A Palm in the Desert

 

Dr. Steve Andrews writes of a visit he made to Wittenberg. He wrote “several years ago I visited the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany where Martin Luther nailed the historic 95 theses to the church door. Inside the church, I was surprised to find two burial plots in the church floor. One tombstone was Luther's and the other grave was for Phillip Melancthon.

I knew Luther; he was the hero of the Reformation. Luther was a fiery preacher and scholar who inspired a national revolt against the abuses of the Catholic Church. He was strong, tall and a powerful communicator. Who was this other man? Melancthon, I later learnt, was a powerful force of the Reformation. He served behind the scenes. Melancthon was a frail, short man and he stuttered when he spoke.

He was Luther's closest friend. He provided tremendous scholarship and assistance for Luther's New Testament translation. When Luther died, Melancthon delivered the funeral message. A few years later, the soft-spoken scholar was buried beside the famous hero of the Reformation. Melancthon was the opposite of Luther, yet both made great contributions.

Tthe nation of Israel was on a spiral downwards.  Every king who got to the throne led the nation deeper into idol worship than his predecessor.  And during the time of King Ahab, God said enough is enough and stepped into the scene. Elijah appeared before King Ahab without warning and said, “As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall certainly be neither dew nor rain during these years, except by my word” (I Kings 17:1).

God told him to go into hiding immediately and Elijah obeyed.  Soon after a severe drought hit the nation and King Ahab looked for Elijah everywhere without success. No one knew where he was; no one had seen him since that fateful day. At last the word of the Lord came to Elijah again “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land” (1 Kings 18:1).

As he journeyed back to Samaria, Elijah met Obadiah.  Obadiah recognized him, fell on his face and said, “Is that you, my lord Elijah?”And he answered him, “It is I. Go, tell your master, ‘Elijah is here.’ ”Obadiah said “there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to hunt for you.  What if the Spirit of the Lord will carry you and Ahab cannot find you, he will kill me.

I have feared the Lord from my youth. When Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord,  I hid one hundred men of the Lord’s prophets, fifty to a cave, and fed them with bread and water. And now you say, ‘Go, tell your master, “Elijah is here.” ’ He will kill me!”Then Elijah said, “I will surely present myself to him today.” So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him and Ahab went to meet Elijah (I Kings 18: 7-16).

Elijah openly rebuked Ahab for misleading Israel. He asked Ahab to assemble the people and the prophets of Baal and Asherah. Elijah suggested a test to find out who is God between Jehovah and Baal. “The god who answers by fire, he is God.” Baal did not respond but Jehovah did; having proved that Jehovah is the only true God, Elijah killed all the false prophets (I Kings 18: 18-40).

Elijah’s name meant “My God is Yahweh.”  He lived out his name; he was a righteousness man. When all Israel was turning away from Yahweh to follow Baal and his corrupt practices he did not. He boldly confronted the king and challenged Baal which could have led to his death. What made Elijah able to boldly oppose evil in his own day? Elijah saw himself standing in the presence of God. This encouraged and empowered him.

We are also introduced to a man called Obadiah. He was a palace administrator of the wicked King Ahab. We find two significant statements concerning Obadiah: he “feared the Lord greatly” (v.3). He had feared the Lord from his youth”(v.12). It was this fear that enabled him to remain faithful. Neither difficulty nor danger made him swerve from his faith. He lived with a conscious awareness of the presence of God.

The most impressive thing about this was that he had retained this godliness in a time of decline. People were falling away from God, under a succession of wicked kings, of whom Ahab was the most wicked. Around Obadiah swirled a flood of idolatry that was sweeping aside all that was godly. Yet he had not only retained his early spiritual devotion, but he “feared the Lord greatly”.

Obadiah was in charge of Ahab’s house. Ahab divided up the land between himself and Obadiah (v.5). These two facts tell us of the great respect that Obadiah held within Ahab’s eyes. It is unlikely that Ahab was unaware of Obadiah’s allegiance to God, yet whilst he was ordering the death of God’s prophets he kept Obadiah alive. Clearly Ahab saw the wisdom of keeping Obadiah in authority over the management of his house.

