Go, show thyself unto Ahab.
Ahab, Obadiah, and Elijah;-
What are the general lessons as affecting Ahab, Obadiah, and Elijah?
1. It is possible for a man to be very bad in one direction and very tolerant in another. It was so in the case of Ahab. He was the worst of the kings of Israel, yet he kept a governor over his house who feared the Lord greatly.
2. The Lord causes the most wicked men to pay His religion the homage which is due to its excellence. A bad king employs a good governor! The thief likes an honest man for steward. The blasphemer likes a godly teacher for his child.
3. He who is the slave of idolatry becomes an easy prey to the power of cruel tempters. We do not know that Ahab was a cruel man, but we do know that Jezebel was a cruel woman, and Ahab was greatly influenced by his passionate and sanguinary wife.
4. Ahab was a speculative idolater, Jezebel was a practical persecutor; Ahab showed that speculative error is consistent with social toleration. Redeeming points do not restore the whole character. “One swallow does not make a summer.”
5. In the same character may be met great faith and great doubt. Obadiah risked his life to save fifty of the prophets of the Lord, yet dare not risk it, without first receiving an oath, for the greatest prophet of all! This mixture we find in every human character. “How abject, how august is man!” In Ahab, Obadiah, Elijah, and Jezebel, we see a fourfold type of human society; there is the speculator, the godly servant, the far-seeing prophet, the cruel persecutor. Society has got no further than this to-day. O wondrous combination! So checked, so controlled, by invisible but benignant power. Speculative error has its counterpart in actual cruelty, and patient worship has its counterpart in daring service. Application.
(1) Be the servant of the Lord.
(2) To-day, Christ calls for faithful testimony;
(3) If we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with Him. (J. Parker, D. D.)