The Story of Elijah

Brother, in terms of the sermon, I was contemplating on what type of a message to bring you today. And, as is typical for all of us as speakers, I've got my own checklist. I'm sure every speaker does, as to the kinds of things that you go through in your mind as you're contemplating a future message. In my mind, I always take a look at the calendar. Is something happening? Are we near one of God's holy days? One of the seasons? Or not? If not, what's happening in man's calendar? Is there something in man's calendar that we need to be addressing in terms of meet and do season? Also, you think about what is the need for the congregation at a particular time. Since we're at the beginning of a new calendar year, man's calendar, according to man's reckoning, I was thinking about the challenges. We just heard a sermon about trials, challenges. I was thinking about the kind of challenges that you and I may be experiencing in the coming year. And, as I was thinking about that, a certain individual in the Bible came to my mind. And today, we're going to take a look at a portion of his life. We're not going to go through the entirety of his life. It would take more than one sermon to do that. But we're going to take a look at some of the key events in the ministry of the prophet Elijah.

We want to note a number of fundamental spiritual lessons that you and I can put into practice in the coming year. Certainly, he was a man who had all sorts of challenges that he faced with God's help, and he faced those very successfully. Allow me to give you a little bit of background to God sending Elijah to King Ahab.

When you take a look at his background, you find there's actually very little in the Bible about his background. His birth, his parents, his call to his prophetic ministry. The Bible is relatively silent on all of that. He all of a sudden just pops into the scene in 1 Kings 17. And at that point, the nation of Israel under King Ahab is going through a time of tremendous spiritual crisis.

The nation is going through a spiritual crisis. Because of Ahab and his wife Jezebel, they are trying to extinguish the very truth of God, the very existence of true religion in the land. I want to read you something from our UCG Online Bible commentary.

The great prophet Elijah is now introduced. Haley's Bible handbook says, "...six chapters are given to Ahab's reign, while most of the kings have only a part of one chapter. The reason? It's largely the story of Elijah. Elijah's rare and sudden and brief appearances, his undaunting courage and fiery zeal, the brilliance of his triumphs, the pathos of his despondency, the glory of his departure, and the calm beauty of his reappearance in a vision at the transfiguration, making one of the greatest characters Israel ever produced. It is noteworthy that only two prophets appeared in that vision with Jesus Christ in the transfiguration, Moses and Elijah." Elijah's life is interesting in that he set the pattern for a number of very important individuals to come. One would be Elisha. One would be John the Baptist. Certainly, we see something happening at the end of the age where somebody or a group is coming into spirit and power of Elijah. Let's take a look at Luke chapter 1 for a moment.

Luke chapter 1.

We get some understanding as to Elijah's commission here in Luke chapter 1.

Luke 1 verse 17, where it says, "...he will also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and to the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." To make ready a people prepared for the Lord. So obviously, John the Baptist did that before Christ's Second Coming. And we are going to have, obviously, the two witnesses, as we know, in Revelation, that are going to be preparing the way for Christ's Second Coming. John, I should say, did for the First Coming. Two witnesses for the Second Coming. Also, we've always thought that our work, the work of God in this end of the age, is also doing an Elijah type of a work. In that regard, let's turn to Malachi chapter 4.

Malachi chapter 4.

In verse 5, "...Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." And as we know from prophecy, the day of the Lord is that last year before the return of Jesus Christ. So either an individual, you know the two witnesses, are going to be doing a work of Elijah. Maybe they'll be somebody else, but certainly the work of God is also doing that same work.

So there's a reason that my mind was thinking about this, the coming year, the various challenges we'll be facing. I was thinking about the challenges that Elijah faced as God gave him his commission.

Now, as I made mention, there was a tremendous need spiritually for Elijah's ministry. We see that historically. And also, when we think about our day-to-day, we see it currently.

In marrying Jezebel and accommodating her religion, Ahab allowed Baal worship to be introduced in a very big way. Prior to this time, there was Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. He wanted people to be able to worship either in the northern portion of the country or the southern portion of the country. He wanted to make going to church, so to speak, easy for people. So he did that. He also changed God's holy days to days very familiar to us today. But in terms of the whole nation worshiping Baal, it wasn't as big a deal early on as it became under the reign of Ahab.

