Life of Elijah part 2

Elijah: God's word against decline Prophesy: God's communication through human mediation 1 & 2 Kings answers the question: how did we get to be in exile? It is the story of a nation's decline. Introduction Genesis: God forms his people in 12 tribes, Israel. Abraham will be called the father of many nations (17:5), and he is the first called "prophet". Exodus: God saves his people from slavery and gives them a covenant, an agreement to be their God and king alone. Moses mediates between God and his people. "[The people] said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen. But don't let God speak to us, or we will surely die". (20:19) "The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend." (33:11) Joshua: God brings his people into the promised land. Judges: God rules his people through imperfect judges, saving them every time they disobey, which is most of the time. Civil war almost destroys the tribe of Benjamin. 1 & 2 Samuel: God's people demand a king that's not him. God gives them what they want with a stern warning, which comes true. God gives a king in Saul, who disobeys. David replaces him to unify the kingdom after civil war. David was a "man after God's own heart" but sinned mightily, taking many wives. With his last breath and gray hair, he orders the murder of Joab. 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles: Solomon rules a united kingdom, but it divides at his death. Solomon's sins are passed down, and every future king is bad. Every one of them is evil. The "good ones" were punished for their sins. Josiah was killed for his sin in war. Hezekiah was spared from destruction, but was prideful in himself and his people, leading to the evil reign of his son. The northern kingdom of Israel is destroyed and the southern kingdom of Judah is put in exile. God leaves his temple and it is destroyed. Ezra & Nehemiah: Build a wall and make the Persians pay for it. Make Judah great again. Legalism goes crazy for 400 years, Greeks and Romans show up, and then Jesus is born. Last week in 1 Kings: King Solomon loved God but in the end loved his wives more and so God divided the kingdom after he died. God makes Jeroboam king of the northern 10 tribes, and promises to build him a dynasty like David's if he obeys God. Jeroboam doesn't obey God at all, however, and immediately sets up two golden calves for the people to worship. He gets many chances from multiple prophets to repent. He even gets his hand shriveled up and restored by a prophet (that same prophet died for not obeying God's word later). But Jeroboam continued to lead his people in paganism. The wickedness of Jeroboam leading his people into idolatry will be the high point of rebellion for God's people . . . until King Ahab. (Northern) Israel's worship: The worship in the northern tribes tries to blend both worship of the true God, Yahweh, with the false gods of Egypt and the surrounding cultures. This is a practice that Solomon started, but without access to the Temple in Jerusalem, having temples for other gods was just convenient. Add in some "fertility" rituals with temple prostitutes and political treaties . . . the word of God was forgotten. History: King David and King Solomon are attested to in non-Israelite texts and inscriptions (such as the Tel Dan Stele), but so are the later kings. Ahab, his son, and his father, Omri, were written about by the Moabites. The rebellion of 2 Kings 3 is written about from the other side too. In it, the Moabites credit their God with the defeat of Yahweh. 1 Kings 16:29-17:24 (NIV) Ahab Becomes King of Israel 29 In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. 30 Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. 31 He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians [Phoenicians up north], and began to serve Baal and worship him. 32 He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. 33 Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him. 34 In Ahab's time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the LORD spoken by Joshua son of Nun. Elijah Announces a Great Drought 17 Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe [unimportant village in the tribe of Gad] in Gilead, said to Ahab, "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." Elijah Fed by Ravens 2 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: 3 "Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 4 You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there." 5 So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. Elijah and the Widow at Zarephath [in Phoenicia; see Luke 4:24-26] 7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the LORD came to him: 9 "Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food." 10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, "Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?" 11 As she was going to get it, he called, "And bring me, please, a piece of bread." 12 "As surely as the LORD your God lives," she replied, "I don't have any bread-only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it-and die." 13 Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son.14 For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: '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.'" 15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah. 17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?" 19 "Give me your son," Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed.20 Then he cried out to the LORD, "LORD my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?" 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the LORD, "LORD my God, let this boy's life return to him!" 22 The LORD heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!" 24 Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth."