The Days of Elijah
1 Kings 17:1; 18:36-39; James 5:17-18
Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
***Dr. Roger W. Thomas is the preaching minister at First Christian Church, 205 W. Park St., Vandalia, MO 63382 and an adjunct professor of Bible and Preaching at Central Christian College of the Bible, 911 E. Urbandale, Moberly, MO. He is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College (BA) and Lincoln Christian Seminary (MA, MDiv), and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin).
I am grateful for the opportunity to share in this special occasion. I have long respected the work of Central Christian College. I especially value the opportunity I have had for the last few years to work in the class room. I have never failed to be impressed with the caliber of students I meet here. I often feel like that Grandpa who was shaving one morning as his grandson looked on. Out of the blue the little lad asked, "Did God make you, Grandpa?" "Yes, God made me," the grandfather answered. The boy thought for a while. A few minutes later, he asked, "Did God make me too?" "Yes, He made you too," Granddad replied. The little guy studied his grandpa’s and then his own face in the mirror. At last he spoke up. "You know, Grandpa," he said, "God’s doing a lot better job lately."
As I reflect on my student years way back when and then look at this graduating class, I too must say, “God is sure doing a lot better job lately!”
There are three kinds of people in the world. Those who make things happen. Those who watch things happen. And those who sit back and wonder what happened!
Elijah was a man who made things happen! The prophet’s shadow looms large across the pages of Scripture. Elijah steps on to the stage of history as a defiant rebel proclaiming truth to power. Years later his ministry ends with a fiery chariot ride to heaven. But his legacy continued. Elisha picked up the mantel and the spirit of Elijah. Other Hebrew prophets would be measured by his standard. Malachi ends with the promise—“See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful Day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers” (Mal. 4:5-6). The New Testament begins with the birth of the “one like Elijah.” It is Elijah who stands witness with Moses on the mountain as the Father says of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him” (Matt 17:5).
Make no mistake about it! Elijah made things happened! Rains stop. A widow is miraculously fed. Her son is restored. Later Elijah challenges the prophets of Ahab and Jezebel. The pretenders call for Baal to send his fire. Nothing happens. They try again and again. Still nothing happens. Elijah says, “Enough is enough!”
The prophet of the Most High orders water poured on his altar. “Not enough! Do it again!” And again! The water flows over the offering, down through the wood, across the altar and fills the trenches. Then Elijah cries out to the God of heaven. “Answer me, O Lord; answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord are God!” Elijah prays and things happened. Fire falls from heaven. The wood, the offering, the altar, and four-hundred prophets of Baal are consumed.
When Elijah prayed, things happened. Clouds formed. The sky darkened. Rain fell for the first time in three years. But not everything that happened was good. Elijah becomes a hunted man. He hides. God appears. The Lord of heaven provides bread for his body and steel for his soul. The Almighty reveals himself in a “still small voice.” Emboldened, Elijah returns to the battle. Renewed, the prophet exposes sin. He announces God’s righteousness. Armies march. Kingdoms clash. Judgment falls. The Lord God omnipotent reigns! Elijah made things happen!
Elijah may have made things happen, but he was no super-hero. The Bible says Elijah was a Tishbite from Gilead. Tishbe was a small village in the mountain country east of Israel. Elijah was simple, rough, and uneducated—much different than the sophisticated, cosmopolitan advisers to Ahab and Jezebel. He was likely a shepherd, minding his own business with no desire to get involved in politics or the social issues of his day.
Elijah is a study in contrasts. Despite powerful demonstrations of God’s provision, Elijah wavered. He could pray down fire. He could outrun the king’s chariot. He could command the power of life and death. But when it is his face on Jezebel’s wanted posters, he runs for his life. He hides. His prayers turn to whimpers. “I’ve had enough. Lord, take my life!” he cries out to God, “I am the only one left who is faithful.” That was no super-hero sitting under that broom tree in the middle of the desert. He was one lonely, desperate, timid, not so mighty man of God.
Don’t be too hard on Elijah. Depending on your perspective, the days of Elijah were either the best of times or the worst of times. Israel was at the top of her game. The economy was booming and her armies feared. Peace and security abounded. But beneath the prosperous façade, moral rot and decay had spread their slimy tentacles from Ahab’s palace to poorest village in the kingdom.
1 Kings records the legacy. “Ahab son of Omri reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. Ahab did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him” (16:29-30). A few chapters later 1 Kings 21 carries this epitaph. “There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, urged on by Jezebel his wife. He behaved in the vilest manner …” (25-26).
Only a remnant refused to bow the knee to Baal. Most worshiped at the altar of whatever god promised the most and demanded the least. Prophets preached what people wanted to hear. Evil spread. Hearts grew cold. Multitudes abandoned God. It was not easy preaching in the days of Elijah.
But Elijah made things happen. Elijah prayed. He proclaimed the power of God. Things happened. God showed up. Wicked thrones toppled. Good kings replaced bad. Showers of blessings began. Just tiny drops at first. Eventually revival flooded across Israel.
