The Return of the Rain (or King Ahab's Long Ride Home)

Friends,

Sunday, July 20^th, was the 45^th anniversary to the day (July 20^th, 1969) of man’s first big footprint on the moon.  If simple men are able to reach the moon, you and I can reach the stars with God's help! The Apollo missions faced some monumental challenges. Giving up would have been easy for NASA, but the organization persevered…and so can we when we face difficulties along the way in our walk with the Lord. As long as we are lined up with God's will, we can accomplish many things…including some things that others say that we could not possibly do.

That is pretty much Elijah's life story. This is the latest installment concerning some important lessons in perseverance that we can learn from the prophet Elijah.  The prophet announced three years before that it was going to be his word, as facilitated by the Lord, that was going to stop the rains from coming upon the land. It would only be his word that would start them again (1 Kings 17:1). Now, It has been a long and disappointing day for King Ahab, the King of Israel, to this point (1 Kings 18:41-46). A monumental event has just taken place, as God has defeated Ahab and his prophets, debunking their idol, Baal...proving to the people of Israel that He is the One True God!  As the result, all of the prophets of Baal are rounded up and eliminated. What is fascinating is that Elijah and the king are standing face to face, as if nothing has happened. I just have to wonder if Elijah wasn’t tempted to taunt, as he had done earlier in the clash with the prophets of Baal, and say – “How do you like them apples!” (Or something to that effect). Nevertheless, Elijah sends the king to one of the servants to get something to eat, while he himself goes to the top of Mt. Carmel to pray and ask the Lord to send the much needed rains.

Elijah adopts an unusual posture…nearly a fetal position…which indicates his great humility and concern for the people. This is another indication that Elijah’s deepest desire is to live to please the Lord. Unlike when he prays for the Lord’s intervention at the altar (when the Lord consumes the altar, water and sacrifices), the answer to this prayer does not take place immediately.  Seven times Elijah sends the servant to look toward the Mediterranean Sea and to report concerning any storms that might be gathering. Six of those times, the servant reports nothing.  But, as with the story of Naaman (upcoming in the Kings correspondence in 2 Kings 5), perseverant faith is fulfilled in the seventh trip to the water. The prophet does not give up, but he does pray the seventh time (a number that indicates perfection, completeness)…and the servant sees a tiny cloud coming up from the sea. This is certainly a good example for us to follow as we continue to appeal to the Lord in prayer. The little cloud that arises is not the storm, but is the forerunner of what is to come.

Meanwhile, Elijah tells King Ahab to mount his steed and chariot and return to his palace in Jezreel as soon as possible. We are not told how he breaks the news to Queen Jezebel that Baal has been publicly humiliated and declared to be a false god, and that Baal’s prophets have been slain.  And this is all probably just as well, as this message is rated G. :-) Neither the drought nor the famine has brought the evil king and queen to repentance, and it isn’t likely that fire or rain from heaven is going to change anything.  (In fact, as we will see later, Jezebel is still determined to kill Elijah). Soon, the heavens turn black with clouds and great torrents of rain begin to fall on the land.  The Lord not only proves that He is the true and living God, but also that He approves of the ministry of his servant Elijah. Elijah does not have chariots or servants, but he does have the power of the Lord. Elijah runs on ahead of the king…with his horses and chariots…to reach Jezreel, which is about seventeen miles from where they were located. Now, this is rather remarkable. I would want this guy on my Olympic Marathon team! We have to wonder how this actually takes place.  Well, considering Ahab is going to have to share his terrible news with his beloved queen, I am certain that he is no hurry whatsoever to get back and reveal what has taken place.

John Killinger retells this story from Atlantic Monthly about a matter of perseverance – “In the days of the great western cattle rancher, a little burro sometimes would be harnessed to a wild steed. Bucking and raging, convulsing like drunken sailors, the two would be turned loose like Laurel and Hardy to proceed out onto the desert range. They could be seen disappearing over the horizon, the great steed dragging that little burro along and throwing him about like a bag of cream puffs. They might be gone for days, but eventually they would come back. The little burro would be seen first, trotting back across the horizon, leading the submissive steed in tow. Somewhere out there on the rim of the world that steed would become exhausted from trying to get rid of the burro, and in that moment, the burro would take mastery and become the leader. And that is the way it is with the kingdom and its heroes, isn't it? The battle is to the determined, not to the outraged; to the committed, not to those who are merely dramatic.” (From Leadership, Summer, 1989.)

