We Are His ...

1 Kings 17-19 October 6, 2019 Last weekend was fun! New Beginnings are always fun! It seems like it takes lots and lots of work to get to them, but kind of like a pregnant woman – after the pregnancy and labor are all done, and you have that cuddly little new life in your arms, you forget ( or at least put out of your mind) all the effort it took to accomplish the feat! Last weekend was kind of like that. Remember what I said were the 2 things that all of us can agree on that we do not like? Every one of us can agree that we do not like the way things are .. in whatever situation we are in, in whatever aspect of our life we are referring to we can find some part of it we don’t like. We know, if we are in leadership that someone will always come to us, happy to inform us that they do not like the way things are at the moment, happy to point out what they don’t like! But the 2nd thing we can all agree on is that we do not like change! The process of change is at times painful, at times aggravating, at times just overwhelming, maybe occasionally exciting. But the best part of change is when its DONE! When we have gone through the process, completed all the lists and we are finished! That’s what we celebrated last week! That’s where we are today. Right? Maybe. I would propose to you today that as we go through this process, we need to remember that we will be seeing God’s work and plan from different perspectives. And we need to be aware that regardless of what perspective we see from, the plan is there, God is working. He sees a MUCH bigger picture than we see. We know God is moving. We know He is making a difference. We know He uses His people to accomplish His work. We know as disciples of Jesus we are part of that plan. We know God has always done this – and – He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. What I want you to remember from today .. The Lord will fight for us … and make no mistake – there is going to be a war! Today we are going to take a bird’s eye view of the story of Elijah. At least the part in 1 Kings 17-19. If you would turn there in your Bible, we will start on page 292 in the pew Bible. Cast of Characters Ahab is the king of the northern kingdom of Israel, reigning during the 7th century BC. Ahab was one in a line of increasingly evil kings in Israel’s history, starting with the reign of Jeroboam. King Ahab “did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him” (1 Kings 16:30). Among the events chronicled in Ahab’s life that led to his downfall was his marriage to an evil woman named Jezebel who had a particular hatred for God’s people (1 Kings 18:4). Because of his marriage to a pagan woman, Ahab devoted himself to the worship of the false gods Baal and Asherah in Israel. Jezebel has come to be known as an archetype of the wicked woman. According to the Bible (Kings I and II), she provoked conflict that weakened Israel for decades by interfering with the exclusive worship of the Hebrew god Yahweh, disregarding the rights of the common man, and defying the great prophets Elijah and Elisha. Elijah, a biblical prophet is one of the most interesting characters in the Bible. His life was colorful. God used him during a really important time in Israel’s history to oppose a wicked king and to bring revival to those people. Like many other characters in the Bible, Elijah’s life was not without its challenges. His life was filled with turmoil. His life was devoted to the work of restoring true worship In Israel. Ultimately, Elijah urged the people of ancient Israel to turn from sin and to return to the true God. In general, Baal was a fertility god who was believed to enable the earth to produce crops and people to produce children. Different regions worshiped Baal in different ways, and Baal proved to be a highly adaptable god. The Canaanites worshiped Baal as the sun god and as the storm god—he is usually depicted holding a lightning bolt—who defeated enemies and produced crops. They also worshiped him as a fertility god who provided children. Baal worship was rooted in sensuality and involved ritualistic prostitution in the temples. At times, appeasing Baal required human sacrifice, usually the firstborn of the one making the sacrifice (Jeremiah 19:5). The priests of Baal appealed to their god in rites of wild abandon which included loud, ecstatic cries and self-inflicted injury (1 Kings 18:28). Elijah Fed by Ravens Now Elijah, who was from Tishbe in Gilead, told King Ahab, “As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives—the God I serve—there will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word!” 2 Then the Lord said to Elijah, 3 “Go to the east and hide by Kerith Brook, near where it enters the Jordan River. 4 Drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring you, for I have commanded them to bring you food.” 5 So Elijah did as the Lord told him and camped beside Kerith Brook, east of the Jordan. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he drank from the brook. 