The Story of Elijah: chapter 1 – 07/21/2024

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Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah,
Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel,
and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years.
And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the eyes of Yehovah,
more than all who were before him.
And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat,
he took for his wife (are you ready for it?) Jezebel
the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians,
and went and served Baal and worshiped him 1 Kings 16:29-31

A crooked king, a wicked queen, and a foreign god. You know this is going to be a great story. That’s because in literature (and storytelling), evil is more entertaining than good. We can predict a good person’s actions–they will be honest, kind, generous, and always choose what is right. The villains, however, are full of surprises. And they typically create the conflict that the heroes must overcome and resolve.

There are times when the scoundrels are at their worst, the champions must be all the more outstanding. This is exactly what we find at the beginning of our story. If Ahab was the most wicked king in Israel’s history, Elijah will prove to be Israel’s most illustrious prophet.

Like other prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures, Elijah arrives on the scene without a formal introduction. He is just suddenly there. It’s not that he had no previous existence, but he has no backstory, no biography. The first information we have about him is that he had been living among the settlers in Gilead, east of the Jordan River. This, to me, is the first intriguing feature of Elijah’s story.

When Israel arrived in the land, two and a half tribes chose not to make their home with the others. The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Mannaseh found that the pasture land on the east side of the Jordan River was perfect for grazing their herds of cattle and sheep. But after years of living there, it became a disadvantage, because it placed them further from spiritual center, than any other tribe. So what intrigues me is why God would choose an unknown from Gilead. God had prophets in Israel, and he also sent prophets to Israel from Judah, but it’s a surprise that a prophet–and such a great one at that, should come to Israel from Gilead.

Was there a small community among whom devotion to Yehovah had somehow survived? If so, why don’t we ever hear anything about them? Was Elijah an anomaly? Did God sovereignly choose Elijah to know him, be faithful to him, and become his most powerful spokesperson in this era?

What would it mean for us, if God will always speak to anyone who is willing to listen to him? Peter made a wonderful discovery standing in a Gentile home, “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:35-36).

Elijah Steps Up
Now we know the hero and the villain. Ahab was the king of Israel for twenty-two years. A lot of damage can be done in twenty-two years. But at this time, Ahab was just getting started. Suddenly Elijah is in Ahab’s face, swearing an oath, “As Yehovah, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

Swearing an oath in the name of Yehovah will become Elijah’s trademark. Standing up for Yehovah, Israel’s one true God will be his destiny. Elijah’s identity is wrapped up in his destiny. Like everyone in scripture, Elijah is defined by his name. Eli (E-l-i) is “God,” and Yah (j-a-h) is a shortened form of Yehovah: “Elijah”–“Yehovah is God.”

The bold prophet delivers the announcement to the king. The land will suffer a severe drought, and it will continue until Elijah says it is over. It seems that Elijah’s voice is still ringing in the air when the awesome word of Yehovah came to him, Leave here, head east, back across the Jordan River. Make your way to Wadi Cherith and hide there. Drink from the wadi and I have commanded ravens to feed you there.”

Elijah did not plan his own travels, nor did he speak his own words. His actions were driven down the inexplicable path of God. So . . .
he went and did – according to the word of Yehovah.
He went and lived – by the Wadi Cherith – east of the Jordan River.
And the ravens
brought him bread and meat in the morning,
and bread and meat in the evening,
and he drank from the wadi – water while it was there.

We are allowed, once in awhile, to pause the story and ask questions. For instance, what did God mean when he said that he had commanded ravens to feed Elijah? Certainly, it was not that he spoke to them in Hebrew or even in Raven caws and cries. Nor did he spend endless hours training them to fetch food and drop it at Elijah’s feet. I doubt the ravens knew they were being commanded to provide food delivery to the prophet. Like everything else ravens do, they followed their instinct.

Elijah’s Next Move
The drought was ongoing, so naturally the wadi dried up.

