March 4
The Continual Burnt Offering" A nd he prayed that he might die. and said, “lt is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!” So he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”"
It took real courage—the courage borne of the conviction that he was God’s own messenger—for this sturdy Tishbite to rebuke so powerful and wicked a ruler as Ahab. It took even more courage to declare beforehand what nature saw no evidence of, but which faith counted on God to perform (1 Kings 18:41). Yet we see this bold man tremble before the wrath of a proud, haughty, vixen-like Jezebel (1 Kings 19:2-3), whose threatening words so disturbed him that he preferred death to further conflict (1 Kings 19:4). In this we may see how he was a man of like passions with ourselves: not some wonderful, mysterious, superhuman being, but a very human person who God had taken up in grace and commissioned for a great work. His greatest weakness was in connection with his outstanding testimony: he was inclined to think of himself as Jehovah’s sole representative on earth. When he said, “I alone am left (1 Kings 19:14), God rebuked him by telling of seven thousand hidden ones in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal (chapter 19:18). We need to learn the same lesson. However faithful or devoted we may imagine ourselves to be, God has many more than ourselves who are true to His Word and faithful in their stand against apostasy.
Not that there be less to bear,
Not that there be more to share;
But for braver heart for bearing,
But for freer heart for sharing—
Here I pray.
Not that joy and peace enfold me,
Not that wealth and pleasure hold me;
But that I may dry a tear,
Speak a word of strength and cheer
On the way.