The people having given their decision, and the idolatrous prophets having been slain, Elijah knew that rain was near. Accordingly, he said to Ahab: “Get thee up, eat and drink for there is a sound of abundance of rain” (1 Kings 18:4141And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain. (1 Kings 18:41)). Let us observe that the welcome rain, did not begin to fall immediately the people shouted, “Jehovah, He is the God.” In the divine ordering, Elijah must first pray for it. He was, so to speak, God’s administrator towards Israel at that crisis. His lips pronounced the judgment; and his lips must announce the blessing; but both blessing and judgment were preceded by prayer. Thus we have the prophet going up to the top of Carmel to speak to God. Ahab, in his selfishness, prepared to go home; not to pray, but to feast. He had the feeling that the long-continued drought was ending. That was all that mattered; there would soon be food again for his horses and mules! Meantime, a banquet was more to his liking than a prayer meeting!
But where was Obadiah? The Lord has taught us in Matt. 18:1919Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 18:19) the preciousness of two praying together; but the two must be in harmony; they must both be alike in separation to God, and walking in His ways for their prayers to be effectual. Alas, there was no bond of sympathy between Elijah and Obadiah, although both were men born of the Spirit! Obadiah did not stand by Elijah when he confronted the foe, nor did he bow the knee with him when he made supplication to God. How much Obadiah missed by pandering to the world, accepting ease and honor in the midst of the ungodly! Also, how much Jonathan missed by not separating himself from the divinely rejected Saul order of things to go outside with David! He could never have written David’s psalms! “Ye are honorable,” wrote the Apostle to the case-loving Corinthians, “but we are despised” (1 Cor. 4:1010We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honorable, but we are despised. (1 Corinthians 4:10)). But Paul was more happy than they, nevertheless. To stand apart from the world-system is admittedly loss, as men judge; but the spiritual gain in communion with God is immense.
Surely Elijah needed to eat and drink as well as Ahab! The events of the day were exhausting, and the servants of God get hungry and tired as well as other men. Even the Son of God sat in weariness on the well of Sychar while His disciples went into the town to buy food. But the spiritual rises above the physical. The immediate needs of the body are forgotten when powerful spiritual interests are operating. When the disciples returned, and begged the Lord to eat, He replied, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.” His spirit had been deeply refreshed by His conversation with the Samaritan woman (John 4). In like manner Elijah rose above his bodily needs, and gave himself to prayer.
The knowledge that God means to give does not make prayer unnecessary. Thus in Ezekiel 36-37 Jehovah, after having declared in a very full way His purposes of grace concerning Israel, said, “I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.” Elijah bowed himself upon the earth, and put his face between his knees. A becoming attitude, surely! He who stood bold and erect before king, prophets, and people now takes the lowest possible place before God. His success had not elated him. His name would become famous when the report of Carmel got abroad throughout Israel, Judah, and other lands, but the prophet was not seeking glory for himself. He was just Jehovah’s servant, and had acted according to His word. Having fulfilled his commission, he got down low at the feet of Him who sent him.
Brethren, prayer is no light matter. It is a wonderful thing to enter into the presence of the Divine Majesty! His greatness and our littleness should be remembered; but oh the privilege in this day of being able to draw near to the Father in the name of the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit!
The prophet who, three and a half years previously, prayed “Withhold the rain,” now prays “Send the rain.” But even so (and doubtless Elijah had intercourse with Jehovah about the matter before the great gathering took place), the answer to his prayer was not immediate. He said to his servant (was it the widow’s son whom he had raised from the dead?): “Go up now, look toward the sea.” He returned saying, “There is nothing.” It frequently pleases God to test the faith of His people; but He encourages us to “continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving” (Col. 4:22Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; (Colossians 4:2)); also to pray always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (Eph. 6:1818Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; (Ephesians 6:18)). The widow of Luke 18:2-52Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: 3And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. 4And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. (Luke 18:2‑5) was probably not a mere parabolic character, but an actual person whom the Lord had observed. Her perseverance attracted Him. She had a grievance, and she took it to the judge; but he was not disposed to burden himself with the matter. But the woman persevered. Morning after morning when the doors of the Court were opened, in walked that widow! Let no reader misunderstand the application. God is not indifferent, and unwilling to bless; and certainly He would not despise a suppliant because she was poor and a widow; it is the woman’s perseverance that He bids us remember and emulate. One wonders what would happen if some person accosted us when coming away from a prayer meeting, and were to ask what we have prayed for? Could we always give a coherent answer? The widow could have given a very plain reason why she attended the Court.
Elijah said to his servant, “Go again seven times.” Seven is God’s number of perfection. The seventh time the young man said, “Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand.” The Lord Jesus said to the people in His day, “When ye see a cloud rise out of the West (and Elijah’s servant was looking towards the West) straightway ye say, there cometh a shower; and so it is” (Luke 12:5454And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is. (Luke 12:54)). The “man’s hand” is suggestive. Belshazzar saw the fingers of a man’s hand writing upon the plaster of the wall of his palace, and it pronounced his doom (Dan. 5:55In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. (Daniel 5:5)). There is a Man into whose hand God has committed both judgment and blessing for men; judgment bye-and-bye, blessing now (Acts 17:3131Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:31)). Israel having become repentant, and having judged the evil that was amongst them, blessing was now to be granted.
The little cloud was enough for Elijah. He sent a message to Ahab, who apparently had not yet left the mountain: “Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.” The longed-for rain fell heavily. “It came to pass in the meanwhile, that the heavens were black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.” Elijah was so overjoyed that he did a remarkable thing. “The hand of Jehovah was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel” (1 Kings 19:46). He must have been both tired and hungry, and he was probably a man advanced in years; yet he made himself the king’s footman in the joy of his heart. Things seemed to be getting right again amongst the people of God; and that was everything to the man who loved Jehovah and His people. In like spirit David danced before Jehovah with all his might when the Ark of the Covenant was carried up into Zion (2 Sam. 6:1414And David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod. (2 Samuel 6:14)). Neither prophet nor king thought of dignity on those great occasions! The Lord has told us there is joy in the presence of God over one sinner that repenteth; and John writing to his friend Gaius says, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth” (3 John 44I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. (3 John 4)). These are pure joys of which this unhappy world, in its estrangement from God knows nothing; but unless we, God’s saints, are walking in communion with Him, such joys will not appeal to our hearts as they should.