A STUDY OF 1 KINGS: God Prepares the Way for Us 1 Kings 17
Dr. Jerry A. Collins
The first time we hear of King Ahab was due to an alliance he made
with Phoenicia on the coast that culminated in his marriage to the Sidonian
princess, Jezebel, who also brought her strong religious/cultural idolatrous influence
with her. This led the Northern Kingdom and its kings even further away from a
dependence on and a worship of the God of Israel. Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. It came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to
walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that
he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of
the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him. So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal which he built
in Samaria. Ahab also made the Asherah. Thus Ahab did
more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the
kings of Israel who were before him (1 Kings 16:30-33). In essence, a focus on the economic and
political welfare of Israel by the leadership would compromise the nation
spiritually and jeopardize its future prosperity due to Gods
judgment.
In this period of apostasy
Israel’s economic growth and material affluence, due to product that now could
be shipped between desert and sea by means of this Phoenician alliance, caused
internal spiritual decay, characterized by greed, intrigue and lack of concern
for others. Centuries before, Moses had issued a serious warning in regard to
the economic, religious and political implications of such a lifestyle in
Israel. But
you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to
make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers,
as it is this day. It shall come about if you ever
forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and
worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. Like the nations that the
Lord makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you would
not listen to the voice of the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 8:17-20). Unfortunately, we are about to enter
into a period of Israel’s history that fulfilled these predictions.
WE MAY FACE A CONDUDRUM AS A
RESULT OF OBEYING THE WILL OF GOD
Verse 1— The
first time we hear about Elijah he predicted drought to King Ahab in Samaria. Now Elijah the Tishbite,
who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand. Everyone else felt that the Lord was dead, but for Elijah
the Lord lived. He was the supreme reality of Elijah’s life. He stood in the
presence of Ahab, but he was conscious of the presence of someone greater than
any earthly king.
--Surely
there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word". This was a dramatic demonstration against the pagan god
Baal, who was thought to be the sky god, the god of the weather. Elijah showed
that through his prayers to the God of Israel, the Lord was mightier than Baal
and any idol they made.
We should note that the dominant theme of the ministry of Elijah was his
strong, uncompromising, intolerant, stand against idolatry. He killed at least
550 men (450 prophets of Baal at Mt. Carmel + two group of 50 sent from Ahaziah) because of idolatry.
The majority of his ministry was battling the idolatry of Ahab and Jezebel and
their son Ahaziah.
Application: Never tolerate, compromise, or blend
any other religious practices into Christianity. Take a strong stand against
things like dream catchers, Ouija boards, astrological signs, horoscope, and
eastern meditations. Do not respond positively to people who go to false
religions for help.
PT—It’s
interesting that Elijah’s ministry began and ended across the Jordan as one of the
settlers of Gilead. Here is where the dramatic exodus of Elijah
occurred. This is where, centuries before, the Israelites received their
instructions from Moses after he led the Exodus from Egypt. Here they
celebrated Passover for the first time.
·
Given all of this impressive historical and theological
press, it is not surprising that in the New Testament times John the
Baptist—the new Elijah—chose this region for a major part of his ministry,
preaching a message of repentance to Israel. It was in this context that Jesus
of Nazareth came to John to be baptized and to begin His own ministry and
identified with John instead of the Sadducee’s or Pharisees who did not believe
in the need for repentance in Israel.
·
The echo of Elijah’s message is heard
throughout the Old and New Testaments. Moses, Elijah, and Jesus are intertwined
in Malachi’s prophecy. "Remember the law of Moses
My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all
Israel. "Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the
coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord (Malachi 4:4-5).
·
That
echo is also true in the gospel of Matthew. While John was in prison wondering
why Jesus connects John’s ministry with Elijah’s. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers
violence, and violent men take it by force. For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to
accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come. He who has ears to hear, let
him hear (Matthew
11:12-15).
·
The
strong link between these three is also illustrated in Jesus’ transfiguration.
There,
behold, two men were talking with Him; and they were Moses and Elijah, who, appearing in glory, were
speaking of His departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke 9:30-31). The implication
being that Elijah’s ministry was a forerunner of the last and greatest Old
Testament prophet, John the Baptist. Jesus declared This is the one about whom it is written, 'BEHOLD,
I SEND MY MESSENGER AHEAD OF YOU, WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY BEFORE YOU.' Truly I say to you, among those
born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! (Matthew 11:10-11).
·
John was the last
Old Testament prophet who had his own ministry of calling people to repentance.
