Each fruit of the Spirit in a saint has its counterfeit in some trait or disposition of the natural man; and when declension has taken place, either in the Church or in the individual saint, there is a great proneness to substitute the counterfeit for the reality, and so deceive ourselves and impose on others. But God is not mocked. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Satan may succeed in leading us to confound them together now; but God has furnished, in His blessed word, unfailing tests whereby the faith that waits on Him and trusts His guidance, can distinguish the one from the other: and the day cometh "when every man's work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." May we have grace to judge ourselves by the word in the light of God's presence now, that there may be the less for the fire of that day to burn up and destroy!
"Easy to be entreated " is one characteristic of the "wisdom that is from above." Precious, lovely, fruit of the grace of Him of whom it is said that He "pleased not Himself." Sweetly was it manifested, too, in Paul, that faithful servant of Christ, who could say," Unto the Jews, I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ), that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak; I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." But how different was this from the irresoluteness and want of principle which makes a man the sport of every influence which is brought to bear upon him. That Blessed
One who " pleased not Himself," yea, and who had no will of His own to oppose to the wishes of those who surrounded Him; who accordingly was at the bidding of any who asked Him, whether Simon the Pharisee or Matthew the Publican; who, in His childhood and youth, was subject to His mother and Joseph; and who, in after years, could say" Notwithstanding, -lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money; that take and give unto them, for me and thee." That Blessed One was so devoted to the will of His Father, that neither maternal tenderness, nor the entreaties of His disciples, any more than the rage of the enemy or the clamors of the multitude, could turn Him aside. "How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" proclaims even at twelve years of age how it was His meat to do the will of Him who sent Him, and to finish His work. "Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come," was His language on another occasion; and when some would have interrupted Him in His work of obedience and love by conveying to Him the message of His mother and His brethren," Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee," how did the depth and intensity of His devotedness to His Father shine out in His reply-"Who is my mother or my brethren? And he looked round about on them which sat about Him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister and mother." His very yieldingness in all that merely affected Himself without compromising the glory of His Father, was but one result and expression of His entire, unlimited, unalterable devotedness to His Father's will. It was one part of that wondrous life of self-sacrifice by which, in His person, the Father was perfectly displayed and glorified.
So also, in his measure with the Apostle. Yielding, easy to be entreated, he could be and was, as we have seen; it was his delight to please every one for his good to edification. But where the glory of his Master, and the foundations of the faith were concerned, he was firm as a rock. What considerateness of those who were in the faith before him-what modesty and humility on the one hand; and yet what unswerving fidelity, what bold uncompromising faithfulness on the other, do we see in the passage where he speaks of his second visit to Jerusalem after his conversion: " Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately [how beautiful I] to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain. But neither Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised: and that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: to whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you." And though there were some of high standing and character among those who were enlisted on the side of error, it makes no difference to Paul. As a junior, and one who had been an adversary and blasphemer, he had shown all deference to those who were in the faith before him. He had first communicated privately with them of reputation; but when it came to be a question of the truth of the Gospel continuing with the saints, he sets his face like a flint, and can know no distinction. "But of those who seemed to be somewhat, whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person; for they who seemed to be somewhat, in conference added nothing to me." Even Peter himself he withstood to the face, because he was to be blamed. Just as our Lord, in a former instance, when Peter would have dissuaded him from pursuing the path of rejection and sorrow on which he had entered, and which was to terminate in the Cross, turned round and said, " Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offense unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men."
There is such a word, brethren, as "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." There is such an exhortation as, "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." All this is perfectly compatible with the tender, gracious considerateness of others, and readiness to yield everything to their wishes, in which the glory of God and the honor of His Christ are not involved, which is implied in those words, "Easy to be entreated;" but it is altogether opposed to that pliableness of mind, that unsteadiness of purpose, that want of decision for God, which, alas! so often takes its place. The false tenderness which, under pretense of not giving pain to others, really shrinks from the pain and trouble to ourselves of withstanding others in the cause and service of our Lord, how often is this passed off for the charity and tenderness which the New Testament inculcates I There is surely a solemn warning against self-deception like this in the fact, that one of the worst kings who ever sat on the throne of Israel was not so much an ambitious, cruel, sordid man, as one of easy, pliable disposition; weak, wavering, and irresolute; and thus the fit tool of another's avarice, cruelty, and ambition; the instrument of a woman as energetic and decided in evil, as he was weak and irresolute in that which was good. " But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel, his wife, stirred up." May the Lord grant us to glean, from the inspired history of this wicked man, those lessons of warning and admonition for which it has been left on record.
