THE story of the prophet Elijah, as given in the 19th chapter of 1 Kings, is replete with helpful lessons. The prophet was in a cave, hiding from the vengeance vowed by Jezebel, and in the utter desolation of the moment, he cried to the Almighty to take away his life and so save him from the sense of loneliness and failure. Naturally we ask ourselves. What was a man of God doing in such a condition of thought? What had brought him there? What mistaken sense had led him to despair of himself and to cry out against life?
Months before Elijah had warned Ahab that there would be a withholding of rain if he and his people persisted in the worship of idols. This warning having been given, he retired to a lonely spot to wait on God, and as a result a great unfolding of the ways of God was given him. He was fed by the birds, and thus sustained he was able to go to the widow of Zarephath and to reveal to her the limitless resources of Love. As thought rose still higher, he became inspired with such boundless confidence in Love's omnipotence that he restored her dead child to life. Strengthened by these successive proofs of the presence and power of God, he was bidden to return to Ahab on a redemptive mission. He was to promise him once more showers of blessing if he and the people would turn again to the one source of all good.
Elijah met Ahab, bade him assemble the people and their priests, and then proposed that they should put their conflicting beliefs as to the nature of the Supreme Being to the test of demonstration. The priests of Baal should prepare a sacrifice to their god and call upon him, and Elijah would prepare an altar to the God of Israel, and the god who answered by fire should be accepted. We know the story. The hours of agonizing prayer, of self-mutilation, followed by the despair of the priests of Baal—"there was neither voice, nor any to answer." Then was heard the quiet, confident prayer of the man of God, with the immediate response and the spontaneous acknowledgment of the people: "The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God." What an uprising of joy and gratitude we should naturally expect from Elijah. His redemptive work was done, the demonstration of God's power was complete, the repentance and the forsaking of sin accomplished; all was ready for God's blessing. Instead, a sense of personal triumph, excitement, and human hate seems to have swept over him, making him forget that "God is Love," and that his mission was not to destroy but to redeem. He issued the cruel command: "Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there."