He was the forerunner of the Messiah, predicted by Isaiah. John the Baptist
confessed that he was NOT the fulfillment of Malachi 4. Rather, he said his
ministry was the fulfillment of a different prophecy found in Isaiah 40, a voice crying in the wilderness
announcing the Messiah's first coming. He actually fulfilled the prophetic task of Elijah in
that he came in the spirit and power of Elijah, but Elijah himself will
personally return during the tribulation period just before the second coming of Christ (a witnesses of
Revelation 11). John while in prison even questioned whether Jesus was the
Christ.
PT— Don’t be offended by God, i.e. stumbling over
what God is or is not doing in your life, when you are in a prison of suffering
without explanation. The disciples stumbled over Jesus sleeping while they were
perishing on the boat. They thought Jesus did not care, He was no longer with
us, involved in our life. Jesus told them they had little faith. When you are
in suffering situation, don’t have little faith, don’t respond to that by
having less faith in God.
·
The reaction to Elijah’s ministry received in the Northern Kingdom in
the days of Ahab served as an illustration for Jesus when he spoke in Nazareth
at the beginning of His Galilean ministry. From a hill above the city Jesus
could view much of the surrounding terrain was where Elijah had his ministry.
He drew lessons from Elijah’s ministry that would associate Jesus with that
ministry. And He said, "Truly I
say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. But I say to you in truth,
there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut
up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; and yet Elijah was sent to none
of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a
widow
(Luke 4:24-26).
Verses 2-3— Here
is the Elijah mantra. He is the word of the Lord came to him prophet saying, "Go away from here and
turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the
Jordan. We should notice that Elijah
always and only followed the verbal revelation from God. He never looked to his
feelings, circumstances, or advice from others to get a leading from God. But
then Elijah seemed to apply that revelation in a creative way. We know of no
command from God for him to pray for the widow’s dead son or lie on his body
three times. Calling the prophets of Baal to Mount Carmel and all that he did
there seems to be Elijah’s idea. Killing 450 prophets of Baal, calling down
fire from heaven, on three different occasions, all seem to be Elijah’s
initiative to fulfill God’s commands.
Application—Understand
the word of God literally and apply it creatively. Take the initiative to
creatively apply the the written word of God. Look
for creative ways to do evangelism, discipleship and teach the Bible to your
children or grandchildren. For example, travel together, read together, evaluate
movies together, go listen to an evolutionist talk about something from nature
and evaluate it together from the Bible. Get your children and grandchildren
and extended family and disciples used to evaluating the world’s lies with
biblical truth.
Verses 4-6— It shall be that you will drink
of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there."—So,
God has a purpose for Elijah in all of this. While others may also suffer
consequences, God is on a mission to teach His servant so he is prepared for
what lies ahead through wilderness training.
—So
he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and lived by the
brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. —This is a desolate place where God often
takes us through the spiritual school of discipleship. Isolation and obscurity
are usually His preference. Just look a Jesus or Paul or even the Israelites in
the wilderness.
—The
ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the
evening, and he would drink from the brook— The
drought announced by Elijah in the previous verse was a great threat to the
northern kingdom of Israel and the reign of Ahab. Therefore, his life was in
danger, and God sent him to the Brook Cherith for his own safety. Probably this was a seasonal brook that flowed during the
rainy season but dried up when the weather turned hot. It was located east of
the Jordan River. This was God’s supernatural provision, much
like the manna and quail during Israel’s wilderness wanderings (Exodus
16:13-36).
PT—
The escape to the Brook Cherith was for more than protection. It was also to
train Elijah in dependence upon the Lord. In a season of drought, he had to
trust that God could keep this brook flowing. He also had to accept food from the
ravens, which were unclean animals.
So now he would be faced with the reality that his need to survive was total
not partial. But this is always the case for us. We just need situations that
are threatening and personal enough to remind us of such.
Verse
7— It happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no
rain in the land. Once again we see that
following the will of God can often be dangerous to our personal well-being. Don’t
use danger as an excuse to not perform the will of God. Elijah’s
dependence upon God increased as he entered increasingly difficult situations.
His obedience went from being fed by ravens, to being supplied by unending
grain and oil, to raising a boy from the dead, to calling down fire from heaven
when challenging the prophets of Baal, to running for his life.
Application—Maturity
will probably include increasingly difficult situations requiring our faith to
mature. Faith will have to increasingly be dependent upon understanding truth,
if we are to mature.
GOD WILL
PROVISION US AS WE WALK BEFORE HIM IN FAITH
Verses 8-10— Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, "Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay
there. God led Elijah from the dry
brook to a Gentile city.