“But that’s then. This is now,” some would protest. Irish songwriter Robin Mark’s popular chorus provides the needed reminder. “These are the days of Elijah, Declaring the word of the Lord: And these are the days of Your servant Moses, Righteousness being restored. And though these are days of great trial, Of famine and darkness and sword, Still, we are the voice in the desert crying ’Prepare ye the way of the Lord!’” Could these be the Days of Elijah?
It’s hard to recognize our own times. They are all we know. Hans Finzel in his book on leadership (Change is Like a Slinky, Northfield Publishing) observes the times of accelerating change we live in. Finzel argues that any weekday edition of The New York Times contains more information than the average man four hundred years ago digested in a whole lifetime. He says that your digital watch generates more computing power than existed in the entire world fifty years ago. The car I drove to get here tonight contains more powerful computers than the Apollo 11 spacecraft that carried Neal Armstrong to the moon. What’s more astounding, Finzel insists that this information explosion has barely begun.
Those of us gray beards on the faculty have witnessed unbelievable change in our lifetimes. We have seen cell phones replace party lines. Palm Pilots have taken over for carbon paper and manual typewriters. We never even figured out how to make our VCR’s stop flashing 12:00 before they were TiVoed into oblivion. You haven’t seen anything yet. Twenty-five years from now our children will look at this day the way we look at the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock.
These are amazing times. These are the days of Elijah. Consider what’s happened on this campus in the last four years. John Hall, O. S. Lincoln, even Lloyd Pelfrey and Gareth Reese, could not have dreamed of such rapid changes--the record enrollment, this larger than ever graduating class, and the growing enthusiasm for ministry. It’s not just here. Churches are growing bigger than ever before. Our brotherhood is expanding and innovating in ways never thought possible a generation ago. Technology is opening doors for the gospel at an unprecedented rate. Freedom is spreading around the world. Prosperity’s march seems unrelenting. These are the days of Elijah!
Are these the best of times or the worst of times? Not all change is good. Way back in the Dark Ages, I was in a high school drama called Green Pastures. That’s Green Pastures not Green Acres! In Marc Connelly’s classic play, poor folk from the Deep South of a hundred years ago tell Bible stories and dream of a heaven filled with cornbread and catfish dinners. I played Joshua leading "God’s chil’n" to the Promised Land, by the way.
In one scene the angel Gabriel reports on how things are going down below. He concludes, “God, you know that earth you made? It was so fine. You called it very good. Well, Lord, I have to ask you. Do you know what’s happening down there now? Why, Lord, everything not nailed down is coming up loose!”
Bob Moorehead, until 1998 the preacher at Overlake Christian Church near Seattle, offered an apt descript of the modern Days of Elijah. “We have taller buildings but shorter tempers; wider freeways but narrower viewpoints; we spend more but have less; we buy more but enjoy it less; we have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, yet less time; we have more degrees but less sense; more knowledge but less judgment; more experts, yet more problems;… We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values;… we talk too much; love too seldom and lie too often. We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life; we’ve added years to life, not life to years. … We’ve conquered outer space, but not inner space; we’ve done larger things, but not better things; we’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul;… We’ve become long on quantity, but short on quality. …These are the times of…; tall men, but short character; steep profits, but shallow relationships. …. Indeed, these are the times!
These are the days of Elijah. Four years ago, you entered Central as the first wave of a new generation of preachers, teachers, missionaries, and Christian workers. A multitude of churches and supporters had stepped up to make possible the school’s “full scholarship program.” Dr. James and other leaders termed you and your fellow students who would take advantage of this unique opportunity “the pioneers of the next great revival.” Now for you, the first graduating class under that dream, the long awaited day has come. This day is not the end of your college education. This is the beginning of the next great revival. These are the days of Elijah!
The days of Elijah call for men and women of faith and courage. These are not days for the tentative and the timid. These days call for men and women who refuse to stop believing, growing, and serving in the name of Christ. The Days of Elijah require those who will stand for the truth, live the truth, and preach the truth without compromise. These days calls for preachers, teachers, missionaries and Christian workers who will pray hard, live strong, and stand tall. These are the days that will call for your best. The Days of Elijah call for men and women who make things happen.
When missionary pioneer David Livingstone forged the first path for the gospel in Africa, he went alone. Eventually his missions committee wrote saying, "Some people would like to join you. What’s the easiest road to get where you are?" Livingstone replied, "If they’re looking for the easiest road, tell them to stay home. I want people who will come, even if there is no road!"
These are days of Elijah. Some may think the challenge is too big. Other may fear that the task before us is too daunting. The Bible says, “Elijah was a man just like us (James 5:17)!” Elijah made things happen!
Behind me sit the pioneers of the next great revival. I am awed by their potential. I am humbled by their intellect, their level of preparation, and their devotion to the high calling of ministry.
These are the pioneers!
These are the days of Elijah!
The day has finally come!
Let the revival begin!
***Dr. Roger W. Thomas is the preaching minister at First Christian Church, 205 W. Park St., Vandalia, MO 63382 and an adjunct professor of Bible and Preaching at Central Christian College of the Bible, 911 E. Urbandale, Moberly, MO. He is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College (BA) and Lincoln Christian Seminary (MA, MDiv), and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin).
