Now turn, if you would, in your Bibles to 1 Kings 17 in the Old Testament.
And I want to preach tonight about Elijah the prophet.
Now there are a lot of stories that I'm sure you've probably heard about Elijah.
He's one of the most famous men in the Bible.
But sometimes I think it's good to be able to get an overview and put the whole picture
of the life of a man together because although we've probably all heard stories about Elijah
and some of the stories that we cover tonight are going to be familiar, I don't think there
are probably very many people who could give us a rundown of the life of Elijah.
Just all the different events and sequence and all the different things that he went
through.
It's really an interesting story of this man's life.
Probably the most famous thing about Elijah is when he called down fire on Mount Carmel
in the face-off with the prophets of Baal.
But just to emphasize how important this man was, if you remember John the Baptist who
Jesus said was the greatest man who ever lived, he said, among them that are born of
women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.
And if you remember, John the Baptist was said to have come in the spirit of Elijah.
And Jesus even said of John the Baptist, this is Elijah, which was for to come.
So Elijah was a great prophet of the Old Testament just like John the Baptist was the greatest
man who ever lived and he's compared to him.
Not only that, but when Jesus Christ himself came on the scene, he asked Peter, whom do
men say that I am?
And he said, you know, some people say that you're Elijah.
And that's interesting because when we look at the life of Elijah and when we see what
kind of a man he was, it's interesting that people looked at Jesus and said, this is Elijah.
Or this guy is like Elijah.
That tells us a little bit about what Jesus was like.
If we start here in 1 Kings 17, this is the first time we come into contact with Elijah.
It says in verse 1, And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said
unto Ahab, As the Lord God of El, liveth before whom I stand.
There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and
guide thyself by the brook Cherith that is before Jordan.
And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to
feed thee there.
Now, to give you a little background on what's going on in the nation at this time, there's
been a succession of wicked kings over the northern kingdom of Israel.
This is after the nation of Israel has split and divided into the northern kingdom of Israel
and the southern kingdom of Judah, and there have just been a succession of wicked kings
in that northern kingdom.
Well, the worst king that has ever sat on that throne is on the throne right now, and
his name is Ahab.
Back up, if you would, to verse 30 of chapter 16.
It says in verse 30, And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all
that were before him.
And all the kings before him were wicked, but he's the most wicked.
And it came to pass as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam
the son of Nebat, saying, you know, as if that wasn't bad enough.
It says that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians, and went
and served Baal and worshiped him.
So instead of just worshiping the golden calves that Jeroboam had set up, which was basically
kind of a perversion of the religion of the Bible, it still kind of kept some of the same
holidays and some of the same stories and so forth.
They just go to just full-blown worship of Satan, because that's who Baal is in the Bible.
Baal, Baal, Baal Zebub, Baal Zebub, you know, these are just names for Satan.
I mean, they start to really just forsake everything about the Lord and all of his commandments
and just go full-blown into the worship of Baal because he marries a wife, Jezebel, the
daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians.
So the nation of Israel is in a state where they're very wicked.
Now, when Elijah first makes this prophecy where he says, it's not going to rain and
there's going to be no dew on the ground except by my word, you know, he probably wasn't taken
very seriously.
I mean, what if I just said, well, you know, it's not going to rain anymore.
You know, people might just say, oh, whatever, you know, they don't really know that what
he's saying is going to come true.
And if you look at the man, Elijah, the Tishbite, what's a Tishbite?
I mean, you can look and study the whole Bible.
There's no mention of Tishbites or anything except in regard to Elijah, meaning that he
didn't necessarily come from, you know, a famous family or come from maybe a succession
of prophets.
You know, a lot of the prophets were sons of other prophets if you study the Bible.
Well, you know, he was just kind of a no-name guy.
He just comes on the scene, Elijah the Tishbite, and just makes this pronouncement, it's not
going to rain except according to my word.
But then God tells him to go hide and to go basically live in the wilderness, to live
outside, to live in the wild.
And he obviously tells him to hide there because when it doesn't rain, now all of a sudden
they're going to take what he said very seriously and they're going to try to hunt him down
because he said, well, it's not going to rain except according to my word.
It's going to rain when I say it's going to rain.
And then he just disappears.
And then it just doesn't rain.
And then they think to themselves, where's that guy that said, you know, that it wouldn't
rain except according to his word.
And later on we'll see in the story that they sent out great search parties just hunting
him down.
Where is Elijah the Tishbite?
Now we know from what we just read in the book of James where it gives us great detail,
it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.
Now that's a very long time.
I mean it could not rain for one year and the devastation would be extreme.
I mean there would be extreme famine, extreme drought.
People would think that it was just a major, major catastrophe.
But three years and six months, I mean this is just going to demolish agriculture, it's
going to demolish so much of their livelihood and wealth and prosperity.
And so he's basically told in verse 4, it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook
and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
Now what's interesting about this is that, you know, first of all it's clear that he's
basically just camping out.
I mean he's dwelling outside.
He's just living by the brook and God says here's how you're going to survive.
You're going to drink water out of the brook and the ravens are going to feed you.
Now ravens are birds of prey.
They're not exactly a clean beast, are they?
But they're going to bring him food.
So this is probably not the best possible food that he's going to be eating.
I mean he's living a pretty rough life.
He's living outside, he's drinking water out of a brook, and he's being fed by ravens.
Then it says in verse 5, so he went and did according unto the word of the Lord.
For he went and dwelt by the brook Careth, that is before Jordan, and the ravens brought
him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening and he drank of the
brook.
Now this is definitely a miracle that these ravens are sharing their food with him.
And it's amazing that they're bringing him bread and flesh, and they're bringing him
scraps basically.
He's eating the scraps that they bring to him.
But it says in verse 7, it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up because there
had been no rain in the land.
So even Elijah's source of sustenance is now gone.
I mean it's not raining.