This was an unusual and challenging move for Elijah to make. God kept
transplanting Elijah: From home to Jezreel to Cherith to Zarephath. This
transplanting made him stronger and stronger.
—Behold, I have commanded a
widow there to provide for you." — God had gone ahead of Elijah anticipating
his need as Elijah followed the clearly revealed will of God from the actual verbal
Words of God.
—So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he
came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and
he called to her and said, "Please get me a little water in a jar, that I
may drink."— God had placed the widow here, so Elijah could
make immediate contact with her. The fact that she was gathering sticks showed
that things were not very good with her. Probably as much as Elijah being
helped by the woman, is the fact that God will help her through Elijah. Elijah
requesting water from her for a drink opens the door to conversation with her.
Verses 11-12— As she was going to get it, he called to her and said,
"Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand."— Widows were poor in the ancient Near East and would
have been the first to run out of food in a drought. Elijah’s request for water
and then bread evidently identified the widow God had in mind. Her response
revealed a Gentile believer in the Lord. Elijah asked the widow to put God’s
interests—represented by himself, a prophet of God—before her own as the
condition for her blessing. This was certainly putting
the widow’s faith to an extraordinary trial: to take and give to a stranger, of
whom she knew nothing, the small pittance requisite to keep her child from
perishing, was too much to be expected.
—But she said, "As the Lord your God lives, I have no
bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and
behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my
son, that we may eat it and die."— You can sense her despair. Elijah
quickly found out that she was not only poor, but desperately poor.
Elijah found her right before she was going to prepare her last morsel of food
for herself and her son, and then resign themselves to death. The entire episode expresses the utter deprivation she faces. All
does not only seem lost. All is lost. In the midst of her pain God asks for
even more deprivation for her.
PT—Make no mistake. This is God
at work bringing us to the edge of the cliff where there is nowhere else to go
but to jump and then have to trust the Lord to intervene. God tests us. God
tests the faithful. The demonstration f and quality of our faith is paramount
because the articulation of our faith here is the means of our favor with God
in heaven. That faith must be tested so as to determine its maturity.
Verses 13-14— Then
Elijah said to her, "Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a
little bread cake from it first and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son.
— She responded obediently to the word of Elijah. God honored
her faith; He provided her need for food. Elijah
made an audaciously bold request. He asked this destitute widow to first give him
something from her last bit of food. This
seemed like the worst kind of predatory fund-raising.
Elijah is sure now, that this is the widow the Lord had sent him to. Notice,
the first thing he says to her is, do not fear. He realizes at this
point, that the Lord had sent him for two purposes. (1) He would be safe with
this poor widow, and (2) God would miraculously feed Elijah, the widow, and her
son.
—For thus says the Lord God
of Israel, 'The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil
be empty— If
we are living for the Lord, He will provide for our needs, not our greed. God
will replenish their food; each time they go to the barrel. He sent the Manna
every day, except Sabbath, for 40 years for hundreds of thousands. It would be
no problem for Him to feed these three, who were faithful to Him. There will be
no lack of food for them.
— Until
the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth
which was assuring her the rain would be sent, and that the Lord, who had the
sole command of it, would send it. And that, until that time it should be sent,
she would have no lack of provisions, and therefore need not hesitate dressing
for the prophet first.
Verses 15-16— So she went and did according
to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days— The widow actually did it –
she willingly gave at great risk, based on her trust in the promise of God. She continually had only enough food
for one more meal – possibly for up to three years—before the rains began again
at Elijah’s command.
PT—God is looking or people who respond in faith
to His message. Biblical faith
involves at least three things: (1) It involves taking risks where one
is willing to jeopardize winning while venturing possible loss. (2) It involves
problems where risk taking is required in order for the problem to possibly be
resolved. (3) It involves a worthy object which is capable of addressing the
need that the risk requires. The widow must gamble her meager provision to
address her family’s starvation in order to have the Lord miraculously provide
for her.
—The bowl of flour was not
exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the
Lord Which He spoke through Elijah. — There being a continual
increase and supply of both, through the mighty power of God working a
continued miracle. The same as the loaves and fishes were increased while the
disciples were eating in (Matthew 14:19). God's Word is true. He did just as He
had spoken through Elijah. There was plenty of food to take care of their
needs.
