Elijah (1) The Story Of Elijah Series

“Elijah (1) The Story of Elijah”

(1 Kings 16:28-22:51)

Bob Marcaurelle, Meadowbrook Baptist Church See: (homeorchurch biblestudy.com)

One Old Testament historian has well said that the history of the divided Kingdoms is the study of the struggle between the men of God and the gods of men.

Nowhere is this more vividly portrayed than in the Ninth Century B.C. when Elijah the prophet met Ahab the King and Jezebel the Queen and all their idolatry head on.

For forty-six years (922-876), Israel was governed by one weak king after another and it was not until Omri took the throne in 876 that she had any resemblance to the mighty kingdom under Solomon.

In only six short years of leadership, Omri stabilized the government, built the capital city of Samaria, conquered Moab and made an alliance with Phoenicia by marrying his son Ahab to the Phoenician princess, Jezebel.

The last action proved to be disastrous because Jezebel the pagan princess was a devoted follower and passionate missionary of the god, Baal. And when she came, she brought Baal worship into Israel.

This devilish woman and her husband, when he assumed the throne, did more evil in the sight of God than all before them (I Kings 16:30). She launched a program to wipe the worship of the true God from the land.

The worship of Baal, the god of nature, involved the most hideous immorality imaginable. The morals of the entire kingdom were lowered.

Many of God’s prophets were persecuted and even killed. Many escaped by hiding in caves.

The worship of the true God was destined to be exterminated. The people were faltering between God and Baal and with the pressure of the crown combined with the pull of immorality Baal was certain to win.

What did God do to stem the tide?

We read it in I Kings 17:1:

“Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word’.”

What did God do? He sent an Elijah. This rugged mountain man towers above the men of this era like some giant mountain peak.

He cut through history like a comet. Single-handedly, he conquered the idol Baal and all its followers. Before his work was done, the dogs licked up the blood of Ahab in the plains of Jezreel as he predicted. And not long after he had gone to heaven, the dogs ate Jezebel in the streets as he had predicted.

We turn now to this remarkable prophet of prophets and we shall study his life as it divides itself into four chapters.

I. THE POWER OF PRAYER (I Kings 17:1)

Chapter one of Elijah’s stormy life can only be called the “power of prayer.” Into this degraded, idolatrous, apparently hopeless situation stepped one man.

The Book of James (5:17) says that he was subject to the same passions as you and I. What on earth could he do?

What weapon could one man wield to bring a rotten empire to its knees and a backsliding nation back to its God?

The weapon he wielded was prayer! The seventeenth chapter of First Kings simply introduces Elijah full grown. There is not a word about his mother. There is not a word about his childhood.

There is not a word about his conversion or his call. The Bible just turns him loose like this, “Now Elijah the Tishbite of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word.’”

He hit the nation with the suddenness and the severity of a bolt of lightning. Baal was the god of nature so he attacked Baal by closing the heavens with his prayer.

Ahab was the cancer in the heart of Israel so he started with him and worked down. This stern promise was followed by three solid years of desolation, dust, and death.

From the top of Mount Carmel to the flatlands of the Jordan valley, the land of Israel withered and turned to dust. Man and animals dropped in their tracks with tongues swollen by thirst. Mothers watched their babies die because there was no milk and no food.

I am sure that the land was bathed in brutality and bloodshed as men fought for food and water upon which to live.

God had come! God was putting a stop to the moral and spiritual plunge of His people.

In the dust and devastation and death, we see how terrible it is when God lowers His hand to chastise a backsliding people.

In connection with this scene you should read James 5:17, “...he (Elijah) prayed fervently that it might not rain and for three years and six months it did not rain.”