Elijah his Message
The words, "Surely
there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word,"
show He
Was Confident in God's Promises.
Elijah
stood before King Ahab and made this statement because he was:
(1) confident in the principles,
promises and warnings of God's Word,
(2) confident of answered prayer
when it is based on God's Word and centered in God's glory.
Remember,
the prophets of Baal claimed Baal was the god of thunder, rain, and good
crops. Elijah's declaration in 1 Kings
17:1 strongly challenged the reality of their god and their faith.
Application:
It is
equivalent to telling people that true happiness and meaning in life come only
from the Lord and then demonstrating it by our priorities, faithfulness,
integrity, and by biblical pursuits that control and direct our lives.
Elijah
was a man of uncommon courage and bold availability because he was:
(1) Convinced and Confident in God's Person;
(2) Cognizant of God's personal presence and Committed as
God's representative, and
(3) Confident in God's promises.
In the autumn issue of Kindred
Spirit, 1991, there is an article entitled, "At The End of The Road . . .
Taking Risks to Achieve the
Greater Reward," by Larry Dinkins.
His major point - Sooner or later obedience to the word of
God will involve risk.
Again I
am reminded of Daniel's words, "but
the people who know their God will display strength and take action." Obviously, the big question is--how well
do we really know who God is, that is His character?
Testing By the Brook
(1 Kings 17:2-3)
Introduction
One of the new terms of our day that we hear often is
"virtual reality."
Contrary
to what the skeptics say, Scripture is not myth or cleverly devised tales. Nor is it some kind of virtual reality, but
true reality--realities that teach us about the living God and about fallen
mankind living in a sin cursed world.
Instead,
Solomon gives us inspired truth about what life is like on planet earth. He shows us what life is like under the sun:
it is like chasing after wind, a phrase found eight times in this book.
Chuck
Swindoll, in his book: Living on the
Ragged Edge, writes about life for the unbeliever
under the living under the sun:
Mainly,
as Solomon discovered long ago, it's empty.
There's nothing down here under the sun that will give you and me a
sense of lasting satisfaction. It is
planned that way! How else would we
realize our need for the living God?
To put it bluntly, life on planet Earth without God is the
pits. And if I may repeat my point
(Solomon does numerous times), that's the way God designed it. He made it like that. He placed within us that God-shaped vacuum
that only He can fill. Until He is
there, nothing satisfies
Truly,
our hope in Christ, like a brilliant diamond, needs the stark, black backdrop
of the utter futility of life under the sun to show us our need and drive us to
our knees.
Surely,
the word of the Lord that came to Elijah,
"go hide yourself," desperately needs to
be heard by every one of us.
"And the word of the LORD
came to him saying" (1 Kgs. 17:2).
The
communication from the Lord came after Elijah's faithfulness and obedience (vs.
1). This illustrates that, having ears
to hear, obedience and application of
the truth that we know, lead to greater capacity for more insight into God's truth and sensitivity to God's direction in one's
life.
By
contrast, disobedience to the truth has the opposite effect. It hardens our hearts and closes our ears, killing our capacity to hear and respond to the work
and ministry God wants to call us to (cf. Heb. 3:7-15;
The
problem is our listening, and too often, our listening is colored by false
expectations and selfish motives.
What the Lord would now
tell Elijah was most likely contrary to what he was expecting.
But
please note that the Lord didn't tell Elijah to do any of these things. In view of this, the command that follows is
very interesting and illuminating.
"Go
away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which
is east of the
Elijah was commanded to depart from
Why is Elijah sent to the place of
cutting? Some think for protection from Ahab. Perhaps that was part of it but it was not
the primary reason because later God would send Elijah to face the king and the
king made no attempt to slay him (1 Kgs.
More likely the reason was seclusion, concealment. He was
instructed to hide himself there.
(a) The Hebrew word for "hide" is satar rt;s' that means "to hide conceal,
cover." In
the Hebrew text it is a reflexive stem and refers to what one does to and for
himself. So it means "to hide, conceal yourself."
It refers to making a deliberate and
decisive choice in obedience to God's command.
(b) A main idea of the verb is "to be absent, out of sight."
Literally it means "absent yourself." The noun form, seter, is used of the womb as a secret place, a place of shelter (Ps.
139:15).
(c) Finally, the verb form is used in relation to
God's presence as the omniscient One who becomes a hiding place, a shelter for
the believer.
Psalm 17:8 says,
"Keep me as
the apple of the eye, hide (satar) me in the shadow of Thy wings."
Psalm 31:20 says, "Thou dost hide (satar)
them in the secret place (seter) of Thy presence from the conspiracies of man;
Thou dost keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues."
Used then of a
place of protection and refuge; 32:7;
91:1-4; 119:114
The Challenges or
Tests Elijah Faced
There are at least four tests in 1 Kings 17:2-7.
The first test
comes out of the command to go and hide himself, and
in the reasons for this command. It is
the test related to God's guidance for him.
As we
live our lives, we are challenged daily, nearly everyday we are faced with a number of tests that
challenge our faith, obedience, love
for God, our virtues and priorities, and
how we respond to these challenges demonstrate just how real God is to us.
a. Our Need of God's Guidance
Our
tendency is to direct ourselves in our own way, but Scripture firmly warns us
against that. Jer. 10:23; Prov. 14:12;
James 4:13-16
The test
is simply this: Do we recognize our need and prayerfully and studiously seek
God's guidance? Are we going to rest in
Him and His provision?
Will we
follow the command of Proverbs 3:5-6?
Or will we
turn to our own strategies? (cf. Jer.
2:12-13).