Under the reign of Ahab and Jezebel, Baal worship became the state religion. Under Ahab and Jezebel, they were trying to do away. They were trying to murder all the prophets, all the ministers, all the priests of God. They wanted to stamp out the true religion that came from God.

So today, brethren, my theme for the sermon, as we look at the story of Elijah, at least a portion of his life, is our need to depend upon God for all things. Our need to depend upon God for all things. And we see that so clearly in his life. And brethren, as we go through the challenges of this coming year, we will have tremendous blessings, I'm sure. Spiritual blessings, physical blessings, all sorts of blessings, but we also have challenges. And as we face those challenges, we need to make sure we are depending upon God with each and every challenge. Now, let's begin our journey by going back to 1 Kings 17.

As we go through these first seven verses of this chapter, there's a lesson. And the lesson is this, that the lowly experiences of life prepare us for the Mount Carmel events in life. We're going to see where God is humbling the prophet Elijah, because he wants him to do a very big work. But before he can do that work, God has got to set his heart where it needs to be. Not that his heart was wrong. Obviously, as an individual, he was seeing the sin in the nation. It was affecting him in terms of, you know, he was sighing and crying as he saw the sins of the nation. But God also wanted to make sure that he was fully humble before he was going to be having a certain test that we're going to see in chapter 18. So let's begin in chapter 17 here of 1 Kings 1. And Elijah the Tishbiteh of the inhabitants of Gilead said to Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel lives before my stand, there shall not be due or reign these years except at my word. So here we see again a message from Elijah to Ahab, the king. And of course it went to his wife as well, that there's not going to be any reign. Now why is this a big thing? One of the reasons this is a big thing is because Baal was the god of rain. Baal was the god of fertility. Baal was the god who brought forth produce from the land. And God says, we're turning that spigot off. There's not going to be rain. There's going to be drought. As a result of the drought, there's going to be famine. This goes tremendously against what Baal stood for. God knew exactly what he was doing here. He's wanting to make a clear contrast in the minds of the people of Israel. Verse 2, Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Get away from here, and turn eastward, and hide by the brook, Carath, which flows into the Jordan.

Obviously, the king didn't quick care for the word that he had heard from Elijah. Elijah is told immediately, You need to get out of here. The king is going to come after you. Verse 4, It will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded that the ravens feed you there. So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. For he went and stayed at the brook, Carath, which flows into the Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening.

And he drank from the brook. So prior to going into this tremendous trial, or this challenge, that the whole nation is going to witness, God gives Elijah an opportunity to deepen his faith, to deepen his faith by the hand of God. Now again, as we've heard in the sermon, God gives us trials.

He gives us tests. He gives us challenges. He gives us those things to deepen our relationship with him. And sometimes we're in that pot we're cooking for a long time as we're deepening our faith, as we're deepening our relationship with the great God. There are a number of people in this audience today who have been going through trials for a lengthy period of time.

Years. And at this point, God has not removed you from those challenges. God is giving you the opportunity, as he will give all of us the opportunity to grow deeper in our faith, because we've got a big work to do once we're resurrected in the kingdom of God. And certainly, as you take a look at these first verses here in 1 Kings 17, one of the things you're struck with, I'm struck by, is the fact, as we see here in verse 6, that God intervened in a way that probably no one would ever would have thought.

And God intervened on a daily basis to sustain Elijah. Think about your life. Can God intervene in a way you would not consider on a daily basis to provide and sustain you? Well, of course. God is no respecter of persons. What God did for Elijah, he certainly can do for you and I. So as we look at this first section of Scriptures here, these first six or seven verses, we see God provided for a servant. And as you go through the challenges this year, remember, God can provide for you, and God will provide for you.

Remember how Elijah witnessed the power of God. Now, we're going to see where that's important, because as we progress through the story, as great a man as he was, and all the miracles that were taking place all around him to support him by God, there came a place when Elijah became discouraged, despondent, wanted to give up, wanted to die.

He wasn't remembering all the things God had done in his life. He wasn't remembering at that point in his life the power of God. And again, brethren, as you and I go through this coming year, and as things really tax us, we want to remember the power of God we've witnessed in all of our life. Elijah here is alone. He's by himself.

