3 Questions to Consider from 1 Kings 19
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Introduction
Introduction
And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongeth 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 juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And the Lord said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria: And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him.
— Elijah has basically just showed up the god of Baal by defeating him on mount carmel (briefly summarize that story)
— after that amazing accomplishment we expect a national revival in Israel, we expect King Ahab to turn from his evil ways, we expect Jezebel the evil Phoenician queen to leave Israel alone, but none of that happens.
In fact the Israelites may have briefly worshipped God on Mount Carmel when they saw a miracle but when they came back down into the valley they forgot about him again. And by the way we often do the same thing. We get alone with God and we see Him do an amazing miracle or an amazing work in our life and we repent of our sin and draw close to Him but then we come back down into the valleys of life and forget about Him. Your God Jehovah is worthy of worship on both the mountain tops and the valley lows. One of His names is El-Elyon, God the most high, and just because were no longer on a spiritual high doesn’t He isn’t. He is El-Elyon God the most high even when were not. That doesn’t mean we stop worshipping when were in a spiritual low point. El-Elyon God the Most High is worthy of our worship whether were high or whether were low. By the way if you’ve never done a study on all the different names of God, I’d highly encourage you to do that, for me personally it made my personal time with God a lot more personal when I began praying to Him calling on Him by His different names. But that’s a sermon for another time.
So Israel didn’t necessarily come back to God, Ahab was still evil, and now Jezebel is trying to kill Elijah. So you would think that at least Elijah would be pumped up he just had this monumental victory, but no, Elijah is utterly depressed. He is full of fear and worry and anxiety. By the way the reason that happened was because he took his focus off of the Lord and began focusing on himself. Instead of fearing the Lord, he began to fear man, or woman really.
Elijah allowed his circumstances to control his emotions, and he allowed his emotions to control his spirit.
**Summarize rest of the chapter
1. What are you doing here? (v. 9-14)
1. What are you doing here? (v. 9-14)
This is such an interesting phrase and God actually asks Elijah this question twice here in this chapter. Usually when someone says what are you doing here, it’s usually in a negative connotation, like it’s usually not a good thing when someone asks what are you doing here.
**ILLUSTRATION of Trevor and Gavin, a little mischievous, looking for Christmas presents, and their mom saying “what are you doing here???”
Elijah ended up in the wilderness because he was fearful, he was scared for his life, but the Lord ministered to him. Elijah then climbed the mountain and entered the cave and stayed the night there.
When reading this passage I never really considered this small part of the story. Elijah obeyed, made his forty day journey to the mountain, made it there, and nothing. The Lord did not speak to him right away. He made him sleep and stay there through the night.
He’s on a mountain. He is on a mountain, in a cave! It’s dark, cold, hard, probably didn’t get any sleep. He walked forty days to get there, even though he had his food and nap before it doesn’t say his attitude was fixed or that he finally had the right perspective. He was probably still discouraged, still fearful, still anxious. He probably thought what am I doing here. Why did I just walk for forty days straight to come sleep in a cave?
WHAT AM I DOING HERE GOD? YOU BROUGHT ME 40 DAYS INTO THE WILDERNESS TO SLEEP IN A CAVE? WHY AM I HERE? WHAT IS THE PURPOSE GOD? YOU DID A MIRACLE ON MOUNT CARMEL AND NOW HERE ON MOUNT HOREB YOU’RE SILENT? I’M IN THE DARKEST OF NIGHTS, IM IN A COLD CAVE WITH NO WEAR TO LAY MY HEAD. WHAT AM I DOING HERE?
But then came the morning… and then, o then, the Lord speaks. He says “What are you doing here Elijah?”
And I think then, Elijah understood. The Lord wasn’t asking what are you doing here in this physical place, He’s saying what are you doing here in this emotional and this spiritual place that you are in. Cause right now spiritually you are in the night, you are in the cave, you are in the dark, you don’t have any rest for your soul.
I believe the Lord meant this question spiritually and Elijah knew that because of Elijah’s answer. His answer isn’t because you told me to come here. Right? If the Lord meant why are you here physically Elijah would have said because you told me to come here God, I am simply obeying you, I’m obeying your word. That’s not what Elijah says. He begins to list off the difficult circumstances surrounding him and his life in that moment. He says the Israelites have forsaken you. My own people, my own brothers and sisters who I’m trying to lead have forsaken you and your covenant. They’ve thrown down your altars and places of worship. It’s gotten so bad they are starting to slay your prophets and preachers, and now I feel as if I’m the only one left and now they want to kill me too.
