1 Kings 18:41-46

And Elijah said unto Ahab.

The conquest of faith

This passage:--

I. Indicates the bent of a good man’s mind. Both Ahab and Elijah “went up,” but how different their purposes. One “went up” to eat and drink, the other “went up” to pray. One event may produce various impressions on different minds. These different impressions indicate the true character of men. The mind of the ungodly man is bent upon pleasure, the mind of the godly man on prayer. We may learn three things respecting a good man from this event.

1. The good man possesses an earnest spirit. Elijah needed rest.

2. The good man possesses a humble spirit. The victory Elijah had achieved produced an amazing influence on the minds of the spectators.

3. The good man possesses a devout spirit. He retired to pray. “He cast himself upon the earth, and put his face between his knees.”

II. Exemplifies the power of a good man’s faith. There are three things about Elijah’s conduct that claim our attention.

1. His confidence. There were no indications of the approaching storm. The air was calm, and clear, and cloudless. Elijah had faith in God. He remembered Cherith, Zarephath, and Carmel.

2. His patience. Disappointed once, twice, even six times, he sends again. Elijah knew what God had promised He had power to perform. He waited.

3. His perseverance. Elijah had noted the rustling among the trees, but this did not set aside the necessity of prayer. Elijah prayed, continued in prayer. Don’t let us be discouraged in our approaches to God.

III. Records the success of a good man’s prayer. God had given one answer to prayer--fire had fallen from heaven and consumed the prepared sacrifice. Elijah prayed again. Continued mercies necessitate repeated supplication. To-day’s prayer will not do for So-morrow’s blessing. We know not the nature of Elijah’s petition, but we see three advantages accruing therefrom.

1. There is a Visible indication of God’s purposes. “Behold there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand.” God’s children have the earliest intimation of God’s purposes. “Like a man’s hand.” Small beginnings--in literature, science, and religion--often have important and far-reaching results.

2. There is a special warning for the king’s preparation. “Go, say unto Ahab.” Elijah had predicted that rain should come “according to his word.”

3. There is a direct answer to a particular request. Elijah prayed for rain. The blessing was sent “while” he sought it. It was a great rain.

IV. Reveals the source of a good man’s strength. “And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah.” Remember what Elijah had done! Think of his weariness and hunger, then picture him, outrunning for twenty miles the fleet steed of Ahab. From this superhuman event let us learn two things.

1. That God imparts strength to the good man for the performance of the most arduous duties. “The hand of the Lord was on Elijah.” Man is a poor fragile thing, but God can gird him with infinite strength. God’s influences touch the body, the mind, the heart.

2. The resources of infinite strength are within the reach of a good man. What God did for Elijah He can do for the Church--individuals. (Preacher’s Analyst.)

The prayer of faith

On the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and opposite the far-famed town of Acre, on the south side of a beautiful bay, there is a range of mountain-land rising to an elevation of from 1200 to 1500 feet. This range of hills stand out with marked distinctness and forms a very prominent object from the sea and from all the country round about. It is known by the name of Mount Carmel. The view from the summit is very imposing. The tableland on the summit extends inland for some eight or nine miles. It is a locality interesting not simply on its own account, but also from its varied scriptural associations.

I. The prophet’s prayer. He is bold enough before men, but humble indeed in the presence of God.

1. Look at his posture. He is on his knees with his head bowed downward, so that his forehead touches the ground. This was the attitude assumed in supplication on occasions of special urgency. Standing in prayer was not unusual in ordinary worship (Mark 11:25; Luke 18:13). Attitude in prayer is of small moment in comparison with the spirit of devotion; yet as an outward indication of inward feeling is net altogether unimportant:--

(1) Elijah’s attitude was the sign of reverence and humility: reverence is conspicuous in the prayers of the most devout.

(2) Listen to his petition. We hear not indeed the words, but we know the matter of his prayer. The land was desolate and the people ready to perish for lack of rain. Showers of blessing are wanting for the Church! Oh for the spirit of Elijah.

II. The prophet’s faith.

1. He expected the rain, although as yet there was no sign of its coming, and it had been withheld for more than three years. He says (1 Kings 18:41), “There is a sound of abundance of rain”; but this was as yet only in the word of God’s promise.

2. He continued So expect although the fulfilment of the promise was long delayed. He said to his servant seven times:--“Go again.” “Go again.” It will come! God often tries faith and patience by delay.

III. The prophet’s success. (Homiletic Magazine.)

The rain

I. The object of his faith. To procure rain for the parched land. This was the one object upon which his mind was fixed, and which he was stimulated to seek by the promise of God.

II. The means by which he sought this object. “He cast himself down,” etc. The attitude of prayer. He might have been tempted to have left God to fulfil His own promise, but He did not. His faith was operative, and led him to pray earnestly for the object upon which it was fixed. True faith will always influence us to labour and to pray for its object.

