James Chapter 5 — Commentary on Verse 17

    Elijahwasamanjustlikeus.Heprayedearnestlythatitwouldnotrain,anditdidnotrainonthe land for three and a half years.

    James proves his general proposition by a particular instance—the example of Elijah. Before we come to examine the words, I shall discuss a doubt. How could he infer a general rule out of one single instance, especially from a man whose life was full of prodigy and wonder? I answer:

    (1)      When something is necessarily true, one instance is enough. Any proofs are more for illustration than confirmation.

    (2)      Even though the instance is particular, the command to pray is universal, as is the promise that we will be heard.

    (3)      His drift is to show that if Elijah obtained so much, our prayers will not altogether be in vain; there may be less miracle in our answer, but there will be just as much grace.

    (4)      As for the special dignity of the person, the apostle himself anticipates that objection when he says Elijah was justlikeus. They might plead that Elijah was a special case—who can expect his experiences? The apostle anticipates this doubt by telling them that Elijah was subject to infirmities just like those of other people.

    I come now to the words.

    Elijah. He was an eminent prophet, and singular things are related of him in Scripture. He raised the widow’s son (1 Kings 17:22); he obtained fire from heaven against the priests of Baal (1 Kings 18:38); he was fed by ravens (1 Kings 17); he went forty days and forty nights in the strength of one meal (1 Kings 19:8); he brought fire from heaven on the captains of two companies and their companions (2 Kings 1:10); he passed over Jordan dry-footed (2 Kings 2:8); he was snatched into heaven in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11); he visibly appeared in the transfiguration of Christ (Matthew 17:3). And here our apostle instances another miracle—heaven itself seemed to be subject to his prayers and to be shut and opened at his pleasure.

    Wasamanjustlikeus. Some people apply this to outward sufferings and afflictions, some to weaknesses of body and mental distress, some to moral infirmities and sins; all may be intended. The same word is used in Acts 14:15, when the people wanted to sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas: “We too,” they said, “are only men, human like you.” The word there means whatever distinguishes humans from the divine nature. Peter in a similar case said, “I am only a man myself” (Acts 10:26). Thus the Scripture shows that Elijah was hungry (1 Kings 17:11), that he feared death and therefore fled from Jezebel (1 Kings 19:3), and that he, in a fit of discontent, asked to die (1 Kings 19:4). All kinds of human weakness are ascribed to him.

    Heprayedearnestly. “He prayed in prayer”—a common Hebraism. Similarly Christ says, “With desire I have desired” (Luke 22:15, KJV)—that is, vehemently and earnestly. Because in Hebrew the form of expression always goes with the thing expressed, Aquinas’ note is not altogether amiss: “it may note the agreement between tongue and heart”; the heart prayed, and the tongue prayed. This clause shows why Elijah was heard: he prayed with earnestness and faith, according to the will of God revealed to him.

    That it would not rain. There is no such thing in the story, which you have in full in 1 Kings 17 and 18, where there is not a word about his praying that it would not rain. The Scripture there only shows that he foretold a drought. But it is more than probable that the worship of Baal, being accepted everywhere, did extort from this good man, so full of zeal for God, a prayer for drought as a punishment. Then, when the people had been corrected, he prayed for rain again. Because the apostle recorded the fact of his prayer, we cannot doubt its truth. It is common in Scripture for one passage to give us the gist of a story and another the details—for example, the story of Jannes and Jambres (see 2 Timothy 3:8). Also in Psalm 105:18 we read of Joseph that “they bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons”; no such thing is recorded in Genesis.

    Notes on Verse 17

    Note1. God’s eminent children are human, just as we are. “Your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings” (1 Peter 5:9). They are all troubled with a wicked heart, a busy devil, and a corrupt world. We are all tainted in our souls with Adam’s leprosy. There are often notorious blemishes in the lives of the saints; they are of the same nature as other people and have not wholly divested themselves of the interests and concerns of flesh and blood. Rash words came from Moses’ lips, and David turned aside to adultery; he gives the reason in Psalm 51:5—he had the same nature as other men. There are various dear children of God who fall foully like this. If they continued constantly in sin, it would mean they were not saints; and unfailing holiness would mean they were not men. So then, children of God who labor under the burden of infirmities may take heart. Such conflicts are not inconsistent with faith and piety; other believers are exercised like this. No one ever went to heaven without some work to develop “faith and patience” (Hebrews 6:12). When we share in the divine nature we do not get rid of the human nature; we ought to walk with care but still with comfort.

