02.14. Chapter 14. Prayer of a Righteous Man
Prayer of a Righteous Man
(2) And therefore we must inquire what the righteousness is that is here demanded. And the history of the man chosen as an example of prayer shall teach us; for Elijah was a righteous man for the purpose of succeeding in prayer. (a) When appealing to God for blessing, he based his claim on the virtue of an atoning sacrifice: "he built an altar in the name of the Lord."8 His attitude was that of the tax gatherer mentioned by our Lord,9 who stood before the altar of sacrifice confessing himself sinful and wholly unworthy to be noticed by God, and cried, 0 God, for the sake of the victim that has made propitiation, having bled and suffered in my place, have mercy on me! He who would be accepted by the Holy One as righteous, must from the commencement disclaim any supposed righteousness of his own, and must accept as a gift that righteousness of God which is obtained by faith in Jesus Christ the Righteous One,
1 John 11:33-38; 2 Hebrews 5:7. 3 Psalms 40:1-2. 4 Luke 22:44. 5 Ephesians 6:12. 6 Colossians 4:12-13. 2 Corinthians 12:9. 1 Kings 18:30, 1 Kings 18:33 9 Luke 18:9-14.
Who, by the shedding of His precious blood, is the propitiation for our sins. (b) Elijah was righteous because he stood rigidly for God and His rights. He espoused the Lord’s cause against the whole nation. King, queen, princes, priests, prophets, and people were on the one side, Baal’s side: Elijah withstood them all, though alone as far as he knew. He would not follow a multitude to do evil.1 The righteous enquires not whether a cause is popular. Elijah was by no means perfect in an absolute sense. Nay; the Scripture emphasizes that he was of like feeling and infirmities with others ; and he failed just where others would be likely to fail under his circumstances. But he stood publicly for God; and that put him in the right and gave him, on the ground of atonement, a right to be heard in heaven. He walked in the light he had of man’s duty to God, and thus the blood of atonement kept him, before God, cleansed from sin, and he and God had fellowship together2 as to the times and how to meet them. They who seek to serve God and go on with the world (as Obadiah), and they who preserve a judicious obscurity (the 7,000), are the people of God, known by Him in grace; but they do not stem the tide of sin, nor prevail unto the mastering of dire situations. Such have but little power in heaven by prayer or on earth by action. For evermore it is true that "if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear," ;3 and equally certain it is that "the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry."4 It is largely in our own power to frustrate or to secure the answers to our prayers.
(c) Elijah was righteous, from the point of view of prayer, because he asked for right things. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him,"5 even with the upright.6 They who walk habitually in the light with God are given to see things as He sees them. Guided by what He says (in His Holy Word), they come to His mind about matters. Thus their prayers, being directed by His Word and Spirit, are harmonious with His will,7 and often more perfectly so than they at the time perceive "And this is the boldness which we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him."8 The Lord had plainly said that should His people turn from Him, He would withhold the
1 Exodus 23:2.