IV.

The Forty Days from Beer-sheba to Horeb :

HUMAN WEAKNESS AND DIVINE STRENGTH.

"And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to-morrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God." (1 Kings xix. 1-8.)

E now enter upon another memorable period of forty days, which are intimately connected with the history of a very remarkable man; and it is worthy of notice, that these forty days, as in the case of Moses, are connected with Mount Sinai; and as in the case of the spies, with wandering in the wilderness.

Horeb is but another name for Mount Sinai, or

rather, it is another peak of that mountain range from which the law of God was given to Israel. It was here that Moses beheld the bush which burned, but was not consumed. It was here that the thirsting people drank water from the smitten rock. It was here that they gained the victory over Amalek in the valley, whilst Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses upon "the top of the hill." It was here that during twice forty days the great lawgiver of Israel received communications from Jehovah, and interceded on behalf of the people.

And now once more it becomes a theatre for the display of Divine power and perfection; once more it is connected with a memorable period of forty days in the life of another eminent servant of the Most High.

Is it not singular that Moses and Elias-these eminent types of Christ, who had stood upon this mountain and beheld there the majesty of God-should be the two who stood with Christ upon the Mount of Transfiguration and beheld His glory? These three

-Moses, Elijah, and Christ-who had been each sustained for forty days without food, are the very three who meet in that wondrous scene, which embodied, as it were, the future glory of the Messiah's kingdom, and concerning which the Saviour had previously said to His disciples, "Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom." And thus not only did the law and the prophets, in the person of Moses and Elias, bear

witness unto Christ; but the quick and the dead, (represented by the translated Elijah and the buried Moses,) gave a pledge and illustration of His coming kingdom.

We meet with Elijah at Beer-sheba under strange and unexpected circumstances. Up to this time he had been the faithful and fearless Reformer. He had reproved Ahab to his face. In answer to the monarch's accusing question, " Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" he had fearlessly replied, "I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed Baalim." He had stood up for Jehovah on Mount Carmel, amidst the eight hundred and fifty priests and prophets of idolatry, and put their pretensions to the proof. He had brought down fire to consume the sacrifice in the sight of Israel. He had opened the windows of Heaven and given them rain, after years of drought and famine. He had raised the dead, and wrought such wonders by his preaching and his miracles that he had forced the acknowledgment from a hesitating nation-" The LORD, He is the God; the LORD, He is the God!"

And now he is flying for his life! Ahab had informed his sanguinary wife of Elijah's triumphant reformations, and Jezebel, the relentless queen, swore vengeance against the prophet. He had slain the four hundred and fifty prophets whom this royal idolater had maintained at her own table, and she sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, "So let the gods do to

me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to-morrow about this time."

"And when he saw that, he arose and went for his life." It may be read, "he went at his own will,” for he had no Divine sanction for this hurried flight; he was acting in obedience to his own human impulses of disappointment and of fear. He was acting for himself, and from himself; and lo! what is the result? A display of cowardice scarcely to be equalled in the annals of human weakness. The prophet of God a fugitive from a woman's anger-deserting Israel in the hour of their danger and repentance, and hiding himself in the desert, instead of following up his hopeful work of reformation!

What was the secret of all this? We know from the testimony of an inspired apostle that "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are;" (James v. 17;) but we want to ascertain the way in which these passions and weaknesses were acted on. The truth is, that he had become a sad and disappointed because a self-confident man. He thought that his earnestness, his appeals, his wondrous works would have brought about immediate and national reformation. He thought that after the scene upon Mount Carmel, and the executions at the brook of Kishon, the king and people must return at once to the faith of their fathers. And now because his own bright hopes had deceived him; because his own earnest efforts are likely to be frustrated; because the king is swayed once more by Jezebel, and the people by the king, he

sinks into despondency, and flies for his life," and came to Beer-sheba, which belongeth unto Judah."

Alas! how much of self may be concealed in our best purposes; how much of sin in our best services. We allow strange fire to kindle on God's altar. We mix up our own doings and our own efforts with the work of God entrusted to our care, and think that on account of them it must succeed. We become selfglorious, and we think it zeal; we are jealous for our own honour, and call it jealousy for the Lord.

And all God's dealings with Elijah during the forty days which followed, as well as during the subsequent scene presented to him at Horeb, were intended to rectify this mistake to point out to him that it is not man's weakness, but God's strength, which can accomplish anything good, either in us, or by us; that He can work without us just as well as with us; and that we have need again and again to pray-" From all pride, vain-glory, and hypocrisy, good Lord, deliver

us!"

And now the prophet has fled from Jezreel, whilst the abundant rains are silently reminding him of the power and goodness which he has been distrusting; and on to Beer-sheba he hies, scarce knowing whither he goes, but carrying disappointment, and discontent, and peevishness in his inmost heart. He will get away, in his morbid fretfulness, from the midst of Israel, as well as from the threats of Jezebel; he will hide himself from a vacillating people and a temporizing king, as well as from an angry queen;