Reading:
1 Kings 18:36-40; 19:2-5,9,15-16; Mal. 4:5-6; Matt.
3:1-6; 11:2-14; 14:3.
Elijah and John the
Baptist are in view in these passages of Scripture, and
much for our help can be learned from their experiences.
A
Vital Ministry in a Time of Transition
In the
first place, we must take account of their ministries.
The two men are brought together in a mysterious
identification by the Lord Jesus, and from various
fragments it is quite clear that their ministries were
one in principle and nature; that is, in a day of fairly
general spiritual smallness and weakness, these two
servants of God were His instrument and vessel for making
a way and a place for Himself in greater fulness. They
were way-makers for the Lord, pioneers and pathfinders
for His larger purposes and desires. In the familiar
words used by John - "He must increase, but I must
decrease" (John 3:30). That was the key to the
ministry of both Elijah and John the Baptist - the
increase of the Lord amongst His people.
Both lived
in a time of transition. The principle of transition is
clear, firstly, in that Elijah is brought over into full
view at the very end of Malachi's prophecies, at the
close of the Old Testament - an end-time, a period of
transition unto the Lord's coming: in that case, of
course, His first coming. But I do not think that what
the Lord said about Elijah, in Malachi and later, was
exhausted by the first coming of the Lord; the great and
terrible day of the Lord is still to come. We will not
enlarge too much on details, but be content to note that
that time of transition was governed by the ministry of
both these men, and was marked by the gathering out of a
real people from among the professing people of the Lord.
Malachi makes that perfectly clear - "Then they
that feared the Lord spake one with another; and the Lord
hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance
was written before him, for them that feared the
Lord and that thought upon his name. And they
shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, even mine own
possession, in the day that I do make" (Mal.
3:16-17). Out from the professing, religious realm
there is seen in these words to be a true people for the
Lord. Undoubtedly that was the mark of John's ministry,
for tradition, formalism, legalism were the dominant
features of religion in his day, and it was against these
that he hurled his weight to secure a people unto Christ
in fulness, in utterness. He sought a transition from one
spiritual state to another, and, in the light of a change
of dispensation, to secure a people wholly for the Lord.
That wants dwelling upon very much more fully, but I
think that is enough to give us the clue to the ministry
of these men, and to relate them in a vital way to our
own day - another end-time, transition period that is
surely ushering in another coming of the Lord, and that
also is characterised by the need for the gathering out
of a real people from among those who profess to be the
Lord's. We may expect that what was true in the
experience of Elijah and John in their day will in
principle be found in God's dealings with instruments of
His choice today.
Preparation
in Secret
It becomes
clear then that for such a great purpose - to make a way
and to make room for the Lord - God had and has His
instruments, known to Himself, and secretly under His
hand, being prepared. Elijah comes on to the scene
mysteriously, almost out of nowhere, after deep secret
preparation and discipline. John has spent all his life
in the wilderness waiting for the day of his appearing to
Israel. Something has been going on in secret. God has
had these men in hand in deep preparation, vessels to
meet this particular need in the time of transition -
transition from a state which the Lord can no longer
accept as answering to His known will, to a state which
will satisfy Him. He must have a vessel for such a
purpose. It may be individuals, as it often is, but it
has also through the ages proved to be a corporate
vessel, a company of the Lord's people prepared in this
way. These instruments, known and secured by God in
secret, have, in a secret history with Him, been learning
to know the Lord as their heavenly sustenance. Elijah, at
a time when earth could not provide any sustenance, was
sustained from heaven. John the Baptist, in the
wilderness for many years, where he had to know the Lord
in loneliness and apart from men, was having to learn the
Lord as his heavenly life and his heavenly provision.
Such is the preparation, the equipment, of any vessel to
serve God in this greater purpose of His heart.
All
Prone to Variable Soul Emotions
Then we
come to the next phase - the heights and the depths. We
see Elijah at Carmel, not only literally on a height, but
spiritually in great eminence, with an open heaven and
the power of God being manifested - people being bowed
under those sovereign activities of the Lord, a
tremendous time of life and of fulness. And then we see
him fleeing for his very life at the threat of a woman,
casting himself down under a juniper tree, saying,
"O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than
my fathers." 'I am an utter failure; let me die.'
From the heights to the depths!
John the
Baptist - what a day his was! He, by revelation from
heaven, had said, "Behold, the Lamb of God... He
that sent me... said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt
see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon him, the same
is he that baptizeth in the Holy Spirit. And I have seen,
and have borne witness that this is the Son of God"
(John 1:29,33-34). And then we read his troubled enquiry,
"Art thou he that cometh, or look we for
another?" (Matt. 11:3). Again, from the heights to
the depths!
There are
many lessons in that. Great spiritual heights where you
are enjoying the Lord, in real fellowship with Him, and
where there is a large measure of spiritual fulness,
followed within a very brief time by the feeling that it
is no longer worth living, that everything is gone, and
major questions are arising about the very things upon
which you were before most positive, about which you
would have allowed no contradiction - your own heart
asking questions about it all, about your very life-work
and the worthwhileness of your existence, whether you
have not been altogether mistaken, whether it has not
been a great illusion. It is a tremendous thing to
observe this change in two such men as these. Well might
James say, "Elijah was a man of like passions with
us" (James 5:17)!
