The Days Of Elijah Series

Dr. Bradford Reaves

CrossWay Christian Fellowship

Hagerstown, MD

www.mycrossway.org

Introduction

In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. 30 And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. 31 And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. 32 He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. (1 Kings 16:29–33)

There is no greater honor than to stand behind a pulpit and deliver the Word of God to His people. In all my years of ministry, I’ve had opportunity to meet people, share in sacred moments, and be a part of God-ordained events. Nothing compares to the sacredness of standing behind the pulpit with the message of God coming from my lips. When I approach a story in the Bible or a passage of Scripture, I don’t look to what will get the crowd excited or lend to popular speech. I look at the heart of the message God intended for the time it was written and then build a bridge from that moment to us today in order for us understand the message of this Book.

Today is one of those messages that we must examine carefully because if we are not careful, we will miss the point. We will set our eyes on the miracle instead of the Giver of Miracles. Elijah is one of the most significant prophets in all of the Old Testament. Even John the Baptist, whom Jesus called the greatest of all prophets (Matthew 11:11), came in the ‘spirit and the power of Elijah (Luke 1:17). It is believed that Elijah will be one of the two witnesses that appear during the Great Tribulation as foretold in Revelation 11. Elijah was one of three people in the Bible who was taken up to heaven without dying (2 Kings 2:11). Enoch was another (Genesis 5:24, Hebrews 11:5) and Jesus was the other after his resurrection.

Elijah is credited with 10 miracles happening during his ministry, some of which we will talk about here. Yet Elijah has no book in the Bible named after him. Elijah was human with emotions, disappointments, fears, and doubts. And there is so much the church today, including this church, we need to learn from him.

My main passage is from 1 Kings 18:21:

And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. (1 Kings 18:21)

The message today surrounds Elijah’s confrontation and defeat of the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. But before we can properly understand the point of that we have to understand the rest of the story because if we just get to the confrontation on Mount Carmel, we will miss the truth we need to learn. So there are a few truths I want you to understand that will help set the scene for the rest of the message.

God Will Not Share His Throne

Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” (1 Kings 17:1)

Elijah is living in a time when Israel has adulterated and polluted their faith in God. It is about 100 years since the reign of King David. The kingdom is divided with Israel to the North and Judah to the south. There is growing idolotry among god’s people. They have infected their worship and sacrifice to God to Molech, Baal, and Asherah. They are sacrificing their children. They are sexually perverse. Their conscious is seared.

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, (Exodus 20:5)

Whenever a nation turns away from God. He does several things. First, He will send ungodly leadership as judgment. King Ahab is a wicked King who has forsaken Yahweh as the God of Israel. Even more, he has the wicked and pagan wife named Jezabel.