(Even though in reality, verse 18 tells us there are many others who have not forsaken God. He has a skewed perspective and a woe is me attitude.
And the Lord says Go, Go to the mouth of the cave and let me remind you what I can do, cause it seems you’ve already forgotten what happened last month on Mount Carmel, let me just remind you of my power, of my omnipotence.
So the Lord sends mighty winds to break the cliffs, maybe he sends an Alabama Tornado all the way to Mount Horeb, I don't know. He then sends an earthquake, and then a fire, but the Lord wasn’t in these things this time. He then speaks in a still small voice. And it was at this point that Elijah covered his face with his mantle, which is like a head scarf, hood, or cloak type of clothing garment.
Being sensible that Elijah was neither worthy, nor able to endure the sight of God with an open face he covered himself. Now his focus is back on God. His fear has now been realigned back to God instead of to man. And this is a healthy, respectful and reverential fear. Reverential fear of God is just realizing that He is in control and He can do what He desires with you, it is respecting Him not just because of what He can do, but because of who He is, and His character.
Previously, God showed up with fire, consuming the water drenched altar. People marveled. But this passage emphasizes God’s quiet ways. God often appears not in the spectacular but in the gentle whisper. Elijah needed to remember the past, but he also needed to realize that there is more to the Lord than fire. This phrase “a still small voice or a soft whisper” only appears two other times. It appears in Job 4:16 and Psalm 107:29. It is used in both passages in the context of rest and refreshment in the midst of pain, distress, and fear.
What about you, Christian? What are you doing here? Where are you spiritually? Are you letting your circumstances control your emotions, and your emotions controlling your spirit? You are trying to follow God and obey His will for your life but it just seems like He’s not there. Are you stuck in the night? In the cold cave in the middle of the darkest time? Does it feel like you are all alone?
Listen. The morning is coming. Whenever it seems like we are spiritually in the dark, it is usually because we are looking for God in flaming fires, boisterous winds, or magnificent earthquakes. We are looking for God to do this huge magnificent thing in our life, but often times God works in small and quiet ways. David wrote in Psalm 18:35 “your gentleness made me great”. Sometimes the fire does fall in corporate gatherings, but God also works quietly through His written Word and His Spirit in the hearts of His people. Don’t always seek God in just huge ways, but Seek the God of grace in the quiet place. Get alone with Him and listen to His Word, and meditate on His gospel.
We just had our Back to School Revival this week and we had a great time, our speaker was great, and if you were here this past Wednesday then you got a little taste of that, and this sermon today is kind of piggy backing off of Caleb’s sermon from Wednesday, that God wants to give you rest. He wants you to come to Him and give Him your problems and burdens, because you were never meant to bear those in the first place.
What I appreciated about Pastor Caleb’s messages this week is he didn’t really talk about corporate revival that much. He mainly just encouraged us from God’s Word and gave us biblical principles and applications to help us strengthen our relationship with God and here’s why: In order for corporate revival to take place, it first must start with personal revival. It must start in the hearts of the individual Christians. Revival isn’t some mysterious mythical thing that just happens every once in a while, no revival is when individual Christians get on their knees before God and just seek His face. They desire to be closer to Him and seek Him in His Word.
Listen to me, if you’re here today and you feel like you are in a spiritually dark and cold place, can I just encourage you to learn from Elijah?
Go forth out of the cave to see God work.
____First, remember what God has done for you in the past.
You say I don’t really think God has done much for me, in fact it feels more like He has abandoned me.
Can I just tell you for a second what God has done for you?
*Give them the Gospel and miracles
God. loves. you.
God. is. for. you. He wants the best for you. He cares about you. One of my favorite verses in the Bible, if you don’t hear anything else today, just hear this.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
God loves you and He has a purpose for you and He is working all things in your favor whether you can see it or not.
___Second, we must listen to that still small voice. Now we understand that God doesn’t speak audibly today like He did in biblical times, but He does still speak to our hearts, and he does that through His Word and through His Spirit. Romans tells us that His spirit bears witness with our spirit.
Just listen to these verses
(*READ WITH PASSION*)
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Listen right here Christian, it. will. be. worth it all. when we see Jesus. Life’s trials will seem so small when we see Christ. One glimpse of his dear face, all sorrow will erase, so bravely run the race, till we see Christ.
There’s a constant war going on inside of you between your spirit and your flesh.
