_To the Young_
'... I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth.--1 KINGS xviii.12.
This Obadiah is one of the obscurer figures in the Old Testament. We
never hear of him again, for there is no reason to accept the Jewish
tradition which alleges that he was Obadiah the prophet. And yet how
distinctly he stands out from the canvas, though he is only sketched
with a few bold outlines! He is the 'governor over Ahab's house,' a
kind of mayor of the palace, and probably the second man in the
kingdom. But though thus high in that idolatrous and self-willed court,
he has bravely kept true to the ancient faith. Neither Jezebel's
flatteries nor her frowns have moved him. But there, amid apostasy and
idolatry he stands, probably all alone in the court, a worshipper of
Jehovah. His name is his character, for it means 'servant of Jehovah.'
It was not a light thing to be a worshipper of the God of Israel in
Ahab's court. The feminine rage of the fierce Sidonian woman, whom Ahab
obeyed in most things, burned hot against the enemies of her father's
gods, and hotter, perhaps, against any one who thwarted her imperious
will. Obadiah did both, in that audacious piece of benevolence when he
sheltered the Lord's prophets--one hundred of them--and saved them from
her cruel search. The writer of the book very rightly marks this brave
antagonism to the outburst of the queen's wrath as a signal proof of a
more than ordinary devotion to the worship and fear of Jehovah. His
firmness and his religion did not prevent his retaining his place of
honour and dignity. That says something for Ahab, and more perhaps for
Obadiah.
Most of you believe that you ought to 'fear the Lord': but you are apt
to put off, and so I wish to urge on you that you should give your
hearts to Jesus Christ at once.