THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
[p. 325] THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
1 Kings 17: 1; 1 Kings 18: 1 - 3; 1 Kings 19: 12 - 21
JT It is thought that we may be helped in considering the sovereignty of God. Elijah peculiarly represents this great principle, both in his ministry and in himself personally; and then it is seen negatively in him, because Jehovah says, “Yet I have left myself seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth that hath not kissed him”, 1 Kings 19: 18. This latter will come in at the end of our inquiry — what God does for Himself in His sovereign activities. It has a particular application now, in view of the revival in our own times. There has been a breakdown as in Elijah’s day, but God came in for the recovery of the truth and the great movement is continuing. He shows in 1 Kings 19 how He, in Elijah’s day, proceeded. Although Elijah had failed, God would use him again and would also use others — Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha.
WR Why does the Lord bring this thought of sovereignty in in connection with His initial public speaking in Luke?
JT He refers to both Elijah and Elisha. The thought of sovereignty has a great place in God’s testimony, and particularly in the well-known occurrence at Nazareth, where the Lord both read and spoke. He read a scripture, and then called attention to the principle of sovereignty. “There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, so that a great famine came upon all the land, and to none of them was Elias sent but to Sarepta of Sidonia, to a woman that was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and [p. 326] none of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian”, Luke 4: 25 - 27. The principle ran along as the testimony extended out to the gentiles through Peter, in Acts 10; and then through Paul.
RWS Why is Elijah introduced so abruptly in this book?
JT Well, I think what we are saying is important. God is not always obliged to give an account of His matters. Of Moses He gives an extended account, including his parentage and the circumstances of his infancy, but as for Aaron, we only hear of him as he was about eighty-three years of age. God’s ways involve suddenness in induction into the ministry of persons who have not been active in a prominent way. On the other hand, others are marked off from their childhood. Paul said of himself, “But ... God, who set me apart even from my mother’s womb”, Galatians 1: 15. But it is said of Elijah, “And Elijah the Tishbite” (his first introduction) “of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, As Jehovah the God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except by my word”, chapter 17: 1. Although this is the first mention of him, it is indicated that he had earlier secret history with God. James tells us that he had prayed about the rain.
WWM Do you think in regard to Elijah, when God tells him that he is to anoint the king of Syria, the king of Israel, and the prophet Elisha, that He is suggesting His sovereignty in relation to every sphere of the world?
JT Quite so; it comes out here in these two men: Hazael and Jehu, neither of whom was yet much known, and then the third, Elisha, also obscure; but, as you say, they represent different spheres of human life.
RWS Do public conditions in the world and the general state of the brethren in any way bring to light or influence God’s sovereignty? Do worldly conditions [p. 327] amongst the saints and idolatry cause God to bring in His vessels chosen sovereignly?
JT There can be no doubt but that He is ever ready to resort to sovereignty, and the conditions you allude to, seen here, require a prophet; so that we have a man not hitherto mentioned, who speaks of himself to the leading man, Ahab, and declares that there should be no rain nor dew except by his word. Why should one man be brought forward in this way? Why did God not just say that there should be the withholding of rain and dew for a given time? But it is not that. It is except by the prophet’s word, “As Jehovah the God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except by my word”, chapter 17: 1. It is not exactly a question now of God, or even of rain, but of who this man is. Who is this man? Why should he speak so confidently?
FHL Just what is the link with such a man being raptured, and then appearing on the holy mount and, according to Malachi, appearing in service in the day to come?
JT That brings to light his after history, showing that God can overcome a failure in a brother whom He had sovereignly used, and that He could use him afterwards; He could use him even after he had handed in his resignation. Elijah went all the way to Horeb to do this, as if he felt he should signalise the act by being at the mount of God. And God might have allowed the matter to thus stand, but He did not. He used Elijah again, as we have seen, to anoint these three men, and He used him again in various other services, and then He took him up to heaven. Later he comes out on the mount of transfiguration, and then again, as you say, he is sent to turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers. I think all this should be very encouraging to us who have some little part in [p. 328] the service. I am not, of course, suggesting that we should fail, but even if we do, God can take us on again according to His rights in mercy.
AC That is what Ananias had to learn. He reminded the Lord that Saul had persecuted the assembly, but he had to learn the sovereignty of God in selecting him, did he not?
JT Quite so; he could not abide the thought that such a man as Saul could be used, but the Lord says, “This man is an elect vessel to me”, Acts 9: 15. That meant that sovereignty entered into His choice.