The rivers, the brooks, all the little rivets, they're starting to dry up.
Pretty soon there's no more brook.
So maybe he was there for a year, we don't know exactly how long he was there.
But then it says in verse number 8, and the word of the Lord came unto him saying, Arise,
get thee to Zarephath which belongeth to Zidane and dwell there, behold I have commanded a
widow woman there to sustain thee.
Now there's a couple interesting things about this.
First of all, if you remember, the most wicked worshippers of Baal lived in Zarephath, in
Zidane, because if you remember, that's who Ahab married, the daughter of the king of
Zidane.
So basically he's being told, okay now you're going to go behind enemy lines, and you're
going to go dwell in Zidane, the most wicked place that's mentioned here, and it's interesting
because he commands a widow woman to sustain him.
So what we can learn from this so far is that Elijah is being sustained from some very unlikely
sources.
I mean you wouldn't expect in a time of great famine and drought to rely on ravens to feed
you.
And you especially wouldn't expect during a time of great famine and drought to be sustained
by a widow woman.
She has no breadwinner, she has no man in the home that's going out and earning money
and farming or gathering or hunting or whatever, I mean it's a widow woman.
And when he goes and finds this widow woman, it says in verse 10, so he arose and went
to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold the widow woman was there
gathering of sticks.
And he called to her and said, fetch me I pray thee a little water and a vessel that
I may drink.
And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, bring me I pray thee a morsel
of bread in thine hand.
And she said, as the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in
a barrel and a little oil and a cruise, and behold I am gathering two sticks that I may
go in and dress it for me and my son that we may eat it and die.
And Elijah might be, he could have thought at this point, wait a minute God, you commanded
this widow woman to sustain me, can you pick somebody who actually has food in their house
to sustain me?
I mean this woman has no food, she just has this tiny little bit of meal left and she's
been commanded to sustain him.
Elijah asks for some bread and she says, well look, I've only got this tiny little bit and
it's for me and my son and we're going to eat it and then we're going to die.
Verse 13, Elijah said unto her, fear not, go and do as thou hast said, and make me thereof
a little cake first and bring it unto me, and after make for thy son.
For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall
the cruise of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.
And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, and she and he and her house did
eat many days and the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil fail according
to the word of the Lord which he spake by Elijah.
So here God makes the food last and look, we might look at our situation and think,
man it's impossible for God to provide.
You know, I don't see how we're going to make ends meet, I just don't even see how
I'm going to take care of my family or pay the bills, but you know what?
God is showing us here that He can sustain us in any situation.
I mean, and that's why the Bible says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness
and all these things shall be added unto you.
She'd already been commanded by God before Elijah even got there.
It wasn't like Elijah just showing up and asking for bread.
He said, I have commanded past tense a widow woman to sustain thee there.
She'd already been told, look, you need to feed Elijah.
And Elijah shows up and she has this tiny amount of food left and she has a choice.
You know, I can either eat this and feed it to my son because it's all we've got, or I
can obey God and give it away.
Obey God and give it unto Elijah.
And by obeying God and giving it unto Elijah, she just guaranteed that she's fed all the
way through the end of the famine.
And you know what?
When you obey God, when you seek first the kingdom of God, and when you do what's right
and obey God's commandments, you're basically just guaranteeing that you're provided for
and you're fed through the famine.
And thank God we're not in a famine right now in the United States, but you know what?
There could be a famine that's coming.
There could be hard times that come.
You know, we may be living in the last days and we know that in the last days the Bible
tells us there will be famines throughout the world and so those times could be coming.
Look, I want to guarantee that I'm going to make it through those times and that I'm going
to be able to provide for my family during those times.
And you know what?
It's not through just stockpiling food or stockpiling precious metals and survival gear.
You know, I'm not saying that those are bad things to have, but you know, the only way
to guarantee that you're going to make it through is by relying on the promises of God,
where God promised that he will supply all our need according to his riches and glory
by Christ Jesus.
So it's not about how much money or wealth you had going into this famine, because look,
no matter how much food you have in your house, it's probably not going to last for three
and a half years.
I mean, unless you're just an ultra-doomsday prepper, you're not going to make it through
three and a half years, because I mean, you might think, oh yeah, we've got tons of food,
but you know what?
365 days times three meals times nine people in my house, you know, you're going to go
through that food pretty fast, maybe faster than you think.
I'd much rather have the promises of God to rely on to sustain me through the famine,
and that's what we see in this story.
It's bringing him food, miraculously, taking care of him.
Why?
Because he obeyed God and went and lived by the brook and camped out, not the most comfortable
place.
He's not dwelling in a king's palace wearing soft clothing, he's out wearing a rough garment
dwelling in the wilderness eating secondhand, he's eating, you know, food that's already
been eaten off of by ravens, you know, like when you're a kid you don't want to eat anything
that's been eaten off of, you know, and look, he's eating secondhand from a raven, okay?
But he did what he was told and he's cared for and he's provided for.
This widow, she obeyed God, she's provided for through the famine.
So we saw Elijah, he prophesied, look it's not going to rain, and in James 5 we see that
he prayed earnestly that it might not rain.
God led him to pray that it would not rain for three and a half years and God answered
his prayer.
Then we see he's staying out by the brook, living outside.
Next he goes and lives with the widow woman in Zarephath.
Now in verses 17-24 of 1 Kings 17 we see kind of a little side story here where the
Bible teaches that the son of the woman, verse 17 says, came to pass after these things that
the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick and his sickness was so sore
that there was no breath left in him.
And so basically the son is dying and she says to him in verse 20, I'm sorry, he cries
out to God in verse 20, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with
whom I sojourned by slaying her son?
And he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried unto the Lord and said, O
Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again.
And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah and the soul of the child came into him again
and he revived.
So we see that the child was dead and Elijah actually brought this dead body back to life.
