Rebuilding of Jericho -- the mission of Elijah -- his character and life -- Elijah's first appearance --

parallelism with Noah, Moses, and john the baptist -- Elijah's message to king Ahab -- sojourn by the

brook Cherith -- Elijah with the widow of Sarepta -- the barrel of meal wastes not, nor does the cruse of oil

fail -- lessons of his sojourn -- sickness and death of the widow's son -- he is miraculously restored to

1 KINGS 16:34-17

WITH the enthronement of Ahab and Jezebel, the establishment of the worship of Baal as the state-religion,

and the attempted extermination of the prophets and followers of the LORD, the apostasy of Israel had

reached its high point. As if to mark alike the general disregard in Israel of the threatened judgments of God,

and the coming vindication of Jehovah's Kingship, Holy Scripture here inserts a notice of the daring

rebuilding of the walls of Jericho, and of the literal fulfillment of Joshua's curse upon its builder  287 (1 Kings

16:34; comp. Joshua 6:26).

Indeed, the land was now ripe for the sickle of judgment. Yet as the long-suffering of God had waited in the

days of Noah, so in those of Ahab; and as then the preacher of righteousness had raised the voice of

warning, while giving evidence of the coming destruction, so was Elijah now commissioned to present to the

men of his age in symbolic deed the alternative of serving Jehovah or Baal, with all that the choice implied.

The difference between Noah and Elijah was only that of times and circumstances, the one was before, the

other after the giving of the Law; the one was sent into an apostate world, the other to an apostatizing

covenant-people. But there is also another aspect of the matter. On the one side were arrayed Ahab, Jezebel,

Baal, and Israel - on the other stood Jehovah. It was a question of reality and of power, and Elijah was to be,

so to speak, the embodiment of the Divine Power, the Minister of the Living and True God. The contest

between them could not be decided by words, but by deeds. The Divin e would become manifest in its reality

and irresistible greatness, and whoever or whatever came in contact with it would, for good or for evil,

experience its Presence.

We might almost say, that in his prophetic capacity Elijah was an impersonal being - the mere medium of the

Divine. Throughout his history other prophets also were employed on various occasions, he only to do

what none other had ever done or could do. His path was alone, such as none other had trodden nor could

tread. He was the impersonation of the Old Testament in one of its aspects, that of grandeur and judgment -

the living realization of the topmost height of the mount, which burned with fire, around which lightnings

played and thunder rolled, and from out of whose terrible glory spake the Voice of Jehovah, the God of

Israel. We have the highest authority for saying that he was the type of John the Baptist. But chiefly in this

respect, that he lifted the ax to the root of the tree, yet, ere it fell, called for fruits meet for repentance. He was

not the forerunner of the LORD, save in judgment; he was the forerunner of the King, not of the Kingdom;

and the destruction of the state and people of Israel, not the salvation of the world, followed upon his

announcement. A grander figure never stood out even against the Old Testament sky than that of Elijah. As

Israel's apostasy had reached its highest point in the time of Ahab, so the Old Testament antagonism to it in

the person and mission of Elijah. The analogy and parallelism between his his tory and that of Moses, even

to minute details, is obvious on comparison of the two;288 and accordingly we find him, significantly, along

with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Yet much as Scripture tells of him, we feel that we have only dim outlines of his prophetic greatness before

us. By his side other men, even an Elisha, seem small. As we view him as Jehovah's representative, almost

plenipotentiary, we recall his unswerving faithfulness to, and absolutely fearless discharge of his trust. And

yet this strong man had his hours of felt weakness and loneliness, as when he fled b efore Ahab and Jezebel,

and would fain have laid him down to die in the wilderness. As we recall his almost unlimited power, we

remember that its spring was in constant prayer. As we think of his unbending sternness, of his sharp irony