    Note2. It does no harm to the most holy people to look upon them as human like ourselves. There is a double fault. Some people canonize the servants of God, not considering them in their infirmities but making them half gods, exempted from the ordinary state of humanity. Thus they lose the benefit of their example, for in the Word they are presented as examples. Your prayers may be heard just as Elijah’s were; your sins may be pardoned just as Paul’s were (1 Timothy 1:16). God will strengthen and confirm the grace that is necessary in you, as he did with David (Zechariah 12:8). Other people reflect only on holy persons’ infirmities, and instead of making them examples of mercy they make them patrons of sin. Thus every base spirit will plead Lot’s incest, David’s adultery, Noah’s drunkenness. James here rehearses not only Elijah’s weaknesses but his graces.

    Note3. In the lives of God’s choicest servants there was some considerable weakness. Elijah, in the midst of his miracles, was encumbered with many afflictions. Paul had “surpassingly great revelations” but also “a thorn in the flesh.” In the life of Jesus Christ himself there was an intermixture of power and weakness, of the divine glory and human frailty. At his birth a star shone, but he laid in a manger. Afterwards the devil tempted him in the wilderness, but there angels attended him. He was caught by the soldiers in the garden, but first he made them fall back. In the same way we note that the same disciples who were conscious of his glory on the mountain are afterwards called to be witnesses of his agony in the garden. Compare Matthew 17:1 with Matthew 26:37. All this shows that in the highest dispensations God will keep us humble, and in the lowest providences there is enough to support us.

    Note4. Grace is not without suffering or without passions and affections. The Stoics held that a man was only good if he had lost all natural feeling and affection. Elijah was a man with feelings like ours. Grace does not abrogate our affections but promotes them. It transplants them out of Egypt so that they may grow in Canaan; it does not destroy nature but directs it.

    Note5. All that God worked by and for his eminent servants was with respect to his own grace, not to their worth and dignity. God did much for Elijah, but he was a man justlikeus. Though his prayers were effective, he was, as every believer is, indebted to grace. When we have received great help, we are still unprofitable servants (Luke 17:10); when we reflect on the common frailty, we may say so in words of truth as well as in words of sobriety and humility. At first when God takes us to mercy we are like other people; was not Esau Jacob’s brother (Malachi 1:2)? In their persons, in their humanity, there was no difference. God could not love anything in Jacob better than in Esau except for his own grace. So if we are promoted above other believers, it is out of mere grace; if from their shoulders upward some are higher than other saints, it is the Lord’s choice, not their own worth. Elijah was justlikeus, and the widow was like other widows: “there were many widows in Israel.… Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath” (Luke 4:25-26). God has mercy on those he wants to; if you excel, who has made you different?

    Note 6. Where the heart is upright, our infirmities will not hinder our prayers. Elijah was a man just like us, and yet he prayed, and it did not rain; imitate his faith and earnestness, and your infirmities will be no impediment: “May the LORD … pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God … even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary” (2 Chronicles 30:18-19). Christ, when he came into the garden, said he would eat the honey with the honeycomb (Song of Songs 5:1); he would accept their duties despite not being separated from the wax, from weakness and imperfection, and would drink his wine mingled with milk—that is, mixed with a milder and less noble beverage. Under the law the high priest was to bear the iniquity of their holy things (Exodus 28:38); in the same way Jesus Christ does away with the weakness of our service. Those who do not justify their infirmities may pray with hope of success. God knows the voice of the Spirit; our worldly desires meet with his pardon and our spiritual desires with acceptance.

