THOUGHTS of Carmel ever stir the heart of the believer in God, for that mountain top witnessed the rise out of the sea of the little cloud as of a man's hand, which became the covering of the skies, that poured out their abundance of rain upon famine-stricken Israel. But Carmel saw more than the cloud, it witnessed the man of God bowed to the ground pleading with Jehovah and waiting for the answer to his prayer. Elijah's servant saw the cloud, Elijah prayed as seeing Him who is invisible. “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." (James 5:17, 18.) We might almost suppose such a man was not subject to like passions with ourselves, were it not that we are told to the contrary, and bidden find in Elijah an instance that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
Elijah's prayers were for the good of Israel. The nation had departed from Jehovah to serve Baal, the voice of God was unheeded, and it was only by deep suffering that Israel was brought to bow to the might of Jehovah's arm. God often recovers men and nations by means of affliction, and when man denies His Name, He lifts up His finger and proves the folly of man's pride. Thus, through the famine brought upon the land by the prayers of Elijah, did He open the eyes of rebellious Israel to their sins.
What the battle of three and a half years in Israel between Elijah and the powers of the nation was like we can hardly conceive. The end of it, the destruction of the priests of Baal and the abundance of rain poured upon the land, we know. And in Elijah's eventual weariness of the strife, his prayer to be relieved from his post, we perceive that this mighty prophet of God was a man of like passions as we are.
One thing Elijah failed to understand. In his lament over the desperate apostasy of Israel, he said to Jehovah, “I, even I only, am left," but the Lord replied, "Yet I have left Me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him" (1 Kings 19:10, 14, 18).
The great leader as a leader and a marked man stood alone; however, in secret there were found by God seven thousand true hearts in Israel. And in a day of departure from God, He surely has His own, though they be unrecognized and unknown. Neither will God forsake them, though they be feeble; and thus when the mighty Elijah's work was over, God raised up in His goodness Elisha to wield the sword of His word in the midst of erring Israel, and to comfort and support the faithful few who revered the holy Name of Jehovah.
We may well pray God in our own day of departure from His word that He may raise up men of His choice filled with the Spirit; men of faith and courage to do battle for Him in the church. A man or a movement induced by God the Spirit has ever influenced the church, but the arm of flesh avails nothing. May we not justly believe that much prayer went up to God from the seven thousand who had not bowed to Baal ; may God's faithful people pray much in this our day for servants who shall arouse His church to the reality of His word.