We are starting a brand new series today called The fabulous life of Elijah. If you have your bibles, you can open them to the book of Hebrews chapter 11 which is on p. 865 if you grabbed a bible in the lobby. Elijah is a prophet, was a prophet. I guess you could say is because he never died. Anyway, we’ll get to that later. To be a prophet, you were the mouthpiece for God to the nation of Israel, but to be a prophet, when you predicted something it had to come true. There are a lot of “prophets” on TV predicting all kinds of things like the end of the world, who will win the presidential election, that the Steelers will win the next super bowl, and everything in between. It could happen, if I say the Cardinals won’t win am I a prophet or smart? So to be a prophet, when you speak, you are speaking for God, but everything, down to the letter has to come true.
One of the interesting things about Elijah was that he was a normal guy. Someone without any schooling, he was not from the “right” family, or even the “right” country, but God was able to use him and do some pretty incredible things through him.
We don’t know who wrote the book of Hebrews, but we know he or she was writing to Christians who were being persecuted and killed for their faith and the writer of Hebrews wrote this letter to encourage them to not go underground and to not quit.
Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1: 1Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
So the writer starts talking about faith, what faith looks like everyday. That faith is believing in things you don’t see and don’t understand. The writer goes on to talk about all of the people in the Old Testament who lived a life of faith. Often we read through or hear a story from the Old Testament and think, of course everyone knows that person or of course they followed God. But it wasn’t always as easy as we make it sound.
Skip down to verse 32, so after listing countless people the writer says: 32And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets-- 33who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35Women received back their dead by resurrection.
Turn back to the book of Leviticus, chapter 26, which is on p. 90. The nation of Israel has just escaped from 400 years of slavery in Egypt and the book of Leviticus is God laying out for them how they are to operate as a nation. For 400 years they had taken orders from Egypt and they did not remember what it meant to follow their God so God spends Leviticus telling them the rhythms of following him. Everything from government, how to worship, how to plant their crops and when to plant, when to harvest their crops.
This is what it says in chapter 26, verse 3: 3"If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, 4then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely.
So God tells them when to plant and when the rains will come. He says, follow me and here is what will happen. This relationship is a two way road though. Verse 18: 18And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins, 19and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. 20And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
So after telling them, this is how you can make it rain so that your crops will grow, here is how you can stop it from raining. Stop following me. Stop following me and the skies will be like iron and the ground like bronze.
Fast forward about 1000 years. Israel has become a nation, they are strong, they have a king, they are becoming like other nations, but they are following God. Things are going well.
Flip over the book of 1 Kings chapter 17 which is on p. 258. 1 Kings is a book about the kings of Israel, real obvious.
Israel’s first 3 kings reigned for about 100 years between them and they were good kings. Saul, then David who is considered to be the best king they had, and then David’s son Solomon who was one of the wealthiest people on the planet when he was alive.
Before we get to Elijah I want to give us a little background on the kings that went from Solomon until Elijah came on the scene. So Solomon dies and the nation of Israel was split into 2 kingdoms, the north and the south. One of his sons, Jeroboam became king, now remember David his grandfather and Solomon his father have been blessed by God and they are commended throughout the Bible for following the ways of God.
1 Kings 13:33: 33After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places.
High places is what they called the places where they worshiped foreign idols and false gods. So right away, the first king is not off to a good start of following God. Jeroboam reigned for 22 years, then his son Nadab followed him. 1 Kings 15:25: 25Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. So we have the record of the two kingdoms and who is ruling over them.
Verse 26: 26He (Nadab) did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin which he made Israel to sin.
So Nadab lasts for 2 years as king over Israel. He is then killed by his successor. Verse 27 of chapter 15: 27Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him (Nadab). And Baasha struck him down at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, for Nadab and all Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon. 28So Baasha killed him in the third year of Asa king of Judah and reigned in his place.