7 But after a while the brook dried up, for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land. Elijah, the prophet, seemingly appears from out of nowhere to this place in 1 Kings 17. At the transfiguration of Jesus, Elijah appears next to Moses. Both are prophets that experienced rejection but were vindicated by God. When we meet Elijah, he is predicting a drought to Ahab. Elijah is predicting drought – but notice that we are not told that he received that word from God. At least not recorded. But Elijah is calling for the drought to hold Ahab accountable – the king (and his wife) were supporting worship to Baal. Obviously – God will need to be involved though is rain and dew are to stop … Elijah does his prediction, and the Lord directs him to a place where the Lord has provided provision for him. Really? – Ravens (nasty dirty birds that eat anything) are bringing him food – meat and bread – and he has water to drink from the brook. But then the brook dries up – duh! There is no rain in the land. That’s what Elijah predicted! What do we learn from this? First – that God provides all we need. We might not like exactly how it looks, we might not have an over-abundance, but we will be provided for. AND … Even, when we are in the will of God there will be challenges. The brook dried up. As Christians we are not to expect a life of ease. As Transformation Community Church, we should not expect to be able to sit on our duffs and wait for God to take care of us or to transform our community while we wait. The Widow at Zarephath 8 Then the Lord said to Elijah, 9 “Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you.” That was nice of Him, but He didn’t tell the widow too much did He? 12 But she said, “I swear by the Lord your God that I don’t have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die. The widow was out of provision. She has determined that there is nothing left for her. And this man appears, asks her for what she doesn’t have, and then says not to worry, your flour, oil and fire will not run out until the day that the rain begins again! Who is getting the glory here? God does provide, His word tells us that Elijah, the widow and her son ate for “many” days. The flour and oil continued to be supplied by the Lord. We know this as the sound bite “Where the Lord guides, He provides.” One commentator put it this way … Zarephath is located in Phoenicia, the very heart of Baalism. Here Yahweh will defeat Baal in his own territory. Here God’s people will fare better than Baal’s. F. C. Fensham asserts that in fact The main purpose of this narrative is “to demonstrate on Phoenician soil, where Baal is worshiped, that Yahweh has power over things in which Baal has failed.” Since Baal worshipers explained the drought as a sign that Baal was dead, he could not help the widow and her son. It is also done in Jezebel’s native land. Because Yahweh exists and Baal does not, Elijah possesses power Jezebel and her prophets do not. But sometimes it has to get worse before it gets …………… better catastrophic!!! The widow’s son dies. If there is anything worse in this day and time than being a widow, it is being a widow with no son! She blames Elijah for his death. We do that too … when something happens in our world, when we are challenged beyond what we can bear – we blame someone else don’t we. We look around to see who is hurting us – instead of looking to the God who can redeem every situation, who can see a much bigger picture than any of us, who has a vision and plan for our lives. Elijah, on the other hand, knows exactly where his strength and source are found. The Lord God performs a miracle through Elijah and the son is raised from the dead. Sound like anyone else you have heard of? If that doesn’t show you that God is who He says He is – and He will do what He says He will do .. I don’t know what will. We don’t know what the days ahead will bring. We do know that there will be challenges. That personally and as a congregation we will have choices to make and not everything will go as we planned. But when we look to the God who provides, we find that miracles happen, that the dead are raised, that money is gifted, that vans are provided, that we IN ALL CASES are blessed beyond measure by a God that loves His people. We serve a God who honors obedience to Him. Do not hear me preaching a prosperity gospel here. We will talk about that in a couple of weeks. Hear that the Lord provides for our needs! We can stand on the promises that we find in His Word. Last Character - Obadiah is a character in 1 Kings in the Bible. He was a majordomo (chief steward of a large household) in charge of Ahab's palace. According to 1 Kings 18:4, Obadiah hid a hundred prophets of Yahweh in two caves, fifty in each, to protect them from Jezebel, Ahab's wife. The Contest on Mount Carmel Later on, in the third year of the drought, the Lord said to Elijah, “Go and present yourself to King Ahab. Tell him that I will soon send rain!” 2 So Elijah went to appear before Ahab. Meanwhile, the famine had become very severe in Samaria. 3 So Ahab summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace. (Obadiah was a devoted follower of the Lord. LATER on … Elijah has been by the brook, and with the widow, and 3 years have passed. We tend to want our answers much quicker than that – at least I do. Maybe I am the only one who is looking for faster answers, for resolutions to my challenges before God is ready to provide. But the Lord sends Him to see Ahab – we are nearing the resolution of this drought – and Elijah runs into Obadiah. Obadiah is taking the few remaining animals to try to find them food, he is on a mission for king Ahab. While he loves the Lord God, he is working for Ahab. Sound familiar to any of you? Obadiah knows that Ahab is looking for Elijah – and that inserting himself in that situation will not be safe – maybe even worse than taking hope to the streets and walking the west end of Huntington. Sometimes the crazy ideas we have come from the Lord – He is directing our paths and providing in a way we didn’t see coming. When we are obedient, when we give God the leadership in our lives amazing things can happen. In this particular situation, God shows up loud and in charge! Elijah asks that Obadiah tell Ahab he wants to meet. Obadiah just wants to stay alive, but finally agrees to tell Ahab. What follows next is one of my favorite stories of the OT. Here is the story .. as told in the Message. So Ahab summoned everyone in Israel, particularly the prophets, to Mount Carmel. Elijah challenged the people: “How long are you going to sit on the fence? If God is the real God, follow him; if it’s Baal, follow him. Make up your minds!” Nobody said a word; nobody made a move.  