FAMINE "IN THE DAYS OF ELIAS"
FAMINE “IN THE DAYS OF ELIAS”
JT The New Testament alludes to this section of scripture more than once, and throws light on it, especially the reference to it in James 5:17: “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, and the earth caused its fruit to spring forth”. James brings it into our own times, and shows how famine or similar circumstances may arise and come about in the world in answer to prayer; that is, the Lord’s people may take account of things from God’s point of view and pray. The answer may be in the form of certain governmental conditions arising and affecting the saints who go through those circumstances as Elijah did according to our chapter. Then further, prayer by Elijah brings about rain, and so the cessation of the famine or pressure.
ARS Is there any connection between Elijah’s prayer and the prayer in Revelation 6:10? It says, “And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O sovereign ruler, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth?”
JT I think there is. In that section of Revelation an angel appears at the golden altar, with “a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, that he might give efficacy to the prayers of all saints” (chapter 8:3), and special judgments follow; it may be that the fearful condition that now exists has arisen through the exercises of the saints; but then we have to go through the circumstances ourselves, as [p. 199] Elijah did.
ANW Was his prayer for dearth an index of his sympathy with God as to the condition of the people?
JT Clearly. James’s allusion to it gives us facts further to those we get here. He tells us Elijah prayed, which would direct the mind to Elijah’s previous history — to what his relations with God were. The state of the nation at that time is aptly described in verses 29 - 34 at the end of chapter 16. These verses give us the unprecedented state of wickedness in Ahab and the nation of Israel, and James’s allusion to the prayer of Elijah would show that he had been with God with regard to it.
AFM It says of Elijah: “He prayed with prayer that it should not rain”. (James 5:17).
JT That would show that he had learned how to pray.
AFM He would present intelligently before God what was needed.
JT I think so; what James says would indicate Elijah’s secret history, which the Old Testament does not disclose. A disciple said to the Lord, “Lord, teach us to pray”, (Luke 11:1). Elijah had learned how, in that he prayed with prayer. If you take account of the existing conditions and his secret history with God thus indicated, I suppose it would give him the moral power that is shown in his first statement: “As Jehovah the God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except by my word”. Why did he not say, “... except by Jehovah’s word” It shows he had acquired confidence in his history with God, also that he was in conscious spiritual dignity as commissioned of God, like Peter, who, with authority, said in his first sermon, “Give heed to my words”, (Acts 2:14). We might say, “Why did he not say, ‘listen to the gospel’?” It indicates a [p. 200] previous history with God, and involves moral power as in possession of a divine commission.
ANW It would appear that it needed more spiritual energy to pray for a dearth than it did to pray for the rain. Scripture says he prayed for the rain, and it came; but it says he prayed with prayer for the dearth.
JT It would show that he had an understanding of what was requisite to meet the occasion. This chapter shows that Elijah shared in the sufferings involved in the famine. What God does in this way should direct us to consider what have been our burdens as before the golden altar. We do not always stop to think of the consequences of what we ask. God is coming in in an unexpected way, I believe, but none the less effectively. He is working out His thought, but His people have to go through things with the rest; we must not seek to avoid the consequences of our prayers.
WB-w Do the altar set up to Baal and the rebuilding of Jericho represent two systems of evil in the world today?
JT Yes. The idolatrous system is connected with Jezebel. It is amplified as we see in the address to Thyatira. The rebuilding of Jericho would be the revival of the world in the current profession of Christianity. It is the bringing back of ancient conditions through modernism. It seems to be the full limit of lawlessness, and is mentioned here in this sense by the Spirit of God.
AFM Would the introduction of Baal, or another lord, suggest insubjection to Christ at God’s right hand, and the rebuilding of Jericho, the world system adapting itself to the Christian profession?
JT I think so. Delivered believers can say, “Jehovah our God, other lords than thee have had dominion over us; by thee only will we make mention of thy name”, (Isaiah 26:13). The gospel brings in one Lord: “One Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him”,(1 Corinthians 8:6). Turning to Baal, or what corresponds to him today, is apostasy — giving up the Lord Jesus. Chapter 17 is occupied with Elijah’s own experience and the experience of the widow and her son; i.e., what is worked out before the open relief from God came. Chapter 18 brings out the overthrow of Baal. The people seized the prophets of Baal, and Elijah slaughtered them; that is, the people were brought into the judgment of Baal, and then the rain came.
