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Elijah in the conflict I Kings 18:1-19
So far we’ve seen that Elijah had been sent by God to give Ahab who was a wicked king a message or maybe a weather report would be a better description. Ahab was told that there would be no more rain until the Elijah said so. And then we saw how God directed and provided for the prophet as he sent him to Cherith where he was fed by birds and provided water from the brook. From there he was sent to Zaraphath where God provided enough meal to make food for the widow, her son and the prophet. And during his stay in her home we saw how her son got sick and died and then the prophet miraculously raised the boy from the dead.
You will also remember how last week I spoke of the pain we experience and the process of grieving as we go through with the death of a loved one. And I spoke about how we can minister to others during these difficult times. It was said that a man came to Buddha and told him, “The love of my life has died and I don’t feel like I can live any longer.” Buddha said, “Go to every home in town and ask if they ever experienced loss through death. If the answer is no, then ask them for a kernel of corn and come back when your bowl is full.” It wasn’t much of an answer to his question but it does demonstrate how everyone faces the same thing in life. At one time or another we will all experience the process of grieving the loss of our loved ones. And then you will remember how I reminded you at the close, how each of us has an appointment with death using what I hope is becoming a very memorable verse from Hebrews 9:27, “It is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgement.”
Well, we all see all this and say, “Where is God’s power today?” The scripture says that Elijah was just an ordinary man but very few of us have had birds bring our food or the material for biscuits to appear supernaturally. And as I said, “God can and does provide today but maybe we should be grateful that we don’t have to have such needs. These were provided for people who had absolutely nothing else.”
I believe God still demonstrates His power today but the question is, do we really want to see it? Acts 1:8 says, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” In the greek the word for power is dynamis. From this we get the word dynamite. It’s an explosive power that can change lives. As we die to self and become His witnesses we will experience this power and enjoy the ultimate miracle which is seeing people redeemed from sin and then living for all of eternity.
Before we look into the passage that I read let me take a few minutes and focus on the role of the prophet. I want to point out four marks of a true prophet. This list isn’t exhaustive but it serves to demonstrate for us just who Elijah is.
1 As I said before he is an ordinary man. I don’t think I can emphasize this enough. Like all the rest of the prophets he was a person just like us. He was one whom God had decided to use for His specific purposes. I’ve tried to establish this at the beginning of every message by referring to the verse in James that describes Elijah as, “a man of like passions.” This verse tells us that he’s just like you and I and God uses him anyway. Listen, if God used someone extra-ordinary person who could wow the crowds with his good looks and magnetic personality then who would get the glory. Obviously, it would go to the man and not to God. So we have to see Elijah as an ordinary man and not be guilty of painting him as some wild eyed prophet with long gray hair blowing in the breeze or we will miss the miraculous. And that is that God uses ordinary, everyday people. People just like you and I.
2 He was an obedient man. One thing we notice about Elijah. He went where he was sent. First to the palace, then to Cherith, then on to Zaraphath and then back to confront Ahab. One thing this teaches us is that, God doesn’t use rebels. He never uses those who have no respect for Biblical authority. In I Samuel 15:23 it says, “Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.” Now, let me ask you a simple question. Would God use a witch to preach His word? Of course, He wouldn’t. Well then according to this verse He wouldn’t use a rebel either because rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.
3 Elijah is an ambassador. He doesn’t speak for himself. He isn’t expressing his opinions and I don’t think he’s upset because someone doesn’t like what he’s saying. He’s simply delivering a message for someone else. An ambassador doesn’t take it personal if his message is rejected and neither should he feel as though he’s accomplished something if it’s accepted. It’s not his message. And he doesn’t change the message to suit the crowd. It’s like when the apostle Paul as he stood before King Agrippa. His message was the same as any other time he preached. It was repent or perish. We might change the style of delivery when addressing different people like a class of first graders but the message never changes.
I heard about a guest preacher who traveled to a church down south. As he was on the platform waiting to preach one of the deacons leaned over and said to him, “Whatever you do, don’t preach about money today. We have a rich man visiting and we sure wouldn’t want to scare him off.” A minute later he leaned back over and said, “Oh, and whatever you do don’t mention smoking. We have a few tobacco farmers here and we sure wouldn’t want to offend them.” Well, the preacher was kind of wondering what he should say so he leaned over to the deacon and said, “Do you have any suggestions?” The deacon looked around the room and said, “Why don’t you just preach against the jews. I don’t see any of them here tonight.” So, Elijah is an ordinary man, he’s an obedient man, he’s an ambassador and he’s called of God.