Ahab and Jezebel have done a wonderful job in either murdering the prophets and the ministry of God, or they were in hiding. He's by himself. Again, there may be times when you feel you are by yourself. Sure, you might be married. You might have a husband or a wife and kids and grandkids. But there are times when as you go through a challenge, or I go through a challenge, and there are people there who want to support us and are supporting us, there's still the idea that it's us and God and a challenge.

So he was understanding that. And despite the fact of being all alone, his needs were being met by God day by day. Let's continue this story here in verse 8. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Arise go to Zareth-Eth, which belongs to Sidon, and there dwell. So you have commanded a widow there to provide for you. So he arose and went to Zareth-Eth, and there he came to the gate of the city. Indeed, a widow was there gathering sticks.

And he called to her and said, Please bring a little water and a cup that I might drink. And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, Please bring a morsel of bread in your hand.

And so she said, As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour and a bin, and a little oil and a jar. And see, I am gathering a couple of sticks, that it may go in and prepare for myself and my son, that we might eat it and die.

So again, remember what we've gotten to so far in this story. Here's a man who is being fed by the ravens. Very unusual. But God is providing. And now God says, I want you to go to this city, the Zarethath, which incidentally is the hometown of a woman by the name of Jezebel.

So he's going on to some land that's not exactly a home court advantage for him.

And he's told to go to this widow lady, who is in such bad shape, she thinks that she's about to die. And yet God sends Elijah to her.

Circumstances that you would not think the Almighty would do to help his powerful prophet.

And yet God had something in mind. And that was the need to depend upon God at all times, in all circumstances.

Something else, brethren, as we think about this particular section of verses, as we go through our challenge, and challenges in life, and I've said this before, I'm sure I'll say it many more times in the future, the challenges we go for are not just for our benefit.

This widow woman and her son are going to learn some tremendous things from the great God as they help God's prophet.

It's not just something for Elijah. As you go through what you go through in the coming year, you've got maybe sons or daughters, you've got a mate perhaps, you've got parents or grandparents, whatever, family, friends, business associates, they are watching you.

They are watching me. They're going to see, how does Randy, how do you put your name in the blank? How do we respond to a challenge we're going through?

So here we see two examples in these first 12 verses or so of God using these lowly circumstances, being fed by the ravens, being helped by a widow woman who was about ready to hurt her son, about ready to die, and that's causing Elijah to look upon God and realize that God is calling his shots.

How long those shots are going to go on?

God's calling the shots, and we need to depend upon him for everything.

This moves us up to lesson number two.

God's provision will never fail those who trust in God.

God's provision will never fail those who trust in God.

Verse 13, verse 17-13.

And Elijah said to her, Do not fear, go on as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me, and afterward make some for yourself and your son.

Now, you know, you look at this verse, and I've always thought, What would it be like if Randy Delosandro met two people in the Chicago church, or whatever church I'm pastoring, and you're about ready to die?

Well, I'm hungry. Randy's hungry. Make me food, please.

You know, and I put myself in front of you.

You ever thought about that? Have you read that? I've often thought about that.

But here, again, this is not just for Elijah.

God is wanting to teach—God loves this woman and her son.

And God is wanting to find out, is she going to put God before herself, before her family?

She'll be tremendously blessed.

Verse 14, for thus says the Lord God of Israel, The bin of flowers shall not be used up, nor shall a jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.

This is one of those scriptures that, you know, you've probably heard sermonettes about in years gone by, how that, you know, they just kept on going to the flower bin, and there was more flour, and more flour, and more flour.

Physically, it was impossible for that to happen. You know, more oil out of the jar, more oil just kept on flowing out of there.

You know, over the years, you may have heard the story.

I was not there.

I was told this same kind of a thing happened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, many years ago, where they had a church out of social, and they kept on going to the refrigerator to pull food out.

And they pulled food out, and they pulled food out. That refrigerator couldn't hold as much food as they were pulling out of there.

Now, I wasn't there, but I've been told by a number of people who were in a church in Pittsburgh at the time, the Soldiers and Sailors Hall, and what took place that particular day. But this sort of thing, you know, God obviously is providing supernaturally, where it looked like it just wasn't possible.

Just like it didn't look like it was possible for the raven situation or the widow situation. Now we've got this bin of flour in his jar of oil. And again, brethren, remember this as you and I go through the coming year.

