Who Is In Charge? Elijah & Ahab

1 Kings 16:29-17:7

Choosing Sides

Intro: it has been 32 years since the Dodgers won the World Series and they finally one it again the other night. So there are probably some fair weather fans that have suddenly become Dodgers fans, but they will chase the next team next year. Why? Because people like to back winners. And we want our person, team or our horse, so to speak to, to win the race. But no one is a sure thing.

Read Verses:

Main Point: As Christians, We serve the one and only living God. He is the one who remains faithful and true to His covenant that he made with his people.

Background of 1 and 2 Kings:

First and Second Kings detail all the rulers starting from King Solomon, David and Bathsheba’s son to the end of the Monarchy itself that is brought about by the Exile.

God Punishes Solomon for his infidelity to God by splitting the kingdom into two kingdoms: the Northern Kingdom of Israel, which was eventually conquered by the Assyrians and spread out from the land. And the Southern Kingdom of Judah that learned from Israel’s mistake, turned to God for about another 100 years before they were taken by Nebuchednezzar and the Babylonians.

These books are History books and later on it parallels many of the prophets such as Isaiah , Jeremiah,and the others. The end of 2 Kings somewhat coincides with the start of the book of Daniel as they are To equate it to the New Testament, These books play a similar role to the book of Acts and Paul’s letters. First and Second Kings is like Acts, giving a larger overview and The Prophets and Paul’s Letters zoom into specific situations. So if you ever read the Bible through the year, it may seem like you hit this spot that gets sort of repetitive.

In 209 years, Israel has one good king and 18 bad kings and Judah in 345 years has eleven bad kings and eight good kings.

We are going to look at one bad king of Israel, Ahab and God’s prophet Elijah.

I. Ahab Chose to Violate God’s Covenant 16:29-34

Ahab comes to power as King, and then marries an outsider Jezebel and her people worship a god named Baal. Verse 31 tells us that Ahab went so far so as to ‘serve Baal and worshiped him. 32 He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him”

So who was Baal? Baal was the god of storms and agriculture. We know about him from what is called the Baal Cycle which is a poem or long story that tells us about the Canaanite gods, their pantheon. If you watch the Thor movies, you know of Odin, Thor, Loki, Freya, Hela, and Heimdall, well they are the Norse gods. And so Canaan has a similar setup.

Baal who made his home on Mount Zaphon, fought with Yamm, the sea god for control over the earth. Baal eventually wins, but is challenged by Mot the god of death and the underworld. Baal goes down into the underworld and eventually dies. Mot kills Baal. But then he is eventually resurrected.

But you see this cycle of death and regeneration is a yearly battle. This final story of Mot and Baal, serves as an etiology for the seasonal cycles—the six-month absence of rain being attributed to Baal’s journey into the netherworld, and the presence of rain being attributed to his return to the realm of the living.

There is no word from Baal. No command for Ahab to act. Had just assumed an altar is what Baal wants.

Keep this idea about wet and dry seasons, or droughts for the next section.

Before we move to chapter 17, I want to call your attention to 1 Kings 16:34

“On the surface this verse seems to have little reason for occupying its present position. It reads like a curious aside about Jericho, yet it reveals two important points. First, in the polytheistic climate in Ahab’s Israel, a man feels free to offer his children as sacrifices to build a city. DeVries believes: “The foundation sacrifice, revealed by modern archaeology, is probably what was involved. The children named were probably infants, dead or alive, placed in jars and inserted into the masonry, propitiating the gods and warding off evil.” Second, this wicked event reminds readers of God’s word through Joshua that rebuilding Jericho would bring death to the builder’s family (Josh 6:26).”

This action not only fulfills a prophecy, but shows the wicked nature of men’s hearts because they have forsaken their covenant with God.

Where the leader goes, is where the people will follow.

II. Elijah Chose to Keep God’s Covenant 17:1-7

We are introduced to Elijah, a prophet of Yahweh. He tells Ahab, that he serves the living God of Israel the translation is “Yahweh, Elohim, hayyim”. In front of who I stand. Is that interesting. The writer tells us that Ahab went and served Baal who is believed to be a dead or dying god depending on the time of year, But Elijah stands firm and serves the living Yahweh. These are complete opposites. Remember every time your Bible says THE LORD, it is actually his proper name, Yahweh.

