Bible Men: Elijah: A Man of like Passions as We Are

Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel's table. 1Ki 18:19  

Mt. Carmel: When Faith Leapt into the Sky

The Jews, those people who thirst for God as a man thirsteth for water in a dry land, sang “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help” (Ps 121:1). 

A mountain invokes worship. The soul lifts, gathering the wind in its palms, and then it breaks forth into that shaking song.

It isn’t that God lives on a mountain. The Jews knew that, and every poet whom God has inspired knows that “My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth” (Ps 121:2). 

At first it was Sinai, the mount of God, which smoked, and where the bush burned but it did not consume. Then the earth trembled and his voice thundered.

Since then mountains have gripped man’s imagination. So too has the journey of faith, in its upward trajectory, before it enters the gates.

Caleb may have prayed for much more than the physical hill when he entreated Joshua to “Give me this mountain.” Gallant deeds can aid faith just as small ones can hinder it.

So it was natural for Elijah, as a child of the law and the prophets, to choose a mountain place for a showdown between his God and Ahab’s retinue of false prophets. And what makes the heart throb is that Elijah was a man of like passions as we are.

The Genesis of Unbelief

Something draws out the heart to the novelty.

God had been very good to Adam and Eve, giving them everything. Yet our fall (as the serpent told our first parents) was predicated on the one thing we thought we didn’t have. “Ye shall not surely die.”

The children of Israel wanted a king so that they might be like other nations. It staggered them that they were different.

Does it confound you, dear child, that you are born different? If it’s a gift from God, then it’s a joy. It may sound boring now, but eternal fruits take time to ripen. “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” 

We may react to a wilderness experience in several ways. It might enlighten us, or it may stoke anger, bitterness and death. Choose well brethren.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2Co 4:17-18  

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1Jn 2:16-17  

Lust is a Leaf in the Wind

We know life here on earth is brief. The apostles have viewed that life as a breath, others as grass, and as a passing cloud. Lust is an enemy for the believers’ soul as the apostles have warned.

Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. 1Pe 2:11  

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Col 3:1-5 

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Gal 5:16-17  

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Gal 5:24  

From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Jas 4:1  

But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.  Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 1Co 10:5-6 

Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; 

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? Heb 2:1-4 

The Cure of Unbelief

A believer’s greatest arsenal against lust is faith through the word of God. “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb 12:2). 

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Heb 11:13  

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Heb 12:1