Among the mountains of Gilead, east of the Jordan,
there dwelt in the days of Ahab a man of faith and
prayer whose fearless ministry was destined to check the
rapid spread of apostasy in Israel. Far removed from any
city of renown, and occupying no high station in life, Elijah
the Tishbite nevertheless entered upon his mission confident
in God's purpose to prepare the way before him and to give
him abundant success. The word of faith and power was
upon his lips, and his whole life was devoted to the work of
reform. His was the voice of one crying in the wilderness
to rebuke sin and press back the tide of evil. And while he
came to the people as a reprover of sin, his message offered
the balm of Gilead to the sin-sick souls of all who desired
to be healed.
As Elijah saw Israel going deeper and deeper into idolatry,
his soul was distressed and his indignation aroused. God
had done great things for His people. He had delivered
them from bondage and given them "the lands of the
heathen, . . . that they might observe His statutes, and keep
His laws." Psalm 105:44, 45. But the beneficent designs of
Jehovah were now well-nigh forgotten. Unbelief was fast
separating the chosen nation from the Source of their
strength. Viewing this apostasy from his mountain retreat,
Elijah was overwhelmed with sorrow. In anguish of soul
he besought God to arrest the once-favored people in their
wicked course, to visit them with judgments, if need be,
that they might be led to see in its true light their departure
from Heaven. He longed to see them brought to repentance
before they should go to such lengths in evil-doing as to
provoke the Lord to destroy them utterly.
Elijah's prayer was answered. Oft-repeated appeals,
remonstrances, and warnings had failed to bring Israel to
repentance. The time had come when God must speak to
them by means of judgments. Inasmuch as the worshipers
of Baal claimed that the treasures of heaven, the dew and
the rain, came not from Jehovah, but from the ruling
forces of nature, and that it was through the creative energy
of the sun that the earth was enriched and made to bring
forth abundantly, the curse of God was to rest heavily upon
the polluted land. The apostate tribes of Israel were to be
shown the folly of trusting to the power of Baal for
temporal blessings. Until they should turn to God with
repentance, and acknowledge Him as the source of all blessing,
there should fall upon the land neither dew nor rain.
To Elijah was entrusted the mission of delivering to
Ahab Heaven's message of judgment. He did not seek to
be the Lord's messenger; the word of the Lord came to
him. And jealous for the honor of God's cause, he did not
hesitate to obey the divine summons, though to obey seemed
to invite swift destruction at the hand of the wicked king.
The prophet set out at once and traveled night and day
until he reached Samaria. At the palace he solicited no
admission, nor waited to be formally announced. Clad in
the coarse garments usually worn by the prophets of that
time, he passed the guards, apparently unnoticed, and stood
for a moment before the astonished king.
Elijah made no apology for his abrupt appearance. A
Greater than the ruler of Israel had commissioned him to
speak; and, lifting his hand toward heaven, he solemnly
affirmed by the living God that the judgments of the Most
High were about to fall upon Israel. "As the Lord God
of Israel liveth, before whom I stand," he declared, "there
shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my
word."
It was only by the exercise of strong faith in the unfailing
power of God's word that Elijah delivered his message.
Had he not possessed implicit confidence in the One whom
he served, he would never have appeared before Ahab. On
his way to Samaria, Elijah had passed by ever-flowing
streams, hills covered with verdure, and stately forests that
seemed beyond the reach of drought. Everything on which
the eye rested was clothed with beauty. The prophet might
have wondered how the streams that had never ceased their
flow could become dry, or how those hills and valleys
could be burned with drought. But he gave no place to
unbelief. He fully believed that God would humble apostate
Israel, and that through judgments they would be brought
to repentance. The fiat of Heaven had gone forth; God's
word could not fail; and at the peril of his life Elijah
fearlessly fulfilled his commission. Like a thunderbolt from a
clear sky, the message of impending judgment fell upon
the ears of the wicked king; but before Ahab could recover
from his astonishment, or frame a reply, Elijah disappeared
as abruptly as he had come, without waiting to witness
the effect of his message. And the Lord went before him,
making plain the way. "Turn thee eastward," the prophet
was bidden, "and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that
is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of
the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee."
The king made diligent inquiry, but the prophet was
not to be found. Queen Jezebel, angered over the message
that had locked up the treasures of heaven, lost no time in
conferring with the priests of Baal, who united with her
in cursing the prophet and in defying the wrath of Jehovah.
But notwithstanding their desire to find him who had
uttered the word of woe, they were destined to meet with
disappointment. Nor could they conceal from others a
knowledge of the judgment pronounced in consequence of
the prevailing apostasy. Tidings of Elijah's denunciation
of the sins of Israel, and of his prophecy of swift-coming
punishment, quickly spread throughout the land. The fears
of some were aroused, but in general the heavenly message
was received with scorn and ridicule.
The prophet's words went into immediate effect. Those
who were at first inclined to scoff at the thought of calamity,
soon had occasion for serious reflection; for after a few
months the earth, unrefreshed by dew or rain, became dry,
and vegetation withered. As time passed, streams that had
never been known to fail began to decrease, and brooks
began to dry up. Yet the people were urged by their leaders
to have confidence in the power of Baal and to set aside
as idle words the prophecy of Elijah. The priests still
insisted that it was through the power of Baal that the showers
of rain fell. Fear not the God of Elijah, nor tremble at
His word, they urged, it is Baal that brings forth the harvest
in its season and provides for man and beast.
