A Low Point

Announcements

It’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve been in our series on Elijah. Since last week was Passion Week and we spent the time going through Christ’s final hours. I wanted to give you guys a heads up about what we are doing this next few weeks.

Sadly, our normal routine for College Min. will be coming to an end in just a few weeks. Now, that doesn’t mean that we won’t be getting together! It just means that the weekly Thursday night gathering are going to pause, and we will head into “summer ministry mode”.

I don’t know what all that means just yet, but I’ll be figuring it out in the next couple of weeks. However, here’s what you need to know now.

1) This is our second to last message on in our Elijah series.

2) Next week we will spend some time engaging with some material from Alissa Childers to prepare us to have her with us on May 1st.

3) The week after that we are not meeting on Thursday because that Friday night is secret church. (Send link in GroupMe right now)

4) After that we will have our final message in Elijah, and our final message for the spring.

5) May 6th will be what I’m calling our “Summer Set Up” night. It’s where I’ll be unveiling what we are doing, and we will spend some time letting you sign up or get things in place to stay connected over the summer, whether it be events or Bible Studies or both.

Introduction

Okay, that’s everything that’s going on. Let’s go over where we were a couple of weeks ago.

If you remember, we were finishing up the contest of the God part 2. We saw God bring down fire from heaven, Israel fall to it’s face and worship God, the Prophets of Baal were killed…and the dust was just beginning to settle.

I want you to sorta get a little creative with me for a minute. Imagine the start to a movie, or an epic TV show. You know? The first thing you see is black charred ground…and it zooms out slowly to show the altar smoldering…you hear people talking and crying in the background…the camera slowly zooms out to reveal our hero…Elijah…with clothes that have been stained by his travel to Mt. Carmel…the blood and construction of the sacrifice and Altar to God....the bodies of dead false prophets laying near him....you see this epic scene…and you think …this is gonna be epic right? Like…whatever happens next is going to be action packed, filled with our fearless hero kicking butt and taking names…the king of Israel repenting…and God being worshipped by the people of God now that he was won them back.

This is what you’re thinking and seeing as this the beginning to this episode commences…but then…the title of the episode appears on the screen…and it says “A Low Point”.

And that’s what we are going to call tonight’s message…a Low Point. Because that’s what we are about to see in Elijah’s life. Our hero doesn’t know it yet…but things are about to turn for the worse for him.

I like what we’ve been doing lately, we get our eyes on the text, I explain some context as we are going..and then we get into the application. So let’s do that again. Get your eyes on the text with me...

1 Kings 18, we will start in verse 40 to pick up right where we left off.

1 Kings 18:40–42 ESV

And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there. And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of the rushing of rain.” So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. And he bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees.

So far so good. It seems here that Elijah is now the one in charge…he’s the leader of Israel. I mean…He’s the one commanding the King’s prophets be slaughtered, and the turns and commands the King to eat and drink…essentially saying. Ahab, you go about your business and sit down and eat…I’ve got some work to do. So Elijah bows down at the top of the mountain, and puts his face between his knees…it’s understood that he’s praying here.

1 Kings 18:42–45 ESV

So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. And he bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” And he went up and looked and said, “There is nothing.” And he said, “Go again,” seven times. And at the seventh time he said, “Behold, a little cloud like a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” And he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you.’ ” And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel.

So what we see here…is the end (or so we think) of the contest of the Gods. This summation of all of the past three years of drought and battle of Yawheh vs. Baal.

This is taken right out of a commentary…because it words it better than I could.

1, 2 Kings (6) Drought Ends (18:41–46)

18:41–46 With his enemies dispatched, Elijah demonstrates one last time that Yahweh is Lord. It is time for rain. He counsels Ahab to hurry home so he will not be caught in the rain. When the rains come, the Lord’s victory is complete. God sustains and protects his prophets, while Baal lets his die. Yahweh feeds the orphans and widows and raises the dead, while Baal lets the needy suffer and requires Anat to raise him from death. Yahweh can send fire or rain from heaven, but Baal cannot respond to his most valiant worshipers. A god like Baal is no God at all. A God like Yahweh must be God of all. Rain is not just rain here but evidence of the Lord’s absolute sovereignty over nature and human affairs.

