Elijah’s abrupt appearance in public, with his terrible announcement to King and people, calls for some explanation. Walking boldly into the King’s court, he said, “As Jehovah, the God of Israel, liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word” (1 Kings 17:1). What a message from the God who at another time said, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt” (Hos. 11:1). What was the meaning of the fearful chastisement, probably without precedent in the world’s history, which was thus announced by Elijah? Ahab was apparently stunned by the boldness of the messenger, and the terribleness of the message, for he attempted nothing against Elijah at that moment. Yet Ahab had no scruples about shedding innocent blood! In order to understand the situation, it is necessary to consider how Israel stood in relation to God.
No nation has ever held, or ever will hold, a position in the earth at all comparable to that of Israel. That nation forms the very center of God’s ways both in government and in blessing. The kings and statesmen of earth do not understand this; hence the futility of all their treaties, with bitter disappointment to millions. Israel ignored; Christ ignored; God ignored! What stability can there be even in the most carefully worked-out plans for the peaceful settlement of the nations?
The divinely appointed place of Israel is described thus: “Jehovah shall make thee the head, and not the tail, and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath, if thou hearken unto the commandments of Jehovah thy God” (Deut. 18:13). When the descendants of Noah, with their diverse languages, scattered abroad, and seized upon lands here and there as it pleased them, the invisible hand of God guided them to where He would require them when Israel came upon the scene. No one understood this divine working at the time. God may have spoken of it to Abraham and to others; hence the words of Moses when he placed the international position before Israel’s tribes shortly before they entered the land of Canaan: “Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. When the most High divided (or, assigned) to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel:” (Deut. 32:7-8). Men may at any time lay violent hands upon territories that they desire, but only by divine permission can they obtain them. The all-wise Creator sees some way in which the wrath of man will serve His purpose.
There is thus an over-ruling hand which controls the movements of nations, little as men perceive it. This was true in the earliest days, and it is true still.
When the lust nations settled down in their lands, they threw off the knowledge of God which they had inherited from Noah and his sons, and they plunged into idolatry. Romans 1:28 says, “they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.” Their conceptions of deity, under the deceptive influence of Satan, sank lower and lower. First, “they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man”; soon, they set up beasts, then birds, and even creeping things. The worship of the serpent became popular. It was not naked savages who thus plunged deeper and deeper into the abyss of folly; for the ancient kingdoms of Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt (amongst others) possessed much learning it is impossible for men to rise morally above the level of the gods they worship; accordingly beast worshippers soon became beastly themselves in practice. Romans 1:18-32 should be carefully pondered, for it is God’s sad description of the depths of vice and folly to which men descended when they turned their backs upon Him. Let modems beware in their increasing godlessness.
The country whose divinely-given title is “the land of Israel,” and which God says is “the glory of all lands” (Ezek. 20:6), was occupied by seven other nations when the people of Israel arrived upon its frontiers. The gross corruptions with which those nations filled that land were amply sufficient to deprive them of any decent title to further possession. In Abraham’s day the cup of their iniquity was not full (Gen. 15:16); but it was overflowing when Israel’s hosts came upon them as God’s executioners. To anyone who doubts the righteousness of dispossessing those nations to make room for Jehovah’s chosen people, it is sufficient to quote Leviticus 18:25: “the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out its inhabitants.”
The land was promised unconditionally by Jehovah to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and in the Kingdom-age their seed will possess it from the Nile to the Euphrates. But in Joshua’s day they entered Canaan under the Sinai covenant, on the ground of responsibility. The law’s conditional “ifs” became their ruin. When Moses the Mediator finished his course, he left no successor, properly speaking. The High priest was established as the link between Jehovah and the people, and the civil leader was placed under his guidance. “He shall stand before Eleazer the priest, who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim before Jehovah: at his word shall they go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he, and all the children of Israel with him” (Num. 27:18-23). When the priesthood became morally corrupt (1 Sam. 11:29-30), God spoke of a king. Leasing aside the disastrous episode of Saul, the people’s choice, David was God’s appointed king, and the priesthood fell into a secondary position. The Kingdom reached the height of its power and splendor under David and Solomon. These kings were both typical of Christ, the only true hope of Israel and the nations. David typified Him as the man of war, victorious over all His people’s foes; and Solomon typified Him as the man of peace. Glory and prosperity unexampled filled the land during Solomon’s reign; but, alas! that most gifted monarch became leader of the people in serious departure from God. To gratify his many foreign wives he filled the land with strange gods (1 Kings 11).