God's message to Ahab gave Jezebel and her priests
and all the followers of Baal and Ashtoreth opportunity to
test the power of their gods, and, if possible, to prove the
word of Elijah false. Against the assurances of hundreds
of idolatrous priests, the prophecy of Elijah stood alone.
If, notwithstanding the prophet's declaration, Baal could
still give dew and rain, causing the streams to continue to
flow and vegetation to flourish, then let the king of Israel
worship him and the people say that he is God.
Determined to keep the people in deception, the priests
of Baal continue to offer sacrifices to their gods and to call
upon them night and day to refresh the earth. With costly
offerings the priests attempt to appease the anger of their
gods; with a zeal and a perseverance worthy of a better
cause they linger round their pagan altars and pray earnestly
for rain. Night after night, throughout the doomed land,
their cries and entreaties arise. But no clouds appear in
the heavens by day to hide the burning rays of the sun. No
dew or rain refreshes the thirsty earth. The word of Jehovah
stands unchanged by anything the priests of Baal can do.
A year passes, and yet there is no rain. The earth is
parched as if with fire. The scorching heat of the sun
destroys what little vegetation has survived. Streams dry
up, and lowing herds and bleating flocks wander hither and
thither in distress. Once-flourishing fields have become like
burning desert sands, a desolate waste. The groves dedicated
to idol worship are leafless; the forest trees, gaunt skeletons
of nature, afford no shade. The air is dry and suffocating;
dust storms blind the eyes and nearly stop the breath.
Once-prosperous cities and villages have become places of mourning.
Hunger and thirst are telling upon man and beast
with fearful mortality. Famine, with all its horror, comes
closer and still closer.
Yet notwithstanding these evidences of God's power,
Israel repented not, nor learned the lesson that God would
have them learn. They did not see that He who created
nature controls her laws, and can make of them instruments
of blessing or of destruction. Proudhearted, enamored of
their false worship, they were unwilling to humble
themselves under the mighty hand of God, and they began to
cast about for some other cause to which to attribute their
sufferings.
Jezebel utterly refused to recognize the drought as a
judgment from Jehovah. Unyielding in her determination
to defy the God of heaven, she, with nearly the whole of
Israel, united in denouncing Elijah as the cause of all their
misery. Had he not borne testimony against their forms
of worship? If only he could be put out of the way, she
argued, the anger of their gods would be appeased, and
their troubles would end.
Urged on by the queen, Ahab instituted a most diligent
search for the hiding place of the prophet. To the surrounding
nations, far and near, he sent messengers to seek
for the man whom he hated, yet feared; and in his anxiety
to make the search as thorough as possible, he required of
these kingdoms and nations an oath that they knew nothing
of the whereabouts of the prophet. But the search
was in vain. The prophet was safe from the malice of the
king whose sins had brought upon the land the denunciation
of an offended God.
Failing in her efforts against Elijah, Jezebel determined
to avenge herself by slaying all the prophets of Jehovah in
Israel. Not one should be left alive. The infuriated woman
carried out her purpose in the massacre of many of God's
servants. Not all, however, perished. Obadiah, the
governor of Ahab's house, yet faithful to God, "took an hundred
prophets," and at the risk of his own life, "hid them by
fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water." 1 Kings
18:4.
The second year of famine passed, and still the pitiless
heavens gave no sign of rain. Drought and famine continued
their devastation throughout the kingdom. Fathers
and mothers, powerless to relieve the sufferings of their
children, were forced to see them die. Yet still apostate
Israel refused to humble their hearts before God and continued
to murmur against the man by whose word these
terrible judgments had been brought upon them. They
seemed unable to discern in their suffering and distress
a call to repentance, a divine interposition to save them from
taking the fatal step beyond the boundary of Heaven's forgiveness.
The apostasy of Israel was an evil more dreadful than
all the multiplied horrors of famine. God was seeking to
free the people from their delusion and lead them to understand
their accountability to the One to whom they owed
their life and all things. He was trying to help them to
recover their lost faith, and He must needs bring upon
them great affliction.
"Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?
saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from
his ways, and live?" "Cast away from you all your transgressions,
whereby ye have transgressed; and make you
a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house
of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that
dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and
live ye." "Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why
will ye die, O house of Israel?" Ezekiel 18:23, 31, 32; 33:11.
God had sent messengers to Israel, with appeals to return
to their allegiance. Had they heeded these appeals, had
they turned from Baal to the living God, Elijah's message
of judgment would never have been given. But the warnings
that might have been a savor of life unto life had
proved to them a savor of death unto death. Their pride
had been wounded, their anger had been aroused against
the messengers, and now they regarded with intense hatred
the prophet Elijah. If only he should fall into their hands,
gladly they would deliver him to Jezebel--as if by silencing
his voice they could stay the fulfillment of his words! In
the face of calamity they continued to stand firm in their
idolatry. Thus they were adding to the guilt that had brought
the judgments of Heaven upon the land.
For stricken Israel there was but one remedy--a turning
away from the sins that had brought upon them the chastening
hand of the Almighty, and a turning to the Lord
with full purpose of heart. To them had been given the
assurance, "If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or
if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send
pestilence among My people; if My people, which are
called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and
seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will
I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal
their land." 2 Chronicles 7:13, 14. It was to bring to pass
this blessed result that God continued to withhold from
them the dew and the rain until a decided reformation
should take place.