Testimony for the Church — No. 23

The Impenitent People Unsubdued by Judgments

All this evidence of God's justice and judgment does not awaken Israel to repentance. Jezebel is filled with insane madness. She will not bend nor yield to the God of Heaven. Baal's prophets, Ahab, Jezebel, and nearly the whole of Israel, charged their calamity upon Elijah. Ahab had sent to every kingdom and nation in search of Elijah, and he required an oath of the kingdoms and nations of Israel, that they knew nothing in regard to the strange prophet. Elijah locked heaven with his word, and had taken the key with him, and he could not be found. T23 34.1

Jezebel then decided, as she could not make Elijah feel her murderous power, that she would be revenged by destroying the prophets of God in Israel. No one who professed to be a prophet of God should live. This determined, infuriated woman executed her work of madness in slaying the Lord's prophets. Baal's priests, and nearly all Israel, were so far deluded that they thought if the prophets of God were slain the calamity under which they were suffering would cease. T23 34.2

But the second year passes, and the pitiless heavens give no rain. Drouth and famine are doing their sad work, and yet the apostate Israelites do not humble their sinful, proud hearts before God. But they murmur and complain against the prophet of God who has brought this dreadful state of things upon them. Fathers and mothers see their children perish with no power to relieve them. And yet they were in such terrible darkness that they could not see that the justice of God was awakened against them because of their sins, and that this terrible calamity was sent in mercy to them, to save them from fully denying and forsaking the God of their fathers. T23 34.3

It will cost Israel suffering and great affliction to bring them to that repentance necessary in order to recover their lost faith, and a clear sense of their responsibility to God. Their apostasy was more dreadful than drought or famine. Elijah waited, and prayed in faith through the long years of drought and famine, that the hearts of Israel, through their affliction, might be turned from their idolatry, to allegiance to God. Notwithstanding all their sufferings, they stood firm in their idolatry, and looked upon the prophet of God as the cause of their calamity. And if they could have had Elijah in their power they would have delivered him to Jezebel, that she might satisfy her revenge by taking his life. Because Elijah dared to utter the word of woe which God had bidden him, he had made himself the object of their hatred. They could not see God's hand in the judgments under which they were suffering because of their sins. They charged them to the man, Elijah. They abhorred not the sins which had brought them under the chastening rod, but hated the faithful prophet, God's instrument to denounce their sins and calamity. “And it came to pass, after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go show thyself unto Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth.” T23 35.1

Elijah hesitated not to start on his perilous journey. He had been hated, and hunted from city to city by the mandate of the king, for three years, and the whole nation had given their oath that the prophet could not be found. And now Elijah, by the word of God, is to present himself before Ahab. Through the apostasy of all Israel, the governor of Ahab's house has proved faithful to God, while his master is a worshiper of Baal. He had, at the risk of his own life, preserved the prophets of God, by hiding them by fifties in a cave, and feeding them. While the servant of Ahab is searching throughout the kingdom for springs and brooks of water, Elijah presented himself before him. Obadiah reverenced the prophet of God, and as Elijah sends him with a message to the king, he is greatly terrified. He sees danger and death to himself and also to Elijah. He pleads earnestly that his life might not be sacrificed; but Elijah assures Obadiah with an oath that he will see Ahab that day. The prophet will not go to Ahab but as one of God's messengers to command respect, and he sends by Obadiah a message, “Behold, Elijah is here.” If Ahab wants to see Elijah, he has now the opportunity to come to him. Elijah will not go to Ahab. T23 36.1

The king heard the message with astonishment, mingled with terror, that Elijah, whom he feared and hated, was coming to meet him. He had long sought for the prophet that he might destroy him, and he knew that Elijah would not expose his life to come to him, unless guarded, or with some terrible denunciation. He remembers the withered arm of Jeroboam, and he decides that it is not safe to lift up his hand against the messenger of God. And with fear and trembling, and with a large retinue, he hastens with an imposing display of armies to meet Elijah. And as he meets the man he has so long sought for, face to face, he dares not harm him. The king, so passionate, and filled with hatred against Elijah, seemed to be powerless and unmanned in his presence. As he met the prophet, he could not refrain from speaking the language of his heart, “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” Elijah, indignant and jealous for the honor and glory of God, answered the charge of Ahab with boldness, “I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord.” T23 36.2