Sermon Tone Analysis

*Elijah and Elisha 2.*

• Enough of the prophets!

Let’s have a story!

Please turn to 1 Kings chapter 17. *[P]* The story of “Elijah and the Ravens” – you notice it is a story for “young children”.

Or as I have preferred to call it: “ELIJAH - THE MAN OF GOD” *[P]* Later on in the chapter we meet a widow woman – this is what she said: [*1 Kings 17:18*/ //“What do I have to do with you, O man of God?/] The widow calls Elijah a man of God.

If you look in v.12 you will see that immediately she saw him she knew that he served יהוה.*

*Then later on in: [*1 Kings 17:24*/ //Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of //יהוה// in your mouth is truth.”/]/

/The prophet was a man of God – he stood out as a man of God – do I? Do you want to be a man of God?

A woman of God? Let’s have a look at the characteristics of Elijah, what made him a man of God: *[P]* [*1 Kings 17:1-10*/ //Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab,/ (he was the king of Israel)/ “As //יהוה//, the God of Israel lives//, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

The word of //יהוה// came to him//, saying, /*[P]*/ “Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.

“It shall be that you will drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.”/*[P]*/

So he went and did according to the word of //יהוה//, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.

The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, /*[P]*/ and he would drink from the brook.

/*[P]*/ It happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

Then the word of //יהוה// came to him//, saying, /*[P]*/ “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.”

So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, “Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink.”/]

Elijah is a significant character, the archetypical prophet.

The Jews look for Elijah's coming and he prepared the way for Jesus and will do so before His return (Mal 4:5).

He was with Moses on the mount of transfiguration and is one of the two witnesses at the end (Rev 11).

What was his great significance?

Elijah always ushers in a new era.

These chapters describe a watershed in Israel's history and God's dealings with them.

Very akin to our own day, it was a time of great prosperity and materialism, but also of compromise with other religions and turning away from the genuine worship of God.

They were ripe for judgment!

The great proverbial dynasty of David only held the nation united for 73 years.

When Solomon’s son took the throne the ten tribes to the north split and put Jereboam on the throne.

They had all the fertile land, so they prospered materially, but religion was centred in Jerusalem, so Jereboam set up two centres of worship with golden calves as gods so that the people wouldn’t travel south to Judah to the temple.

Immediately, at its inception, Israel went into institutionalized idolatry, and all subsequent kings persisted in it.

Now some 60 years and 7 kings later Ahab is king.

His father, Omri, an army commander, had been made king, but his son was even worse than all the idolatrous kings before him.

[*1 Kings 16:30-31*/ //Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of //יהוה// more than all who were before him.//

It came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat,/ (he was the first king of Israel who set up gold calves as gods) /that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him./]

Israel was prosperous but apostate – sounds a bit like New Zealand today.

It was ripe for judgement!

[*1 Kings 17:1*/ //Now Elijah the said to Ahab, “As //יהוה//, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”/]

Suddenly Elijah bursts on the scene *[P]*, we've never heard of him before; this is the first time he appears; but he must have been prophesying for some time and had a reputation; I mean, you don't get an audience with the king just like that, but this is the first time the Bible mentions him.

Suddenly he is there, dramatic, announcing judgment!

Elijah comes pronouncing judgment – a drought.

When we get a rainy day we say that the weather is bad – we show our city bias!

When your whole economy depends upon agriculture and horticulture, when you are a farmer; then your perspective changes.

Rain is good!

If you don’t get rain it is bad!

Make no mistake – this wasn’t good news forecasting a nice summer and plenty of sunbathing; this was judgement!

Elijah was announcing national calamity!

This would not go down well with the king!

This was not a recipe for becoming popular.

Ahab hated Elijah and later went to extreme lengths to try and have him killed.

As I intimated last time I spoke, there is a drought in our land, a famine for hearing God’s word.

Here comes this uncouth man from the backblocks, the other side of the Jordan, and says it will not rain or dew until I say so!

The audacity - "At MY word"! who does he think he is?!

Not at “יהוה's word” but at “my word”.

The strange thing is though, that it didn't rain for 3 1~/2 years – that is because his word was the LORD's word.

Why didn’t it rain?

Because Elijah’s words had power?

No, because יהוה said so!

By the power of יהוה’s word.

