1 Kings 18:1-16

Ahab, Obadiah, and Elijah

1Ki 18:1-16

God is the time-keeper. He says, Now. We wonder we cannot go just when it is convenient to ourselves; we think we see the exact juncture when it would be right to go, but if we went just then a serpent would bite us on the road. We want to go to heaven, but God says, Not yet. We want to begin the battle, but God says, Wait. Think of waiting "many days" and doing nothing! But what if waiting be the best working? What if we can best do everything by simply doing nothing? There is a time to stand still and see the salvation of God. Mark another thing in these verses: the Lord said Go, and Elijah went! Not, Elijah objected; Elijah reasoned; Elijah pointed out the difficulties; but simply Elijah went. That is the true ideal of life. Always be ready. Contrast with this the case of Jonah. Elijah had no fear of Ahab. He who fears God cannot fear man. If you go up to your duties in your own strength you will find them difficult; if you come down upon them from high communion with God you will find them easy.

The governor of the house of Ahab was called Obadiah. The word Obadiah means "servant of Jehovah," and it would seem to have been a true description of the man, for we read that "Obadiah feared (or reverenced) the Lord greatly" ( 1Ki 18:3 ). In 1 Kings 18:3-16 , we have the conversation between Elijah and Obadiah.

"And Ahab called Obadiah, which was the governor of his house. (Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly: For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.) And Ahab said unto Obadiah, Go into the land, unto all fountains of water, and unto all brooks: peradventure we may find grass to save the horses and mules alive] that we lose not all the beasts. So they divided the land between them to pass throughout it: Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself. And as Obadiah was in the way, behold, Elijah met him: and he knew him, and fell on his face, and said, Art thou that my lord Elijah? And he answered him, I am: go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here. And he said, What have I sinned, that thou wouldest deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab, to slay me? As the Lord thy God liveth, there is no nation nor kingdom, whither my lord hath not sent to seek thee and when they said, He is not there; he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they found thee not. And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here. And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me: but I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth. Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord, how I hid an hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water? And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here: and he shall slay me. And Elijah said, As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely shew myself unto him today. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him: and Ahab went to meet Elijah."

What are the general lessons as affecting Ahab, Obadiah, and Elijah? Some of them are these:

1. It is possible for a man to be very bad in one direction and very tolerant in another. It was so in the case of Ahab. He was the worst of the kings of Israel, yet he kept a governor over his house who feared the Lord greatly.

2. The Lord causes the most wicked men to pay his religion the homage which is due to its excellence. A bad king employs a good governor! He who himself disobeys Jehovah yet engages a servant who fears the Lord greatly. The thief likes an honest man for steward. The blasphemer likes a godly teacher for his child. The great speculator prefers an unspeculative man for book-keeper. It is thus that virtue has many unconscious votaries.

3. He who is the slave of idolatry becomes an easy prey to the power of cruel tempters. We do not know that Ahab was a cruel man, but we do know that Jezebel was a cruel woman, and Ahab was greatly influenced by his passionate and sanguinary wife. Ahab's provocation of the Lord (xvi. 33) may have been in the direction of idolatry alone: but to be wrong in your conception of worship is to expose yourself to every possible attack of the enemy. To pray in the wrong direction is to be weak in every other.

4. Ahab was a speculative idolater, Jezebel was a practical persecutor; Ahab showed that speculative error is consistent with social toleration. You must distinguish between Ahab and Elijah in this matter. It was Jezebel who slew the prophets of the Lord ( 1Ki 18:13 ), and Ahab knew that his servant Obadiah had hidden fifty of these prophets in a cave, and yet Ahab kept Obadiah in his service. Redeeming points do not restore the whole character. "One swallow does not make a summer."

5. In the same character may be met great faith and great doubt. Obadiah risked his life to save fifty of the prophets of the Lord, yet dare not risk it, without first receiving an oath, for the greatest prophet of all! This mixture we find in every human character. "How abject, how august is man!"

In Ahab, Obadiah, Elijah, and Jezebel, we see a fourfold type of human society; there is the speculator, the godly servant, the far-seeing prophet, the cruel persecutor. Society has got no further than this today. The Ahabs of the age are leading us away into speculation that ends in idolatory and in infinite provocation of the Lord; the Obadiahs of the age are still praying, and serving God, and saving even the worst households from the wrath of heaven; the Elijahs of the age are still hurling their divine thunders through the corrupt and stagnant air, and piercing with lightning shafts the gloomy and threatening future; and the Jezebels of the age are still narrow, bitter, indignant, vengeful, and sanguinary. O wondrous combination! So checked, so controlled, by invisible but benignant power. Speculative error has its counterpart in actual cruelty, and patient worship has its counterpart in daring service.

Application: (1) Be the servant of the Lord; (2) To-day, Christ calls for faithful testimony; (3) If we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with him.