Showing posts with label The Life of Elijah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Life of Elijah. Show all posts

Sunday, April 21, 2013

1 Kings 19:1-18 " Hard Hearts and a Broken Prophet"



If the 18th Chapter of 1 Kings  is  a great climax  in the  fight of the godly against  the evil  forces in the Bible, then the  19th Chapter is for many   a huge  anti-climax, as  Elijah flees after receiving a death threat from Ahab’s wife, Jezebel! We shall find  the  strong  prophet  of  the Mountain of Carmel  now  broken  at the Mountain of Moses (Mt. Horeb/ Mt Sinai) -  and between these  two places  a huge physical distance.   We read that   Elijah  initially fled  for his life  from the town of  Jezreel in the northern territory of Israel to Beersheba, about 160 kilometers south of  Jezreel, in the territory of Judah, and then finally  another approximately  320 kilometers  further south into the Sinai peninsula where  Mt. Horeb (Mt Sinai) is located!  So, what has happened?


A lot of ink has  been spilled over the   “psychology of Elijah”. Many have poured over  the factors  which might have led to this great reversal  in Elijah’s  thinking.  The keyword for many interpreters  of this text  is the word “fear” which is   found in  19:3:   Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life…”. 

It is strange that (all things considered)  such a fearless man  should turn into a  wimp  overnight – all   because  king Ahab’s wife, Jezebel had said to him, So may the gods do to me and more also , if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” (19:2). It was after  this  threat that  Elijah  arose  and ran for his life. (v.3) It just doesn’t make sense, does it? One moment he faces  450 false prophets,  man alone  in the strength of the Lord, and overcomes, and the next moment   he capitulates before  one woman and flees.  As I have said, this text has kept  commentators occupied. 

Much has been made of the  psychological impact  – the emotional  and the physical tiredness  that Elijah must have  experienced  after this great contest. Much has been said about  Elijah’s  lack  of  ‘spiritual guardedness’. He has been accused of  losing it- having a crisis of faith.  There  is something to be said for such observations, and  I think we all know the feeling  expressed   by Simon Peter in Luke 5:5 when  he   says  to Jesus  after  a disappointing  fishing expedition: “Master we have  toiled all night and took nothing!” Working hard, and seeing little results can have  a crushing effect upon the  soul  of any  man, and particularly so in the ministry.  But is that the  real issue here? Is this  as simple as saying: “Well here we have an example of a spiritual man who overworked himself, and who did not take care of his own soul, and the result is that  he bombed out emotionally, physically and spiritually ”? Is that  the great lesson  of 1 Kings 19?   I am thankful that I have had  a  few months now reflecting on the life  and times of Elijah, and I am  thankful  that I have had a week of study  and reflection on this particular text behind me in the company of the Holy Spirit  and some good commentaries.  I believe that I have come away with a better understanding of this text.  Let us begin  by  looking at the text again, before we make application.  

The narrative  can be divided into  6  parts:


    1.     Jezebel threatens to kill  Elijah  (vv.1-2)


   2.     Elijah sees what is  happening in Israel. There is no spiritual revival after this  contest with the prophets of Ba’al.  This  and the death threat causes him to flee   to  Beersheba in Judah  (v.3)
 

    3.     From Beersheba,   Elijah  went a day’s journey into the wilderness. It is here  that we   learn  something of Elijah’s emotional  state. He is depressed. He  tells God that he wants  to die.  He feels  a failure: “I am no better than my fathers”. He then  sleeps (emotional and physical exhaustion) and as He awakens, there is  food and drink brought to him by an angel of the Lord. The angel   informs him that he will need this sustenance for the journey ahead. This provides us with another clue. God is calling him  for a meeting at Mt.Horeb(Sinai), the mountain where God had previously made a significant covenant  with Israel through  Moses (vv. 4-8). This is an important fact  to be considered.


   4.     At Mt. Horeb  the word of the Lord came to  him  (vv. 9-18).  God asks the question (twice) :  What  are you doing here Elijah?” (vv. 9 , 13). Elijah responds (see vv.  10, 14). He  reveals  his  zeal for God’s work on the one hand. On the other hand he reveals his  very real disappointment at the gross failure of Israel,  God’s covenant people,   to return to their covenant God at this significant time  at which the false gods of Ba’al were so evidently  defeated . It seems  that the glorious victory at  Carmel  and the profession of the people  The Lord , he is God” ( 18:39)   had  no real effect on Ahab and  certainly none on Jezebel. The nation of Israel seemed to  continue  in their  spiritually  apathetic state.