I mean he actually resurrected this son of the woman from the dead.
This is the second miracle we see him do.
Not only has he stopped the heavens from raining, but he also brought this boy back to life.
Now look at verse 1 of chapter 18.
It says it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the
third year.
We know from James chapter 5 that this is exactly three years and six months in.
It says in the third year saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahab and I will send rain upon
the earth.
Now remember, they're hunting for Elijah.
The Bible talks about the fact a little bit further down if you jump down to verse 10,
as the Lord thy God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom.
This is what Obadiah, the servant of Ahab, is saying.
There's no nation or kingdom whither my Lord hath not sent to seek thee.
And when they said he is not there, he took an oath of the kingdom and nation that they
found thee not.
And now thou sayest, Go tell my Lord, behold Elijah is here, and it shall come to pass
as soon as I am gone from thee, that the spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know
not.
And so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me, but I, thy servant,
fear the Lord for my youth and on and on.
So we see here that Elijah, he goes to present himself to Ahab now.
And it's been over three years since he preached and said it's not going to rain.
Maybe not taken too seriously at the time, but now taken very seriously.
The Bible says that Ahab had gone hunting for him into all nations, and when they couldn't
find him, they made the leaders of those nations just swear to them that they were not harboring
him.
You know, this is like when they're hunting for Osama bin Laden or something, you know,
and say, you know, are you harboring this guy, are you hiding this guy?
And you know, they just can't find him anywhere.
And Obadiah knows how serious their hunt is that he even says, look, you better be here
when I get back.
He said, look, I'm going to tell Ahab you're here, and then if I bring him back and you're
not here, Ahab's going to kill me for letting you go.
Because Obadiah probably would have much rather have brought him to Ahab.
But Elijah says, no, no, no, just tell him to come see me.
And basically, you know, he finally gets Obadiah to, you know, to go along with him and to
believe him.
Because Obadiah is scared to death.
Obadiah is talking about, oh man, I've hid all these prophets of the Lord in a cave,
I've been feeding them bread and water, I've been taking care of them and everything like
that.
So it says in verse 17, this is where Ahab actually finally meets Elijah.
And it says in verse 17, and it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said unto him,
art thou he that troubleth Israel?
So he's just blaming Elijah.
Like basically Elijah just decided, I'm just going to make it not rain for three and a
half years just because I want to.
And he answered, I've not troubled Israel.
Elijah is saying, oh no, it's not my fault, but thou and thy father's house and that ye
have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and thou hast followed Balaam.
Now therefore send and gather unto all Israel unto Mount Carmel and the prophets of Baal
450 and the prophets of the groves 400 which eat at Jezebel's table.
So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together unto Mount
Carmel.
Now see he's willing to obey Elijah because he knows that Elijah has great power.
He knows that Elijah has stopped the heavens and he knows that Elijah is the one who has
the power to make it rain again because he said, it'll happen according to my word.
And so Elijah says, I want you to bring me all the false prophets of the land.
And he knew the stats on it.
He said, you know, 450 of the prophets of Baal, 400 prophets of the grove, I want you
to gather all Israel, I want you to gather all these false prophets, and I want you to
all meet me on Mount Carmel.
And when they're all gathered together, he says in verse 21, Elijah came unto all the
people and said, how long halt ye between two opinions?
If the Lord be God, follow him.
But if Baal, then follow him.
And the people answered him not a word.
So nobody had the guts to stand up except Elijah.
Elijah was the one man who had the guts to stand up and be counted as serving the Lord.
Nobody else is just kind of afraid to take a side.
They wanted to see which way this thing is going to go and they don't know yet how it's
going to turn out.
Now wouldn't you think that they would have already jumped on Elijah's side when he just
said it's not going to rain for three and a half years and then it didn't rain for three
and a half years?
But still they're not really sure how it's going to turn out.
There's 850 of them versus one on Elijah's side.
He says in verse 22, then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I, only remain a prophet
of the Lord's, but Baal's prophets are 450.
And he begins to lay out a challenge.
He says here's how we're going to figure out who the true God is.
Is it the Lord or is it Baal?
And look, it can't be both.
He's saying one of them has to be right and one of them has to be wrong.
So he lays out this challenge, he says we're going to build these sacrifices.
We're going to lay out the wood on the altar and we're going to put a bullock as the animal
blood sacrifice, but we're not going to put any fire and we're going to have the prophets
of Baal pray unto Baal that he will send down fire to consume their sacrifice.
And then I'm going to pray unto the Lord to see if he'll send down fire and whichever
God answers by fire is the true God.
And they basically say to him, it is well-spoken, they say hey, that sounds like a good idea.
And so it says in verse number 25, and Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, choose you
one bullock for yourselves and dress it first.
He's saying you guys are going to go first because there's 450 of you and only one of
me.
And he says, you're many and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under.
And they took the bullock which was given them and they dressed it and called on the
name of Baal from morning even until noon saying, oh Baal, hear us.
But there was no voice nor any that answered.
And they leaped upon the altar which was made and it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked
them.
He said, cry aloud, for he's a god.
Either he's talking or he's pursuing or he's in a journey or paradventure, he sleepeth
and must be awake.
And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets till
the blood gushed out upon them.
And it came to pass when midday was past and they prophesied until the time of the offering
of the evening sacrifice, there was neither voice.
I mean look, these guys, they're jumping around, they're yelling out, they're preaching, and
then the Bible says they're cutting themselves as their manner was.
So this is something that they've done in the past.
Now in the New Testament we see people that are demon possessed cutting themselves.
Here it says that it was a custom of the prophets of Baal to cut themselves.
And look, we still see this today.
It's demonic, it's of Satan, this cutting themselves that people do.
And so we see here that they are just leaping and jumping and wailing and shouting and cutting
themselves and preaching and praying and doing everything.
And Elijah's just making fun of them.
