ELIJAH I KINGS 17…..
Introduction:
Ahab the haughty king had taken Jezebel, the pretty but wicked Zidonian to wife. Through her influence the prophets of God are slain, and the worship of Baal is established in the land as the national religion. Only seven thousand among all of the inhabitance has not bowed the knee to this idol. The whole nation seems overwhelmed with this flood tide of idolatry.
1) THE PERSON-
Away in the village of Tishbe, was a man whose heart has become hot with indignation, and whose jealousy for the honor of Jehovah burns with holy zeal. He was in agony of soul at the sight of the apostasy of his people. As he saw the depredation of his people his heart must have broken, and he was jealous for the glory of his God. He was crying out to God to bring the people back to God.
God chose to use His servant to answer his own prayer, as an instrument in His hand, to turn the nation back to the worship of their divine King. The interest and the power of God are committed to this servant, because he is wholly devoted to Him.
God made him in secret in order to use him in public. It is there in our closet that we hear the Word of God. It is there in secret that God reveals His heart to you. It is only when you spent time with Him that you would get to know the mind of Christ.
Elijah stood as one-
a) WHO BELIEVED IN GOD-
His faith gave him the victory over all fear of Ahab. Those who have set God before them will not play the coward in the presence of any foe. It was this consciousness of the presence of God that stiffened the moral backbone of a Luther (who stood up against the whole Catholic system and stood for the truth. Here I stand I can do nothing else, so help me God.) And a John Knox, who could say (give me Scotland or I die). Why? Because they knew their God.
b) ACCEPTED BY GOD-
Elijah had yielded himself unto God that he might be a channel through which His words might come to the hearts of the ungodly, and through whom the power of God might be made manifest. The Lord accepted his offer, and filled him as an earthen vessel meet for the master’s use. He got the victory with his God in secret, now he is rewarded openly.
c) IN FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD-
The honor of God was all that mattered to Elijah. There was a oneness of purpose between them. The fire of Jehovah’s presence withered all idea of self-seeking up. Those who serve the Lord will have very unpleasant work to do if they are careful about their own personal interests and honor.
The secret of courage and power in the work of Christ lies in knowing His will and delighting to do it.
d) WHO WAITED ON GOD-
As the eye of the maid is turned to her mistress, watching for the next indication of her will, so stood the life of Elijah before the Lord God of Israel. So may our souls wait on Him? (Moravian- ox standing between the altar and the plow, – ready for either, -sacrifice or service)
But Elijah’s standing before God was not in idleness, but in fearless attitude of one whose life was protest against the popular sin of the nation- idolatry
e) WHO HAD THE AUTHORITY OF GOD-
He spoke as if the power of God and the resources of Heaven were at his disposal. There shall not be dew nor rain these years but according to my word The keys of Heaven had been given to him, and the treasures of dew and rain would only be poured out when he was pleased to open the door. This was a terrible a most effective weapon which God had put into the hand of His faithful servant. Those who fight the battle of the Lord are never sent to warfare on their own charges.
Is not the gift of the Holy Spirit equally effective now for the carrying out of God’s purposes in the reclaiming of men to the fellowship of His Son? Elijah was a man “subject to like passion as we are” But do we have the faith of Elijah.
2) THE PROPHESY-
Elijah had to deliver that dreadful message to that godless king, that there would be no rain of dew but by his word. That was the spiritual result of sin:
(I) A closed heaven-no communication
(ii) A parched and thirsty land- no joy
(iii) A fruitless country- no blessing
It was because of there sinful life stile that God was withdrawing from them. The worst judgment was that the voice of God was silenced. The only active prophet of God was taken out of sight.
3) THE PLACE-
“Get thee hence, and hide thyself by the brook Cherish”
God did not send him to a five star hotel for his hideout. It was a brook with little water where there was no food. The safest place on earth is God wants you. We need to make sure that we are God wants us for we cannot expect God’s protection if we follow our own ways. What a sigh of relief would escape the heart of the obedient prophet as he sought and found the God-appointed place of rest, such a feeling of relief as the sinner knows, when in obedience to God’s Word he flees to refuge to that appointed place called “Calvary”.
