XXXVI. SELFISHNESS AND PRAYER.
A CONTRAST.
“So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees.”—1 Kings xviii. 42.
What a Contrast!
And yet, both men were perfectly consistent. It is in each case what you would expect, and yet how differently it might have been. What a different story it would have been if only Ahab had listened to the teaching of God! How often we see men having chances of turning round and beginning a new life; failing to do this, they seem to become the worse for the lesson of Providence and the advice of those who warn them! Has it ever been so with you? Can you remember a time when God stopped you, and made you think, thus giving you a chance of reformation? Wretched Ahab! he had just seen which is Master. How contemptible Baal seemed now! The heavenly fire, which leaped in answer to Elijah’s prayer, disdained to notice the victims on the altar of the idol, while the blood of the false priests dyed the waters of the brook Kishon, a sacrifice to their own wickedness and deception. One would have thought Ahab’s good sense would have prevailed, and that he would have said, “Elijah, I will go with thee, and on Carmel’s top will unite with thee in prayer.” Alas for the history that might have been!
But some of you will say, “Did not Elijah say to Ahab, ‘Get thee up, eat and drink?’” Yes, he did. A few hours before, he had said, “If Baal, follow him.” Does not God allow us to be tempted continually? Did He not, in His wisdom and goodness, place the tree which bare forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden? Does He not say, by natural appetites and propensities, enjoy yourself? There was nothing wrong in eating, but if Ahab had but
Denied himself and gone with Elijah to pray,
the rest of his life would have been different, he might have been converted then. How often it happens that we hear a powerful sermon, perhaps on the first Sunday night of a Mission, but we have something to attend to on Monday, something that might be left without injury, or it may be a party or a concert, and so we do not go to the meeting next night. If we had done so, our whole life might have been changed!
Eat and drink! One wonders it did not choke him, for were not his subjects starving? The famine was sore in the land; men and women pined, children died of hunger, cattle and sheep perished in the fields, but all this, what had it to do with the king? He was hungry, and would eat and would be jolly, never mind about the poor people! Remember, my hearers, you cannot turn your back on God and be the same man you have been. Each time you say “No,” to God’s grace, you become less fit for His kingdom. If men could but see their souls—
If some of you could have a Mirror that would shew your soul,
You would look as though you had seen a ghost! We have portraits of ourselves years ago, and we look at them and