INTRO TO ELIJAH/ELISHA SERIES

INTRO

If you have your Bible today you can go to 1 Kings 17. If you don’t have a Bible feel free to use one that is around you or you can look on the screens. We are starting a new series looking at the lives of Elijah and Elisha that I think will be helpful for all of us for many different reasons, and we will get to those in a moment.. What I think would be helpful to discuss right away is the background of what is going on in Israel because it explains the need for Elijah and Elisha and why it is good for us to study them for our faith walk.

Background

So we won’t go all way back to the beginning with Adam and Eve, but we will got back about 200-300 years from when Elijah steps on scene. We have king David who has just a rock star king. Yes, we all know if did some sinful things, but he was still a man after God’s heart and God makes a covenant with him and David is going to be the standard that all other kings will be judged by. Then his son Solomon becomes king and he starts off pretty good, asking God for wisdom and building an incredible temple to the Lord. But then he starts marrying a ton of women for “political reasons” and he then brings in the worship of all these other false gods. And by the time Solomon is done with being king he is disobeying every rule in the book. Literally, he is going against everything that God calls their king to be in Deuteronomy 17:14-20. After Solomon their is a split in the nation so now there is Israel in the north and Judah in the south. And in both of these kingdom there are going to be a total of 20 kings each over a 200 year time period and each are, as I said before, compared to king David. Did they follow the Lord, did they walk according to the Lord’s ways? And in the northern kingdom, there were 0 good kings. Judah had 8 good kings before they were taken into exile. Isn’t that incredibly sad? Yet even in the midst of this terrible time of disobedience and rebellion, we see a merciful God who sends his prophets to call his people back to Him.

Enter in Elijah. Now by the time Elijah steps on the scene, the king in the northern kingdom is Ahab and he is a treat because this is how 1 Kings 16 describes him.

English Standard Version Chapter 16

29 In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. 30 And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. 31 And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. 32 He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him

The message says that he is “a new champion of evil.” He marries Jezabel who is a Sidonian, an enemy of Israel and she is a treat as we will see in the stories to come. Then he make the new religion to be strictly worship of Baal, doesn’t even try the duplicity lifestyle. He is a new low for Israel. And what is important for you to know about Baal was believed to be the god of rain and fertility. This is the now the new god for the people of Israel

Now, just out of curiosity, what are the main gods of culture these days? How about any gods/idols in the western church?

The god of Baal is important in a lot of stories of Elisha. And speaking of Elisha, it is important to know what his name means. Elijah means The Lord is My God. This will be a constant declaration of Elijah’s life. He will continually live in a way that the Lord is my God, and ultimately, the Lord is the only God.

So that leads me to one of the reasons why I think it is going to be helpful to study the life of Elijah and Elisha.

Why should we study the life of Elijah/Elisha?

Now, before you think this is me about to bash on culture, it is so much more than that. Yes, there is a lot going on economically, politically, and socially. There is also a lot even going on in Church culture that you could possibly point out. And while that is definitely part of our call as Christians to be aware of and also come against, I want us to think a little deeper. What is the culture on your heart? Are you living a “normal life” in your heart where there are idols everywhere but there is not desire to have God honored there? I’m not talking to just unbelievers, I’m talking to all of us to take a moment and picture your heart that has a kingdom and there is a king on the throne, who is there? Is it you? Is it culture? Is it tick tock? Is it something other than Jesus? Are we living supernaturally by having Christ reign uttermost in our hearts even when others may not? Yes, we should be in the world but not of it, but how? By living supernaturally and differently than others, and that starts in our hearts.

So how do we get there? To have Elisha hearts that have “The Lord is My God” engraved on our hearts? I believe there are ways to do this by looking at the life of Elijah today.

English Standard Version (Chapter 17)

1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

Even though this is one quick verse, we actually have two important things to learn about Elijah.

1.Elijah the Tishbite, an unknown man Anyone know where Tishbe in Giliad is? Ya, me neither. This is the crazy thing about Elijah, he comes out of nowhere, literally. We have no other background about him. It is not like Jeremiah where we knew he was a son of a priest, an important role in the Israelite community. It isn’t like Moses where we understand his backstory of being hidden and how he got into pharaohs house. Here is the only information about we have about Elijah and it should be incredibly encouraging for all of you today. It is encouraging to all of us today because we don’t need some special background to be supernatural people.

I think so many people think in order to live a powerful life in the Lord, we need some kind of magical alignment of the starts. We need to have this kind of childhood, or this theology degree, or this kind of opportunity, or this kind of last name, or this large encounter to be supernatural people. God calls us because of his grace. He makes us his own and puts His Spirit in us because it was his idea. He called us when we were not impressive people, when we were weak and nobody’s. Isn’t that encouraging? If you feel held back because of a label or because of some false identity, God does not care. he calls people no matter where they are from. No matter what they have done. And when we catch that, the second thing actually comes pretty naturally.