TEH Does the matter of praying enter into what is before us, because Elijah evidently prayed twice in relation to this great exercise?
JT Quite so; and we are not told about his prayers as to the rain until we come to the New Testament. How much God can hold back, and how much He has held back! For instance, we hear nothing in Genesis of Enoch’s prophecy, but we hear about it in Jude. And the names of the servants of Pharaoh who withstood Moses are not given until we come to the New Testament: Jannes and Jambres. How much God can keep back, and yet, according to His wisdom, how much He has told us beforehand!
JTJr Elijah’s word in chapter 17: 1 is authoritative. There must have been something behind the words to enable him to be so bold.
JT Times arise when we must have authority in the ministry; so it is said that the Lord spoke with authority — “For he taught them as having authority”, Matthew 7: 29. Surely it is part of God’s sovereign right to bring forward a man who can do that. It required boldness to stand up to this king. He was a wicked man but still a man that might be feared, but here is a man who stands up and says to him, “There shall not be dew nor rain these years, except by my word”. But, as we have noted, he prayed. That part was then secret. But had he not [p. 329] been a praying man, you can hardly assume that he would have such boldness. He had had to do with God in prayer, and God had had to do with him in appointing power.
APT The Lord said to Ananias, of Paul, “Behold, he is praying”, Acts 9: 11. I suppose that essential characteristic was anticipated in his appointment.
JT That he prayed was the Lord’s recommendation of Saul to Ananias.
AAT I notice in Luke 4 that the Lord spoke with authority and with power. Does that combination come in here — that Elijah had authority and also power in connection with the rain?
JT Yes. He had power with God and with man. The Spirit of God reserves the account of the prayers until New Testament times. Evidently James was suitable to speak of the great power Elijah had through prayer. Even a matter like the account of a prayer might require a person who could speak of it.
FHL Elijah “prayed with prayer”.
JT Yes. There is a good deal of criticism about things current at the present time. Among them are the length of prayers in our meetings, and absenteeism from local gatherings by brothers who are away preaching. The local position is weakened by their almost constant absence. Of course, gift divinely provided should be used, but care for the assembly is also needed and it should not be neglected. Eldership and gift may be in the same brother and they should not overshadow each other. But the matter of Elijah’s prayer should not be regarded as a mere incident. The fact that he had “prayed with prayer” and with great results, and that it is not related in Scripture until James, shows that there must be something special in it. It is clear that God keeps things back until the time arrives in which [p. 330] they can be brought forth with most profit, and by the suitable person.
FNW Why is there more said in the historical record about the second prayer, when the rain came?
JT When on Carmel Elijah put his face between his knees, you mean? That incident is to be noted. He had already said “There is a sound of abundance of rain”. The general thought, however, was kept back. “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing; but the glory of kings is to search out a thing”, Proverbs 25: 2. It was the glory of God to conceal for all those centuries the fact that Elijah prayed with prayer that it should not rain. “Elias was a man of like passions to us, and he prayed with prayer that it should not rain; and it did not rain upon the earth three years and six months; and again he prayed, and the heaven gave rain”, James 5: 17, 18. God is showing that it was not an ordinary prayer. It was a prayer to be regarded in a special way. Therefore, not only the words, but the spirit of prayer, I would think, is involved.
ANW What does James refer to when he speaks of him as a man of like passions to us? Does that mean he is capable of failure?
JT Quite so; not like the Lord Jesus who was a divine Person, nor even an angel. I suppose it is a reminder that if there is need of praying, we should pray. A matter concealed by God so many centuries involves glory, and it is glory for kings to search it out. That is the idea of what we are trying to do today. And the searching brings out what a man Elijah was. Surely all this is intended to come into our prayer meetings at the present time.
TEH Elijah directed his servant to look toward the sea seven times, and the seventh time he saw the cloud. This must have had a forceful effect on his soul.
JT It shows that he would wait on God in his exercises. “And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he bowed down on the earth, and put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time that he said, Behold, there is a cloud, small as a man’s hand, arising out of the sea”, chapter 18: 42 - 44. That would show that he did not stop too soon. Paul said he sought the Lord three times about a certain thing. And the Lord Himself prayed three times to His Father that if it were possible, the cup might pass from Him. Elijah sends seven times. I suppose there is something in it for us to learn as to our prayers. If we do not get an answer the first time, ask twice or more. If kings are searching out they will find something; and that is what we are seeking as to Elijah’s prayers. Clearly they were spiritual and urgent.