It was in the darkest period of Israel's history that. Ahab lived and reigned. The Ten Tribes, which had never rendered hearty submission to the rule of David's house, at last openly revolted, and chose for themselves a king. They had adhered to the house of Saul for years after David was crowned, and reigning in Hebron over Judah. They took the first opportunity of throwing off their allegiance to him, when Absalom raised the standard of rebellion. When Absalom's conspiracy was quashed, and the men of Judah were bringing back the king, the men of Israel said, " We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more right in David than ye: why, then, did ye despise us, that our advice should not be first had in bringing back the king?" and again was the trumpet of rebellion blown, "every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba, the son of Bichri; but the men of Judah clave unto their king, from Jordan even to Jerusalem." And though this new insurrection was soon suppressed, and throughout the short remainder of David's reign, as well as throughout the prosperous, glorious reign of Solomon (blessed type of the kingdom of the true Prince of Peace to be set up ere long), there were no internal broils or dissensions, as soon as he slept with his fathers and Rehoboam reigned in his stead, the Lord let loose on Rehoboam, as chastisement for his father's sin, the suppressed elements of discontent and rebellion, and the Ten Tribes were permanently rent off and became a separate kingdom, Judah being still left to Rehoboam, that the house of David might not be without a light before the Lord in Jerusalem. This new kingdom of Israel, or the Ten Tribes, had hardly been set up, when an entire system of false worship and idolatry was introduced by the king, who thus earned for himself the title which from that point in the history he bears in the word of God-" Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin." Of this sin, the kingdom was never purged. Nadab, the son of Jeroboam was slain by Baasha; but he also "did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin." His son Elah is slain by Zimri, one of his captains; he, in his turn, is overthrown by Omri, and self-desperate, shuts himself up in the palace, and burns it over his own head, and dies; while Omri ascends the throne and reigns in his stead. But among all these, there is not one who returns to the Lord, and puts away the idols which Jeroboam had set up. Of Omri, it is said that "he wrought evil in the sight of the Lord, and did worse than all that were before him." It was from this stock that Ahab sprang, and of him, the sacred historian says-" And Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord, above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger, than all the kings of Israel that were before him." Even Jericho is rebuilt in his days. As though the guilty nation would wipe out every trace of what God had wrought in His ancient mercy to Israel; as though they would make good, in every respect, their return to the ways of the nations which inhabited the land before God gave it to Israel; they rebuild that accursed city of which Joshua had said-" Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho; he shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it." It was in Ahab's day that this cursed deed was done, and the Lord, true to His word, fulfilled the curse by which Joshua thus adjured the people; "he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his first-born, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun."
Sweet and refreshing it is to the heart, to see how, at this dismal era, the Lord raises up testimony for Himself in the ministry of that distinguished prophet, Elijah the Tishbite. The darker the scene in which lie appears, the more brightly does he shine as a witness for the God of Israel. And it would be well for saints in the present day to weigh this singular fact, that in Israel, where there was such utter darkness, such terrible departure from God, the gloom uninterrupted by the accession to the throne of a single king who truly sought the Lord God of his fathers, or returned to Him, in Israel there was raised up a prophetic testimony unparalleled in its power by anything in Judah, where the national departure from God was not near so awful or complete. May we learn, beloved, to count upon the living God, and to use the darkness of the scene around, not as a source of discouragement or dismay, but as a plea with our God to manifest the more vividly and conspicuously that He is indeed "the living God." The testimony in such a day may be less of an ordered and corporate character, but it will all the more display the sovereign will and living energy of Him who never forgets what is due to His own name and glory, however we may, alas! forget both.
