Reading:
1 Kings 19:9,10,14; 2 Kings 19:29-31; Isaiah 59:17; John
2:14-17.
The
key to the life of Elijah may very well be found in this
utterance of his: "I have been very jealous
for the Lord..." (1 Kings 19:14). I think
those two words explain Elijah—"very jealous." That
jealousy was related to the Lord having His full place,
His full rights in His Own people. That is what
Elijah typified, and that undoubtedly is what is meant by
the zeal of the Lord. Do you ask what zeal for
the Lord means, what it is to be very jealous for in the
Lord? It means that a man is absolutely separated
from his own interests, from any personal interests, even
in the Lord, and completely abandoned to Him that He
might have His place and His rights in fulness. It
is an utter attachment to the Lord for His
interests. That is jealousy for the Lord. You
cannot fail to see how Elijah was consumed with that fire
of jealousy.
If
we take the great Anti-type, the Lord Jesus Himself, Who
by His action in the Temple caused these words from the
Psalm instantly to leap into the minds of His disciples,
"The zeal of Thine house shall eat me up" (John
2:17), we have no difficulty in marking that zeal or
jealousy for God in His life in such utterances as these:
" ...not as I will, but as Thou wilt" (Matt.
26:39). "Lo, I am come... to do Thy will, O God"
(Heb. 10:7). It is a jealousy that the Father should
have His place, and have it wholly, perfectly; that God
should come into His rights.
The
Link Between Elijah And John The Baptist
We
referred in our previous meditation to the link between
Elijah and John the Baptist. At the end of the Book
of Malachi, in the last few verses of his prophecies, it
is foretold that, before the great and terrible day of
the Lord, Elijah would be sent. When you open the New
Testament you find the disciples referring to that
prophecy and asking the Lord Jesus about it, seeing that
He claimed to be the Messenger of the Covenant, the Lord
Who had come. With that in mind, they were in
reality voicing their own perplexity: The prophets said
Elijah would come first, but we have not yet seen
Elijah! The Lord Jesus pointed them to John the
Baptist and said that this was Elijah, that Elijah had
come and they had done to him what they would. When
you go back to the prophecies concerning John the
Baptist, you find this among the things foretold: "And
he shall go before His face in the spirit and power of
Elijah..." (Luke 1:17). In thinking upon
that second chapter of the Gospel by Luke, in which
occurs the account of the birth of the Lord Jesus, and
the birth of John the Baptist, you can hardly fail to be
impressed with the way these two are brought together in
the chapter. It is a most remarkable thing. We are
shown Zacharias fulfilling his course in the temple, the
angel appearing to him, and all that the angel spake as
to the birth of John. Then there is a breaking off,
and the record of the angel appearing to Mary is given,
and the annunciation. This is followed by the visit
of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth in the hill country, and
the two coming together in that way. It was said
that John the Baptist should go before the face of the
Lord, and that he would do so in the power and spirit of
Elijah. You look for the inner meaning and
significance of this, and you remember Elijah and what he
stood for. Elijah is an abiding example of a
consuming jealousy for the rights of God. Now that
spirit is transferred to John the Baptist, and he runs
before, clears the way, announces the coming of Christ in
the spirit of Elijah. He is bringing in the rights
of God in the Person of Jesus Christ. He is, in
effect, in purpose, bringing God into His place in the
Person of His Son. John the Baptist closes the great
succession of the prophets (he is the greatest of the
prophets in one sense) by handing the Lord Jesus into the
place of God's full rights, and pointing to Him, and
saying to all who beheld, "Behold, the Lamb of
God...." That was to say, in effect, This is
the One in Whom God secures His rights; here is God
coming into His place. Are you prepared for Him to
rule in your life? That was the issue from that time
onward.
That
is the zeal of the Lord, and that is the way—as
becomes instantly patent—to heavenly
fulness. When we speak of heavenly fulness we cannot
dissociate it from the Lord Jesus. In Him all the
fulness dwells, but the question is, How are we coming
into that fulness which is in Christ, and of which we saw
the life of Elisha to be typical? It is by the
Elijah way; by that way wherein God has His full place
and all His rights secured to Him. You can see this
throughout Elijah's life.
Again,
passing in review some of the salient points of his life,
you see that his jealousy for the Lord marked every step
of the way. The introduction of Elijah is very
sudden and abrupt. You are simply told that Elijah
the Tishbite confronted Ahab one day and said: "As
the Lord, the God of Israel, liveth, before Whom I stand,
there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but
according to my word." Thus suddenly, coming
from we know not where, appearing on the scene and making
his declaration, we meet for the first time this man who
stands for the rights of God.
