James Nisbet Commentary - 1 Kings 18:21 - 18:21

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James Nisbet Commentary - 1 Kings 18:21 - 18:21


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RELIGIOUS INDECISION

‘And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.’

1Ki_18:21

I. Most of us are so conscious of some lurking weakness, and so fearful of ourselves, that we are reluctant to pledge ourselves to any definite course of action.—The fact is plain, we do not like to make up our minds. And yet there is this awful law working itself out in the case of every one of us, that, whether we like it or not, our minds are being made up day by day.

The Jews in the time of Ahab found it most convenient to go with the fashion of the time and worship Baal; and when the really critical moment came, there was not a man who was prepared to make his choice between truth and falsehood. ‘The people answered him not a word.’

II. Let us take the warning of the story.—If it be true that life’s great matters are not settled by a single act of choice, but by the habit of choosing rightly: if it be true that one grand critical moment comes to but very few, and that that moment is only the last moment of a chain of other moments, each one of which is as important as its successor, then those who make the choice rightly are the men who look upon the two paths of principle and convenience, of interest and duty, as distinct as honour and shame, as good and evil. The Lord, He is the God, and Him they will serve.

Let us remember that every hour we must look upon as the deciding hour which we will serve, good or evil, Christ or Belial.

—
Canon Jessop.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

A crisis in Israel’s history.—Sin of idolatry general.—Worship of God all but forsaken for worship of Baal.—The story is deeply interesting.—The text is at once a reproof and a challenge; it is also an argument. It is aimed at two failings—indecision and inconsistency.

I. The modern Christian needs that some one should cry text in his ears. Public opinion is against indecision and inconsistency. Mr. Facing-both-ways is not a popular character, but he is a common one nevertheless, and he receives a good deal of encouragement from spirit of age. That spirit is for toleration—free field for every fad. But the moment we venture to rebuke unbelief we are ‘narrow.’ It is regarded as a sign of intellectual feebleness for a man to be sure of anything, and the result is a timid theology and a vague religion.

II. The waverers are touched by Elijah’s challenge. ‘If you really believe religion of humanity will regenerate world and supersede Christianity, live up to it.’

III. The convinced Christians must also heed the text. (1) It warns us that in belief and conduct we must guard against indecision and inconsistency, It reminds us also of necessity of supporting Christian profession by consistent life. ‘Making the best of both worlds’ will end in disaster. (2) How can we hope to attain high standard suggested by text? By (a) earnest prayer; (b) the guidance of God’s Word; (c) the services of the Church, and especially in the most sacred of them all.

Rev. Barton R. V. Mills.

(THIRD OUTLINE)

I. Elijah’s message was limited to his age.—He was not a seer of the future; no prophecies, properly so called, have come to us through him. What strikes us specially in him is the remarkable unity of his aim. His one message was the assertion of the, to us, simple truth of the unity of the true God, and His sole absolute claim on His creatures. It was the union of a grand revelation with the intensest inward fire which formed the force that bore Elijah on.

II. We may learn from the history of Elijah: (1) that the rest we need is to be acquired only by secret communing with God Himself; (2) that strength sufficient to support us when we stand alone is to be found in that simple hold upon God, which seemed to be the one truth of Elijah’s teaching.

—
Canon Carter.

Illustrations

(1) ‘The world is full of compromises. One might say, the world of this day is one great compromise. It hates nothing so much as Elijah’s choice. The world is lax; it must hate strictness: the world is lawless; it must hate absolute, unyielding law, which presses it: the world would be sovereign, keeping religion in its own place, to minister to its well-being, to correct excesses, to soothe it, when wanted. But a kingdom which, though not of the world, demands the absolute submission of the world, must of course provoke the world’s opposition.’

(2) ‘No man can serve two masters. One must choose between the god of sense and brute force, and the invisible, spiritual and eternal God. This choice is always being presented to us, between pleasure and duty, the lower and the higher, the easy and the arduous, flesh and spirit, the world and Christ, and to hesitate long between the two is, like a standard-bearer wavering between advance against the enemy and retreat to his own lines, practical defeat.’