But what's funny is how long this goes on for.
They started in the morning and they went until evening.
This is like a 12 hour thing.
I mean for 12 hours.
Excuse me, I have a bad cough.
I mean for 12 hours.
Can you imagine just being there?
I mean you're one of the children of Israel, you're kind of like, you know, how long are
we going to be here?
I mean what are we doing?
I mean think about how boring that would be.
Just listening to these prophets of Baal watch, I mean I guess when they started leaping and
jumping around, that might have got interesting, but you know eventually that's going to get
old once the acrobat show is over.
I mean you've got a picture, morning to evening.
And Elijah's just sitting back, just hey, take as long as you guys need.
Take all the time you want.
He's just enjoying the show.
He's just laughing and having a good time.
So finally at evening, you know, he's got to have some time to do his thing.
So finally, okay, you guys lost.
Verse 30 it says, Elijah said unto all the people, come near unto me, and all the people
came near unto him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down.
He took 12 stones to represent the 12 tribes of Israel.
You know, he basically builds the altar, but then he decides to up the ante.
You know, because the contest was supposed to be equal.
They both have an altar, they both have wood, they both have a bullock, but Elijah decides
to up the ante.
He says let's dig a trench around my altar, and he said let's pour buckets of water on.
So they pour these buckets of water, four barrels of water, and then he says do it a
second time, do it a third time.
So he dumps 12 barrels of water just to get everything just soaking wet, and there's even
just a trench around it, just filled with water, just everything's just drenched.
Now obviously that's not conducive to starting a fire, you know.
Any boy scout could tell you, you know, this isn't going to help start the fire, you know.
But I think the reason they did this is because he just wants everybody to know this is a
miracle.
You know, I don't have, there's nothing up the sleeve, you know, he doesn't have some
kind of a little trick or something that he's trying to pull here.
So they dump all this water on it because, you know, when God does a miracle, he likes
to do a miracle that no one could explain.
And you know, it's amazing how people try to explain away the miracles of the Bible.
Dr. Garrett told me how he was in seminary, he was in cemetery, and they taught him that,
you know, Jesus was walking on this little ridge that's in the Sea of Galilee.
He wasn't really walking on the water, he was on this little ridge.
And you know, the reason that Peter did it, Peter was on the ridge, but then he hit like
a sinkhole, you know, and he went down.
Okay, this is the kind of garbage that's even taught in a Bible seminary.
And you know, I remember when I was a kid watching on TV Mysteries of the Bible, and
they showed scientifically how there was a cold spot in the fiery furnace, where Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego hung out.
In the cold spot.
Okay, but see, the Bible's real clear to tell you, they didn't smell like smoke.
I mean, some of you in here smelled more like smoke than they did, you know.
I mean, they did not smell like smoke at all.
And not only that, but the Bible says that the ropes wherewith they were bound literally
burned off of them.
How do you explain that?
Alright, let's stand in the cold spot and just kind of, you know, I mean, it was so
hot that the people who threw them in burned up.
And isn't it amazing how God gives us so many details to always prove to us that his miracles
are real.
He says, look, they didn't smell like smoke.
The guys who threw them in burned up.
Okay, you know, oh, no, it was a cold spot.
You know, or when Jesus turned the water into wine.
The Bible tells us how big the buckets were just to tell us, look, these were huge buckets.
And they were filled to the brim just to make sure that nobody said, well, Jesus, you know,
dropped in a Kool-Aid packet or whatever, you know, turned it into wine that way.
You know, he made sure that they knew, look, the water buckets were full, nothing could
be added.
You know, he's always showing us that the miracles are not able to be explained by science.
And when you try to use science to explain the miracles of God, that's false doctrine.
Okay, because God defies the laws of nature.
He wrote the laws of nature and he comes in and he can make the sun stand still and he
can turn water into wine, he can walk on water, he can part the Red Sea.
You know, it wasn't just some phenomena, it just happened to, you know, the sea parted
because it was really windy.
Look, they went across on dry land and the Bible tells us there's a wall of water on
each side.
God tells over and over again that his miracles are miracles.
And here he's proving this was a miracle so that somebody couldn't say, well, you know,
the sun at that time of day shines at this certain angle, you know, and there was a piece
of glass or whatever, you know, and it sparked up or whatever.
And so we see this miracle comes, Elijah prays only 63 words.
You know, unlike the prophets of Baal who took 12 hours begging, crying.
You know, the Bible talks about the fact that when we pray, we're not necessarily going
to be heard for our much speaking.
He already knows what things we have need of before we ask him.
You know, it's the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man that availeth much.
And he prays just 63 words from a fervent heart that loved God, from a righteous, godly
life that he'd been living for years, and God answers him.
And of course the fire comes down, it says in verse 38.
Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones
and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench.
And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces.
I mean, that's got to be a scary sight.
I mean, think about it.
These people have been sitting there bored seeing nothing happen all day.
They're probably expecting nothing to happen again.
And then all of a sudden just this fireball comes down.
It's so hot it burns up the stones, the dirt, the water, everything.
I mean, they just drop to their faces when they see it.
And it says they fell upon their faces and they said, the Lord, he is the God.
The Lord, he is the God.
And Elijah said unto them, take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape.
And they took them and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Qishon and slew them there.
And the Bible tells us elsewhere that he slew them with the sword.
It says Elijah brought them down to the Brook Qishon and slew them there.
I mean, this guy was a pretty tough guy.
I mean, he's living out in the wilderness, he's being fed by ravens, he's putting his
finger in the face of the king, telling him, I'm going to tell you when it rains.
He goes and faces off, you think I'm your enemy, it's you.
And by the way, it's also your wife.
And guess what?
It's your mother-in-law.
And I mean, he preaches and tells them how it is, and then he also isn't too prim and
prissy to pull out a sword and slay 450 men.
It's a pretty tough guy, okay?
