A third time the word of the Lord comes to Elijah (1 Kings 18:11And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth. (1 Kings 18:1); 1 Kings 17:2, 82And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, (1 Kings 17:2)
8And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, (1 Kings 17:8)); a third time Elijah obeys. The career of this man of God is marked by obedience. May it characterize us also! Only one time does Elijah go where his own heart directs him (1 Kings 19.3), and the thread of his career is interrupted. Doubtless he then arises and sets out at the angel’s word (1 Kings 19:88And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God. (1 Kings 19:8)), but it is that he may come into God’s presence and there learn to judge himself. Later we shall see that despite this, God does not set His servant aside entirely, for the experience of learning to know himself bears fruit; we find him again in 1 Kings 21 before Ahab and in 2 Kings 1 boldly presenting himself before Ahaziah’s messengers to pronounce the judgment of the king of Israel.
“Go, show thyself to Ahab” (1 Kings 18:11And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth. (1 Kings 18:1)). Previously it had been, “Hide thyself by the torrent Cherith” (1 Kings 17:33Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. (1 Kings 17:3)). Elijah obeys without arguing. His obedience stems from implicit confidence in God, His authority, His power, and His goodness. Every disobedient act of a Christian demonstrates a lack of appreciation of what God is.
“I will send rain upon the face of the earth.” This does not hinder Elijah from praying that it may rain (1 Kings 18:4242So 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, and put his face between his knees, (1 Kings 18:42)). He is in full fellowship with the Lord, having received the revelation of His thoughts and of His purpose, but in order to be an instrument for the fulfillment of His ways in grace, he must depend upon Him. God could well give rain without Elijah or by someone other than the prophet, but He never sets His seal upon disobedience or independence; and it is this which so often strikes the work of God’s children with barrenness.
While Elijah was enjoying divine abundance at Cherith and at Zarephath at a time of want, Ahab was using all his faculties to seek to bring about a remedy for the judgment of God by strategies of human wisdom. He associates Obadiah, the steward of his house, one who occupies a public place at the king’s court, with himself. “Obadiah feared the Lord greatly” (1 Kings 18:33And Ahab called Obadiah, which was the governor of his house. (Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly: (1 Kings 18:3)). This might seem to be enough for a faithful walk, for “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; (Prov. 9:1010The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. (Proverbs 9:10)). But we are also told: “Fear the Lord, and depart from evil” (Prov. 3:77Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. (Proverbs 3:7)). And again: “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil” (Prov. 8:1313The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. (Proverbs 8:13)). One may fear the Lord greatly, yet nevertheless dishonor Him by being in association with the world that rejects Him. This position, so lacking in openness, is found on every hand in professing Christendom. Yet nevertheless Obadiah’s piety had prompted him to hide those who were being persecuted for the Lord’s name’s sake. “And it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of Jehovah, that Obadiah took a hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and maintained them with bread and water” (1 Kings 18:44For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.) (1 Kings 18:4)). In one sense, his work had not been insignificant. It was no small thing, especially on part of a man in the public eye at Ahab’s court, to hide one hundred prophets whose lives were being hunted and to feed them.
Only — for there is an “only” — Obadiah was dependent upon Ahab, and that was evil. If Ahab was his lord, how could he excuse himself from following his master’s orders, and how could he testify by his walk to just the opposite of what his faith taught him? Moreover, alliance with the world of necessity makes one little by little lose one’s appreciation of its true character. The world is willfully ignorant of God’s judgment. Beyond doubt, it suffers it, as did Ahab and his people, but it does not have recourse to God to be delivered from it. All its doings proclaim: I hope to get myself out of this without You.
Even if he “greatly fears the Lord,” a believer associated with the world or dependent upon it of necessity acts according to its principles. The Word calls this “the elements of the world.” Such a believer first of all will be in ignorance of the fact that God’s judgment upon man is absolute and final, and that the wrath of God is already revealed from heaven upon him. Secondly, he will be seeking to improve the condition of man placed under this judgment. All the associations, all the organizations in Christendom today — and they are innumerable, so that we forbear enumerating them — have no other character. Those dear children of God who like Obadiah “divide the land” with Ahab to seek water and grass, show forth the principles of the wicked king in their walk and inevitably draw the responsibility for it upon themselves.
