Elias was a man of like passions to us, and he prayed with prayer that it should not rain; and it did not rain upon the earth three years and six months;
James backs up his call to pray by pointing to Elijah, and insists that Elijah's nature was the same as ours. The verse also tells us something the Old Testament never records. The long drought under Ahab began with a private prayer, not a public announcement.
The comparison is not an aside. It is why James brings Elijah in at all.
First, the Holy Spirit encourages us to pray. He does it by reminding our hearts that Elijah, who did such wonders, had the same nature as ours. It is as if He said, "There is an example for you; see what is open to you!"
What set him apart was not his make-up but his walk.
James reminds us that Elijah "was a man with a nature like ours." Like us, he was surrounded by human weakness and human frailty. What a comforting lesson this can teach us! We too, like him, can be men of power, if we, despite the evil around us, walk in the awareness that God is the living God.
Elijah appears in 1 Kings without introduction, announcing the drought to Ahab. James supplies the missing scene.
Verse 17 is especially interesting. The Old Testament never mentions that he prayed it might not rain, though it gives us full details of how he prayed for rain at the end of the three and a half years in 1 Kings 18. The opening verse of 1 Kings 17 brings him in abruptly, telling Ahab that it would not rain. So this verse in James gives us a glimpse of scenes before his public appearance — scenes of private and personal dealings with God. Though he had the same nature as ours, he was righteous, and he burned with passion for the glory of God. So God heard him, and he knew he was heard. That assurance let him tell Ahab confidently what God was going to do.
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Elijah's power in public started on his knees in private. And what looks like a cruel prayer makes sense once you see what he saw.
Prayer in private was another great secret of his power in public. He could stand before the wicked king because he had knelt before the living God. His was no mere formal prayer that achieves nothing, but an earnest prayer that achieves much. A terrible prayer to have to put up to the living God about the people of God! Yet Elijah looked at the condition of the people and could see no recognition of God anywhere in the land. He judged it better for them to suffer the years of drought, if this would turn them to God, than to enjoy prosperity in defiance of God and go on to a worse judgment. Zeal for God and love for the people lay behind this solemn prayer.
He did not invent this prayer. It matched what God had already said He would do if Israel turned to other gods.
Prayer that God accepts must rest on the Word of God. The prophet no doubt remembered Deuteronomy 11:16-17: "Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, and then the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and he shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain." With such words before him, the distressed prophet cried out from the depth of his heart, "O God, stop the rain!"
What God's people have lost since the beginning has not changed the Lord Himself.
James recalls the example of Elijah, a man with the same nature as ours. Yet in answer to his prayer it did not rain for three years and six months. The church has lost its outward order, but the power, love, and faithfulness of the Lord are unchanged. He may let us feel that, through the sin of the church, we are not as we were at the beginning. Still, where God gives faith, His answer will never fail.
Prayer with that kind of power does not appear overnight.
This can only come from long inward dealing with God, from much secret communion, and from a close walk with Him. Not all are called to be Elijahs, but all may seek grace to become diligent in prayer and intercession.
- Same nature. Elijah's power was never in his make-up; he shared our weaknesses, so the door he went through stands open to us.
- Secret first. The public word to Ahab was the second half of the story — James shows us the private praying that produced it.
- Word-shaped. He asked for what God had already said He would do. Prayer God accepts rests on God's own Word.
- Love behind it. He asked for drought out of zeal for God and love for a people heading toward worse than famine.
- Answer certain. He knew God had heard him, and told Ahab so — and where God gives faith, His answer still never fails.
and again he prayed, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth caused its fruit to spring forth.
Elijah's story in 1 Kings gives us the drought and the downpour, but James adds what the history left out: both came in answer to a man's prayer. This verse is the second half of that pair, and it raises the question of what made such praying so effective.
1 Kings records the sentence Elijah announced from God. It does not record the praying that came first.
What we have here is not the solemn sentence the prophets announced from God. It is the inner work in the soul that came before it, and for that we depend entirely on this letter.
The gap in the older record is worth pausing over.
Our chapter does not tell us that Elijah prayed the first time. Much later, in the letter of James, the Word reveals it to us. God remembers these prayers, records them, and can reveal them at the right time. None of the prayers of His beloved fall to the ground.
One man's praying brought the drought down, and then lifted it.
He was "a man with a nature like ours," yet he had such power with God that God sent both judgment and blessing in answer to his cry. "The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working." But this kind of prayer only grows out of long inward exercise, much private time with God, and a close walk with Him. Not everyone is called to be an Elijah, but everyone may seek grace to become diligent in prayer and intercession.
There is a danger in reading about a man like this.
We tend to treat such men as exceptions so that we can excuse ourselves. Sadly, we then shut ourselves out of the blessing that was theirs because of what they were. The very record that tells us of his faith also tells us of his weaknesses.
The second prayer was not a hopeful guess. God had already committed Himself on this exact matter.
Solomon had asked that, if heaven was shut up, and there was prayer and confession of Jehovah's name and a turning from their sin, rain should be given. The Lord had told Solomon that He had heard his prayer. The people had confessed Jehovah's name and had openly rejected Baal by killing his prophets. So Elijah prayed with full confidence that God would make good His word in mercy, just as He had already made it good in judgment. Again it was a question of asking God to fulfil His own word.
That places the power somewhere other than in the praying itself.
Yet we must not think that the power was simply in his prayer. His prayer was subject to the Word of God, and that is where the power lies, as Elijah himself says, "I have done all these things at your word."
The drought had a purpose. The rain came once it had done its work.
God afflicted the people with drought so that they might learn that the God they slighted was the only source and fountain of all their blessings. Once they had learned this, in God's gracious way, the affliction would cease. God always removes chastisement when it has done the work He sent it to do. And the servant who has stood faithfully for the truth against those who oppose it becomes, in the same measure, a channel of God's mercies to His people.
Elijah's servant looked and saw nothing. The instruction was to look again.
If we pray and watch, and still have to say with Elijah's servant, "There is nothing," what more can we do? Elijah gives a very definite answer to this question. He says, "Go again seven times." In other words, we must persevere. The apostle urges us not only to pray, but to keep alert in prayer "with all perseverance." We cannot hurry God. We think of what suits us; God thinks of what is for His glory and our profit.
That leaves a question for our own day. Writing about the church, Darby weighs what has changed against what has not:
The external order of the assembly is lost, but the power, love, and faithfulness of the Lord are unchanged. He may let us feel that, because of the sin of the assembly, we are not what we were at the beginning. Still, where God gives faith, His answer will never fail.
- Same record. 1 Kings never records the praying behind the drought; God remembered it and revealed it through James, proof that no prayer of His people is lost.
- Same man. Elijah shut and opened heaven, yet his nature and weaknesses were ours — so his example removes our excuses instead of supplying them.
- Same ground. He asked God to make good God's own promise, so the power lay in the word he prayed on, not in the praying.
- Same patience. "Go again seven times" — the fruit came, but only after looking and finding nothing, again and again.
- Same God. The church has lost much since the beginning, but His power, love and faithfulness are unchanged; where He gives faith, the answer never fails.