Go down with him, be not afraid.
The old courage again
The age of the Mosaic Law, which shed its empire over the times of Elijah, was preeminently the era in which those awful and splendid attributes of the Divine character--God’s holiness, justice, righteousness, and severity against sin--stood out in massive prominence; as some of us, from the ancient capital of Switzerland, have seen the long line of Bernese Alps, rising above the plain in distant and majestic splendour; cold in the grey dawn; or flushed with the light of morn and eve. It was only when those lessons had been completely learnt, that mankind was able to appreciate the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. That there was no malice in Elijah is clear from his willingness to go with the third captain, who spoke with reverence and humility. “And the angel of the Lord said, Go down with him; be not afraid of him. And Elijab went down with him unto the king.”
I. The meekness and gentleness of Christ. The only fire He sought was the fire of the Holy Ghost. “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and what will I if it is already kindled.” He strove not to avenge Himself, or vindicate the majesty of His nature. “He endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself.”
II. The impossibility of God ever condoning defiant and blasphemous sin. We have fallen on soft and degenerate days when, under false notions of charity and liberality, men are paring down their conceptions of the evil of sin, and of the holy wrath of God, which is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
III. Elijah’s full restoration to the exercise of a glorious faith. In a former time the message of Jezebel was enough to make him flee. But in this ease he stood his ground, though an armed band came to capture him. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.).