Loving Kindness And Tender Mercies

“And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.” —1 Kings 19:1–7

In every arid scene of life, the Father cares for His own.

“Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.” —Psalm 63:3

The scene at Mount Carmel was one of phenomenal victory. In response to the prayer and faith of Elijah, God’s lone witness, the prophets of Baal were utterly defeated, the fire of the Lord fell, and the whole multitude—as with one voice—cried, “The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God.” Surely Elijah was a man with iron in his blood.

But today we look upon him as a bruised reed, for in a crucial hour in Israel’s history, he failed miserably. As you read this part of the story, you feel dreadfully sad, but the sorrow is not unmixed with joy. You lament the lapse of Elijah’s faith. But you rejoice in the marvelous grace of God. You are conscious that it is the Heavenly Father who fills the whole horizon.

A moment ago, Elijah was standing as a hero and the people were shouting, “The Lord, He is God.” Quickly, Jehovah’s servant commanded that all the false prophets should be executed, and they were led to a little stream, Kishon, and there put to death. Evidently Ahab had been looking on the scene of execution, for, addressing him, Elijah said, “Get thee up, eat and drink.” And it would appear that the king went off at once to some banqueting hall, probably some nearby pavilion that had been temporarily erected. Indeed, I should not be surprised if Jezebel, feeling so sure of victory for her side, had ordered a splendid feast prepared for her husband and the false prophets. When defeat came to them, still Ahab’s interest in spiritual things did not mount. His eyes were on the material. His motto, like one in the New Testament was, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

But let us turn to Elijah. Scripture tells us that he was a man of like passions as we are. He could sympathize with us, feel for us, and understand us, because he was made of the same kind of clay as we are. Moreover, his emotions were quite as intense as Ahab’s. The different between them was this: Elijah’s passions were God-controlled; and they swept him up to prayer and eventually into the very presence of God; Ahab’s passions were flesh-controlled, and they shouldered him, and shoved him, and sucked him down to hell, as your passions will you if they are not governed by God and the Holy Spirit.

Two Kinds Of Prayer

While Ahab goes to eat and drink, the prophet seeks the place of prayer. Elijah is the one man help up to us by James as an example for the prayer life. The apostle tells us to pray about everything, pray about anything, and if you want to know how, he says, “pray as Elijah prayed.” When you ask, “How is that?” James answers in two brief statements, “He prayed, and he prayed again.” In other words, he kept on praying.

See him now as he goes to the mountain top, perhaps Mount Carmel. Quite a different figure he appears than the one who faced the nation on the plains of Jezreel. There, beside the altar, he had stood as straight as a reed. There he had prayed, “O Jehovah, Thou art God. Let it be known today that I have done all these things according to Thy word.” And the fire fell!

Prayer seemed such an easy thing, such a simple exercise. But that was public prayer. Now you see him in intercession. His is under the weight of a tremendous burden. There is no standing now. He is bowed with his face between his knees, with his mantle pulled over his head. He prays that it might rain. God had said, “If you will show yourself to Ahab, I will send rain.” Elijah took the promise literally, spread it before the Lord, and said, “Here it is, Lord; now send rain!” That is intercession. When people really pray, they do not refer to everything under the sun. Have you noticed that the prayers in your life that have been answered have been centered in some one thing? You have been driven to your knees, and there, like Jesus in the Garden, you have repeated the same words over and over again. When you pray about everything, frequently you pray about nothing. The ministry of intercession is hard on the flesh. That is one reason why we so frequently lose out in our prayer life. We may think it is simple and easy work. In reality, it is the hardest task under heaven.

When Faith Speaks

Going over to his servant, Elijah commands, “Boy, go and see if there is a sign of rain.”

And the lad goes to the point, and returning replies, “There is no sign.”

“Then I will pray again!”

A second time he sends him, and he comes back with the same answer,” “There is no sign.”

Again and again this is repeated until Elijah has prayed seven times. Then, when the boy returns, he cried, “Oh my master, my master, there is a cloud on the horizon! It is like a man’s hand.”

Of course! It was Elijah’s hand that he saw! It was the hand of prayer unlocking the reservoir of heaven. God has put the key in your hand and mine, brother; let us get it into the lock.

As soon as the servant brought his report, Elijah said, “Get thee down. Tell Ahab to make ready his chariot and hurry away or he will get wet.” I think I would have let him drown if I had been Elijah. Girding himself, the prophet ran before the chariot of Ahab to Jezreel, to the very gates of the palace, showing respect to the sovereign of the land. What wonderful physical strength he must have had. I sometimes wonder whether or not God wanted him to use it for this trip, but he did.

