ELIJAH was a great Prophet of the Lord; and to him were given more
wonderful honours than were conferred on any other Prophet.
We talk much now-a-days about deeds of bravery, and about the honours
which are given to the men who have thus distinguished themselves;
and these honours are given them by our King, and the brave deeds are
spoken of from one end of the world to the other!
You will like to know what honours Elijah had?
He was allowed to go to Heaven without dying; and he was allowed long
afterwards to come back from the glory to talk with the Lord Jesus on
the Mount of Transfiguration.
These wonderful "distinctions" were not given him by any earthly king,
but by God Himself; and as we follow out the story of Elijah's life, we
shall ourselves, perhaps, have a peep into that glory which Jesus is
even now preparing for those who love and follow Him.
I have read that Elijah's name means "My God is Jehovah!" and it
seems to me that this is a brave motto for each one of us, "My God is
Jehovah!" "For in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength."
The first mention we have of the Prophet Elijah, who came from the land
of Gilead, was in the reign of King Ahab.
God chose Elijah, who was very brave, to rebuke the king for his many
acts of wickedness. We read that Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God
than any of the other kings before him.
One day Elijah went to Ahab and told him: "As the Lord God of Israel
liveth, before Whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these
years, but according to my word."
This loss of rain was doubtless sent as a great punishment for the
idolatry and sin into which the whole people of Israel had fallen.
Then the Word of the Lord came to Elijah, saying, "Turn thee eastward,
and hide thyself by the brook Cherith that is before Jordan."
God did not forget His faithful servant in the famine that was coming;
and He told him He had commanded the ravens to feed him, and that he
would be able to drink of the brook.
Here, amidst the rocks and fastnesses, he was safe from the wrath of
Ahab and of Jezebel, Ahab's wife, who hated Elijah with all her heart.
And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread
and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook.
But when the hot days came the brook began to grow less and less,
because there had been no rain, and at last the brook dried up;
and then the Word of the Lord came to him again: "Arise and go to
Zarephath, near Sidon: I have commanded a widow woman to feed thee
there."
So Elijah went the long journey to Zarephath, and just outside the
gate he saw a woman gathering sticks; and, too thirsty to wait till he
reached her side, he called to her: "Fetch me, I pray thee, a little
water to drink!"
And as she was going to fetch it, he called again: "And bring me a
morsel of bread in thine hand!"
But she quickly answered: "I have not any bread! I have nothing but a
little meal in the bottom of the barrel, and a little oil in a cruse;
and I was gathering a few sticks to bake a little loaf for me and my
son, that we may eat it and die!"
The famine was so bad in the land that this was the last bread that
poor widow would be able to get.
But God knew all about it, and He had arranged it all in His loving way.
So Elijah, hungry and thirsty as he was, gave her God's message.
"Fear not," he said; "go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof
a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and
for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel: The barrel of meal
shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day
that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth."
And she went and did as the Prophet told her, and he, and her house,
had enough to eat all the while the famine lasted.
And since then there are many widows, and many distressed and anxious
families, who have found the God of Elijah the same loving, providing
God that this poor widow did.
But by and by there came a still harder trial to that widow's heart.
Her precious little boy, who had been kept alive all through the
famine, was very ill, and died.
Then the poor widow was utterly hopeless, and she blamed Elijah and
said it was his fault that this dreadful sorrow had come to her.
Doubtless Elijah had told her much about the Holy God who cannot bear
sin, and she began to look at her past life, and one particular sin
came up before her! She told him that he had come to bring this sin to
remembrance, and to slay her son!
But Elijah said, "Give me thy son." And he took him out of her bosom
and carried him up to the loft where he lived, and laid the child upon
his own bed.
And Elijah cried to the Lord. (You see he was a man who lived in close
touch with God!) And he said: "O Lord my God, hast Thou brought evil
upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?"
Then he stretched himself upon the child three times. And again he
cried to the Lord God, and said: "O Lord my God, I pray Thee, let this
child's soul come into him again!"
"And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came
into him again, and he revived."
"And Elijah took the child, and brought him down . . . and delivered
him unto his mother, and said, 'See! Thy son liveth!'"
"And the woman said to Elijah, 'Now by this I know that thou art a man
of God, and that the Word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.'"
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