A Hundred Prophets

"Now, Obadiah feared the LORD greatly: For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water" (1 Kings 18:3-4)

I could spend this post talking about how great a guy Obadiah was, and I probably should. He worked for Ahab, but feared the Lord more than the king and Jezebel. He recognized Elijah and his authority, and even though he recognized the great peril in Elijah's request of him, also recognized that in the end he would obey the Lord despite it all. I could talk about how we are the same, living in the world but not of the world. That not all of Israel had fallen, that great government leaders were still faithful, that there were a hundred prophets, men of God, still at work. I could talk about prophets, that there is not one, but many at a time. But, I'm not going to. I'm tempted, but I'm not going to. Instead, I'm going to talk about loneliness.

In the next several chapters, Elijah is going to make the statement: "I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD" (1 Kings 18:22; 19:10, 14). Elijah feels alone. After the face-off with the priests of Baal where God consumes Elijah's sacrifice with fire from heaven, Elijah goes out into the wilderness, and "he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life" (1 Kings 19: 4).

Elijah had just talked to Obadiah, a man of faith in a wicked government. A man who saved alive 100 other prophets. But, maybe Elijah felt that these prophets were nothing, for he was commanded to go about publicly, while they hid in caves. Elijah held to contest with the priests of Baal, saw fire from heaven consume the sacrifice, turn the hearts of all the people there back to the Lord, killed the pagan priests, and was touched by an angel of the Lord. And he felt alone. Sometimes, despite experiences to the contrary, we also feel alone. We feel that we do more than others, that the Lord has asked enough of us. And prophets are not perfect, they feel the same.

In this spirit of loneliness, desiring even death, an angel comes to give food and strength to Elijah, "because the journey is too great for thee," alone, I would add (1 Kings 19:7). And so, with divine aid, Elijah journeys to mount Horeb, or mount Sinai.

When Elijah gets to the mountain of the Lord, he is in a cave when the Lord asks: "What does thou here, Elijah?" And Elijah answers, paraphrasing, "I have been a faithful servant of thee, Lord, in this time of idolatry. Israel has not kept the covenant, has destroyed thy alters and thy prophets, and seek to kill me. I am alone." (1 Kings 19:9-10)

God then asks Elijah to come out of the cave and stand upon the mountainside. Then came wind, and an earthquake, and a fire, but the Lord was not in those. But after all these, the Lord came in a still small voice. And, hearing the voice, Elijah come out of the cave, and God asks the same quesiton again. And Elijah answers in the same way.

Again, the Lord's question: what are you doing here? Elijah's answer: I am alone, faithful servant of thee. Same question, same answer, so why does God go through the whole fire thing?

The Lord had just accomplished a powerful miracle of fire from heaven. Now, it is a still small miracle. The Lord is a God of power, and a God of the small things of the soul, and emotional help. Elijah needed time for meditation. To be reminded of the different facets of God. To go to the mountain of the Lord. There, God answers Elijah by giving him more responsibility, as well as answering his qustion of loneliness: "Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal" (1 Kings 19:18). There are seven thousand faithful in Israel, 100 of them prophets. No Elijah, you are not alone.

In doing the work of the Lord we are never alone. The only one who was ever alone was Christ while performing the atonement: "And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered, that there was none to uphold" (Isaiah 63:5). But, when we look, there are those who uphold. We have parents and friends and church leaders and home teachers, prophets and apostles, Christ Himself as our attendant. If any of those fail, there are backups. And at least Jesus will never fail us. But, there are moments when we feel that we have had enough, that we are alone. Then, I pray that we may do like Elijah, and go to the holy places of the Lord, and there be wrapped in the still small voice. And that voice, no matter what it says, is proof that we are not alone. Never, ever, alone.

God took the time to reassure Elijah in his moment of weakness, He will do the same for us. He did do the same for us. In the atonement, where Christ was alone, He made it so that we would never be alone. His voice whispers to our souls with power and comfort: Never, ever, alone.