Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning and Happy Mother’s Day to you.

One of the things that is important to remember on holidays is that not everyone sees holidays in a festive or joyful manner.

For many, holidays are a painful reminder of loved ones who are gone or somehow distant, and of unfulfilled dreams and desires.

Mother’s Day is certainly no different.

What I often do, particularly on Mother’s Day is I remind believers as to how special, distinct, and particular that God’s creation of woman truly is.

A close and thoughtful examination of Scripture will show you that, when God created the world, and after He created Adam, the world was perfect, yet something still was not good.

Let that sink in for a second:

In a perfect, sinless, death-free, disease-free, politics-free, crime-free, no-need-for-money world, something wasn’t good.

What wasn’t good?

Well, creation was not yet complete, that’s what.

So what did God do?

He created woman.

God’s creation of woman is so much more than what is stereotypically, and sometimes errantly and disrespectfully assumed, that woman is just a complement to man.

God’s creation of woman stands as the completion of humanity and God’s final act of creation before He would rest.

Woman was God’s creative “grand finale” so to speak.

Many of us have been to concerts, movies, and live theater, and in all cases, the best is saved for last, so to speak.

The producers and performers want to leave the stage on a high note, with a well known and beloved song, with a satisfying conclusion.

Well, for God this was the creation of woman.

And for those of us who are married, have you thought about the fact that God so treasured His daughter that you are married to that she was represented in Eve as God’s final act of creation, which was the completion of creation?

What a privilege and gift that God bestowed to me when He allowed me to marry His daughter, Rebecca.

And He gave me another of his daughters, Miriam, to care for as my earthly daughter.

Men, I hope you recognize that in your relationships, families, and so on.

Speaking of grand finales, I saw the new Avengers Endgame movie, and, in my view, it lives up to the hype.

And of course, the big deal when it opened in theaters was, “Don’t spoil the ending.”

Well, when it comes to God’s work of creation, all of it was spoiled, beginning, middle, and end, when sin entered the world through the disobedience of God’s created humanity.

Now, we are continuing in our Called series, looking at the life of Elijah, and we will be in if you want to turn there in your Bibles.

And today we will actually see only the first part of a narrative in Elijah’s life.

Next week, we’ll see how it ended up, but this first part looks at what it took for Elijah to rest in God.

Here’s a sermon spoiler, it took humility on Elijah’s part to truly rest in God.

You see, (purpose of humility)

Humility kills pride, which allows you to receive God’s perfect love, which then casts out all fear.

One of the ways that humanity has been spoiled by sin is seen in our seeming inability to truly rest in God.

When we are restless, when are constantly busybodying in our own lives, we are allowing our fears and pride to direct our steps, not God.

Our fear says, “we can’t trust God,” and our pride says, “well then, we can trust ourselves.”

And we become restless.

Going back to the book of Genesis for just a second, we can see how the fall impacted negatively our willingness to trust God enough to rest in Him.

For men, our rest is thwarted in that the things we do will not provide us with the honor and significance that we desire.

Part of God’s image that He gave to the male, in a unique way, is the desire for honor.

To know that our life has a made a difference of value and worth.

And when we do not feel or otherwise receive that kind of honor, we are restless.

We don’t trust that anything we do matters, and we work all the harder to try and produce the significance from our work and strength instead of seeking it from our God and King.

No humility.

No rest.

For women, sin spoiled their rest by unsettling their willingness to trust others.

And when you don’t trust people, you don’t rest well.

And when you don’t trust people, you depend more and more on your own strength and your own ability, which feeds your pride, which leads you away from humility before God.

Where this verse talks about the woman’s desire is contrary to her husband but he will rule over you, does not mean servitude, nor does it indicate a lower part of creation.

After all, we just established how that is not the case.

What it means is that, in relationships, the female will not start from a place of trust.

So men, because of sin, do not start from a place where they feel honored.

And women, because of sin, do not start from a place, spiritually speaking, (which plays itself out physically, relationally, emotionally and otherwise), of trust.

Now, put this in a marriage (or any relationship) for example.

One person doesn’t feel honored, so they withhold their love.