1 Kings 17. I pass over (precious and inviting as are its contents) as pertaining rather to the history of God's witness, than to that of the wicked and idolatrous king. Chap. 18 brings the latter again on the scene. We find there, that while Ahab had lent himself to all the wicked purposes of his wife, and was, of course, fully responsible for them, it was she, Jezebel, who was the real authoress of those deeds of blood which had called down the chastisements of God: "For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord" etc. (verse 4). It was no excuse for Adam that Eve was first in the transgression; neither was it any extenuation of Ahab's sin that the energy which originated it was in Jezebel, not himself. There was in himself no effectual barrier against this evil energy; nay, he willingly lent himself, and the authority of his throne, to the execution of deeds which, though he had not purpose and decision enough to devise, were still in sad unison with the inclinations of his heart, and thus he was in every sense responsible for them. At last he meets the prophet—meets him with the question, "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" Alas! it is always thus. In the estimate of the doers and upholders of evil, yea, and of the connivers at it too, they who witness and protest against it are the troublers. "I have not troubled Israel," is the prophet's answer; "but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim." He calls upon the king to gather all Israel, with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of the groves, "which eat at Jezebel's table." And though one might augur well at first sight, from the readiness with which he acts on the prophet's word, it is no real indication of a change for the better. He is awed by the presence and influence of one of immeasurably greater energy and decision than himself. The hand of God was doubtless in it, too, for his own glory; but, as far as any indication of character in Ahab is concerned, it is but another illustration of that pliableness which was his sin and ruin. In the presence of Elijah, he is for the moment acted on by him, and the circumstances which attend his appearance before him, just as before he had been acted upon by his idolatrous queen. Wondrous indeed is the power with which the Lord endues His servant; king, prophets, people, seem all spell-bound before him; and whatever he prescribes they do, even in the end, after the demonstration before all, and the acknowledgment by all, that "The Lord, He is the God; the Lord, He is the God," to the destruction of the prophets of Baal, so that not one of them escapes. The glory of the God of Israel thus displayed, His name and authority vindicated, the prophet " prays again," as the apostle James has it, " and the heavens give rain;" and, at the prophet's instance, the king rides and goes to Jezreel; while he, the prophet, the hand of the Lord being upon him, girds up his loins and runs before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. And is Ahab, as the fruit of this marvelous display of the power of God, a new man? Does he stand by what the acclamations of all proclaimed, "The Lord, He is the God," and put away his idolatrous queen, and henceforth worship and serve the Lord alone? Alas! "Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done; and, withal, how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, Lo, let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to-morrow about this time." It was Jezebel's message, but it was the fruit of Ahab's conference with her, and it was clothed with the authority of Ahab's throne and scepter. Thus did he, in compliance with his wife's cruel and revengeful wishes, drive out one of the most distinguished among all those, "of whom the world was not worthy."
Chapter 20 affords us a serious lesson indeed. We see there, that while the internal condition of a body of people standing in acknowledged relationship to God may be corrupt in the extreme, and all but ripe for judgment, God, in sovereign goodness, may still use it to humble the pride of his avowed enemies and blasphemers. It is to Ahab, the wicked king of Israel, that a man of God is deputed to say, " Thus saith the Lord, Because the Syrians have said, the Lord is God of the hills, but He is not God of the valleys; therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the Lord." And so it was: twice were the Syrians defeated before Israel; and in the second instance, no fewer than "an hundred thousand footmen of the Syrians" were slain in one day. And this was not a deliverance wrought for Israel without their knowledge or any communication between God and them as to it. God uses them as instruments in this overthrow of His enemies; He condescends to send " a prophet" and " a man of God" to Ahab, assuring him beforehand of the victory, and instructing him how to set the battle in array. And it is in compliance with these directions that Ahab gains this glorious victory. Now, would any one in that day have been warranted to conclude that because Israel and Ahab were thus externally owned of God, the internal affairs of the kingdom and the character of the king were such as God approved? The Lord keep us, beloved brethren, from glorying in our success, instead of trying our ways, and judging ourselves in the light of the Lord's presence, by His Spirit and word! Even in this chapter we have further proof of Ahab's characteristic sin. The prophet is driven out in the previous chapter, because Jezebel vows vengeance against him, and Ahab lends himself to be the tool of her wickedness. Now, Benhadad finds the weak point in this unhappy man, and plies him therewith as successfully as Jezebel. He flatters him, crouches to him, teaches even his servants to practice upon him, and in the end effects his escape from the destruction to which he had been doomed. The terrible message which Ahab receives from God in consequence: Thus saith the Lord, Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people," sends him home heavy and displeased; and thus, through his sinful pliableness, a day which began in such signal triumph ends in sorrow and in gloom. He is the instrument of his wife's malice in persecuting God's faithful and honored witness; while a little flattery prevails upon him to spare God's sworn enemy, appointed of God too, to utter destruction. Such is the pliableness of mere human nature. Cruel to the saints and servants of the Most High; tender and indulgent to His foes and blasphemers. May our souls, beloved, tremble at God's word!