When “the God of glory” called Abraham, and revealed to him His thoughts (Acts 7:2) His purpose was to recover and bless all the nations by the instrumentality of his seed (Gen. 12:2-3; 22:18). When Abraham was thus called the whole earth was sunk in the darkness and impurity of idolatry; indeed, Abraham’s own family “served other gods” (Josh. 24:2). It was sovereign grace therefore on God’s part thus to bless Abraham, and then make him a blessing to others. The kingdom of Israel was established as God’s witness in the earth; the people should have faithfully held aloft the lamp of divine truth for the enlightenment of all. When they descended to the level of the nations around them, their testimony was gone, and the blessing of the nations became impossible. It awaits the day of Christ. When He appears in Kingdom-majesty, all that has failed in the hands of Adam, Noah, David, Solomon, and others, He will take up and fulfill gloriously.
The disruption of Israel followed Solomon’s death, and the breach has not been healed unto this day. Ten tribes followed the lead of Jeroboam the son of Nebat; the remaining two continued with the house of David. Jehovah promised Jeroboam “a sure house” if he would walk in His ways, for Jeroboam understood that God was disciplining the unfaithful royal house through him; nevertheless, Jeroboam having no faith in God and His Word, and fearing for the security of his throne if the people continued to go up to Jerusalem to worship, installed golden calves in Bethel and Dan, and presumably built sanctuaries for them (1 Kings 11:37-38: 12:26-30; Amos 7:13). He ordained priests from amongst all classes (ignoring the special privilege of the Levites); and he instituted feasts of his own devising in defiance of Jehovah’s law as laid down in Leviticus 23. Thus the people were wholly diverted from God’s center, and from His order connected therewith. All this was more than unfaithfulness; it was open apostasy. Happily, considerable numbers abhorred these evils, for the Word of God had some authority over their hearts; they turned their backs upon Jeroboam’s evil inventions, in some cases surrendering their homes and lands, and they went south where there was still a measure of respect for Jehovah’s Word, and where at any rate they could worship in the house that was called by His name. That this large movement was a true spiritual work is clear from the following passage: “out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their hearts to seek Jehovah the God of Israel came to Jerusalem to sacrifice unto Jehovah the God of their fathers.” The influence of these pious immigrants was so good that for three years the two tribes “walked in the way of David and Solomon” (2 Chron. 11:13-17). The deplorable break-up of the nation; the report of the wickedness of Jeroboam and his followers; and the coming amongst them of a crowd of pious souls (leaving their all behind them), apparently woke up Rehoboam and his two loyal tribes to the seriousness of the devilries which had been developing in the land for some years, and for a time (alas, only for a time) things went well.
The movement of these Northerners who desired to continue faithful to Jehovah when the mass became apostate has a message for us today. Israel’s history has been “written for our admonition” (1 Cor. 10:11).
We who stand in Israel’s place in testimony for God in the earth should profit by the Holy Spirit’s records. How do matters stand with us at this time? We open our Bibles at the early chapters of the Book of Acts, and we read with delight how Christianity began. What love! What devotedness! What close attachment to the teaching of the Apostles, who were God’s mouthpieces for the new regime!
The merest glance at the intervening centuries tells us that the spiritual decline has been terrific. Unity has been thrown to the winds. Rival “churches,” National and otherwise, have arisen; positive idolatry is practiced throughout the greater part of Christendom; and even those communities which profess to abhor Greek and Roman superstitions are themselves honeycombed with deadly heresies. The call to separation rings out clearly in the Word of God, notably in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; and 2 Timothy 2:15-26. Do we heed it? But separation, to be acceptable to God, must be thorough and complete. It must enter into all the circumstances of our lives. The great call to religious separation in 2 Corinthians 14-18 is followed with an earnest appeal to “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1). This is very far reaching. It is possible to turn resolutely from fellowship with the world in religious matters, and to speak very strongly against conformity thereto, and yet walk unconcernedly with the world in other respects, so deceitful is flesh, even in God’s saints! For example, is it consistent to condemn fellowship with unscriptural religious systems, and yet voluntarily seek fellowship in a Co-operative Society? Again, how can we justly blame the Roman “priest” for burning incense before God (he may possibly do it with a good conscience quite ignorantly), if we ourselves burn tobacco before God and before men? Many speak severely (and not too severely) of a “Sunday religion,” let us beware of a mere “Sunday separation!” Our baptism teaches death to sin and the world (Rom. 6); are we prepared for this?
The Israelites who separated themselves from the wickedness of Jeroboam and his followers, and removed into the Kingdom of Judah desired to cleave to Jehovah’s ways as written in His Word. The innovations of unsanctified men were abominable in their eyes. Let us imitate their excellent example.