A Drought of the Word

Response to Drought

You don’t need me to tell you that our State is currently in drought. You don’t need me to tell you because this drought is receiving a lot of attention - and for good reason!

I’ve read a few articles comparing this particular drought to previous droughts in NSW. By some measures it’s the worst drought in 100 years, although not by all measures.

One thing that I’ve noticed however, is that this is perhaps the first really significant drought since social media became part of most of our lives.

I know that we can knock social media a lot, but on this occasion I think it has mostly been positive. You see, when you live in an area where agriculture is not a big part of life, and also in a place near the coast which isn’t affected to the same degree by the drought, it can be fairly easy to ignore it. But particularly in the last few months, it’s been hard to ignore.

By the means of social media, the attention of wider society has been caught. Those beyond just the people immediately affected have been moved to help.

One post I saw on social media particularly caught my attention. As I was preparing this message I tried to find it again but couldn’t, but the gist of it was to actually encourage people to go out and visit the areas affected. Stay in those areas, spend money in the local shops and show your support.

I found it an intriguing idea. You see, I’ve no doubt they really appreciate whatever we can offer in support, but my experience (not so much with droughts but other areas) is that when you experience the problem, not just know about it in theory, then you will be in a much better position to help.

Link with Passage

Now today as we start a new series on Elijah and Elisha, which we’ll do for the next few months, we also start with a drought.

But that being said, we always have to be careful when we read the Bible and not just think it’s speaking directly into our situation without careful consideration.

To be sure, the Bible does speak into our situation, and all of it is useful for us now, but we need the help of the Spirit to take it from the time that it was written about, understand what God is doing there, and then apply that to us today. Sometimes that is easy, sometimes, not as easy.

You see, while we can see what God tells Elijah to do in the drought, we don’t just automatically assume that this is what God wants us to do in our drought.

A different kind of drought

Well, can I suggest that while we are in a drought, there is another drought that is happening that is far less visible. That is, a drought on God’s word.

This is a fascinating one because it has evolved a lot over time. If you go back before the reformation, and I’m talking over 500 years ago here, then hardly anyone had a bible, and even many of the priests who did have access to a bible, weren’t very proficient in Latin which is what most of the Bible’s were written in.

But then came the reformation, which largely coincided with the invention of the printing press. The reformation encouraged the Bible to be translated into the native language of the reader, and so we saw people starting to own their own Bibles.

Fast track to today, the Bible is very readily accessible. Many, if not most Christians have multiple bibles at home, and even if you don’t, anyone can freely access the Bible through electronic means. There is even a free app you can download.

But despite the easy access, I still believe there is a drought because many people aren’t using it like they should. And I want to suggest that I’m talking more than just reading it casually. What I mean is allowing it to change you. I’m talking about understanding what people mean when they call it the living word - because once you experience the power of the word, reading it daily is no longer a chore, but a delight.

So as I now explore this passage, I’m also going to see how it can speak into the issue of the drought on God’s word.

Elijah

But first, we better explore the context of the passage we are in, and as this is the first in the series, it’s worth exploring a bit of the back story.

Historical context

Well, let me briefly start when David is king. At this time there is a united kingdom, and though things are far from perfect, you certainly get the feel that there is a certain paradigm about this time pointing to a sort of ideal kingdom.

But it didn’t last long, and following the reign of his son Solomon, the kingdom was split into a Northern and Southern kingdom.

The Southern kingdom always maintained the line of David on the throne, but the northern kingdom, also often referred to with the name Israel, went through a series of different kings.

Well, by the time we get to Elijah, we are now about one hundred years after the kingdom had split. The Northern kingdom had not yet managed to have a dynasty for more than two generations. But the king in place at the time of Elijah will at least be part of a dynasty that beats that record.

But the king in place at the time of Elijah will

In fact, he is part of what’s known as the house of Omri. We can read about Omri becoming king back in , although we only get a handful of verses on him. What we are told though, is that he “did evil in the eyes of the Lord and sinned more than all those before him”.

His son then, becomes the king who is present during the time of Elijah, and his name is Ahab.

And Ahab obviously didn’t want to be outdone by his father, and so we’re told again in that he too “did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him”.

But it is the next verse that proves to be the real thorn in the next sorry saga. tells us that he marries Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians.

