When Ahab learned that Elijah was in the neighborhood, he did not hasten towards him with a “firing squad” (or whatever was the equivalent in those days); on the contrary, he approached him with a measure of deference. The wicked king had some sense of the greatness of God whose irresistible power His servant could wield. The whole country was suffering severely under the sentence pronounced by Elijah’s lips. The people were proving that it is “an evil thing and bitter” to forsake Jehovah and worship other gods (Jer. 19). Ahab’s son Ahaziah lacked even the measure of respect and dread that his father had for Elijah. He ventured to defy him and the power of God that was with him (2 Kings 1). But the results were very serious!
Ahab’s greeting is very suggestive. “Is it thou, thou troubler of Israel?” (1 Kings 18:17 R.V.). We have here a clear illustration of how Satan beclouds the minds and perverts the judgment of men who believe not. There certainly was trouble in Israel; but apparently it did not occur to Ahab’s mind to trace it to the idolatry which had spread everywhere. Temples, altars, prophets, and priests of an evil character covered the land. There was no disposition either in king or people to get down before Jehovah, and acknowledge the wickedness of all this, with the determination to put it all away. Accordingly, Ahab blamed the servant of God for the widespread distress. Had Satan not blinded his eyes he would have perceived that the fault lay with the king, not with the prophet.
When Paul and Silas went to Philippi there was insurrection against them, and it was said, “these men.... do exceedingly trouble our city” (Acts 16:20). But “these men” had carried into Philippi the Gospel of the Grace of God; they were telling men and women who were living in the darkness of Heathenism, and who were hastening to perdition, of the Saviour who died for the ungodly. They were putting immense blessings in the way of the people all “without money and without price.” They were proclaiming the true and only remedy for all, creature ills. Those who received their words would become supremely happy, even as Paul himself was when he wrote his Epistle to the Philippians a few years later. No truer friends of the people ever visited the city, yet the preachers were charged before the magistrates with being troublers, and were forthwith flogged, and cast into prison!
At every period faithful witnesses for God and His truth are regarded as troublers. Men and women who are all wrong with God do not care to have facts set before them. They prefer to live undisturbed in a dreamland of their own. He who presses upon their attention the gravity of sin, and the reality of God’s judgment of sin is a troubler. He disturbs their false peace and spoils their pleasures. Felix cut short his conversation with Paul when his words became very pointed (Acts 24:25). Yet no true preacher would speak only of sin and judgment; he would delight to go further, and tell of the one Mediator between God and men, who gave Himself a ransom for all (1 Tim. 2:5-6).
Elijah, with divine, bluntness, put the truth before the king. “I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of Jehovah, and thou hast followed Baalim.” Men who are willing to rebuke sin in high places are scarce. Nathan dealt faithfully with David (2 Sam. 12); and John the Baptist, every time he found himself in Herod’s presence, put his finger upon the fatal spot, saying, “It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife” (Mark 6:18). It is said of the British King Charles II as vile a king as ever disgraced a throne that he was once offended with a Chaplain for his plain preaching. “I will thank you,” said he “to alter your manner of preaching.” “So I will your Majesty,” replied the Chaplain, “if you will alter your manner of living.” This was as it should be. If in our own day there were religious leaders faithful enough to rebuke Dictators and others who are leading millions to ruin, how good it would be! It is, alas! too frequently the habit of professional clergy to accommodate their words to the wishes of the ruling powers. They thus become instruments in their hands for deceiving the people. Solemn thought!
The real trouble in Israel was not Elijah, but Ahab, and Ahab’s own conscience must have felt that it was true. The prophet now made a proposal to the king: “Send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel’s table” (2 Kings 18:19). Amazing when we consider the relative position of the two men. Ahab— a powerful despot, with all the military resources of the kingdom at his disposal, backed too by a resolute and ruthless wife; now being virtually commanded by a feeble and friendless individual to convene a meeting of the nation! We have already remarked upon the moral dignity which communion with God imparts; we see it here again in Elijah the Tishbite. The condition of things throughout the country was desperate; it could not continue indefinitely; hence the king consented to Elijah’s proposal for a meeting, the outcome of which he could not imagine, but he hoped there would soon be rain!