Elijah
Notes
Transcript
Welcome
Welcome
Good morning everyone, today in our Gospel Story sermon series we are skipping ahead a considerable amount of time. Last week we looked at what Solomon was doing that led to his downfall and today we will see just how big of an affect that had on the nation of Israel.
Prayer
Prayer
Background
Background
After Solomon dies, his son becomes king. His son is greedy and raises taxes and is just overall this bad king. As a result of this, the nation of Israel splits into two kingdoms. The southern kingdom is known as Judah and the capital is Jerusalem. Southern Judah is where the line of David is going to continue. The northern kingdom is know as Israel, and eventually Samaria will be its capital.
The middle of 1 Kings is then a detailed record of the kings that come after this split. In total, each kingdom had 20 kings and the author keeps a record of whether they were good or not. The way that the author judges the kings is based on three main questions. Did they worship Yahweh alone? Did they get rid of idol worship? Were they faithful to the covenant that God established with them. In total, northern Israel has 0 good kings. Southern Judah only had 8 good kings out of 20. Now, this isn’t great. If the kings aren’t following God, then who is speaking for God before the people? This introduces the role of the prophets in Israel’s history. God calls the prophets to speak on behalf of God, to call out idolatry and injustice, and to challenge the kings and the people to follow God’s law. This brings us to 1 Kings 17, where we are introduced to a man named Elijah, who God calls to serve as a prophet.
Engage / Tension
Engage / Tension
As we look at Elijah and with VBS this week, one of the days science principle is cause and effect. If (A) happens, then (B) will happen. A good illustration is the children’s book, “If you give a mouse a cookie.” The book says that if you give a mouse a cookie, then he will want a glass of milk, and it goes on and on and on. When it comes to Elijah, there is some cause and effect at play. In Deuteronomy, we hear the warnings about turning away from God and worshiping other gos and idols.
Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you.
Solomon even brings this up in his dedication prayer that we looked at a few weeks ago.
“When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and give praise to your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land you gave your people for an inheritance.
So what does Israel do? 1 Kings 16:32-33
Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him.
There is our cause. Ahab does evil, he is serving other gods, he built a whole temple for Baal, pretty much did more bad things than all of the kings combined. What is the effect then?
Bible
Bible
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.”
Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.”
So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
Because of what Elijah says, he now becomes enemy #1 to king Ahab. So to protect Elijah, God sends him to this ravine and he stayed there. In order to survive, God tells him that he will provide food for him to eat by having ravens carry it to him. Elijah does exactly what God says, and God keeps his word to him. Elijah is able to drink from the brook and is able to eat every day because God has ravens bring him food.
Think about this kind of trust that God is asking Elijah to have. Go to this random place in the wilderness. Don’t take food, don’t take provisions for yourself to survive on. Just go and trust. Trust that I will somehow get birds to deliver food to you. Not just once a day, but twice a day! Elijah already begins to teach us, and demonstrate to us what trusting in God looks like. Trusting in God means listening and obeying him even when it makes no sense. It means trusting God over our ability to provide for ourselves.
Now, I don’t think God is going to send us to a creek and bring us food by birds, but he still asks that we trust him. How often do we get worried and concerned about things in the world, at our job, in our family, and we don’t go to God with those worries? How often do we try to fix things on our own first, and only if that doesn’t work then we turn to God. Elijah reminds us then to trust God. Listen to him, obey, and trust that he will take care of you.
Things don’t end here with Elijah though.
Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” 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?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”
“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.”
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. 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.’ ”
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. 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.
God had been providing water to Elijah from this brook, but eventually the drought gets so severe that it dries us. What now? God had told him to go there, what was going to happen to Elijah now? But, the word of the Lord comes to Elijah once again. God tells Elijah to go to a place called Zarephath where a widow will take care of him.
Here it is important to place ourselves in the culture and time of Elijah. Being told to go to a widow back then would have made no sense. A widow could not work, she didn’t have a savings account. She can’t really provide for herself in that culture, so how on earth is she going to help provide for Elijah?
As Elijah meets her, he realizes how bad things have gotten. She was about to make a last meal for her and her son before they die. Elijah instructs her to make the meal, but to make him some as well. They don’t have to worry about the little flour or oil they have left, because God will not let it run dry. Once again, things seem to be okay for Elijah and now this includes the widow and her son. Surely nothing else is going to happen to this little group?
Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 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?”
“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. 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?” 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!”
The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. 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!”
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.”
The widow’s son becomes sick and dies. Not exactly what we were hoping for in this situation. The widow thinks that this has happened because of the sin in her life. Even Elijah is confused as to why this happened. Why would God allow this to happen when God has been miraculously keeping all of them alive? But, this situation is what prompts the widow to move from unbelief to belief. Notice what happens with the widow after the Lord raises her son back to life. 1 Kings 17:24 “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.””
“Now I know.” This is an “Aha” moment for the widow. Even though she has been seeing miracles every single day. Even though she has never ran out of flour or oil, she still doesn’t quite understand Elijah or what God is doing. But here, she gets it. God demonstrates his power over death by bringing her son back to life and this moves the widow into faith.
God demonstrates his redemptive work with power over life and the resurrection. The resurrection gives the strongest proof for the power of God’s word which is to lead to life-changing faith. God works in this event to bring insight and understanding. The resurrection is the “Now I know” moment for faith. The same was true for the disciples of Jesus.
After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
Notice that the resurrection brought about faith so that they believed the scriptures and the words of Jesus. Resurrection is supposed to bring confidence to the word of the Lord. Resurrection gives us hope for the promises of God. Resurrection is the proof that what you believe in is not false. Because of the resurrection of her son, the widow is able to fully entrust herself to the word of the Lord. In the face of the unexplainable events and difficulties in life, the resurrection is the sure foundation to continue our trust in the Lord.
The resurrection of Jesus is the confirmation of our hope in the word of God. The resurrection proves that God can give life to our deadness. The apostle Paul powerfully declares that we are dead in our sins, separated from God, and unable to do anything about our spiritual condition. But God sent Jesus because God has the power to bring life to the dead. If God can bring life to the physically dead, then he can most certainly bring life to our spiritually dead souls.
Application
Application
Prayer
Prayer