Morning Service, 5th July 2009
Have you noticed, even within this congregation, that God does not deal with us all in exactly the same way? One He matures through this trial, another through that trial, and yet another through no apparent trial. One He calls to serve in this way, another in that way; and of course connected to that is the distribution of gifts.
It is important that we bear this in mind lest we think that Elijah’s experiences are normative for all believers. That is not the case. It was God’s design for Elijah, and not necessarily for any other; a fact clearly demonstrated to us in this chapter.
As Elijah returns and observes firsthand the devastation of God’s judgement on Israel we are introduced to another: Obadiah, who is identified as a servant of Ahab, the manager of his house. He plays but a small part in the present scenario, passing on a message, yet he is revealed to have a large part to play in God’s provision for the future. He is identified as a believer – which is the force of the phrase ‘fear of the Lord” in v.3. He is also identified as one who protected believers or more specifically those who would be in a place to proclaim God’s Word and build up God’s people in that Word in the future.
Though a true believer Obadiah was not called to remove himself from Ahab’s presence nor from Israel’s boundaries. It is clear that the fact that Obadiah stayed with and served Ahab is not an indication of a rebellious spirit. On the contrary. Elijah obeyed God by going, Obadiah obeyed God in staying. Obadiah as much as Elijah lived in “the fear of the Lord”.
What is the fear of the Lord? It is to live with a conscious awareness of the presence of God, seeking His approval and avoiding His disapproval. It is a fear that arises from faith, that is aware of and seeks after God’s love and grace.
The real question we face today in our Christian lives is not whether you are doing the same things as I am or me as you, but whether we are consciously seeking and complying with God’s personalised will for our lives. Our concern must be whether we are living in the fear of the Lord. To understand what that means for us we do well to look at Obadiah who is presented before us here as a godly man. Yes, certain things will look different in us, but the essential characteristics of true godliness will be the same. True godliness is:
1. Powerfully experienced
Two significant statements concern Obadiah: “Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly” (v.3), and Obadiah testifying that he had “feared the Lord from my youth” (v.12). It is discernible to others, but also Obadiah’s life-long determination.
Clearly he is no longer a youth but those early impressions of God’s reality and glory had a deep impact on his life. How many of the things that made an impression on you in your early life are still true of you? Isn’t it true that only those things which powerfully affected us as a child remain important to us in adulthood?
From his youth he had a tremendous reverence for God; such a reverence that he dreaded to offend God and that he longed to please God. This was no temporary profession of youth. It had not dissipated as many childhood dreams and convictions. It endured into adulthood. He stood before Elijah as a godly man, a reality supported by the writer of this book in v.3. His point there is that this is not merely as an observation, but so we will understand what Obadiah did and why. It is the interpretative key to understanding this section, and indeed this man’s life.
The most impressive thing about this of course was that he had retained this godliness in a time of decline. This in a succession of wicked kings, of whom Ahab was the most wicked and anti-God, around him swirled a flood of unbelief and idolatry that was sweeping aside all that was godly and every public remembrance of God. Yet Obadiah had retained the fear of God, and as he stood before Elijah he did so as one committed to only doing that which would honour God.
Indeed in v.3 it says that Obadiah feared the Lord “greatly” – in other words there was depth of passion. He had not only retained his early spiritual devotion and direction, but that he had grown in grace over the years so that now he is a man who was on fire for God, and that all he feels, says and does comes from that fervent flame. And that has been true throughout his life, now in recent history, now as he talks with Elijah and as he does what God through Elijah tells him to do.
By this we are led to believe that this man would not have compromised the things of the Lord by bowing the knee to Baal. He “feared the Lord greatly”.
We are taught in the Bible that this is the mark toward which we should be aiming: to be fervent in spirit in serving the Lord, to be zealous for good works; and not to be half-hearted or lukewarm.
How about us – do we know this passion for God and for purity? Being concerned to live for God ought not be just for a couple of hours a week, for our private prayer times and weekly worship. It is not to be part-time, but a passionate pursuit. God was his life. He lived for God. So it is for any godly man or woman.
2. Practically expressed
Yet it is clear that we are not to think of his life as one that is essentially spiritual and doesn’t have any practical outworking. For immediately we are told this man did certain things because of the fear of the Lord.
(i) In v.3 we read that Obadiah was in charge of Ahab’s house, and in v.5 how Ahab divides up the land in search for grass and water between himself and Obadiah. These two facts tells us the great respect that Obadiah held within Ahab’s eyes. It is hard to believe that Ahab was unaware of Obadiah’s allegiance to God, yet whilst he was ordering the death of God’s prophets he kept alive this believer. Clearly Ahab saw the wisdom of keeping this man of God in authority over the management of his house and sending him out on the road. In a time of wickedness here he recognised someone essentially honest, a man of integrity. Here he found one who would not be bribed, or use the power he had through that water to his own or another’s financial or political advantage.
We tend to think of compromise as the only reason why a godly man can survive in such an ungodly and anti-God environment. But let me ask you, What of Daniel, Nehemiah, Joseph? How did they come to their positions? God opened the way; and sometimes when God opens the way even the most ungodly can recognise extraordinary gifts in a child of God including the rare quality of integrity. As we read in Prov 16:7. So it was for Daniel who survived through the reigns of several kings. So Ahab, though he hates Obadiah’s religion and Obadiah’s God, respects the unblemished life and the wise and faithful counsel of this godly man. Of course we don’t know how difficult a time he had in Ahab’s court, but we know this, he walked with integrity in the most impossible of places, in the most impossible of times by fearing the Lord greatly. That’s the only way to live like this in a sin-loving, God-hating world.