Ahab was defeated because of his idolatry and lack of faith in the Lord…he trusted in himself (or rather, his wife), rather than God. This is contrasted with Elijah. Although he was a human who experienced some significant struggles (as did many other of God’s leading people in the Bible), he trusted in the Lord and persevered through the trials that came his way. And as we see often times, the battle doesn’t go to the strongest, but to the most enduring -- you know this…you have seen the Rocky movies. There are times in our lives when we have to wait…perhaps we are waiting for the rain, or maybe we are waiting for the sun.  Or, we are waiting on the Lord to make His move with us. Sometimes answers come quickly, other times they do not come easily, if at all. Most of the time when people fail, though, it is because they did not stick-to-it or hang in there quite long enough, as it relates to some project or difficulty. When we are able to persevere and endure, we can more readily see the full fruit of what the Lord is doing in and through us. 

Blessings, Don

No Match for the Lord

Friends,

Bret Toman offers this -- Braveheart is the story of Scotland’s pursuit of freedom from the tyranny of the English under the leadership of William Wallace, played by Mel Gibson. There is a scene where Wallace and his men were fighting the English. Wallace thought he had the backing of the Scottish nobles, but they had been bought off by the King and betrayed him on the battlefield, leaving Wallace and his men to be routed by the English. The leader of the nobles, Robert the Bruce, takes his act of betrayal particularly hard. He owns his betrayal but doesn’t let it define him…consider what he has to say --Robert Bruce, Sr.: I’m the one who’s rotting, but I think your face looks graver than mine. Son, we must have alliance with England to prevail here. You achieved that. You saved your family, increased your land. In time, you will have all the power in Scotland. Robert the Bruce: Lands, titles, men, power...mean nothing. Robert Bruce, Sr.: Nothing? Robert the Bruce: I have nothing. Men fight for me because if they do not, I throw them off my land and I starve their wives and children. Those men who bled…at Falkirk fought for William Wallace. He fights for something that I never had. And I took it from him when I betrayed him. I saw it in his face on the battlefield, and it’s tearing me apart. Robert Bruce, Sr.: All men betray. All lose heart. Robert the Bruce: I don’t want to lose heart!!! I want to believe as he does. I will never be on the wrong side again.

Perhaps that is the cry of your heart this morning. You’ve chased after everything you thought would satisfy your soul, and it’s left you empty…with nothing. You and I have been idolaters in the past. We’ve built our own cisterns and they don’t hold water. They leave us empty-hearted. Maybe you're even saying to yourself, "I don’t want to lose heart. I want to believe. I will never be on the wrong side again." The prophet Elijah could relate.  In a sense, he was the William Wallace of his time.  Facing unbelievable odds, Elijah matches up against nearly 500 antagonists that oppose the will of God (1 Kings 18:17-40). He stands firm and challenges the false prophets of Ahab and Jezebel, as one of the greatest dramas in all of Scripture unfolds.

Elijah has had his meeting with King Ahab, and everything he has done has been according to the Word of the Lord…and this includes confronting the evil king and inviting his false priests to come meet with him on Mt. Carmel. In what is an amazing twist of irony, King Ahab calls Elijah the “troublemaker of Israel.” Yet, it is Ahab’s sin and defiance of the Lord that has brought significant trouble upon Israel. Mt. Carmel is located near the border of Israel and Phoenicia to the north, so it an appropriate place for the Phoenician god Baal to meet the God of Israel. Elijah tells Ahab not only to bring the 450 prophets of Baal, but also 400 prophets of Asherah.  This is to be one big happy family gathering of heathens. But, it appears only the prophets of Baal show up. Elijah addresses representatives of all ten tribes from the northern kingdom of Israel.  His purpose is not only to expose Baal as a false god, but also to bring the straying people back to the one true God. The Israelites have been “straying between two opinions”.  They are wanting to worship Baal as god and Yahweh as God, and this is obviously not going to work. Elijah weighs the contest in favor of the prophets of Baal as he allows them to build their altar, select their sacrifice and offer it to their god.  They could take all the time they needed in order to accomplish this. When Elijah says that he is the only prophet of the Lord, he is not discounting all those who have come before him, the prophets that Obadiah had hidden and protected…he is stating that he is the only one openly serving the Lord. Still, one prophet of God alongside the God of the universe is a majority.