Verse 29: 29And as soon as he (Baasha) was king, he killed all the house of Jeroboam. He left to the house of Jeroboam not one that breathed, until he had destroyed it, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite. 30It was for the sins of Jeroboam that he sinned and that he made Israel to sin, and because of the anger to which he provoked the LORD, the God of Israel.
So here is Baasha who kills the previous King and everyone who is related to him and rules Israel for 24 years. After 24 years we are told in 1 Kings 16, verse 8: 8In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha began to reign over Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned two years.
So Elah is now king and he reigns for 2 years. What happens to him? This would make a good soap opera, don’t you think? The drama. 1 Kings 16, verse 9: 9But his (Elah) servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him. When he was at Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, who was over the household in Tirzah, 10Zimri came in and struck him down and killed him, in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place. 11When he began to reign, as soon as he had seated himself on his throne, he struck down all the house of Baasha. He did not leave him a single male of his relatives or his friends.
One person after another keeps killing the king and becoming king. Not a safe job.
Verse 21 of chapter 16: 21Then the people of Israel were divided into two parts. Half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king, and half followed Omri. 22But the people who followed Omri overcame the people who followed Tibni the son of Ginath. So Tibni died, and Omri became king. 23In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri began to reign over Israel, and he reigned for twelve years; six years he reigned in Tirzah. 24He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents[a] of silver, and he fortified the hill and called the name of the city that he built Samaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill. 25Omri did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did more evil than all who were before him. 26For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in the sins that he made Israel to sin, provoking the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger by their idols.
Verse 28: 28And Omri slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria, and Ahab his son reigned in his place.
So Omri, the worst king dies. Did you notice that each time they talked about a new king in Israel they said who was king in Judah. Did you notice it was the same guy? Through all of that, 60 years of kings after Solomon, Judah has one king. 60 years after having Kings that followed God. It took 60 years to walk away from the promises of God and worship other gods.
So Omri dies and his son Ahab becomes king. Look at 1 Kings 16, verse 30: 30And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. 31And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. 32He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. 33And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.
So Ahab takes as his wife, a princess from another country who does not worship God. Probably a good political move, but not a good move at all.
So after all that Elijah comes on the scene. After 60 years of worshiping idols, of doing evil the eyes of God, of killing each other so you could be king, here comes Elijah.
1 Kings 17, verse 1: 1Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe[a] in Gilead,
So here comes Elijah. We are told he is from Gilead from a town called Tishbe. Historians are not sure where Tishbe is, it is written about in other places besides the Bible, but we aren’t sure of its location. Gilead was a distant place in the mountains. So Elijah would have been an outdoorsy kind of guy, rugged, rough skin, rough, not polished.
Tishbe is believed to have been a very small town, a one horse kind of town, and most historians believe he was not Jewish. Elijah’s name though means, “The Lord is my God” so he has that reminder wherever he goes.
This is the first time we even hear about Elijah. We are not told who is father was, what tribe he was from, which was important then. He has no clout, he is just a nobody. Just some guy.
So Elijah walks up to King Ahab and says in verse 1: "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." Other translations put these years at 3 years.
So the first thing Elijah does is walk up to the king, get in his face and tell him that it will not rain or dew for 3 years. This is awesome, this is gutsy. Remember Leviticus, God said, follow me and it will rain, you will have food. Stop following me and the sky becomes iron. So we have Ahab the King who is married Jezebel and they worship the god Baal.
When God threatens to stop the rain and dew for 3 years, he is directly challenging Baal. Baal was the god of rain and fertility and therefore, he was the god of riches. The image of Baal was of a bull, which represented productivity and wealth. Here is a picture of Baal. He has a club of thunder in one hand and a sprig representing lightning in the other.
So God says, you want to worship Baal who you believe is the god of rain. Fine. It won’t rain for 3 years. God is saying, “Let’s see who really makes it rain.”
