Ahab goes to meet Elijah (1 Kings 18:16-20); he accuses God’s servant of being “the troubler of Israel.” This is how the world regards the activity of the Lord’s witnesses. To announce the judgment that is inevitable, to declare that there is no resource against it except in God Himself, to stand fast for the Lord in the presence of evil, in effect is to stir up the world which is sleeping in a false security and does not want to be disturbed from its sleep. “I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father’s house,” says the prophet. “Ye have forsaken the commandments of Jehovah”—that is the true cause of the troubles, for “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”
“Send,” says Elijah to Ahab, “gather to me all Israel to mount Carmel.” “So Ahab sent to all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel” (1 Kings 18:19-20). God wants it so; whether Ahab wants it or not, this must be done, But doubtless the thought would never occur in the mind of this impious king that his religion with its eight hundred fifty prophets would be absolutely nothing before one single prophet of Jehovah!
“Then Elijah drew near to all the people, and said, How long do ye halt between two opinions? if Jehovah be God, follow Him; and if Baal, follow him. And the people answered him not a word” (1 Kings 18:21). Israel under the yoke of an idolatrous religion was following Baal without positively abjuring Jehovah. She was halting between two opinions. This is one of the characteristics of the world’s religion. Doubtless the number of those walking in open unbelief is growing daily. But there are others who deny neither the faith nor impiety. They find good reasons both for, excusing the evil, objecting to the good. They are the indifferent ones who abstain from choosing between the two sides and who do not answer a word when Elijah speaks to them.
The prophet begins by taking his stand for the Lord by himself (1 Kings 18:22) in the face of Baal’s four hundred fifty prophets. He proposes to the people a sign that the Lord alone would be able to produce and which had a deep significance. “The god that answers by fire, let him be God” (1 Kings 18:23, 24). Here it is not a question of fire from heaven falling upon men in judgment, as would happen later at the summons of the prophet (2 Kings 1:10), but of fire falling upon the burnt offering.
Baal does not answer (1 Kings 18:25-29). With what irony does the prophet treat this inert object by means of which Satan was exercising his abominable influence upon the hearts of men! The blood of the false prophets flows (1 Kings 18:28), but neither their blood nor that of any man can atone for Israel’s sin or open heaven to this poor people!
Two religions meet face to face: Elijah’s and Baal’s, for the third, Israel’s, is party to both. Publicly these two religions appear to have the same sacrifice. How are they to be distinguished? One of the bullocks must be consumed by fire from heaven, but not the other. By this means one will be able to recognize the true God; by this means the people too will be able to learn to know themselves so that they may be turned to repentance.
Elijah says, “Draw near to me” (1 Kings 18:30). At that time he was God’s representative upon earth, that which Christ was in perfection. If they would remain afar off, Israel would not be able to be witness to what God was about to do. Elijah repairs the altar that was broken down (1 Kings 18:31, 32). The twelve stones represented the twelve tribes, the people in their entirety before God. The prophet, at a time of ruin, bears testimony to the unity of the people, just as today’s witnesses bear testimony to the oneness of the body of Christ. Elijah does not act as a sectarian man would, but by faith in the deep reality of this unity which God had established at the beginning. Outwardly the altar was broken down; that is to say, Israel as a whole no longer existed. But it was enough that one man should bear witness with his altar of twelve stones that that which God had established in the beginning would remain forever. It is the same today. We do not tire of rendering testimony to the fact that for us there is but one body and one Spirit, just as there was one altar of twelve stones for Elijah. Those who proclaim this truth will ever be few in number. Perhaps they will remain alone like Elijah, but what does their number matter if this testimony has been entrusted to us, as it was to Elijah, in the midst of universal apostasy?
The burnt offering was the victim presented to God for the people. Fire from heaven — divine judgment — falls and consumes everything: the sacrifice, the wood, and the very altar itself, leaving nothing standing (1 Kings 18:38). In this way the Lord indicated that there was but one offering by which one could know the true God, the offering upon which His judgment had fallen. Each Israelite present at this sight could at the same time learn what was due to him, and that the people, represented by the twelve stones of the altar, could not stand before the judgment of God. But oh, the wonder of grace! If the people were present at their own judgment and saw themselves being consumed together with the sacrifice, they were not struck down themselves. The sacrifice was consumed; the people are consumed with the sacrifice; but judgment without mercy upon that which represents them before God sets them free to rejoice in His deliverance. So also we can say, “Our old man has been crucified with him, that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin” (Rom. 6:6).
Drought and famine had been warning judgments to straying Israel, God thus making Himself known in part by His ways, but the people did not really know God in the fullness of His being until the fire from heaven had consumed the burnt offering and the altar.
Elijah had two desires: that God might be glorified, and that the people might learn to know Him. “Jehovah, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things by thy word. Answer me, Jehovah, answer me, that this people may know that thou Jehovah art God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again” (1 Kings 18:36-37). There is a twofold result: the people, delivered by divine power, acknowledge the Lord, turn their heart to Him, and render homage to Him! “And all the people saw it, and they fell on their faces and said, Jehovah, he is God! Jehovah, he is God!” (1 Kings 18:39).
“And Elijah said to Ahab, Go up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain” (1 Kings 18:41). There is a sound of rain, but only Elijah’s ear — or rather his faith — perceives it. “And Ahab went up to eat and to drink.” He is helpless against God, a tool the Lord uses as it may please Him. Thoroughly wicked though he may be, he is obliged to obey. He who had said, “Thou troublest Israel,” can do nothing against the dreadful humiliation that is inflicted upon him in seeing all the priests of his false god slaughtered before him. But after all, of what importance was this profane king? It was not a question here of his own salvation, about which he did not care in the least, but of the salvation of the whole people of God.
Elijah goes up to the top of Carmel. His patience emerges victor from the trial; his faith has its perfect work. The showers of blessing come after God’s judgment has fallen upon the burnt offering and only after Israel, in presence of this event, has acknowledged the Lord and turned their hearts back to Him. In our days abundance of rain is sought without the conscience being reached. This desire can be crowned with but one result. The rain was not given to Israel until after the work of God had been done for them and in them.
The hand of the Lord is upon Elijah who with his loins girded, runs before Ahab.
Let us again summarize briefly the beautiful character of this man of God. We do so all the more gladly since we are going to be present at a scene that no longer testifies to the power of the Holy Spirit in the prophet.
Completely separated from the evil that surrounds him, Elijah is not in the least taken up with himself nor desirous of personal recognition. He stands before the Lord, hears His word, obeys Him, lives in dependence upon Him in every detail. He depends upon God for sustenance, to bring grace to the nations, to resist the enemy, to bear witness, to exercise divine power in holding back or in giving rain, but above all else, to cause fire to fall from heaven upon the burnt offering and to judge the world. He waits upon the Lord, walks with Him, and, like Enoch, will be caught up into glory. The word of the Lord, the angel of the Lord, the Lord Himself all speak to Elijah; as for himself, he speaks to God and God listens to him. Elijah is a friend of God (1 Kings 17:22, 8:38, 44). Elijah is an epistle of Christ. But, where the Lord never failed, this man of God did fail, and that is what we are about to consider.