JS The only way to meet the extreme lawlessness as stated in chapter 16 would be God’s severe governmental dealings.
JT Yes. In the current pressure it is not that the world will be overthrown outwardly. The intent is that it may be overthrown in the saints. God is aiming at the deliverance of His people and making way for the testimony. If not all, some of God’s people, now in the world, will be delivered from other lords who have dominion over them.
JS Elijah would represent the man of God, who is in the secret of God’s mind, and what is necessary to meet the extreme conditions.
JT That is the idea. We have no notice of him previously; he is introduced here in a way that is very significant, showing that God prepares His vessels secretly. We may expect Him to act thus, for He loves His people and will always come in for them. One prepared of Him has moral weight and sensibilities. It is important to notice that Elijah had to go through much exercise before anything was done with the prophets of Baal. We also have to experience the consequences of what God may order in His wise government, to reach the deliverance desired.
HSD Elijah was told to hide himself. What would you say about [p. 202] that?
JT Verses 2 - 4 are very interesting, because you now get the word of the Lord. Elijah had called attention to what he said, but now there is a word from the Lord for himself, directing his movements. His prayer had brought in a condition of scarcity and want which he had to go through, beginning with hiding himself by the torrent Cherith.
CAM Before the public side in chapter 18, marvellous things are going on in secret.
JT Secret spiritual history preceding what becomes public is most interesting. In chapter 16 we have Ahab’s iniquitous conduct and that of Jezebel, but nothing is intimated as to what God was doing with Elijah, and yet He was preparing His servant for the great work He had in view for him to accomplish.
ARS He hid himself very successfully, because neither the king nor anybody else could find him. 1 Kings 18:10 says, “There is no nation or kingdom whither my lord has not sent to seek thee”.
ANW Sometimes they tell us we hide too much!
JT The Lord’s brethren said to Him, “Remove hence and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see thy works which thou doest; for no one does anything in secret and himself seeks to be known in public ... Jesus therefore says to them, My time is not yet come, but your time is always ready”, (John 7:3 - 6). I believe entrance into the truth of the epistle to the Colossians brings about a hiding of ourselves. It says, “Your life is hid ...”, (chapter 3:3). It is the hiding epistle, showing that God would keep His people out of sight in the sense of gaining for themselves a place of distinction here, not, of course, in a physical sense but morally: “For this reason the world knows us not”, (1 John 3:1).
AFM Is it on that principle the Lord hid the treasure in [p. 203] the field?
JT I think so. If the enemy had found it, he would have spoiled it or carried it away.
ABP Was the enemy rebuilding Jericho at Colosse?
JT Quite — through philosophy and ceremonialism.
AJD In what sense are we hid?
JT Well, I think the divine nature operating in us leads to the acceptance of obscurity, so that we are unknown by the world: “For this reason the world knows us not, because it knew him not”, (1 John 3:1). The divine nature in the believer as allowed its full activity brings us to a point of accepting a hidden position in relation to this world.
AJD So that people do not understand how or by what we live.
JT It is said of the Lord that by day He taught in the temple and by night He remained abroad on the mount of Olives; (Luke 21:37). They would not have found Him at the street corners speaking with others about current events. His living associations were with His Father. He was out of sight, morally, here. In John 18:19,20 it says, “The high priest therefore demanded of Jesus concerning his disciples and concerning his doctrine. Jesus answered him, I spoke openly to the world; I taught always in the synagogue and in the temple, where all the Jews come together, and in secret I have spoken nothing;” had the high priest asked Him where Helived, that would have been another matter; that life was not disclosed.
CB An obedient man like Elijah can go into hiding, and have power in prayer.
JT Yes; he was entirely obedient. It says, “He went and did according to the word of Jehovah; he went and abode by the torrent Cherith, which is before the Jordan”; that is a good location to abide in. “And the ravens brought him bread and [p. 204] flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the torrent”. He had contact, not with the brethren, but with these creatures of God, the ravens.
TA The service of the ravens was an evidence of the power of God. They would eat the flesh.
JT Yes, they are omnivorous. That they brought flesh (which naturally they themselves would eat) shows that God prepared them for their service to Elijah. We are reminded in this fact of what God can do.
AFM Do you think the experience that Elijah went through in chapter 17 is analogous to Colossian teaching? Jordan comes in morally in Colossians, and in this chapter we have death and resurrection in the widow’s son.
