James 5:17. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are. An instance in the life of Elijah is given as an example of the efficacy of the earnest prayer of a righteous man. As, however, the readers might object that the example of Elijah was wholly inapplicable to ordinary men, owing to his peculiar greatness, St. James adds, ‘subject to like passions as we are. By this is not meant passionate, or liable to passion, but liable to the same human infirmities and sufferings, of the same nature as we. Compare Acts 14:15: ‘We also are men of like passions with you.' ‘We profit less,' observes Calvin, ‘by the examples of the saints, because we imagine them to be half gods or heroes, who had peculiar intercourse with God; so that because they were heard, we have no confidence. In order to remove this heathen and profane superstition, James reminds us that the saints ought to be considered as having the infirmity of the flesh, so that we may learn to ascribe what they obtained from the Lord, not to their merits, but to the efficacy of prayer.'

and he prayed earnestly: literally, ‘he prayed with prayer;' a Hebraism for ‘he prayed earnestly.'

that it might not rain. There is no mention in the Old Testament of this being a prayer of Elijah; it is there given as a prophetic announcement (1 Kings 17:1); but it is a natural inference drawn from the character of Elijah.

and it rained not on the earth; that is, on Palestine and the adjoining regions.

by the space of three years and six months. The same period is stated by our Lord (Luke 4:25). Whereas, in the Book of Kings, it is said that ‘the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year,' namely, concerning the rain (1 Kings 18:1). But there is here no contradiction, as the third year refers to the time when Elijah repaired to the widow of Zarephath, which he did not do until the brook Chereth had dried up, and consequently some time after the famine had commenced. The period three years and six months is remarkable as being the same space of time during which the two witnesses prophesied who had power to shut heaven that it rain not in the days of their prophecy (Revelation 11:6).

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Old Testament