Elijah
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Elijah served as prophet during a time of turmoil in Israel. The kingdom we ruled by the wicked king Ahab and his terrible wife Jezebel. Here is what 1 Kings says about this duo.
Then, as if following the sin of Jeroboam son of Nebat were not enough, he married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and then proceeded to serve Baal and bow in worship to him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he had built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole. Ahab did more to anger the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him.
Jezebel is a bad lady. She is the daughter to king Ethbaal one of Israel’s enemies. She is a worshiper of Baal and is used as an archetype throughout parts of Scripture to describe wicked, power hungry, idolatrous women. After marrying Jezebel, Ahab continues in sin by worshipping the false god Baal. They build a temple to Baal in Samaria, they build Asherah poles which were these big tall poles used to worship Asherah the Canaanite fertility goddess. They plunge Israel deeper and deeper into idolatry and further and further away from God. Jezebel and Ahab were murdering the prophets of God and there was only a small remnant of faithful people left in all of Israel.
This is the context that Elijah has been called to serve as prophet in. It is a time of severe wickedness in Israel, when people were forsaking God to perform all kinds of evil and wickedness in worship to false gods. It was a time when it was not only dangerous to be faithful to the Lord but it was also lonely. But Elijah remains faithful even in these circumstances.
In chapter 18 we see this amazing story of Elijah facing off against all the prophets of Baal. It says there were 450 prophets to Baal and 400 prophets to Asherah against 1 prophet to God in Elijah. The challenge was to see who the true God was. They would prepare an altar and prepare a bull, and whichever God responded by sending down fire from heaven to burn the bull would be the true God. Elijah lets the prophets to Baal go first. They pick their bull and set up their altar and pray from morning to noon with no answer. They try harder. They pray louder and start to stab themselves with their spears and knives to bleed for Baal but there is still no answer. Elijah starts to make fun of Baal for not responding. Asking if he is out using the restroom. The prophets continue until evening wit no sound, no answer, no one paying attention.
It says Elijah then rebuilt the altar of God, he arranged all the wood and put the bull on the altar. He then soaked it with water. He put 12 water pots of water over the bull and over the wood. Then he says, “Answer me LORD! Answer me so that this people will know that you, the LORD, are God and that you have turned their hearts back”. Immediately fire consumed all of the bull, all of the wood, all the stones, all the water until it was all ash. The prophets fell down and worshiped God as Lord and then Elijah killed all of the prophets of Baal.
This story is an incredible win for Elijah. He stood against God’s enemies. He called down fire from heaven. He destroyed these wicked prophets to Baal. Yet, his response is surprising. In Chapter 19 we see that after this mountain top experience Elijah is met with one of the lowest of lows.
Ahab told Jezebel everything that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “May the gods punish me and do so severely if I don’t make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow!” Then Elijah became afraid and immediately ran for his life. When he came to Beer-sheba that belonged to Judah, he left his servant there, but he went on a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. He said, “I have had enough! Lord, take my life, for I’m no better than my ancestors.”
After this amazing victory, Jezebel threatens Elijah’s life. He becomes afraid, runs away, and prays that God would kill him. After this amazing demonstration of faith and trust in the Lord, after seeing God show up in such a powerful and incredible way, how could Elijah respond like this?
Sometimes when we experience these emotionally demanding moments it is easy for our emotions to swing into a depressive state. We’ve just given all of ourselves to this responsibility and now we swing over here to a place of emotional exhaustion where we feel empty and like we have nothing left.
How do we respond when we are in these low moments?
How does God respond?
Elijah wished for death. He was empty. He had nothing left to live for. He had swung from this emotional mountain top experience into the pits of despair. He had no hope.
Sometimes we can get into this mentality because of a sin we are struggling with. The enemy uses guilt and shame to tear us down and break us to pieces. We feel tainted, worthless. We feel like we can’t get anything right. Our encouragement in these moments is found in the promises of God. We know according to God’s Word that we are not condemned in Christ Jesus. He has taken the punishment for our sins upon Himself and even though we sin and fall short God’s grace removes all guilt and shame from our life. We are taken from being dead in our sin to being alive in Christ.
These cycles of guilt and shame can make us feel trapped in our sin, but they are broken in are broken in Christ.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God does not see us as tainted or worthless. In Christ He sees us as righteous. Not a righteousness earned and maintained by our own effort but one that has been given to us freely by grace.
He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
I don’t think this feeling that Elijah is experiencing is brought on by sin. We saw in the previous chapter that Elijah was trusting in the Lord and being faithful in the face of extreme adversity. I think part of what he is experiencing is unmet expectations. Elijah’s hopes were for his people to turn back to God and follow Him. This whole ordeal was done with the expectation that Ahab and Jezebel would repent and restore Israel back to God. When he hears that this victory has hardened their hearts even more against God He is broken. All these years of service and prayer. These years of hoping and trusting seem like a waste of time.
What is the point of being alive when your life’s calling is to be a prophet to a people who won’t listen? Elijah’s identity was wrapped up in all of these expectations and when they weren’t met he was ready to quit.
Where do we find our identity?
Are we building our lives on our ability to perform or on results/outcomes?
It isn’t wrong to have expectations of what we want results to be or care about how well we can perform. Those things can be helpful motivators in our life, but they can’t be the thing that we build our life on. We have to reevaluate what it looks like to be successful. In this new life that Christ has called us into, what does it look like to be successful? Does it mean a comfortable lifestyle where we have anything we could ever want? Does it mean lots of money and influence? Is it the respect and love of people around you? What does it look like to be a successful in this new identity we have in Christ?