As you and I go through whatever challenges God throws our way, as God desires to deepen our walk with Him and deepen our faith.

Verse 16, The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Elijah.

So again, this is God's doing. God providing in a very unlikely manner.

What are you going through in life right now? Can God provide for you in an unlikely manner?

And again, this was God's way of showing who's the real God. Because again, Baal was the fertility God. He's supposed to be able to make crops grow. He's supposed to be able to make it so that you can have plenty of olives for the olive oil and grain for the wheat, for the flour. But that wasn't happening, because the true God had turned off the spigot.

We continue with the story, verse 17. Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick, and his sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him. In other words, he died.

The woman who was about to die, who put the prophet ahead of her own welfare and her sons, who was showing faith, who was being obedient, who was doing God's will, now her son dies. Where's the fairness in that?

So she said to Elijah, What have I to do with you, old man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to my remembrance and to kill my son? And he said to her, Give me your son. So he took him out of her arms, so it showed it was a little one, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed. And then he cried out to the Lord.

Now she wasn't understanding why this is going on. There are times, brother, we just don't understand why God does what he does. We understand the plan of God. We understand a lot of generalities. But why some of the specific things happen in life, we just don't know. And is it important that we always know everything? There was a fellow by the name of Herbert Armstrong who was keeping the Sabbath for a number of years before God was revealing to him, in the Holy Days especially, what they were all about.

But he knew that God said to do it, and so he did it. Verse 20, So he cried out to the Lord. Elijah cries out to the Lord and says, O Lord, my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son? So here's one of the great men of God who was puzzled. Is he having a bad attitude? No, he was just simply puzzled. He didn't understand why this was happening. He did exactly what God said to do. The woman was doing exactly what God said to do.

And now the son dies. Now the son dies. But the woman allowed him to take the son up in his arms. Verse 21, And Elijah stretched himself out in the child three times, and cried out to the Lord, and said, O Lord, my God, I pray, let this child's soul come back to him. Then the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived.

Three times he did this. We see here being persistent in prayer. We see the fact that Elijah stretched himself out in the child three times. There were things that Elijah needed to do. Elijah did those things. There are things we need to do. In this particular example of healing, one of the things that we should do, if we want healing, is we call for an anointing.

Whether the elder can come physically in person to anoint you, or send a cloth to anoint you, we ask for God's intervention. Those are things we can do. The woman was showing her faith by giving her son to Elijah. Elijah is showing faith by going to God in urgent prayer. And God heard that prayer. Verse 23. Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother.

Elijah said, See, your son lives! Then a woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord is in your mouth, and it is true. So what we're looking at here, brethren, is the first example recorded in Scripture of somebody being raised from the dead. Very first example. God will provide. Even in the face, in this case, of death.

It doesn't get any worse than this. The little boy died, and God intervened. God's provision never fails those who trust in him. Now, how God provides, the way he provides, well, that's up to God. That's up to God. So, as we take a look at where we've come to at this point in the sermon, let's recap and then go to the...use this as a segue for the next portion of the sermon.

The first lesson we saw was that the lowly experiences of life prepare us for the large events of life. We're going to see that now in chapter 18. God is working in Elijah's life to prepare him. Whatever it is you're going through now, or will be going through, God is using those things to prepare you.

The second lesson we saw is that God's provision never fails. God's provision never fails. We now move on to lesson number three in chapter 18. Lesson number three is that God expects us to faithfully do our part, and then he will faithfully do his part. We're in partnership with God. He wants us to grow in faith. There are many things he wants us to grow in faith, and certainly one of them. But he expects us to exercise whatever faith we have.

And then as we exercise that faith, then he kicks in by being faithful to us. Chapter 18, Kings 18, verse 1. Now it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth. So just as God had turned off the spigot, now he's turning it back on.

Three and a half years, no rain, drought, resulting famine. People probably had died as a result of that. Certainly the widow and her son were very close to death because of all this. Verse 2. So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab, and there was a severe famine in Samaria, and Ahab called Obadiah, and this is not the Obadiah of the minor prophets, who was in charge of his house. Now Obadiah feared the Lord, and there's a big discussion here about this, which I'm not going to get into at this point. But let's drop down to verse 7, because we see God working things out. God is working things out through other human beings.

