Uninvited

1 Kings 17:1 NASB95

Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

INTRO: Today, we are beginning a new series. Instead of walking through a book though, we are going to trace the lives and ministries of 2 OT prophets, Elijah and Elisha. (Enunciate… these are 2 different people!) We will look at narrative accounts and observe their character, their faith, how God is revealed and then ask some key questions that will, I believe, inform our thinking about how we are called to live out our lives as Christians.

So, I want to begin today by posing a question: Do you ever feel like sin is ‘winning’ in our culture? It can be pretty overwhelming… who would have thought that evil would be so prominent?

That appears to be the situation we find in 1 Kings 17. Actually, it’s a pretty common theme throughout the history of Israel.

The books of 1&2 Kings offer a kind of summary of the leaders of Israel… From the kingdom of Solomon, we see that God’s people split- the tribe of Judah separated from remaining tribes forming a northern and southern kingdom. So, when we read through the books of kings and chronicles, we see references back and forth between kings of Judah (south) and kings of Israel (north). Each king, a hope and anticipation of the One who was promised to be the Anointed King, and all falling miserably short.

But tucked within the list of kings and their highlights, we find a number of prophets who were raised up by God in order to confront wickedness and call God’s people to repentance. Such is the case with the prophet Elijah.

In our time together this morning, I want to introduce you to Elijah and the king of Israel, walk you through what is happening, and then finally surmise some points of application for you and I today.

This requires a bit of interrogation of our text… so today we will be Bible detectives. If you picked up a bulletin, I invite you to follow along in the sermon guide as we learn together. The message is entitled, Uninvited. Let us begin with our Characters:

Character Introduction: Ahab & Elijah

In our single verse, we are given an abrupt introduction of Elijah as well as a seemingly vague record of his first interaction with the king of Israel, a man named Ahab.

We begin by asking who is Ahab and what kind of person is he?

This requires us to look back in the previous chapter just a few verses. In verse 29, we see that Ahab is the son of Omri. Omri became king, not through lineage, but through force. When he died, Ahab took his place. Ahab was king for 22 years over Israel (16:29), so there is plenty of opportunity to make an impact upon the nation. (Can you imagine having the same president for that long?)

And, indeed, Ahab made an impact. We see both in 16:30 and 16:33, Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord. In fact, he did more evil than all the kings before him!

Let me just point out that Ahab’s father previously held this notorious title. (16:25) Like father, like son…?

Do you know what earned Ahab this less-than-honorable distinction? It was that he rejected Yahweh and turned to false gods, leading the people of Israel to sin. This is a violation of the very first commandment, not to mention the enormous guilt of leading God’s people to stumble. You might remember the chilling words Jesus spoke regarding those who caused others to stumble-

Matthew 18:6–7 NASB95

but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. “Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!

Going back through the lineage of the kings of Israel, we see that Jereboam led the nation to worship golden calves (1 Kings 12:28) , and this idolatry continued generation after generation; through blood and through position, the kings continued to practice wickedness.

In a period of about 60-70 years, the nation went from David, a king after God’s own heart to Ahab, a king who not only rejected the one true God, but he erected altars for the false god Baal and made the Asherah- a wooden idol symbolic of a Pagan goddess of fertility. (31-33) This particular idolatry was the practice of Ahab’s wife, Jezebel… Remember her, she’ll come back in to the picture in a few weeks.

How did this happen? Why did these kings forsake the God who gave them this land? Did they forget? Perhaps we could ask a similar question of our own nation and even of the church at large.

Discuss: Why do you think Israel rejected Yahweh and worshiped idols?

So, Ahab was an evil king of Israel, who led the nation to worship false gods.(Y’all with me?) Now we ask about the prophet, Elijah.

Elijah appears suddenly on the scene. We know almost nothing about him before this time. His name has a literal Hebrew translation that means “Yahweh is my God”. The text tells us Elijah was a Tishbite- which was likely a clan in Gilead. He was not royalty nor was he a servant in the temple.

But, we know that he is a servant of God. Look at his statement, “As the LORD (Yahweh), the God of Israel (remember this is the land that Ahab rules) lives, before whom I stand...”

His introduction to what will be God’s judgment helps us to know a few things about him:

He is bold.

This is the king! People can’t just walk up and talk to him, but somehow Elijah does just that.

He is resolute.

His name and his statement automatically sets us up to see that these two men are on opposite sides… this was no casual confrontation.

He is committed to God.

Elijah would either have to be absolutely reliant on God or he’s a fruitcake. You didn’t just enter the king’s presence uninvited- especially to deliver a negative word. That would, in most cases, cost a person their life. But Elijah was committed to God and to His word which he delivered.

Our two main characters are Ahab, the wicked king, and Elijah a bold spokesperson for God. Now that we know who we are talking about, let’s look at the plot-line. What is happening?

Story-line: Incoming Message

This story-line is kind of one-sided. We have only Elijah’s pronouncement. No response from Ahab, no narrative speculation about his thinking. It’s simply a one-way message.

ILL: This reminds me of those messages I get that remind me of my upcoming doctor’s appointment. There is no reply necessary. The information need only go to me. If I want a word, well I’ve got to go about that a whole different way.

