The Life of Elijah, by A.W. Pink.

The Life of Elijah, by A.W. Pink. The following contains content from his work.
Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
- James 5:17-18
But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
- Luke 4:25-26
These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
- Revelation 11:6
I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
- Romans 11:1-4
Now Elijah appeared on the stage of public action during one of the very darkest hours of Israel's sad history. He is introduced to us at the beginning of 1 Kings 17, and we have but to read through the previous chapters in order to discover what a deplorable state God's people were then in. Israel had grievously and flagrantly departed from Jehovah, and that which directly opposed Him had been publicly set up. Never before had the favored nation sunk so low. Fifty-eight years had passed since the kingdom had been rent in two following the death of Solomon. During that brief period no less than seven kings had reigned over the Ten Tribes, and all of them without exception were wicked men. Painful, indeed, is it to trace their sad course, and still more tragic to behold is how there has been a repetition of the same in the history of Christendom.
The first of those seven kings was Jeroboam. Concerning him we read that he, "made two calves of gold and said unto them, It is too much for you to go to Jerusalem: behold your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Daniel And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Daniel And he made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made" etc. - 1 Kings l2:28-32. Let it be duty and carefully noted that the apostasy began with the corrupting of the priesthood, by installing into the Divine service men who were never called and equipped by God!
Of the next king, Nadab, it is said, "And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin, with which he made Israel to sin" - 1 Kings 15:26. He was succeeded to the throne by the very man who murdered him, Baasha - 1 Kings 15:27. Next came Elah, a drunkard, who in turn was a murderer - 1 Kings 16:8, 9. His successor, Zimri, was guilty of "treason" - 1 Kings 16:20.
He was followed by a military adventurer of the name of Omri, and of him we are told "but Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord, and did worse than all that were before him. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin with which he made Israel to sin, to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger with their vanities" - 1 Kings 16:25, 26. The evil cycle was completed by Omri's son, for be was even more vile than those who had preceded him.
"And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him" - 1 Kings 16:30, 31. This marriage of Ahab to a heathen princess was, as might fully be expected, - for we cannot trample God's Law beneath our feet with impunity, fraught with the most frightful consequences. In a very short time all trace of the pure worship of Jehovah vanished from the land and gross idolatry became rampant.
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