Reading:
1 Kings 18:17-21.
“And
it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said
unto him, “Art thou he that troubleth
Israel?” And he answered, “I have not
troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house,
in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord,
and thou hast followed Baalim. Now therefore send,
and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the
prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets
of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel’s
table.” So Ahab sent unto all the children of
Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount
Carmel. And Elijah came unto all the people, and
said, “How long halt ye between two opinions? if the
Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow
him.” And the people answered him not a
word.”
In
the previous chapters, we have seen the trouble to which
the Lord goes to produce things the way He wants them to
be. God needs such a testimony. His plan from
eternity is connected to it. This plan cannot be
achieved until God’s people have entered into His
thought, until they stand experientially in everything
that God has given them in Christ. That is, God
wants to be ruling in the life of His people. His
people should be the living realization of His
thoughts. Only in this way does God have what He
wishes to have. But if this were to happen, then
firstly, everything has to be given to us by God; that
which is in God has to have full and undivided importance
in our life, so that that which came from God can return
to Him.
If
only we could grasp the thoughts of God better! There is
such a lack of spiritual receptivity. This is
because there is a lack of spiritual life; we can only
understand the thoughts of God to the degree we walk in
them. Where there is a lack of walking in the
Spirit, there is also a lack of understanding of
God’s thoughts.
How
can we forget that we stand in a battle? Satan has
tried from the start to bring other thoughts than the
thoughts of God into this world, namely his own. As
a result of their disobedience, humans beings became
subject to this other spirit; man lost his ability to
grasp God’s thoughts; the thoughts of the flesh took
possession of him. Therefore we see from the
beginning two directions of thoughts in battle with each
other: the thoughts of God and the thoughts of the flesh.
In regard to the latter we could also say: the thoughts
of the devil. This is not just the case in
undisputed sinners, but the thoughts of religious flesh
are also thoughts against God. We have to admit that
in Christianity today something pagan co-exists, yes,
that in the midst of service for God, and the salvation
of souls, methods are used that have nothing in common
with the thoughts of God, that are not from His
Spirit. What do we mean by this?
We
think here of the vast area of psychology. Modern
psychology in its spiritual content is completely
heathen. It goes back to men who knew only of the
difference between soul and body, who were not conscious
of the human spirit. This pagan psychology has been
taken over by the theology of our time, so that today
evangelization is widely practiced on a pagan
basis. When I studied theology, we were told that a
sermon was successful and had achieved its goal, when the
following three points had been considered:
1.
To win the intellect of man through facts or evidence.
2.
To take into account the feelings of man.
3.
To persuade the will of man.
When
that was achieved, we would have won the intellect, the
emotions and the will of man. But that is nothing
else than what we call in psychology the
‘soul’. Mental activity, emotional
life and the will is exactly that which the New Testament
calls the natural man, who as a ‘soulish’
man is incapable of accepting what comes from the Spirit
of God.
Nearly
all so-called revivals have happened on this basis. They
were mighty movements for the shaking of emotions: mighty
persuasions and argumentations were used to influence the
understanding and will. What was the result? The
natural man has been manoeuvred into Christianity and
been made a Christian. We cannot, however, recognize
the thoughts of God in this and it has nothing to do with
being born again.
According
to the Word of God, man is body, soul and
spirit. Christ says, “That which is born of
the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit
is spirit” (John 3:6). It may be that
‘rebirths’ have occurred in the revivals
mentioned above. But there is a difference between, let
us say, a psychological rebirth and a rebirth in the
Spirit. The one might temporarily carry all the
characteristic features of a real rebirth. And yet
all of that does not necessarily have anything to do with
the Spirit, and in innumerable cases it has had nothing
to do with the Spirit. It is a work of man. The
disastrous fruit of these often well-meant efforts are
devastating. We see how successful the devil was to
confuse things; how he has managed to smuggle a whole
heathen system into Christianity, a system that has
nothing in common with the thoughts of God.
We
see the same in reference to the
church. Christianity has become a system of human
interpretation of the thoughts of God. Spiritual
death hovers over it. It is no living testimony for
God.
God
has given us a burden in our hearts concerning His
thoughts. We do not speak to criticize. We
speak because we have to. The force of the devil
operates there where the wealth of people’s souls
are at his disposal. He reaches his purpose through
alliances available to him in the soul of man. That is
why God endeavours to such an extent to save man from
himself, to save him unto God.
