Later on, in the third year of the drought, the Lord said to Elijah, “Go and present yourself to King Ahab. Tell him that I will soon send rain!” So Elijah went to appear before Ahab. Meanwhile, the famine had become very severe in Samaria. So Ahab summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace. (Obadiah was a devoted follower of the Lord. Once when Jezebel had tried to kill all the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah had hidden 100 of them in two caves. He put fifty prophets in each cave and supplied them with food and water.) Ahab said to Obadiah, “We must check every spring and valley in the land to see if we can find enough grass to save at least some of my horses and mules.” So they divided the land between them. Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself. As Obadiah was walking along, he suddenly saw Elijah coming toward him. Obadiah recognized him at once and bowed low to the ground before him. “Is it really you, my lord Elijah?” he asked. “Yes, it is,” Elijah replied. “Now go and tell your master, ‘Elijah is here.’” “Oh, sir,” Obadiah protested, “what harm have I done to you that you are sending me to my death at the hands of Ahab? For I swear by the Lord your God that the king has searched every nation and kingdom on earth from end to end to find you. And each time he was told, ‘Elijah isn’t here,’ King Ahab forced the king of that nation to swear to the truth of his claim. And now you say, ‘Go and tell your master, “Elijah is here.”’ But as soon as I leave you, the Spirit of the Lord will carry you away to who knows where. When Ahab comes and cannot find you, he will kill me. Yet I have been a true servant of the Lord all my life. Has no one told you, my lord, about the time when Jezebel was trying to kill the Lord’s prophets? I hid 100 of them in two caves and supplied them with food and water. And now you say, ‘Go and tell your master, “Elijah is here.”’ Sir, if I do that, Ahab will certainly kill me.” But Elijah said, “I swear by the Lord Almighty, in whose presence I stand, that I will present myself to Ahab this very day.” So Obadiah went to tell Ahab that Elijah had come, and Ahab went out to meet Elijah. 1 Kings 18:1-16
As we reflect on this passage, we should keep in mind one of the apostle
Peter’s cautions:
Fear God, and respect the king. 1 Peter 2:17b
Obadiah was a person who got half of that right. He feared (or reverenced) God, but in the
face of a challenge to do God’s bidding by going to Ahab as Elijah requested,
Obadiah let his fear of an unrighteous king block his unquestioning service; Obadiah
feared Ahab’s fury!
To his credit, the man who respected the king, and all he stood for in
Israel, and was even a government employee, eventually did what Elijah
requested. But the prophet had to swear
on his life and fidelity to the Lord to get him to do it. Sitting on the fence between faith in God and
faith in a worldly ruler is hardly the way to get nominated for faith’s man-of-the-year!
We live in a day when people are drawing the lines rather deeply. The recent presidential election – still going
on a month after the balloting – serves as a prime example of how deeply the
lines are dug. The current tally of over
81 million votes for one candidate, and 74 million for the other, show just how
divided the American voting public stands, and how much it means to both sides
to have their candidate on the throne.
All the while church pews remain largely forgotten.
Makes one wonder just how much “fearing God” is going on?
For You Today
If
you’re passionate about elections, that isn’t necessarily wrong; everyone needs
to be involved in the political process.
Politics is simply a word that describes how citizens
decide about how we will act as a society.
Sitting on the fence is not deciding anything, but whether we’ll have
splinters behind us when we’re forced to jump down like Obadiah.
To
respect the king (president, ruler, or all government officials) is good; to
fear God is to keep the king human.
Title image, Pixabay.com and W Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
For another post on this passage see: When Kings Must Bow
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