   5.     God hears Elijah and now in  vv. 15 &16  God  gives  Elijah a new commission. He tells him three things (i)  Go to Damascus (capital city of Syria) and anoint the Hazael in place of  Ben Hadad [1] (ii)   Anoint  Jehu  as king over Israel in the place of the house of  Ahab[2]  and (iii) find yourself a replacement. Anoint Elishah, the son of Shaphat  to be prophet in your place. This  shall happen in  2 Kings 2.
   

   6.     This new commission really amounts  to a very severe judgment upon Israel. The  wrath of God  upon all the evil shall be exercised through these  “servants” of God, beginning with Elijah. God’s instruments  include (surprisingly)  a pagan king like Hazael  and  a murderous and rebellious Israelite king  called  Jehu, and it includes also  the true servant of the Lord, who will be  Elisha.  There will be a systematic purging of Israel  under Hazael , Jehu an Elisha (see v. 17). It will be a bleak, dark time in Israel. It will seem as if the lamp of Israel   will  be extinguished,  and yet at this  time   God assures Elijah  that there are 7000 in Israel, who have  been kept by the grace of God,  and   whose hearts had been undefiled  by   the present evil  idol worship  (v.18).


This is the story line. Now what shall we make of it? What is the Holy Spirit teaching us  here?  What about Elijah? Has he become a sell out? Having  taken careful note of the  text and context  (I trust), let us make some observations and conclusions: 


1.     Elijah’s running  away from Jezreel  to  Beersheba  was  not necessarily motivated by  carnal or self -centered  fear, but by a sense of failure and futility. The  slant will colour our interpretation of Elijah’s psychological state.  We are helped in this  if we consider   an alternative translation of the text.  I know that  the  ESV  (our preferred translation)  along with most other translations  (e.g. NASB, RSV, NIV, Amplified)  reads in v.3…   then he was afraid.”  The  alternate translation  (e.g. KJV & ASV) reads:   And then he saw…”. Now why  this discrepancy?   Here is the explanation. The oldest Hebrew text has no vowels.  The original Hebrew text only consist of consonants. So if I wrote,  Mary is a blonde  in old Hebrew, then   I would write “Mry s blnd    (The vowels are  understood).  So too, the Hebrew word  used here   yar’ah, (without the vowels)  can mean  to be afraid “ or  it can mean “saw” (in the imperfect tense[3]), depending on which vowels  you insert. The Masoretes[4]  are to blame for this. They  added  vowels  to  the Hebrew text  between the  7th  and 11th centuries AD.  By this they  chose  and he was afraid” over  and he saw”. Why do we make  all this fuss over language?  Because  the emphasis would make a difference in Elijah’s motives for fleeing. The one says he ran out of fear; the other says that he ran  because he saw the writing on the wall, and he was bitterly disappointed  and disillusioned.  I personally cannot see  that Elijah had a personality change, becoming a wimp. I cannot see that he  became  a spiritual drop out. Let’s see whether the rest of the text stands up to this reasoning. 


2.     Elijah needed  distance  between the problem in  Israel  because he was intensely  disappointed  with Israel. He  desperately needed  to meet with God at a place of origins, because he needed further  perspective.  Having arrived  in Beersheba, he leaves his servant  there and walks a day’s journey further into the desert. By now his emotions and  his body are beginning to catch up. He is deeply depressed  and he tells God that  he wants to die. Instead of death he experiences  what some of called ‘ the small death’ – sleep which  is God’s blessed  gift  to  revive us, and to make us forget the stresses and strains of life for a while. In   this  the wilderness,   God in love for his exhausted servant  sent an angel to sustain him  with  freshly baked   cake and water (19:6). And still he was tired. He lay down again,and the angel  nudged him and encouraged him  to get up and continue the journey to Horeb , the mountain  where Moses had previously  met with God  for 40 days and nights . Significantly it took Elijah 40  days and  40 nights  to get there (19:8). And God spoke to him there: “ And the word of the LORD came to him“. The LORD asks him: “What are you doing here Elijah?” Now, many people take that as a rebuke from God, as if to say  you should not be here! You are in the wrong place!“ It really is not necessary  to come to such a conclusion. This  could equally mean: “What have you come to tell me?” If this is true, God was looking at his servant in a softer , loving light.   I think that the response indicates this , because Elijah  then tells  God why he is here. Elijah  says that he is upset for God’s sake. Note the emphasis in  v.10: The people of Israel  have  thrown down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword …”. Here’s the point! Elijah is not whining. He has come to talk to  God as this most historically significant place of Israel’s beginnings! He has come to formally  charge Israel with apostasy  before God.  He is  righteously angry and disappointed before God, and he is at the right place to do so!  Nowhere  in this text do we  that God is angry with Elijah  for being  disbelieving and in the wrong place. If anything,  we observe God’s tender kindness towards his faithful prophet.


