OPEN: A junior high music teacher had just organized a band in her school. The principal was so proud of the music teacher's efforts that without consulting her, he decided that the band should give a concert for the entire school.
The music teacher wasn't so sure her young musicians were ready to give a concert so she tried to talk the principal out of holding the concert, to no avail. Just before the concert was ready to begin, as the music teacher stood on the podium, she leaned forward and whispered to her nervous musicians, "If you're not sure of your part, just pretend to play."
And with that, she stepped back, lifted her baton and with a great flourish brought it down.
AND… nothing happened!
No music was played.
The students pretended to play… but no one made a single sound.
APPLY: Now, why didn’t those children play their instruments?
They weren’t sure of their part.
They weren’t confident of their abilities.
And the reason they weren’t sure, they weren’t confident was because they weren’t prepared.
The Bible tells us that – as Christians - we need to be prepared.
The Gospel of Luke tells us that John the Baptist’s ministry was “… to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." Luke 1:17
And from that day until this, it has been the goal of everyone in the church to prepare one another to serve God. From Sunday School teachers to Bible studies, to preachers in the pulpit, to personal devotions – God’s people have always understood that they needed to be prepared.
Peter wrote the Christians of his day and commanded them: “…PREPARE your minds for action; be self-controlled…” I Peter 1:13
And Peter also wrote that we should “Always be PREPARED to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” I Peter 3:16
And Ephesians 4:11-12 tells us Jesus gave the church “…some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to PREPARE God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up”
The Bible tells us that – God wants us to be prepared to serve Him.
• Our minds need to be prepared to act on His behalf
• Our tongues to be prepared to speak on His behalf
• Our church needs to be prepared to do works of service on His behalf
God wants us to be prepared!
And there’s all kinds of things WE can do to prepare ourselves to serve Him.
• We can be faithful in prayer and fasting.
• Focus on Bible Study
• Be committed to be in worship on Sunday Mornings
There’s all kinds of things we can do to get “prepared to serve God”
And we should!
But then I read things in Scripture – like our text this morning, and I begin to understand that it isn’t ALL about me. When it comes to getting prepared, sometimes it’s God who does the preparing. And how well I’m prepared by God may depend on how I view what God is doing in my life.
Now (with that thought in mind, let’s revisit what’ve read about Elijah up this point.
The first verse of this chapter is the very first time we hear anything about Elijah.
“Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word." 1Kings 17:1
And that’s it.
There’s no introduction.
No description of his qualifications to be a prophet.
No details on what Bible knowledge he had.
And I believe that’s deliberate on God’s part.
Because I think God wanted us to realize that Elijah was a man just like us.
I believe God wanted us to see Elijah as he was. A man who had the same struggles and conflicts in his life as we do. A man who had to wrestle with his own humanity. A man who had the same needs as we do.
He wasn’t superhuman.
He wasn’t super trained.
He was a man just like us.
And just like us he needed to be trained by God. He needed to be prepared.
We have a couple clues in that verse as to what kind of man Elijah was from vs. 1
1st – we’re told that Elijah served the LORD.
Elijah tells Ahab he comes on behalf of “the LORD, the God of Israel”. (When you see LORD or GOD in all capital letters that indicates places in our English Old Testaments where God’s personal name, Yahweh/Jehovah, is used).
Elijah served Yahweh. He was a on a first name basis with Him.
In fact, his very name Elijah means, "Yahweh is God."
Thus, he took his marching orders from the God of heaven and earth. (pause…)
2ndly – not only did Elijah serve GOD… we also find that he was a very brave man. Being a Prophet for Yahweh wasn’t a safe thing to be in those days. King Ahab was a very wicked and dangerous King.
1 Kings 16:30 & 33 tells us that “Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him… and (he) did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.”
And not only was King Ahab wicked and dangerous man - so was his queen – a woman named Jezebel. I Kings 18:4 tells us that “Jezebel was killing off the LORD’s prophets” and forcing them to go into hiding in caves.
So, when Elijah confronted Ahab… he was literally taking his life in his hands.
But that doesn’t matter to him because he was there on behalf of his God!
He was there to confront a wicked King.
He was there to speak God’s judgment on an Israel mired in evil.
He declared there would be a drought. There would be no rain nor dew until he said otherwise.
ILLUS: Now, every year, Indiana farmers watch anxiously to see how much rain will fall on crops
If there’s too much rain, the crops drown.
If there’s too little, some of those crops dry up and die.
BUT if there’s no rain at all… ALL the crops will die.
The book of James tells us that “Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.” James 5:17
Three and a half years without rain is a looooong time.