JT I think that is what we ought to come to if we are to get the benefit of the current pressure. We should then say like Habakkuk 3:17,18 “For though the fig tree shall not blossom, Neither shall fruit be in the vines; The labour of the olive-tree shall fail, And the fields shall yield no food; The flock shall be cut off from the fold, And there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my salvation”. It is much happier to reach the end in that way than to get outward relief; i.e., to reach the end through the work of God in your soul, so as to be in superiority to the famine, even if it continues. You are, by the grace and sympathy of Christ in victory.
TA Was there not further testing when the brook dried up?
JT That is what we experience; things get worse and worse, but God opens up another resource for you. God had His eye on Elijah in view of the work in him. The experience he was caused to pass [p. 205] through would form him, especially the testimony of death and resurrection. The power of God thus realized — it was exercised through him — would have an immense bearing on his service afterwards. It is similar to what came out in John 11, the great principle of death and resurrection; and reaching that experimentally (however bad things may be here) we are in victory.
ANW What is the Obadiah element as compared with Elijah?
JT It is an element that also exists and is of value, but this matter of chapter 17 is of chief importance; God would work out to result in each one of our souls what we are going through in all this pressure. If we come to resurrection we shall be in victory, and that is what Habakkuk’s testimony means. It is victory to overcome in such conditions, and is a much greater thing than to have the conditions altered.
APT So that when the brook dries up Elijah gets a fresh word from the Lord: “It came to pass after a while that the torrent dried up, for there had been no rain in the land. And the word of Jehovah came to him saying, Arise ...”. He was with God, and He comes in for him.
JT Exactly; God could speak to him at any time; and he moved according to the divine direction.
WB-w Suppose a brother or sister, living in a locality, has no employment, nor means on which to live, might it be the Lord’s thought for him to move elsewhere?
JT James 4:15 provides for that: “If the Lord should so will and we should live, we will also do this or that”. In obeying the word of God Elijah had the long journey to take from the Jordan to Zidon. What exercise he must have passed through as he traversed Canaan!
[p. 206] AFM And it was in view of abiding among the Gentiles; the honour conferred on the widow is remarked upon by the Lord in Luke 4.
JT How beautifully He touches on it! “... to none of them was Elias sent but to Sarepta of Sidonia, to a woman that was a widow”, (Luke 4:26). And this direction by Jehovah brings out obedience in another. He said, “I have commanded a widow woman there to maintain thee”. Then: “he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the entrance of the city, behold a widow woman was there gathering sticks”. Elijah is learning in these new circumstances; but the woman has to learn, too. The great principle of death and resurrection is to be worked out in her house.
WGT The woman would be impressionable; whereas, the ravens could not be.
JT Exactly; that is what we may see. It is now a question of another whom we may regard as a believer, and still another; each being the objects of divine care and teaching; it is a circle of companionship in a spiritual sense — the prophet, the woman, and her son. Elijah called to the woman and said, “Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand. And she said, As Jehovah thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse; and behold I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. And Elijah said to her, Fear not; go, do as thou hast said; but make me thereof a little cake first; and bring it to me; and afterwards make for thee and for thy son”. These verses present the situation just as it was. Elijah’s request would be a great test to the widow; she might well have said, ‘Why is he so selfish?’ But she had to learn that it was a question of divine right — that God must be first. All this is instruction for us, that we [p. 207] might learn how to make God everything, and not consider for ourselves.
JS Elijah typifies Christ here.
JT Yes; that is what came out; she had to learn that if God is first, the meal will not run out nor the cruse of oil fail. It is a question of giving God His place. Have we been considering for God in all our business calculations, or have we been considering only for ourselves — living in this world and enlarging our borders in it?
AP The Lord said, “Seek his kingdom, and all these things shall be added to you”, (Luke 12:31).
JT God’s rights are brought near to her in a very forceful way, because her natural thought would be, Why should not this be mutual? He does not say, “Let me share what you have”, but “Bring me water”, and “Make a little cake and bring it to me first”.
ANW Luke 4:26 shows us that Elijah’s being sent to the widow was really an honour. The Lord said, “To none of them was Elias sent but to Sarepta ...”.
JT That would come out afterwards, but I am sure she must have questioned as to Elijah having consideration first, for it looked so selfish; but it was a question of God’s rights, and that is what we have to come to in our present exercises.
WFK What would be the lesson for Elijah in being supported by a widow?
JT She would represent the absence of natural resources.
WFK It would be humiliating for him to go to a widow for support.
