In First Kings, chapter eighteen, verse eighteen, Elijah’s courageous confrontation with Ahab and with unrighteousness in Israel made him a model prophet to Israel and the most qualified person to be a prototype of the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ as in Malachi four, verses five to six, and Luke one, verse seventeen, respectively. Elijah was a true man of God, as in chapter seventeen, verse twenty-four, one who spoke not as a people-pleaser but a faithful bondservant of God, as in Galatians one, verse ten, and First Thessalonians two verse four, respectively. As Elijah was named to defend the true God of Israel, all ministers need to guard the gospel of Christ against distortion, compromise, and corruption.
Instead of apologies and pleas for pardon, Elijah meets the charge with a countercharge, and makes a sudden demand. “Gather to me,” etc. This boldness, this high tone, this absence of the slightest indication of alarm seem to have defeated Ahab. He ventured on no reply, made no attempt to arrest the prophet, did not even press him to remove his curse and bring the drought to an end, but simply consented to do his bidding. There is no passage of Scripture that exhibits more forcibly the ascendancy that a prophet of the Lord, armed with His spiritual powers, could, if he were firm and brave, exercise even over the most powerful and immoral of monarchs.
Today, believers have to be like the prophet Elijah to stand against ungodly morals and to be the beacon of righteousness in the environment in which we live. Too many people use the Lord’s name in vain, whereas some say His First name or full name freely and frequently associate it with profanity. Should believers remain an audience and not say something when someone uses God’s name in vain?