The
Zeal Of The Lord As Seen In
(a) Elijah's Dependence
(b) Elijah's Prayer
There
are one or two things about that very introduction which
bear out this fact. "As the Lord, the God of
Israel, liveth, before Whom I stand...." Those
last four words speak volumes. The next point is
"...there shall not be dew nor rain...." But
later we are brought into the secret place and shown what
lay behind such words: "Elijah was a man of
like passions with us, and he prayed fervently that it
might not rain; and it rained not on the earth for three
years and six months" (James 5:17). You
are allowed to see into the prayer chamber of Elijah; to
see what was behind this great declaration which closed
the heavens.
Now
look at that man praying. Listen, if you can, to his
prayer. When you have heard him at prayer, what do
you come away with as the impression of his prayer
life? It will certainly not be that Elijah was
asking for blessing for himself, or wandering all round
the world at will in prayer and giving the Lord a lot of
information. No! The one thing that will be
left with you as you have heard Elijah pray is
this: How that man is stretched out for the
interests of God! How that man is bent upon God
having His place in the affairs of men and in His Own
people. He is pouring himself out that God might
have His rights. It is not Elijah's good,
Elijah's blessing, but God's satisfaction that
he is after. That was engaging him, and because he
was so bent on that he was brought into active
co-operation, fellowship, oneness with God toward that
end.
Then
a thing was done which to us might sound like a
questionable thing. Standing with God in an utter
way it was possible for him to make the declaration we
have noted. If you want to stand with God, and have
God standing with you, if you want to know that intimacy
of fellowship in which the two are as one, so that you
can say, "As the Lord... liveth, before Whom I
stand...", this is the way, to be abandoned utterly,
at all personal cost, to this one end of the Lord having
His place in fulness in His Own people. Because that
was the object of his being, because he was burning with
jealousy for God's rights, it was possible for
Elijah to say, "As the Lord... liveth, before Whom I
stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but
according to my word." Blessing shall be
suspended, because blessing is only making these people
to go on in something less than God intended. I say,
that might sound a very questionable line of procedure.
But you know the good is very often the enemy of the
best, and because there is a measure of blessing people
sometimes become blind by that very thing to the full
thought of God.
Whether
the conditions of our own day demand the same kind of
prayer it is not our intention to discuss, but the point
is this, that Elijah came to God's position, that
utterness for the Lord justifies anything, that for the
Lord to have His place in utter fulness, and all His
rights in His Own people, is of greater importance than
all other blessings He may grant them. The Lord is
justified in bringing His people even into a state of
spiritual starvation in order to get His fulness in them,
and they will justify Him in the long run when they come
to heavenly fulness along the line of a closed heaven.
So
the very introduction of Elijah speaks with tremendous
forcefulness about what he stands for, jealousy for God's
full rights.
(c) Elijah's
Self-effacement
As
soon as Elijah had made his announcement, the Lord said
to him, "Get thee hence... and hide thyself by the
brook Cherith...." And he went and hid himself,
being fed by ravens and drinking of the water of the
brook. Here is a man who, in working together with
God (he is co-operating with God to the end that God may
come into His place in fulness), finds that his very
jealousy for God requires sometimes that he himself
stands back, keeps quiet, waits, while God works. It
is a difficult thing to do, to wait and wait, and not put
your hand on things, not show yourself, but keep holding
on with God in secret. Oh, we must be so busy, we
must be doing something, be always on the go, or else we
imagine that nothing is being done, or that God is not
doing anything. We think that if we are not doing
anything, then God is not doing anything. That is
our attitude, and very often the real work of God is
spoiled by our interference, by our trying to do it for
Him, and by our being so busy in His things. There
is a time when God's greatest interests are best
reached by our getting away and being quiet, and holding
on to Him in the secret place.
Then
when the brook dried up, the Lord said, "Arise, get
thee to Zarephath... behold, I have commanded a widow
woman there to sustain thee." He went to
Zarephath and found the woman, and called to her, "Fetch
me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel that I may
drink... and... bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread
in thine hand. And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth,
I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in the barrel,
and a little oil in the cruse: and, behold, I am
gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it for me
and my son, that we may eat it, and die. And Elijah
said unto her, Fear not... make me thereof a little cake
first...." Make me first! Make me
first! It sounds selfish, almost cruel, but what
does Elijah stand for if not for the recognition of God's
true place. He is as God. God's
representative in this situation, and so he makes this
claim. The woman was obedient in
faith. What happened? She did not die, neither
did her son, but she had heavenly fulness when she put
God first. That is the way to heavenly
fulness. Elijah stood for God's rights and
said: God must be first. Whenever that is
recognized and acknowledged, it is found to be the very
way of enlargement, the way to new discoveries.