So he slays these 450 men and then Elijah said unto Ahab, get thee up, eat and drink.
Quit rationing, man.
He's telling them, you know what?
I hear the sound of abundance of rain.
Don't worry about the famine anymore, it's about to start pouring rain.
So Ahab went up to eat and drink, you didn't have to tell him that twice, you know?
And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel and he cast himself down upon the earth and put
his face between his knees and said to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea.
And he went up and looked and said, there's nothing.
And he said, go again, seven times.
So there's not a cloud in the sky.
He's telling Ahab, you know, there's a sound of abundance of rain.
Ahab doesn't hear anything, but he says, well, you know, okay.
Everything he said, I mean, he just made fire come down, Ahab's going to listen to him.
He says, let's eat and drink.
It's going to rain, even though it's a blue sky.
So he goes and he gets on his knees, he's praying.
He keeps sending his servant to go check and there's just nothing.
He checks seven times.
And then it says, he looks toward the sea and verse 44, came to pass at the seventh
time, he said, behold, there rises a little cloud out of the sea like a man's hand.
So just this tiny little cloud is coming, there's just nothing.
And he said, go up and say unto Ahab, prepare thy chariot and get thee down, that the rain
stop thee not.
He says, you know what, time to head home to Jezreel because you're going to get caught
in the rain, buddy, if you don't hurry up.
And he warns him to go ahead.
And it came to pass in the meanwhile that the heaven was 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 girded
up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
Now what's interesting about this is that Elijah runs faster than the chariot can get
there.
He talks about the hand of the Lord is upon him and he outruns the chariot and I don't
know exactly how far this is, but it's like 20 miles or something.
It's like 15 to 25 miles, it's somewhere like that from Mount Carmel unto Jezreel.
So this is a pretty long distance and he runs all that way and he outruns the chariots.
Now look at chapter 19 verse 1.
Now I don't think anyone would disagree that the part that we just looked at in chapter
18 is really Elijah's finest hour.
I mean this is the main thing he's known for is this face off at Mount Carmel.
First of all, it's the climax of his three and a half year praying that it wouldn't rain,
you know, and then making it rain through prayer.
So it's the culmination of that great miracle which is the main miracle brought up in James
5.
And then also just the showdown with the prophets of Baal is the most famous event in Elijah's
life.
I mean this is a great victory.
He just showed all of Israel a great miracle.
They're all saying the Lord's the God.
Even Ahab is shut up now and Ahab's listening, oh you want me to eat and drink?
Okay.
Oh it's time for me to go?
Okay I'll go.
I mean even Ahab's obeying Elijah now.
The prophets of Baal have been killed.
I mean wouldn't it be great if every just false lying false prophet would just die?
You know what I mean?
They're just all dead, right?
I mean this is a pretty good day.
I mean all these lying devil false prophets are all dead.
Everybody's saying, man, the Lord's the true God.
Even the king is acknowledging that.
I mean wouldn't you say this is a pretty positive thing?
I mean wouldn't you say this is, and then he just runs, and then he's just running like
the wind, just outrunning chariots and everything.
I mean wouldn't you say Elijah's just on the top of the world right now?
I mean wouldn't you say he's in his prime?
I mean he's on the top of his game.
I mean he just killed 450 false prophets.
He just called down fire from God.
He just made it rain by praying after three and a half years because it says he prayed
again it says in James 5.
And the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth the rain.
Then he just runs a marathon, you know, just to finish it off.
I mean the guy is on fire.
Things are going great.
But look at the next thing that happens in verse 1 of chapter 19.
You might look at this and it might boggle your mind.
It says that Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done.
So he comes home and says, honey, you're not going to believe this.
I mean, you know all the prophets of your dad's religion?
They're all dead, you know, because this is what happened.
He called down fire, he did this miracle, and she's like, you idiot, what are you doing?
Why did you let him kill 450 of my prophets?
So she doesn't, she's not as enthusiastic about it as Ahab is.
See Ahab was an easily molded guy.
I mean, you know, Ahab, Elijah was able to get through to him, and later on Elijah gets
through to him again.
Ahab has moments of clarity throughout his life where he gets right with God at times,
even though he's a very wicked man.
But his wife Jezebel was just wicked to the core.
I mean, she was just evil.
She was just pure evil.
She just had not a righteous bone in her body.
And so she just, no enthusiasm for the miracles of God here, she just sees this as a great
defeat for the forces of evil.
And so Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, how he had slain all the prophets with
the sword.
Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah saying, so let the gods do to me and more
also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.
So she says, well you know what?
I swear like I'm going to kill you.
You're going to be dead in 24 hours, no matter what.
Now it's funny that she sends a messenger to say that.
I guess Elijah could say to that messenger, what's stopping you buddy?
That messenger wasn't tough enough to carry out the decree of Jezebel.
But it says in verse 3, and when he saw that, he arose and went for his life and came to
Beersheba which belonged to Judah and left his servant there.
Now isn't that, I don't know, you look at this and it's kind of like, why is he running
for his life?
I mean he's just seen all the miracles, he's just killed 450 people with the sword.
I mean, he just runs for his life.
He's just fleeing.
Now you might look at that and say, well, God did tell him to flee previously.
You know, for example, when he made the original statement to Ahab, he was told to go hide
himself.
So maybe he's thinking, well I don't know if God wants me to just face off with these
people, you know, maybe I'm supposed to go hide again, maybe I'm supposed to take off.
I don't know, maybe he's having a lapse of faith, maybe he's just taking off, but anyway
he runs, you know, and he goes very far away because if you look at where he went, it says
he came to Beersheba which belongeth to Judah, and it says he left his servant there but
he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness.
Now whenever the Bible is talking about the whole nation of Israel, and whenever God wants
to really emphasize that he means the whole nation, he'll always say from Dan even to
Beersheba.
You remember that?
Seeing that in the Bible?