GL Should we not know whether prayer should be persevered in?
JT Well. John says, “There is a sin to death I do not say of that that he should make a request”, 1 John 5: 16. But he also says, “And this is the boldness which we have towards him, that if we ask him anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him” (verses 14, 15).
FNW In verse 41 we read that Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain”.
JT Yes; the “sound” would be assurance that rain was coming, and of course that encouraged him in his prayer.
RWS Would praying three times refer more to what is personal, and the seven times allude more to something that would be for [p. 332] the assembly?
JT Well, the example the Lord furnishes in Gethsemane and Paul’s remark as to the thorn in the flesh would somewhat support that. If, as so often happens, you are not getting what you ask for, you learn that you are not to get it and you stop praying for it. Paul decided that the thorn in the flesh was not to be removed, and he ceased praying for its removal. Clearly there are conditions like that. This, however, needs spiritual discernment.
ANW And there are other matters which may involve the assembly and you give Him no rest.
JT Quite so; you keep on asking for certain things all the time; indeed we are enjoined to “pray unceasingly”, 1 Thessalonians 5: 17. That is a general word to us, but then John helps us as to what can or cannot be prayed for. In one case he is indefinite: “I do not say of that that he should make a request”. That is for you to decide. Many ask counsel about this and that, and it is evident that they have not been definitely with God about it. In such cases it is wise to cast them on God so that they may arrive at the truth as worked out with Him. “If any one of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all freely and reproaches not, and it shall be given to him”, James 1: 5.
FHL When Abraham prayed about Sodom, he asked six times.
JT Yes; God did not stop, but Abraham did when he got down to ten righteous. The incarnation of Christ shows how much can be effected on account of a Righteous Man.
RWS Would there be something important in Elijah’s name, meaning “whose God is Jehovah”? I suppose that suggests that if this name characterised us we would not be unduly seeking counsel of others; we would have the answers ourselves from God.
JT That is right. There are many questions being asked, and of course we should be ready to help [p. 333] each other, but very often one feels it is right to put the thing back on the person who is seeking counsel: he has access to God and the circumstances are immediately his. Why should God pass him by?
Now, to get on with our subject, we cannot speak in detail of Elijah’s history, but chapter 17 certainly opens up many precious suggestions as to one in the Lord’s service, and how God in His sovereignty prepares the way for him, telling him where to go, and how he will be provided for. Then chapter 18 says, “And it came to pass after many days, that the word of Jehovah came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself to Ahab”. That would be a deep concern to the prophet — “Go, shew thyself”, for Ahab had power in his hand to do him harm. One is challenged as to what his appearance suggests to others; how it affects others.
JTJr Do you have in mind that the man himself was in the full power of his gift, because the chapter brings out the wisdom he had and the power there was in what he said, whereas all this changed in chapter 19? I wondered whether the gift is included in the person. He shows himself.
JT Well, it is really a challenging matter — “after many days”. It reverts to his experiences at the Jordan and at Sarepta; what exercises he had for a whole year in this woman’s house, and what he was conscious of in his own experience with God in it all; what he had to go through, especially in relation to the widow herself and her son. And now after all these “many days” what is he thinking about as to himself? Has he grown, and has he more confidence in his service than the man whom he faces? He had previously spoken to Ahab, and now what will be the outcome of showing himself to Ahab? God is acting sovereignly and in persons who could express the idea of his sovereign activities. Is this vessel suitable? Is he one that God can rely upon? How [p. 334] would he affect Ahab? What impression would he make on Ahab? We have also the strengthening word to Elijah, “And I will send rain upon the face of the earth” (verse 1). There is much that should be helpful to us all as to the personal consciousness we may have of what we are as vessels. You may say, I do not want to think of myself, but God is thinking about you as one of His vessels, and each of us is to consider how we represent God in what we are — what we are by His grace.
DP I was wondering whether this second approach of Elijah to Ahab would require more courage on his part than the first one.
JT Quite so; I was thinking of that. “Go, shew thyself to Ahab” — the great monarch, as we might call him, for the moment. And then we have to think of Elijah, what he had been privately, and how he is to show up in the presence of Ahab.
RWS He had been, according to chapter 17, suffering as in the public conditions due to the famine, and then he is praying publicly in chapter 18. Would that equip him morally to face Ahab?
