Elijah’s on the run I Kings 18: 41-19:4
The way some people talk you would almost think the true Christian life is one where we experience one miracle after another. The fact is, even in the Bible miracles are rare. That’s what makes them miracles. If miracles were common occurrences then what would be so miraculous about them. I think miracles are like diamonds and it’s their rarity gives them value. If you had to get up every morning and sweep diamonds off your floor or out of your driveway then only the very crazy would have them on their rings. Get this into your head, miracles are rare.
I read a definition of a miracle in a theological book. It said ‘miracles are the supernatural works of God which cannot be explained by the usual pattern of nature.’ The first couple of years I was saved I was very interested in the miraculous and I went to see various charismatic healers. I remember seeing guys like Benny Hinn when he first started. He always appeared sharp in expensive suits and very in control. I was there one night when a man came forward with his wife who he said was just diagnosed with cancer. Benny put his hand on her head and she fell over. He walked away and said she was healed. I have no doubt that she died not too long after. During that time I used to go down to the Evangel Temple because they always brought in the American preachers who really knew how to put on a show. I was there with a friend one night who didn’t know what he thought about the whole healing thing but he said he was sure this preacher was a phoney. I think the give away was the prayer time he had at the beginning of the service when the preacher prayed for his poodle who was sick at the Royal York hotel. That was the indication for me that this guy was way off base. My friend had a stomach problem and he always ate Tums to deal with the acid in his system. The altar call came for people to go forward and be healed and I was surprised to see my friend was the first one to go down the aisle. When he came back I was half laughing and I asked him what happened. He said, “I don’t care if he was phoney I got healed anyway.” Later on I wondered, “If he was healed then who healed him? Was it the phoney preacher? Was God somehow empowering and therefore using the phoney preacher? Or did the devil do it?” I think the answer came later on when my friend popped some Tums. The fact is, no one healed him. There are three purposes of miracles in the Bible. The first purpose is always to glorify God. Throughout scripture we see those who perform miracles and those who receive them always praise God. They recognize that God alone is the source of the miracles. There are several non-believers who see miracles happen in both the Old and New Testament but they don’t give God any credit. For instance, Ahab was one, pharaoh was another and then we have the pharisees throughout the New Testament and there were several hundred people in the Garden of Gethseme when Jesus healed Malcus after Peter stabbed him with the sword. All these people witnessed Jesus healing him but they still participated in the crucifixion. The second purpose for miracles is that they give credibility to the word of God. Luke 5:24 Jesus says to the man He healed in the hearing of the scribes and pharisees, “That you might know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. He said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you arise take up your bed and go to your house.” And third, we see instances where miracles happened to meet human need. And of course Elijah’s physical needs would fit in here but we could also look at Jesus, where it is often said that “He was moved with compassion for those who were needy and suffering.” The fact is He never did anything just to put on a show. As a matter of fact, God never uses miracles as a money raising gimmick or to entertain the masses.
There are three periods of miracles in history interspersed with individual acts of God. Let me take a few minutes to review some of the Old Testament miracles. As I said there are a few individual acts and by this I mean; things like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah which was God’s act of judgement and then we have Joseph’s dreams which God used to open doors for him.
After these two we come to the first set of miracles in the Old Testament. These take place during the times of Moses. He’s God’s first official preacher and teacher. First we have the burning bush which serves as the call of God on his life and then he was introduced to Israel by his hands turning leprous and his rod turning into a snake. These were signs of authentification for him as God’s prophet to the nation of Israel.
Then Moses demonstrated several miracles as he challenged the pharaoh of Egypt. We have the water turning to blood, the plague of frogs, the dust becoming lice, swarms of flies, all the Egyptian cattle dying, blisters on the people, hail mingled with fire, locusts on the land, darkness over all of Egypt and the death of the firstborn. These were followed by the appearance of God by day and night and then by the dividing of the Red Sea which was followed by the death of the Egyptian army.
Then we have the miracles of the forty-year journey as Israel traveled into the promised land. There’s the provision of manna, the water from the rock, the crossing of the Red Sea, the victory over Amalek, the giving of the ten commandments, the presence of the guardian angel in Exodus 23, the plagues on the people for their sin and the appearance of the glory of the Lord after the tabernacle was set up.