The second thing that we see about Elijah is that 2.Elijah read, prayed, and proclaimed God’s word

Elijah comes to Ahab uninvited and unannounced and tells him what God clearly stated in His word. In Deuteronomy 28 God tells the people the blessings that come when they are obedient to his voice. This is a direct confrontation to the power of Baal, as you know, because Baal was supposed to have the power of rain and fertility. Elijah was proving that the Lord is God and their is no other. And he tells them the curses that will happen when they are disobedient to his voice. One of those curses is that there will be no rain, which as you farmers know, is a big deal. That is how they make their living. How they grow their crops. It is essential to living. But as God promised, when they were not worshipping him there will be consequences.

But look at what he says at the end of it, how it says, “according to my word.” I took some time to study that out because shouldn’t it say “according to the Lord’s word? According to Elijah’s word? How is that possible? Is this a typo? No, this is once again, like Daniel, like Moses, like Joshua, we are called pray the word to see it come about. We are invited into communion and co partner with the word of God. So it is God’s promise, but Elijah is holding God to his promise to show him as the Lord. I know this is uncomfortable for some of us, but it is important to see that we are not called to be passive to the Word of God. We are called to read it, pray it, proclaim it, and watch God work. So it isn’t even on us, yet he calls us into fellowship with him. And Elijah is bold enough to stand before this disobedient king and speak God’s word. Which leads me to how we can be supernatural in a complacent culture: Obey, pray, and proclaim God’s Word

It is almost getting easier to be supernatural in today’s world, even christian culture, where the word of God is not honored, obeyed and proclaimed. It has become unimportant and irrelevant. Yet here is the call to all of us believers today, since we are called not because of anything we have done, we need to obey and proclaim God’s word. Everything that is in here, not just what we like and what we are comfortable with. Everything. Knowing that God’s word will not fail. The flowers may fade and the grass withers but God’s word never fails. And when we do that, we can expect God to continue to guide our ways. Not perfect and calm seas, but he will guide our ways just like Elijah experienced. Are you reading, praying and proclaiming the Bible? Or is it just there for your convenience? Only there to make you look spiritual? Whatever that means. Let us return to the Lord by reading his word, praying his word, and proclaiming his word. Don’t wait for others, don’t wait for culture to “reaffirm it” just commit in your own heart to do it. I have decided, to follow Jesus!

2 And the word of the LORD came to him: 3 “Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 4 You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” 5 So he went and did according to the word of the LORD. He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan. 6 And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. 7 And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

God tells Elijah to go to this obscure place because, even though it does not say it, the king is probably not a fan of Elijah. So he needs to hide out for a while. So while all of Israel is worrying about when it will rain and if they will have any food, God provides for Elijah. He directs Elijah’s path and provides for him supernaturally almost like when the Israelites were in the dessert. They had Manna come every morning, here Elijah gets meat from ravens every morning and evening. This is the blessing for Elijah as he is obedient to the Lord. The Lord provides in supernatural ways, and somewhat strange ways. Ravens carrying meat? Why that way? Ravens were unclean animals, is God forgetting his own law? No, God is showing us such an important theme in Elijah’s life and for our lives. God is in control.

If you think about it, this is why we turn to idols. We forget who God is. We forget that God is a supernatural God and we put him in our little boxes that make him so much smaller than he really is. So that is why the idols start to rule in our heart because we don’t actually believe God is in control. That he will provide for us, protect us, and care for us. Yet, this story should trigger in your mind something that Jesus said. Anyone know what scripture I am talking about, with birds, and not worrying? Look at the sparrow, does not God provide for them and and are you not of more value than them? Do not worry. Do not fear. Do not buy into those emotions.

“ Your emotions may be strong, but it doesn’t mean that they are right” -Jimmy Evans

CLOSING

So do you desire to live a supernatural life in the midst of a complacent culture? Do you desire for every idol in your heart to be torn down so that the Lord can be God over all of you? If you just remember that like Elijah

God called you not because of anything in your past or because of anything special about you. He did it out of his own kindness.

Obey, Pray and proclaim the word of God. Don’t let this word depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night. Let it be the thing you live by, not by culture, or other voices that are loud. Listen to the still small voice that is faithful.

3. And remember, God is in control. He is the one that is in control of you life. And even if you are going through a trial, or the enemy is attacking, or you are needing him to come through in a crazy way and there is fear, worry, and anxiety. He is your father. He knows what you need.

I love that we are going to close today with communion because it is a sweet picture of tearing down idols and setting Christ as Lord over us once again. I’ll invite the worship team and our elder who will invite us to the table. But see this time of communion as a declaration time of The Lord is God over all. Over all my life.

Pray.