Basically what that is is that's, you know, the two points, those are the two points that
represent the extremes of the nation of Israel.
Dan being the extreme north and Beersheba being the extreme south, and he says, you
know, from Dan even to Beersheba means the whole nation.
And so we see that here Elijah was up in the northern parts of the nation and he flees
all the way to Beersheba, meaning that he goes to the very edge of Israel.
So this time he's not heading into Zidane, because Zidane is north, that's where he was
with the widow woman, that's where the evil parents of Jezebel live.
He gets as far away from Jezebel and her parents and that whole crowd as he can, he goes all
the way to the extreme south border of the nation of, not even Israel, Judah, because
remember they've split now.
So he goes past Israel, past Judah even, all the way down to the very bottom of civilization
even.
Because then it says he leaves his servant and he goes a day's journey into the wilderness.
Now you say, what wilderness?
Think about this.
The children of Israel, when they came out from the land of Egypt, remember how they
wandered in the wilderness for 40 days and 49, or not 40 days and 49, it's a good night,
that's what Elijah's about to do, but they spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness.
And so they spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness, and what that wilderness was was
basically a desert place.
It was a place where they always had a hard time getting food and water.
And then, if you remember, they ended up coming up into the land of Israel and so forth.
Well he goes a day's journey into the wilderness, and if you study the Bible, the word wilderness
usually means desert.
That's usually what it means.
Because in fact, if you look in the New Testament, there are some parallel passages where he
uses the word wilderness and desert interchangeably.
Talks about John the Baptist living in the wilderness and so forth.
He's basically talking about the desert.
And really the terrain is probably not that different than what we have here in Phoenix.
Because in fact, a lot of the plant life that we have here in Phoenix, I don't know if you
know this, is very similar to what they have over in Israel.
Now I'm not going to be like Joseph Smith and say like, this is the other holy land.
When Jesus comes back, he's going to rule from Jerusalem and Arizona.
I don't know if you know this, but the Mormons literally think Jesus is going to rule from
Missouri.
I don't know if you know that.
Who knew that?
Saint Joseph.
Yeah, it's Independence, Missouri, Saint Joseph.
But anyway, they literally believe that Jesus will rule and reign from Missouri.
Did you know that the Mormons teach that Missouri is where the Garden of Eden was?
Yeah, right.
But anyway, seriously.
So I'm not saying anything like that, but I will say this.
We went to an arboretum, which is a glorified garden with a lot of trees in it.
But we went to an arboretum and we went on this tour called Plants of the Bible.
And they showed us all the different plants of the Bible and all the different trees that
Jesus and the disciples and the Old Testament prophets dealt with.
And you know, a lot of those plants grow here because it's a similar climate.
For example, I know we live in the Sonoran Desert, but just close by is the Mojave Desert.
You know, as you get toward California, part of it's in Arizona, part of it's in Southern
California, but the Mojave Desert is famous for what plant?
The Joshua tree, right?
The Sonoran Desert is most famous for what plant?
The Saguaro cactus.
So the Sonoran Desert has the Saguaro cactus, the Mojave Desert has the Joshua tree.
What's interesting is that Joshua trees only exist in two places in the whole world.
In the Mojave Desert and in Israel.
So that's just an interesting thing.
Just to show you that the climate's kind of similar.
You know, the Joshua trees are there, a lot of the same.
You know, it makes you think about that crown of thorns, you know, when you see all the
thorns and things around the desert that we live in.
But anyway, all that to say this, basically Elijah flees for his life, comes to the edge
of civilization, leaves his servant behind, and just goes out into the desert a day's
journey.
I mean, he just, it'd be like if you think of Phoenix, Arizona and all the different
towns that surround it, you know, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe, whatever.
And you know, if you look at it from an airplane, you know, it's just all the civilization,
but then it just comes to an abrupt stop, doesn't it?
And then there's just desert.
So it'd be like if you fled from one end of this great city to the other, which obviously
the width of our city is what, I don't know, 50 miles or something.
You know, you get to the edge of it and you just walked out a day's journey out into the
desert.
Just toward Blythe, you know, just toward nothingness.
I mean that's what he did.
I mean he just goes out into the desert.
And look what it says, he goes and sits under a juniper tree, verse 4, and he requested
for himself that he might die, and said, it is enough, now, O Lord, take away my life,
for I'm not better than my fathers.
And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him and said
unto him, arise and eat.
And he looked and behold, there was a cake baking on the coals, and a cruise of water
at his head.
And he did eat and drink and laid him down again, and the angel of the Lord came again
the second time and touched him and said, arise and eat, because the journey is too
great for thee.
And he arose and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and
forty nights unto Horeb the Mount of God.
Now this is like my favorite story in regard to the life of Elijah.
I think this is just an amazing story.
To me this is probably the most interesting part of the story.
I mean, here he is.
He just experienced the greatest victory in his life.
But yet, right after that, he's so upset, he's so depressed, he's so sad, he's so upset
he's just giving up, and just basically says, God, just let me die.
I mean, I'm just going out a day into the wilderness, I'm going a day's journey out
into an unlivable wilderness, and I'm just going to lay under this tree and go to sleep
and I'm just going to pray to God that I never wake up.
I mean, isn't that crazy?
I mean, he just says, God, I'm going to sleep and I just hope I never wake up.
I just want to die.
Now you look at that and it might perplex you.
Why are you so upset when everything was so great?
But you know what, honestly, throughout the Bible we'll see a pattern, and even throughout
our lives we'll sometimes see a pattern, that often our greatest victories in life are followed
by the greatest defeats.
You know, your life's not always just going to be great, everything's going great.
And you're not always going to be perfect, and you're not always going to be feeling
great and feeling strong, and you're not always even going to be a reasonable person.
And we see that throughout the Bible we see a great victory like Jericho, the walls fall
down, followed by the defeat at Ai.