The other person doesn’t feel like they can trust their spouse, so they withhold honor.

I have done a fair share of marital and family counseling and so much of the discord in the home can be traced back to the curses in the Garden.

What we will see in Elijah’s story is what God had to do to get Elijah to a place where he would, in fact, rest in God.

I wanted you to see some of the spiritual factors that you may be battling right now if you are perpetually restless.

And I want you to see now, through Elijah’s life, how critical it is to allow God to bring you to a place where you can rest in Him.

And I am going to use examples of mothers and women today, since it is Mother’s Day.

But I do this not to pander to a holiday, but to help us understand what those we love may be going through, and how we can help them feel safe, secure, able to trust, and, through humility before Jesus, be able to rest.

Pray

1–3a On his arrival at Jezreel, Ahab recounted to Jezebel all that Elijah had done.

The words are significant (v.1).

Although Ahab had witnessed God’s power in the famine and in the consuming of the sacrifice and the sending of the rain, before the imposing presence of Jezebel he could but attribute it all to Elijah, even blaming him for the death of the prophets of Baal.

Her reaction was predictable.

She sent a message to Elijah, giving him twenty-four hours to leave Jezreel or be killed (v.2).

The threat was effective; Elijah ran for his life (v.3a).

Probably Elijah had played into Jezebel’s hand.

Had she really wanted Elijah dead, she surely would have seized him without warning and slain him.

What she desired was that Elijah and his God be discredited before the new converts who had aided Elijah by executing the prophets of Baal.

Without a leader revolutionary movements usually stumble and fall away.

Just when God needed him the most, the divinely trained prophet was to prove a notable failure.

It has often been asked how a man could experience such divine provision, perform such great miracles, singlehandedly withstand 450 pagan prophets and the king himself, and yet cower before feminine threats.

It must be remembered, of course, that Jezebel was anything but a “mere woman.”

She was of royal blood and every bit a queen.

She could be ruthless in pursuing her goals (21:11–15).

Her personality was so forceful that even Ahab feared her and was corrupted by her (16:31; 21:25).

Both the northern kingdom (16:32–33) and the southern kingdom, through the marriage of her (step) daughter Athaliah to the royal house of Judah (2 Kings 8:16–19; 11:1–20; 2 Chronicles 21:5–7; Ps 45), experienced moral degredation and spiritual degeneracy through her corrupting influence.

Yet Elijah was not without blame.

God’s subsequent tender dealings with his prophet were to bring his spiritual problem to light.

His God-given successes had fostered an inordinate pride (cf.

vv.4, 10, 14) that had made him take his own importance too seriously.

Moreover Elijah had come to bask in the glow of the spectacular.

He may have fully expected that because of what had been accomplished at Mount Carmel, Jezebel would capitulate and pagan worship would come to an end in Israel—all through his influence!

Whereas the great spectacle had failed to melt Jezebel’s icy heart and, worse, she would take his life, his pride was shattered, and he became a broken man.

What Elijah needed to learn, God would soon show him (vv.11–12).

God does not always move in the realm of the extraordinary.

To live always seeking one “high experience” after another is to have a misdirected zeal.

The majority of life’s service is in quiet, routine, humble obedience to God’s will.

3–9 When the fleeing prophet had reached Beersheba some ninety miles to the south, he dismissed his servant (vv.3–6).

There was no need to jeopardize his life further.

In his extreme dejection, Elijah wished only to be alone.

Nor, for that matter, could he be safe in Beersheba, for Jezebel’s influence could reach even this southernmost city.

Accordingly Elijah turned still further southward, journeying out into the desert (v.4).

Taking refuge under the scant shade of a broom tree, Elijah prayed for death (cf.

Job 10:18–22).

He, the mighty prophet, had stood for God as boldly as any of those who had gone before him.

Yet here he was, alone and seemingly deserted in this desert wasteland, the very symbol of a wasted life.

Yet God would tenderly nourish and lead his prophet to a place where he would get some much needed instruction (cf.

Moses, Exod 2:15–3:22; Paul, Gal 1:15–17).