The Yale expositor., 1911-02-09

| TIME-Three TO three and one-half
years after Elijah first warned Ahab. Be
| tween b. c. 920-900 Cor S7S-S57)
| PLACE-The Great meeting was on
Mount Carmel. near its summit The sit
uatlon so far from the capital would
leave the meeting lunmolested by the city
hoodlums. and Jezebers influence
St James in his epistle tells us that
Elijah had prayed earnestly that "it
might not rain" because the famine
seemed to be tho only way by which
people could be brought to repentance.
and that now, at the end of three
years and half. he again prayed that
It might rain.
His heart was full of pity. He saw
signs of repentance. The time was
ripe for reform; and Elijah prayed to
God for the blessed rain. God saw
too. But it was wisest and most eff
fective for all that the rain should
come from God in answer to the proph-
| cts prayer. For the fact that the
relief came from the true God through
his prophet would complete the work
of the famine and draw men to the
giver of the blessing.
Elijah sent for the king to some to
him. The prophet was the greater
and had more power. That Ahab came
at all, shows that he recognized the
power of the prophet, and of the true
God; and that he had been humbled
by the famine experience Ahab's first
words were: Are thou he that trou-
bleth Israeli" He had no word to say
of his own sin; he forgot the iniquity
of the people of the land, in which
be had been the leader; he took no
note Of the hand of Jehovah in the ca
lamity, and spoke as If the whole mat
ter had been a mere personal differ
cnce between him and Elijah. Elijah
replied, Il have not troubled Israel;
but thou, and thy fathers house" Eli
jah then proposed that the question as
to who was the true God should be
put to a fair and satisfactory test.
They built an altar. placed the sac
rifcial bullock upon It, and put no
fire under 1t. There were too many eyes
upon them for any trtckery, and not
knowing what kind of test was to be
expected, they had no opportunity TO
prepare for any deceit. 1t would al
most seem as If tricks not unlike that
practiced year after year at the
Greek Easter at Jerusalem were ia
mihar to that age. Some of the ia
theirs expressly state that the idola-
trous priests of an earlier time were
accustomed to set fire to the sacri-
flee from hollow places concealed be-
meath the altar and IL was an old ira
dition that the Baal prophets had con-
cealed man for that purpose beneath
their altar, but that he had died from
suffocation." They called on Baal till
mid day. and yet no answer of fire
came. Elijah Knocked them He held
up the mirror before them and point
ed out to the people the real situation
They grew frenzied in their excite
ment, and cut themselves with their
wepons. Herodian describes the dance
OF Heliogabalus round the altar of the
Emesne sun-god, and Apuleius de-
scribes at length the fanatic Ieapings
and castings of the execrable Cali
Their feeling was that God was we'll
pleased with such tortures and pains.
The only sufferings with which God
Is pleased are those which men under.
60 for the sake Of helping and saw
ing their fellow men; such as Christ's
sufferings on the cross. and PauPs
sufferings TO give men the Gospel
They prophesied and cried. in wild
ecstacies, like those in ancient time
who thus In excited frenzies pretend
ed to be filed with the power Of their
deities.
There was no answer, though they
continued their exertions till the tine
of the offering of the evening ob.a.ioo
And Elijah said, Come near unto
me-" so that they could see and hear,
and could know that there was no con-
cealment or trickery.
He repaired the altar of the Lord
that was broken down. On this altar
the wood and the sacrifice were laid.
The fire of the Lord fell, not an acct
dental stroke of lightning. for the sky
was clear of cloud II was simply
the direct act OF Gods will upon the
laws of nature. No mere natural act
such as Baalites or anyone else could
do, would prove that 1t was God him.
self who was summoning them to ODE
dience. II would be a strange Goo,
and Father. that could not use his
own laws of Nature to produce a
moral effect. The proof was the more
decisive because the divine fire not
only consumed the Offering, but the
water and the very stones of the al
tar.
The people fell on their faces. and
they said. The Lord, he is Cod the
Lord. he Is God"
This was a decisive, yet no mere
sudden change; but one for which the
famine, announced from God, had for
three years been preparing them just
as the fire on the day of Pentecost
came to disciples who had had three
years of training under Jesus.
Elijah went up to the highest point
of Carmel where a wide horizon of the
sea was visible, and prayed for rain,
, prayed "the effectual fervent prayer
OF a righteous man." which "ayaileth
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