JT I think that is the way to look at it — his extraordinary experience with the ravens at the Jordan, and then the experience at Sarepta with the woman whose son was restored, which apparently he had to go through to reach the divine result. Now it is a question of the man himself as having experienced all this. Jehovah said, “Go, shew thyself to Ahab”. Then we have the matter of Obadiah, and what kind of man he was; how he had continued with Ahab, but he thought of the servants of Jehovah, the prophets of God, and had kept them in a cave.
FHL Would Peter have anything of this in mind in Acts at the Beautiful gate, when he said, “Look on us”?
JT That fits in. So it is a question of what [p. 335] impression any one of us would make as a representative of God in His service.
DP Is the personality of Elijah involved in his showing himself?
JT It is personality. We do not want to be egotistical, of course, but at the same time there is the idea of your ego; “I, myself”; what you are in this sense in the testimony of God. The Lord calls Paul an “elect vessel to me”. So He would not be ashamed of him. What a man he was! How pleasing he must have been to the Lord!
FNW He could say to Agrippa, “Such as I also am”.
GVD Is there not in a measure some of this going on now, this showing ourselves before kings, in the way in which our younger brethren are being called upon in a public way?
JT That is the idea, that they are called upon to show themselves before persons of distinction. We might call them “kings” because they are representative of God in an administrative way; and the brothers in the forces are representative of God in a spiritual sense.
JHH Was Obadiah not up to showing himself?
JT You will notice that the Spirit of God gives us a record about him first. “And Ahab called Obadiah, who was the steward of his house”; and now we have a bracket: “(Now Obadiah feared Jehovah greatly; and it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of Jehovah, that Obadiah took a hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and maintained them with bread and water)”, chapter 18: 3, 4. That is put down there. And then the Spirit proceeds with the narrative, in which we are told more about this man. Later he tells us about himself, which is remarkable. When he meets Elijah, he says, “Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of Jehovah, how I hid a hundred men of Jehovah’s prophets by fifty in a cave, and maintained them with bread and water?” (verse 13). He was conscious of being a man of note; that he had done something. He had hid one hundred prophets in a cave, and was saying to Elijah, Do you not know that? Of course, we must note that here Obadiah is concerned about his life.
TEH We may be able to help our young brothers as to what they put down on paper, but they will have to appear themselves, counting on God in view of their own experience with Him relative to it.
JT Yes. They are summoned to the Board and asked questions, and it is a very real test, but I think God is greatly interested in what comes out.
DP Do the sovereignty of God and the government of God run along together?
JT Quite so; that is what enters into the whole history. What a man Jehovah had in Elijah, and what a man Jehovah is dealing with in Ahab! He has chosen His man to deal with him, and he is successful.
TEH Do you understand by “my word” that it is left with the prophet?
JT It is to bring out, I think, the man himself; that he could say that; it must involve that he had to do with God, just as Moses had to do with God. Elijah had to do with God in prayer, and it characterised him — “whose God is Jehovah” is the meaning of his name.
RWS Does sovereignty apply to gift or to the whole vessel?
JT To the whole vessel. Balaam said some of the most wonderful things, but there was nothing in the vessel at all. It is God taking up any vessel and compelling him to serve, but that is not the idea in Elijah. He is formed secretly — “whose God is Jehovah”. That could not be said of Balaam or anybody like him.
[p. 337] I think we might now refer to chapter 19, to the remnant that God had reserved to Himself, of which apparently Elijah did not know — a humbling thing.
JTJr Did you connect Elijah’s breakdown with the present position?
JT Yes. I think there is at this moment a striking counterpart to it. We may well thank God for it in this broken day. God is still carrying on His testimony, and it is through the persons He has reserved for Himself.
APT Verse 9 says, “And behold, the word of Jehovah came to him, and he said to him, What doest thou here, Elijah?” And in chapter 17 it also says, “And the word of Jehovah came to him” (verse 2).
JT This chapter is remarkable as bringing out how far the servant had gone. He is failing, and God is saying to him, I am going to care for you even in the failure. “And Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, So do the gods to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time! And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. And he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a certain broom-bush, and requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough: now, Jehovah, take my life; for I am not better than my fathers. And he lay down and slept under the broom-bush” (verses 2 - 4). I just refer to the earlier remarks of the Spirit about his failure; how God follows him up. God is saying to us, He is an elect vessel, but he is failing, and I am going to go with him — a very touching thing. He provides for him two meals in one day, and Elijah went in the strength of that food for forty days to mount Horeb. Elijah is resigning his commission. But God is, we may say, going through with him, and so he becomes reinstated. With a view to this we have the three [p. 338] elements of divine power mentioned: the wind, the earthquake and the fire, and then it is said: “And after the fire, a soft gentle voice” — a beautiful touch as to God’s patience with any vessel whom God has selected, who may have broken down. He is coming to him in the breakdown so as to carry him through.