In Leviticus we have the account where God kills Aaron’s sons. And in Numbers the people have manna but they complain about it and then they receive quail after which the judgment of God follows. And then we have the account where Marion gets leprosy as a result of her rebellious attitude. And then we have the rebellion of Korah where he, his family and all their followers were killed by God. Then there’s Aaron’s rod that buds, the serpent of brass is given to heal the people, Baalam’s donkey speaks to him and the plague on the people for intermarriage.
In Joshua the waters of the Jordan are parted, the walls of Jericho fall down and the sin of Achan is exposed. In Judges we have Gideon’s fleece and then his victory with three hundred men. And then we have the life of Samson who was an unusual man in every respect. He performs great feats of strength and these are interspersed by times of sin. All these are the miracles that took place up until the times of Elijah. After Elijah we have the miracles of Elisha and then the miracles in the book of Jonah and that’s it for the Old Testament. In the New Testament we have Jesus miracles which are followed by those of the apostles and for the most part the miracles stopped around the turn of the century. I’m not saying God doesn’t still perform miracles today it’s just that we don’t need them to confirm His existence because we have the word of God.
As we come to Elijah’s day we see the people of Israel had forsaken God and His law. And all of Elijah’s miracles are related to the law. Let me show you how. The three and a half-year drought was a curse for forsaking the law according to Deut. 11:16,17. And then God’s provision at Cherith and Zaraphath was the result of a promise given in Deut. 28:11 because the promise was for plenty for those who keep the law. The famine that struck the land as a result of the drought came according to Deut. 28. The bullock offered on Mt. Carmel was the offering given for a prophet or priest which is found in Lev. 16:6. The necessity of salt given with the offering was found in Lev. 4. The fire that came from heaven was the result of the promise of Lev. 6:13 where the fire of the altar was to never go out. The rain that followed was the result of the promise given by God that it would happen if they would turn to Him in Deut. 11:3. And even the false prophets were killed according to the law that was given in Deut. 13:1-5. And so we’d say that Elijah not only knew the Bible, he lived it.
I Elijah’s prayer life (Remembering the promise)
a Verse 41,42 we see the earnestness of his prayer.
1 Back in 18:1 God promised it would rain. He said, “Go show yourself to Ahab and I will make it rain upon the earth.” And now Elijah was simply claiming that promise. Earlier he had asked God to send fire on the wet wood and now he’s asking Him to send rain on the dry land. The drought had come as a result of the people’s disobedience to God and now that the people had turned back to Him there was nothing holding back the rain but the very will of God and Elijah is now praying for this to happen.
2 Not only did Elijah believe that God could make it rain but he really stepped out in faith. He told the king that God was going to make it rain. In verse 41 he says, “Get up eat and drink, for there is sound of abundance of rain.” At this point there was no evidence of rain. This was quite a message considering it hadn’t rained for three and a half-years and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. His servant didn’t even see the fist in the sky but as far as Elijah was concerned he saw the rain pouring down. He was looking to God not to the circumstances. He wasn’t concerned about the appearance of the sky or the dryness of the air.
3 It says “he knelt with his face between his knees.” I think his posture reflected his attitude. Let me ask you a simple question. Is there a proper posture for prayer? The answer is simple, it’s no. Scripture gives us examples of people who pray in the morning, people who pray at noon and people who prayed at night. There are some who prayed seven times a day, while others prayed for days and some for weeks. Some prayed for long while others prayed for shorter periods of time. Not only did people pray for different periods of time but we see some prayed kneeling and some standing, some were lying on a bed, some had their faces down to the ground, some with their hands up, some with their hands down, some face up and others face down. I think it’s clear that there is no right way to prayer and no way that’s better than any other. The wrong way to pray for the Christian is not to pray at all. As Calvin Coleridge said, “Prayer is the highest energy of which the human heart is capable and it’s the Christian’s greatest achievement on earth.” We have not only the right but we have the responsibility to pray.
