ften, when an individual is confronted with his unfaithfulness, he will seek to justify himself on the basis of the wicked environment in which he is forced to live. It is true that we are living in a wicked environment, but God nevertheless expects us to be “faithful unto death” (Rev. 2:10). Elijah is one of many Old Testament examples of faithfulness in adverse surroundings. We would do well to consider his life.

lijah lived at a time when the ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel were being ruled by Ahab, who “did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him”  (1 Kings 16:30-33). He had built both a temple and an altar for the worship of Baal.

lijah “prayed earnestly that it might not rain” (James 5:17) and “said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word” (1 Kings 17:1). “And it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months,” as a result. This was a prayer of faith because God had told the children of Israel that if they went into idolatry He would “shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit”  (Deut. 11:16, 17).

he drought ended when Elijah “prayed again, and the heaven gave rain” (1 Kings 18:41-45; James 5:18). This also was a prayer of faith, because the children of Israel had repented of their idolatry and slain the false prophets at Elijah’s behest (1 Kings 18:20-40). Further, God had said that if the children of Israel would obey Him, He would “give [them] the rain of [their] land in his due season” (Deut. 11:13,14).

lijah’s faith is equally seen in his comings and goings. He went to the brook Cherith, fully expecting the ravens to bring him food (1 Kings 17:2-6). When the brook dried up, he went to Zarephath fully expecting to be sustained by a widow with only a handful of meal and a little cruse of oil (vv. 7-16). Each time God provided for him, both providentially and miraculously.

he word, “faith,” also has the meaning of “a ground for faith, an assurance” (Vine, p. 411).  Notice.

“Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him” (Rom. 14:1-3).

aul is here dealing with the lack of confident assurance that eating meat is not a sin. Those who lacked this assurance were “weak in the faith,” that it was all right to eat meat. This is strengthened by the statement, “Let each be fully convinced in his own mind” (Rom. 14:5b), and by Paul’s concluding exhortation.

“Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin. We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves” (Rom. 14:22,23; 15:1).

hus, in the context, “one who is weak in the faith” is one who cannot bring himself to eat meat for when he contemplates the eating of meat he has the feeling that he is about to sin. In other words, his conscience kicks in and says, “Don’t do it!”

nother passage where the word normally translated “faith” has the sense of “a ground for faith” is in Paul’s sermon to the Athenians on Mars Hill.

“Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30,31).

od has given “a ground for faith, an assurance” that “He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained…by raising Him from the dead” (see also Rom. 1:4).

inally, the word can mean “trustworthiness“ (Vine, p. 411). As a matter of fact Vine later says, “the R.V. corrects the A.V. ‘faith’ to ‘faithfulness’ in Rom. 3:3; Gal. 5:22” (p. 413). See also Titus 2:10, where it is translated “fidelity” (NKJV).

hus, when the Bible says we are “justified by faith,” it means we are justified because we trusted God to the point that we were faithful to all He commands of alien sinners in the pages of the faith.

he Proverbs, like other books of the Bible, used to be considered a vital part of a young person’s education, but today the abrupt, pithy sayings of this inspired book are generally neglected in favor of newspaper columns giving advice on the age-old problems of the human heart and the conduct of one’s life,

his ancient book of sage counsel deserves to be better known than it is today, for its warnings, pleadings, and wisdom are as suitable and timely now as in grandfather’s day or any other period in history. Many of the precepts in Proverbs—especially its teachings on self-control, child guidance, and concern for the poor—are particularly appropriate in this unsettled time. In Proverbs, the beauty of certain expressions is carefully noted and praised thusly: “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver” (25:11).

his passage illustrates the truth that brevity and a fitting figure can produce enduring beauty. Thus, for ages this short couplet has been quoted to show that apt phrasing leaves a deep and pleasing impression. This little commentary on eloquence or force also illustrates a favorite device among the Hebrews: clothing an abstraction in clear, sharp, concrete terms making the idea beautiful through use of appropriate figures. Here gold and silver, the most precious of metals, are fashioned into apples [golden apples, beautiful words] and into a fine network [interlaced silver, the setting for the precious words].