INDIVIDUALITY
[p. 393] INDIVIDUALITY
James 5: 17, 18; 1 Kings 17:1; 1 Kings 17:20-24; 1 Kings 18: 36 - 46
I desire to speak about individuality in divine things. Each believer is, initially at least, to stand on his own feet, just as the boards of the tabernacle were made to stand up. Aside from this, there is no possibility of blessing in a spiritual sense, or of having any part in divine things. “He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him”, Hebrews 11: 6. This great matter must be taken up by each one individually.
Elijah is as good a representative of this feature of the truth as I know. His name signifies, Whose God is Jah (or Jehovah). Jah probably meaning God in the sense of what He is, God as Absolute. There is the historical God, speaking reverently; that is, God known in His ways here. Scripture contemplates His being regarded in this light, for we read of the encouragement of the Scriptures. They allude to God historically, how others knew Him; but then there is, Whose God is Jah, which goes further, and refers more to what He is in Himself. Of course, it is the same God, but the first refers to Him as known in His goodness and power and other attributes, while the other is God Himself viewed abstractly. That is, I apprehend, the root of all that we have in this remarkable saint and servant, Elijah the Tishbite. His God was God Himself. God said to Moses, when he inquired as to His name, “I AM”, not I was, or I shall be, but “I AM”. Elijah evidently had to do with God in that sense, for his name signifies it, and hence the originality of all that appears in him. Others followed, such as Elisha, who rather brought out the things he had learned from Elijah. Elijah is peculiarly original, and appears on the scene without any prophetic word preceding as in the case of Timothy, so that we need not inquire as to his [p. 394] parentage, or as to his training. The man is what he is, and really every christian has to come to that. What he has been may or may not be disclosed. In Elijah’s case it was not disclosed, but look at the man! Yet he is not a supernatural man, for were he such he would not be an example. He was a man of like passions as ourselves, so that we may all aspire to this as coming into the faith.
“He that cometh to God must believe that he is”, not simply that He was; that is true enough, you will come to what He was, but you must believe that He is, and that is what marked Elijah. That he had early history is unquestionable, and that it enters into his name is unquestionable, but the Spirit of God has drawn a veil over that, which we cannot penetrate. It is what he is, and so with everyone, what he has been, what his education may have been, is of very little consequence alongside what he is, and this stands in relation to what God is. As having to do with God the believer has to face the fact as to what he is, so the apostle says, “By the grace of God I am what I am”, 1 Corinthians 15: 10. He had been otherwise, he had been an insolent overbearing man, but by the grace of God he was not that now. It is the divine thought that everyone is to have a definite identity in the divine realm. You do not want to be one who passes in a crowd in the divine realm. What comes into mind in spirituality is definiteness and distinction — what a person is as knowable to God. You may say that God knows everyone, and that is a fact, but then we have this statement, “if any man love God, the same is known of him”. That kind of knowledge is a question of love. God, as it were, salutes you; He recognises you in the crowd. He picks you out. Everyone in heaven will have some such distinction, and now is the time to acquire that distinction. It is acquired on the principle of individuality in divine things. Each stands on his own feet, and has his own personal distinction, by the power of the Spirit of God.
[p. 395] As I said, Elijah had no recorded history; a veil is drawn over it. He is just Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead. The apostle James, hundreds of years after, referred to him as a man subject to like passions as ourselves, but then he says “he prayed”. It does not tell us about his first prayer, but his name meant that Jah was his God. He penetrated into the reality of the Deity, as far as the creature can.
I may say here for our instruction, that this is supremely seen in Jesus. It was He who said, “My God and your God”, but “My God” first. Why should I not understand Jesus’ God, if He is His God and my God? This has peculiar import now in our own times, when there is ofttimes great isolation, persons being excommunicated from the religious world. What intercourse there was between Jesus and His God as He prayed all night! Think of the experience, dear brethren. We take off our shoes from our feet in alluding to it, but is it not within our reach to inquire spiritually into this, and to enter a little, in the power of the Spirit, alongside of Jesus, who is our Mediator, into the knowledge of God in this way? The overcomer is to be made a pillar in the temple of His God, and the name of His God, and the name of the city of His God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from His God, are to be written upon him. These great features belong to the God of Jesus — God Himself — God as known by Christ as a Man down here.
Elijah is introduced to us abruptly; but James says he was not a supernatural man, but was like ourselves, and in truth God takes up such persons who are subject to the same kind of feelings and influences. We do not know what kind of man he may have been, only that he was a Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead. Here he is able to say to the king of Israel, “There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word”. What a man he is! He is having individual relationship and intercourse with God, or he [p. 396] could never speak in this way. God has taken him up, the same kind of man as ourselves. It shows what God can do; the works of God are manifest in him. So he said to this monarch, ‘There shall be no rain except at my word’. He does not say, Jehovah’s word. He was conscious of the moral power he had, as representative of God. Is that not to be envied and desired? James has it in mind in his last chapter for the readers of his epistle — a very wholesome, practical, and instructive epistle. James calls attention to Elijah, and he says he was a man of like passions to ourselves, but “he prayed with prayer”. I am dwelling on the point of prayer, for this is evidently the secret of his power. He had got to God Himself, not simply as known historically. He speaks of Him later on as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but it is his own God in these chapters, 1 Kings 17 and 18. I appeal to everyone as to whether He is your God. Is He Jah to you, or simply a God known historically? Do not misunderstand me, for He is the same God; but the more you know Him, the more you will know Him as He is in Himself. The living creatures in Revelation 4 say, “Who was, and who is, and who is to come”, but in chapter 1: 8, it is “Who is, and who was, and who is to come”. The more I advance in the knowledge of God, the more I say “who is” and “my God”. I also say, “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”, and moreover I can say, “God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel”, but I want to cherish that beautiful phrase, “my God”.
