Elijah the Tishbite by F. W. Krummacher

F. W. Krummacher (1796-1868) was a leading figure in the evangelical awakening of the early nineteenth century. His most powerful work, Elijah the Tishbite, is a collection of sermons addressed to Christians living in a post-Enlightenment society whose leaders, policies, and institutions had become unsympathetic to traditional Christian faith. In responding to the rationalism of the Enlightenment, which denied divine providence and everything supernatural, Krummacher examines what the Scriptures teach about seeking and finding God in times of hardship.

Through the story of Elijah, Krummacher explores what it means to trust God when all earthly supports for faith are lost. Under pressure from a society whose leaders were increasingly willing to use force in the service of unbelief, Elijah finds that he must give up any hope of worldly deliverance. It is in this place of loss and fear that he discovers the pure, free, unmerited grace of God and is changed by it.

Elijah’s journey challenges us to examine our own lives and to discern, with God’s help, the fears and lesser loves that aim to rule us and to direct our minds away from the freedom we have in Christ. As Krummacher shows, it is precisely in and through these difficulties that we are drawn back to the Cross and gain a fresh experience of Christ’s hidden power.