So after this announcement, Elijah goes into hiding, verse 2: 2And the word of the LORD came to him, 3"Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 4You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there." 5So he went and did according to the word of the LORD. He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan. 6And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. 7And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
So God tells Elijah to leave and go hide at a brook called Cherith. You would think that after Elijah tells the king what is going to happen, God would want him to stay around the king, to remind him that God is punishing him and calling him back to following him. Instead, he takes him away. Whenever God called someone into the wilderness, away from everyone, it was to work on something in their character. There were things that Elijah needed to work on before he could do all that God wanted him to do. Which is interesting, because often we have this idea that I can’t do anything for God until, and fill in the blank. It is like waiting to have kids until you can afford it, never happens.
Often we say, I would like to go on a missions trip, but I need to do this, or I am not ready. I would like to talk with my friend about God, but I don’t know enough. So we miss opportunities God puts in front of us.
So God takes Elijah into the wilderness to work on his character. A.W. Tozer said, “It’s doubtful that God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.” This is such a true statement, the thing that hurt us the most are often the things that God uses the most. The word Cherith where Elijah went means “to cut off, to cut down.” So Elijah knows God is going to work on his character and make him into who he needs to be. We need to get to the place where we are a follower of Jesus and that is enough. But to do that, God often has to work through our character, we need to be with him for this to happen.
We rarely do this though. We do whatever we can to stay away from alone time with God where he can work on our character. Because this is painful. Have you ever taken a new job and found out that everybody at your new job is as defective as everyone at your last job and you think, is everyone like this? Nope, you came along. Often I hear people say, “I hate my job.” No you don’t, you hate your life, you just don’t want to deal with it. Because when we think like that, we are looking for our God in our job.
I have friends who are single who see marriage as the key to their happiness. That if they could just get married all their dreams would come true and life would be exactly how they imagined it in their mind. They describe this mate as someone who will always be there, be loving, never smell, always wake up with make up on, hair in place, perfect. When they kiss, birds fly over head, it is raining and their song is playing. I want to ask them, “Have you talked to a married person?” I think, 5 minutes with Katie telling you about me, and you’ll think, so it isn’t all roses. Because we often look for God in someone else.
A.W. Pink said, “Elijah needed further training in secret if he was to be personally fitted to speak again for God in public…The man whom God uses has to be kept low: severe discipline has to be experienced by him…Three more years must be spent by the prophet in seclusion. How humbling! Alas, how little is man to be trusted: how little is he able to bear being put into the place of honor! How quickly self rises to the surface, and the instrument is ready to believe he is something more than an instrument. How sadly easy it is to make of the very service God entrusts us with a pedestal on which to display ourselves.”
One of the things God wants to keep Elijah from is thinking he is something he is not, namely, God. He wants to keep Elijah from thinking he stopped it from raining. He wants Elijah to remember who he is, that he is a normal guy from a small town that God called. He is special simply because God is using, not because there is anything out of the ordinary about Elijah. The only thing special about Elijah is that he followed God.
William Elliott said, “The reason so many of us are overwrought, tense, distracted, and anxious is that we’ve never mastered the art of living one day at a time. Physically we do live a day at a time. We can’t quite help ourselves. But mentally we live in all three tenses at once.”
What is interesting is that God tells Elijah to tell Ahab it won’t rain, but nothing else. After he was done with that, God told him the next step. Often, this is what holds us up in life. We want to have everything mapped out, after we go here and do this, we will do that. The call God gives to Elijah and us is, “Follow me and trust me for the next step.”
So Elijah is in the wilderness, God is working on him, preparing him for what is ahead, almost like training camp. Finally, the brook runs out of water. Have you ever had a time when you prayed for something, God answered it, but it didn’t turn out the way you thought it would. Elijah said it wouldn’t rain, now he has to deal with the drought like everyone else.
