(1 Kings 16:28-18.)
HOW striking is the difference in the characters of these three men! How deep, too, are the lessons to be learned in the history God has been pleased to give us of each of them!
The first has the unenviable testimony attached to him that “he 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 Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshipped him.” Furthermore it is stated, “But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up” (1 Kings 21:25).
Reckless disobedience to the expressed will of God is marked in this King of Israel. Deliberately to marry so pronounced an unbeliever when the Lord had commanded, “Neither shalt thou make marriages with them,” &c. (Deut. 7:3), reveals an apostate condition. The things of God had but a small place in Ahab’s heart. Worldly things occupied him. To fare sumptuously every day was his aim, and Naboth’s vineyard must come into his covetous hand even at the cost of the faithful one’s life. It was here that his wife Jezebel gained so great a power for evil in Israel. Think for a moment of the wife of a King of Israel spreading a table at which 850 false prophets were continually fed! Prophets who worshipped an idol and taught the people of God to do so! Here is to be discovered a striking resemblance to Popery (and “these things were written for our learning”): Jezebel the religious power controlling the civil power (Rev. 3., 17.).
What Popery has been, still is, and will be cannot be gainsaid, and that which is determined upon will be accomplished as shown in Revelation 17:3: “So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy.” Just as a rider controls a horse upon which he sits, so Popery will, as might be expected, get the upper hand later on of the civil power.
But the wickedness then rampant in Israel could not be allowed to continue without God’s voice being heard. Who can He use to warn and to rebuke Ahab? It is serious to reflect that not a stone is left unturned by our common enemy to make us unfit for the service of God, to place us on the retired list. Noah’s drunkenness doubtless unfitted him for service that he might have rendered during the period which followed the Deluge.
How is it possible to admonish others if in ourselves we are allowing the very things which we might be called upon to condemn in our hearers. This comes out in the case of
OBADIAH.
He is in the house of Ahab, holding the position of “governor” (steward, perhaps), and too much afraid to speak to the king of his terrible defection — very much afraid, too, of losing his own life, as comes out at his meeting with Elijah: “And as Obadiah was in the way, behold, Elijah met him: and he knew him, and fell on his face, and said, Art thou that my lord Elijah? And he answered him, I am: go, and tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here.” To this Obadiah replies: “As the Lord thy God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom whither my lord hath not sent to seek thee.... And now thou sayest, Go, tell my lord, Behold, Elijah is here. And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me; but I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth. Was it not told my lord what I did?” (1 Kings 18: 7-12).
No doubt in some things Obadiah is not without his good qualities, but certain it is that in view of the apostate state of things by which he was surrounded, he is like the salt that has lost its savor, or as is the case with many others, the light is useless because under a bushel. Between Obadiah and Elijah is a moral distance and no fellowship. How could there be joys in common? Neither does it help to raise Obadiah in one’s esteem that he recounts his good deeds. Depend upon it, this is no good sign. “Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips” (Prov. 27:2).
How different was it in Elijah’s case — with Moses, too, who, after being with God in the mount, “wist not that the skin of his face shone while He talked with him” (Exod. 34:29). If called upon to spend some time with God, let our object rather be that other people’s faces should shine; should ours do so too, we should be unconscious of it.
Moreover, what superiority is seen in Elijah’s ways with Obadiah, who, notwithstanding his position in the king’s house, “fell on his face” on seeing the hunted and outwardly poor prophet entertained as he had just been by a widow whose only provision consisted of “a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruse,” and whose previous meals had been supplied by ravens? In the things of God merely worldly position counts for little. God looks elsewhere. “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word” (Isa. 66:2).
ELIJAH
being free in spirit from the power of the shocking state of things existing in Israel, is the man God uses to meet the reckless and wicked king; and if Obadiah stood before him, Elijah stands before the Lord, as he says, “And Elijah said, As the Lord of Hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will show myself unto him (Ahab) to-day.” When we stand before the Lord and are assured of His help, we are fearless and superior even to the wickedest men, but otherwise we are often cowards.
There is doubtless some meaning in Elijah being spoken of “as a man subject to like passions as we are” (James 5:17). In any case he was remarkable for his dependence upon God. He prayed and prayed earnestly, and this is why he was so powerful and bold for God before others. From James we learn that it was through an answer to prayer that he was able with such boldness to say to the king, “As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years but according to my word” (1 Kings 17:1). When after those three terrible years rain once more descends upon the land, it is his prayers that bring it. He announces to Ahab its speedy approach. Can anything be a greater contrast on that occasion than the conduct of the sensual king and the God-fearing and prayerful prophet? “So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth” in prayer.
The reader will do well to ponder the last six verses of 1 Kings 18. To him it will be very plain that the distinguished service God required of Elijah must be the outcome of prayer. In Mark 1:35 Elijah’s Lord is seen in prayer before saying (ver. 38), “Let us go into the next towns that I may preach there also.” He is our perfect and blessed pattern. W. R. C.