A Dry Time for Israel
The Days of Elijah • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 4 viewsNotes
Transcript
Today begins a new series - The Days of Elijah
Elijah is one of my favorite prophets
Remember as a kid the flannel graph of his life and events
Elijah was so important that there is a prophecy concerning him
5 “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.
6 He will turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and strike the land with complete destruction.”
I see similarities to the days in which he lived and our society today.
Both societies lost informs of idolatry, corrupt leaders, and a removal of God from the minds of the people.
Let’s read our text chair bible pg. 242 1 Kings 17:1-7
1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall certainly be neither dew nor rain during these years, except by my word.”
2 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying,
3 “Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.
4 And it shall be that you will drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide food for you there.”
5 So he went and did everything according to the word of the Lord, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.
6 And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook.
7 But it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
Are you ready for the message God has for us?
Cool let’s begin!
Turning away from God
Turning away from God
What happens when a country’s leader turns its people away from God?
The answer is found in these days of Elijah
1 Kings 17 opens with Ahab as king of Israel
He was made king after the death of his father Omri
1 Kings 16:29–33 (NASB 2020)
29 Now Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria for twenty-two years.
30 Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him.
31 And as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him.
32 So he erected an altar for Baal at the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria.
33 Ahab also made the Asherah. So Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.
Ahab was truly an evil king who led God’s people into apostasy by serving Ba’al
This was about the 9th century BCE
It is during this time that Elijah suddenly appears as the prophet of God
Elijah is traditionally held to be the greatest prophet, and certainly the forerunner of the prophets that follow.
This is attested to in the transfiguration of Jesus - Matthew 17:2-3
2 And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.
3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.
Elijah was a Tishbite from Tishbe in Gilead. The exact location is still unknown.
God’s announcement to Ahab
God’s announcement to Ahab
1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall certainly be neither dew nor rain during these years, except by my word.”
The chapter opens with this great pronouncement of the will of Yahweh.
This is a sign of God’s power over nature
He will restrain the rain and dew as a sign of who is truly responsible for the course of nature
Yahweh will force Israel to accept Him as the only God by this miracle
Yahweh is the God of Israel not Ba’al!
There were instructions built into the old law concerning a king and his rule over God’s people
14 “When you enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you take possession of it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will appoint a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’
15 you shall in fact appoint a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. One from among your countrymen you shall appoint as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves, anyone who is not your countryman.
16 In any case, he is not to acquire many horses for himself, nor shall he make the people return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’
17 And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, so that his heart does not turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.
18 “Now it shall come about, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this Law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.
19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, so that he will learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully following all the words of this Law and these statutes,
20 so that his heart will not be haughty toward his countrymen, and that he will not turn away from the commandment to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may live long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.
Man this is not what Ahab did!
He married outside Israel a woman named Jezabel 1 Kings 16:31
31 And as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him.
This also led to the rebuilding of Jericho! 1Kings 16:34
34 In his days Hiel the Bethelite rebuilt Jericho; he laid its foundations with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the Lord, which He spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.
Turning their backs on God led Israel to suffer drought and famine
They were without excuse they followed Ahab and Jezabel into apostasy and idolatry!
In a dry time God still cares!
In a dry time God still cares!
In the midst of this God cares for His prophet.
Elijah is sent to a brook Cherith east of Judah
There he has water from the brook and is fed by ravens
Elijah had done everything according to the word of Yahweh and God took care of him
Even when the brook dried up God made further preparations for Elijah to be taken care of!
God does not abandon His faithful followers, he takes care of them.
Elijah was given just what he needed from day to day.
I reminds me of the Lord’s prayer - Matthew 6:11
11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread.
God provides for his people giving just what they need from day to day!
Even in the midst of a time when a society has turned their back on God, He still provides for his faithful!
Of All the Widows
Of All the Widows
To continue His care for His prophet God sends Elijah to a widow in the land of Zarephath in Sidon.
Jesus spoke of this in Luke 4:23-26
23 And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! All the miracles that we heard were done in Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ”
24 But He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown.
25 But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a severe famine came over all the land;
26 and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
The first miracle didn’t happen in the land of Israel, it happened in Sidon a foreign county!
The country from which Jezabel came! Ironic isn’t it!
During the time that Elijah was with this widow they wanted for nothing!
15 So she went and did everything in accordance with the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days.
16 The bowl of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil become empty, in accordance with the word of the Lord which He spoke through Elijah.
To me the fact that with all the widows in the land of Israel, Elijah was sent to none of them, speaks to the kind of woman this widow in Sidon was, open to receive and listen to Yahweh’s instructions through Elijah!
Such a response may not of been found in all of Israel!
Because of His pronouncement I am sure that Elijah would not have been welcome!
Many blamed Elijah I’m sure, without even a second thought to why the pronouncement came and their part in it!
We too have a message that many may not want to receive, but may we have the faith and courage of Elijah to give the message and go wherever He asks!
Conclusion
So times have not changed, we find ourselves in day like Elijah!
God still needs faithful followers to give His message and go where He asks!
Even in the days we live in we still see God moving and caring for His people!
Though people in the world turn their backs on God, has not turned His!
The fact that we are still here means we still have time to share the Gospel of Jesus, a message of good news needed in our world today!
We have the message of hope!