses and mules;” yea, he thought not of himself or his father's house, but of the people of G.o.d's pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Happy, ineffably happy, will it be for Israel's scattered tribes to find themselves again under the tender care of the true David.
It might be profitable to follow out a little more fully the history of Ahab; to dwell upon his unprincipled treatment of the righteous Naboth; of the alluring influence exerted by him over the mind of the good king Jehoshaphat, and of many other circ.u.mstances in his unhappy reign; but all this would lead us too far from our subject. We shall therefore advert for a few moments to the character of an important member of Ahab's household, and then return to Elijah.
Obadiah, the governor of Ahab's house, was one who, in the secret of his own spirit, feared the Lord, but who was planted in a most unhallowed atmosphere. The house of the wicked Ahab, and his still more wicked consort, must have been a painful school for the righteous soul of Obadiah; and so he found it. He was hindered in service and testimony. What he did for the Lord was done by stealth. He was afraid to act openly and decidedly; yet he did quite enough to show what he would have done had he been planted in a more congenial soil, and cherished by a more healthful atmosphere. ”He took a hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.”
This was a most precious token of devotedness of heart to the Lord--a blessed triumph of divine principle over the most untoward circ.u.mstances.
Thus it was with Jonathan in the house of Saul. He, too, was sadly hindered in his service to G.o.d and to Israel. He should have stood forth in more entire separation from the evil in which his father lived, and moved; his place at Saul's table should have been vacant as well as David's; the cave of Adullam would have been his proper place, where, in holy companions.h.i.+p with the rejected David and his despised band of followers, he might have found a wider and more suited range in which to manifest his affectionate devotedness to G.o.d and His anointed.
Human expediency, however, might, and doubtless would, have recommended Jonathan to remain in Saul's house, and Obadiah to remain in Ahab's house, as being ”the sphere in which Providence had placed them;” but expediency is not faith, nor will it aid a man in his path of service, whatever it may be. Faith will ever lead a man to break through the freezing rules of human expediency, in order that it may express itself in a way not to be mistaken. Jonathan felt constrained at times to leave the table of Saul in order that he might embrace David: but he should have abandoned it altogether; he should have cast in his lot entirely with David; he ought not to have rested satisfied with speaking _for_ his brother, he should have identified himself _with_ him. But he did not do so, and therefore he fell on Mount Gilboa, by the hand of the uncirc.u.mcised. Thus, in his life he was hara.s.sed and hindered by the unrighteous principle of rule which Saul had set up to entangle and bind the consciences of the faithful, and in his death he was ingloriously mingled with the uncirc.u.mcised.
Just so it was with Obadiah. It was his lot to stand in connection with the man who occupied the lowest step of that ladder of apostasy whereby the kings of Israel had descended from original principles.
Hence he was obliged to act stealthily for G.o.d and His servants; he was afraid of Ahab and Jezebel; he lacked boldness and energy to stand out in decided testimony against all abominations; he had no room for the development of his renewed energies or affections; his soul was withered by the noxious vapors around him, and he could therefore exert but little influence on his day and generation. Hence, while Elijah was boldly confronting Ahab, and openly serving the Lord, Obadiah was openly serving Ahab, and stealthily serving the Lord.
While Elijah was breathing the holy atmosphere of Jehovah's presence, Obadiah was breathing the polluted atmosphere of Ahab's wicked court.
While Elijah was receiving his daily supplies from the hand of the G.o.d of Israel, Obadiah was ranging the country in search of gra.s.s for Ahab's horses.
Truly a most striking contrast! And is there not at this moment many an Obadiah similarly occupied? Is there not many a G.o.d-fearing man sharing, in common with the children of this world, its death and misery, and laboring in co-operation with them to avert its impending ruin? Doubtless there is. And is this fit work for such? Should ”the mules and horses” of an unG.o.dly world engross the thoughts and energies of the Christian, instead of the interests of the Church of G.o.d? Ah no! it should not be so. The Christian should have a n.o.bler end in view--a higher and more heavenly sphere in which to use his energies. G.o.d, and not Ahab, demands and deserves our devotion.
This is a very wide question, and there are few amongst us that may not learn a lesson from it. Let us ask ourselves honestly, as before the Searcher of hearts, what are we doing? What object are we carrying out? What end have we in view? Are we sowing to the flesh?
Are we working for merely earthly objects? Have we no higher end in view than self or this present world?
Oh these are searching questions, when rightly put! The tendency of the human heart and affections is ever downward--ever toward earth and the things of earth. The palace of Ahab holds out far more powerful attractions to our fallen nature than the lonely banks of Cherith or the house of the starving widow of Zarephath. But ah, _let us think of the end_! The end alone is the true criterion by which to judge in such matters. ”Until I went into _the sanctuary of G.o.d_; then understood I _their end_” (Psa. lxxiii. 17).
