1st Kings 19: 1–16
God Speaks To Reveal and Restore
In God’s Word in Isaiah 45: 22 The Bible Says “Look unto Me, and Be Ye Saved, All the Ends of the Earth: For I am God And There Is None Else.”
In Isaiah’s Generation… And in ours as well God Says Look unto Me:
From That Familiar Old Testament Text We Learn That the One by Whom We May Be Saved And the Only Way By Which We May Get to Heaven Is by the Loving, All Glorious Lord Jesus. God’s Son and Savior of the World.
In That Verse We Discovered That God Lovingly Patiently Speaks To Save.
Not Only Does God Want to Show Us the Way of Salvation, He Also Wants to Bring Us Into a Life of Spiritual Victory. But before Victory Can Be Found… And before Blessings Can Be Experienced God Must Reveal His Perfect Will And Restore His Discouraged Erring Child.
In 1st Kings Chapters 18 and 19, We Find There Recorded the Story of a Man Who Experienced One of the Greatest Spiritual Triumphs of All Time…
But Who Shortly Thereafter Fled for His Life In Deep Emotional and Spiritual Distress.
In the Account Of Chapter 18 Elijah The Flamboyant Prophet In Israel Reached the Climax of His Unusual Colorful Career.
There on Mount Caramel before 850 False Prophets and the Entire Congregation of Israel, Elijah Builds and Altar To Prove the Faithfulness And Omnipotent Power Of the True and Living God.
we remember that first He Gave Opportunity to the False Prophets of Baal To Make a Sacrifice… And prove the Power And Availability Of Their Gods.
But When Their Vane, Fleshly Ceremony Failed to Bring Any Viable Results God’s Fearless Prophet Repaired the Broken Altar And Offered His Own Sacrifice.
In Verse 36 We Read, “And It Came to Pass at the Time of The Offering of the Evening Sacrifice, Then Elijah the Prophet Came near, And Said, Lord God of Abraham Isaac and of Israel, Let It Be Known This Day That Thou Art God in Israel And That I Am Thy Servant And That I Have Done All The Things That Word.”
In Other Words Elijah Wanted the Entire Army to Know What He Was Doing Was of God... And Not of Man. In Verse 37 HIs Prayer for Divine Intervention was Recorded. let’s read that verse aloud. 1 Kings 18:37 “Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.”
What Was the Result? And How Did God Answer?
look with me at Verses 38–39- 38. Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. 39. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God.
In Response to His Simple Faith and Earnest Prayer The Fire of God, God’s Holy Presence Was Manifested And a Spiritually Wayward Nation Is Restored to Full Fellowship with God.
Now If the Story of Elijah’s Life Had Ended Here… All Israel And the World Would Have Seen Only the Victory Side Of a Man’s Battle With the Power of Spiritual Darkness.
But the Story Does Not in Here!
In Fact in Chapter 19 Elijah Is seen Not in Victory But in Spiritual Dejection And Despair.
Why Is This 2nd Chapter of His Life Recorded?
To Remind Every Believer of the Frailty of the Flesh And of the Availability of a Loving Restoring Heavenly Father. To Remind Us of the Fire.
According to This Inspired Record There Lived in Israel a Person Who Was As Thoroughly Possessed and Controlled by the Devil… As Elijah Was Filled with And Directed by the Spirit of God.
So upon Hearing of the Slaughter of Her Prophets And the Prophets of Baal, Jezebel the Wicked Wife of Ahab Commissioned A Messenger To Bring Elijah the Threatening Words Of Verse 2– “So Let the Gods Do to Me, And More Also, If I Make Not by Life Is the Life of One of Them By Tomorrow about This Time.”
Instead of Elijah Standing His Ground in the Unfailing Strength and Suffering of Jehovah, He Begins to Feel Sorry for Himself and Flees into the Wilderness to Hide. How Sad!
And According to Verse 4 The Man Who Mocked And defied the Profits of Baal, Sings the woefull Swan-song Of Spiritual Defeat. “It Is Enough Now O Lord to Take Away My Life; For I Am No Better Than My Fathers.”
Later in a Dark Damp Cave on Mount Horeb, God Begins to Speak To His Distraught, Despairing, Servant, To Remind Him Of the Folly and Tragedy of Spiritual Despair.
In Verse 9, He Asked Elijah a Very Pointed Personal Question–What Doest thou Here Elijah?
I Am Sure That God Was Not Necessarily Referring to Geographic Location When He Asked the Prophet This Question.
Rather God Was Inquiring about His Spiritual Condition!
Elijah, What Are You Doing Discouraged and Despairing for Your Life, When You Have Everything To Be Jubilant and Victorious about. elijah remember the fire!
As I Read This Story I Thought How Good And Faithful And Wonderful God Is:
To Forgive Us When We Sin
To Restore Us When We Repent
To Understand us When We Get Discouraged
And to Provide for us Every Necessity of Life.
I Know by Experience What It Is to Get Discouraged–But I Discovered Long Ago The Discouragement Only Comes When We Take Our Eyes off of the Lord Jesus… And Begin to Think about And dwell upon The Trying, Difficult, Circumstances around Us.
I Realize That It Is Totally Possible For Some Here Today To Be Going through Difficult Times. There Are Some People Today That Are Struggling with Their Health, There Are Some People Today That Are Struggling with Their Relationships, There Are Some People Today Struggling with Their Finances, And I Believe in an Audience of This Size That There Are People This Morning Who Are Going through Some Very Discouraging Times.
The Question I Would like to Ask Is for You to Think about The Biblical Truth That Our God Will Never Leave You Nor Forsake You And That Your Responsibility Is to Keep Your Eyes Upon the Lord, And Your Ears Tuned to His Word.
Now in Our Bible Story Here on Mount Horeb God Is Trying to Get a Elijah’s Attention Through: A Whirlwind, And Earthquake, And a Raging Consuming Fire.
1st of All God Lets Elijah See the Monument And Distribution Of a Great Whirlwind… But the Downcast Prophet, Is Unmoved Because: The Lord Was Not in the Wind.
Then a Mighty Earthquake Shook the Mountain And Caused the Earth To heave Liked the Billows over Raging Sea… But Elijah’s Despond Stony Heart Was Untouched Because: The Lord Was Not in the Earthquake.
Then a great Consuming Fire Swept across the Hillside Destroying Everything in the Path– But even the fire failed to move his trouble discouraged heart.
Finally like the hush before threatening storm… Or like the emphatic pause in a musical strain , a strange but sacred stillness brought Elijah to his senses.
Out from no where the still small voice of God fell on the ear and melted the stony heart of a spiritually desperate man. And suddenly Elijah was aware that God was in his presence!
Only the still small voice of God got through to Elijah.
For some time now perhaps God has been trying to say something to you, but like Elijah you refuse to listen.
Oh yes you heard what he was saying but because you may not have liked what he said you fail to obey.
Perhaps for several weeks you have known that God is directing you to make a change in your life.
So today my challenge is follow the leading of your God. The Bible says the steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord.
Simply obey his commands!
Shall we pray!