In this case, he's going to use this righteous man, Obadiah, who had hidden 100 of the prophets of God. They had gone into hiding, so Ahab and Jezebel would not kill them. He was a very courageous man, a very faithful man, a very good man. Verse 7. Now as Obadiah was on his way, suddenly Elijah met him. Well, this is not a matter of a coincidence. This is a matter of God making sure that these two men met.

It was a matter of God making sure that his plan was going to be carried out. In your life, brethren, have you found it fascinating? I know I have. Where just when you needed something, somebody shows up in your life, and it's an answer to prayer.

It could be one of your friends who kind of shows up with some counsel you weren't expecting from that friend. It could be some stranger that all of a sudden comes into your life.

I remember when I knew that I, when I found that I needed to have open heart surgery. I didn't know which doctors to call upon or whatever, and so I forget now how this actually worked out, but the cardiologist that I contacted happened to be the head of the department at the University of Michigan Medical Center. He was one of the foremost medical institutions in the country, and he was the head of his department. Normally, for you to see this fellow, it would take you several months. I got in to see him in about two days. Two or three days later, they performed a heart catheterization. They went in and took a look at everything after a number of other tests and said, well, we better get a surgeon to look at this. Let's get a counsel with a surgeon, and so they brought in a surgeon. The surgeon was also the head of his department at the University of Michigan Medical Center, and was also on 60 Minutes because of some of the innovative things he had done in his practice. And again, that guy, you normally don't see somebody like that for months. I saw both of these men in a matter of just a few days. Now, why? It's because I had all that kind of money? No. It's because God opened the doors. I tend to think God says, you know, De La Sandro, I've got so much work for you to do on you. You're not going to die on me yet. There's a lot of things you need to come up to speed on. So I think God says, let's give Randy some help here. And then things worked out very nicely. But those people just entered my life when I desperately needed them. And we can pray for that. We can pray that whatever the situation you find yourself in, that God can open the door for another individual to come into your life that in one sense does God's bidding. They may be as carnal as can be, but they will bring you advice or give you help that furthers what God wants to have happen in your life. So this is not in Acts 7 again. Now, as Obadiah was on his way, suddenly Elijah met him, and he recognized him and fell on his face and said, Is that you, my Lord Elijah? And he asked, It is I. Go tell your master, Elijah is here. Well, this was not something that Obadiah wanted to hear. You know, if you were a man of God, a prophet of God, your life was in your hands. And to go to Ahab and Jezebel as a courier, as a messenger, he wasn't too fond of that, but he did it. He did it. Verse 16. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. So God spared Obadiah.

Now the two men, King Ahab and Elijah, meet. Verse 17. And it happened when Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, Is that you, trouble of Israel?

Have you had people say salacious, slanderous things about you? This is just totally backward here. Ahab was the trouble of Israel. Elijah was going to bring healing to Israel. And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the bales. Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel.

See, at this point, Elijah had been fed by the ravens, Elijah had been fed by the widow, Elijah had helped raise that little boy from the dead through God, all of that through God's power. And so now here's a man who was faithful before and now his faith has been strengthened and now we have a national contest that is being called.

Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel. Four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, four hundred prophets of Ashtoreh, who eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent for the children of Israel and gathered all the prophets together on Mount Carmel. And Elijah came to the people and said, Now how long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, follow him. And the people answered him, not a word. Even then the people were saying, You know what?

We don't know who this Elijah is, but we know who Ahab is, we know what Jezebel is, we know what their power is. And so the people here are being non-committal. They're not making a commitment here at all. But Elijah extends an invitation to a tremendous challenge. The challenge is going to determine who the true God is. The challenge is going to determine who his true servants are. And we see here in verse 22, Then Elijah said to the people, I alone am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men.

Now, Elijah didn't know. And you know, brethren, there's a lot of things we don't know in life. Elijah didn't know that there were plenty of other people who had not bowed the knee to Baal. But it's easy for us to think that we are in a situation by ourself. Think about your situation right now.

Do you think you're in a situation by yourself? That the challenge you're facing, no one can understand because they've not gone through it. Well, probably any number of people have gone through it. And probably a lot of people know exactly what you're facing. But Elijah didn't see that at this point. And God's going to have to show them that a little bit later on.

