Different Standpoint of the Old and the New Testament ­ Analogy between Elijah and John the Baptist - Jezebel

threatens Elijah's life - The Prophet's Flight - His Miraculous Provision ­ Analogy between Moses and Elijah - Elijah at

Mount Horeb - What does t thou here, Elijah? - The Wind, the Earthquake, the Fire, and the Still Small Voice - The

Divine Message and Assurance to Elijah - Call of Elisha.

(1 Kings 19)

UNSPEAKABLY grand as had been the scene on Mount Carmel, we instinctively feel that it was the outcome of the

Old Testament. We cannot conceive it possible under the New dispensation. In so saying we do not so much refer to

the ironical taunts which Elijah had addressed to the priests of Baal, when compassion, gentleness, and meekness might

have s eemed befitting, since it was necessary effectually to expose the folly as well as the sin of idolatry, and this was

best done in such manner (comp. Isaiah 40:18, etc.; 41:7; 44:8 -22; 46:5-11; Jeremiah 10:7, etc.). Nor do we allude only

or mainly to the destruction of the priests of Baal. This was simply in obedience to the Old Testament Law, and was

grounded alike on its economy 17 and on the circumstances of the time.

Taking the lowest view, it was an act of necessary self-preservation, since the two religions could not co-exist,

as the conduct of Jezebel had recently proved. But there is a higher view than this of the event. For the fundamental

object of Israel's calling and existence - the whole typical import and preparatory purpose of the nation - was

incompatible with even the existence of idolatry among them. Finally, there is this essential difference between the Old

and the New Testament dispensation - that under the latter, religion is of personal choice, heart -willingness being

secured by the persuasion of the Holy Ghost; while under the Old Testament (from its nature) religion was of Law.

Religious liberty is a principle which necessarily follows from a religion of free choice, where God no longer addresses

Himself to man merely, or mainly, with t he authority of a general Law, but appeals to the individual conscience with

the persuasion of a special invitation. Under the Old Testament, of which the fundamental principle was the sole Divine

authority of Jehovah (Exodus 20:2, 3), idolatry was not only a crime, but a revolt against the Majesty of heaven, Israel's

King, which involved the most fatal consequences to the nation. Yet even so, we repeat it, the scene on Mount Carmel

could not have been enacted in New Testament times.

But while fully admit ting this distinctive standpoint of the preparatory dispensation, it were a most serious mistake to

forget that the Old Testament itself points to a higher and fuller manifestation of God, and never more distinctly than in

this history of Elijah. Attention has already been called to the analogy between Elijah and John the Baptist. At this

stage we specially recall three points in the history of the latter. It seems as if the Baptist had expected that his warning

denunciations would be immediately followed either by visible reform, or else by visible judgment. But instead of this

he was cast, at the instigation of Herod's wife, into a dungeon which he was never to leave; and yet judgment seemed to

slumber, and the Christ made no movement either for the deliverance of His forerunner, or the vindication of his

message. And, lastly, in consequence of this disappointment, spiritual darkness appears to have gathered around the

soul of the Baptist. One almost feels as if it had been needful for such a messenger of judgment to become consciously

weak, that so in the depression of the human the Divine element might appear the more clearly. And it was also good

that it should be so, since it led to the inquiring embassy to Christ, and thus to a fuller revelation of the Divine character

of the kingdom. The same expectation and the same disappointment are apparent in the history of Elijah on the morrow

of the victory at Carmel. But they also led up to a fuller manifestation of the meaning and purpose of God. Thus we see

how the Old Testament itself, even where its distinctive character most clearly appeared, pointed to that fuller and more

glorious manifestation of God, symbolized, not by storm, earthquake, or fire, but by "the still small voice."

If Elijah had lingered in Jezreel in the hope that the reformation proclaimed on Mount Carmel would be followed up by

the king, he was soon to experience bitter disappointment. There is, however, good reason for inferring that the

impression then made upon the mind of Ahab was never wholly effaced. This appears not only from the subsequent

relations between the king and prophets of the LORD (1 Kings 20), but even from his tardy repentance after the

commission of his great crime (1 Kings 21:27-29). Indeed, it might almost seem as if, but for the influence of Jezebel

upon the weak king, matters might at least temporarily have taken a different turn in Israel. But if such was the effect

produced upon Ahab by the scene on Mount Carmel, we can understand that Jezebel's first wish must h ave been as

soon as possible to remove Elijah from all contact with the king. For this purpose she sent a message, threatening the