Elijah knew, by being in the sanctuary, that Ahab stood in a slippery place; that his house would speedily crumble in the dust; that all his pomp and glory was about to end in the lonely tomb, and his immortal spirit to be summoned to render its final account. These things the holy man of G.o.d thoroughly understood, and he was therefore well content to stand apart from it all. His leathern girdle, his homely fare, his lonely path, were far better, he felt, than all the pleasures of Ahab's court. Such was his judgment, and we shall see, ere we close this paper, that his judgment was sound. ”The world pa.s.seth away, and the l.u.s.t thereof, but he that doeth the will of G.o.d abideth forever.” Would that all who love the name of Jesus were more uncompromising and energetic in their testimony for Him! The time is rapidly approaching when we would give worlds that we had been more _true and real_ in our ways here below. We are too lukewarm, too much inclined to make terms with the world and the flesh, too ready to exchange the leathern girdle for the robe in which Ahab and Jezebel are most willing to array us.
May the Lord give all His people grace to testify against this world that the deeds thereof are evil, and to stand apart from its ways, its maxims and principles; in a word, from everything which properly belongs to it. ”The night is far spent, and the day is at hand.” Let us then cast off the works of darkness and stand clothed in the armor of light; let us, as those that are risen with Christ, set our affection on things above, and not on things on the earth; having ”our citizens.h.i.+p in heaven,” let us, with unceasing eagerness, ”look for the Saviour from thence, who shall change the body of our humiliation, that it may be fas.h.i.+oned like unto the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”
_SECTION IV._
THE PROPHET ON MOUNT CARMEL
In the opening verse of chapter xviii. a new order is issued to our prophet. ”And it came to pa.s.s, after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go show thyself unto Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth.”
Here Elijah is summoned away from his retirement at Zarephath, to make his appearance in public and stand again before king Ahab. To one occupying the position, and exhibiting the spirit, of a true servant, it matters not what summons he receives. Whether it be ”Go _hide_ thyself,” or ”Go _show_ thyself,” he is ready, through grace, to obey.
The Lord had been training His servant for three years and a half in secret. At Cherith and Zarephath He had taught him many important lessons; and when the time was come for his showing unto Israel, he was called to leave the desert and appear again as the public witness of Jehovah.
Nor did he hesitate. No, not for a moment, however much he might have preferred retirement to the stormy scenes and hara.s.sing vicissitudes of public life. Elijah was a _servant_, and that was enough. He was as ready to confront the angry Ahab, and all the prophets of Baal, as he had been to seclude himself for three years and a half. Truly we may well covet the spirit of a servant--a humble, obedient servant. Such a spirit will carry us through many difficulties; will save us from much contention; will send us along the path of service while others are disputing about it. If only we be willing to obey, and to serve, we shall never lack opportunity, nor be at a loss as to the path we should pursue.[17]
[17] In every age the servant character is marked by the Holy Ghost as one of special value. It is, in fact, the only thing that will stand in times of general declension. Of this we have numerous examples in Scripture. When the house of Eli was about to fall before the divine judgment, Samuel occupied the position of a servant whose ear was opened to hear. His word was, ”Speak, Lord, for _Thy servant_ heareth.” When all Israel had fled from the face of the Philistine champion, the servant character again stood prominently forth. ”Thy _servant_ will go and fight,” etc. The Lord Jesus Himself had the t.i.tle of Servant applied to Him by Jehovah, in the words of the prophet, ”Behold my _Servant_,” etc. Furthermore, when the Church had failed, and had become ”the great house,” ”the _servant_ of the Lord”
was told how he ought to carry himself. And lastly, it is mentioned as one of the special features of the heavenly Jerusalem, that ”His _servants_ shall _serve_ Him.” The Lord grant us more of this spirit!
We have already had occasion to notice the prophet's unhesitating obedience to the word of the Lord. Such obedience will ever involve the abandonment of self. To be told, for example, to leave one's sweet retreat in order to appear before an angry tyrant who, with his wicked queen, led on to the contest a host of idolatrous prophets, called for no small measure of self-renunciation. But Elijah, through grace, was ready. He felt he was not his own. _He was a servant_, and as such ever stood with girded loins and open ears to attend his Master's summons, whatever it might be. Blessed att.i.tude! May there be many found therein!
Elijah, therefore, goes to meet king Ahab, and we are called to follow him now into one of the most important scenes of his life.
Before, however, he comes in contact with Ahab, he crosses the path of Obadiah, and his meeting with him is perfectly characteristic. Obadiah certainly does not meet the prophet with that affectionate cordiality which ought to appear in the bearing of one brother towards another, but rather in the cold formality of one who had been moving much in the world's society. ”Art thou that _my lord_ Elijah?”