– Happy Saturday. I hope you are enjoying time with your loved ones this weekend. Today we are going to discuss what we have read in 1 Kings 18-20.
These are exciting chapters, and it is hard to not write about Elijah and the prophets of Baal. It is such a comical, yet tragic, scene. I’m assuming most of you have heard that story, and I am sure I will write more about it myself in the future.
That is the story which most people preach from these chapters. I want to look at something different.
Listen
We open today with Elijah in hiding, and God telling him to show himself to Ahab. Wouldn’t we all like getting explicit instructions from God?
I pray for God’s will. Then I read the scriptures and seek understanding. Trying to be still so I can hear the Holy Spirit’s guidance, I often feel immobilized. Stuck doing nothing because I am not sure what God wants me to do.
Does God not answer us? Or are we not getting the answer we want? Maybe we are hearing God, but we don’t like or trust the answer?
Have you ever said, “I know I should have done this years ago, but…” and we have a long list of excuses.
Elijah had a great ear to hear the Lord. God tells him to go present himself to Ahab. Ahab has been seeking him for years, wanting to kill him (v18:1).
He goes to Obadiah and even he doesn’t want to get involved because it will mean death for him too! (v18:9)
The difference between us and Elijah is he did what God told him. Even though he didn’t like the idea.
Ahab calls him a troubler of Israel (v18:17). In antiquity, Plutarch, Sophocles, and later Shakespear, all taught don’t blame the messenger. Ahab felt the drought Elijah had warned them was coming because of their idolatry, was his fault.
We all must choose
Even when we don’t make a choice, that is a choice. I was once an atheist. I thought I believed in nothing. What I believed in was my belief system, which was flawed.
Elijah calls out the nine hundred prophets of Baal and Asherah and asks the people how long they’re just going to stand there and not make a choice.
Alexander Hamilton said “those who stand for nothing will fall for anything” (1).
Much like us, at the end of verse 18:21 – “the people said nothing” (NIV).
Then we have the famous scene where Elijah taunts the prophets. After they cannot produce results, he stacks the odds against himself. He knows nothing is impossible for God.
From here he goes to the mountaintop to watch for a change in the weather.
There have been times I was pretty certain I knew what God wanted me to do. So I did it. Then, nothing happened.
We seek a loved one who is sick, so we pray for them, and they don’t improve.
When we’re out of work, we pray and continue to fill out applications, but the bills keep coming and still no job offers.
I’ve been there countless times. Wondering if my prayers are bouncing off the ceiling while I lie in bed pouring my heart out.
Elijah’s servant keeps looking for the change. He is doing so because his master is telling him to “Go back.” (v18:43).
When Jesus is your Lord, He is your master. We should not be weary when He tells us to go back. Instead, we need to keep the faith.
Discouragement
After it rains, even when God had provided, Jezebel still wants Elijah executed. He runs for his life (v19:3).
At work, I will complete a task and research the results and show how successful I was in delivering what the teams needed. In my mind, I used to fantasize that I would get a raise, no raise. Maybe an award? No award. I mention in the bulletin a pat on the head?
No, instead, someone has a complaint. We’ve all been there.
Elijah sits under a bush, giving up. He wishes God would just pull him from the staring lineup (v19:4). What more could he do?
He hides in a cave, and then God asks, “What are you doing here?” (v19:9).
In a similar situation, Jesus asked the men in the boat, “Where is your faith?” (Luke 8:25).
In a scene more violent than the sea of Galilee, Elijah stands on Mt. Carmel as God tears the mountain apart. The key word is he stands, he does not flee.
God isn’t in the noise, and tumultuous activity around him. He is in the whisper.
Which leads us back to the opening question. Is it that God isn’t answering, or that we aren’t hearing? Is there too much noise around us? Are we expecting a thundering voice, and He is answering in our hearts?