**reread Romans 8:13
Give in to the Spirit, not the flesh. Surrender to the Spirit, not the flesh.
So if you feel like you are in that dark cold cave all alone, God is at the mouth of the cave saying “what are you doing here?”, not condescendingly, not cause He’s mad at you, but because that is not where you belong.
God did not create you to stay in caves. He created you for mountaintops too. Whether you’re in the valley, the cave, or on top of the mountain, keep worshiping.
Decide to “Go forth” out of the cave like verse 11 says and come to God. Christ wants to give you rest, He wants to give peace, all you have to do is come to Him.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Go forth out of the cave to remember what God has done for you in the past and listen to that still small voice and He will give you peace, He will give you rest
So number 1, What are you doing, and
2. Who are you investing in? (v. 19-20)
2. Who are you investing in? (v. 19-20)
So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee?
Investing or investment is one of those words that can be a little intimidating for a young person. I remember a few months back I got one of those investing apps on your phone where you can just put in a couple dollars here and there and try to get a good return on it. And when you download this app, you actually get a free stock and so I got one free share of stock in Gamestop and it was worth like 8 bucks or something. So I’m not a huge business or finance guy so I just invested a couple dollars here and a couple dollars there and so I also still had that free stock in Gamestop.
Well I was talking to my dad one evening, and my dad’s a business guy he likes finance type of stuff, and I told him basically within the last few months my money had doubled in this little app I had. He said well Oh go ahead and sell it if you’ve already made that much profit, that’s basically a 100% gain in profit and so I did. So I sold all the stocks I had, including that free stock in Gamestop, and made a little bit of money.
The very next week, the very next week, Gamestops stock went from like $10 bucks per share to like $500 per share.
I was like man, i could have had an extra five hundred bucks if I wouldn’t have listened to my dad. So teens the moral of the story is don’t listen to your parents, no no I’m just kidding just kidding. Always obey your parents
The difference between the investment of Elijah and investment how we understand it today, is that when we invest today, we expect the return. We want the return for our benefit, the investor’s benefit. Whereas Elijah was not investing for his own benefit, he was investing for Elisha’s benefit, and ultimately for God’s benefit, to glorify the Lord.
Our spiritual investments should not be self centered, but Christ centered. Anything and anybody I invest in should be for the glory of God and God alone.
So how did Elijah invest in Elisha?
The most significant way that I see Elijah invest in Elisha throughout the Scriptures, is by being an example of a God follower.
We don’t see a ton of Scripture of Elijah telling and teaching Elisha what to do and how to do it, we mainly just see Elijah living the life of a faithful prophet and Elisha observing.
Parents, listen to me right here. Your kids aren’t always going to hear you, they’re not always going to listen to you, they’re not always going to understand you, but I tell you what, they will be watching you and watching how you live your life.
Pastor Caleb and I were talking about this this past week, about how specifically teenagers brains are going through so many changes, and that it is literally rewiring itself during this time of their life, so that they stop asking “what” questions, and start asking “why” questions. They go from asking “what color is the sky?” to “Why is the sky that color?” That’s why it is so important you don’t just tell them what to do but you tell them why. The same principle also applies to teaching biblical principles, I don’t want to just teach a student what to believe, I want to teach them why we believe it.
The motivation behind what you do is just as important as the thing you’re actually doing.
If you live a life of Christianity on Sunday and Wednesday and live like the world the rest of the week, your kids will follow in your footsteps. If you tell them how to live their life and you tell them to follow godly biblical principles, but they see that you aren’t, they will follow what you do more often than what you say. If your Christianity isn’t real to you then it will not be real to them. Stop living a life of hypocrisy. Your walk should match your talk.
Invest in your children by being a godly example to them. The mom and dad that they see on Sunday morning should be the same mom and dad that they see Saturday night.
That’s not just for parents, that’s really for everybody.
Every single person in this room has some sort of realm of influence. The younger generation will always look up to the older. A kindergartner looks up to an elementary kid, and the elementary kid looks up to the junior high kid, and the junior high kid looks up to the high school kid, and the high school kid looks up to the college kid, and the college kid looks up to the young adult starting their family and their career and so on and so on.
Someone is always watching you. They are watching your every move. So invest in others by being a godly example, by living a Christ-like life. And we talked about the Christ-like life a little more in depth last week so if you missed that be sure to go back and listen to that.