Elijah meets Obadiah (1 Kings 18:7-167And 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? 8And he answered him, I am: go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here. 9And he said, What have I sinned, that thou wouldest deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab, to slay me? 10As the Lord thy God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom, whither my lord hath not sent to seek thee: and when they said, He is not there; he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they found thee not. 11And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here. 12And 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. 13Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord, how I hid an hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water? 14And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here: and he shall slay me. 15And Elijah said, As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself unto him to day. 16So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him: and Ahab went to meet Elijah. (1 Kings 18:7‑16)). This godly man recognizes the Lord’s servant and falls on his face before him. Others perhaps would have passed by on the other side of the road, embarrassed by this so dangerous meeting. “Go, say to thy Lord, Behold Elijah!” such is the word of the prophet. Elijah, as we have seen, being accustomed to this word, often heard a “Go,” and he would go. “Go,” he himself had said to the poor Zidonian widow, who had then gone and done “according to the word of Elijah.” With the one as well as with the other this stemmed from faith, which always obeys. But where is Obadiah’s faith? A believer may “greatly fear the Lord,” and have an unbelieving heart. Obadiah is struck with consternation and terrified: “And now thou sayest, Go, say to thy lord, Behold Elijah!” (1 Kings 18:11, 1411And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here. (1 Kings 18:11)
14And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here: and he shall slay me. (1 Kings 18:14)). When it came to obeying Ahab, Obadiah did not object; but when it came to obeying God, he found objections to His word presented by the prophet. “And it shall come to pass when I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of Jehovah shall carry thee whither I know not; and when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he will kill me” (1 Kings 18:1212And 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. (1 Kings 18:12)). He who can adapt himself to Ahab’s plans for finding sustenance and avoiding death cannot rely upon the Lord and entrust his life to Him. How many souls are in this situation! When the word of God calls for simple obedience on their part, they quickly find fault with it. From this, we may be sure, come the great majority of the arguments of children of God who, walking in a pathway of disobedience, seek to avoid the positive obligation of obeying by persuading themselves that the Word contradicts itself or is not clear: “Thou sayest, Go, say to thy lord, Behold Elijah! And it shall come to pass... that the Spirit of Jehovah shall carry thee whither I know not.” This is also the source of the lack of deliverance of souls bound up in this state of things. They are afraid, afraid of the world’s opinion, afraid of difficulties, afraid of death: “He will kill me.”
“And now thou sayest... Behold Elijah!” Elijah’s coming, as we shall see in the rest of the chapter, meant the deliverance of the little remnant of Israel through the judgment of Baal’s priests. It was also the sign of the end of God’s judgment upon His people and it ushered in the blessings that would follow: “Go, show thyself to Ahab; and I will send rain upon the face of the earth” (1 Kings 18:11And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth. (1 Kings 18:1)). Could the news of Elijah’s coming bring anything but joy to one who was faithful? How the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee before Baal must have rejoiced at this news: “Behold Elijah!” For them it meant the end of long sufferings, the sure hope of better times. But it could not be so for Obadiah. He was too entangled with the world to rejoice at seeing its yoke broken. Is it not the same today when one speaks to Christians of the appearing of the One who is greater than Elijah? We are not speaking of His coming to take away His saints, but of His appearing to distribute rewards and to execute judgment upon the world. Will these souls be able to say that they “love His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:88Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:8))? Will they, like the elders in the Revelation, in the face of this display of judgment have only adoration and the homage of their crowns cast before the throne to render? Obadiah did not know this assurance. He saw nothing but this lot awaiting him with the king: “He will kill me,” a fate which due to his lack of faith he considered to be more sure than deliverance.
We find many different characters in Israel in these sad days for faith and the testimony. It is no longer the time of spiritual power, when the beloved of the Lord, gathered around Himself, resolutely enter into the conflict. These are days of weakness when the faithful are persecuted and hide themselves, no longer able as a collective testimony to resist the evil. In short, Elijah alone is a witness. And Obadiah? Beyond doubt he shows his piety in secretly providing for the needs of the saints, and this devotion is recognized by God; but to be the messenger of Elijah (of Christ) before the world goes beyond his courage. Nevertheless God had said to him, Go! One would be glad to unload the responsibility that the word of the Lord imposes on us onto anyone else, for how can one carry it out? Would it not be openly censuring Ahab’s apostasy to go and say to him, “Behold Elijah”? And how can one speak thus when one has never done so before?
And then, look again! In this state of bondage to the world one feels it necessary to justify oneself by giving testimony to oneself: “Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of Jehovah, how I hid a hundred men of Jehovah’s prophets by fifty in a cave, and maintained them with bread and water?” (1 Kings 18:1313Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord, how I hid an hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water? (1 Kings 18:13)). How many Christians themselves report of their work, of their activity and of its results, thus giving a wrong impression to themselves and to others as to their moral condition! Obadiah adds: “I thy servant fear Jehovah from my youth” (1 Kings 18:1212And 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. (1 Kings 18:12)), and this was true enough, but it was not for Obadiah to state this. God had deigned to use him, even in the wrong position he held, and he could be sure that the Lord would not forget even a cup of water given to one of these little ones — but how much more pleasing it would have been to God to have seen Obadiah, full of trust and obedience, setting forth at His command to carry out the mission to the king with which he had been entrusted!
We have dwelt upon Obadiah’s character at length on account of its very present day application. May God grant us each to give heed to that which his example teaches us! Elijah reassures this poor fearful, trembling heart (1 Kings 18:15, 1615And Elijah said, As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself unto him to day. 16So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him: and Ahab went to meet Elijah. (1 Kings 18:15‑16)). As surely as he stands before the Lord, he will show himself to Ahab that very day, for he has nothing to fear. God is with His servant; what is the power of the king in comparison to that of God?