Meanwhile, the prophets of Baal are dancing about, cutting themselves with swords and spears, and yet, nothing is happening. By noon, still nothing is happening for the prophets of Baal, and in one of the best scenes in the Bible, Elijah begins to taunt them. Elijah suggests that Baal cannot hear them because he is deep in thought (like the Thinker, perhaps), or that he has gone on a trip, or that he is asleep. Or…best of all…that he has “gone aside”, which translated literally means, “Perhaps Baal has gone to the bathroom.” At 3 o’clock…which, not so ironically, is the time of the evening sacrifice in Jerusalem, Elijah steps forward and takes charge. The altar that once stood there has been taken down, probably by the false prophets, so Elijah rebuilds it and sanctifies it. Elijah has already given the prophets of Baal some advantages, and now to prove his point further, he gives himself some disadvantages, handicaps. He has a trench dug around the altar and fills it with water.  He puts the sacrifice on the wood on the altar and has everything drenched in water. At the time of the sacrifice, he lifts up his voice in prayer to the Lord, and requests that God be glorified as the God of Israel, and make it known that Elijah is his servant. Even more, by sending fire from heaven, the Lord will tell his people that He forgives them, and would invite them back to worshipping Him. Suddenly, fire falls from heaven, totally devours the sacrifice, the altar, and the water -- the whole ball of wax. There is nothing left that anybody could turn into a relic or shrine.  The prophets of Baal are stunned, while the people of Israel fall on their faces and acknowledge that “the Lord, He is God!” But, the story is not over, for Elijah commands the people to pursue the prophets of Baal and slay them, which is what takes place according to the command of the Lord (Deuteronomy 13:13-18, 17:2-5).

Elijah was called to a huge task, but most of the time we are not called to such large activities.  Yet, we need to take care of the little things that matter in life…because they can be big things. Dr. Neil Anderson shared an important concept about the will of God with his seminary students, "Bloom where you are planted." Be the best you can be at your present assignment, and stay there until God calls you elsewhere. Why? “It is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy” (1 Corinthians 4:2). This is a good principle for Christians to understand and apply.  As we have seen, this is precisely how Elijah lived his life. Anderson goes on to say, “Often a student will say, ‘There are no openings to serve at my church!’ My response is, ‘Yes there are. They're probably begging for someone to teach third-graders.’ The momentary silence reveals this thought: ‘But anyone can teach third-grade boys. I had something bigger in mind.’ ‘Take the opportunity before you and teach those third-grade boys. Decide to be the best teacher they've ever had. You may start with only three little boys, but at the end of that year you've got 12 boys excited about God, Sunday school and church. Next year, when the personnel committee needs to fill leadership positions, they say, ‘We need some new life on the Christian education committee.’ Somebody aware of the fruit you are bearing says, ‘There's this guy doing a bang-up job with our third graders. Let's ask him to be on the committee.’” And so it goes. God guides those who bloom where they are planted. (Dr. Anderson, Freedom in Christ and Harvest House Publishers)

The test for the people of Elijah’s day was fair – the test for the prophets of Baal, who are exposed as idolaters, and pay the price...as well as for the people who are able to come back to the Lord. And the test for you and me is also fair – do we trust the Lord’s faithfulness to work in, with and through us to accomplish His will, as he did with Elijah, whether we are faced with great tasks, or the small ones from day to day?  We may be called upon to face significant challenges in life, and it is much easier to face challenges knowing that the Lord is on our side, fighting for us. 

Blessings, Don

Faith to Overcome Our Fears

Friends,

Jewish psychiatrist Viktor Frankl was arrested by the Nazis in World War II and put in Auschwitz, the infamous death camp, he was stripped of everything: property, family, possessions, and a manuscript he had spent years researching and writing on finding meaning in life. The manuscript had been sewn into the lining of his coat. "Now it seemed as if nothing and no one would survive me; neither a physical nor a spiritual child of my own," Frankl wrote. "I found myself confronted with the question of whether under such circumstances my life was ultimately void of any meaning." A few days later, the Nazis forced the prisoners to give up what little clothing they still wore. "I had to surrender my clothes and in turn inherited the worn-out rags of an inmate who had been sent to the gas chamber," said Frankl. "Instead of the many pages of my manuscript, I found in the pocket of the newly acquired coat a single page torn out of a Hebrew prayer book, which contained the Jewish prayer 'Shema Yisrael' (Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one God. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.) "How should I have interpreted such a 'coincidence' other than as a challenge to 'live' my thoughts instead of merely putting them on paper?" Frankl later reflected on his ordeal in Man's Search for Meaning, saying, "There is nothing in the world that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions, as the knowledge that there is meaning in one's life.... He who has a 'why' to live for can bear almost any 'how.' " [Based on Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning]

Frankl was faced with the most difficult of circumstances. We humans come to face to face with such situations from time to time. We come back to the next chapter in Elijah’s life and ministry (1 Kings 18:1ff)and we see that he is finally going to confront King Ahab concerning all of the evil he has done. God commands that this event take place, and along with this, the Lord will end the drought that has punished the land and the people for over three years. Now, a person named Obadiah arrives on the scene. He is a high royal official and steward of the king of Israel. But, he is also a courageous servant of the Lord. One would have to be exceedingly faithful…or crazy…in order to serve in such a place with such a wicked man. But, much like with Esther, the Lord has put Obadiah in the palace to use His God-given authority to do God’s will. And he has already proved his loyalty to the Lord by risking his life to save a hundred prophets of the Lord when Queen Jezebel was on the extermination trail.

