No Rain

So I have showed this picture before, but this is a picture of death valley, and if you know of death valley, you know it is the driest and hottest places in North Aamerica

In fact between the years 1931 and 1934 they only had a total of .64 of an inch over about a 3 year stretch.

And people believe this is one of the longest stretches of little to no rain that has happened in North America.

And as you can imagine when the weather does this it makes it so almost nothing can live there

And really today what we are doing is looking at a story where the weather does something similar.

but it actually does not rain at all in a three year period.

And so we will be in 1 Kings 17:1-24 and I want to give a little bit of a background because this story centers on the nation of Israel and things are looking bad for the nation of Israel,

In fact their past two kings that they had were bad

The first was considered bad

Then the second was considered really bad

And then by the time it gets to the current king in the story (named Ahab) he is even worse.

And the chapter right before where we are even tells us that he has set up alters to false gods, did more evil then any king before and not just that but we are even told that he builds a gate with his the cost of his youngest son

Most likely meaning King Ahab built a gate and he used his first born son as a sacrifice for the gate.

And if you read this first part of the passage it doesn’t take you long to go something is really wrong.

And what happens in this story is we catch the Isralites in a Physical drought, but also a Spiritual one.

And I mentioned this but this is the first part of our series called “Unstoppable God” where we are looking at the story of Elijah, and seeing how God moved in His life.

and whats beautiful is even in the middle of this terrible time, God does not stop pursuing his people.

And so we will be in 1 Kings 17:1-24 and we will just be starting in verse 1:

1 Kings 17:1 NIV

1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “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.”

So Elijah is this prophet of God that we see come forward during this time

And I have mentioned this before but a lot of times we picture a prophet as this person that predicts the future, and sometimes we see that, but most of the time what we see it is a person that speaks truth into the current situation.

And we see Elijah come to Ahab because of the evil happening and he tells Ahab that there will be no rain until he says.

And this was a big deal first off because of the implications,

Because this drought did nit just effect the king, but it effected everyone, including Elijah

But also the big reason that Elijah does this, is because the main false god that the king would have worshiped was baal, and baal was the God of fertility, but also he was a god that controlled the weather.

And so when the people would worship baal thy believed he would send rain.

And so Elijah is in a sense saying you have this false god, and I have my God, lets see whose god is better.

And I think there is a point here, because I think most of us have not worshiped a literal false god,

But what happens is we find these things in our life that we place our hope in, and we go this thing will make me happy and full.

And we do this and we place our hope in these things rather then putting our hope in our god.

and I think what Elijah is telling us is the false gods that we put our hope in will eventually prove themselves as false,

And at the same time our God will proove himself true.

Its alsmost like how I had a friend in college who decided he was big into lifting and working out.

And he got really into it, he bought all the weird powders, he went to the gym a couple times I think.

And he ended up just taking all the drinks and not doing the workouts.

And what happened overtime was all the protien and createen and other things were not enough, they do not magically make you strong.

And in a way God is going when we put our hope in something false overtime it will prove itself false.

And letss look at this next part verses 1-9. It says:

1 Kings 17:2–9 NIV

2 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: 3 “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 4 You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” 5 So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. 7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the Lord came to him: 9 “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.”

So Elijah says the rain is done, and you can picture him going what now… because its not going to take long for the water to run low, and then the food runs out, and really for the king to hunt him down and tell him to make it rain

and so it says that the word of the lord comes to Elijah

And I want to pause because you will notice this in this story, but also in your own life.

Often times when God leads us he does not give us the whole picture of where we are going, but he does it in small steps that we follow.

Its almost like when you put something in your phone, it does not tell you every step, but it leads you step by step and we have to trust that God is going to lead us.

And not just that but at the story continues Elijah goes by this river next to the Jordan and he has water and then it says that ravens aare actually supplying the food for him.

and they are bringing him bread and meat (basically making him sandwiches).

And this would have been a little bit of a shocking part of the story if you lived in biblical times, because first off ravens do not make sandwiches

But secondly Ravens were considered to be very unclean for Jews at this time,

But whats neat is this is the thing that God uses to to provide for Elijah.

And what we see is Elijah is following God step by step, and he does not leave him there in those steps, but he provides for him in those places even in the most unlikely places.

And so Elijah stays here and iss doing pretty well, God is taking care of him and he iss trusting in God daily that the ravens will come,

But as this happened eventually an issue comes up, because as the rain did not come for weeks and then months and eventually a year the river and the brook where he was began to dry out.

And you can picture him slowly watching the brook dry up

And I imagine he had this thought of I have followed God, I have sacrficed a decent amount and lived off of raven sandwich’s

and now I am finding myself in this place where the river is drying up and I don’t know whats next.

And I want to bring this up because if I had to guess this is a question that might come to our heads if we have followed God for a point of time.

And it is What do we do when God has led us to a place, and we have faithfully followed and sacraficed, but we see the resources or the future that we saw drying up before our eyes?

I mean have you ever found yourself there? (pause)

But I think the beautiful part of this story, is that this is not the end but we see God continue to guide Elijah step by step.

And lets look where God leads Elijah in verses 10-16 and this is a longer section of scripture but it says this:

1 Kings 17:10–16 (NIV)

10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”

12 “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’ ”

15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

So Elijah comes to this Widow and she is collecting sticks and she was most likely poor, and did not have a ton,

And we see Elijah do something a little odd, because he goes can you get me a drink of water and she probably recodnizes that thiss is the prophet Elijah and she runs and gets it and as she is running Elijah yells can you get me some bread to…

Seems a little inconsiderate doesn’t it?

In fact things almost pause because she stops and goes I dont have bread, in fact I have a handful of flower and a little bit of olive oil and I am going to use it to make me and my sons last meal and after that we will die.

And whats interesting is she still does it.

And I don’t think this was a case of oh I want to help this guy, but I think this was a case where this woman was going I want to give my best to God.

We talked about this last week or the week before I believe, but we like to give God our leftovers,

We will say I am not using this so its yours God, but I think oftentimes what God desires from us is to give in those places where we would go this is hard to do.

I don’t know if I can do that

And I want you to catch what happens because the handful of flower and the small amount of oil does not run out.

And God strectches it.

You know I want to get ready to close this morning, but I sometimes we catch ourselves in a place where we go God did you lead me here and now I don’t know what to do, but the beautiful part of this story is that in those areas that feel dry, where we do not know the next step, but we have a God who is faithful.

And I want to show a picture of the valley of death this morning and like I said I have mentioned this before, but I think a lot of us might find ourselves in a place like this, this morning

Its dry, its hot, theres no life and we see no end.

But one thing I love and this is a beautiful image is when there is not rain seed begin to accumulate in the valley and they don’t grow because there is no rain

But when it starts to rain you begin to see everything come to life and it does something called a super bloom where all the sudden the deadest area, is a place filled with life.

And its because there are all these things happening in the background that we can’t see.

This morning does your life look like the desert?

What if I told you God is moving in those placess that feel dead this morning, and he sees the full picture, and when we trust him in the dry places he leads us step by step to the place he desiress.

Will you pray with me?