In other words…Rain is not just Rain here. but it the ultimate showing of all the Glory and Power that resides in God.

So Elijah’s on top of the world after all that he’s seen and done…not just after the past day, but even over the last three years. Things are going the way that he feels they should.

If that’s not enough, look at verse 46

1 Kings 18:46 ESV

And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

It’s hard to say with complete certainty that this means Elijah had super speed in order to run in front of a chariot. It seems to be implied by the fact that it says the hand of the Lord was on Elijah…but it’s also common practice in this culture for people to run in front of the King’s chariot to show honor and respect.

Either way…here’s what we know from this. Elijah seemed to believe that this battle of the Gods was over. Him and Ahab were buddies in this moment…Elijah was showing him respect…and was accompanying him back to his home were the King’s wife was waiting.

To Elijah…it seemed that this long war was finally over. Or so he thought. Now....we see the tables turn.

1 Kings 19:1–5 ESV

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.”

So…Elijah has this epic battle, after three years of waiting and serving the Lord…at long last it has finally come to an end. He comes before Ahab, accompanies him to his home. And what does Ahab do? He tells his wife of what happened, and then he permits his wife to threaten the life of God’s prophet.

And after all that Elijah had gone through, all that he had seen and done…it was too much. Whether it was weariness and fatigue, lack of faith, or a sense of giving up…Elijah became afraid…and he fled. Jezebel had killed plenty of prophets before, there was no reason to think she wouldn’t kill Elijah.

And after all that Elijah had done to defeat the worship of Baal in Israel…it seemed to him that Baal was still to be worshiped in the house of the king of Israel.

In Elijah’s mind he had failed. So much so that he takes his servant with him for a while…and then dismisses him…he then goes far into the desert and finds a tree to sit under and prepare to die.

In his mind…the battle was over. After all that, he had not won. God’s purposes had not been what he thought they would be…and his ministry was over.

That’s where we will stop in the scripture tonight…because there’s two reminders that we gleam from this. Two points of application.

1) Keep Your Eyes on God’s Sovereignty.

Peter rebuking Jesus.

The disciples after Christ’s death.

The Pharisees not seeing Jesus for who he was.

Even in the heights of your relationship with God…the moments you feel him so mightily working and moving in your life…don’t forget to stay rooted in the reality of the world he has created and in the fact that his sovereignty and his ways are truly unknowable.

Time and time again we see missionaries, and church planters go out into the field, and into the world…because they have an expectation for what God is going to do.

But when their reality doesn’t match what they thought he was going to do…they become discouraged…and many often quit. Just like Elijah.

Elijah had this mountaintop moment of seeing thousands of people drop and worship the Lord in response to his work…but so quickly forgot that the God who could do that is the same God who could have defended him from Jezebel…the same God that could redeem the house of the king.

Even the great and mighty prophet Elijah lost sight of that…as many of us do. He lost sight of it enough to become afraid and flee.

But there was more to it than that…not only did he flee…but then he became ashamed.

2) Seek God for Strength.

You know, we’ve titled this series Provision and Glory. Partly because of the amount of times that we see God show his provision in the life of Elijah.

But in this moment, when Elijah was ashamed that he had become like his ancestors..turning from God…when he felt ashamed...and weak in spirit…he didn’t seek God for provision, but rather just to be done and die.

He was clearly depressed. Now, the Lord in his goodness provided anyways as we will see in a few weeks…but the point remains…Elijah forgot to seek the Lord for provision of strength to continue on…iIt’s a reminder for us not to forgot to seek God for strength.

Don’t be a person that just acknowledges when God provides in your life…but be a person that actively seeks the provision of the Lord. Rely on him. Rest in him.