Verse 8: 8Then the word of the LORD came to him, 9"Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you." 10So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, "Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink." 11And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, "Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand." 12And she said, "As the LORD your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die." 13And Elijah said to her, "Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. 14For thus says the LORD the God of Israel, ’The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain upon the earth.’" 15And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. 16The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah.
So Elijah goes to Zarephath, which 100 miles away. Zarephath is a small town in the country of Phoenicia, which is modern day Lebanon and Syria, which is where Jezebel, Ahab’s wife is from. Phoenicia is the capital of Baal worship. So not only is Baal incapable of making it rain in Israel, God now sends his prophet to the capital of Baal worship, which is experiencing a drought as well. But not only that, God provides for Elijah, this widow and her son in the middle of the drought in the middle of Baal’s home turf. God is really pushing the buttons of Baal. Love it.
God doesn’t send Elijah to a wealthy person or a well known person. He sends him to a widow, we are not even told her name. But during a drought, widow’s, because they were poor would have been the people who ran out of food first. So God is saying, you will be provided for through me by a person with the least amount in the country.
So Elijah asks her for food and because she honors his request, they have enough food to survive.
Verse 17: 17After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18And she said to Elijah, "What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!" 19And he said to her, "Give me your son." And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. 20And he cried to the LORD, "O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?" 21Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this child’s life come into him again." 22And the LORD listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, "See, your son lives." 24And the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth."
Remember what Hebrews said about faith? “Women received back their dead by resurrection.” Do you think the writer was talking about Elijah?
Do you think Elijah could have handled the death of this woman’s son right after he told Ahab it wouldn’t rain? God does not waste our experiences. He does not waste the good things that happen to us and he doesn’t waste the painful things we go through, the tough times.
Elijah has seen God take the water away from the land he lives in. God fed him by having birds bring him food and a stream with fresh water. Elijah has seen the power of God. He knows what God can do.
So the widow’s son dies and Elijah takes him to his room. In Verse 21 he asks God to raise him from the dead. If you have read any portion of the Bible you know that people are raised from the dead. C.S. Lewis told the story of Jesus being raised from the dead in the story of Narnia in the clip we saw. Lazarus was raised from the dead, Peter raises a boy from the dead. What makes this different is that this was the first person recorded in the Bible that was raised from the dead. How did Elijah even know to ask that? No one before him has been raised from the dead.
Imagine the conversation going on in Elijah’s head. What if I ask God to raise him from the dead? Can you do that, can he do that? I don’t know. Birds brought me food, the rain stopped, why can’t he bring him back from the dead.
Remember, they are in Phoenicia, the capital of Baal worship. Because Baal is the god of rain, he is also the giver and sustainer of life. Water brought the crops to life and gave them food, they also needed water to drink. Baal kept them alive. By raising this boy to life, God is showing who is the giver of life. He is showing who has that power.
So here is the question, who are you trusting for your life? Who are you following? Who are you believing has the power to control life? Is it you? Are you banking that you can keep everything going? That you can keep all the plates in the air, or are you trusting God.
Throughout the life of Elijah, over and over God shows how powerful he is and that he is the God of all life. To sum up the life of Elijah it is remember the power of God. Remember who life comes from. Remember where everything we have comes from.
Look at the paper hanging on the wall. Last week we wrote down times that God answered our prayers or moved in our lives. I would encourage you to read those papers some time and be reminded of how God moves within our community and how powerful he is.
As the band comes back up, we are going to do something a little different today. Before we take communion together, we are going to worship God with our finances. This is an opportunity for those of us who call Beginnings Church our church home to give back to God a portion of what he has given to us. This is also an opportunity for us to be reminded of the power of God. When we give back to him in a financial way, we are saying that we trust him to provide for us and show his power to us financially.
If you are a visitor with us, if you could fill out the communication card in your program so we can know who you are, that would be great.
After we take our offering, feel free to come up and take communion whenever you are ready. While this is going on, the band will be leading us in some songs. Feel free to listen or sing along, whatever you need to do during this time.
