Are Provided For

The Lord Provides For His People

8.6.23 [1 Kings 17:1-6] River of Life (10th Sunday after Pentecost)

137 days. It’s been 137 days since we last received measurable rain at Phoenix Sky Harbor. That’s a long time. I’ll spare you the math and just tell you the last time it rained there, it was March 22. That day, we got two-hundredths of an inch of rain. Enough to make the cars look dirty, but not enough to let the sprinklers take a day off.

Living in a desert, we are accustomed to going long stretches without rain. But 137 days is still a long time—even for us. The Phoenix record was set in 1972—160 days. Yet, even during long dry spells, our lives are still quite comfortable. Our trees don’t look so hot & our yards are brown. But, for the most part, we are cushioned by modern life.

Of course, we know life wasn’t always like this. When water is something you have to “go get”, life is a lot harder, even when the water is plentiful. It’s even more burdensome and wearisome when there’s little to no water to be found. That’s what’s happening in 1 Kings 17. Elijah, the prophet of the Lord, went to the king of Israel, Ahab, and told him bluntly: (1 Kings 17:1) As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word. (Lk. 4:25) For three and a half years, the sky was shut. There was a severe famine.

It seems really harsh, doesn’t it? We’re seeing, right now, what four-plus months of no rain does to an area. Imagine 42 months. So why did this happen?

Typically, when the Lord’s prophets bring bad news to a king, it originates from the Lord. God tells the prophet to deliver a message and he must do it. But that’s not what happened here.

But In James, we are told something striking about Elijah. (James 5:17) Elijah prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it didn’t rain for 3 ½ years. So this drought came from Elijah’s praying? Huh?

So what prompted Elijah to pray for a drought? King Ahab was a wicked king who promoted idol worship unlike any before him. So why should the whole nation have to suffer through a drought?

In order to understand why Elijah prayed for a drought, we need to do a quick review of some northern kingdom of Israel royal drama.

A dozen years before Ahab became king, there was a coup. King Elah was getting drunk in the home of a palace administrator and one of his chariot commanders assassinated him and then tried to become king. That new king, Zimri, lasted a week. When he saw he didn’t have the support of the people he burned himself alive in the palace. Then for 4 years, Israel was split into 2 factions. Eventually, Ahab’s father Omri became king and ruled for seven years.

Then it was Ahab’s turn. For most of Israel, this was a welcome transition. Ahab was a politically-savvy and an economically-successful king. He made treaties with Judah and Tyre. He was tough on Syria. He strengthened the military, built cities, and protected water supplies. Many historians consider Ahab’s building programs to be on par with Herod the Great and King Solomon.

But if you recognize the name Ahab today, none of that stuff is why. It’s because of his wickedness. Ahab built a temple to Baal and an altar to Baal and (1 Kg. 16:33) did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings before him. If you know King Ahab’s name today, it’s because of how he and his wife, Queen Jezebel tried to systematically destroy the Lord’s prophets.

Okay, so Ahab was a wicked king. But why a drought? Elijah prayed for the Lord to shut up the sky because of the false god Ahab was promoting: Baal. Baal was the Canaanite god of sex and storms. And Elijah prayed that the one, true God would reveal his power by demonstrating that Baal wasn’t real. So why three and a half years?

Those who worshipped Baal had a meteorological problem to address. In Israel, much like here, they went long periods without rain. Rain in late October & early January and then again in April & early May. Where was Baal the rest of the year? The priests of Baal taught that during the dry months, Baal was under the control of Mot, the god of death, until another god, Anat, set Baal free and the rains returned.

So if it didn’t rain for just one year, you can see how the false prophets of Baal would explain it away. But 3 years was crippling. Ruinous. The people needed to see that rain—and all blessings—came from the Lord alone. (Mt. 5:45) He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. But it was more than some clever idea by Elijah.

In Deuteronomy, the Lord warned if (Dt. 11:16-17) Israel worships other gods, the Lord will shut up the heavens, so that it will not rain. The Lord said his goal was that (Amos 4:8) his people would return to him in repentance. Even in the parable of the prodigal son, there was a famine that prompted the younger son to see that he had sinned against heaven and his father. So Elijah was praying: Lord, I know what you’ve threatened to do. I know what you ultimately want. Thy will be done.

Yet, this threat did not spare Elijah. Elijah didn’t pray for the Lord to just punish the bad people like King Ahab and the prophets of Baal. He prayed that the Lord would discipline all his people so that as many as possible might be led to repentance. He knew a drought would make everyone’s life more difficult. And delivering that news to Ahab face-to-face made him a public enemy. But he still prayed.

