CHAPTER 10 GOD SPEAKS TO US THROUGH ELIJAH
God spoke to Job in power and through a whirlwind, but at one point he speaks to Elijah in a gentle whisper!
Elijah is a powerful prophetic figure who was much revered by the Jews before the coming of Jesus Christ and there are references to him in the New Testament. Before we go back to look at the life of Elijah, I would like just for a few moments to look at those instances in the New Testament that speak about Elijah.
There are several passages in the New Testament where Jesus is approached and asked if he is Elijah. There was a belief among many of the Jews that God was going to send Elijah back and that he would be the liberator of the Jews – in essence the Messiah. Jesus emphatically denies that this is the case.
It was prophesied that John the Baptist would have the “spirit and power of Elijah” – see Luke 1:17. This does not mean that he was a reincarnation of Elijah but that God would give John his Spirit and the same power that he gave to Elijah. When John the Baptist is asked in John 1:21 if he is Elijah, he emphatically answers, no! He may be one like Elijah, but he was not Elijah. However Jesus in Mark 9 seems to imply that the spirit of Elijah has come in the person of John the Baptist. This is not a contradiction, but simply that John was not aware or conscious of the full significance of who he was.
Elijah is therefore seen as a significant figure by both Jesus and the Jews – a person who was given extraordinary power. But he was also given an extraordinary place. The story of the Transfiguration of Jesus in Matthew, Mark and Luke and tells us this:
1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.” [Matthew 17:1-8]
What happened here? Jesus is utterly transformed and something of the awesome glory of who he really is, is revealed to the disciples. Two Old Testament figures appear – we might have thought of Abraham or Jacob or David, but it is Moses the great leader and Elijah the great prophet who appear and speak with Jesus. We are not told what they talk about but this event takes place only a short time before the death of Jesus and so we can assume that the great Old Testament figures would be encouraging Jesus because their salvation was as dependent on what Jesus would do in the Cross and Resurrection as our own salvation.
So then, who is this remarkable man to whom God spoke and through whom he spoke to the people of God? If you read from 1 Kings 17 right through to 2 Kings 2 you will get a flavour of who this man is and the times in which he lived.
Elijah lives from round about 900 years BC onwards and his ministry probably begins about 875BC. By this time the original Kingdom of Israel has been split into two nations – Israel in the north representing 10 of the original twelve tribes and Judah in the south representing the tribes of Benjamin and Judah and incorporating the city of Jerusalem. Both of the Kingdoms were at this time quite prosperous and held an uneasy peace. Elijah comes from the north and his main activity is during the reign of King Ahab who has married Jezebel, the princess daughter of the King of Tyre. She helps convert Ahab from the worship of God to worship of the Phoenician god Baal. After she has many Jewish prophets killed, Elijah challenges 450 prophets of Baal to a competition (1 Kings 18), exposes the rival god as powerless, and has the prophets of Baal slaughtered (1 Kings 18:40). Jezebel becomes his enemy. Jezebel is seen as the power behind the throne.
The worship of Baal usually involved an idol and included quite promiscuous sexual activity as part of the worship in the cult. Jezebel was so opposed to the worship of God that she refused even to allow the two forms of worship to co-exist – something many of the other kings allowed as part of a religious/political compromise. Elijah is introduced to the scene quite suddenly as representing God:
1 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.”
2 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: 3 “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 4 You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.”
5 So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. [1 Kings 17:1-7]
It is very much an in and out situation for Elijah. He gets into the situation, says his piece and gets out and hides. Why was Elijah so confident? Obviously God, in some way, had communicated with Elijah in very specific terms and he had passed this message on to the royal court. The first thing we see in this story is that there may be times when God asks us to speak very hard things if we are to be an authentic voice. Where there is injustice or where there is severe compromise within the church to our faith God may ask us to stand out with what may appear an unpopular message, demanding change. The second thing we see from this story is that where God asks us to do something difficult for him, he also provides for our needs. In a very physical way, Elijah had his needs met by God.
Elijah was embarking on a long mission of confrontation in a battle that ultimately, though there were some victories, he was not going to win. Ultimately, long after Elijah is gone, the northern kingdom will be conquered and the people of it dispersed throughout the world and this will be seen as God’s judgment on a people who would not listen. Elijah’s role is not primarily to seek success but to be faithful. Primarily God ask us to be faithful to him in whatever he calls us to do – we must always be prepared to “lose faithfully” but keep on doing what is right!
We are then introduced to another incident where God speaks to Elijah:
7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the LORD came to him: 9 “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” 10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”
12 “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 olive 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.”
13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 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 sends rain on the land.’”
15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.
17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”
19 “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 20 Then he cried out to the LORD, “LORD my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the LORD, “LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”
22 The LORD heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”
24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth.” [1 Kings 17:8-24]
Elijah is directed to go and live with this widow. There are several things happening here. God is continuing to provide, this time miraculously, for Elijah, but also for the widow and her son. We see the compassion of God as he provides for people who are in the greatest need [and in a sense we are seeing how God prioritises and encourages us to set our priorities]. Remarkably God also provides power and grace when this dear woman’s son dies. We are introduced through Elijah to remarkable power – a power that will only be seen again when Jesus comes to earth! But even through this power God speaks to the widow and she authenticates the ministry of Elijah! Similarly it is on the basis of his power over death that the whole ministry of Jesus was finally authenticated – “and who through the Holy Spirit was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” God speaks through us to the world by the type of Gospel we proclaim. I believe the Resurrection of Jesus is central to the message of the Gospel because:
As Paul says in Romans it is through the power of the resurrection that Jesus is confirmed as the Son of God.
It is through the power of the Resurrection that we have a message because death is the final enemy that needed to be defeated.