The first
thing to be noted from this is that there are times when
we come into experiences of barrenness, of a seemingly
closed heaven, and no longer the enjoyment of the
consciousness of the Lord's presence and of spiritual
blessing. There are times like that in the life of the
greatest servants and instruments that God has ever used.
It is as well for us to recognize it. Some of us would
not range ourselves alongside of these men as to our
spiritual stature, but if they went that way, should we
expect anything else?
Fluctuating
Soul Emotions to be Repudiated
The next
thing to note is that every instrument, however greatly
owned and used of God, is, after all, utterly dependent
upon Him. What a proof it is that our resource is the
Lord and not ourselves! We are nothing in ourselves. If
only we would really remember, that although the Lord may
have called us and used us and made us know quite well
that He has apprehended us, in ourselves we can drop down
to the depths of despair. If we go into ourselves, that
is how it can be. If we sink down into our souls - our
feelings, our reactions to situations, our appraisals,
our judgments of how things appear, of what seems to be -
if we get down there and begin to look from the earthly
standpoint, from the merely human angle, that is how we
can be and shall be. It is for you and for me at all such
times to say, 'Now, after all, is this myself or is this
the Lord? Is this just because I have got down into my own
soul?' We have to challenge ourselves as to ourselves.
David was always doing that. It looks to me as though
David was constantly taking himself into a corner and
looking himself in the face, so to speak, and talking to
himself. On one occasion he was pouring out a terrible
complaint, and then he said to himself, "This is my
infirmity; but I will remember the years of the right
hand of the Most High" (Psa. 77:10). 'This is how I
am made, and what I am like, but this is not the Lord.'
Well,
there are times when we have to pass through spiritual
experiences like this. There is no guarantee that we
shall not have them. The Lord allows them for us to learn
from them - mainly to learn how unreliable are our own
souls, so that we come to repudiate our own moods and all
that belongs to that soul realm. In such times of
suspense and of seeming emptiness, when all has gone into
unreality, we learn what it is that we are really resting
upon spiritually. The Lord is now working into us the
principles of our testimony. We have borne a testimony,
and now is the time to have the principles of it wrought
in and wrought out; and that takes place in times like
these when we are no longer on the mountain, but down in
the valley. Now what about the principles of your
testimony - not the things you said, the profession you
made, but the actual principles of that testimony?
The
Lord Does Not Meet Us on Soul Ground
I must
close with a word as to the Lord's way with His sorely
tried servants. How did He come to their rescue? Now note
- neither in the case of Elijah nor of John the Baptist
did the Lord make a lot of them personally. He did not
meet them on their soul ground. He does not do that. We
get down into our souls, become the prisoners of
appearances and feelings, and the Lord never comes there
to us and takes our ground. He says, "What doest
thou here?" We have got to get up, we have got to
get on our feet again. We may be quite sure He is full of
sympathy - the story of Elijah reveals the Lord's tender
care for His servant - and yet He cannot condone and
accept that level and realm which we have taken, and He
will not make a great deal of us personally; we must not
expect that He is going to do it. He did not say to
Elijah, 'Oh, Elijah, you are all wrong; after all, you
are a great man, you are much better than your fathers.'
And He did not say anything like that to John the
Baptist. What He had to say about John - how great a man
he was - He said to the people when even John's disciples
had gone. He did not say to John, 'There
hath not arisen a greater than you'; but He did say it of
John to others. The Lord is not going to pat us on the
back.
What did
the Lord do in both cases? Well, in effect, He said,
'Elijah, the work is going on; now then, is it yourself
or the work you are concerned about? Elijah, go and
anoint Elisha!' Oh, what a new prospect came in with
Elisha! - a transferred ministry. If Elijah had been
caring only for himself, he would have felt jealous,
piqued. But no, he went on his way and did it. And to
John the Baptist - 'John, the work is going on; you have
said you must decrease and I must increase. I am going on
with the work, John. You may be put aside out of it, but
I am not giving up the work. I am going on with the
purpose that I started.' It tests us as to our utter
selflessness. It puts us on the right basis. It is a
tremendous thing, if really our hearts are in the work.
The Lord says, 'You may be having a bad time, you may
feel you have come to an end - but I have not; I
have a Jehu yet, I have an Elisha yet, I have the kingdom
yet that you, John, have talked about. I am going on.'
You see the point. The Lord has not abandoned His work.
We may be having a bad time, but the Lord is not giving
up, He is going on with the thing which He has taken in
hand; and while you and I may not at the end be beheaded
like John, the principles are these, and we shall only be
able to come back into line with the Lord's going if a
new severance from self-interest takes place, and if we
are concerned only with the Lord's interests. But
remember that the Lord snapped His fingers at Jezebel.
Remember her end, and Herod's end; and see Elijah and
John the Baptist as spiritual forces going on through the
ages, and speaking to us today.