Now, again, understand what God is doing here. Mount Carmel is supposedly the place where Baal lived. It's home court advantage for Baal. And God chose this very carefully. He said, I will give every advantage to these false prophets to Baal. Give every advantage to show how powerful Baal is. As we're going to see in a couple of moments, they're going to build a sacrifice, put together a sacrifice, and fire is going to determine who wins.

And of course, Baal was the god of lightning. Baal was the god of fire. And so we're on home court advantage for Baal. We're looking at Baal, what is thought to be Baal's chief weapons. And it looks like the battle is pretty much going to be one-sided. If you look at it as a man will look at it. Verse 23. Then let them give us two bulls, and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under it.

And they'll prepare another bull and lay it on the wood and put no fire under it. And you should call the name of your gods, and I'll call the name of the Lord. And the God who answers by fire, He is God. So all the people answered and said, it is well spoken.

So there's the ground rules. Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many. And call the name of your God and put no fire under it. So here in verse 25, God's, you know, basically you've got a duel. God lets the other guy with his weapon shoot first. Verse 26. So they took the bull, which was given them, and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal, from morning till, even till noon, saying, Oh Baal, hear us.

But there was no voice, no one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made. So here they're, you know, they're so frustrated because nothing's happening. They're dancing around here. God wants us to worship Him in spirit and in truth. All the physical things we can do, those things are not important. What's important is our heart. What's important is our mind. What's important is worshiping Him in spirit and truth. So nothing is happening here. Verse 27.

And so it was at noon that Elijah mocked them, said, Cry aloud, for he is God. Either he's meditating, or he's busy, or he's on a journey. Or perhaps he's sleeping and must be awakened.

Now, the English, the contemporary English version quotes verse 27 this way, which I think is very funny. At noon, Elijah began making fun of them. Pray louder, he said, Bail must be a God. Maybe he's daydreaming, or using the toilet, or traveling somewhere, or maybe he's asleep, and you have to go wake him up. So there's a time, as we go through our challenges in life, to have a sense of humor about things, and certainly, Elijah, in the calmness of his situation, because of the deepening of his faith, realizes that the battle was won by God before it ever started.

Verse 28, So they cried aloud, to cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until blood gushed out of them. And again, brethren, notice what happens when you adhere to the religions of the world. When you adhere to the religions of the world, you hurt yourself.

It's not a godly thing that they're doing here. And your notes, if you want to put notes on this, you can write down Leviticus 21, verse 5. God says, Don't cut yourself. Don't try to get my attention by doing that. I don't want you to do that.

Verse 30, Then Elijah said to the people, Come near to me. So Elijah wants the witnesses to get a good eye view of this.

So all the people came near to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down, probably broken down by Jezebel.

Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, Israel shall be your name. So there's a lot of symbolism here. Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and made a trench around the altar, large enough to hold two siyahs of seed. And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, laid it on the wood, and said, fill four water pots with water, and poured on a burnt sacrifice on the wood.

So again, God's saying, let's give Baal every opportunity here.

And so on God's sacrifice, on the wood, water is poured on it. Now you know what that would do. Verse 34, and he said, do it a second time.

And they did it a second time, he said, do it a third time.

It was verse 34, and he did it a third time.

So the water ran all around the altar, and he also filled the trench with water.

And it came to pass at a time of the evening, of the offering of the evening sacrifice.

According to what God does, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are the God in Israel, and I am your servant, and I have done all these things at your word.

So Elijah prays a very simple prayer.

You know, people are watching, and what does he ask for? He wants God to be glorified. He wants people to realize that he's serving that great God, and therefore should listen to him because he's giving the words of the great God.

Verse 37, Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that you are the Lord God, that you have turned their hearts back to you again. So the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

Tremendous victory by our great God. God provides. He was there.

He was there. Verse 39, Now when the people saw it, they fell on their faces, they said, The Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God. Now this is the bunch that was very non-committal before, but now their eyes have witnessed something, a tremendous set of miracles here. That God has performed. Only God can do this, and God certainly has defeated Baal.

Verse 40, And Elijah said to them, Seize the prophets of Baal, do not let one of them escape. So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook, Kishon, and executed them there.

Why execute them?

Bad decisions bring bad consequences.