JT Yes — a man about to be dependent upon a widow who had nothing.. But the testimony at this juncture required such an experience, and the great power of God was manifested through it. Romans, as asserting the rights of God, enters into this chapter.
When God’s rights are not allowed in the soul, nothing more develops; but as they are allowed, you reach the idea of the little cake, and you come to the idea of the vessel, which Romans develops. Vessels are mentioned in our chapter; the oil is in a cruse, and the meal is in a barrel. The idea of the little cake would find its expression in Colossians 2:17; it is the whole thought — “the body is of Christ”. The little cake is a product. You must have not only meal but dough to make a cake of the meal; then the fire with which to bake it, that is the process.
AR In Romans you have everything in Christianity, in principle.
JT The cake is suggested in Romans 12:5 in “one body in Christ;” but we must go to Colossians and Ephesians for the full thought of the kneading and baking processes.
ANW Why is Elijah so considerate; he asked for a little cake?
JT That fits in with circumstances; it is similar to Jacob’s saying, “Buy us a little food”, (Genesis 43:2), as we noted on a previous occasion.
AFM The whole idea was before Elijah; it should be before us, too.
JT However small the cake may be, it is a question of the whole idea.
AP Does this fit in with the public position of the church today?
JT It is the idea of the church to which the Lord would ever bring us; however small our conception of it may be, we must have the complete thought before us. It works out in the saints in their local relations, however few they may be.
WB-w Three persons could work out the idea of the assembly — here we have Elijah, the widow, and her [p. 209] son.
JT Yes; two or three persons gathered together, as in Matthew 18.
AFM I suppose it is significant that there was one kind of food upon which Elijah fed as before Jordan, and then a different kind of food which he ate in the widow’s house. The “bread and flesh” was stronger food, and was required by Elijah to build up a constitution in view of accepting death; the food he ate at the widow’s house would be in view of sustaining one as risen with Christ.
JT Yes; first we have the cake, and the meal in the barrel and the oil in the cruse lasting for a year, and then death is brought in. The food by the brook does not point to the collective side of the truth, but to the individual side, although in an advanced sense, like John 6. The food in the widow’s house is collective and lasts to the end of the famine. As we have already remarked, the cake not only involves meal but dough, and then there is the baking — the work of the fire; all this leads up to the whole idea. In this sense it corresponds with the loaf in the Lord’s supper.
AR It is something like Gideon’s barley cake. This is the kind of food that would maintain us. Jehovah said to Elijah, “I have commanded a widow woman there to maintain thee”. The Lord said, “Take, eat: this is my body”, (Matthew 26:26). I suppose there is really no other food that will maintain us as this does.
JT It has been remarked often that Matthew and Mark, in speaking of the Lord’s supper, present the idea of food: “Take, eat: this is my body”; but Luke presents the memorial. There are two aspects of the Lord’s supper; there is food, “my body”, having in view the formation of the church; and then there is the memorial which Luke presents.
ANW Elijah asked her for “a morsel of bread”; was that to test [p. 210] her?
JT Yes; the idea is smallness, She answers, “As Jehovah thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse; and behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die”. We have remarked that the meal in the barrel and the oil in the cruse would bring in the idea of a vessel as presented in Romans. It is an individual thought as seen in the woman of Samaria; she left her waterpot and went away. She was a vessel, that is the individual side; but then the going and doing leads on to the church. Elijah asks for the water only, first; then, as the woman goes to fetch it he asks for the morsel of bread, and as she says she has not a cake, only meal in a barrel, he asks her to make a little cake for him first. Thus the truth including the church, is foreshadowed.
JS Mutuality is seen there.
JT It is a question of coming under divine direction, and the exercise from that culminates in the cake. I am not to be selfish, but own practically the rights of God. The widow was thinking of making something for herself and her boy. The process arising from Elijah’s request led to the cake, which is the point. We may be a good way on in the truth and yet be selfish; and if we are thus marked, we shall not reach the truth of the body, for the body implies that we are merged into what is greater than ourselves, and leads to the abandonment of all personal consideration, so that we consider for others. It is this consideration for others that leads one practically into the truth of the church.
ANW Does not Romans, properly received, give you the body?
JT You get the thought there, as was said, “We ... are one body in Christ”, but it does not go so far as Colossians, or even 1 Corinthians 12:13, where it is said, “In the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body”.
AFM What the widow learned with regard to her son as risen, would qualify her for the truth of the body, typically.
