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Royalty and Ruin
In wisdom You have made them all.
The earth is full of Your possessions.
Psalm 104:14, 15, 24
The land to which the Lord had brought Israel was flowing with
milk and honey, a country where they need never suffer for lack of
rain. “The land which you go to possess,” He had told them, “is not
like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed
your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; but the land
which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which
drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your
God cares.”
The promise of abundance of rain had been given on condition
of obedience: “If you earnestly obey My commandments which I
command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with
all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for
your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain.”
“Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you
turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, lest ... He [the
Lord] shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield
no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the
Lord is giving you.”
Deuteronomy 11:10-14, 16, 17
.
“If you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe
carefully all His commandments and His statutes,” “your heavens
which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is
under you shall be iron. The Lord will change the rain of your land
to powder and dust.”
Deuteronomy 28:15, 23, 24
.
These commands were plain, yet as the centuries passed, apos-
tasy threatened to sweep aside every barrier of divine grace. Now
the prediction of Elijah was meeting terrible fulfillment. For three
years the messenger of woe was hunted. Many rulers had given their
[48]
oath of honor that the strange prophet could not be found in their
lands. Jezebel and the prophets of Baal hated Elijah and spared no
effort to bring him within reach of their power. And still there was
no rain.