A. B. Saint
Who has not heard of Elijah, the fiery prophet of the LORD? The Bible only allows us into a fraction of his life, but in so doing we are met with some colourful episodes associated with him. He was a man who accomplished great things for God during his lifetime and probably every saint of God, has a place somewhere in their heart for this man. A man who as James 5 verse 17 says, was ‘subject to like passions even as we’.
A MAN OF LIKE PASSIONS
He was very jealous for the LORD God of Hosts. There was a boldness about this man, he cared not how difficult the message or how difficult the time in which it was to be given. He was passionate about his God. He knew what it was to bring the dead back to life again. He knew what it was to stand upon Mount Carmel and call down fire from heaven.
He knew the value of persistence in prayer, as falling down upon the earth, with his head between his knees, he prayed on until there was the sound of abundance of rain. He knew what it was for the very Spirit of God to so take hold of him, that he was even able to outrun Ahab in his chariot, at the entering in of Jezreel.
He also knew what it was to hear the Word of the LORD. Oh, the wonder of this and oh, the necessity for this! To think that GOD even today should still seek to speak unto His servants and His handmaidens. How busy God is with us. How He leads and guides us and speaks with such wisdom into our situations.
And so, it was with Elijah.
We know the story well do we not. Before the rain was to fall, there was to be a famine, and what a famine it proved to be! And was this not all due to sin, as the altars of our God were pulled down and shrines to heathen deities built up?
As Ahab and Jezebel ruled the Kingdom of Israel, so the prophets of Baal covered the Land, and the prophets of the LORD ran for cover. The Land was now spiritually polluted, only a remnant it seems, still served the True and Living God. A dark cloud of oppression seemed to fill the air. What can be done? What must be done? Ah! Saint of God, fear not, for He is still on the Throne.
GO AND HIDE THYSELF
Thank God for the WORD of PROVIDENCE ….
which Elijah received, as God’s Will slowly unfolded before him.
Thank God for the WORD of POWER spoken into his life.
Elijah was not hearing the word of man which can so often fail, which can so often confuse the picture, rather it was a Word from Heaven; indeed it was a Word from the LORD.
Thank God it was a PERSONAL WORD.
It was for Elijah alone. Was it not true that many sought his life? Was it not true that there were those who sought his downfall? In making a stand for God he had many enemies.
God had much to say to him and Elijah had still much to learn. And is it not true, within our own lives, how that much of our own learning comes sometimes during times of famine? Those days of bleakness, those long days of trial, those days when we feel so alone, those times when we have worked so hard and yet seem to have such little success.
Thank God it was also a WORD of PURPOSE.
It was time for a change of direction in his life. He was told to ‘Turn eastward and hide by the brook Cherith.’ Notice those important words… “Go, Hide thyself” (1 Kings 17:3). By nature, Elijah was not a person to hide. This man clothed with a coat of hair and leather girdle wrapped around him was a front- line man. Hiding was not in his vocabulary; it wasn’t his way. Others may do it, but at that time it did not sit well with him. However, for Elijah to be hidden away, concealed as it were in the undergrowth for a season, was for his own safety, it was for his own good. This was the chosen place at that moment in time, for God’s servant.
As day by day he drank from the life- giving brook, so day by day he found himself more and more dependant upon the LORD. In that place of solitude, alone with God, his daily needs were met. God’s messengers brought him bread and meat in the morning to help him through the day and bread and meat in the evening to help him through the night.
At times quietness is a good thing, yet most of us are so filled with activity and duties of service, even unto God, that we forget the value of this place. However, what better place than this in the hour of need?
What better place than this to receive guidance? What better place than this to be taught of God?
Truly, the summit of Carmel may be in our hearts, it may be in our sights, but we too are on a journey, a spiritual journey. Not until the time was right would Elijah leave this place. Not until the brook itself ran dry and had given up all its resources from which the prophet drank.