Then Elijah said, “I’m the only prophet of God left in Israel; and there are 450 prophets of Baal. Let the Baal prophets bring up two oxen; let them pick one, butcher it, and lay it out on an altar on firewood—but don’t ignite it. I’ll take the other ox, cut it up, and lay it on the wood. But neither will I light the fire. Then you pray to your gods and I’ll pray to God. The god who answers with fire will prove to be, in fact, God.” All the people agreed: “A good plan—do it!” Elijah told the Baal prophets, “Choose your ox and prepare it. You go first, you’re the majority. Then pray to your god, but don’t light the fire.” So they took the ox he had given them, prepared it for the altar, then prayed to Baal. They prayed all morning long, “O Baal, answer us!” But nothing happened—not so much as a whisper of breeze. Desperate, they jumped and stomped on the altar they had made. By noon, Elijah had started making fun of them, taunting, “Call a little louder—he is a god, after all. Maybe he’s off meditating somewhere or other, or maybe he’s gotten involved in a project, or maybe he’s on vacation. You don’t suppose he’s overslept, do you, and needs to be waked up?” They prayed louder and louder, cutting themselves with swords and knives—a ritual common to them—until they were covered with blood. This went on until well past noon. They used every religious trick and strategy they knew to make something happen on the altar, but nothing happened—not so much as a whisper, not a flicker of response. Then Elijah told the people, “Enough of that—it’s my turn. Gather around.” And they gathered. He then put the altar back together for by now it was in ruins. Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes of Jacob, the same Jacob to whom God had said, “From now on your name is Israel.” He built the stones into the altar in honor of God. Then Elijah dug a fairly wide trench around the altar. He laid firewood on the altar, cut up the ox, put it on the wood, and said, “Fill four buckets with water and drench both the ox and the firewood.” Then he said, “Do it again,” and they did it. Then he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time. The altar was drenched and the trench was filled with water. When it was time for the sacrifice to be offered, Elijah the prophet came up and prayed, “O God, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, make it known right now that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I’m doing what I’m doing under your orders. Answer me, God; O answer me and reveal to this people that you are God, the true God, and that you are giving these people another chance at repentance.” Immediately the fire of God fell and burned up the offering, the wood, the stones, the dirt, and even the water in the trench. All the people saw it happen and fell on their faces in awed worship, exclaiming, “God is the true God! God is the true God!” Talk about large and in charge!!! AND the rain comes! Then Ahab and Elijah race to Jezreel to tell Jezebel. Ahab wins, but Elijah arrives thinking there is going to be a victory parade because its raining. Instead he comes up against a bully! Jezebel !! When Ahab got home, he told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including the way he had killed all the prophets of Baal. 2 So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: “May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them.” 3 Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there. 4 Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died.” At the first sign of resistance – he runs away and starts to pout! (gets a bad case of PMS! Poor me syndrome) We cannot do this – Elijah does not run to God – He does not run to the source of his strength and power. He isolates!!! (I think he needs CR!) But God … there in the madness, there when Elijah needs him the most – not in the wind, not in the storm, but in the small quiet voice, in the silence, God shows up. It will happen here. Each and every one of us knows this from our personal lives, and we must recognize it will happen as the congregation, as the Transformation of Community Church group of Jesus chasing disciples ready to transform our lives, our neighborhood, our community – we will see this attack from the enemy. We must remember the God who has brought us through all that we have been through – the one who got us excited and filled with the Holy Spirit I the very same God who will show up in the still quiet voice. The God who rains down fire burns the sacrifice and shows up large and in charge is the same God in the quiet. We might have to look a little harder for Him. We might need to be a little more DEPENDENT on Him. We might have to show a little more faith and little more trust – but he is here. He will fight the battles, He will provide. The Lord will fight for us … and make no mistake – there is going to be a war! We are His.