Elijah had just experienced a tremendous victory for God (see 1 Kings 18). On Mount Carmel, the prophets of baal and the prophet of God challenged their god to answer by fire. Elijah suggested the prophets of baal[1] be the first to prove baal was a god. All day they danced and cried out to baal to answer by fire. But no fire came.
In the evening, Elijah called the people to him. He repaired the altar of the Lord and dug a deep trench around the altar. He then laid in order the sacrificial offering and had men pour four barrels full of water over the offering and altar; not once, not twice, but three times until the trench was full of water. He then knelt and prayed, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel, and that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their heart back again.”
Immediately, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, stones, dust and all the water in the trench around the altar. The people fell on their faces and with one voice proclaimed, “The Lord, He is God; the Lord He is God!”
Elijah ordered all four hundred prophets of baal to be killed. Then Elijah prayed for rain and rain came. It had been a wonderful day of God manifesting Who He is and that He alone is the true God.
That evening Elijah received a message from the King’s wife, Jezebel, stating he too was to be killed in the same way he killed the prophets of baal. After such incredible displays of God’s power, Elijah suddenly gets up and runs for his life. He runs into the wilderness and petitions the Lord that he might die (see 1 Kings 19:4).
God tells Elijah, “Go stand upon the mount and I will pass by.”[2] Elijah obeys and there is a great and strong wind that rends the mountains and rocks, but the Lord was not in the wind. Then there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Then there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. Then there was a still small voice, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
God knew why Elijah was there. God had protected Elijah and fed him from His own hand for three and a half years. After such a great victory accomplished for Israel on Mount Carmel, and while still other great victories were opening before him, the man of God turned and ran at the threat of a wicked, heathen queen. Elijah, depressed, worn out, and embittered, wants to die. But God does not leave him. With tender pity He calls His servant by name and engages him in conversation, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
“I have been very zealous for the Lord, for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away,” Elijah bitterly replies. He has forgotten Obadiah who met him on the road just a few days before and how Obadiah had risked his life to hide one hundred men of God and fed them bread and water (see 1 Kings 18:7-13). His depression and self-pity prevented him from thinking clearly and remembering the tremendous victory of only a few days earlier, and how Israel did acknowledge that the God of Heaven is indeed the Lord God.
How often is it the same with us? When we are discouraged and embittered, we cannot reason clearly, and we feel all alone and might even think we are better off no longer alive. But we are not any more alone than was Elijah. God will not leave us nor forsake us.[3] God neither slumbers nor sleeps.[4]
It is not always in mighty manifestations of divine power that God reveals Himself. God was not in the earthquake, wind, or fire, but in a still small voice. God does not come to us with pomp and outward display, but through speaking to our hearts, revealing a life of mercy and self-sacrifice. It is a life of quiet trust, a firm reliance on the God that will ever be present to help in time of need, which will accomplish the work of God. It is the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit that transforms and develops the character and has the power to change the heart.
Sometimes we go where God has not called us, and like he met Elijah, God does not meet us with censoring and condemnation, but with tender, pitying love, always seeking to draw us again to Himself. He shows us how we have erred and desirously, gently sends us back to our mission.
“Go,” the Lord tells Elijah, “Return to Israel, and on your way anoint Hazael to be king over Syria, and anoint Jehu to be king over Israel, and anoint Elisha to be prophet in your stead.” God then reminds Elijah He has His faithful few who have not apostatized, and states, “I have seven thousand in Israel who have not bowed the knee to baal.”[5]
“The apostasy prevailing today is like that which overspread Israel in the prophet’s day. In the exaltation of the human above the divine, in the praise of popular leaders, in the worship of mammon [material things], and in the placing of the teachings of science above the truths of revelation, multitudes today are following after baal. Doubt and unbelief are exercising their baleful influence over mind and heart, and many are substituting the theories of men for the oracles of God. It is publicly taught that we have reached a time when human reason should be exalted above the teachings of the Word. The law of God, the divine standard of righteousness, is declared to be of no effect. The enemy of all truth is working with deceptive power to cause men and women to place human institutions where God should be, and to forget that which was ordained for the happiness and salvation of mankind. Yet this apostasy, widespread as it has come to be, is not universal. Not all in the world are lawless and sinful, not all have taken sides with the enemy. God has many thousands who have not bowed the knee to baal, many who long to understand more fully in regard to Christ and the law, many who are hoping against hope that Jesus will come soon to end the reign of sin and death. And there are many who have been worshiping baal ignorantly, but with whom the Spirit of God is still striving.”[6]
Elijah accepts the reproof of the Lord and goes again in the power of God to fight against the powers of darkness, the enemy of our souls. He follows the orders given him and is again a mighty conqueror for the God of Israel.
Elijah faithfully fought a good fight and God gave him something better than he requested; not by dying, but by edification and sanctification Elijah was led to heavenly translation. It was not in God’s plan for Elijah to die. Instead, God gave him the ride of his life via a “chariot of fire,” that he should escape death. Oh, the tremendous mercy of God!
How often have we wished to die, or at least to ‘throw-in-the-towel’ when we are on the very brink of God providing something so much better for us? What amazing love God has for fallen, erring, short-sighted humanity!
“When we are encompassed with doubt, perplexed by circumstances, or afflicted by poverty or distress, satan seeks to shake our confidence in Jehovah. It is then that he arrays before us our mistakes and tempts us to distrust God, to question His love. He hopes to discourage the soul and break our hold on God…But God understands, and He still pities and loves. He reads the motives and the purposes of the heart. To wait patiently, to trust when everything looks dark, is the lesson [for us]. Heaven will not fail [us] in [our] day of adversity. Nothing is apparently more helpless, yet really more invincible, than the soul that feels its nothingness and relies wholly on God.”[7]
“The kingdom of God…comes through the gentleness of the inspiration of His Word, through the inward working of His Spirit, the fellowship of the soul with Him who is its life. The greatest manifestation of its power is seen in human nature brought to the perfection of the character of Christ.”[8]
Only Trust Him
Come, every soul by sin oppressed, there’s mercy with the Lord.
And He will surely give you rest, by trusting in His Word.
Only trust Him, only trust Him, only trust Him now;
He will save you, He will save you, He will save you now.
Yes, Jesus is the truth, the way, that leads you into rest;
Believe in Him without delay, and you are fully blest.
Come then, and join this holy band, and on to glory go,
To dwell in that celestial land, where joys immortal flow.
J. H. Stockton
In the quietness, do you hear His still, small voice calling you to trust Him?
Would you like to learn more about God?
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References: [1] I know baal is a proper name and usually capitalized. I have chosen to not capitalize anything in reference to the enemy of our souls. [2] 1 Kings 19:9-13 [3] Hebrews 13:5 [4] Psalm 121:3-4 [5] 1 Kings 19:18 [6] White, E. G. Prophets and Kings, p. 170-171. [7] White, E. G. Prophets and Kings, p. 174. [8] White, E. G. Ministry of Healing, p. 36.
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