CHERITH
The Place of Cutting
I am sure that Cherith was no easy place to live, even for Elijah, the great out-doors man. Rather, it was wild and desolate. Its name implies ‘The place of the cutting.’ Its very name is suggestive of isolation and separation. This sounds painful doesn’t it?
The man who we visualize as a person who is always ‘up and about and doing,’ has suddenly found himself in a place of inactivity. Yet this is where he was to wait, to listen, and to learn. It was the place of communion with God.
The place of the cut was also the place of the change. If we allow it, God’s Word within our lives will always effect change. Just like us, Elijah needed to be prepared by God for every next step he was to take. Like us he too needed to be changed and refined, excesses of the flesh needed to be cut away, the old man, the carnal self, the self-life. There were God-given changes which had to be made even in this man’s life.
Carmel was before him, and it would indeed come, but in time, not yet. It was not time for Elijah to climb the grassy slopes of this Mount; this place of ‘Fruitfulness,’ until his sojourn at Cherith, the place of ‘paring down,’ had come to an end. It was not time for him to enter the camp of the enemy and do battle in God’s Name and turn the tide of evil, until he was thoroughly prepared in heart and soul. Carmel did indeed lie ahead of him but not before he was to make another journey, this time, a journey to Zarephath.
ZARETH
The Place of Refining
The name Zarephath means ‘the place of refining.’ We have the picture of the goldsmith and the crucible here, the place where metals are heated to a high temperature and where any impurities are burned away. The prayer on Mount Carmel often begins with a thousand earlier prayers which have all been answered in one way or other.
Carmel is not for those who are only on ‘nodding acquaintance’ with God, but for those who have had learned by obedience to dwell by the Brook and take what He gives. It is for those who have chosen to be refined by the Divine Silversmith, so melted by fire that they can be fully moulded by the Master.
Carmel is for those who know what it is to be turned upon the Potter’s Wheel until the exact Christlike image is formed.
Carmel is for those whose faith has been increased to such a level that they can ask and believe for bigger things. They can ask and believe for anything which is according to the Will of God.
Remember, the Christian life is progressive. It is a daily walk. A man can indeed have a zeal for the Work of the LORD, but yet his passion for the LORD Himself is diminished.
The happenings on Carmel do not come about because a man has a natural way with words, or because he has a particular flair for things. Usually those who have known great things in God, have also known periods of obscurity, and seasons of failure. What was it that Thomas A Kempis said? “It is better for a man to be obscure and attend to his salvation than to neglect it and work miracles.”
Until our lives are totally ordered by the LORD we will never reach the summit of Carmel. We may spend countless hours in prayer, reciting a prayer for rain, but the cloud the size of a man’s hand will not appear for us. Like Elijah we may of ourselves be able to lift a lifeless, limp body and carry it upstairs and place it upon our own bed, but in no way will new life be returned to it, as was the case with the widow’s son.
It is absolutely critical therefore that we become acquainted with the Hiding Places of GOD. It is absolutely imperative that daily we are hidden in the Hollow of His Hand. That Hand of creation, of Redemption, of Love and Authority and Power.
David did not defeat the Philistine until he had spent time in the sheepfold. Moses did not become the leader of the Children of Israel, before he had spent time in the backside of the desert. Paul the Apostle did not begin his preaching until he had spent time alone with God in Arabia.
Dear One, God is not saying that your Carmel will never come, that work which way back in Eternity was chosen for you to do.
What He is saying, is that Cherith must come first, and Zarephath a close second all the way through life.
Those people who understand the true moves of God, must first know the secret of His Presence and be willing to lay their lives down upon the altar. Exploits for God do not come through techniques, diplomas, or degrees, but rather through prayer and fasting and much weeping.
God would always have His people hide themselves before they show themselves, but at the end of the day it is still up to us. We can still step out of the process, come away from the heat, and continue on leading mediocre Christian lives.
‘It was the way the Master trod, should not the servant tread it still?’ Andrew Bonar
LIFE ON THE ALTAR 