4 He is called of God. Elijah didn’t volunteer to preach. God called him and God was the One who gave him the gifts to do the job he was called to do. In Jeremiah 20:9 we read where Jeremiah tried to resign when the people of his hometown wanted to kill him but he said he had to preach. He said the message was like a fire in his bones. I remember reading where D.L. Moody said, “He felt like a steamship. He had to either go fast or burst.” There was no choice involved. You remember when we looked at the life of Jonah. He was another one who couldn’t quit if he wanted to. And he did want to. Elijah didn’t get the job because he was first in his class at Bible college or because he won a preaching contest. He was called of God and that was that.
Now to get to the passage, we realize that the presuppositions about a passage can do much to affect our understanding or interpretation. For instance, we get our information through the media and we see people in India who are starving while cows are walking around and we say, “They need spiritual liberation, and then they’ll be able to eat.” On the other hand the people of India look at their television sets and they see the people in North America as alcoholics and drug addicts. They see that we spend more money on dog food than the gross national product of most third world countries. They figure we need spiritual liberation so we can live. Not everyone in India is starving and not everyone in North America drinks, does drugs or even owns a dog. But all of us are conditioned by the media. And if we hear something often enough we tend to believe it.
There are many presuppositions in scripture as well. For instance we all have received Christmas cards depicting three wise men coming to Bethlehem to see the baby Jesus in the manger. The problem is, Jesus wasn’t in a manger by the time the wise men got there.He was at least two years old by then. We’ve all seen Leonardo Davinci’s portrait of Jesus and the disciples at the last supper and we assume that this describes the scene. The problem is, no one sat on chairs back then. And if they did they wouldn’t all sit on the same side of the table. When did Jesus become God? Was He perfect as a five year old. Yes, He was perfect but He wasn’t peculiar. Was He able to perform miracles at five years old? Yes, but He didn’t. We are told that His first miracle was in John chapter two where He turned water into wine. We have to see things as they are and not as we have been told.
And so we come back to this passage. And we have to ask ourselves, what does the scripture say? We don’t want just our view of the passage to be the product of someone else’s thinking. We have to ask ourselves what the scripture says.
So here we are and once again Elijah is on the move. And God says to him, “Go present yourself to Ahab. I’m going to make it rain.” I think I’d probably say, go ahead, just make it rain. Why endanger me?” But that’s what makes Elijah a prophet. There’s no hesitation. He’s sent and he went. At one time God says, “Go hide thyself” and now He says, “Go show thyself.” and with an attitude of implicit obedience Elijah goes. In order for God to get the glory for the drought and then for the rain the same one who prophesied about the drought would have to prophesy about the rain. Otherwise, the prophets of Baal would take credit for what was going on.
Along the way as Elijah came back into Israel he would see the devastation caused by the drought. There was severe famine, animal carcasses and no greenery of any kind. And no doubt the roads on the way would be dotted with the stiffened corpses of the very poor. He knew Ahab would be angry since he attributed the drought to Elijah. Logic would seem to imply that if Elijah was the one who caused the drought then all they’d have to do is kill him and the drought would be over.
It’s interesting to see what Ahab is doing during the drought. He’s out looking for water for his animals. People are thirsting to death but his concern is pets before people.
I Elijah’s encounter with Obadiah
a Look at what the scripture tells us about Obadiah. He was a governor or a chief civil servant. He was in charge of all of Ahab’s house. Obadiah was an important man. It says he believed strongly in God and that he hid one hundred prophets in a cave. He provided bread and water for them during a drought. This would take a lot of money. We have to ask ourselves, “What kind of a man was he? What kind of a testimony did he have?” And the conclusion we have to come to is it must have been pretty low key. I mean the king didn’t even know that he was a believer. After all, Ahab and Jezebel were killing believers but why not Obadiah? I think he had a silent testimony. I asked a friend if he had ever spoken to his neighbor about the Lord and he said, “It’s more important to have a consistent testimony in your lifestyle than to be preaching to people and being inconsistent.” I agree with part of that. Your verbal witness must be consistent with your lifestyle but if there’s no verbal expression of our testimony than how can they tell us from the Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses? For the most part, the members of the cults that I’ve met lead good clean lives.
B Obadiah had a problem. He was carnal and the word carnal means fleshly. We use the words chile con carne they mean chili with flesh. The flesh is the part of our nature which is attracted to the world. And even though Obadiah saw himself as a religious man the fact was he was committed to his own comfort. We knows this because;
i Obadiah was sitting on the fence. He serves Ahab and enjoys living in the palace but he’s also religious and gives to the Lord’s work and by doing this he feels as though he’s pleased God. He was motivated by his own security. He’s keeping the king happy and he thinks he’s doing the same with God.