To  recapitulate:  Elijah was not so much afraid of Jezebel,as he was broken by the continued stubbornness and  unrepentant paganism  of  the nation. Elijah was here because God had essentially driven him there. Elijah  had come to bring a charge of apostasy against Israel!


3.     This teaches us afresh  the  depth of human depravity  and stubborn willfulness. No matter  how much proof there is of God’s power  over  evil, people will not believe. Sometimes we  are tempted  to think that if  only we can get  people to hear the truth. If only  we can convert them through our well rehearsed arguments. If we think that, we have not yet comprehended the deadness of the human heart (Eph. 2:1). The  testimony of Jesus is  true: “And this is the judgment, that light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather  than light.” (Jn. 3:19).


4.     We would do well to desire  Elijah’s heart and passion  for the glory of God, and  for his hatred for sin  and  depression over sin. Do we really care about the unfaithfulness of the present  professing church?  Can we be happy with this doctrinal indifference and  idolatrous pragmatism of our day -  so much that  we get upset for God’s sake? Can God’s servants get depressed and despondent, and is that OK? Yes! If it is over God’s  glory,  and honour and interests it is always OK. We are after all meant to be God’s holy people. We must feel to some degree what He feels  about  sin Do you ever get depressed  over   the  way things are in our  society, for God’s sake?


5.     The wrath of God is revealed  against  all the ungodliness of men who suppress the truth by their ungodliness. (Rom 1:18). In the closing verses of  our text today we shall see this. God is beginning to act against wicked Israel . And Elijah is there to anoint  the following people, believers and non believers alike  to do God’s work to  bring punishment upon Israel. And, in the process, God will take his tired servant out of the world and replace him with another man, Elishah  who will  faithfully run with the baton. 


Elijah has not been  God’s last broken- hearted  servant. Plenty of cases  have abounded in our own days, but you need not fear being a broken hearted servant when you are in the hands of a good God! Amen.



[1]  Hazael murders Ben Hadad in 2 Kings  8:7  and becomes king of Syria

[2] This happens in 2 Kings 9 when  under the direction  of Elisha a young prophet was called to  anoint Jehu as king over Israel. Jehu killed  Joram ( Ahab’s son – now on the throne )   and  he also killed Jezebel (9:30ff)  in accordance with the word of the LORD

[3] The Hebrew imperfect does not have tense apart from context and syntax just like the Hebrew perfect. The Hebrew imperfect denotes incomplete action, whether in the past, present, or future.



[4] The Masoretes were groups of scribes and scholars working between the 7th and 11th centuries AD, based primarily in present-day Israel in the cities of Tiberias and Jerusalem, as well as in Iraq (Babylonia) .The Masoretes devised the vowel notation system for Hebrew that is still widely used.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

1 Kings 18:41-46 " The Sound of Rushing Rain"


In Namibia  we know  much about  drought, and we  love to talk about the  years  where  there has been  an abundance of rain. The Bible  has surprisingly much to say about  drought and rain. The Bible frequently  attributes drought  to God’s judgment in response  to  man’s sinful, ungodly behaviour. For example, God says through   Jeremiah: “You have polluted the land with your vile whoredom. Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come…”  (Jer. 3:2,3).  Amos says: “You did not return to me, declares  the LORD. I also withheld the rain from you   when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither…  (Amos  3: 6,7). Through the prophet Haggai  the LORD  speaks about  “… my house that lies in ruins, while  each of you busies himself  with his own house. Therefore the heavens  above you have withheld the dew, and the   earth has withheld its produce. And  I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labours.” (Haggai 1:10,11).  The second  coming of the Lord  will be preceded by  famines  (due to drought), earthquakes and  pestilences (e.g.  Matt 24:7; Mk 13:8 ; Lk 21:11). 