III. The encouragement he received. “A sound of abundance of rain”

IV. The discouragement he met with. “The servant returned from looking toward the sea and said there is nothing.”

V. The perseverance he manifested. “Go again seven times.”

VI. The success he realised. “And it came to pass, in the meanwhile, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.” Perseverance is still rewarded by success, and by it God’s servants still honour Him whom they serve. (Thomas Carr.)

Rain at last

There are certain characteristics in Elijah’s prayer which we must notice as we pass, because they should form part of all true prayer.

I. It was based on the promise of God. God’s promises are given, not to restrain, but to incite to prayer. They show the direction in which we may ask, and the extent to which we may expect an answer. They are the mould into which we may pour our fervid spirits without fear. They are the signed cheque, made payable to order, which we must endorse and present for payment. Though the Bible be crowded with golden promises from board to board, yet will they be inoperative until we turn them into prayer. We are content to pray, though we are as ignorant of the philosophy of the modus operandi of prayer, as we are of any natural law. We find it no dreamy reverie or sweet sentimentality, but a practical living force.

II. It was definite. This is where so many prayers fail. They are shot like arrows into the air. They are like letters which require no answer, because they ask for nothing. They are like the firing by artillery in a mimic fight, when only gunpowder is employed. This is why they are so wanting in power and interest.

III. It was earnest. “Elijah prayed earnestly.” This is the testimony of the Holy Spirit, through the Apostle James. It was the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man, which availeth much.

IV. Elijah’s prayer was humble. “He cast himself down on the ground, and put his face between his knees.” We scarcely recognize him, he seems to have lost his identity. Our only plea with God is the merit and blood of our great High Priest. It becomes us to be humble.

V. It was full of expecxtant faith. “Whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them: and ye shall have them.” Faith is the indispensable condition of all true prayer. It is the gift of the Holy Ghost. It thrives by exercise. It grows strong by feeding on the promises: the Word of God is its natural food. It beat strongly in Elijah’s heart.

VI. It was very persevering. He said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” And he went up, and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” How often have we sent the lad of eager desire to scan the horizon!--and how often has he returned with the answer, There is nothing! There is no tear of penitence in those hard eyes. There is no symptom of amendment in that wild life. There is no sign of deliverance in these sore perplexities. There is nothing. And because there is nothing when we have just begun to pray, we leave off praying. We leave the mountain brow. We do not know that God’s answer is even then upon the way. Not so with Elijah. “And he said, Go again seven times.” Not unfrequently our Father grants our prayer, and labels the answer for us; but He keeps it back, that we may be led on to a point of intensity, which shall bless our spirits for ever, and from which we shall never recede.

VII. And the prayer was abundantly answered. For weeks and months before, the sun had been gathering up from lake and river, from sea and ocean, the drops of mist, drawing them as clouds in coronets of glory around himself; and now the gale was bearing them rapidly towards the thirsty land of Israel. Presently the lad, from his tower of observation, beheld on the horizon a tiny cloud, no bigger than a man’s hand, scudding across the sky. No more was needed to convince an Oriental that rain was near. It was, and is, the certain precursor of a sudden hurricane of wind and rain. “More things are wrought by prayer than this world wots of.” Why should not we learn and practise his secret? It is certainly within the reach of us all. Then we too might bring from heaven spiritual blessings, which should make the parched places of the church and the world rejoice and blossom as the rose. (F. B. Meyer, M. A.)

Elijah an example of the true spirit of prayer

I. The place whither Elijah went to seek him. He ascended to the top of Carmel! Here was a privacy remote from every eye, and well calculated to bring his mind into near and dear communion with God, after the public and awful duties in which he had been engaged--duties equally affecting the honour of Jehovah and the welfare of His people.

II. The prayer of Elijah seems to have been offered up in deep humility. He cast himself upon the earth, and put his face between his knees. Lowliness is the very essence of prayer--for what is prayer, except the soul’s confession of its unworthiness, its rebellion, its vileness, its helplessness, its merit of God’s wrath, arising out of a broken law and a neglect of all the blessings that are centred in Jesus, and that have been offered to and pressed upon its acceptance?

III. The prayer of Elijah is beautifully distinguished by a spirit of deep and settled earnestness. We do not hear a word spoken, nothing that interrupts the soul’s silent communion with God. We know not that a tear was shed, we know not that a sigh was uttered; yet have we obviously the supplication of one who wrestled with God, under an almost overwhelming sense of the momentous nature of the petition which he asked at God’s hand.

IV. He wrestled with God, as “one who would take no denial.”

V. Elijah, then, exhibited a full assurance of faith that his petition would be granted.

VI. Elijah exhibited a waiting spirit of supplication.

VII. The supplication of Elijah was distinguished by a watchful state of mind.

VIII. The prayer of Elijah was the pleading of a spirit capable of discovering an answer which common observation could not detect.

IX. The prayer of Elijah was one which served to strengthen him for duty. It did not suffice to send his servant, that Ahab might be warned, and proceed on his way. No, the prophet arose from his station and posture of lowliness on Mount Carmel, in joy and comfort, to do Jehovah’s bidding, as Jehovah’s prophet. “The hand of the Lord was upon Elijah, and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab, to the entrance of Jezreel.” (R. P. Buddicom, B. A.)