The Reaction

Ahab comes into the palace grounds. The rain has been falling, and the land—where for three and a half years no dew has fallen—is being drenched. Jezebel is radiantly happy. She is extremely excited. She thinks that the prophets of Baal have triumphed and that Elijah has been defeated.

“What news, Ahab?” she asks.

With downcast countenance he replies, “Sad news, Jezebel. All your prophets are dead.”

“What?”

“Yes, they cried from morning to evening, to no avail. They were dead in earnest. They cut themselves with knives and leaped upon the altar. But nothing happened.”

Some people think that if you are very much in earnest you are all right. Earnestness is not Christianity. You may be sincerely and enthusiastically wrong.

In a moment, Jezebel’s indignation boils. She is like a tigress robbed of her whelps. She turns to a messenger and commands, “Hurry to Elijah. Tell him that the gods may do the same to me and more also, if by tomorrow noon I make not his life as one of them.”

The devil has a habit of posing as a roaring lion. His roar is worse than his bite. None of us have been actually bitten, but some of us have been nearly frightened to death by the roar.

Jezebel knows she dares not kill Elijah. Had she been able to do so, that would have been the best possible time for the deed. She knows that if she kills him, she will turn the whole tide against her. So she contents herself with making a threat: “Tomorrow at noon, I will kill you.”

The Devil’s Tomorrow

Isn’t it remarkable the number of things that the devil says he will do “tomorrow”? Some of you are troubled right now about something that will happen tomorrow. Most of our worries are about things in the future. Thomas Dizon says he saw a motto carved on a mantlepiece: “I have had a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.” That is a universal experience.

I thought this week of a boy in Hamilton, ten or fifteen years ago. We lived in a part of the city not very thickly populated. One morning I was coming down the street. On one side was a typical boy, with freckled face and red hair. On the opposite side was another fellow, quite a bit bigger, and he was shouting over to him, “You wait, Skinny, until I get hold of you. I will beat you up.”

I was interested in this, and I waited. I thought the little fellow would make his way down the street as fast as he could go. But after listening to the big boy’s statement for a little while, he stepped out to the edge of the sidewalk and looking across he said, “This is a mighty good time to get me. Here I am. Do it now.”

It is a great thing to accept the challenge of the devil and say, “Do it now.”

Do you remember how David fled when Saul was persecuting him? We read that “David said in his heart, I shall one day perish at the hands of Saul.” Perish the thought! Suppose David had knelt and said, “Thou hast anointed me for the throne, O God. I am really the king. But I shall one day perish at the hand of Saul.” Do you think he could make such statements to the Almighty? No. You can say some things to your heart that you can never say to your God.

Forgotten Prayer Brings Fear

Watch Elijah as Jezebel’s threat is repeated in his hearing. It carries with it panic and fear. He does not stop to pray. If he had dropped on his knees and said, “My God, Thou dost hear the taunt of this wicked woman,” the Lord would have calmed and composed him. But Elijah forgot to pray. Faith sees God. Throughout the prophet’s biography, this phrase recurs: “As Jehovah liveth, before whom I stand.” God-consciousness made him strong and brave. But he lost it, and he fled for his life.

Can you believe that this man, who dared to beard the lion in his den and stand undaunted before four hundred and fifty prophets is the same man who is now running for his life over the hills of Samaria, into Beersheba where the pastureland of Palestine fades into the drear desert of the Arabian? There he dismisses his faithful servant who has followed him like a dog, and alone he plunges into the bleak wilderness. Poor Elijah! What a terrible thing it is when a man who has been in fellowship with God, who has been out-and-out for God, who has prayed with others and helped them by his life and ministry, suffers a sudden eclipse of faith, as poor Elijah did. Only God can understand the terror that fills one’s soul at a time like this. But bless God, He does understand.

Elijah believes he is committing suicide. There is neither water nor food in the desert. He plods on, a whole day’s journey in the wilderness, and takes refuge at last beneath a juniper tree. Probably a mountain goat had hollowed out a resting place near the trunk of the tree. As Elijah, completely exhausted, lays his head upon the sand, he breathes, “It is enough. Let me die. I am no better than my fathers.” And he falls asleep.

