Revivals of the Bible

Ernest Baker

In the reign of Ahab and Jezebel the children of Israel were becoming confirmed in idolatry. For over fifty years the people had been departing from the old faith, until the worship of Baal had become the State religion. For the first time in their history their ancient faith was persecuted. Men worshipped Jehovah with their lives in their hands. The prophets of the Lord were hunted down and put to death. One hundred of them were saved through the help of Obadiah, a friend at court, who hid them in a cave and supplied them with bread and water. The people were contented with this state of things. The country was prosperous; new towns were built; large palaces, public buildings, and temples were erected; and the prestige of the nation amongst the surrounding peoples was high.

One man, however, was studying his Bible. It was a small book compared with the one we have to-day. In it he found these words: “It shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto My commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your heart, and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full. Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; and then the Lord’s wrath be kindled against you, and He shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you.” Under the influence of this, Elijah “prayed earnestly that it might not rain.” It was an awful prayer, but he saw that if the people were to be won back to the faith of their fathers they must reap the consequences of their idolatry. They were not open to argument. They were utterly indifferent to the claims of God, and would not give them a moment’s thought. It was imperative that they should find the way of transgressors to be hard; and so Elijah prayed that God’s Word might be fulfilled.

When he was sure that what the Lord had said would come to pass he publicly announced the course of events. In the court of the king he declared : “As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.” And then under command from God he retired from public life.

For three and a half years the Word of God was not preached. There was a famine of the Word. And there was also another famine. The logic of events was to make its appeal to the people. A drought settled upon the country. The land gradually dried up. The sky, for month after month, remained a pitiless blue. The crops failed; the cattle and sheep pined away; the people sickened and died. Ahab had the country scoured in vain to find provision for his horses. Under the stress of these years a scapegoat had to be found, and Elijah was denounced as the cause of all the trouble. There was not a place known to the king to which he did not send for the prophet. A price was upon his head. But the judgment was doing its work. As the hearts of the people fainted within them they were being prepared to hear God’s message. They were getting hungry for comfort and help; and when the time was ripe Elijah was bidden to show himself to Ahab. This he did. But the king had no power to arrest him. There was a power with him that made the king tremble in his presence. The subject commanded the ruler. Under the direction of Elijah, Ahab summoned a national assembly. The people gathered in their thousands, and Elijah appealed to the masses direct with his message. “How long,” he said, “halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him.” To this there was no response. “The people answered him not a word.” Then he proposed a test. Two bullocks should be selected for sacrifice. One should be prepared by the prophets of Baal, the other by himself. These should be placed on altars with wood, but no fire. “And,” said the prophet, “call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord: and the god that answereth by fire, let him be God.” To this the people agreed. The bullocks were brought, and the prophets of Baal were given the first opportunity of obtaining the desired effect. For hours, in the hottest part of the day, with the burning rays of the sun shining upon their offering, these men, 450 in number, arrayed in all the paraphernalia of their office, careered and danced around their altar, crying, “O Baal, hear us! O Baal, hear us ” Tricks were impossible in the daylight, and under the eyes of such a multitude. As the hours dragged on the excitement rose, and in their frenzy they jumped upon the altar, cried aloud, and cut themselves with knives. But “there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.”

Then Elijah called the people near to him. The altar of the Lord, which was broken down, was repaired; the sacrifice was made ready; the wood was saturated with water; over the whole water was poured three times, and the trench surrounding the altar was filled. Then Elijah prayed: “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, and that I have done all these things at Thy word. 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.” And he did not pray in vain. The fire of the Lord fell, 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.” The people returned en masse to the God of their fathers. The prophets of Baal were destroyed. The national repentance was complete.