Jesus told us that the only thing we have to avoid is meaningless, repetitious prayer. That’s the kind that’s offered with the misconception that God will listen more intently if we go on forever. And that’s why we avoid such things as prayer beads and prayer books. The Buddhists spin wheels with prayers attached. They believe that every turn of the wheel sends the message off to God. The Roman Catholics light candles and they believe their requests continue to ascend repetitiously as long as the candle burns. These are prayers that demand little or no communion with God. I believe that the value of our prayer life is found in it’s quality and not in it’s quantity. Prayer that is thoughtless and indifferent is offensive to God.
In the book of Matthew Jesus said, “When you pray go into your
inner room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” There is a place for public prayer but here He’s talking about private prayer. And He says, “go into your inner room.” Why do we go in secret? It’s so we won’t be tempted to put on a show. He also says, “To shut the door.” In other words we are to shut everyone else out. It’s a time for us to spend with God.
Look again at Elijah’s posture. It says, “He knelt with his face between his knees.” The fact is, he wanted to talk to God. He wasn’t concerned about what was happening around him or even what was happening in the sky. Elijah wanted to know what was happening in heaven.
b Verse 43-45 we see the expectation of his prayer. In verse 43 he says to his servant, “Go and look toward the sea, he went and looked and said, there is nothing.” (I’m sure his servant thought, someone better run and tell Ahab to have another piece of pie) And then Elijah sent the servant seven more times. Seven in scripture always represents fulfillment, completion and finality. Most of us would probably come to the conclusion that it’s not God’s will after the second trip. I think it’s easier to think like the believers in the early church in Acts 12 where they were praying for Peter’s release from prison. It says the girl answered the door and came back saying their prayers had been answered. The people were very spiritual and they say, ”It’s not Peter, it’s his angel.” We notice Elijah doesn’t flinch, he keeps sending the servant back time and again.
By reading this section we are reminded of the passage where Jesus tells us to be persistent in prayer. He tells us to ask, knock and seek. Have often do we pray for something? I guess it all depends on how much we really want it.
And then verse 44 says, “There is a small cloud as small as a man’s hand rising out of the sea.” The Knox version of the Bible says, “It was the sign of a footprint.” This reminds us of Nahum 1:3, “The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.” In other words, this was a message to Elijah that God was on His way and He was bringing the rain. At the sight of this small cloud Elijah tells his servant to “Go up, say to Ahab, Prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.” Verse 45 says, “The heavens were black, the winds blew and the rains came.”
This was no summer shower. This was a total climate change because the drought had broken. And then in verse 46 we see the hand of God on Elijah. Elijah had laid hold of God and God demonstrated that He had a hold of Elijah.
C Let’s go back and look for a few minutes at the prayer itself.
I It was based on God’s promise. God said, “Go show thyself to Ahab and I will send rain upon the earth.” I believe this teaches us that God’s promises are given to incite us to pray. His promises show us the direction we are to pray and then we are to ask and we are to expect an answer.
II His prayer was definite. Someone said, “Most prayers are like guns firing blanks.” We don’t ask anything specific because we don’t believe God can or will answer us. Have you ever prayed for the missionaries and said, “Oh God, please bless them.” Let me ask you, what are you asking? If they’re trying to reach people then we should pray for their efforts. If they have health problems we should pray for their healing, their medical treatment or even for the patience to endure it. If they have needs then we should be praying for their provision. We need to be specific in our requests so God can be specific in His answer. What are we saying when we ask God to bless them? I’ll tell you what we’re saying, nothing.
III His prayer was earnest or fervent and this simply means that Elijah really meant business with God. It’s like Jacob who wrestled with God, or David who the scripture says, “Poured out his soul.” or the blind beggars who refused to be ignored when the disciples told them to be quiet or the mother who came to Jesus with her child and couldn’t be discouraged even when Jesus said, “You always feed the children before you feed the dogs.” In all these people there was a fervency in their prayers because they knew they had needs that only God could meet.
iv Elijah’s prayer was bold. He was praying for God to be honored and glorified. He could boldly ask for that, after all, he wasn’t praying for a new car.
