James 5:18

18. Prayed In the Old Testament narrative (1 Kings 17:1; 1 Kings 18:42-45) it is not expressly said that he prayed. Herein Huther affirms, and Alford does not deny, a discrepancy. But the whole narrative (1 Kings 18:36-46) suggests the truth of our apostle’s statement. At the time of the evening sacrifice Elijah prays for God’s vindication of himself by miracle, and the prayer is answered by fire. As concluding part of the same transaction Elijah is described as first warning Ahab of the approaching rain which closed the miraculous drought, and as then on Carmel putting himself in the attitude of profound prayer, while his servant was commissioned to watch and report the tokens of the coming of the “great rain.” We are hereby entitled to infer that Elijah’s position by divine assignment was that of deep communion and harmony with God. His office was as mediator between God and Israel, to pray for the divine self-vindication, and the self-vindication itself was verified as being a manifested answer to his permanent inward and outward prayer. Hence was he a true example for the early Church standing in the same position. When specially gifted with the prayer of miraculous faith by its deep communion with God, and commissioned to vindicate God’s revelation of himself in Christianity, the apostolic Church was entitled to offer that prayer which was antecedent to a divine response. It was thereby that the apostle fully comprehended, both by sympathy and similar position, the position of Elijah. And similar to this of James was the view of St. John, as appears by his allusion in Revelation 11:6. Similar was, doubtless, the view of the entire apostolic Church. And similar, too, was, probably, the view of the devout in the Jewish Church. So Sir 48:1-3 : “Then stood up Elias the prophet as fire, and his word burned like a lamp. He brought a sore famine upon them, and by his zeal he diminished their number. By the word of the Lord he shut up the heaven, and also three times brought down fire.” Here is a depth of sympathetic understanding of the divine word that rebukes the shallowness of modern rationalism. The deep divine assent of the great prophet, wrought by his commissioning God, was a permanent prayer of which the miracle was the consequent. So that in this deep view our writers make him cause the miracles he predicts. When he prayed again, then the heaven and earth obeyed his prayer through an intervening omnipotence. Her accustomed fruit So long miraculously withheld.