The
rest of the story is well known. For the woman there was
enlargement indeed. Her son dies, and all seems to
speak of loss, but in resurrection life he was given back
and possessed on resurrection ground; a miracle, the
incoming of heavenly fulness in the place of what
before was merely earthly.
(d) Elijah's
Spirit Of Obedience
Then
take another scene in the life of Elijah, namely, his
last journey in company with Elisha, the record of which
we have in 2 Kings 2. Elijah said to Elisha, "Tarry
here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me as far as
Bethel." Elisha refused to remain and they went
to Bethel. Again Elijah said, "Elisha, tarry
here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho." Elisha
again refused to be dismissed and they two went to
Jericho. Then the same acts are repeated in the last
step. Now in all that you have a further mark of
Elijah's abandonment to the Lord's
interests. He comes before us in the terms of a
servant of the Lord under orders: "...the Lord hath
sent me...", "...the Lord hath sent me...",
"...the Lord hath sent me...." He is
moving on steadily by a progressive, spiritual
advance. He is moving on by his abandonment to the
Lord's will, the Lord's command, the Lord's
orders as to a servant.
The
point is that as a result of his obedience and perfect
response of heart to every repeated, consecutive,
progressive command of the Lord he eventually reached
heavenly fulness. "The Lord hath sent me...." Well,
he will take that part of the journey. The Lord has
said nothing beyond that, but He has made it clear that
for the present so-and-so is His will. When that is
accomplished the Lord says again, Now the next step is
so-and-so. Nothing is given beyond that, but when
that step is taken then the Lord is able to reveal the
next step, and once revealed, in the obedience of a true
servant, it is immediately followed. Each step leads
to something else. Each step of obedience makes
fuller revelation and deeper meaning possible. Each
response to the Lord leads into a greater fulness of the
Lord. Thus, in that way of instant obedience to the
will of the Lord as it is revealed bit by bit, step by
step, course by course, Elijah at last reaches the point
where he is caught up by a whirlwind into heaven, he
reaches heavenly fulness.
Do
you want to know the way to heavenly fulness? That
is the way. It is abandonment to the Lord in
unquestioning obedience, the Lord having His
place. If the Lord says He wants a thing, then He
has a right to what He wants; His rights are bound up
with my giving Him that. If the Lord wants me here
or there, wants me to do this or that, then the Lord has
some interest in that, the Lord is going to secure
something by it. It is not a question as to whether
it is convenient for me to go to Jericho, or Bethel, or
Gilgal today, or how it serves my interests, but solely
of the Lord's pleasure. If the Lord has something
invested in that, the only consideration for me is that
the Lord should have my obedience to get what He is
after.
That
is jealousy for the Lord: and how that leads to ever
growing fulness, to the heavenly fulness at
last! The Lord does not ask us to take the whole
course in one bound. He graduates His requirements:
today so much, tomorrow so much. But as He makes
known His will we must remember that He is not doing it,
in the first instance, for our good, but for His Own
ends, to get His Own rights, and our good is always bound
up with the Lord coming into His place.
You
may take any spiritual crisis in your life and, if you
analyze it, you will prove that to be the
principle. When you have come to a place with the
Lord, where a crisis has been reached, and in that
situation have pleaded with the Lord to do something,
asked the Lord, prayed to the Lord for something which
would be for your good, am not I right in saying that you
have not found the Lord answering in the way you
expected. His power has been restrained until you
have come to the point where you have said, Nevertheless,
not my will but Thine. If this cannot be for Thy
glory, I am content, do not grant it; Thy glory is to
govern this hour. It is in that way that you have
got a clear path through with the Lord. But that
principle is wrought into us. It is not a pretense,
it has to be a very real working law, by which all self
interest is brought to death and the Lord becomes the
sole object of our desire. Then we get a clear way
through. Is that not true? How often we have been
held up on that very thing. We have been praying
with our own interests and ends in view, and the Lord has
not come in on that ground at all. He has waited
until we have changed the position and come on to His
ground. So you see that Elijah right through his
life embodies this principle of jealousy for the Lord's
interests.