Chapter 21 discloses to us a scene of wickedness surpassing all that have preceded it. Ahab sets his eye and heart on Naboth's vineyard; and when it is denied him by the godly owner of it, like a spoiled petted child he goes home and lies down upon his bed, turns away his face, and refuses to eat bread. Jezebel receives not disappointments thus. She upbraids him with his weakness, and volunteers to put him in possession of what his heart desired. " Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry: I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite." Who can fail to trace here, in bolder relief than in any former instance, the leading traits of each character. It was not Ahab that conceived the horrid plot against Naboth's life: so far from it, he was pettishly lamenting the apparently unavoidable disappointment of his wishes. A bolder and more determined spirit both conceives and executes the scheme by which his wishes are to be fulfilled. But she " wrote the letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal "; and when the vineyard has been procured at the cost of the innocent blood of its owner, Ahab is not loth to avail himself of the fruits of his wife's cruelty and cunning. How frightful too, the use of God's name in this transaction. A fast must be proclaimed, and Naboth arraigned before the nobles of his city. All the forms of justice must be mimicked; and for the crime of blaspheming God and the king, falsely laid to his charge by Jezebel's command, Naboth must be stoned! And what a view we get of the moral degradation of both nobles and people, that such a command should be so unhesitatingly and implicitly obeyed. How analogous to another transaction in which One greater than Naboth became the victim of equal cruelty and cunning, and all under the cloak of judicial forms and high religious pretensions. They, like Jezebel, could suborn false witnesses, and pay the price of innocent blood, even the blood of God's holy Lamb; but they were too scrupulous to cast it into the treasury of the Lord, or to enter the hall of Pilate, lest they should be defiled!
Successful wickedness is next door to utter destruction. Again is our prophet introduced into the scene. " The word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it. And thou shalt speak unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine." Elijah meets him. The guilty king trembles in his presence, and asks not as before, "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" No, his conscience makes it much more a personal question than that. "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?" "I have found thee," is the prophet's reply; and he then proceeds with the awful denunciations of wrath and judgment from God against Ahab and Jezebel, and their household. But oh, the grace of our God! Because Ahab, terrified by these predictions, humbles himself and puts on sackcloth, and goes softly, the evil is not to come in his days; but in his son's days the evil is to be executed on his house.
But Ahab, though for the season humbled, is not converted. Of this we have ample and mournful evidence in chap. 22. There we find, that pliable as was this wicked king when in the presence of his wife or Benhadad, Micaiah is as much hated by him as Elijah. And for the same reason. They were not pliable. They had set their faces as a flint, and could yield nothing, no, not an inch or a hair's-breadth, of the testimony of God entrusted to them. "There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he Both not prophecy good concerning me, but evil." And how sorely was Micaiah's fidelity tested on this occasion. "The messenger that was gone to call Micaiah, spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth; let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak that which is good." As though he had said, in more modern language, "Do not be so morose and eccentric, Micaiah. Do, in this instance at any rate, go with the stream. There are four hundred prophets all of one mind. Do not set up your single voice against so many, as though you were wiser, and knew better than any one besides." "As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak." This is all that the prophet can reply. The sequel of the history spews us that Micaiah had been allowed of God to be behind the scenes. He could account for the unanimity of the prophets. It was a lying spirit from the Lord which had put words into their mouths, by which Ahab was to be hardened to go up to battle to his own destruction. The prophet's testimony, however, is disregarded, and he himself shut up in prison. Ahab, and alas! Jehoshaphat, go up to Ramoth-Gilead. Jehoshaphat is there made the tool of the wily king of Israel. The latter disguises himself, while the former enters the battle in his royal robes, a mark for the arrows of the enemy, who have been instructed to aim only at the king! But God defends Jehoshaphat. He is humbled, yea, disgraced. He has to cry for his life. But God delivers his poor erring, failing child; while all the craft of Ahab avails him nothing. No one can aim at him as the king; his disguise prevents that. But "a certain man drew a bow at a venture," and the arrow, guided by an unseen hand, "smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness." He is borne, wounded and bleeding to Samaria, and he dies; and the dogs lick up his blood, as Elijah had spoken to him by the word of the Lord.
The Lord grant us, beloved brethren, Elijah's and Micaiah's firmness and decision; and keep us from the yieldingness of the unhappy man who " sold himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up"!