Chapter XXX: A Great Rain, and a Tired Prophet

So Ahab ate and drank—but Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and cast himself upon the earth with his face between his knees, and he said to his servant: "Go up now and look towards the sea."

And the servant returned, saying he could not see anything.

Then Elijah said: "Go—" seven times. And when he came back the seventh time, he said he could see a little cloud in the sky, no bigger than a man's hand.

So Elijah hurriedly sent a message to the king, to prepare his chariot, and get to his home quickly, or the rain which was coming would stop him!

And as he spoke, the heavens became black with clouds, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel.

And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he ran before Ahab's chariot, right to the entrance of Jezreel.

But when Ahab told his wife, the wicked queen, Jezebel, that all her prophets were dead, Jezebel sent a message to Elijah that she would kill him, as he had done the prophets of Baal, by that time the next day!

And now, Elijah, who had been so wonderfully strong and full of faith for this great scene, fled for his life when he heard the threat of Queen Jezebel!

Hungry, thirsty, tired-out, he fled till he had passed Beersheba, and had gone a whole day's journey into the desert, before he felt he might be safe from Jezebel! Here he cast himself under a juniper tree, and asked the Lord to let him die!

Poor Elijah! For one brief moment his faith failed him! If God had answered his prayer, Elijah would have missed the great honour of going up to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire without death at all!

And let us pause here, just to think for a moment about our own prayers.

It seems to me that we are encouraged to tell God everything; and then we are wise to leave the choice with Him: asking Him to do that which, in His wisdom and love, He knows to be best for us.

So the poor wearied Prophet prayed that he might die; and then overpowered with fatigue, he fell asleep. And meanwhile God was preparing for him, while he slept—as He does so often for His faithful, and sometimes faithless, children—and behold! An angel touched him, and said to him: "Arise and eat!"

And when he looked up, there was a little cake of bread, freshly baked, and a cruse of water standing ready by his pillow!

And he ate and drank; and then, still so weary that he could hardly hold up his head, he slept again!

Then the angel of the Lord came the second time and touched him, and said: "Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee!"

Oh, the compassion of God, Who knows just how we feel! So Elijah obeyed; and he went in the strength of that food, for forty days and forty nights, till he reached Horeb, the Mount of God, where he found a cave and lodged there.

By and by he heard a Voice from the Lord speaking to him, and it said: "What doest thou here, Elijah?"

Then Elijah said: "I have been very jealous for the Lord, but now the Children of Israel have forsaken my God, and I, even I, am the only one left, and they are going to kill me!"

And the Lord said: "Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord."

Then the Lord passed by, and a great wind tore the rocks and the mountains, and there was a great earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake nor in the fire that came afterwards; and then there was a still, low voice. And when Elijah heard that voice, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood by the mouth of the cave.

Then the voice spoke to him again: "What doest thou here, Elijah?" And again Elijah said that he was the only Prophet left!

But the Lord told him that He had seven thousand Israelites who had served Him faithfully, and had never bowed down to Baal!

Then the Lord told him to go and anoint two kings; and also to anoint Elisha, the son of Shaphat, as a Prophet instead of himself.

So Elijah went to Abelmeholah, and found Elisha ploughing in the fields; and as he passed by him, he cast his mantle upon him.

Then Elisha left his oxen and ran after him, and said: "Let me go and kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee!"

Elijah said: "What have I done to thee?"

But I think Elisha knew what the Prophet had meant by casting his mantle upon him!

So Elisha took a yoke of oxen, and with the ploughing instruments for his fire, he boiled their flesh, and gave to the famine-stricken people to eat, and then he went after Elijah and became his devoted servant.

Then many years passed on, and there were great wars between Ahab and the King of Syria.

But Ahab did not leave off his wicked ways, and at length God sent Elijah to Samaria to warn him that God's judgment would come upon him in the very spot in which he and Jezebel had sinned against Him.

I have not space to tell you here about Ahab coveting Naboth's vineyard, nor how Jezebel had Naboth killed in order that Ahab might possess it.

But God's judgments always come true, and though Ahab was killed by a chance bow-shot in a great battle, yet, as God had said by Elijah, "dogs licked up his blood" in Naboth's vineyard, which was close by the king's palace in Samaria, where the men were washing out his chariot after the battle!