The
Lord's Need Of A Fixed Heart
Of
course Elijah's great manifestation of this was at
Carmel. How often Carmel has been taken as a basis
of an appeal to the unsaved. The question which
Elijah addressed to the people has been made a favorite
text for such a purpose: "How long halt ye
between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow Him: but
if Baal, then follow him." That word was never
addressed to the unsaved. It was never intended for
them. It is only rarely that the unsaved are in the
position of two opinions. More often than not they
are of no opinion. This is what the prophet really
said to the people: How long limp ye from one side to
another? He viewed them as lame, and lamed by
uncertainty, lamed by indecision, paralyzed by an
unsettled issue. Oh, how an unsettled issue does
paralyze the life. Have a controversy with the Lord,
an unsettled issue with the Lord, and your whole life is
lamed, is paralyzed; you are limping first one way and
then the other, there is no sense of stability about your
way.
So
the prophet called for the issue to be settled. How
long limp ye from one side to the other? Settle this
issue one way or the other. If Jehovah be God, let
Him have His place, His full rights; settle it once and
for all. If Baal is god, well then let us be
settled. But until that is done you are crippled,
you are paralyzed, and the whole secret of your being in
that weak, indefinite, unstable, uncertain place is that
God is not having His full rights; there is a dividedness
in your life, a dividedness in your own soul, because
other interests and considerations are in view. The
dividedness may be in your home life, where you have
power, authority and influence, and you are not standing
one hundred percent for the Lord's interests
there. It may be working in other directions, but
wherever it is present the result is that deep down in
your being you are not satisfied, you are not at
rest. You may be busy, you may be occupied, you may
be rushing hither and thither in the Lord's name,
but you know that deep down there is a lack, an
uncertainty, an unsettled state; your spiritual life is
limited and paralyzed. It will always be so until
the issue is settled and God has His place in fulness in
every part and relationship of your life. It is a
question of zeal for the Lord, jealousy for the Lord. So
on Carmel that issue was settled. How gloriously it
was settled! See the prophets of Baal, and over
against them an altar of twelve stones according to the
number of the tribes of Israel, of whom the Lord said,
"Israel shall be thy name." Israel was the
name of a prince with God, a man who came out in full
spiritual stature, who triumphed on spiritual grounds,
after the flesh was maimed, and lamed, and put
aside. Now the twelve stones represented the twelve
tribes of the children of Israel, all Israel in full
spiritual stature, a spiritual people. That is the
issue. Elijah does not even leave out the
two-and-a-half tribes. He brings all Israel into
this. The issue is to be complete, perfect.
How
bent upon such an issue Elijah was we see from his
singular preparations in connection with the
sacrifice. "And he put the wood in order, and
cut the bullock in pieces, and laid it on the
wood. And he said, "Fill four barrels with
water, and pour it on the burnt offering, and on the
wood." And he said, "Do it the second
time." And they did it the second time. And he
said, "Do it the third time." And they did
it the third time" (1 Kings 18:33,34). There is
to be no doubt about this issue. He is going to
leave no room for question as to the straightforwardness
of this thing. It is to be utter death, and utter
resurrection, or it is to be nothing. That deluging
of the sacrifice with water is bringing everything to
death. Now if life can make itself manifest here it
is indeed God Who is at work in resurrection
power. The issue is fulness of life or nothing at
all, because Elijah has seen to it that every other way
out has been well quenched. There is no other way
out. All prospect, all hope is quenched by those jars of
water being poured over everything.
Elijah
called upon the Lord and the fire came and burned the
sacrifice, consumed the wood and licked up the
water. The issue is clear, is it not? The way
to heavenly fulness is through God having His place,
which means, on our part, an utter death to all that is
other than God. When God gets that place, where it
is all Himself or nothing at all, then, and only then, do
we know Him in the power of His resurrection, do we know
heavenly fulness.
We
stop there for the time being, with but a re-emphasis of
the application to our own hearts. What is zeal for
the Lord? What is jealousy for God? Does it
consist in the number of engagements, the much
business? Is it a matter of our emotion? Is it
the sum of those ways in which we express what we would
call our devotion to the Lord? We have made
answer. The Lord must have His place and His rights
in us in an utter way, and in everything with which we
are related, so far as it lies in our power, we must see
to it that He is thus honored. That is zeal for the
Lord. That is what it is to be jealous for
God. That was the spirit that consumed the Lord
Jesus: "The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up."
We
must ask the Lord to show us exactly how and where His
Word applies to us, and how this is the way to heavenly
fulness. Elisha, whose life is typical of heavenly
fulness, sprang out of such a background, and, like
Elijah, was rooted on this foundation. We too shall
come into the heavenly fulness by no other way than that
wherein God has unquestioned and undivided place, and all
the fruit and all the interests of our life are unto Him.