People still fear death and if we are to speak to our generation meaningfully we need to speak about a power that is greater than anything that can be manufactured by human ingenuity – power over death and eternal life.
With most people, the evidence of God’s displeasure through the famine would have been enough but Elijah had a persistent opponent in Jezebel! It is amazing how evil can masquerade as good and present itself in a positive light. We see this in the following verse:
“Ahab went to meet Elijah. 17 When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”” [1 Kings 18:16b,17]
The voice that represents this world is Ahab and he blames Elijah for everything that is going wrong. How often God and his church/people are blamed for the ills of the world, when in fact they lie on the doorstep of our world!
What follows is one of the most remarkable passages in the Bible and it is worth quoting it in full just so that we gather the sense of the story:
20 So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel.21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”
But the people said nothing.
22 Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the LORD’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. 23 Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. 24 Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by fire—he is God.”
Then all the people said, “What you say is good.”
25 Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.” 26 So they took the bull given them and prepared it.
Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.
27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 28 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. 29 Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.
30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD, which had been torn down. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.” 32 With the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs[a] of seed. 33He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.”
34 “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again.
“Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time. 35 The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.
36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”
38 Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The LORD—he is God! The LORD—he is God!”
40 Then Elijah commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Don’t let anyone get away!” They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there.
41 And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” 42So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.
43 “Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked.
“There is nothing there,” he said.
Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.”
44 The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.”
So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’”
45 Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. 46 The power of the LORD came on Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.” [1 Kings 18:21-44]
Isn’t Elijah magnificent? There is only one of him against 850 false prophets, but they are outnumbered!! The part of the passage I want to concentrate on is not the confrontation and outcome but what Elijah says at the beginning:
“How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”
God is speaking to the people and to us through Elijah. He is challenging our allegiance. John White accurately states that the worship of the old gods represented money, sex and power – still the same gods that are worshipped today! Even as Christians we can allow our hearts to drift to the extent that we are captured by one or more of the idols of money, sex and power and where God and his Kingdom is not the priority that governs our lives. God comes to us and he exposes the weakness of what the world has to offer and asks us how long we are going to waver between two different ways of living and worshipping – when are we going to make a distinctive decision that is so well expressed in the words of the old hymn:
All to Jesus, I surrender;
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.
I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessèd Saviour,
I surrender all.
Is God speaking to us through the ancient words of the prophet in a new and living way? Are we being challenged at a very basic level?
Well, Elijah has seen the power of God and it has been an exhausting experience. We look at him and surely feel that he is almost an invincible figure:
“So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” [a reference to the prophets she had killed].
3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.” [1 Kings 19:1-2]
After all he had done, and his experiences of the power of God, he was afraid of the threats of Jezebel. Did he turn to God and ask for his wisdom or opinion? Did his faith not simply look back at the incredible power of God he had just experienced and commanded? No! I have a great deal of sympathy for Elijah because we are at our most vulnerable when we have been used significantly by God! Elijah is no exception.
There are two questions for us to answer – how does Elijah deal with his failure and how does God deal with Elijah’s failure? Bear in mind what we see in this passage is about what we will we learn about those moments we fail and when we have to deal with other people when they fail. Here is the profile of what happens:
Elijah has reached the end of his rope! The poor man has had enough and there is also a significant amount of self-pity:
“I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.” [1 Kings 19:4-5]
How does God begin to restore Elijah? He allows him to sleep. When we are mentally and spiritually at the end of our rope, we sometimes need rest and sleep. Do we need prayer? Yes, Elijah did pray, and told God he had enough! Do we need counselling, more faith, someone to lay hands on us? No! We need quietness, peace, rest and sleep!!
What happens next? What formula does God give us for restoration? What words does God give?
“An angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.
7 The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he travelled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.” [1 Kings 19:5b-9]
God provided food! Then God allowed more sleep! Finally God took him away to a quiet and peaceful place! See how careful God is with him and us too. He does not lecture Elijah or have some immediate miracle cure that gets him right back into ministry. Everything can wait because his servant needs time – TIME! God is practical and that in itself was going to have a spiritual impact. Next time we are under severe pressure maybe God is saying something like this:
“Come aside for a wee while and rest! [Yes, to us Scots the good Lord might even use the word “wee”.] All these things you think you must do? They can wait! Find a good friend and go and enjoy a good meal together or go away for a wee while and recharge your batteries! You are needed to do so many things? Don’t worry, other people will help or all those so called urgent things can wait. We need to spend time together!”
We have now reached the climax of this story as God speaks powerfully to Elijah:
“And the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
11 The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
15 The LORD said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17 Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. 18 Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”” [1 Kings 19:10-21]
Elijah felt vulnerable and isolated and just a little bit angry and God had to speak to him about all of these things:
First of all God allows Elijah to have his say. From Elijah’s perspective everything is hopeless and black – see verse 10.
Second, God speaks to Elijah – not in the powerful way that one might expect, considering the great power-encounters he had experienced. God spoke gently to his prophet. Elijah needed the gentle and reassuring voice of God to wash over him and assure him that he has not failed and that God is still with him and for him and loves him and still has things for him to do.
God answers Elijah’s complaint that he is the only one left by assuring him that there are 7000 that have remained faithful. Now this may not seem a great deal to us but it is 7000 times more than Elijah imagined!
This whole passage is full of incidents where God speaks in very different ways. Like Elijah we have to be reassured by God that we are not to measure the success of our ministry or life by results and numbers – something the church is often guilty of doing. The measure of success in not primarily the number of people we get into membership or making decisions, but the faithfulness of the few or many who claim to follow Jesus.
And if, after moments of success, we fail? God comes to us in the gentle whisper and reassures us that we are not failures and that he still loves us and has a purpose for us in his Kingdom.