Was Elijah a successful prophet? Yes, absolutely. Did he have any of those things? Comfort, money, influence, respect, love? No. The thing that made Elijah successful was that God was faithful to him and had a relationship with him. In these times of sorrow when it feels like everything is out of our control we need to remember that God is not caught off guard or unprepared. He is in control. He loves us. He knows what is best for us. And He is working all things for good. We must put our trust in Him. Find our comfort and rest in Him. Remain faithful to Him. When nothing makes sense, when people try to hurt us, when things don’t go the way we hoped, when we feel lost or broken we need to turn to Jesus.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
So what does Elijah do in this time of sorrow?
What does God do?
Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree. Suddenly, an angel touched him. The angel told him, “Get up and eat.” Then he looked, and there at his head was a loaf of bread baked over hot stones, and a jug of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again.
Sometimes eating something and taking a nap is all we need to cure our sorrows. Sometimes there is more that is necessary. Food isn’t always the answer. Eating too much won’t help anything, but there is something about taking care of yourself physically that goes a long way in helping mentally and spiritually. Sometimes these times of sorrow are brought on by just not taking care of ourselves. Elijah hadn’t eaten probably all day when confronting the prophets of Baal. When we are hungry and thirsty we can have a heightened response emotionally to the things going on around us. Sometimes taking care of ourselves physically means going to a doctor and making sure our brains work. Sometimes depression is a medical thing. A chemical imbalance in our brains that requires medication. What is important to understand is that not everything is a matter of faith. I don’t think anyone would look at Elijah and say he just needed more faith. Sometimes there is more going on. He needed a good meal, he needed some rest. And through those things God was reminding him that He is a provider. He took care of Elijah’s physical needs but would soon take care of his spiritual needs too. We can trust in God as our provider. He cares so deeply for us.
“Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith? So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
God knows what we need. He cares for things that are here today and gone tomorrow, we can trust He will care for us. Instead of worrying or being anxious about tomorrow Jesus tells us to seek first the Kingdom of God. We can trust in the Lord.
God offers Elijah bread and water. Maybe not in this moment, but later down the line as Elijah though about how God had provided for him, I’m sure he remembered how God had provided for Israel in the same way while they were in the wilderness. When we feel these times of heartache try to think back on all the ways God has been faithful to you and faithful throughout history. There are countless stories to think back on. Countless ways God has shown up for His people. It can be hard in the moment when our circumstances are overwhelming but maybe write a couple verses down or a couple stories down so that when you are in those moments you can have something to look back on.
We see that God was comforting and providing for Elijah, but He wasn’t intending on letting him stay and wallow in his agony. It was time to move.
Then the angel of the Lord returned for a second time and touched him. He said, “Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.” So he got up, ate, and drank. Then on the strength from that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.
God’s plan isn’t for Elijah to wallow but it also isn’t for him to run away from his problems either. Sometimes we try to fill our lives with stuff to hide from dealing with and processing through our pain. Avoiding doesn’t fix anything it just makes a bigger problem for us down the road. God was bringing Elijah to Mount Horeb (Mt. Sinai) to deal with this hurt directly.
He entered a cave there and spent the night. Suddenly, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of Armies, but the Israelites have abandoned your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are looking for me to take my life.”
Notice how God listens to Elijah. He genuinely cares and hears Elijah’s concerns. Our God is not a God who is distant and removed. He is a God who hears and understands our struggles and our pains.
Elijah tells God what he is struggling with.
He feels like a failure
He feels heartache for his people
He feels all alone
He feels afraid and anxious for his life
Look at what God does.
Then he said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the Lord’s presence.” At that moment, the Lord passed by. A great and mighty wind was tearing at the mountains and was shattering cliffs before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was a voice, a soft whisper. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Suddenly, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
God demonstrates his power in this incredible way. Elijah sees this mighty wind, a mountains and cliffs destroyed, but the Lord is not in the wind. He sees an earthquake, but the Lord is not in the earthquake. He sees this roaring fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. Instead the Lord spoke to him in a still small voice.
In the chaos and terror God is constant. He isn’t swayed by emotion, He isn’t swayed by the wind or earthquakes or fire. He remains the same. An anchor for our souls. We don’t hear what God says to Elijah in that moment. What we do know is that everything changed in Elijah.
Elijah puts on his mantle which was this ceremonial cloth. What it represents is a call from God to be a prophet. He had taken it off because of his sorrow. But Elijah was refreshed, renewed, and ready to continue in his calling. God asked him again, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
The first time Elijah responded to this question, I imagine, as a complaint. This time it feels more like a prayer.
“I have been very zealous for the Lord God of Armies,” he replied, “but the Israelites have abandoned your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they’re looking for me to take my life.”
These feelings of being a failure, heartache for his people, feeling alone, feeling anxious for his life are all answered by God. God gives Elijah a plan.
Then the Lord said to him, “Go and return by the way you came to the Wilderness of Damascus. When you arrive, you are to anoint Hazael as king over Aram. You are to anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel and Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. Then Jehu will put to death whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death whoever escapes the sword of Jehu. But I will leave seven thousand in Israel—every knee that has not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
God answers Elijah’s prayer with a new king, new prophets, death for His enemies, and seven thousand faithful Israelites.
He is not a failure
He is not alone
His life is not in danger, instead Ahab and Jezebel’s lives are in danger
Elijah left there and found Elisha son of Shaphat as he was plowing. Twelve teams of oxen were in front of him, and he was with the twelfth team. Elijah walked by him and threw his mantle over him. Elisha left the oxen, ran to follow Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and mother, and then I will follow you.” “Go on back,” he replied, “for what have I done to you?” So he turned back from following him, took the team of oxen, and slaughtered them. With the oxen’s wooden yoke and plow, he cooked the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he left, followed Elijah, and served him.