Let’s look at Elijah’s statement: (READ 1b)

This is a pronouncement of judgment. Now, you might be thinking, “this isn’t fair… Ahab wasn’t evened given a warning!” Well, Joshua actually warned of this in

Joshua 24:19–24 NASB95

Then Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins. “If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you.” The people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord.” Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the Lord, to serve Him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” “Now therefore, put away the foreign gods which are in your midst, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” The people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and we will obey His voice.”

Right… so, Ahab has led the people to turn from God and serve idols and now the word of judgment is delivered.

Let me point out a few things we need to note:

The judgment was final.

“Surely” - this judgment was not negotiable. It was already decided.

Perhaps that’s why we have no recorded response, because any response would be insufficient or irrelevant.

The judgment was broad.

Rain was necessary… you are smart enough to recognize that. If there is a long enough drought, then crops fail, animals die, people die.

The people of Israel would suffer because of this judgment, probably more so than Ahab.

Discuss: Why did God not simply “smite” Ahab and instead enact a drought-judgment?

The judgment was precise.

God was not simply pronouncing a random judgment that would cause pain. You see, these false gods, Baal and Asherah were supposedly gods of the rain and fertility. Ahab was leading Israel to trust in these false gods specifically for these things.

We could speculate that Ahab may have thought Yahweh had enough on his plate, and to bring in other gods couldn’t hurt. After all, in these days a king was responsible for the prosperity of the land- much like we would credit a president for the state of our economy, so a king was judged by his people for their fruitfulness. Maybe Ahab was just playing a political game… but he was a king over Yahweh’s people.

False gods do not mind plurality of idols… they are all counterfeits! Yahweh, however, commands our allegiance to Him alone. “You shall have no other gods before me” “You shall not have any graven images” “You shall love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, soul, and strength”

Thus, this judgment against the rain is a direct attack upon the idolatry that had robbed God of His glory among His people.

This may remind us of God’s plagues in Egypt that refuted the false gods of Pharaoh.

The judgment was lingering.

Look at Elijah’s words, “neither dew nor rain these years...”

A drought can be overcome if it is a few months… we’ve got a bit of stock, the rivers provide water for crops and cattle- it’s hard, but doable. But years?!?! That’s a different story.

Of course, we must acknowledge that this lingering judgment is necessary for the lesson to be learned… if it will be learned.

So the story is simply that a fellow named Elijah confronts a wicked King Ahab and tells him that God is against Him, and a judgement of lingering drought is coming… oh, and one final thing:

- Elijah would be the instrument by which the rain would return to the land. “Except by my word...” That seems like a dangerous statement. Elijah took responsibility for the role God called him to. He was committed to the whole project!

Now that we know the characters here and the story, we must step back and ask what we should learn from it. Why is this given to us to know and to study.

Well, I believe we can learn a number of valuable lessons and insights. Let’s take a look at our

Noteworthy Lessons:

Certainly with such a brief passage, you might be thinking, so what?

I hope so. As with any scripture or story, we must ask questions like:

What does this reveal about God?

Are there lessons for us to apply or warnings for us to heed?

Is there a model to follow?

Let’s look first and ask-

What does this passage reveal about God?

God defends His glory. He is a jealous God. We, who are called by His name are HIS!! Idolatry will not go un-judged.

God Intervenes in our world. The intervention here was by directing nature itself… Are all droughts or extreme weather events judgments, I don’t know. In order to claim that, we’d have to have a word from the Lord regarding them. Here, we see such a warning from God. He took credit for that which was coming.

God uses nobodies to speak His word. Again, Elijah had no credentials… but perhaps that’s exactly why God used him.

God’s message may not be popular or liked. Nobody likes being confronted. But folks, that’s the reality of the Gospel. IF we are going to experience God’s forgiveness and grace, we must first acknowledge our sin (we talked about this last week)

God’s judgment is purposeful. God was showing his sovereignty and power in direct opposition to the false gods. He wasn’t just punishing these idolators, He was calling them to return to Him.

Discuss: What truths about God does this passage bring to light?

Finally, I want to ask:

How do we respond to sin’s prominence?

Most people like to think about this story and we see ourselves as Elijah, declaring God’s truth in a sinful world. Indeed, reformation is necessary - our world is broken and sinful and it’s easy to see. We could easily point out the moral and spiritual decay in liberal religions.

As Christians, I believe we have a responsibility and duty to speak God’s Word. We do this in love and truth. Like Elijah, it is God whom we stand before. He is our judge.

Even so, the reality is that we must consider the possibility that we are not Elijah, but Ahab. Perhaps it is we who have erected altars to false gods and need to hear the confrontational word of the Lord calling us to repent. After all It’s only when we have removed the plank from our own eye that we can see clearly enough to remove the spec in the eye of our neighbor.

Sin’s presence in the church is a far greater problem than its prominence in the secular world… we are God’s people, therefore this morning, I want to challenge you and me to allow God’s Word to speak to our hearts.

Are we robbing God of glory by elevating idols? Money? Sex? Self?

Have we allowed the influence of others to pull us away from God? Friends, co-workers, family?

Have we continued in learned patterns of sin instead of obeying God? Do we practice the same sin of our parents?

My prayer is that In the same way God raised Elijah to speak against the idolatry of Israel, God’s Word speaks to our sin as well -

Revival of the nation will not happen apart from revival in the church.

[Pray]