Elijah’s prayer for drought is good for us to consider. We aren’t going to pray for a three-year drought today. But, look around our country and our community and you see far more in common with idolatrous Israel than we’d like to. So many of the truths of God’s Word have been exchanged for lies of Satan. And we’re suffering for it. We do not live in a culture where honor and respect are given to the Lord and his people. Basic societal building blocks like loving your neighbor as yourself, marriage, property-rights, the value of a good name, honoring those in authority, the dignity of hard, but not glamorous work, and the value of all human life have become like a pile of rubble. And we suffer for it. All of us do. Not just Christians. Everyone.

We all suffer collectively when families lack stability and timeless morals. We all suffer when children lack structure and role-models and someone who loves them enough to tell them no and mean it. We all suffer when corporations and individuals make greedy, selfish choices. We all suffer when companies spend more on theft & loss prevention than their products or staff. We all suffer when people don’t show up to work. We all suffer when people destroy things that aren’t theirs. We all suffer when people slander one another. We all suffer when rules are defied and justice is denied. We all suffer when those in the womb and those in assisted living are treated as less than human.

When we suffer collectively in ways like these, it’s natural for us to pray to God to relieve our suffering. Turn back the clock to a more moral and decent time. Make our lives comfortable again.

But what we should want first and foremost is that sinners are led to repentance. That God uses the breakdown of so many societal building blocks that people recognize the error of their selfish and sinful ways. We ought to pray that these painful consequences prompt people to repent. That was what prompted Elijah to pray for drought. Thy will.

And God heard Elijah. He answered his prayer. And did more for him.

The Lord provided a place where Elijah would be safe from Ahab & Jezebel’s attempts on his life, the Kerith Ravine, overlooking the Jordan River. There in that wadi/wash he would have water for a few months. But the Lord provided even more for Elijah. He also, without Elijah’s asking, directed ravens to supply him with bread and meat in the morning and the evening. Two meals a day was generous in a drought. Meat and bread was a real luxury, for anyone who wasn’t a king, in any circumstance. But God is generous. He is merciful & gracious. He gives beyond what we deserve, even beyond what we can ask or imagine.

He doesn’t just carry out his threats. He fulfills his promises. He doesn’t just give us a taste of the consequences our sins have earned. He gives us good things we could never earn. Thy will is done in heaven & earth.

That will includes more than sending ravens to feed Elijah. God came himself into our world and suffered with us. More than that, he suffered for us. Jesus came and suffered for our rebelliousness, our selfishness, our secret idolatries, and all our sins. God sent his own Son to be the Bread of Life for those who were spiritually wasting away. He sent his own Son to be the Water of Life for those who were parched & dying.

God did all this because he is the one true God, abounding in love and faithfulness. He takes no pleasure in seeing wicked people get what they got coming. He rejoices in seeing sinners repent. When droughts and famines expose our foolishness, weakness and powerlessness, like they did for the prodigal son, our Heavenly Father rejoices to welcome us home. He does not give us dirty looks or hold grudges. His face shines on us. He holds us as the apple of his eye. He provides all we need for body and life, for this life and eternal life, because he loves us.

That is his will. That will doesn’t change like the weather. That will doesn’t change when a community or a country goes the wrong direction. (1 Tim. 2:4) God wants all people to be saved. So let us pray for that. Let us pray that sinners will be turned from the error of their ways. Let us pray that God might use us to save them from eternal death and by the blood of Jesus a multitude of their sins might be covered. And let us remember, that even when we suffer for sins we have not committed, that the God we serve has a perfect plan for this, too. He will provide for us in this life. He will take us to be with him in heaven, too. For Elijah, that meant being fed by ravens for a while. After this, Elijah would journey to Jezebel’s home country and be fed by a widow who thought she was going to die of starvation. Her jar of flour and jug of oil did not run dry in the entire time that Elijah spent at her home. The Lord provided for Elijah and he will provide for us in simple & stunning ways, too.

But let us never lose sight of God’s chief goal—repentance. This is why he embeds miserable consequences into sinful choices. God wants people to (Ezekiel 33:11) turn from their sinful ways and live.

When that happens. Let us pray once more, that God might bless sinful people again. That’s what Elijah did. 3 years later, after a showdown with the prophets of Baal, the people saw the Lord was the one true God. Then, (1 Kgs. 18:42) Elijah bent down to the ground, put his face between his knees and he prayed. (James 5:18) And the heavens gave rain. And the earth produced crops. Why? Because the Lord our Father loves to provide for his people. That’s why he gave us his Son. Amen.