We see the great victory here of the prophets of Baal being slain and the fire of God falling,
followed by a great defeat of a man who's now running for his life.
I mean he was on the top of the world, everybody's chanting the Lord's the true God.
Now all of a sudden there's a warrant out for his arrest, he thinks that he's going
to be killed, and he just gives up.
I mean he just can't do it anymore, he just can't take it anymore, for whatever reason.
So I don't fully understand what's going on in his mind here.
But you know what, God's really patient with him here though.
And really, if you think about it, Elijah's done a lot of great things for God at this
point.
He's lived in secrecy for three and a half years, he lived outside, he's eating from
ravens, he's exercised great faith, he's preached with great boldness, he's not out committing
fornication, he's not out committing adultery, he's not out getting drunk, he's living a
righteous, godly and separated and clean life, he's doing everything he's supposed
to do.
And a little bit later on we get a little insight into what Elijah's thinking at this
moment, later when he talks to God, 40 days later, and you know he looks at it and he
basically tells God, I've been zealous, I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do, you know,
when do I get a break?
It's basically what he's saying.
What is the deal?
I did all these great works for you, I want to be rewarded, I don't want to be hunted
for my life.
If this is how my whole life's going to be, just one suffering after another, that event
on Mount Carmel just wasn't cool enough, you know, for me to just go right back to living
on the lamb again.
This is enough.
Just take my life from me.
I've done enough, it's a cool enough story.
I'll be on plenty of flannel, I'm guaranteed to be on plenty of flannel graphs, you know,
for what I've already done, I'm ready to just call it good.
But I like the fact how he's laying there asleep and he expects to just die, or he wants
to just die in his sleep.
And it's funny because when he wakes up, you know, there's like a little camp stove going.
He's all by himself, I love this story.
He's all by himself, he's out in the wilderness, he just wants to die, he wakes up and he looks
over at verse 6 and there's a cake baking on the coals.
I mean, you know, he wakes up and there's the food, you know, cooking and the cruise
of water.
I mean, he didn't even bring food and water.
He doesn't even want to live.
He didn't bring this stuff.
He just wakes up and here's food, here's water.
And what's God saying?
I'm not through with you yet, you know, you're going to do more.
And he says in verse 6, he did eat and drink and laid him down again.
You know, like eats and drinks and it's like, alright I'm going to lay down again.
You know, I guess let's see what happens this time.
And then it says the angel came again the second time and touched him and said, so basically
the angel's waking him up now, because the angel comes to him and touches him and says
arise and eat, because the journey's too great for thee.
And he basically shakes him awake and says, no, get up and eat and drink again.
So he gets up, he eats and drinks, and he did eat and drink and went on the strength
of that meat 40 days and 40 nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
Now understand the significance of where he went, Horeb the mount of God.
This is basically also known as Mount Sinai.
Now if you remember when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, first they went to Mount
Sinai.
Then they had to cross that treacherous wilderness where there's no food, no water.
Remember God had to give them manna.
God had to bring water out of the flint rock.
God had to perform miracles to even keep them alive in that huge group that they came out
with.
Now the Bible does tell us that it's 11 days journey from Mount Horeb unto Kadesh Barnea,
which Kadesh Barnea is further south than Beersheba.
But basically we don't know the exact distances because honestly there's not even agreement
today of what mountain is really Mount Sinai.
Different people think the different mountains, well this is Mount Sinai.
There's the traditional Mount Sinai, but then other people say no, it's actually over here.
Whenever you're dealing with Bible places, you can't really take the map in the back
of your Bible as just gospel.
It's not necessarily inspired by God.
In fact I know mine's not inspired by God because it shows the Red Sea crossing and
they're crossing on dry land because they're not even anywhere near the Red Sea.
So basically we don't really know, but we're talking about hundreds of miles through a
desert where there's no food and no water.
So God basically provides them with this miraculous meal, this super food.
I mean He eats this food and it sustains them for 40 days and 40 nights.
I mean that's quite a meal.
You know He eats this super charged food and then He just sets out on this journey.
And God tells him through this angel, the journey's too great for you.
You can't handle this without this food.
So He eats the food and drinks the water and then He just sets out on foot through the
desert for 40 days.
I mean it'd be like just walking to LA or something.
It'd be like you know you go to Buckeye and you leave your servant in Buckeye and you
basically walk out a day's journey into the wilderness and then it's like okay I'm going
to eat this magic food.
Obviously I know it's not magic, but it was God's special food or whatever.
I mean look, food that can carry you for 40 days, it's pretty amazing food.
And so He basically just heads for LA through the desert on foot by Himself.
Now that's going to give you a lot of time to think.
For 40 days of just walking through the desert.
Now I don't know if He took a direct route, I don't know how many mountains He's climbing.
The Bible doesn't really tell us about the journey, we'll have to ask Him about it when
we get to heaven.
This is the first thing I'm going to ask Him.
Tell me about that 40 day hike, that was something.
But He takes 40 days and 40 nights and He goes to Horeb the Mount of God and He's probably
never been there.
I mean why would He have ever been there?
Just hundreds of miles across a desert in a foreign country.
I mean okay, forget LA.
This is like He just marches down through Mexico or something, you know just to some
foreign land, someplace that He's never been, and He goes to the Mount of God.
And what's interesting is that God then meets with Him there, just like He met with Moses
on the exact same mountain.
Isn't that interesting?
God met with Moses on Mount Sinai, now He meets with Elijah.
Because when He gets there, it says in verse 9, He came thither unto a cave and lodged
there.
And behold the word of the Lord came to Him and He said unto him, What doest thou here
Elijah?
Now what's interesting, He asked him, what are you doing here Elijah?
But in reality God is kind of directing His steps to some degree.
You know that Elijah took the first step of the journey by going one day into the wilderness.
Then the angel tells him the journey's too great for you.
