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We’ve looked at the testimonies of a lot of different people through out the bible.
We have looked at Peter, the Woman with the issue of blood, Joshua and Caleb, and the admonition of James to have unshaken faith.
Of the people that we have and will look at, this particular individual is one of my favorite because of the relatable nature in which we find him.
To give you context for the following passage, we meet a man (specifically a prophet) by the name of Elijah who the Lord used pretty greatly.
Up unto this point, Elijah has proclaimed that there will be no rain for several years and he has healed a widow’s son.
The events of 1 Kings 18 and 1 Kings 19 are some of the biggest events of Elijah’s life.
I can remember this day because there was a lot of buildup.
The day was May 2, 2015.
It was my junior year of college and a bunch of my friends and I had gone in together to buy a Pay-per-view boxing match.
It was Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Most boxing matches you don’t remember; my guess is, you at least have a recollection of this one.
This long anticipated fight between the two split the boxing world in half.
The fight started off bad with both Mayweather and Pacquiao missing punches within the first round!
Then all of a sudden, Mayweather throws a jab-jab-right with one minute left in the first round.
The fight has officially begun!
That fight lasted 12 rounds and was listed as the most sold out flight of the years surrounding it.
I decided that day that I’m not a huge fan of boxing.
What I do recognize is that there is this draw to see a fight.
Whenever there’s a fight, there’s a crowd that forms, right?
In our passage tonight, we see more than one battle in Elijah’s life.
The Physical Battle 1 Kings 18:20-22
When we first find Elijah he is in a competition with the prophets of Baalim
All with the idea of proving that Baalim was not a god and that the God of the Bible was the true God.
If you picture this mountain top experience imagine a mountain top filled with over 450 prophets of Baalim, 400 prophets of Asherah, and the prophet Elijah all getting ready to sacrifice
The test is simple
Prepare the altar for the sacrifice but do not light a fire.
Each of them is to call upon their respective God and whosever God answers by sending down fire from heaven
That is the true and living God.
As these prophets stood on the mountain
They begin to do some outrageous things hoping to get the attention of Baalim
The Bible tells us that they had danced around the altar
Elijah begins to taunt them
He uses terms known to the followers of Baalim
Was the God musing on the action (was he deep on that)?
Was he sleeping?
Was he talking to someone else?
They began to cut themselves with knives and with lancets
The bible says that the blood gushed out upon them.
The time arrives for Elijah to step up and pray to God and for God to do something miraculous.
He makes this an almost impossible tasks from human standards
He has the people dig trenches and fill the trenches with water.
On top of that, he tells them to pour water on the sacrifice
Basically to drench the sacrifice
They do this three different times
Elijah calls upon God to prove himself by sending down fire
He does.
God shows up to the scene with the very thought of proving to each and every person that He is the true and only God.
We often expect God to show up during the mountain top experience
We expect God to be there when things are going right, going according to plan
We often feel closer to God when things are going right
As if God is blessing us a special bit more than normal
It is during the valley sessions that it becomes harder to expect God to show up.
The Personal Battle
After going against over 850 prophets and adamantly proving that God is the one and only true God
Ahab tells Jezebel, his crazy wife about all that Elijah had done
About how the prophets were slain by Elijah
This sets Jezebel off and basically swears that Elijah would die the same way that the prophets died.
This causes Elijah to go on the run
Now there are a lot of things that I believe contribute to the decisions of Elijah
Physical Exhaustion contributed to taking his eyes of the Lord
Elijah had just finished calling down fire from heaven
No doubt he would have been physically, mentally, and spiritually exhausted.
He just got done going through emotional peaks and valleys
One man just standing at the foot of Mt.
Carmel proclaiming
“How long hault ye between two opinions, If Lord be God serve him”
The Bible tells us that he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel
It is a tiring thing to minister day in and day out
But let alone do something as miraculous as call fire down from heaven.
Surely he thought that this would bring great revival, that Jezreel would renounce Baal and proclaim God
Loneliness contributed to taking his eyes of the Lord (v.4)
Elijah took a stand against the majority
One preacher against 850 false prophets
A hostile nation
He leaves everybody behind
As he travels to Beer-sheba
The Bible says that he even left his servant there and even walked an additional day into the wilderness to escape this punishment
Understand that this battle is a personal one
An internal one
A battle between dedication and desolation
Would Elijah continue in the work and calling of the Lord
Or would he throw in the towel because of the opposition that he faced
Some of the greatest battles that we will ever face are the most internal and personal battles
They are not public battles or even battles that others see but they are the ones that we deal with internally
What I find amazing is that in both scenarios, God shows up.
On the mountaintop experience when God had to prove himself to all of the false prophets
This was a very public thing!
Word that the God of the Israelites sent fire down from heaven and even rain after years of a drought
That made news, that spread throughout the city
But under the juniper tree after doing something miraculous
God shows up for Elijah
In this private, personal manner.
Physical Care
The Bible states that while he was sleeping under a juniper tree
God made provision for him by providing a cake and a cruse of water.
Sent his angel to wake him up
Spiritual Care (cf v.4;18)
Elijah seems to think that all of his work is in vain, that he trained for three years for one event and it didn’t even bring revival
It is so easy when we are discouraged to say but “I did this.. or I did that.. “
He even says that he is no better than his father’s whose work was in vain
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