Elijah was speaking יהוה’s words – that is the essence of being a prophet [*1 Kings 17:24*/ //“Now I know that you are a man of God and that //the word of יהוה in your mouth is truth//.”/]/

– /what he says happens! HE SPOKE GOD'S WORD *[P]* His words had authority and power because they were God's words.

How can he say that it is not going to rain except at my word?

He had simply aligned himself with God's word [*Deuteronomy 11:16-17* /Beware that your hearts are not deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods and worship them./

(but that is what they had done!) /Or the anger of //יהוה// will be kindled against you, and He will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its fruit; and you will perish quickly from the good land which //יהוה// is giving you/.]

They had filled the conditions by serving other gods; so the consequence of drought followed – Gods’ Word had stated it.

It was simply what the word of יהוה said.

The Word of the LORD was in his mouth.

We have so many words and we will be held accountable for each one of them – if we want them to have power, authority and impact they must be God's words and not our own.

How come Elijah spoke the words of יהוה?

Elijah says he stood before Him – as we saw in the introduction last week – the prophet stands in the council of יהוה!

In God’s presence!

That is where you hear from God! The duration of the drought is not given precisely, but it would be long, in the order of years, not weeks or months.

Its length would be determined by how long it took for them to recognize that "יהוה is God" (i.e.

"Elijah"), not Baal.

Repeatedly the Gospel of John says that Jesus spoke only what He heard from His Father – are we speaking God’s word, the words He gives us to speak?

Christ dwells in us, we have His mind! [*1 Corinthians 2:16*/ //But we have the mind of Christ./]

If His life is living in us, if we are abiding in Him, being led by the Spirit we should be speaking His words – authoritative, powerful, making an impact, life changing, life imparting, truth There are prophecies that do not come about* *– people are saying “God says” when He hasn’t said!

There is a famine for hearing the genuine word of God that is true and can be relied upon.

We need the voice of genuine prophecy.*

*So Elijah told the king that it wouldn’t rain – now I don’t think Ahab would be thanking him for the heads-up.

If you speak to the king like he just had, you don't make yourself popular – especially when it comes to pass.

No, the king was livid!

Elijah’s life was in danger so he fled – didn’t he? No, Elijah didn’t flee because of Ahab.

He didn’t do anything until he heard from God, but God protects His own.

He hid himself because יהוה told him to.

Verse 2 reads: [*1 Kings 17:2*/ //The word of /יהוה/ came to him//, saying,/] – it says exactly the same thing in verse 8, and again at the beginning of chapter 18 – the word of יהוה came to Elijah; he heard from יהוה, heard His words, heard His voice!

*The man of God hears from God!* *[P]* In fact if he speaks יהוה’s word, it is a prerequisite that he has first heard from Him.

A contempory of Elijah who was a true prophet, called Miciah said: [*1 Kings 22:14*/ //“As /יהוה/ lives, what /יהוה/ says to me, that I shall speak//.”/]

But we have men speaking from God (so they maintain) when they haven’t heard.

It is an awesome thing to hear from God! [*Isaiah 66:2*/ //“For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being,” declares /יהוה/.

“But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word./

] It is something to tremble at! Awesome!

In chapter 19 Elijah is not moved by a mighty wind, earthquake or fire but at יהוה’s voice: [*1 Kings 19:13*/ //When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave.

And behold, a voice came to him…/] The word of יהוה came to Elijah – HE HEARD FROM GOD!

A prophet is a man who hears from God and tells other people (we looked at this last time in the introduction to the prophets) – no altering it, watering it down, ad-libbing, explaining – just faithfully saying what you are told to.

Elijah stood before יהוה – to stand before יהוה is to serve Him, to be in His service, awaiting directions.

This is where prophetic revelation comes from - the presence of יהוה, standing in His courts [*Jeremiah 23:2 */“But who has stood in the council of /יהוה/, that he should see and hear His word?

Who has given heed to His word and listened? 1 “I did not send these prophets, but they ran.

I did not speak to them, but they prophesied.

“But if they had stood in My council, then they would have announced My words to My people, and would have turned them back from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds./]

There is no record of Ahab’s response to Elijah’s announcement (but one can take it was not repentance nor an eager reception).

Elijah said his bit and left.

Announced the message God had given him and then departed.