Positively, God  in Leviticus  26:3,4  says: “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season , and the lands shall  yield its increase…”.
And then  there is the fact of God’s mysterious mercy. Despite man’s sin   Jesus and Paul remind their hearers  that  God  in His mercy and grace  continues to give  rain to the good and the evil, the   just and the unjust  ( Matt 5:45;Acts 14:17).
 
Heavy Rain in Namibia (Photo : J.Rieck 2011)
The biblical worldview  is very different from  the  modern  world view  which sees  rain  simply as the result of  a  weather pattern. There is of course some predictability  to rain, and there are scientific explanations  as to why  the Namib  desert  receives so  little rain -  so little, that the Walvis Bay  town council has never  bothered  to  invest in  street drainage!   But if we understand that the so called  “ laws of nature”  are also  God’s laws  then we are moving into the realm of   biblical worldview , and the complexities  associated with weather forecasting are  then understood  to be  the hand of God.
Sadly, sinful men continually wish to  divest themselves  of  the  thought that  an all seeing, all powerful, omnipresent  Creator God should rule this world   through    His intelligent  and good decrees[1]. Oddly enough men resent the thought  that God is personally  and intimately involved in the governance of this world.    They prefer to believe  that this world is  ruled by  fate  or by chance. They  reckon  that   on the 16th February 2013    a  comet,  approx. 50 meters in  diameter, 130 000 metric tons in weight, 27 000 kilometers away  from the earth, moving  at   8 x the speed  of  the bullet of a   high-powered rifle  was  a lucky miss!   From a God centered perspective, this was a warning  that God has  His own missiles flying  around our universe, armed with far greater destructive power  than  the most lethal  atomic weapon found on earth.
While my  friend Rod Thomas, a missionary to the city of Sendai  in Japan,  sees the recent  tsunami  as  God’s hand  in the affairs of Japan, the average Japanese   makes no such connection. They, like the rest of mankind think of such events as  a ‘natural disaster’. Nothing more than that!  If  the Japanese  had seen this tsunami  for what it  really is, namely  a  temporary judgment and  a loud  message from God,   then  they would  have repented  like the Ninevites  under Jonah’s preaching.  They would have heeded  the call  to repent and return to their true Creator. Lest we think that Japan  has no  Christian  roots  or revelation , I remind you  that  to the best of my knowledge Christ has been proclaimed in Japan  by various  missionary  groups  for over 500 years!    

Back to Elijah…
We notice that  this severe drought  in Samaria (17:1)  had come about by  God’s doing. It  would not be   broken  except   at the Word of the LORD  (17:1). And now after 3 ½ years  since God had first announced the drought through Elijah, the drought was  about to  come to an end  at the Word of the LORD.  But, understand , that God first had a work to do before He  would send rain. He  first was  going to smash the conspiracy  of evil. The cult of the 450 prophets of Ba’al   had to be destroyed, and the  people  of Israel needed  to  acknowledge  that God  was indeed the  sovereign LORD  of Israel (18:39). This having happened,  Elijah could  now say to king Ahab[2]:
Go up, eat and drink, for there is  a sound of the rushing of rain  (18:41). When Elijah had said this to Ahab  there was as yet no  sign or promise of a cloud (see v. 43). Sending his servant 7 times to check whether there was a cloud, his servant said after the 7th time: “behold, a little cloud like a man’s hand is rising from the sea” (v.44). Elijah,   by faith  in the God who so  often works through small, insignificant  means  knew that the time had come. God was going to multiply that cloud even though it was looking so very unpromising right now. We who live in Namibia  know a little about that. When a little grey cloud appears in the morning during rainy season, a heavy thunderstorm may follow a few hours later!  Small beginnings often produce wonderful effects  as the  parable of the mustard seed  proves to us. (Matt 13:31,32). So,  Elijah, by faith, heard the sound of  the rushing of rain even before it had begun to rain. He knew that this had to  happen  since God’s word  and promise was connected  to this. Ahab, the  apostate king of Israel   did  of course not see or hear  this. And, ironically, he depended on Elijah’s word (which he hated)  in this matter.  
The hardness of this king’s heart is  scary. Yes, he and his people needed rain, and now that Elijah, the man of God promised that there was rain on the way, he could only stuff his face, instead of  putting his head between his knees like Elijah in this prayer posture (v. 42), and  turning to God, in thankful anticipation  of this severe mercy!   Do you see the difference between Ahab and Elijah?
Listen again  to A.W. Pink’s profound remarks :   
The contrast between Elijah and Ahab was not merely one of personal temperament and taste, but was the difference there is between life and death, light and darkness. But that radical antithesis is not always apparent to the eye of man: the regenerate may walk carnally, and the unregenerate can be very respectable and religious. It is the crises of life which reveal the secrets of our hearts and make it manifest whether we are really new creatures in Christ or merely white-washed worldlings. It is our reaction to the interpositions and judgments of God which brings out what is within us. The children of this world will spend their days in feasting and their nights in revelry though the world be hastening to destruction; but the children of God will betake themselves to the secret place of the Most High and abide under the shadow of the Almighty.[3]