We
have said that the ministry of the prophets consisted of
leading the people back to the thoughts of God. It
was a ministry amongst the people of God. It was
about the rights of God in His house.
Let
us return once more to Elijah, and let us note how things
started. It starts with the Lord saying to Elijah: “Go,
show thyself unto Ahab!” (1 Kings
18:1). Three and a half years earlier He had said: “Hide
thyself!” (1 Kings 17:3). The prophet
had therefore hidden himself all this time until
then. But now the word was: “Go, show
thyself unto Ahab!”. He stands face to face
with Ahab. We remind ourselves about what Ahab said
on that occasion: “Is it thou, thou troubler of
Israel?” (1 Kings 18:17; RSV). People
that stand without reserve for the rights of God will
always be considered as enemies by those who reject the
thoughts of God. There is the point of view of
Elijah, and the one of Ahab. Ahab, who says: “You,
the troubler of Israel.” Or Elijah who can
reply: “It is not I that have brought Israel into
trouble, but you” (1 Kings 18:18). Where
did the trouble come from in reality? Did it come
from the side of those that wanted things the way that
God wanted them? Did it not come from the side of
those that denied God His rights? Those that do not
want to go the full way with the Lord, who do not have
the thoughts of God at heart, they are really His
enemies.
On
which side do we want to stand? That is the real
question. That is what it is about. We know how
Elijah expressed himself in reference to his own life:
“I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of
hosts” (1 Kings 19:14). Elijah has a
clear picture of what God wants. He can also see
through to recognize what does not correspond to
God’s thought. But he himself stands outside of
these matters. He is not entangled with the
exterior. That is why he is able to be at God’s
disposal. His devotion includes the willingness to
pay the full price necessary for a full restoration of
the testimony of God. Consequently, such witnesses
will be fought as enemies. Wherever a religious
system has come to reign, it will always be held against
them that it is they who bring the people of God into
confusion. This is what makes the ministry so
difficult. This is what makes the ministry so
costly.
But
behind all of this was Baal. Elijah was not against
Israel. It was a blinded nation. Baal stood
behind it. The forces of darkness were working in
the idolatry into which Israel had surrendered
itself. Israel was so deceived that it thought it
was doing right in its idolatry. This is the highest
level of deception, not seeing that everything one does,
also that which is sincerely intended, actually serves
the devil. The prophet’s disagreement is not in
the first place with Israel. His battle is with the whole
spiritual system into which Israel is
entangled. ‘Religious’ people would not
even rebel against the ministry of the prophet, if the
enemy did not instigate them. So they become
instruments of the devil. But the prophet is ready
to encounter this. He is misunderstood, he is
slandered and seen as an enemy; he is marked as the one
who troubles Israel. But he has a vision. He
does not serve himself. He knows that his standpoint
leaves no room for personal ambition. But he has
seen God. He is connected to God. And in the
special standing which he has with God, the difference
between the godly and the human has been revealed to
him. With this vision he has become prepared to
carry the cost that the service of God demands.
How
important it is that we recognize our calling. It
determines our ministry. What does it consist
of? Has God not revealed His secret to us? Has
He not made known to us in His Word what He
wants? He has surely spoken to us quietly and has
unveiled His thoughts to us. Can we do otherwise but
recognize the immense contrast between the thoughts of
God and those of men, between that which God wanted as a
testimony of heavenly things and that which men have made
of it?
Let
us proclaim the message of God! Let us give back the
thoughts of God to His people! But let us not forget
what it costs.
When
the Lord shows us such things, a crisis emerges for
us. Are we prepared to pay the price? Are we
prepared to be called enemies, who apparently want to
confuse the people of God? Are we prepared to take a
place of full trusting and dependence, if only God
attains His goal? We may be slandered and regarded
as contemptuous, but what does it matter? As long as
God is honoured.
I
think we all realize such decisions are final and
definitive. The decision that God demands of us
takes everything away from us. But how abundant in
contrast to this is what God gives us! We have the
choice. We can decide for God with the full
consciousness as to what we have decided. The alternative
is to reject our calling. We can return to lower,
earthly things because of all sorts of reasons. We
then lose the vision, and we lose the calling. We
have missed “so great a salvation” (Heb.