In a time of wickedness, Ahab recognised someone essentially honest, a man of integrity. He found one who would not be bribed, or use the power given to his own advantage. Obadiah’s godliness was discernible to others. So although Ahab hated Obadiah’s religion and Obadiah’s God, he respected the unblemished life and the wise and faithful counsel of this godly man.

Obadiah must have been a man of considerable talent because this was a position with enormous responsibility. Obadiah was in charge of everything that happened in the palace. There is the man who sits on the throne and there is the man behind the throne who makes it all happen. The man on the throne gets the publicity, but it’s the unseen man who deserves the credit. That was Obadiah.

Ahab was a wicked man who did more evil than all the kings that preceded him. Obadiah was a godly man who feared the Lord from his youth. How did a godly man become the in-charge of the palace for such a wicked man? We do not know the answer because the Bible tells us nothing about Obadiah’s family background. He was a good man in a hard place who did the right thing when it mattered most

We tend to think of compromise as the only way that a godly man can survive in such an ungodly environment. But think of Daniel, Nehemiah and Joseph? How did they get to their positions? God opened the way and when God opens the way even the most ungodly can recognise the rare quality of integrity. Ahab respected  this man who had walked with integrity.

Obadiah has been described as a “palm in the desert” because he stood for the Lord in a time of great national apostasy. He kept his faith in the most impossible of places, in the most impossible of times.When others were turning to idolatry, this man, elevated to a high position, would not bow the knee to Baal. He somehow managed to serve the Lord and to keep his high position even while serving an evil king.

Obadiah was plainly afraid to take Elijah’s message. But was he really a coward?  He hid 100 prophets of the Lord and secretly fed them (v.4, 13). If jezebel had found out, she would have had him killed. He knew that and he hid them anyway.  He took risks for the protection of the ministry of God’s Word so that it would not be lost. The prophets he preserved would direct the people back to God after Elijah destroyed the false prophet’s.

Elijah did not think very much of Obadiah. He addressed him more sharply than one would expect from a fellow-believer. Elijah was the man of bold action, always open with nothing to conceal; Obadiah was a quiet believer, true and steadfast. Unlike Elijah, he served God behind the scene. His role though not publicly seen was very crucial and possibly it was for that very reason that God placed him in Ahab’s palace.

Sometimes our eagerness to judge other believers stems more from personality differences than from spiritual insight. If Elijah didn’t understand Obadiah, and if Obadiah feared Elijah, it is understandable. Elijah could never have served in Ahab’s court. Such a thought would have been abhorrent to him. Why would he, a prophet of God, serve in the court of a man given to such wickedness?

But that was exactly where God had placed Obadiah. God ordained that Obadiah be raised in the fear of the Lord from his youth. He then placed him in a position that must have been very difficult for him. Though a true believer, Obadiah was not called to remove himself from Ahab’s presence like Elijah. Elijah obeyed God by staying away from Ahab; Obadiah obeyed God by serving in Ahab palace.

God has his people in some very unlikely places. Obadiah as much as Elijah lived in “the fear of the Lord” and both accomplished their God given purpose. God one calls to serve in this way, another in that way and connected to that is the distribution of gifts. The prophets are called to speak boldly, rebuking sin and calling people to righteousness.

The priests are called to look for hurting people and to minister to them. The prophets may look at the priests as soft and weak. The priests may see the prophets as harsh and uncaring. We should understand that not everyone is called to do what we are called to do. If you are an Elijah, do not despise Obadiah and if you are Obadiah, do not reject Elijah. Elijah’s stand in the gap, proclaiming God’s truth without fear, but there are more Obadiah’s than Elijah’s in the world.

These doctors, lawyers, businessman and others who serve God in other vocations. They see their jobs as part of their calling from the Lord. They do their jobs with excellence every single day. They have rock solid convictions and would not compromise. They do not talk about their faith overtly but by serving well, others notice what they do and eventually doors open for conversations about the Lord.

God has always his people in some very unlikely places. And he sometimes calls others to do things that we ourselves simply could not do. If God has called them, he will give them whatever they need. Elijah had a rough road from the beginning, but it wasn’t easy to be in Obadiah’s shoes either. Obadiah was a small link in the big chain of God’s purposes, but both men served the Lord.