PT—For Elijah
the miracles of God were, supernatural, contrary to nature, real-world events,
not religious stories and ideas. Baals were chiseled out of stone. Asherah were
carved out of wood. The only reality in them was the religious mysticism in the
minds of the worshippers. But the supernatural acts of God were real and
demonstrated that God was not just an idea, but the real creator and judge of
the world.
Application: Never call
anything a miracle of God that is not a supernatural real-world event. The
beauty of a flower, the birth of a baby, the wonders of nature are not
miracles. Raising someone from the dead and calling down fire from heaven are
miracles. The miracles recorded in the Bible are real, contrary to nature,
interruptions in the natural course of history.
OTHERS
CAUGHT IN OUR TEST OF FAITH MAY HAVE THEIR FAITH CHALLENGED
Verses
17-19— Now it came about after these
things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and
his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. — One crisis diverted now gives
way to another. There is no doubt that the boy has died. The
death of the son was a double blow to the widow. Not only did she suffer as any
mother who loses a child, but she also suffered as one who lost her only hope
for the future. The expectation was that her son would grow and provide for her
in her old age. Now that expectation was shattered.
—So she said to Elijah, "What do I have to do with you, O man of
God? — As if she should say, it would have been well
for me if I had never seen thy face, or had any conversation with you. This she
said rashly, and in her passion and agony, being extremely affected with the
death of her child, which made her forget and overlook all the benefits she had
received through the prophet's being with her.
—You have come to me to bring
my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death!"— At
the death of her son, the widow indirectly blamed Elijah. She more directly
blamed herself and her unnamed sin. Whatever her sin was, the guilty memory of it
was always close to her. She fears that sin in her life had taken the
life of her child.
—He said to her, "Give me your son." Then he took him
from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living, and
laid him on his own bed. — This
son had to be very young for her to be able to carry him. The upper room was
usually for guests, and was as good as the owner of the house had. The fact
that he laid him upon the bed, shows the helplessness of the child.
Verses
20-21— He called to the Lord and
said, "O Lord my God, have You also brought calamity to the widow
with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die?"— Elijah realized
that only God could bring the boy back to life, so he called on God in prayer
to do so. Elijah prayed with great heart and
intimacy with God. He brought this seemingly unexplainable and irredeemable
tragedy to God in prayer. Since he knew God led him to this widow, Elijah laid
this tragedy on God and asked Him to
remedy it.
—Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called
to the Lord and said, "O Lord my God, I pray You, let this
child's life return to him."— Elijah
lay across him to listen for a heartbeat, and to pray for him. This
was an unusual prayer technique, but Elijah had no precedent for this. It was
not because of his prayer technique, but because of his faith that God answered
this prayer. Three times shows the involvement in the
fullness of the godhead in the miracle restoration of this child. Notice in the
prayer that Elijah prayed, it is in the power of God to let the child live or
not. This problem with the son is not to punish the widow, but to glorify God.
PT— Elijah is
the praying prophet. His entire ministry was soaked in prayer. Prayer for
healing is biblical prayer although there may be many reasons for a lack of
healing.
Verses 21-24— The Lord heard the voice
of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him and he revived. — The
son was raised and God provided for the widow on every level, not only with the
miraculous supply of food, but also with the resuscitation of her son. This is the
first restoration to life of a dead person that Scripture records. Elijah
prayed shamelessly to obtain his petitions in such a difficult case. God
restored the lad’s life. We, too, pray in desperation that God would
miraculously work.
—Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room
into the house and gave him to his mother; and Elijah said, "See, your son
is alive."— This
conclusively demonstrated that the Lord was the only true God and Elijah was
His prophet.
—Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man
of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth."— This
miracle left no doubt at all that this prophet, Elijah, is a man of God. The
restoration of her son had brought new confidence in this widow. She had
unselfishly given to this prophet a place to stay and food that God provided.
Now, she is reassured she had done the right thing. For Elijah,
he learned the power of God and the power of prayer. He applied both of these
lessons in his contest with the Baal prophets (18:16-46).
His confidence in his own ability as a channel of God’s blessing and word
received added strength from the widow’s confession.
SO WHAT?
·
God’s priority is to strengthen and facilitate the
development of our spiritual character. The reason is because that is what is
valuable on the other side of the grave.
·
God will orchestrate our affairs in such a way that the
circumstances related to them will increase the potential for our spiritual
character to be developed. Our temptation will be to short circuit those
troubling circumstances so as o abort the laboratory
God is using to do so.
·
The way we manage and negotiate situations that our beyond
our control or ability to meet is by prayer and faith. So
we communicate massages to God while trusting Him to address the need we are
praying for in terms of our bests interest. He gets to determine that.