2:3).
Elijah’s
behavior is also meaningful in reference to something
else. In his time Israel was divided. He could
have accepted the division without complaining about it,
wishing for a better time. But he does not accept
the separations. He builds an altar of twelve
stones, to bring to expression that according to
God’s thought the church is an indivisible
whole. From God’s point of view she is one
body. Did the Lord not say to Jacob: “Thy
name shall be Israel”? (Gen. 32:28). As a
prince of God he was called to build the house of
God. Elijah refuses to present anything to a part of
Israel that may only be applied to the whole.
“And
Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the
tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the
Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be thy name”:
and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the
Lord: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as
would contain two measures of seed. And he put the
wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid
him on the wood, and said, “Fill four barrels with
water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, 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. And the water ran round about the
altar; and he filled the trench also with water. And
it came to pass at the time of the offering of the
evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and
said, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel,
let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel, and
that I am Thy servant, and that I have done all these
things at Thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that
this people may know that Thou art the Lord God, and that
Thou hast turned their heart back again.” Then
the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt
sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust,
and licked up the water that was in the trench. And
when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and
they said, ‘The Lord, He is the God; the Lord, He is
the God’” (1 Kings 18:31-39).
Do
we not see the same in the Letter to the Ephesians? Paul
sees the church, as far as an earthly representation is
concerned, in the process of collapsing. As he
looked at his life work from prison in Rome, he had to
admit that it did not last. In Asia, in Galatia, in
Europe, everywhere he sees failure and
breakdown. When he was free he could travel to and
fro; he could do his utmost to keep the spiritual state
of things going. Now, sitting in prison, he watched the
work come to nothing. Some assemblies turned away from
him altogether. The state of the church could have
caused him to say: It is all in vain. However in reading
the Letter to the Ephesians, we do not find the slightest
indication of such a point of view. He wrote the
letter at the end of his life. Had he written the
letter at the beginning, we would say: What a wonderful
ideal the church of Paul is. However, Paul wrote it
when the church on earth was failing. Despite this,
for Paul there is no division. Oneness is the word
that governs this letter. What kept Paul from
despair was this:
“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and
foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of
the household of God; and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being
the chief corner stone; in Whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
in Whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of
God through the Spirit” (Ephesians
2:19-22).
Paul
saw the heavenly reality of the church in Christ. He
saw the Body of Jesus Christ in its perfection
through the work of Christ. He saw that the
Lord did not want to make something for the earth, but
that through the Holy Spirit He was seeking to turn from
the earthly into the heavenly that which had been
redeemed from the earth in Him.
In
spirit Paul was standing on the same ground as
Elijah. Elijah did not take ten stones to show that
he was acting for the ten tribes of Israel. Neither
did he take nine and a half stones, leaving aside the two
and a half tribes that had not crossed over the
Jordan. According to the thought of God he used
twelve stones for an altar. A mighty testimony for
the unchangeable and glorious realization of the thought
of God at the Cross of Golgotha. Elijah stands alone
on the top of Carmel. But God stands with
him. Like Paul he can say: “All forsook
me... but the Lord stood by me” (2 Tim.
4:16,17). He is not scared of the outcome of the
fight. He asks for water to be drawn four
times. It has to be made as clear as possible that
only God can act in the way He did in response to
Elijah’s prayer.
What
does God want to show us by this? God waits until
all hope in human help and human efforts of explanation
have come to an end, to show that He is God and no one
else.
What
wonderful faith do we see in Elijah! What happened
on top of mount Carmel is an illustration of the Word in
the Letter to the Ephesians: “The exceeding
greatness of His power (is directed) to us-ward who
believe.”
Elijah
had stood up for the sake of the testimony of God. He had
suffered because of the recovery of the rights of God.
Let us also stand for the rights of God! Even if we
are to be considered by some as enemies. The Lord
can strengthen us in our testimony, and He will do
it. Only let us pay the whole price. Let us not
keep anything back. Let us give ourselves completely
to God, so that He may have opportunity to realize His
thoughts.
This
will lead us into battle. What does it
matter? We look at the end. After Elijah comes
Elisha. The whole life of Elisha is an uninterrupted
triumph of life. We also look to the future and know
that it will be only life in eternity.