With this move, he cements an idolatrous connection with Israel’s neighbour, something that was specifically warned about earlier.

Jezebel will prove a thorn for quite a while, both in the Northern and Southern kingdom.

So essentially, the situation we find ourselves in, is one where they have been captured by paganism. The word of God is no where to be found. They are trapped!

Who is Elijah?

Well, as we come into , as if out of nowhere, Elijah arrives on the scene. There is very little introduction of him, but suddenly, God’s voice is heard in the midst of the utter lack of it.

But before we look at what he does, we perhaps need to know who he is. Well, as I just mentioned, it isn’t much of an introduction, but we are told that he is from Tishbe in Gilead, which isn’t a town of any significant note.

But while we don’t know much about him, his name is significant. Elijah is made up of ‘El’ which means God, and “Jah” or “Yahweh”. In other words, his name means, God is Yahweh.

For those unfamiliar with the term Yahweh, it is the name given to our God, which came out of the Moses accounts when God declared himself - I am who I am, which in Hebrew translates as Yahweh.

It’s a very significant meaning, particularly as we come to next week when we see a showdown between Yahweh and Baal.

Elijah’s Response

So, we have Elijah entering this situation and he appears before Ahab, this king who has completely turned his back on the one true God and he makes a very strong announcement. He says: “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.”

Now it’s probably worth highlighting the interaction between Elijah and God here. In some ways we can look at this as if Elijah is calling the shots on when it should and shouldn’t rain. In fact, even in the New Testament in , it specifically says that Elijah as a human being, prayed for the drought to happen, and it did. But that’s not to say that it wasn’t God that brought about the drought. What I’m trying to say is that Elijah, as the prophet that he is, is essentially praying into the will of God. It is because of his closeness to God that he can pray like this. It would be false to think that it was just a whim that Elijah thought it would be good to have a drought.

Indeed, in the context, bringing on a drought is very significant.

You see, one thing I didn’t mention when I was talking about the context is to describe a bit more about the foreign god, Baal, that was being worshiped.

Now remember that during these days, most people outside of the Israelites believed in local deities, and these local deities essentially had specialties. For Baal, he was both the god of fertility and also the god of storms. For our context, being the god of storms is particularly relevant because, as you could imagine, it is the god of storms that is going to bring the rain.

Causing it to stop raining therefore is essentially to show Baal to be a false god. It is the one true God that controls the rain, not some fake god.

And probably another note is worth making here: in our modern age we of course can explain weather patterns and even to some extent predict the weather. However, even though we can do this, this does not contradict the notion that it is God who controls the weather, rather that is testament to the fact that Yahweh, the one true God is a God of order.

Elijah leaves

Well, this account is very light on detail regarding this encounter between Elijah and Ahab. Essentially all we get is the one sentence announcement of a drought from Elijah.

In verse 2 however, Elijah again receives word from the Lord and essentially goes into hiding.

Now in some ways, going into hiding is protection. What certainly becomes very evident later is that Ahab would rather see Elijah completely got rid of.

However, I believe him leaving the situation can be seen on another level. You see, with Elijah going into hiding, we effectively see God’s word also being removed from the situation.

In this way, we see a double drought. A drought in the sense of no rain, but also a drought on God’s word.

Not too dissimilar to what we’re seeing isn’t it?

A pattern

Now what we see next is the start of a patter that we will see repeated in this chapter.

The pattern start with God speaking with a clear instruction and a promise. This is followed by obedience, which is followed by God fulfilling his promise. But just when you think everything is fine, something happens requiring more help. That pattern is then repeated again.

So let’s see how that pattern happens the first time.

The first instruction from God is for Elijah to go into the Kerith Ravine, with a promise that he will be supplied with food, namely, by ravens.

Elijah obediently follows the instruction, and God delivers. The raven comes in brings him food.

Interestingly, it should be noted that from a Jewish perspective, this little arrangement would seem very odd. You see, a raven is not a clean bird, and while it doesn’t spell it out specifically, the food that was probably being delivered was likely not exactly clean food either.

But, it was an arrangement from God, and so who is to question him.

Now as I said before, the pattern is: God’s instruction, followed by obedience, followed by God’s provision, but then in verse 7, we get the final stage of the pattern, and that is the brook dries up.

