"Go and look toward the sea," he said to his servant. So the servant went and looked, and he said, "There is nothing there." Seven times Elijah said, "Go back." Sermons
I. THIS WAS THE SOUND OF SALVATION. 1. Rain was salvation to the nation. (1) Three years and six months of drought brought it to the point of extinction. The heavens were brazen; the earth was scorched. The people were blackened with excessive heat, and worn with want. Their numbers were thinned by death; survivors moved like skeletons on the edges of their graves. (2) To such the sound of rain is tidings of life. Let it come, and soon, in such a climate as Palestine, vegetation will burst into verdure. There will be "seed for the sower and bread tot the eater." 2. It was a sign of spiritual blessings. (1) The kingdom of nature was constituted to furnish apt similes of the kingdom of grace. The blooming of the desert after rain is a familiar figure of spiritual revival. (See Isaiah 35.;55:10-18.) (2) The descent of rain is a figure of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the receptive soul (Isaiah 32:15). Water, a purifier, refresher, vitalizer, fittingly sets forth His energies; and as these are active, so in baptism the element should come upon the person as rain upon the passive earth. (See Acts 2:8, 4, 17, 82; 10:44-48.) 3. Revivals have their premonitions. (1) The sound comes before the rain. It is heard in the branches of trees, and in the waves of seas and lakes. So is a coming revival discerned in the Church by emotion under the word, interest in religious services public and private, and increased evangelistic activity. (2) This is first heard by the spiritual. Elijah was the first to hear the sound of the coming rain. It begins in the higher heavens before it reaches the earth. Those who are much in prayer have the sensitive ear to hear "afar off." (Compare 2 Peter 1:9.) II. THE CONDITIONS HAD BEEN FULFILLED. 1. Sin was repented. (1) The people saw the impotence of Baal. He could not answer for himself. They were now convinced of their folly in submitting to such a delusion. So it must be with every sinner whose eyes are opened. (2) They destroyed the authors of their delusion. They slew the prophets of Bash Not one escaped. So in the most complete manner must our evil lusts be slain. No power must be left to them to lure us from the truth again. 2. Christ was accepted. (1) Elijah must show himself to Ahab as a condition of rain (ver. 1). Ahab so far accepted him as to submit to his directions. But Elijah was a type of Christ, without whose revelation of Himself to us we can have no spiritual grace. (See 1 Kings 17:1.) (2) Elijah was a type of Christ in his persn. His name (אליה and אליהו) is "My God Jehovah," or, "Whose God is he," expresses the union of God and man in Christ. (3) He was a type of Christ also in his office. All prophets were types of the One Great Prophet. Elijah, who was remarkable amongst the number, eminently so. (4) He, too, united with his office of prophet the functions of the priest. He offered up the sacrifice on Carmel. In this sacrifice the people accepted Jehovah as their covenant God. So must we likewise accept God in Christ. In token of their communion with Jehovah they appear to have feasted on the sacrifices. With the burnt offering there were doubtless peace offerings, for these were usual accompaniments, upon which the worshippers feasted. This was the eating and drinking to which Elijah moved Ahab (ver. 42). (5) Elijah also was a type of Christ in his character of Intercessor. While Ahab and his people were partaking of the peace-offerings, "Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees." He bowed reverently in prayer with his head towards the ground - an attitude still observed in the East. So Christ, in the heights, makes intercession for us. 3. The blessing came. (1) While Elijah interceded he sent his servant to look for the signs of the coming blessing. In this parable, in which the prophet is still the type of Christ, his servant stands for the Church, whose duty it is to look for the fruits of the Redeemer's pleadings. Are we thus looking? (2) The servant went, and went again and again before he witnessed any sign, in which the lesson to us is that while Christ pleads we must never be discouraged, but "hope to the end." (3) At the seventh time the promise appeared in a cloud as of a man's hand rising out of the sea, which was to be followed by others in rapid succession until the heavens were "black with clouds and wind," and the thirsty earth was visited with copious showers of refreshing rain. This was prophetic of that seventh time, or "fulness of time," when the hand of God shall act in the sea, or among all nations, and raise that "plentiful shower "which shall refresh His weary inheritance (Psalm 68:9). Meanwhile Elijah sent his servant to Ahab, saying, "Harness the horses, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not." (4) Now the parable is changed. Ahab, the king of Israel, after the destruction of the prophets of Baal, riding as in triumph, and attended by the blessings of heaven, is the type of Christ. So Elijah runs before him in the spirit and power of God. The Baptist accordingly came "in the spirit and power of Elias," as the forerunner of Christ, in His first advent, to establish His spiritual kingdom. But Elias, in person, will be His harbinger when He comes again, in the fulness of His blessing, to establish a visible and everlasting kingdom (Malachi 4:5). - J.A.M.