4) THE PROMISE-
“Thou shalt drink of the brook: and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there” v4
(I) Place
God never sends us if He is not there to provide in all out needs. Mind you God provides in all our needs not in all our greed. When we are where God wants us our Cherish becomes a hallowed. The most tedious place becomes sacred because God is there. Of God sends us to our wilderness it is for a purpose to draw us closer to himself and in order to reveal himself to us in a most wonderful way.
For the prophet to know that His command had gone forth was enough to allay every doubt and fear as to all his needs being supplied. “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose.”
(ii) Provision
“The ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and in the evening”
He never went to bed hungry. The prophet could not have such a manifestation of the loving-kindness of God anywhere ells; being in God’s way He met him and blessed him.
a) Plentiful- Not only had he “bread and water “, but he had flesh also. The life of faith will always be met with His exceeding abundance. The young lion in the full vigor of their own strength do suffer lack; but they that trust the Lord shall not want any good”
b) Regular –
“Morning and evening”-He who hath begun a good work is able to carry it on. He who gave you the first mouthful of grace is able to make His grace sufficient for you all the way. Every morsel of Elijah’s food while there came to him by a supernatural way. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceed from the mouth of God” Miracles are an everyday occurrence to the man who lives by faith in the Son of God. God’s ravens are everywhere, and His command is enough to make them the ministers of mercy and blessing to any of His hidden ones.
5) THE PROVISION-
We walk by faith, not by sight. After a period of twelve months of experiencing God’s faithfulness beside the brook, which must have been a time of testing his faith and patience, he heard the voice of God again. We must learn to wait on God if we would do exploits for Him. (Moses waited for forty years before the divine call came to him. The man who had to face the testing ordeal of Carmel must be a man approved of God.
Precious faith, like precious gold, must needs pass through the refining fires. The prophet now receives another call.
a) The call-“After the brook dried up”v7 We may be perfectly assured of this, that when God in His providence closes one door against His servants He will open another. It will be a trying time to witness in the channel of our present comforts being gradually narrowed and the stream slowly drying up.
It may be drying up of the brook of the worldly prosperity, but especially when the much-loved brook of self-confidence had dried up do we feel how utterly helpless we are. BUT MAN’S EXTRE-MITY IS GOD’S OPPORTUNITY.
b) The command given-” Arise, get thee to Zarephath” v9
When the brook became silent then God spoke. When mountains of our boasted strength shall depart, and the hills of our carnal hopes are removed, the kindness of the Lord shall not depart; neither shall the covenant of His peace be removed. Zarephath means a smelting house, a place of fiery trials. It was meet that the prophet of fire should pass through the refining furnace. Al who life Godly shall suffer persecution.
Elia’s journey of 100 miles through a famine stricken country would afford him ample opportunities for faith. Away from the shady brook, this must have been to him, as ‘n Baptism of fire.
c) The commission made: “I have commanded a widow to sustain thee” vs.9
Perhaps the prophet though that she must surely be a healthy widow that was to supply his need, during the remaining time of the famine. In any case, God’s command to the ravens had not failed him; neither would his word to the widow. How the message came to this widow, we don’t know, but doubt-less this Zidonian was prepared in some way; it may have been through earnest prayer, like Cornelious. He is faithful that has promised.
d) The circumstances.
This widow as we suppose with the promise of god that he would supply in all her needs is now facing starvation. As far as her reason could go, there was only a hand full of meal, between her and death. She went out with a heavy heart to gather fuel to cook her last meal, when the crises came. Vs.10-12. Her circumstances seemed to belie the command of God. Abraham was similarly tried when command to offer up his sun Isaac, the child of promise. But see, Elijah comes, looking for the wealthy widow with who he was to lodge. He meets her gathering sticks, and when he ask ” a morsel of bread” he is told that all she possesses for her and her son is, “a handful of meal and a little oil.” Hear, again, circumstances seem to make the Word of God of nun effect. But like Abraham, “he staggered not of the promise of God, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform”.