But as yet there was not a speck in the sky. The heavens continued to be as brass. But the people had repented, and Elijah once more publicly committed God. He declared that there was the sound of abundance of rain; and with that promise ringing in their ears the people returned to their homes. Elijah’s work, however, was not complete. Though the promise of God was so absolute, and so certain of fulfilment, it needed human co-operation to make it effective. “Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.” Elijah retired to pray, and as earnestly as he had requested that it might not rain, so now he prayed that the showers might fall. And when a cloud no bigger than a man’s hand appeared in the sky he sent word at once to Ahab to hasten home before the storm broke.

On the surface of the story Elijah appears to us as a man of gigantic character, and quite impossible of imitation. But the Apostle James assures us he "was a man subject to like passions as we are". There were moments when he exhibited cowardice, faint-heartedness, and hopelessness, as we are prone to do. His greatness was due to that which is possible to us all—faith and prayer.

Elijah believed in the living God. “As the Lord God of Israel liveth before Whom I stand. This he said in the presence of Ahab. When he was before the whole court the most real being to him was God. He lived his life and uttered his words in the presence always of the King of Kings. To Him he was responsible. And this faith he had in an atmosphere similar to the one in which we live and work during the week. God is not real to the people of this land. He is not in all their thoughts. Business and pleasure absorb, and are realities; but God is far away. The complete banishment of God from the thoughts of the majority creates an atmosphere that affects our faith and our spiritual perceptions. In such an atmosphere Elijah also moved. But he came to it from another one. In retirement he had fellowship with God, he pondered over His words, he allowed them to sink into his soul till they governed his desires and thoughts. His inner life was brought into harmony with the revealed will of God. And after breathing this atmosphere for hours he could move amongst men and be unaffected by the air they breathed. His spiritual health was such that the diseased ideas of men could not impregnate him. When the presence of God is cultivated it becomes an overpowering, mastering sense, and with it a man moves victoriously amongst his fellows. It is not belief in the being of God that is our need, nor the furnishing of the mind with arguments for His existence; but the sense of God, of His presence, of His sympathy and imminent help, and of our responsibility to Him. Such a feeling will enable us to act independently of the fear of man, and will make us strong.

Elijah believed in the Word of God. He had no doubts about its truth. What God had said would come to pass. His words were not idle ones. His promises and threatenings were equally true. The latter were righteous and necessary. It was not vindictiveness, nor delight in human misery, that caused God to threaten, but love for the souls of men. The threatenings were warnings. Their fulfilment was to turn men back to Him. “That they may know that Thou hast turned their hearts back again.” This word needed to be received by men. It called them to co-operate with God for its fulfilment. It was a guide. It contained a program. To this program human acquiescence was necessary. Men must consent to it as good and just. The will revealed in it was a will to be accomplished through men. It was made known in order to bring men into line with God. So, accepting the word, and loving the people and the honour of God, Elijah prayed that, until their hearts were right they might know the bitterness of sin. The absence of rain was terrible, but contentment in a state of sin was a greater calamity. And when the people were broken under the influence of the drought he prayed again that rain might come.

God’s Word abides. Such a faith as Elijah’s we require. The program of the Bible should be studied by us. To it we should agree. The revealed will of God should be our delight. For the realization of the promises we should pray and work.

This faith governed Elijah’s life. It gave him courage to face Ahab and to tell him the truth. It enabled him to preach judgment to a people who did not believe in such a thing, and to whom such a doctrine was repugnant. He believed in the mercy of God to an unthinking, rebellious nation. God was more anxious to give rain than to withhold it. His faith enthused him, and he desired to communicate it. The people needed it. He desired they should understand and receive it. Prayer, hard work, earnestness, clear teaching, strong, loving desire, were born of such convictions. He could not help preaching. Such truths as he held with such intensity could not be bottled up. They must find expression. And the faith that enthused him was contagious. Men could not help feeling its power. It swayed the people. And though in some quarters it did not convince, it triumphed. It bore down the opposition of unbelief, and was found to be unanswerable. His faith, and not the unbelief of Ahab, ruled the people.

Such a faith, fed by the Word of God, and fostered in hours of retirement, is possible to us, and will make us instruments of revival to the people amongst whom we dwell.