The king and Obadiah are searching the countryside for any grass or such that could be used to feed the horses and mules used in the army. It is interesting to contrast Ahab’s self-righteousness with David, who repented when there was famine in the land for three years (2 Samuel 21:1). Ahab isn’t particularly concerned about the people of the land…he just wants to be certain that his army is strong enough to repel any invaders. It is amazing that the king is willing to leave the safety and comfort of his palace to scour the land for food for the animals. Furthermore, as a side note, it seems as if Ahab is actually something of a better person when not in the direct presence of his supremely evil wife and queen, Jezebel.

Meanwhile, the Lord leads Elijah down the road that Obadiah is traveling. Obadiah recognizes Elijah, and has such reverence for him that he falls on his face prostrate toward him. Elijah discloses his goal immediately to Obadiah, and it is to find the wicked king, but he isn’t about to go looking for him, so he commissions Obadiah to go and tell the king where he is located. Obadiah is between a rock and a hard place. He has every desire to obey the Lord through Elijah, but he believes going back to the king will be problematic to say the least. If Ahab has proven anything, it is that he is unpredictable and unstable. Ahab has been searching for Elijah for three years, so he is not going to want another false lead. Obadiah fears that he will be punished or killed by the king if something goes wrong…and this includes the fact that the paranoid king might suspect him of being a follower of Elijah’s God. Much like Jonathan who had to navigate the choppy waters between his father, King Saul and his best friend, David, so Obadiah is going to have to face his fear, trust in Elijah. And even more so, trust in the God who has protected him as well as his servant Elijah for three years. Elijah’s assurance that he will remain there and wait for the king has to give him some peace. So, Obadiah goes and delivers the message. We really do not know the “rest of the story”, but I believe it is safe to assume that Obadiah survives his meeting, as most Jewish historians believe that it is this Obadiah who is the author of the Old Testament Book of Obadiah. We can rest assured that if we are faithful like Elijah and Obadiah, there will be times when the Lord will ask to go to difficult places and deal with challenging situations in order to better ourselves and the kingdom of God.

Theologian and popular speaker, Francis Chan, offers this -- The truth is that the Spirit of the living God is guaranteed to ask you to go somewhere or do something you wouldn’t normally want or choose to do. The Spirit will lead you to the way of the cross, as He led Jesus to the cross, and that is definitely not a safe or pretty or comfortable place to be. The Holy Spirit of God will mold you into the person you were made to be. This often incredibly painful process strips you of selfishness, pride, and fear. For a powerful example of this, read in C. S. Lewis’s book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader about the boy, Eustace, who becomes a dragon. In order to become a little boy again, he must undergo a tremendous amount of pain as the dragon skin is peeled away and torn from him. Only after he endures this painful process is he truly transformed from a dragon back into a boy. Sometimes the sin we take on becomes such a part of us that it requires this same kind of ripping and tearing to free us. The Holy Spirit does not seek to hurt us, but He does seek to make us Christlike, and this can be painful. (Francis Chan. Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit (pp. 50-51). Kindle Edition.)

Elijah has been down a challenging road for three plus years, and now, his mission is about to change in a dramatic way, which we will explore next time. In relationship to his plight, and Obadiah’s, we may not always understand why we find ourselves in certain circumstances, but we must know that the Lord has a plan to see us through…and this is in order that we learn and grow to be more like His son. We can choose to respond to challenges with fear, and this happens to us from time to time. But, when we trust in faith, we are able to experience the full benefit of blessing from the Lord. But, one final thought to consider…Bill Hybels shares this – “Every single day we make choices that show whether we are courageous or cowardly. We choose between the right thing and the convenient thing, sticking to a conviction or caving in for the sake of comfort, greed or approval. We choose either to take a carefully thought-out risk or to crawl into a shrinking shell of safety, security and inactivity. We choose either to believe in God and trust him (even when we do not always understand his ways) or we second-guess him and cower in the corners of doubt and fear.” Bill Hybels, Who Are You (When No One’s Looking)

Blessings, Don