Decide to invest in others by being a godly example. So that’s kind of broad. But investing in someone should also be personal. Choose someone to invest in. Who will be your Elisha, that you will come along side, and encourage, and strengthen, and help. Who will you decide to throw your cloak, your mantle on, to carry the Christian heritage that we have.
That is what New Testament discipleship is, it is coming along someone and helping them in their Christian walk. So yes, live as a godly example so that others may see, but also intentionally seek someone out to personally invest in them. And teach them all the things that Christ has taught and commanded. Who will be your Elisha that you can invest in.
So the first question, What are you doing here, was asked by God. The second question, more from Elijah’s point of view, Who are you investing in, and the third question is kind of from Elisha’s point of view
3. Will you forsake and follow? (v. 20-21)
3. Will you forsake and follow? (v. 20-21)
And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him.
To forsake means to abandon someone or something.
When I think of the word forsake, my brain immediately goes to a very specific memory.
**Illustration of bees and how I abandoned Zack
So when we think of the term forsake, we usually think of it in a negative connotation, but here in our passage, it’s actually a positive. Elisha forsook his old job, his old life, in order to follow the new life that God has called him too.
What I love about Elisha’s response is when Elijah cast his mantle on him, the text seems to imply that Elisha somewhat hesitated because it says he had to run after Elijah. I don’t know what was running through Elisha’s mind in that moment, whether he was debating whether or not to accept the call or if he was just stunned at the fact that he had been chosen to follow Elijah.
I’d imagine that when Elisha finally came to his senses he asked himself something like “what are you still doing here?! Go catch up to Elijah and tell him you’ll join him!”
So Elisha runs after Elijah and asks if he can kiss his father and mother goodbye and Elijah says that’s fine. But there is so much significance in this one little verse because not only did Elijah kiss his family goodbye, but he kisses his old world goodbye. He slays a yoke of oxen, and there were probably 24 oxen total.
A yoke is a wooden cross piece to hold two oxen together and is attached to the plow for farming.
Elisha probably had a decent amount of money if he had 24 cows during this time. Not only does he kill the oxen, but he burns his plow and yoke and uses it as firewood to cook the oxen.
There is no chance of returning to this old life after this. There is no plan B, Elisha is utterly and completely sold out for God and His will. So he kills his livestock, burns his farm equipment, cooks up all this food for his family, and he finally goes to Elijah and ministers to him, and really what this Hebrew word means in this context is serves him.
Elisha’s devotion to God’s call gets echoed in Jesus’ call to discipleship. In Luke 9 Jesus calls a man to follow Him, and the man says “I will follow You, Lord, but first let me go and say goodbye to my family”. He seems to say the same thing Elisha says, but instead of allowing it like Elijah did, Jesus says “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God”. The reference to the plow sounds like 1 Kings, and so does this call. But Jesus doesn’t grant this request. Why?
Jesus is greater than Elijah, and His call takes precedence over everyone and everything. Jesus demands immediate obedience and wholehearted allegiance. Elisha was being asked to follow the prophet of God, but we are being asked to follow the God of the prophet.
Elisha was called to a new life, and so he abandoned his old life with no chance of returning back to it.
Can I tell you something Christian, you are called to new life in Jesus Christ.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
Remember ye not the former things,
Neither consider the things of old.
Behold, I will do a new thing;
Now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?
I will even make a way in the wilderness,
And rivers in the desert.
And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
Christian, you are called to new life in Christ. I don’t know what your yoke and plow are. I don’t know if you have some sort of secret sin that your holding onto, I don’t know if there’s some sort of ungodly relationship your holding onto, I don’t know if there’s some sort of bitterness your holding on to, I don’t know what your yoke is. But can I encourage you, get rid of the plow. Don’t just walk away from your yoke and leave it in the field, no burn it, get rid of it, so that there is no chance of you coming back to it. Burn your yoke and plow. A lot of us have become to focused on plowing the fields of this world when God has different spiritual fields for us.
Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
Jesus’s only prayer request was that there would be laborers for the harvest. Will you decide to burn the plow of this world and be a laborer in the Lord’s harvest.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Take off the yoke of this world, burn it, and put on the yoke of Christ.
Decide to forsake this world and follow Christ. Burn the yoke of this world and put on the yoke of Christ.
Conclusion
Conclusion
What are you doing here?
Go forth out of the cave to remember what God has done for you in the past and listen to that still small voice.
2. Who are you investing in?
Invest in others by being a godly example and teaching them to follow Christ.
3. Will you forsake and follow?
Forsake this world by burning your yoke, and follow Christ by putting on his yoke.