ii People might have thought of him as a pretty good guy but he obviously never took a stand for anything or else he’d be dead. I think everyone liked Obadiah. He was nice to the people who were killing the jews while being nice to the jews themselves. He was just one of those people who is simply socially acceptable. In Luke 6:26 Jesus said, “Woe unto you when all men speak well of you.” After all, the good offend the bad and the bad offend the good but the person in the middle doesn’t offend anyone. They’re neither hot nor cold. The Bible calls them luke warm and Jesus says in Revelation 3:20 “I’ll spit them out of my mouth.” (Which is another way of saying, they make Him sick)
iii We all wrestle with the same problems Obadiah had with worldliness and materialism. I’ve told you before that I love fancy cars with all the toys but just because I’d love to have one doesn’t mean I plan to. I realize that’s just part of the world that attracts my flesh. I think if we don’t wrestle with materialism it’s because we’ve given in to it. I mean we all want to look like we’re prosperous. We live in an age where society tells us that cars should never last longer than two years and our clothes for one. I’ve got good news. My car’s eight years old and most of my suits are older than my car.
James 4:1-4 rebukes believers who spend their lives in pursuit of materialism.”From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts, Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” This tells us their prayers are only for the things of this world. Balance is the key. We have to ask, “Lord, what would honor you?” And then follow His direction.
A had a friend one time who was very serious about finances. He really wanted to honor the Lord with every nickel he had. He was going to have a chocolate bar one day but changed his mind and said, “He was going to send the money to missions.” My first thought was, “The missionary probably would probably receive the money and go out and get himself a chocolate bar.” I mean you do have to use some common sense. I Corinthians 7:30,31 tells us to, “Buy as though you did not possess, use this world as not misusing it.” Keep in mind that this world is not our home.
iv Obadiah claimed to serve both God and man, but in the end he doesn’t serve either. He just lives to serve his own selfish, self centered interests. We can see why Jesus called a Peter. Peter would deny the Lord or die for Him. He was either in forward or reverse. Peter never seemed to understand the term neutral.
E I think Obadiah’s friends are what determined his spiritual temperature.
1 He’s like the politician when someone asked him where he stood on an issue. He said, “Some of my friends are for it, and some of them are against it. I’m for my friends.” When he was with Ahab he worked hard. He was responsible and made something of himself. And then he used his position at least once to help the prophets. I don’t think he was a bad man. He wasn’t a good man either. He was a bland man. He tried to be all things to all men and in the end he was nothing to no one. There was nothing in his religion that would offend Ahab and nothing that would attract anyone to the living God.
2 When he was with Elijah he declared his testimony. He says, “I feared God since I was young.” He spoke of his works and how he took care of the prophets. We have to ask ourselves, what’s the good of hiding prophets? Even Jezebel wouldn’t mind that. The word would soon get around that they were just insincere cowards hiding in a cave.
II Elijah opposes Obadiah
a I think Elijah had a dislike for Obadiah. After all, here is Obadiah saying, you know we’ve got a lot in common. I mean, we both believe in the same God and you may have been out preaching but I was sacrificing my goods for the prophets of the Lord. We’re a lot alike. The fact is, Elijah had just spent three years on the run while Obadiah was enjoying palace living. It’s kind of like when a car breaks down, one guy get out and pushes while the other one steers. When the one who steers complains about the heat he receives very little sympathy from the guy who’s pushing.
B We also notice that Obadiah calls Elijah lord and this was considered to be a great term of respect. Rather than let it go, Elijah corrects him by saying, “Go tell your lord Ahab.” What he’s saying is, how can you say you love God when you’re prospering those who hate Him?
One time when I was in Toronto I was tired of where I was working and I went to see a headhunter. This is what they called the executive employment agency. I met with counselor who was a Jewish girl who said I was the perfect candidate for a company called OKA Cheese. The money was good and they had a great car program. It all looked great. And then she said, “You know they’re a solid company. They’re owned by a large international distillery.” I said, ”Forget it, I’m not interested.” She asked why and I told her I was a Christian. I could tell she didn’t understand the problem. So I said, “If you found out that the company you work for was owned by a group of Nazi’s, would you still enjoy working here?” She said, I understand your point.
So, Elijah was saying to Obadiah, “How can you profess to be a believer when your working for the one who’s doing everything he can to destroy believers.” Obadiah declares his faith and works but he’s talking to one who laid his life on the line. Elijah doesn’t just give a testimony when it’s convenient he gives the testimony and then backs it up by the way he lives. He finishes by telling Obadiah to go tell your master Ahab that Elijah is here.
C Obadiah objects. Basically, he’s saying I don’t trust you. You might disappear. Or, I don’t trust Ahab, if he thinks I had anything to do with hiding you he’ll kill me. What he was really saying was, I don’t trust God. I fear Him, I just don’t trust Him. I think that what he was really saying was, I don’t want to have any thing to do with you that might publicly implicate me as a believer. I don’t think he had to fear that Elijah wanted to publicly identify himself with Obadiah. Elijah tells him to go and promises he’ll appear and we imagine that Obadiah reluctantly returns to find the king. At the same time I don’t think there is any doubt that Obadiah wishes he could maintain his neutrality in the battle of good and evil. As Dante once said, “The hottest place in hell is reserved for those who maintain their position of neutrality in the face of a crisis.” And they were in the face of a crisis both spiritually and physically.