Now this is where you might think - but God, didn’t you bring Elijah there, and couldn’t you keep the brook flowing with water? The answer is yes of course. But God had other plans, so we see the pattern repeat.

Going to the widow

God again gives instructions in verse 8, this time another odd instruction.

God tells Elijah to go to Zarephath, which is a city in Sidon. Now quite likely, that place will not mean much to you, however, if we had been reading the previous chapter, that name Sidon might have rung a bell.

You see, I mentioned earlier when I was describing the context that Ahab married Jezebel, who was the daughter of the king of the Sidonians. In other words, God is sending Elijah right into the heart land of where much of the problems are coming from.

But God promises that when he goes he will find a widow who can supply his needs.

Well, as you might expect, Elijah does go, and God does exactly what he says he will, he finds a widow.

Now again you might think, ok, God has delivered, but again, things are thrown into chaos. This time the woman is at the end of her entire supplies and unable to help.

So we see the pattern repeated again.

God promises. God delivers. But life continues and throws a new spanner in the works.

Well as you could imagine, God doesn’t stop there. Indeed we get a new word.

This time, it is in verse 13 and the word comes from the lips of Elijah and directed to the widow.

He starts with words of comfort - “don’t be afraid”, and then repeats his instructions to make the bread.

But this time, as he gets to verse 14, he delivers a promise direct from the Lord himself: “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”.

And just as you would expect, when God promises, God delivers, and so verses 15 and 16 reliably inform us that the woman indeed did not run out of flour or oil.

Death of Son

But then, if you’re following this pattern that I’ve highlighted, you might expect that there is another spanner thrown into the works, and this time it’s a big one.

In verse 17, we’re told that some unspecified amount of time has passed, and the widows son becomes ill, to the point that eventually he stops breathing. Now I’m not a doctor, but I think when someone stops breathing, that’s pretty serious.

Now I know you could ask this question the last two times things went a bit wrong, but seriously, why would God allow this? After everything that has happened, the question would be begging to be asked.

Well, it would seem that God is wanting to make another big statement.

It was a big statement when God showed he could provide food when you’re in the middle of nowhere. It was also a big statement when God showed he could provide food even out of an empty cupboard.

But he now shows that not even death is going to stand in the way.

And so we read about the first person to be recorded to be brought back from the dead.

Elijah goes into the son, cries out to God, stretches himself out on the boy three times. Prays again, and the boy comes back to life. This was nothing to do with Elijah’s power, but rather his trust that God will deliver his promises.

Now it should be noted that this is not on the same level as Jesus rising from the dead. When Jesus broke the bonds of death, that broke the bond for all of us. On this occasion however, we are seeing a sign that not even death will get in the way of God’s plan.

Application

So what do make of all this?

Well from the pattern we see the power of God’s word. We see that when God promises, he will deliver. But because we remain in this world, new challenges will arise, but if we follow God’s way, he will continue to deliver.

I spoke before of the drought we are in, not the drought we are all aware of, but the drought of God’s word.

What I want to suggest is that it’s not enough just to have some pretext of God’s word in our lives. What I mean by that, is we can’t just casually read God’s word and not let it affect us.

Instead, we need to live it out. We need to experience it. Remember I mentioned that post about experiencing the drought affected areas of NSW.

Well, I think we need to open our eyes and look around at the effect of when God’s word becomes absent.

I believe this is what we start to see in this chapter. God’s word is absent and the result is devastating.

But we also start to see what happens when we cling back to God’s word even in the midst of a drought.

So can I suggest that when you do hear God’s word, you don’t just think, isn’t that nice, and then move on. God’s word wasn’t meant to be just nice, it was designed to be life transforming. So always challenge yourself whenever you read scripture - how is this going to affect me?

It won’t stop the tough times - in fact, if this passage is anything to go by, you can expect the tough times to come.

Conclusion

I don’t want to draw a specific link between the current drought in NSW and what we’re talking about here, other than the fact that this is a tough time we are going through.

I don’t know how long it will last, or how much it will affect people. As far as I’m aware, God hasn’t promised an end to it any time soon, but there are other promises we can cling to.

We can cling to the promise that God will return one day and make all things right. We can cling to the promise that God has redeemed us and will always be with us.

This is the beauty of clinging to God’s word. We can totally be changed and can be ready to face what ever challege is placed in front of us.

Let’s pray...