And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. I. THAT TO AIM UPWARDS IN OUR THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS IS THE BEST WAY TO OBTAIN RELIEF IN TIMES OF DANGER OR DIFFICULTY. Elijah went up to the topmost position of Mount Carmel, and he bade his servant go up still higher, to the very peak of the mountain, so as the better to observe the appearances of the sky far and wide. Are we in search of some good? Then let us raise our affections above the unsatisfying, the perishing, the earthly, to the beatific, the eternal, the heavenly; let us scale the heights of our celestial Carmel, and seek for the rain-cloud of promise, by the waters of which a well of water shall be made to spring up in our hearts unto eternal life.II. THAT WE SHOULD NOT PROCRASTINATE IN SPIRITUAL MATTERS. "Go up now," Elijah says to his servant, "Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." "What thou doest, do quickly." Indolence cannot win heavenly riches any more than worldly. "Procrastination is the thief of time." The sluggard loses all his to-days in thinking of his to-morrows. To-morrow, in fact, is the watchword of the lazy and the idle. III. THAT THE TRUE SPIRITUAL LIFE CONSISTS OF TWO PARTS, THE ACTIVE AND THE CONTEMPLATIVE. Elijah went up, after his strenuous exertion in his contests with the priests of Baal, to the top of the mountain, and there rested upon the ground with his face between his knees, that is, in prayer or Divine meditation. The servant, too, was to "go up." That necessitated active exertion, and then to "look" over the face of the heaven. That showed the desirability of contemplation. IV. THAT WE MUST NEVER DESPAIR. The servant of Elijah had to go up seven times ere he saw any sign of the coming of the wished-for rain. Let us not then be "weary in well-doing," let us not give way to disappointment if we succeed not at once in our efforts after higher things. To few persons in this life does success come immediately or at one trial. The spider — that, by its frequent efforts to cast its web between two distant points, taught perseverance to the royal Bruce — might also speak to us the lesson to persevere unto the end, to continue in well-doing, to show forth in heavenly things patience and perseverance. V. THAT IN SMALL THINGS, AS WELL AS IN GREAT WE SHOULD LEARN TO TRACE GOD'S HAND. This little cloud, even at last, was no bigger than a man's hand; yet it was a messenger sent to fulfil God's decree. Many persons are willing enough to recognise God's agency in great events, in national revolutions, popular outbreaks, natural disturbances; but are not inclined to see the power of God in lesser matters, in individual trials, in the every-day phenomena of life. VI. THAT WE SHOULD REGARD TEMPORAL MATTERS IN THE LIGHT OF ETERNITY. This servant of Elijah was to look towards the sea. The sea has ever been taken as an emblem of eternity. It was a fitter emblem of eternity in the ancient world than it is in the modern, because the ancients knew little of its depth or its extent, whereas we have mapped out in a great degree both the one and the other. (R. Young, M. A.) (Andrew Murray.) (J. Ellis.) The Electric Light Company of one of London's districts has a weather watcher who sits all day on the roof in a small glass house. It is his business to keep his eyes open to every sign of change, especially the gathering of clouds causing darkness, as in that case a sudden demand is made for electric lighting all over the district, and this requires a greatly intensified power in the huge generators below. As soon as he sees a great dark cloud travelling Londonwards, he telephones to the engine-room below that additional power will soon be needed, and by the time required it has been generated. Would that God's people everywhere were watchmen who, when they saw the clouds gathering over the church and the world, would turn that into a plea for power — power from God.(H. O. Mackey.). People Ahab, Elijah, Isaac, Jacob, Jezebel, Jezreel, ObadiahPlaces Jezreel, Kishon River, Mount Carmel, Samaria, ZarephathTopics Attentively, Direction, Elijah, Nothing, Servant, Seven, Towards, TurnOutline 1. In the extremity of famine Elijah, sent to Ahab, meets good Obadiah9. Obadiah brings Ahab to Elijah 17. Elijah, reproving Ahab, by fire from heaven convinces Baal's prophets 41. Elijah, by prayer obtaining rain, follows Ahab to Jezreel Dictionary of Bible Themes 1 Kings 18:434854 weather, God's sovereignty Library ObadiahTo the Young '... I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth.--1 KINGS xviii.12. This Obadiah is one of the obscurer figures in the Old Testament. We never hear of him again, for there is no reason to accept the Jewish tradition which alleges that he was Obadiah the prophet. And yet how distinctly he stands out from the canvas, though he is only sketched with a few bold outlines! He is the 'governor over Ahab's house,' a kind of mayor of the palace, and probably the second man in the kingdom. But … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture The Trial by Fire Elijah's Appeal to the Undecided Obadiah; Or, Early Piety Eminent Piety The Prophet Hosea. But Some one Will Say, Does He not Know Without a Monitor Both what Our... Selfishness and Prayer. A Contrast. The West Coast of Galilee-Carmel. Ninth Sunday after Trinity. How Long Halt Ye Between Two Opinions? if the Lord be God, Follow Him; but if Baal, Then Follow Him. Fall of the Western Empire (Ad 451-476) Will the Knowledge that Some of Our Own are Lost, Mar Our Happiness in Heaven? Of Prayer --A Perpetual Exercise of Faith. The Daily Benefits Derived from It. This was Antony's First Struggle against the Devil... Upon Our Lord's SermonOn the Mount Subterraneous Places. Mines. Caves. The First Commandment Prayer Of Passages from the Holy Scriptures, and from the Apocrypha, which are Quoted, or Incidentally Illustrated, in the Institutes. Links 1 Kings 18:43 NIV1 Kings 18:43 NLT 1 Kings 18:43 ESV 1 Kings 18:43 NASB 1 Kings 18:43 KJV 1 Kings 18:43 Bible Apps 1 Kings 18:43 Parallel 1 Kings 18:43 Biblia Paralela 1 Kings 18:43 Chinese Bible 1 Kings 18:43 French Bible 1 Kings 18:43 German Bible 1 Kings 18:43 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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