Three ½ years of drought is enough to turn a paradise into a wasteland.
And three ½ years of dryness can make men and kings desperate enough to do anything to change the weather… even kill a prophet.
So, God sent Elijah on an extended vacation.
What I find interesting is that, during this 3½ years, God doesn’t pamper Elijah.
He doesn’t send him to a Hilton, or a Marriott. He doesn’t even send him to a Motel 6.
For this rest of Chapter 17, we find Elijah being sent by God to places I wouldn’t want to go and he experiences things that I’m not sure I’d want to experience.
FOR 3 ½ YEARS.
Why? Because God was preparing Elijah for a specific task He had prepare for him.
Now notice where God sends him first.
"Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 1 Kings 17:3
The Hebrew word our Bible translates as “Ravine” is nachal which people now call “wadis”. A Wadi is essentially an on-demand water supply. If there’s a lot of rain in the mountains, that water rushes down the wadi and once that water has passed by, the wadi dries up.
NO RAIN… NO WADI
In other words… a wadi is not a place you want to be in a drought. A drought like the one Elijah prophesied would have dried up all the wadis for miles around.
So, God sustained Elijah by a brook of water that SHOULD NOT have even existed at that time!
Then there was his food supply.
How did God supply food for Elijah during his stay at the Wadi? (Ravens)
He didn’t send a friendly sheepherder or a majestic angel. No… God sent ravens.
I own a Cockatiel. It’s an extremely annoying bird. But it doesn’t feed me. I feed it.
Now this is odd for several reasons:
1st Ravens don’t generally like being around humans… they avoid us if at all possible.
2ndly Ravens were unclean birds.
God’s people were not allowed to eat them, nor offer them in sacrifice.
3rd The food of ravens has usually been dead for a while.
They eat road kill. They were scavengers. They’re kind of like vultures.
Who would want to share their food?
AND 4th Even if we wanted to share their food, Ravens would never share.
They don’t even share their food with their babies.
So, God supplied Elijah from a brook that shouldn’t have held water.
And fed him by Ravens that shouldn’t have shared their food.
Why? Because was PREPARING Elijah for a specific task..
Remember that.
Next we’re told: “the word of the LORD came to him: ‘Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.’” I Kings 17:8-9
Elijah isn’t sent to the palace of a King to eat at his table.
He’s not even sent to the home of a humble farmer or shepherd.
He’s sent to the home of widow… and she’s supposed to supply him with food.
What’s peculiar about that? (She doesn’t have any food)
She tells Elijah: "As surely as the LORD your God lives," she replied, "I don’t have any bread— only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it— and die." 1 Kings 17:12
You’d think this would have been the wrong person for God to send Elijah to, but God sent him there anyway.
1 Kings 17:13-14 tells us that “Elijah said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.’"
And that’s exactly what happened.
But then I Kings 17 tells us of one more event in Elijah’s life during this time
Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 1Kings 17:17
The boy died!
It was such a tragedy that the woman complained to Elijah that her son must have died because Elijah had come to visit them to remind her of HER sins and kill her boy.
Elijah was clearly devastated by this, and carried the boy up to his room and prayed over him.
And God heard his prayers and raised that boy from the dead.
This had NEVER happened before!
Up until that time in Biblical history, no one had risen from the dead.
This boy had died and – by all reasonable considerations – should have stayed dead.
BUT he didn’t. He lived again.
So let’s revue.
In I Kings 17 we find that God
• supplied food and water for Elijah at the brook at Cherith that shouldn’t have been there.
• supplied food and shelter for him with the widow at Zarephath who didn’t have it to give.
• supplied Elijah with the power to raise a boy from the dead, who should never have raised from the dead.
None of that should have happened.
Those were NOT normal events in his life
They were all miraculous, divinely accomplished
The question is why? Why did all these events happen in Elijah’s life?
Why did God send him to Cherith?
Why did He send him to the Widow?
Why did He allow the widow’s boy to die?
I believe all these things happened because God was preparing him.
After this time of training, Elijah was sent back to face King Ahab.
After this time of training, he was sent ot challenge the prophets of Baal and Asteroth.
After this time of training, he was sent to do miraculous things in the name of his God.
Each event in this chapter challenged Elijah’s faith more than the one before
o At Cherith, Elijah was all by himself relying on God’s providence. And as he sat there by that Ravine, he learned that God could supply all his needs.
o At Zarephath Elijah had to enlarge his faith to include a widow who had only food for one meal… then she was going to die. I don’t know if Elijah spoke as boldly as the text implies here. I suspect he told this widow only what God told him to tell her. Then he had set back and watch and marvel as God supplied what He’d promised.