Paul says, “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus”, Philippians 4: 19. What a God He was to Paul! Like Paul, Elijah knew God, and so he comes out and speaks to a monarch. Elijah had no public history, nor does he pretend to have any status before this monarch, but look at him, and listen to him speaking to Ahab! “There shall not be dew nor rain ... but according to my word”. What a great man he is! I want to be something like that, a [p. 397] representative of God, not only in an official way, but in moral power. There is not a word said about this prayer in the Old Testament, but the truth is that he prayed with prayer to God, and there was no rain for the space of three years and six months.
The second word follows on from the seventeenth chapter. Elijah has not shown himself to Ahab yet, but in chapter 18 he is told to show himself to Ahab. That is another thing. If I have moral power and am able to speak to a monarch, the time comes when the Lord says, ‘Show yourself to him’, but much history has intervened. God will not ask me to show myself to people unless I am worthy of being shown, and that brings out much. The Lord said to the leper, “Go, shew thyself to the priest”. John the baptist was not shown immediately to Israel. It says that he was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel. He was brought up, as every believer’s child should be, as much as possible apart from that which ministers to the flesh. People give their children over to the world, by handing them over to be brought up in its ways. Not so with John the baptist; he was a child brought up in wilderness ways, until he was fit to be shown on God’s behalf. You may be a good society man, accepted among unspiritual people, but you are not fit to be shown on God’s behalf.
Here the time has come to end these sorrowful years of famine, and the Lord says to Elijah, “Go, shew thyself to Ahab”. In the meantime he has been living by the Jordan, he has been fed by ravens, and then the brook dried up, and he is sent to the widow of Zarephath; she has a little meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse, and she is gathering two sticks that she may go in and dress it for herself and her son, that they may eat it and die. That is her story. What an experience! He is being prepared to be shown to the monarch, not simply to speak to him, but to be sent as representative of God.
In the seventeenth chapter the woman’s boy dies. Elijah cries to God; it is a serious matter. I would seek to impress upon all of us the importance of secret relations with God Himself, and urgency in our prayers, so that we may appear in power before men, having individual distinction, so as to be representative of God before men.
He prayed and stretched himself on the child three times, and said, “O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again”, and it happened. This is written for the encouragement of christians on the lines of individuality in the things of God. The widow says, “I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth”. Such is the power of God in answer to prayer. Now God says, I am going to show you, not only to be listened to, but because of what you are. Is there a brother or sister who does not wish in their soul to be representative of God, and owned to be such?
Ahab had left God out altogether. He divided up the land. Obadiah going one way and Ahab another, to find a little bit of grass. Ahab was thinking only of the horses and mules — a pitiful state of things. Obadiah was a fine man, but he was on the wrong side, and there are many like him. How many there are today who are on the wrong side, looking for a bit of grass to save the horses and mules alive, when our business is to feed the people of God! He knew how to feed the prophets of God with bread and water, and God knew he was such a man as that; but he was on the wrong side. He had indeed fed the prophets by fifties; he did not crowd them. A man like that belongs to the fellowship, for he can feed the brethren, as the Lord Jesus did. He fed the people, making them sit down by fifties in a company. Obadiah knew how to do it, but he was on the wrong side, occupied in looking for grass for the world’s use. That is not a proper occupation for a man who knew how to feed the people of God.
[p. 399] May we be kept faithful to God and so be available to feed His people!
Now I come to the end, the final prayer in the eighteenth chapter. There are two prayers in this chapter, the first in regard to this great conflict into which he is drawn. Think of the power of this man; what a figure he is, coming down through the ages to us a mighty, valiant warrior of God, standing against Ahab and the eight hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and of the groves, who fed at Jezebel’s table! The secret of it is that he knew God. He pursued his individual relations with God and he prayed this prayer: “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel”. It is not now “my God”. He said that in the seventeenth chapter, but it is now Israel’s God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. If I am in public service, I must bring in God as known historically, with whom the people of God have had to do from the beginning. He is to be known as the same God, the God of Israel; so Elijah says, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant ... . Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God”.
It is not now that He is the God of Israel, but He is God. These people are brought back to God, not Elijah’s God exactly, but God. This is recovery, and by one man; so it is a question for everyone of what one man can do, developing individually with God, and maintaining prayerful intercourse with God. All things are possible with God, and the greatest things can be accomplished on these lines.
[p. 400] My final thought is the second prayer which James alludes to. We are not given the words, but the attitude of the man of God, down upon the earth with his face between his knees. How urgent and exercised he is! Israel was in famine, as the people of God are today generally. The matter is urgent; it must be faced at once; we must go the whole length with God. The first time may not bring an answer, nor the second, nor the third, but the seventh does; so, as the servant of Elijah looks out to sea, he sees a cloud the size of a man’s hand. “And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit”, James 5: 18.
My desire is to bring all of us into individuality in the things of God; not to make us independent, far otherwise, for as the boards of the tabernacle were made standing up, each was brought into relation with all the other boards. So it is as I pursue; I establish contact with God Himself, and hence this individual progress, and then victory and blessing. “The heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit”. How great a thing it is to have part in the service of God, prayerful intercourse with God Himself!