Comfort For Us

Is there not some real comfort in that scene for you and me? We read that Elijah was a man of like passions as we are. But I confess to you that I cannot recognize one feature of myself in him, until I see him under the juniper tree. I see no resemblance at all, until I see him fail. When, in discouragement, I hear him say, “Oh, let me die,” I feel that he was a man like me.

Perhaps some of you have lived on the uplands, you have preached to others, you have triumphed in life. But something has happened, physical or spiritual, and you are down in the lowlands now. You may have Elijah’s blues. They talk about “St. Louis blues” and “Chicago blues,” but there is no despondency like Elijah’s.

I am glad all this happened. It is here that the graciousness and wisdom of God are magnified. The Father was never more tender than when He stooped over that sleeping man. For, mind you, it is the Angel of the Lord who does it. When Elijah was down at Cherith, He sent a raven to feed him. At Zaraphath, He had a widow woman to care for him. But when he is all broken up, ready to die, Jehovah Himself, the Angel of the Lord, comes and takes that case in hand. I can see our Heavenly Father bending over that broken-spirited man asleep in the sand.

When Elijah opened his eyes, he might have said, “Why, I thought I was alone. I was sure I had left everybody behind. But God has followed me; and God is here!”

No, never alone,
No never alone,
He promised never to leave me,
Never to leave me alone.

Mr. Moody used to tell about a boy, wounded at Gettysburg, who lay dying in a hospital. When his mother in New England heard about the terrible battle, and about her son lying at the point of death, she determined to go to him. When she arrived, they said, “We cannot allow you to go to him. It might shock him.”

But she begged, “Just let me sit behind his head, and I will not speak a word.”

Reluctantly, permission was given. For a long time she sat motionless at the head of that narrow bed, praying. Presently the boy groaned. Intuitively the mother’s hand went out and rested on his brow. And the lad opened his eyes and said, “Mother, I knew you would come!”

God declares, “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you.” When? When you are strong, when you are independent? No, when you are broken and bruised and fallen, when you are ready to die. Then, as a mother comforteth, so will God comfort you.

God’s Interest In The Commonplace

The Lord said, “Elijah, eat and drink. The journey is too great for thee.” It was his own journey. Any undertaking is too great for you if you are outside the will of God. But notice: God fed him, nursed him, healed him. He put him to sleep a second time; again He touched him, and food and water were ready at his side. Oh, the tenderness and compassion of Jehovah!

We think of Jesus on the morning of the resurrection. His disciples had been toiling all night in the Sea of Galilee, and they had taken nothing. While they were discouraged, hungry, and tired, they saw a Man walking along the shore. He raised His voice and shouted, “Children, have you any meat?” If it had been today, He would have said, “Boys, have you had your breakfast?” Peter did not know who it was, but John recognized Jesus. “The other disciple” turned the helm of the boat toward shore to bring it to land, but Peter could not wait. When he got to the shore, he found a fish being broiled on the coals. Jesus had breakfast for them! Is that too commonplace for you? That is what is the matter with you; you do not recognize Christ as you should in the common things of life.

Triumphant At Last

We might talk about how Elijah went to Horeb and waited in the cleft of the rock during earthquake, fire, and wind. But suddenly, like a flute sounding through the valley, he heard a voice that he recognized. It was the “still, small voice.” It brought him out. Elijah received a new commission. He was to meet Ahab again before he died. And God at the last was very well pleased with his servant. There is a vast difference between God’s judgments and ours. When we condemn one another (if we do), we naturally magnify one another’s weak points, and forget the good ones. When Jehovah judges us, He is like a mother. He seems to overlook our weaknesses, and thinks of the best there is in us.

You remember when John the Baptist was in prison, he called two of his disciples to him and said, “Jesus is preaching and teaching yonder. Will you go and ask Him if He is really the Messiah, or shall we look for another?”

When the disciples came and repeated the question, Jesus made no reply. He went on opening blind eyes, unstopping deaf ears, casting out demons. At length He said, “Go tell John what you have seen.” And they turned and left. As soon as they were out of earshot, what did Jesus say? “Here is my forerunner, given up to despair, just when I need him most”? No. He said, “What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold they which are gorgeously appareled, and live delicately, are in kings’ courts. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yes, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. For I say unto you, “Among those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist.” He did not dwell upon John’s weaknesses, He did not point to his faults.

We sometimes say, “Love is blind.” Let me put it another way, a better way: “Love is kind.”

Some of you, it may be, are under the juniper tree. May it not be that God has brought you to this place to give you a new vision of the tender compassion of Christ, that you may rise from the dust of defeat to a greater and more triumphant ministry.