• And lastly, Elijah’s faith was challenged by the death of the widow’s son.
o And because of all the great miracles he’d seen before, Elijah boldly asked God to give life back to that boy. Elijah had never seen anything like this happen before. He’d never heard of it happening before. BUT he’d learned to depend on a God who had shown He could accomplish the impossible with the insignificant.
These events were all training grounds for Elijah’s faith
Each miracle only confirmed the power of the God he served.
And so – when Elijah had been fully trained, totally prepared for his task… God sent him back to King Ahab and the confrontation on Mt. Carmel.
NOW my point in telling you all this is this:
Much of what happens in our lives can be used by God to prepare us to serve Him.
God wants us to be prepared.
He wants our minds to be prepared to act on His behalf
Our tongues to be prepared to speak on His behalf
Our church to be prepared to do works of service on His behalf
But part of that preparation is the way God uses the events in our lives to train us in faith.
God wants us to get to the point where – when we see difficulties, when we see the trials in our lives - that we automatically ask = what is God going to do HERE.
ILLUS: Instead of looking at our problems as crises that can damage or destroy us one person suggested (as Christians) we should change our way of looking at the situation.
Instead of saying “I have a problem” she said we ought to say “I have a gift”.
I have a gift??
Yeah, that’s right.
With every problem you can’t handle you’ve been given a gift.
A gift to be able see God’s power workings in your life.
I mean – if you could handle the problem by yourself
If things could just work themselves out on their own
What would you NEED God for???
Roman 8:28 says that “…we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Now, I’m not sure that means that all things that happen in my life happened because He caused it. But whether He did or not – He can take it all and turn it to our good. THUS – no matter what “difficulty” I’m facing, I’m actually being given a gift. The GIFT to be able to find out what God can work together for good on my behalf.
God trains us to see the things He wants us to see.
Because what we are expect to see is what we will see.
ILLUS: There’s an off-beat story that explains this truth:
The story is told of a very wealthy family who had two sons. One son was the ultimate pessimist. No matter what happened in his life he saw a dark cloud of disaster hanging over his life. The other son was the most optimistic boy in the world. In didn’t matter how dark the cloud in his life – he saw silver linings. The parents were disturbed because they felt neither boy had a realistic view of life… so they came up with a lesson they could teach each child.
One day they took the pessimist to the door of one of the rooms of their mansion. They opened the door for him and there before his eyes was every conceivable toy a boy could want! The boy looked at the toys, looked at his parents, looked back at the toys, looked back at his parents… and then began to cry.
“Why on earth are you crying?” his parents asked.
“There are so many beautiful toys in here that I’m afraid I’m going to break one of them.”
Frustrated, the parents still decided to use a similar lesson for their optimistic son. They took him to another room of the mansion and opened the door for him. He looked inside – and there was a room filled about 4 feet deep with horse manure. The boy looked at the manure, looked at his parents, looked back at the room, looked at his parents… and joyfully turned and jumped feet first into the manure, digging for all he was worth.
“What on earth are you doing?” his parents asked.
Looking up, he smiled and said “With all this horse manure in here, there’s got to be a pony in here somewhere!”
Each boy looked for what they expected to find.
In the same way God wants us to begin expecting to find His hand at work in our lives.
Ephesians 2:10 says “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works that He PREPARED in advance for us to do.”
God had prepared things for us to do.
And He then prepares us for those tasks.
The most important thing we need to see in our lives is that we have an advantage in this world.
Our advantage as Christians is that we have the same God Elijah had.
We have a real God
We have a God who can do great things
We have a God who can take our problems and turn them into gifts.
But we need to be trained to look for His power and direction in our lives
And how do I know that my God will help me?
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
In other words: if God gave His Son to die on the cross for you… if He was willing to give up His only Son for you to be saved… don’t you think He’d be more than willing to give you everything else.
And one of those other things He’s promised is:
IF you love Him and belong to Him… ALL THINGS will work together for good
CLOSE: Back in the 1500s, when Martin Luther was having the Bible translated into the common language of the people, the printer’s daughter was sweeping up the shop when she noticed a piece of paper on the floor.
When she picked it up, she found that it was part of the bible that her dad was printing for Martin Luther, and it said, “For God so loved that He gave...”
The rest of the verse was not printed yet, but what she saw struck her in a powerful way.
The idea that God would give her anything moved her.
Her mother noticed a change in her and asked her why she seemed so happy.
The girl pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket and showed it to her mother
The mother read it and asked, "What did He give?"
The girl answered, “I don’t know. But if God loved us enough to give us anything we should not be afraid of Him.”