Vv.44-46 :And at the seventh time he said, ‘Behold, a little cloud like a man’s hand  is rising from the sea.. ‘. And he said: ‘Go up, and say to Ahab, “ Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you.” And in a little while the heaven’s grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. And the hand of the LORD was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment  and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.”
Faith recognized the hand of Almighty God behind that  little cloud, just as earlier, in Chapter 17,  by faith, a handful of flour in the widow’s household   had been sufficient  to sustain  3 people for a few months .
And the hand of the LORD was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment  and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.” 
 Here is the  last thing that I want us to see  and ponder: How far God will go  to show us His mercy and grace!  King Ahab  is  our example.  Let us   review what  Ahab  had  seen of God that day. He had seen the reality   of Israel’s God in action as  the prophets of Ba’al were defeated. He had seen the terrible drought broken  and the  rain fall in response to  the word of Elijah. And now  in v. 46  at the end of all these things he  is , once again, found face to face with Elijah, the man of God. Elijah  was given supernatural strength  by God to arrive at the gate of Jezreel  before Ahab  did. Why? Because  God Almighty was   forcing  Ahab  to make a decision. The people had their turn  on that day (18:21,39). Now it is Ahab’s turn to make a decision. God was  speaking to him loudly and clearly, one more time,  and this all against the background of Ahab’s unspeakable  ungodliness. He was the one who permitted the Ba’al  worship to  come to Israel. He himself had participated in such worship (16:31-32). He allowed his wife Jezebel to kill the LORD’s prophets (18:4). He is the one who had  at one time intensely persecuted and sought to kill Elijah  (18:10,17). And now God offers  him  another  opportunity to return and repent. Never  accuse God  for not pursuing us sufficiently! This is   amazing grace – once again.
But you know the end of the story. Ahab  knew the truth, but it did not move him. He was convinced but not converted. Let  A.W. Pink  have the last word on this: “How many like him are there in the churches today, who have religion in the head but not in the heart: convinced that the gospel is true, yet rejecting it; assured that Christ is mighty to save, yet not surrendering to Him.” [4]

COMMUNION
Dear  people,
How the grace of God amazes us   again and again. How the generous love of Christ confronts us again and again. How far  God will go to send an Elijah  into our lives, even as far as  the portals of hell. Even there He has His gospel preached to us. We marvel that God has so much patience with us, but that is the nature of His love.(1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
Today, on this Lord’s  day and before the Lord’s table  we  have the privilege to remember  the stubborn love of Jesus for us, again!  Dear believer,   as you participate in this sacred meal today, pray  that  the love of Christ will  not be a merely external thing to you. Call upon the Holy Spirit to help you  to  let  the  love of Christ  stir your heart anew.  Amen
“ May the love of Jesus fill me, as the waters fill the sea
Him exalting, self abasing, this is victory![5] ( John Greenleaf Whittier,1866)


[1] See  1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, Chapter 3
[2] This will happen in  1 Kings 22
[3] A.W.Pink , Elijah , pp 178/9
[4] A.W. Pink : Elijah, p.189
[5]  “May the Mind of Christ my Saviour”:  John Greenleaf Whittier,1866

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