JT As she apprehended his death and resurrection, she would typically be wholly clear of the adverse influences spoken of in Colossians. The apprehension of being risen with Christ sets me entirely free, and enables me to enter into the truth of Ephesians, and to see the greatness of the church’s place. Christ is “head over all things to the assembly, which is his body” (Ephesians 1:22,23); the position is available now, and as risen and quickened with Christ I am able to take my place in it.
JS Would this widow represent the opposite of the professing church: “I sit a queen, and I am not a widow”, (Revelation 18:7)?
JT Yes; and I think she represents what leads up to the church, in the sense of believers being a vessel. We have the barrel and the cruse mentioned which would represent the idea of vessels containing something. Then we have the idea of unselfishness in the woman considering for Elijah; we are to think of others; nothing will bring us into the practical idea of the church quicker than that. The provision made for the believers in Judaea by those at Antioch well illustrates the point; unity was thereby promoted in this service of ministering in love to the Jewish believers.
WB-w The unselfish principle in the woman enabled her to abandon her idea of preparing food so as to eat and die.
JT Yes; it would lead her to give up such thoughts. It was illogical, as unbelief always is. We eat to live, not to die. We need to see the importance of thinking of others, however little we may have to dispense. Of another widow the Lord said, “This [p. 212] poor widow has cast in more than all”, (Luke 21:3). It was the attitude of her heart. Those who are ‘well off’ should give and give liberally, of course, but all should accept obligation to give. As with the Macedonians: “Their deep poverty has abounded to the riches of their free-hearted liberality”, (2 Corinthians 8:2). It is a most remarkable and stimulating statement. The widow of Zarephath is brought into this. Naturally she would say, of Elijah, ‘What selfishness on his part in asking me to give to him first, and I have only this little portion for me and my son!’ She had to learn that God must come first, and if first, then the saints also must come next.
AP The woman in John 4 left her waterpot; is she a type of our bodies being presented as a living sacrifice?
JT That is right; the body is a vessel, and that idea enters into Romans 12:5: “We, being many, are one body in Christ”. It takes form in persons who have resigned themselves unselfishly.
AJD Are you suggesting that one should put his last dollar in the box?
JT We are to be in accord with God; it is love’s way. The question is: How far am I prepared to go on the line of unselfishness and of love? As soon as we get on to the line of unselfishly giving, there will be enough and to spare; and it is not only a question of those giving that are well off, as was said, but I think the Lord would lay upon our hearts those parts of the letters to the Corinthians that relate to giving; He would bring them home to us. The direction in the first letter was to put by at home on the first day of the week; that is to say, the spirit of the first day of the week ought to induce giving. But in the second letter it was out of their deep poverty that their free-hearted liberality abounded.
APT In Luke 21 the Lord’s comment on the widow’s mites is a climax in connection with [p. 213] giving.
JT Yes; the Lord, having spoken of her giving, immediately proceeds to speak about the overthrow of the temple, indicating that the system at Jerusalem was not great enough for her. Giving up is one thing, but then there is the giving away, too. Barnabas had land and sold it; I think he would obtain a fair price for it, because it was a question of doing good with it; he sold the land and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet. He gave unselfishly and placed the gift where it would be of most service.
WB-w After Elijah’s service in the widow’s house, they ought to have had a good meeting in Zarephath!
JT Now we are getting to the practical side; they entered the realm of life. What a time they must have had! Elijah said, “See, thy son lives”. The Lord would lead us also, through the present pressure, into the sphere of life.
WB-w The oil, no doubt, would refer to the Spirit. What kind of food would the meal suggest to us?
JT It would allude to Christ’s humanity, to the way He would be represented in the idea of a vessel. A little meal in a barrel and oil in a cruse is Christ and the Spirit in the believer. It is the truth as presented in Romans.
WB-w The enlargement of the little that was there was miraculous.
JT Typically, it is church development in believers who are delivered; Christ is in them, however small the measure. “But if Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin, but the Spirit life on account of righteousness”, (Romans 8:10). I think that is in mind, and where it is practically known, you have church development or the basis of it. It is the Holy Spirit coming in in that connection, and in result you have [p. 214] a cake.
AFM Would these exercises at Zarephath be preparatory to Elijah’s showing himself to Ahab?
