Elijah
I. Elijah predicts the drought – 1 Kings 17:1
a. Unknown man steps upon the Biblical scene boldly proclaiming the word of God
b. His declaration of no rain was a direct challenge to Ahab & Jezebel who were followers of Baal and Asherah who were supposedly storm gods that could make the rains come
II. Historical backdrop
a. After Solomon the kingdom of Israel was broken up into the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah)
b. Elijah’s ministry dealt w/ the the Northern Kingdom of Israel and by the time he had come on the scene, there had been 6 wicked kings and Ahab, the 7th, was the most wicked of them all.
c. He married a gentile woman named Jezebel who has gone down in history as being one of the most wicked women of the Bible. She along w/ her husband started off by telling the nation that they could worship whatever gods they chose. But as time went on, that began to change until all other god could be worshipped but Jehovah the one true God.
i. This is what is happening in our country today……
III. God’s Training Ground for the prophet – 1 Kings 17:2-17
a. God had to remove Elijah and take him away where He could train him to trust in no one but God Himself. This was a time a quiet time for Elijah’s faith to be deepened and strengthened
b. God knew that He was calling on him to be a prophet of the land, speaking things that might be uncomfortable and might not be popular so he had to teach Him to rely on God and God alone. How?
c. The Brook Cherith – verse 3-6
d. God sent him to Cherith and told him that he would feed him and give him drink and that’s exactly what happened. Ravens came along and gave him meat every morning and every evening and he drank from the brook. This went on for some time until the brook began to dry up
e. Elijah watched w/ panic as his sole source of water slowed down from a gushing stream to a trickle to nothing but wet mud and then turned to cracked dry earth.
i. His brook had gone dry. He did what God had told him to do, he proclaimed the word to Ahab yet his brook had gone dry.
ii. He went off in the desert to this place called Cherith yet his brook has gone dry
iii. Does this sound familiar to anyone in here? You’ve been walking w/ God and doing His will yet one day your brook goes dry.
iv. You once had money in the bank, stocks bonds & CD’s but suddenly you lose your job, your brook has gone dry
v. You once were healthy as a horse, going to the gym 5 days a week, then the doctor tells you that strange growth is malignant, your going thru a dry period
vi. Your spouse that you loved so much suddenly starts acting up and says its time for a divorce, your going thru a dry period!!
f. But, there is one thing to remember whenever you go through a dry period:
i. It is God who gave you the water and it is God that can take it away. He does this to strengthen us and teach us to rely on Him all the more. Yes, we may have dry brooks but He will never leave us nor forsake us and He will always be there for us when we can’t go another step on our own
g. LESSONS LEARNED FROM CHERITH
i. We must be willing to be set aside to be used by God
ii. God’s direction will always include God’s provision
iii. We have to learn to trust God one day at a time
iv. A dried up brook is often a sign of God’s pleasure and not His disappointment
1. Abraham experienced a dry brook when God told him to sacrifice his only son
2. Right in the middle of his successful 1st missionary journey, Paul was stoned at Lystra and left for dead but that dry brook was a turning point in his life
3. Joseph was thrown into an Egyptian jail after being falsely accused but through that dry brook he became the 2nd in command of all of Egypt
4. Even Jesus experienced a dry brook at Gethesamane but as the sinless son of God, he died bloodied and bruised but rose up w/ all power in His hands, the keys of death, hell and the grave snatched from satan’s hand. He rose that we might all who believe on his name forevermore recognize that no matter what dry brooks we face here on earth, He is preparing a mansion for every one of us so on the day that He returns, we who are left will rise up to meet Him in the air!
h. At Zarephath with a Widow woman and her son – v. 8-24
IV. Elijah confronts Ahab – 1 Kings 18:1-39
a. After 3 years, God tells Elijah to make his way back to Ahab. Imagine the scene as he walks from the widow woman’s house to Ahab. 3 years w/ not a drop of water, no streams, no brooks, no wells, no bottles of al hambra or Dasante. As he walked along, he must have seen dead and dying animals all along the way. He would have seen the dry bones sticking out of the earth from all the living things that must have died during that period. Into this mess, he comes back onto the scene and walks up to Ahab.
b. Ahab ceases him and says, “you’re the troubler of Israel, you’ve brought all this death and destruction on our heads.” (ch18:7)
c. With the boldness instilled in him by his 3 years of relying completely on God, he doesn’t back down from this king and shifts the blame back where it should go and says, I haven’t troubled Israel, but you and your fathers have brought this on your heads because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed after false gods.
d. Elijah commands the king to assemble all the false prophets of Israel at Mount Carmel – 450 prophets of Baal (the storm god) and 400 prophets of Asherah (the fertility god)
e. He challenges them to choose - He tells them the time is over to straddle the fence, the time is over to be following after these false gods. He asks them how long will you be lukewarm? If Jehovah is God then follow Him, if Baal is god then follow him. The last part of verse 29 said it best, "But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention."
V. THE PLAN – vs. 23-24
a. They each get a bullock
b. False prophets call on their god
c. They fail
d. ELIJAH’S TURN – v. 30, 32
e. First, Elijah took twelve stones and repaired the altar to the Lord, which was probably destroyed by the false prophets. Then he dug a trench around the altar. After he finished that and prepared the bull for the offering, he had the altar drenched twelve times (four jars x three times).
1. Why so much water? To eliminate any doubt about whom God is. One jar of water or four jars of water would have silenced most doubts, but twelve jars of water, soaking the offering and filling the trench would eliminate any questions whatsoever as to who reigns in Israel.
f. He prays a simple prayer – v. 37
g. [READ] – v. 38,39
VI. CONCLUSION
a. God took an ordinary man and used him to change the hearts of a nation back to Him
b. When we walk upright before God we can walk boldly and never compromise the truth because the equation is never 850 to one its 850 to one + GOD!!
c. Elijah staged a spectacular showdown with the prophets of Baal but the greatest showdown of all time happened on Calvary, where the enemy of God was defeated by the sacrifice of Gods’ own Son!
d. Jesus Christ came to the earth and for most of his ministry he was persecuted, ridiculed and betrayed but through it all, he stood strong! Like Elijah, he stood on the firm foundation of the Word. Each and every one of us who call ourselves Saints of God should learn how to lean on God through the good times, and through the dry brook times and be strengthened by the experience and stand boldy and uncompromisingly before every Ahab and every Jezebel. Having done all to stand, stand!!