There are some people in scripture who used their positions to further the kingdom. We think of Joseph who served under the Pharaoh of Egypt. He used his position to feed the land of Israel during the seven year famine. And then there was Daniel who was faithful to God under Nebecunezer. He was publicly known as a man of prayer and actually got his position by putting his faith on the line when he put God to the test in the issue of eating the food that was contrary to the will of God. And then later on, he gave testimony to his faith as he spoke God’s word into the various situations he found himself in. And then we see Esther who saved her people from Haman. And many other people throughout the Bible that used the positions God placed them in to honor Him. I believe God does use people in responsible positions but the question is always one of motive. And I have to ask myself, is my position given to me by God for His glory or is it just for my own enjoyment and pleasure. We are to be in the world and not of it. We are to be salt and light both permeating the darkness and exposing it for what it is. So, we have to ask ourselves, are we where we are to change the world or is the world changing us.
III Elijah’s encounter with Ahab
a When Ahab first met Elijah he probably didn’t take him very seriously. I mean, what would some prophet from the desert know about weather forecasting. I think three and a half years of drought got his attention. As Obadiah eludes to, an all points bulletin went out and everyone everywhere had to swear that they weren’t hiding Elijah. It must have been awfully embarrassing to find out that he was living the last year or two in his wife’s hometown.
B Ahab could tolerate Obadiah because he was never threatened by his testimony if he ever had one but here he asks Elijah an interesting question. “Is that you, O trouble of Israel” What he was saying was, the animals are dying and people are starving to death and it’s all your fault. Ahab was attributing the drought to Elijah’s magical powers. He failed to see the judgement of God on his own life. Basically, he was saying, you see all this. You did this.
C Look at Elijah’s answer. There’s no defense just a statement. This is all your fault. You forsook the law. You ignored the law of God and you followed idols. You don’t violate the law and get away with it any more than you violate the law of gravity. As someone said, “”We don’t break the law, the law breaks us.” In Ephesians chapter five we have guidelines for our family and work relationships. When we violate these guidelines we don’t fail a test in heaven. Our families fall apart.
D Elijah had said enough. Now, it was time for a confrontation. And here we have Elijah inviting Ahab to gather together the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal with the four hundred prophets of Asherah and meet him on Mount Carmel. When he says Mt. Carmel one might almost get the impression that he make a mistake. I mean Mt. Carmel would be the most likely place for the prophets of Baal to choose for a showdown. Anywhere down below would have been desert area and more so because of the drought. If there was greenery anywhere it would be on Mt. Carmel. So, everything was in their favor up there. But this is the place where Elijah says, “God will choose.” And we’ll look at this confrontation the next day.
As we’ve seen this devastating drought in the land of Israel I think the lack of rain in the land illustrated for them that there was also a spiritual drought in their souls. There had been no rain for the last three and a half years and I think there had been no spiritual refreshing from the Lord for a lot longer than that. The problem is, people are more conscious of what’s happening in the physical realm than they are in the spiritual. And so it’s no wonder that God has to allow things to come into their lives to get their attention.
As we wrap up this morning I think we have to ask ourselves the simple question. “So what.” What does it matter that a couple of thousand years ago a righteous prophet confronted a wicked king and rebuked a compromising middle man. I think we have to see that there are the same kinds of people in our world today. I think we can identify with Elijah because as I said the scripture tells us he was a man of like passions or someone just like ourselves. And around us there are always those who are like Ahab, people who are more committed to their own comforts then they are to the needs of those around them. And sad to say there are plenty of those like Obadiah around us as well. The Ahabs are easy to deal with. They know they’re lost and for the most part they don’t seem to care. We still need to attempt to reach them with the news of both the love and also the impending judgement of God. The Obadiah’s are much more difficult to deal with. They’re the people who seem to be religious and seem to care about the needs of those around them. They’re involved in helping children in the third world, they are the volunteers at the hospital, they staff the food banks and do many wonderful works but for the most part they will tell you that they don’t know the Lord and don’t care. The problem is that many of these will come to Jesus on the last day and say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” And these I’m afraid are the most difficult to reach because they fall into the category of the Obadiahs.
It’s interesting to see that neither of these two ever took up Elijah’s challenge to accept the faith. As the scripture says, “Few there be that will be saved.” We don’t ignore these people but we have to accept the fact that people make their own decisions as far as God is concerned.