And Elijah announces that there will be no rain or dew during these years except by my command. Elijah is encroaching on Baal’s territory or his job. Elijah is saying there will be no rain and it’s not because of Baal.

So who is Yahweh? Well, he is also called El, which is a generic name and it translates as God. So in other laces he is El Shaddai means the Almighty in English. But The name El, is also important to the Baal story because although Baal was the king of the gods. El is the chief god. He is overall of them. So he still controls what happens in the story. It is not altogether clear if El in the Cannaite religion is the same as Yahweh, but it seems like they may be one and the same. So what is going on is that Ahab worships the number two god, second place, and Elijah is worshipping Yahweh who is the almighty and only God.

It is important to understand also that Yahweh “which may be translated as “He who is,” “I will be who I will be,” or (as in the Septuagint) “I am.”” And where have we heard the I am statements? From Jesus.

He s the one who will not and another die., unlike Baal. Who dies every year.

But in verse 3-7,God commands Elijah and he acts. God commands the Birds,they respond to God. Elijah hangs out, camping by the creek or wadi until God tells him to move.

Application

1. If You do not hear God speaking to you, Obey the first Commandment

The Ten Commandments are like a quick reference guide to help succeed in Following God. God has given us the answers to the test. the first question of which side do you choose is easy. You shall have no other gods besides me.

We worship One God. So when the Muslims want to call us Polytheistic, saying we worship Jesus as an extra god and we violate the first commandment, we can point them to many verses but we can also point them to the creeds, the Nicene Creed, or my favorite, the Athanasian creed which wraps up the whole bible into the short elevator speech to explain things without having to give them 100 verses.

The Athanasian Creed says

Whoever desires to be saved should above all hold to the catholic faith.

Anyone who does not keep it whole and unbroken will doubtless perish eternally.

Now this is the catholic faith:

That we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity,

neither blending their persons

nor dividing their essence.

For the person of the Father is a distinct person,

the person of the Son is another,

and that of the Holy Spirit still another.

But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one,

their glory equal, their majesty coeternal.

When Jesus says the seven I AM statements he is not just saying I am hungry or thirsty, he is stating and equating His person with the Father, With God. So yes Jesus says many times that He is God, you just have to listen.

2. Listen for God speaking to you and Obey Him

God gave Elijah clear instructions, even though at the end of this scene, the water source dried up. He knows that there will be no more rain or dew, so no more water coming. Now we can read ahead, but we are going leave the cliff hanger.

Picture it, Elijah standing by the now dried up gully or maybe he is standing in the Santa Maria River bed, and the water has just disappeared. Can you hear the gulp or maybe a really human reaction of uh oh. But what does he lean on?

He knows God just had ravens bringing him food. God has been taking care of Elijah. And so You get the idea that Even though there is a second of fear or trepidation, it Goes away because Elijah serves the almighty Yahweh. Th creator of the universe. Elijah has Faith to beats back any fear that he might feel or be tempted to listen to that fear.

AW Tozer says that the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be Like.”

Low views of God destroy the gospel, the good news that God has saved his people through his own sacrifice and resurrection. God beat death, and baal had to have someone else save him. Baal is incapable of saving himself, how can he save you? Likewise, how can anything else or any other person that you have put before or over God save you.

If we have a high view of God like Elijah, we see what happens. Elijah is completely fine and we will see how God moves in Elijah’s life as well as others. He is not arrogant. He just understands who God is. And he may not now everything, but he knows that God is the living God and

Why Choose God, Yahweh over anything or anyone else? Why can we place our faith in God.

Isaiah 12:2 2 Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD himself, is my strength and my defense ; he has become my salvation.”

Isaiah 26:4 Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal.

Joshua 1:9 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Romans 8:28 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

John 9:10 Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.

Conclusion

Even when your team is terrible, you are committed right? Next year is the year, that’s what we say at the end of the season. Sometimes, depending on the team you might say that rafter the first game or two.

So why not commit yourself to God like that?

Placing our faith that God has given us back in him. Its like reinvesting Gold back into the bank. God is going to keep filling you up with Himself so that you can glorify God to the world.

When you are choosing a team, no on will really fault you if your team has lost 22 seasons in a row. But we do not have to worry about that when we choose God. When we accept the gift of grace through faith that is brought about by Christ’s death and resurrection, we join the winning team and we get o partake in the victory that is to come. Not because of what we do, but because of What God has done.

Choose God!