JT Well, you can understand what a man he was now. He had stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to Jehovah. How suggestive that is! “And Jehovah heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he lived”. What an experience that was! That holy man was representative of Christ, who identified Himself with us so that we should live. Elijah’s impress would henceforth be left upon the child.
CAM The widow went through a remarkable process in view of all this; the loss of her son brought a deep moral exercise into her soul, did it not?
JT You can understand how she went through death in her spirit, and how thoroughly Elijah entered into it. He stretched himself upon the child, and cried to Jehovah, and the child’s soul came into him again.
ANW In Acts 20 the apostle would lead up to the Ephesian side, in restoring Eutychus.
JT Yes; that was in view. The apostle enfolded him.
CB Would this speak of continuing, and not giving up until we get the results?
JT Exactly; we do not want to get anything less. John 11:4 brings out that: “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God”.
JEH The widow would not think of talking about dying now.
JS She is getting on to assembly lines, so to say — “Thy son lives”.
CAM It reminds one of the scripture that speaks of women receiving their dead by resurrection.
JT Just so. This wonderful testimony comes out, so that in the next chapter, as we have remarked, you have Elijah showing himself to Ahab. With all [p. 215] this behind him, how developed he was now! And then we have the slaying of the prophets of Baal, in which the people join. Then the rain came, for God came in, consequent on all this.
RAL Was the brook Kishon a good place to slay the prophets?,
JT Quite. “Elijah brought them down to the torrent of Kishon”. Kishon comes to light when Deborah sent for Barak to go against Sisera, and is dwelt upon in her song. It was a great means of dealing with the enemy, i.e., the army of Sisera.
AFM It says, “The torrent of Kishon swept them away”, (Judges 5:21).
CB Does this imply that if we get rid of the idols there will be blessing?
JT That is the point; are we facing things? Why is all this pressure upon us? Chapter 18 shows that the people, having judged idolatry, seized the prophets of Baal.
FHL So that this is the justification of prayer.
JT That is right; it is the moral justification of Elijah’s first prayer. The result is now reached, and he can pray again. That is what you get in chapter 18:42 - 45. The moral process we have spoken of ended in “a great pour of rain”!
AP We cannot expect the famine to be removed until we answer to the mind of God.
WB-w Elijah exposes the prophets of Baal in a public way before they are slain.
JT There is conviction and exposure here, you might say, where sin had existed; and that was accomplished in power. It is more public, like “those that sin convict before all”, (1 Timothy 5:20).
AFM The last verse gives the impression of triumph and victory: “And the hand of Jehovah was upon Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jizreel”.
JT What is stressed here is what God can do with one man; Elijah stands out as a marvellous type of man. The seven thousand have to be taken into account, but they did not come into the light of what is represented in the little cake, nor into the holy circle at Zarephath. That was a lowly hiding place where the “fellowship of life” was enjoyed. Neither had Obadiah part in that happy sphere, yet he did a very creditable thing — he fed one hundred prophets by fifty in a cave, showing he had some little idea of “a meeting” in doing so.
ANW He feared Jehovah greatly. You may find some of our brethren in religious systems pious and God-fearing, but, as you say, they miss the cake; they do not come into the light of that.
JT They may listen to the truth and, in a way, value it, but they do not come into it. You cannot but honour them, for they do good service to the Lord’s people, but they do not know anything about this little circle of life in the widow’s house.
AFM It is because of cowardice, no doubt, that they do not come out from religious associations and suffer for the Lord.
WGT Would Ahab represent christendom?
JT Yes. From now on this book teaches us a great lesson as to God’s patience with the professing system, but Obadiah is almost afraid to breathe. He would say, as it were, “If I go to Zarephath and link myself with those people, I shall lose my status in Israel”. That is the idea; people are afraid to lose some fancied advantage in the public body.
ABP They lack the spirit of widowhood.
JT Exactly; and there is a great deal of cowardice.
AJD People are afraid to lose their lives in order to find them.
JT Like the rich young man who went away sorrowful; he could not bear the loss of his means [p. 217] and the reproach of following Christ. Yet God took account of the “seven thousand in Israel”, and we must keep those represented by them constantly in mind also.
WB-w Were we more in the good of the circle of life, we should extend more help to those coming along.
JT Yes; but it is remarkable the number one has known, who come to the meetings and seem to enjoy the things of God, and then drop off. They are afraid of the consequences; the path is too narrow; there is no provision for the flesh in it, or allowance of it. There was no sense of the presence and power of God in the cave, as there was in the widow’s house.