v His prayer was humble. There was no pride or arrogance and later on we see there was no gloating over his victory. It says, “He cast himself to the ground, put his face between his knees.” As the scripture tells us in I Peter 5:6,7 we are to, “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” One year Sally and I went down to Texas for a pastor’s conference and it was held at First Baptist in Dallas. The one thing that was unusual for this big Baptist church was they had prayer rails like the kind you would see in Catholic churches. As Dr. Criswell led the congregation in prayer he knelt on the floor at the front while everyone else knelt on the prayer rails. And you know, you had the feeling you were humbling bowing in the presence of God.
vi It was persevering. He hung in there. A better translation of the passage where he spoke to his servant would be, “Then said he seven times, go again.” You see, he didn’t say go and don’t come back until you’ve done it seven times but he came back and was sent again seven more times.
vii And then we see that his prayer was abundantly answered and what first appeared to look like a man’s hand had become a storm.
Up until now Elijah had been what we would call a spiritual giant and then all of a sudden his actions don’t match his past behavior. The scripture teaches us a very scary principle and that’s this, ”Few people finish well.” Moses was forbidden to enter the promised land because he struck the rock rather than speaking to it as he was told to do. Joshua had been victorious in several battles but he was deceived by the Gibeonites because he failed to check with God before he made a deal with them. David is called the man after God’s own heart but he fell into immorality with Bathsheba. Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived and yet he ended up with a thousand wives and they turned his heart toward idolatry. Gideon had been a great leader but he ended up making an ephod to worship from the spoils of war. And there’s Saul who committed suicide after his visit to the witch of Endor. And although we hate to admit it there are many people who we know and who have attended this church and now they just stay home either because they’re mad or disappointed about something or they’re just to lazy to come out. So Elijah really blows it, let’s take a closer look at what he does here.
II Elijah’s failure (Running before the king)
a Those who ran before the king were the servants, the bodyguards or people whose job it was to announce his arrival. Basically Elijah was identifying with and honoring the king by doing this.
B Where was Elijah going? He was heading for the city. He had just spent three and a half years running around the desert hiding in Cherith and Zaraphath eating food from the beaks of birds and bread from the hand of a widow and now he was coming to the palace, to the place of honor. He had brought a drought, then fire down from heaven and this was followed by the first rain they saw in three and a half -years. Then it says he outran the kings Arabian horses. And so we should ask ourselves what was the prophet doing running before the king? I think he thought he was about to be rewarded for being a faithful prophet.
He had left Mount Carmel to go to the palace just like Lot who left the hills where he lived with Abraham to go live in Sodom. There Lot lost his home and his family. When he finally had to escape the judgement of God on Sodom it says he took nothing with him. His wife turned to a pillar of salt and both of his daughters turned to immorality. Reading the scripture we don’t even know Lot was saved till we get to the book of Hebrews.
And so we see that Elijah did all right when he was in difficult circumstances but failed miserably when things got good. It’s funny how that happens to certain people. We had a man in our church in Guelph who always seemed to have more than his share of problems. First he had a really good government job and he got laid off, then his health suffered for a while and when he got better he got a business going and there were plenty of problems there. The strange thing was that when everything went right for him, he was a pain to have around. When he was suffering he was a joy.
Elijah didn’t know it but he was standing on the most dangerous ground he had even known even though he thought he was on the edge of success. Maybe he thought the king was going to give him an official office with a salary. He might have expected to be the palace prophet. Wasn’t that what Nathan was to David and Samuel was to Saul and now Elijah could be the same to Ahab. No doubt he was strutting around the streets of Jezreel where everyone could see him waiting expectantly for his call to the palace but like David he was about to see that pride makes good men do bad things. Like Solomon he was about to see that pride makes wise men do foolish things. And like Samson he was about to see that pride makes strong men weak. He was about to learn the hard way that we all can handle failure much better than we do success.
We’ve heard many testimonies of how God enabled people to handle sickness, the death of a loved one, the shame of sinful living or the brokenness that comes from mental or emotional suffering. Not many people share about how success destroyed them but many have had this happen. I think the pride that comes with success can even hold us back from admitting that we couldn’t handle it.
C If we took a look inside the palace we could have seen Ahab giving the report to Jezebel and I often wondered what he was thinking. Was he waiting to see if she’d accept what happened and turn to the Lord? Because if he was I don’t think she was expecting the message she heard. After all, she was an in charge type of person. What she said went and that was that. I think when she saw the clouds and rain coming she probably thought that her prophets had won the day.