(ii) In v.4 and 13 we read that he had rescued and hid for their protection 100 prophets. He hid them in 2 groups of 50, clearly showing wisdom in case one lot was found. But he also provided for them. It is one thing to quietly hide someone but a 100? But even more to feed and provide water every day or so for that constantly increases the risk of discovery – especially when these were precious and diminishing commodities; and no doubt there was a strict accounting as to their use. It was a wonderful providence that Obadiah was in a position where he could do it without immediate notice, but it was not without danger of discovery. Indeed the risk of discovery increased as the supplies were greatly depleted.
Yet godliness taught him to set a high value on the Word of God, and hence on those servants charged with the responsibility of communicating and defending that Word in society. It wasn’t just other believers that he hid and provided for, it was for the care of God’s prophets that he felt a particular responsibility. He took risks for the protection and perpetuation of the ministry of God’s Word so that it would not be lost to the people even though for now they despised it.
(iii) Then in v.7 we read that Obadiah recognized Elijah and “fell on his face before him” and called him “my lord Elijah”. To fall on his face and acknowledge Elijah in this way declares a tremendous respect for this minister of God’s Word. He had a high view of the office of the ministry of the Word, a high regard for the ordained servant of God. How different from what is frequently seen in present day Christianity where there is often a complete disrespect for the office of minster and even an insubordination and a tendency in some to sit as the critics of ministers rather than let the ministry of the Word be their critic, and so blessing has been denied them. Yet this practical expression of godliness is identified as a clear mark of grace in Phil 2:29 concerning Epaphroditus “Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such men in esteem.’
So Obadiah’s religion though essentially spiritual also found expression in genuine and beneficial practical ways. He was a man who stood out in his generation as a real trophy of God. In a similar way our godliness ought to stand out, and though like Obadiah there may be necessary reasons why some of our practice might be private and confidential yet it all must be real. Whether others see it and recognise it or not, we must be men and women of God in practical terms.
3. Persistently exhibited
Here we return to the point made in passing that the expression of his godliness was found to continue even under the most adverse conditions – in the household of Ahab that open enemy of God and true spirituality, in a community which not only didn’t rejoice in God’s provision of prophets but participated to some measure in their expulsion and efforts towards their eradication.
But we see it also now even when he is directed to take that service fully out into the open. Notice his reaction to Elijah in v.14. Elijah had directed him to tell Ahab where he was, where to find him. Obadiah immediately understands how Ahab will interpret this – Obadiah had been meeting with Elijah! He will not look on it the other way round.
The pressure he had felt in the past in maintaining godly integrity in relationships with the ungodly and in providing for the godly was nothing to this pressure! That he feels the pressure is seen in his effectively saying to Elijah, ‘What do you want to do? Kill me?’ Was he afraid? There is no doubt that fear was present in what he said. He concern was not mainly for Elijah’s safety but his own.
Now fear is a God-given emotion for self-preservation. It is not wrong to know fear in helping us recognise and respond to danger. Yet it becomes sinful when we are so dominated by fear that we reject the path God’s Word has made clear to us.
Though there is a fear of man mixed in with his fear of the Lord, the ‘greatly’ tells us what is the predominant note of his life. And when the fear of man did mix in with his fear of the Lord, he soon overcomes it so that it does not overcome him and hinder him from fulfilling his duty unto God. What was it that overcame that fear? It was listening to the Word of God given in that instant through the Lord’s prophet. In this we should note especially that phrase of Elijah that underpins his assurances “as the Lord of hosts lives” (v.15). Earlier Obadiah had said “the Lord your God”. Here Elijah responds “the Lord of hosts” indicating He is not just ‘my God’ but the Lord of many not just one’. By this he is calling Obadiah to strengthen his faith and continue in obedience. As he ponders this reality and assurance he gave the promise and assurances of the prophet its proper place over his emotions. His faith is immediately encouraged and he is moved to obedience, and Obadiah “went to meet Ahab, and told him” (v.16). So one child of God walking in cheerful obedience of faith encourages another to walk in the same way.
What are you afraid of? Is it crippling your service? The call is not to be blind to fear, but to overcome it by depending on the Word of God, upon God Himself.
True godliness is enduring in its character. He persistently exhibited it in times of increasing darkness, and even now in a moment of incredible danger he put God first, submitting to His Word yielding his very life if need be for God’s purpose to be realised. In so doing in his own way he contributed to the triumph on Mt Carmel. He is what His name means: ‘servant of the Lord’. Oh for grace to be such a servant.
As we leave this section then let us learn the importance of living in the fear of the Lord wherever God has placed you, even where it may seem not only dangerous but pointless. ‘It behoves us to accomplish what God requires of us, even when we are in the greatest despair respecting the results.’ (John Calvin)
Learn also to look as a result at how we might use our present circumstances for the benefit of the Kingdom and God’s people.
What an exhortation Obadiah’s faith is to the young people – this is not something for older people alone, but possible by grace in you as well. Here is one who stands as a mentor before you as he does before all believers, even as Timothy in the NT. Our prayer is that you will know such a fear of the Lord.
But even more he stands before us in the Word of God as a mentor to all believers by showing that such a depth of faith is not merely the effervescence of youth, it continued into adult hood, and it was not merely a popularist response because his peers were doing it, but even in a time of grave unpopularity, when one’s life not merely one’s name and fame before others was seriously at risk… as such it is an exhortation to mature Christians as well to continue in the fear of the Lord! Oh for grace to be such a servant. May the Lord increasingly grant it to us.