So the angel had a journey in mind that he's going to take, that he's already taken the
first steps toward.
And then Elijah just goes all the way to Mount Sinai.
I mean he just keeps walking until he gets to Mount Sinai.
I don't even know if he was necessarily navigating there or if the Lord just led him there.
But he gets there and God asks him, what are you doing here?
Why are you here?
Why have you even left civilization?
Why have you even wanted to die?
And he says in verse 10, I've been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children
of Israel.
And jealous there is similar to our word zealous.
Those two words are related.
You know he's really just saying that he's been very passionate and fired up about serving
God.
He says he's been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have
forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword,
and I even only, I am left, and they seek my life to take it away.
And he's saying look, you know, what's going on?
I've been very zealous for you God.
Why aren't you, you know, now I'm going to die, I'm the only one, nobody wants to listen.
And he said go forth, this is what God says to him, go forth, stand upon the mount before
the Lord.
And a great strong wind rent the mountains, and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord.
But the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not
in the earthquake.
Now imagine the scene here.
God tells, Elijah basically gives his complaint unto God.
God says okay Elijah, why are you here?
He gives him his complaint.
And then God says okay, go stand on the mountain before the Lord.
So he goes and stands on the outside of the mountain, and all of a sudden this wind comes
that's so strong, it tears the mountain in pieces and tears rocks in pieces.
I mean that's a pretty strong wind, that'd be a pretty amazing sight, right?
I mean sometimes you just read over this stuff and you don't picture a wind coming through
that's so forceful that it shatters rock.
And then God sends this great earthquake, and it says but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
And after the fire, a still small voice.
And it was so when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out
and stood in the entering inn of the cave, and behold there came a voice unto him and
said, what doest thou here Elijah?
And he said, I've been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, because it should of Israel
have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword,
and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away.
He just repeats the exact same thing.
And the Lord said to him, go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when
thou comest, anoint Hezael to be king over Syria.
And Jehu the son of Nimshai, shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son
of Shaphan of Abel-Maholla, shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room, meaning to take
thy place.
And it shall come to pass that him that escapeth the sword of Hezael shall Jehu slay, and him
that escapeth the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay, yet have I left me seven thousand in
Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not
kissed him.
So he departed thence and found Elisha the son of Shaphan.
So basically he gives him more to do.
He tells him, look, you're not the only one left, there are seven thousand men that have
bowed the knee to Baal, you've got more work to do.
That Hezael, king of Syria, and he tells him anoint Jehu to be king, and he tells him
to go anoint Elisha to be prophet in his room.
Now I've got to hurry up because I'm out of time.
But basically he heads out, he finds Elisha, and he lays his mantle upon him, and Elisha
becomes his new servant.
Now I don't know what happened to that guy that was waiting for him.
You know what I mean?
Hey, I'll be right back, let me go into the wilderness, today's journey.
Then he spends 40 days, and then God sends him back a different way, because he goes
a different way through Syria.
He doesn't go back the same way.
That other guy's like, I don't know, how long am I supposed to wait here, you know?
It's been seven weeks, you know, it's been three months.
Uh oh, oh sorry, I've got a new servant.
I've got Elisha now.
So he gets a new servant, Elisha, and basically once we see him find Elisha, we kind of take
a break from Elisha in chapter 20.
We don't really see any mention of Elisha in chapter 20.
Then in chapter 21, he confronts Ahab, Elijah confronts Ahab one more time, and preaches
to him about how Ahab had killed Naboth, and stolen Naboth's vineyard, and he pronounces
judgment upon Ahab, and when Ahab hears the preaching of Elijah, even though when he first
sees Elijah, he calls Elijah my enemy.
He's like, oh you found me, my enemy!
But then once Elijah preaches to him, the power of God's word breaks through to Ahab,
and Ahab is mourning and sad, and God actually accepts his repentance there and gives him
a break a little bit.
That's in chapter 21.
We don't really hear from Elijah in chapter 22.
Then in 2 Kings chapter 1, we see the story where Elijah preaches against the next king.
He preaches against, if you look at verse 2, Ahaziah who fell down through a lattice
in his upper chamber that was in Samaria and was sick, he preaches against Ahaziah telling
him he's going to die.
This is where they send the messengers to go fetch Elijah, and Elijah calls down fire
from God and consumes the group of 50 soldiers.
Let me just show you one part here.
It says in verse 9, then the king sent unto him a captain of 50 with his 50, and he went
up to him, and behold he sat on the top of a hill, and he spake unto him, thou man of
God, the king has said, come down.
And Elijah answered and said to the captain of 50, if I be a man of God, then let fire
come down from heaven and consume thee and thy 50.
And there came down fire from heaven and consumed him and his 50.
He does this twice, and he calls down fire from God and just torches 100 troops.
And then when the third group of 50 comes, instead of mouthing off to Elijah, they get
on their knees and say, please don't kill us, we just want you to come talk to Ahaziah,
and then he goes with them, and he pronounces judgment upon Ahaziah.
The interesting thing about this chapter is in verse 8 where we get a physical description
of Elijah.
It says in verse 8, because they ask, you know, well what type of guy was he?
In verse 8 it says they answered him, he was a hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather
about his loins, and he said it is Elijah the Tishbite, so the only thing that we really
learn about his appearance is that he's wearing a leather belt, and he's a hairy man.
I mean that was, I mean that, he must have been really hairy.
I mean if somebody asks you, what did somebody look like?
If somebody asks you, what type of guy was he, I mean, you know, you're not talking about
how tall he was, you're not talking about, I mean just two things.
He was hairy.
I mean that was just the first thing, just, he was hairy.
I mean he must have been really hairy, and then he said, you know, and he's wearing a
leather belt.
I mean this guy, you know, this guy is a serious guy.
And then in chapter 2 is where we see Elijah depart from this earth.
Now he did not die the way that.