ELIJAH AT THE CAVE
I Kings 19:9-13
Intro: We began studying this prophet of God, Elijah, a couple weeks ago. We saw his experience at Cherith. We studied how the drought came at his preaching, and God separated him out at Cherith. We saw the Division, The Provision, And The Vision he experienced at Cherith. We learned how God will separate us from everything unto himself.
Last week we saw Elijah At Carmel. He dug a trench, and again it was separation. This was separation from the world. This separation was to identify who the true and living God is and who his true believers are. God answered by fire, and the people worshipped God.
This week we will see Elijah At The Cave, and again it is separation. Cherith was a ditch, at Carmel, a trench, and this week a separation in the earth called a Cave. This is separation in the Spirit. Notice how we get there and what it means:
I. THE EXECUTION: 18:40, they took all the prophets of Baal and threw them in the river. Since there has been no rain in 3 ½ years, it would seem likely that it was only a dry river bed at this point. Elijah, with God’s power, was fed and drank water, giving him life at a dry river bed, but the prophets of Baal lay dead in the same setting!
II. THE INTERCESSION: 18:42-45, Elijah went back to the same place where the fire fell and asked God for the rain to fall. God had promised Elijah in I Kings 18:1 if he would show himself to Ahab that God would send rain. Elijah was praying in agreement with his faith in God’s promise. The prayers seemed useless in the beginning as the weather report showed nothing. Even seven reports later there was only a faraway little cloud like a man’s hand, but Elijah believed God and didn’t stop praying. James 5:17-18 “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.”
III. THE PRECIPITATION: 18:41, before there was rain, before there was a report of rain, before there was even a cloud, Elijah heard the sound of it. This sound was not the sound of water falling from heaven, but it was the sound of the promise of the Lord! When the report came in from the weather man that there was an itty bitty cloud faraway over the sea, Elijah sent word to Ahab to get off the mountain and take cover in town before the rain gets too heavy to travel (v. 44b). AND DIDN’T IT RAIN! v. 45.
IV. THE CONVERSATION: 19:1, Ahab made it back to Jezreel after Elijah but before the rain. When Jezebel asked him about how things went on Carmel, he had good news and bad news… Good news: it’s going to rain. Bad news: all your prophets are dead! Ahab loved horses, but Jezebel loved Baal. Ahab was most excited about rain, but Jezebel was most angry about those prophets who had been eating at her table. What looked like victory on Carmel was a declaration of war. Every victory in this battle sparks a new battle until the war is over.
V. THE COMMUNICATION: 19:2, Jezebel sent a letter. It was not a testimony of her conversion, but it was a threat to kill Elijah! She could have called on the army, sought him out in the rain, and killed him, but I think she was scared of him! She sent the letter to threaten, shake, scare him, and even the score. Satan roars, this world threatens, the flesh is intimidated. Fear defeats us when Satan doesn’t even touch us! The letter was delivered to Elijah, and he had not been selected as man of the year, nor was it news of the conversion of Jezebel’s house to become disciples of Elijah. This world has nothing for you! They are against God and his people. Some of the devil’s crowd will due before they will believe!
VI. THE FRUSTRATION: 19:3, Elijah departed and ran from Jezreel to Beersheba, about 100 miles. Elijah running away is not just out of fear, but it is frustration (v. 10). He’s had it! He has been fighting alone. 100 prophets were eating in Obadiah’s cave, but we have no record where even one of them showed up to help at Carmel or pray for rain. And Elijah was frustrated, felt alone, and just wanted to be alone when God found him under a juniper tree.
VII. THE IMITATION: He went a 40 day journey in the strength of the food that God gave to him under the juniper tree. There he went to hide in a cave. His frustration with the other prophets was that they hid out in a cave instead of standing publicly, and now he is doing the same thing. It is never right to just join the wrong crowd!
VIII. THE INSTRUCTION: v. 11, Go stand on the mount before the Lord, and I’ll show you something. He was about 250 miles from Beersheba, 350 from Jezreel, 365 from Carmel, and his victory seemed so far away. But the place where he was standing was Horeb, the foot of the mount was called Sinai, the place of the burning bush, the first Pentecost, the mount where God gave the Law of God, and the same mount where Moses saw the glory of God. Moses is the personification of the Law, and he needed the glory. Elijah is the personification of the prophets, and he needed the glory. The New Testament Apostles at Pentecost needed the glory, and you, the believer in Christ, need the glory! The wind, earthquake, and fire came, just as they had for Moses, but like Moses in the cleft or cave, Elijah needed to see glory. The fire at Carmel was not for Elijah, but for the people, but the voice in the cave was for Elijah. Sometimes, for the preacher, a voice in solitude is more powerful than a fire in a public setting! Wind, earthquake, and fire were terrors, like the Law, to introduce the comfort of the Spirit. And God spoke following the terrors with comfort:
A. The Call: v. 12-13, a still small voice called to him. It was not a whisper, but it was a wind, a breath. It is where the glory is. Glory is the Hebrew term “weight” or influence, the effect of power. God’s glory is shown after his power. Moses couldn’t see the face of God and live, but he saw God’s back parts, the afterglow, the evidence of where God had passed by, the breeze left as you feel that person who just brushed by you. This voice was the fleeting breath of God that remained after God passed by in power. It is much like John 20:22 when Jesus, after the power of the resurrection, finds his apostles in a place of solitude, and behind the door he breathes on them saying, “receive ye the Holy Ghost.” This precious call in solitude is a breath of comfort!
B. The Command: v. 14-16, There was an anointing to be had! There were adversaries to overcome. There was action to be taken. God will give power to do it. Many of us would have lost confidence in Elijah to get the job done, but not the Lord. His prophet had been discouraged but not defeated. There was still a role for him!
C. The Companion: v. 18-21, Elijah learned that he was not alone. He had a companion, one specifically in his corner at all times. II Kings 3:11 “poured water on the hands of Elijah.” He was a servant to Elijah in cleansing for the ministry work. God sends Elisha to help Elijah stay faithful, finish the journey, fulfill his destiny. Elisha never left Elijah and was even there to see him go into heaven in a chariot of fire. Elijah’s chief frustration and complaint was loneliness, but God always gave him a companions: Ravens, a little family, and a faithful prophet, and in the midst of it all a sweet Holy Ghost that would never leave him or give up on him.
Conclusion: God took away the prophet’s home, his congregation, his company, and security, but he never let him be alone. The Lord was always with him and sending him someone to help him as well. What he really needed was the breath of God, a voice, the life-giving wind like in the valley of dry bones. You do not have to rot in a cave, a hole in the ground! Elijah begged to die and was in a place they would often use for burial, but God would not leave him there. There’s breath for you. His presence will strengthen you!
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