Elijah receives a new itinerary. The word of Yehovah directs him to a city in a country to the north, Sidon. Jezebel came from Sidon. Her father was the king of Sidon. If Ahab was trying to hunt Elijah down, he would never think of looking there.

Sometimes God sends his servants to the strangest places. Those environments may feel natural to the locals, but so alien to us that we wonder whether we have actually heard from God or got our signals mixed up. The first question many missionaries ask when they arrive in a foreign land is, “What am I doing here, for heaven’s sake?”

As God had arranged accommodations at Wadi Cherith, so he had gone ahead to provide shelter in Zarephath of Sidon. He tells Elijah, “Look, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.”

Oh, this is odd! Not so much the part about a widow providing food and shelter for the prophet, seeing that widows typically struggled to survive. Yes, that is unusual. But that God tells Elijah that he has commanded a widow to feed him, even as he had commanded the ravens to feed him. Did the woman hear God’s command? No, she was as unaware of receiving the order as the ravens had been.

God’s word has a life of its own.

The movements acted out on the stage of human interactions were scripted and choreographed by unseen forces, under the direction of Yehovah.

Elijah’s Encounter with the Widow
As Elijah strolled through the city gate, “Look, a widow was gathering sticks in her arms.” Not bothering to ask God whether this was the person he was supposed to meet, Elijah called to her, “Bring me a cup of water.” In that misogynistic time and place, he did not have to ask. Even as a foreigner, he was male and she was female. So without a word of complaint, she turned to fetch him some water.

As she was walking off, Elijah gave her another chore, “Bring back a slice of bread in your hand.” At this she turned and resisted his request. Her first recorded words are almost exactly Elijah’s first recorded words. The slight difference is that her god was not Elijah’s God. She first swore an oath,
“As Yehovah your God lives, I do not have any baked bread. All I have is a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. What I’ve been doing is looking for a couple of sticks to make a fire so I can prepare a meager, last meal, for my son and I so we can eat it and then starve.”

Elijah encouraged her, “Don’t be afraid. Go on and do as you said. Make that meal, but feed me first. Then make some more for yourself and your son.” Then he delivered to her a personal prophecy, “For thus says Yehovah, the God of Israel,
‘The jar will not run out of flour,
the jug will not empty out,
not until the day that God sends rain
and the drought comes to an end.’”

Perhaps she was gullible. Perhaps she was moved by a surge of faith. The poor widow went and prepared something for Elijah, and then for herself and her son. For a long time her supplies were sufficient to keep the three of them fed.
So this episode ends on the happy note that
The jar of flour never ran out,
the jug of oil was never empty.
The word of Yehovah
that he spoke by Elijah
sustained them exactly as he said.

In my mind, I’ve lived a sheltered life
Both of my parents remembered standing in long lines
in order to get government rations of bread and butter
My grandmother would “darn socks”
(I doubt that my children or grandchildren know what that means)
She would mend socks because that was less expensive than buying new socks
I am also aware that what I consider a reasonable standard of living
is wealthy indulgence to the majority of the world’s population
And also to many people living in the US
Even to many people barely surviving in South Orange County

There’s a tremor rattling our nation
Symptoms that hard times may be coming
Indeed, hard times have already overwhelmed many families
And I wonder, if it gets worse, will we rely on the word of the LORD?
Will we listen to the prophets in scripture
and trust in what God has revealed to us through them?

Let’s say that this November our nation puts King Ahab in the White House
– King Ahab is whichever candidate it is that you think will destroy America –
Let’s say that king takes over,
and what happens next is the end of the world as we know it
Will our hearts be unshaken, because we know Jesus the Christ, the Son of God?

Another question is this: If darkness descends upon the world,
could we do even more than trust God and continue to worship him?
Could we possibly become prophetic and proclaim the word of the LORD,
giving others hope and direction?

Every once in awhile someone appears in the spirit and power of Elijah
If we are able to fix our hearts on God,
we could become the stability of our times
And wouldn’t that be something?