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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
they would have delivered him to Jezebel, that she might satisfy her
revenge by taking his life. Because Elijah dared to utter the word of
woe which God bade him, he made himself the object of their hatred.
They could not see God’s hand in the judgments under which they
were suffering because of their sins, but charged them to the man
Elijah. They abhorred not the sins which had brought them under the
chastening rod, but hated the faithful prophet, God’s instrument to
denounce their sins and calamity.
“And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the Lord
came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahab;
and I will send rain upon the earth.” Elijah hesitates not to start on
his perilous journey. For three years he had been hated, and hunted
from city to city by the mandate of the king, and the whole nation have
given their oath that he cannot be found. And now, by the word of
God, he is to present himself before Ahab.
During the apostasy of all Israel, and while his master is a wor-
shiper of Baal, the governor of Ahab’s house has proved faithful to
God. At the risk of his own life he has preserved the prophets of God
by hiding them by fifties in a cave and feeding them. While the servant
of Ahab is searching throughout the kingdom for springs and brooks
of water, Elijah presents himself before him. Obadiah reverenced the
prophet of God, but as Elijah sends him with a message to the king,
he is greatly terrified. He sees danger and death to himself and also
to Elijah. He pleads earnestly that his life may not be sacrificed; but
Elijah assures him with an oath that he will see Ahab that day. The
prophet will not go to Ahab but as one of God’s messengers, to com-
mand respect, and he sends a message by Obadiah: “Behold, Elijah is
here.” If Ahab wants to see Elijah, he now has the opportunity to come
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to him. Elijah will not go to Ahab.
With astonishment mingled with terror the king hears the message
that Elijah whom he fears and hates, is coming to meet him. He has
long sought for the prophet that he might destroy him, and he knows
that Elijah would not expose his life to come to him unless guarded
or with some terrible denunciation. He remembers the withered arm
of Jeroboam and decides that it is not safe to lift up his hand against
the messenger of God. And with fear and trembling, and with a large
retinue and an imposing display of armies, he hastens to meet Elijah.
And as he meets face to face the man whom he has so long sought, he