Persevering prayer

“God’s seasons are not at your beck. If the first stroke of the flint doth not bring forth the fire, you must strike again.” That is to say, God will hear prayer, but He may not answer it at the time which we in our own minds have appointed; He will reveal Himself to our seeking hearts, but not just when and where we have settled in our own expectations. Hence the need of perseverance and importunity in supplication. In the days of flint and steel and brimstone matches we had to strike and strike again, dozens of times, before we could get a spark to live in the tinder; and we were thankful enough if we succeeded at last. Shall we not be as persevering and hopeful as to heavenly things? We have more certainty of success in this business than we had with our flint and steel, for we have God’s promise at our back. Never let us despair. God’s time for mercy will come; yea, it has come, if our time for believing has arrived. Ask in faith, nothing wavering; but never cease from petitioning because the king delays to reply. Strike the steel again. Make the sparks fly and have your tinder ready: you will get a light before long. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Prayers for fire and for water

The prayer for fire was answered at once; the prayer for water was not. By putting the two instances together we shall see how they explain one another, and what a striking argument for their common probability is established. Notice as the fundamental fact that the prayer for fire was answered instantaneously, and that the prayer for water was not answered until it had been offered seven times.

1. There was an urgency in the one case which there was not in the other. The king was waiting; so were the prophets; so were the people; it is an unprecedented crisis in the history of the nation. In the case of the rain, the prophet was alone; no immediate expectancy on the part of the public was to be answered.

2. We are not to live in the unusual and the exciting, but in the ordinary and regular. It was good for Elijah himself to be taught that he was only a suppliant, not the Lord. God has always been sparing of His exceptional manifestations. Christ was sparing in His miracles: He never did them merely for the sake of doing them.

3. No human imagination would have risked such a conjunction of immediateness and delay as is given in this chapter. Such a contrary act on the part of God is a simple impossibility to the imagination. It amounts to what is called, sometimes foolishly, a discrepancy or contradiction. Yet it is the very law of the mystery of our life! We live it, but dare not imagine it! Great honours are followed by great reverses to keep us sober. Out of this reasoning comes the high probability of the historical and literal truthfulness of the whole narrative. Literary completeness there is none. No attempt is made to satisfy the suggestions of fancy. All tricks of management, all skill in artistic disposal of incident is ignored, and truth is left to attest and vindicate its reality. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The rustling and the rain

The solemn scenes Ahab had just witnessed would, we should think, have made the most flippant thoughtful, and earnest; but Ahab is unmoved. “Get thee up, eat and drink,” Elijah says to him. That is all he is fit for. He is quite ready for a good banquet; he would be out of his element at a prayer-meeting. In like manner there are some to-day who seem unmoved by any manifestations of Divine power. They pass out of church after listening to a most moving sermon, and merely complain of the length, or criticise the preacher’s style. Human nature, even when totally unregenerate, often manifests some traits that are noble and genuine. It is seldom so outrageously carnal and callous as Ahab seemed on this occasion. We turn with relief to Elijah. “There is a sound of abundance of rain,” he had said to Ahab. Perhaps he heard it only with the ear of the spirit by faith. But why should not Elijah also eat and drink? He was exhausted with the labour and strain of the day. Why not be content, now that he has heard the soughing in the trees, and just eat and drink until the rain fall? Because the rustling was not the rain, it was only the precursor of the rain, and a call to prayer. How often we hinder blessing through lack of prayer. We hear the rustling and we take our ease. If we waited without prayer for the fulfilment of the promise, it would seem as if we thought we had a right to the blessing. Once we begin to take our mercies as a matter of course, there is no blessing with them to our souls. So we find two features specially prominent in this prayer of Elijah’s--his utter self-abasement before God and his believing perseverance. But why does not the first prayer prevail? It is good that our faith should be tested and our desires proved. It is well, too, that we should be taught our dependence upon God. Perhaps if our prayers were always answered at once we should seem rulers and commanders in the things of God, and forget our subordinate and dependent position. We might even make an idol of prayer, as the Israelites did of the brazen serpent, and look upon our prayers as a charm or divining red, giving us a legal claim upon the bounty of heaven. (F. S. Webster, M. A.)

The coming rain

I. The cause of the famine.

II. The cause of the rain.

1. Primary cause, God’s mercy. He seems to catch beforehand the sound of its footsteps (LXX.). But as the punishment was not brought about without the prophet’s intervention, so now the rain is to be hastened by his prayers.

2. What we may describe as the instrumental cause was Elijah’s fervent supplications. It is the instance of the “effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availing much.” “He prayed again, and the heaven gave rain” (James 5:16).

III. Lessons.

1. We learn from this lesson that prayer is of avail with regard to outward things.

2. We see clearly that it must be the prayer of faith, and not of human caprice, which is offered.

3. The lesson also warns us that national sins bring down national chastisements. (W. H. Hutchings, M. A.)