    Note7. Heprayedearnestly. This is our duty—not only to say a prayer, but to pray a prayer: “The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that cannot express” (Romans 8:26); that is, we pray, and the Spirit prays in our prayers. When the tongue prays alone, it is just an empty ring. We often mistake lungs and sighs for grace, and the agitation of the bodily spirits for the impressions of the Holy Spirit; many people work themselves into a great heat and vehemence with argumentative speech, and that is all. The voice that is heard on high is the groaning of the soul. So then, pray earnestly; make all your prayers and supplications “in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18). Do not let the heart wander while the lips are praying; lip-labor does no more than a wind instrument—it makes a loud noise. But the essence of prayer lies in the raising of the mind.

    Note8. It is sometimes lawful to call down God’s vengeance on the wicked. Elijah prayed that it might not rain, out of zeal for God’s glory and detestation of the people’s idolatry. I confess here that we must be cautious; imprecations in Scripture were often uttered with a prophetic spirit and by special impulse and intimation from God. Elijah’s act must not be imitated without Elijah’s spirit and warrant. The apostles, in a preposterous imitation of another act of Elijah’s, suggested calling down fire from heaven (Luke 9:54), whereupon Christ checked them: “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of” (verse 55, NIV margin). There are fits of revenge or strange wildfire that was never kindled upon God’s hearth.

    I shall lay down some propositions to guide you in this matter of imprecation:

    (1)      There is a great deal of difference between public and private cases. In all private cases it is the glory of our religion to bless those who curse us, to pray for those who treat us spitefully. This is what we learn from the great author of our profession; he “was numbered with the transgressors” and he “made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12). This was a prophecy of the prayer that Christ uttered on the cross for his persecutors: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” His heart was full of love when theirs was full of spite. Truly the followers of the Lamb should not be of a wolfish spirit; we should be ready to forgive all private and personal wrongs. But in public cases, when divine or human right is transposed and disturbed, we may ask God to relieve oppressed innocence, to “crush the … hairy crowns of those who go on in their sins” (Psalm 68:21).

    (2)      In public cases we must not ask for revenge directly and formally. Thus our prayers must primarily respect the vindication of God’s glory and the avenging of our own case only incidentally: “Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory” (Psalm 115:1)—that is, not for our revenge or to satisfy our desires, but to restore the reputation of his mercy and truth. The main motive should be desire for the divine glory. The whole of Psalm 83 is full of imprecations, but it ends thus (verse 18): “Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD—that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.” The vindication of God’s honor was the main aim of their requests.

    (3)      God’s people do not ask for vengeance against particular people as such, but in general against the enemies of the church, and expressly against such as are known to God to be perverse and implacable.

    Note9. God may allow judgments, especially that of unseasonable weather, to continue for a long time. In Elijah’s time for three and a half years the heavens were like brass and the earth like iron. Perhaps this will calm our froward spirits, which are apt to complain against providence when we do not get the weather we like. Think how it was with Israel when it did not rain for three years and more. Fear him who can stop “the water jars of the heavens” (Job 38:37) and restrain the influence of the clouds; fruitful seasons are at his disposal: see Jeremiah 5:24. Secondary causes do not work by chance. This is the bridle that God has on the world; the ordering of the weather is one of the most visible testimonies of his power and goodness.

    Note 10. It is sad for anyone to provoke the prophets of the Lord to pray against them. The grieving of Elijah’s spirit cost Israel dearly. There is much in the prophets’ messages, and there is as much in their solemn prayers. We may often observe in the history of the Old Testament that when God had a mind to destroy a people, he commanded his prophets to be silent. If their silence is a sad omen, what are their imprecations? When Zechariah’s blood was shed, he said, “May the LORD see this and call you to account.” This prayer cost them the miseries of Babylon, and the prophet’s blood was not fully revenged until their utter ruin; compare 2 Chronicles 24:21-22 with Matthew 23:35-36. Certainly, even if there is little in prayers that are the effusions of revenge or fits of anger, yet when by your sin and insolence you give God’s messengers cause to pray against you, their complaints are the sad presages of an ensuing judgment.