ANW Do you look at the anointing of Elisha as a governmental answer to Elijah’s failure?
JT That Elisha was anointed first is presented as Elijah’s action without any reason given. It is remarkable that Elisha is the last mentioned but he is the first one that Elijah anoints. It is clear that Elijah is not governed by jealousy. If he were, he would not anoint first the one specified to be prophet in his stead. It seems as if God would leave it to him. What will he do now? Here are these three men, and he goes first to the one mentioned last, who is to be in his stead, as Jehovah says, “Go, return on thy way ... and ... anoint Hazael king over Syria; and Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah shalt thou anoint prophet in thy stead” — and he goes to anoint Elisha first. Jehovah does not tell him to do that.
GVD Would it suggest that God’s first thought in sovereignty is the welfare of His people?
JT That is what comes out, and the moral greatness of the man is again coming into evidence; there is power in his mantle, and the manner of his approach to Elisha brings this fact out. He does not say anything to him; he simply casts his mantle on him, and Elisha is influenced by it.
WWM Would you say that God can help in weakness, but not where there is will at work?
JT Yes.
FHL God telling him that He has seven thousand left in Israel that had now bowed to Baal must have affected [p. 339] the prophet.
JT Yes. That is another matter that enters into the present time — what God had reserved for himself. And they belonged to Israel.
WR That is confirmed in Romans 11.
JT It was “the divine answer” to Elijah — a very fine phrase. “I have left myself seven thousand in Israel”. God has done it, and it is a principle that He maintains now. The remnant belongs to the original.
WR “Thus, then, in the present time also there has been a remnant according to election of grace”, Romans 11: 5.
JT And God says it is of the assembly. He is not going out of it. He is not choosing anything outside, but He has left it to Himself. Elijah has not known of it.
APT Would Elisha represent the principle of the election of grace?
JT Quite so. He represents grace. Elijah comes to him first with the idea of the power of his mantle. Elisha was a man in ordinary affairs. He was ploughing. Elisha says, I want to kiss my father and my mother, but Elijah says, “What have I done to thee?”
RWS Just where is Elijah adjusted? He had said, “I have been very jealous for Jehovah the God of hosts” (verse 14). And then in verse 15, “And Jehovah said to him, Go”. Is adjustment in that?
JT “Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus”. It is in the imperative, and then in verse 19: “And he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat”. That shows he is now moving according to the divine mind. He is moving under divine orders, and that is where you are conscious of being right.
Rem The first two names mentioned are more directly connected with judgment.
JT I think it is all ordered divinely, for the vessel of grace is anointed first, and brought into God’s service in the remarkable way mentioned.
[p. 340] Elijah casts his mantle on him. Elisha says to Elijah: “Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and I will follow thee”. But notice, he had left the oxen and had run after Elijah. There is movement with him, and then Elijah said, “Go back again; for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took the yoke of oxen, and killed them, and boiled their flesh with the implements of the oxen, and gave to the people, and they ate. And he arose and went after Elijah” (verses 20, 21). Instead of going to kiss his parents he is now providing for the people. These things mark Elisha’s induction into the service. Elijah had already gone back into it himself, and Elisha is now brought into it. He is formally in the testimony, in the system of things that God has inaugurated. The system has not been abrogated but still stands, and the persons who are reserved for God belong to it.
FNW The one who is chosen sovereignly himself does well to recognise God’s sovereignty in others. Paul in 2 Timothy, in speaking of Demas’ defection does not overlook the fact that there were those who were servants of God. He even tells Timothy to bring his cloak.
JT Quite so; and in the cloak there is the suggestion of a link with Elijah. Elijah’s cloak would point to the measure of a man needed for the continuance of the testimony.
JTJr I suppose the power of the cloak came up in regard to the selection of Silas and the rejection of Mark. Personality came out in the fact that it would preclude personal feeling again governing the ministry as in the case of Mark.
JT Paul directed Timothy to bring Mark for he was profitable to him for ministry. Mark had left Paul, but he is restored now. The idea of the seven thousand that Jehovah had left for Himself would be that they are true and God is carrying on with them.