He shows his faith in the divine promise, by persisting in having the first share of the little store, and saying to the half-bewildered woman, “fear not”.
e) The comfort of faith. “She went and did according to the saying of Elijah” Vs.14-15.
The prophet gave her the promise of the Lord God of Israel that the meal in that barrel would not waste nor the cruse of oil fail until the famine would cease. She believed the Word, and took what seemed her last handful of meal, and even with a hungry soul prepared it for Elijah. She practically gave way, at God’s bidding, all that she had, and cast herself entirely upon His promise. She had neither precedent nor example for such an act and for such a hope, but she had faith in the Word, and power of God. Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet believed.
f) The conformation of the promise “The barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the curse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord” Vs.16
Thus for a full year, did they eat bread, day by day, that was miraculously given them. Truly theirs was a life of faith on the promise of God. The meal was always at the bottom of the barrel, signifying their dependence on God, but was never wan-ting. They who trust Him holy, will find Him holy true.
6) THE PITIFUL TRAIL:
1 King.17: 17 “The son of the woman fell sick and there was no breath left in him.”
The light of her eyes, the you of her heart, and the hope her future life has been suddenly cut of. She sits with the dead boy: “in her bosom” Vs.19, But the natural warmth even of a mothers heart is utterly unavailing to bring back vacant eyes, the light of a living soul.
No more can we, by the strength of natural affection nurse back to life those of our loved ones, who are dead in their sins. “Without Me yea can do nothing”
7) THE PAIN OF MEMORY: “She said, what have to do with thee, o thou man of God? Art though come to call my sin to remembrance?” vs.18
The death of the child had awakened within her some sad memories of the past. What this sin was, we can not positively say. It may have been connected with the birth of the child; anyway, her soul was deeply moved. The presence of the man of God, the manifestation of the power and goodness of God, in the daily multiplying of the handful of meal, and this vivid remembrance of her own sin, filled her soul with the deepest anguish.
It is an awful sight to see one’s sinfulness in the light of a Holy God. Isiah cried out, “Who is me, for I am a sinful man”
8) THE PLAIN REQUIST: “He said unto her, give me they son” vs.19
Although the sharp words, of the afflicted and sin wounded woman, must have deeply stumped the sensitive heart of the man of God, yet he betrayed no impatience. He utters no complain, but with the tenderness of a father, and with the fait, of heaven born giant, he says, “give me thine son”, and he took the dead away, out of her bosom. Oh, man of God, what cant’s thou do with the dead?
A man of God will always act differently from an ordinary person, by facing difficulties that seem insurmountable and task that are impossible with man.
9) THE PLACE OF BLESSING: “He carried him up into a loft where he abode and laid him upon his own bed” vs.19
The loft must have been a very humble place in appearance, but to this prophet, priest, and prince, it was there holy of holiest, the audience chamber of the Price of life and glory. The little window of this closet looked right into the throne room of the eternal. Blessed is that man whose closed is filled with the warmth of the breath of God.
10) THE PREVAILING PRAYER: “The Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came to him again” Vs.21-22.
In asking that the soul of the child might come into him again, he was surly asking a great thing. But men who claim to stand before God must expect great things from God. The life of faith can not be limited to the natural. Above what we ask or think, God is able to do.
There are many that pray for reviving who would not stretched there little finger to lift a soul out of the ditch of sin in stretching himself he gave himself holy to the work. There are many that stretched themselves without the prayer of faith.
11) THE PERSONAL PRAISE:
“No by this, I know that though art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in they mouth is truth” Vs.24
The miracle in the barrel did not convince her like the miracle in the son. The overwhelming evidence of the truthfulness of the Word of the Lord is, that by it, souls past from death to life, born again by incorruptible seed of the Word. The death and reviving of her son, was the means in the hand of God of bringing her into the knowledge and love of God; so out of our deepest trials there may come our highest blessing, and when they do come, let us joyfully and honestly confess them.