So Ahab said, “Elijah called down fire, killed all the prophets and then he made it rain.” In other words the people have turned on Baal and now they’ve turned back to God. When Ahab gave her his report Jezebel doesn’t exactly fall on her knees and scream, “What must I do to be saved?” She immediately sends a messenger. It might have been the town crier to give a public announcement. And the message was simple, “Elijah willed be killed in the next twenty-four hours.” In other words he would end up just like all the other prophets.
The big question is, did she really want him dead? I don’t think so. I think she wanted Elijah to be like all the other prophets who went and hid in a cave. You see, martyrs fuel revivals but cowards calm them down. The question on the streets the next day would be, “Where’s the prophet?” He ran away. Oh well, I guess he wasn’t very sincere.
We often tend to think of Jezebel as an old witch with piles of make-up on her face because the last thing she does before she’s killed is put on her make-up. I think she was extremely attractive and she put on her make-up to entice the one who came to kill her but her efforts failed.
If you want to call someone wicked you’d just have to call them Jezebel. History tells us that she convinced Ahab to worship the golden calf under the pretense that it would be a service to Jehovah. And we know the calf was central to Baal worship. Once she had the king in the palm of her hand she led the people to abandon their worship of God and follow false prophets, idolatry and immorality. And then she attempted to kill as many prophets of the Lord as she could.
It’s interesting to see that this was the first time Elijah went anywhere without a word from God. And so we wonder where God was now? I think Elijah left Him back on Mt. Carmel.
III Running from Jezebel
a Elijah quit. It says he ran to Beer-sheba which was about one hundred and three miles. Then he left his servant which tells us he had no intention of coming back. And then he went a days journey into the wilderness where he says he wished he could die. My first thought in reading this was, if that’s what he really wanted then all he had to do was stay at the palace. She would’ve made sure he died.
B Have you ever wondered, what would it take to make you quit?
1 Would discouragement do it? A guy came to my church before I got there. He came to the pastor one day and said, “I’m a carpenter and if there’s ever anything you want done around here just let me know.“ He came back and said the same thing a couple of times and one day the pastor said, “You know I’ve got a new door for my study. Any chance that you might put it on?” He said sure and came the next day. He hung the door and everything looked all right but it didn’t open all the way because the bookcase that was fastened to the wall was in the way. The pastor apologized and asked if he would mind hanging it from the other side. He said sure and hung it that way. And that was the last time he ever came to the church. It’s easy to get into the rut of saying no one appreciates me but God does. And when it comes down to it would you rather have His reward or someone else’s thank you.
2 Would you quit if you ran into some nasty people. The Bible tells us there are all kinds of people in the church. The church isn’t heaven. It’s a bunch of imperfect people struggling to exist in an imperfect world. Besides there are some believers that are socially awkward. It’s just who they are. We are also warned there are tares sown in with the wheat. These are people who think they’re saved but they’ve never repented of their sin and they’re trying to live the Christian life in their flesh. Don’t you think they might cause a few problems? It also tells us there are wolves among the sheep. There are some among our number who are here for what they can get. An old poem says, “To live above with saints we love, now that my friend will be glory. But to live below with saints we know, now that’s another story.” So we will run into our share of awkward and nasty people and if you’re around long enough you might even be one. We all have our days. In the church we all get discouraged and we just might be the people our mothers warned us to stay away from.
3 Would you quit if you didn’t get your own way? I’ve heard people say, “Well if the church does that or doesn’t do this I won’t give another penny.” Maybe we didn’t sing the third verse of Away in the Manger at the Christmas service and that was their mother’s favorite. That might sound absurd to you but there are things that people get their nose out of joint over that are just as insignificant to the rest of us.
Elijah quit. He left. He felt as though God had done him wrong. He had laid low for three and a half years, then led a great revival and now he’s running for his life. He says, “I’m no better of than my fathers.” For all my faithfulness, it’s all been a waste of time.
I think we need to learn a very simple lesson here. No matter who we are, or how long we’ve studied the scriptures or how much we’ve done for God or been used in the past the warning of I Corinthians 10:12 is for us. It simply says, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”