Bad decisions, spiritually, bring sin. Can bring sin. And sin brings destruction.

And destruction is what they reaped because of the way they were not serving the nation of Israel.

Then Elijah said to A.A. and go up and eat and drink, for there is a sound of an abundance of rain. Now it hadn't started raining yet. God said the rain is going to come, but it hadn't come yet. So here's Elijah saying to Ahab, the rain is coming. It's coming. You better have a little something to eat here.

Verse 42, So Ahab went up to eat and drink, and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and he bowed down on the ground and put his face between his knees. So here we see the man of God praying. Fervent prayer. We've asked you to pray in today's announcements for some fervent prayer, for some of those we love here in our congregation. God answers fervent prayer. Verse 43, And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. So he went up and looked and said, There is nothing.

And seven times he said, Go again. So Elijah's looking out, Are there rain clouds coming? God said it's going to rain. Seven times he went to look. Again, we've seen before where, you know, Elijah had to stretch himself out on a child three times.

Here he's asking his servant to go seven times. So again, persistence in prayer. Verse 44, And came to pass the seventh time, He said, There's a cloud as small as a man's hand, Rising out of the sea. So he said, Go up and say to God, Prepare your chariot and go down, Before the rain stops you. Ahab is warned to get going. Otherwise he might drown in the coming rain. The same man who wants to kill Elijah.

There's a story there, isn't there? Now it happened in the meantime, That the sky became black with clouds and wind, And there was a heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel. Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah, And he girded up his loins, And ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

Now I don't know if Elijah had been up with his track team In high school, But here's a guy who's out running a chariot. And I'm sure the king wasn't lollygagging around. Again, throughout the course of this story, We see God doing things in the life of Elijah That just our minds think, Well, how can ravens bring enough food to feed you? How's that poor widow lady going to take care of you?

The kid was dead! And now he's, you know, And then you have this whole thing with the prophets on Mount Carmel And then they kind of capped the whole thing off. He's beating a team of horses. All of that should be definitely in Elijah's mind. Which brings us now to lesson, And the last lesson that I see here anyway.

Lesson number four. That God will comfort us in times of challenge. God will comfort us in times of challenge. 1 Kings 19, verse 1. And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, Also how he executed all the prophets with a sword.

Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, If I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow at this time. So basically, the power behind the throne, Jezebel, is saying to Elijah, You've got no more than 24 hours, and you're dead.

You're dead. And so how did Elijah respond to this? After all the miracles, after all the power he's seen at the hand of God, how does he respond? Verse 3. And when he saw that, he rose and ran for his life, And went to Beersheba, which belonged to Judah, And left his servant there.

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, And came and sat under a broom tree, And he prayed that he might die, And said, It is enough now, Lord, For I am no better than my father's. You know, brethren, as I was reading this, I've read this story a number of times, I'm sure you have as well, but as I was reading this story, just reinforce in my mind how we can be as people, how God can do so many powerful things in our life, if we look in our life in the past, and see all the interventions, all the answered prayers, and then something happens that we can become despondent.

We can become discouraged. We temporarily forget what God has done in our life. Now, here is one of the great men of the Bible, and he was facing the same thing that we do. And he responded in the same way we probably have responded to. Let's put a marker here. Let's go to James 5.

James 5.

A section of Scripture that talks about anointing and so on. But notice what it says here in James 5, verse 17. It says, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. He was just like us. And he prayed earnestly that it would not reign, and it did not reign in the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. So here's a man who knew spiritual success. Here's a man that knew what faith was all about. And yet here's a man who became discouraged and despondent, who wasn't understanding what God was doing in his life. So, Brendan, we can learn from this. We can learn from this. God's champion here is being laid low by his own emotions when he took his eye off the ball. It's like Peter. Remember this story? I didn't research this, but you know, the time when Peter was in the boat and Christ had come to me, and Peter jumps out of the boat, he's walking toward Jesus Christ. And things were going pretty good until he thought, wait a minute, I'm out of the boat, I'm walking on the water, I shouldn't be able to walk on water, and then boom, he starts to go down. When his eyes were fixed on Jesus Christ, when his eyes were fixed on God, he was full of faith, things were going well. When his eyes were fixed on the circumstances, things didn't go so well. Same thing is true here with Elijah. Same thing can be true with us this coming year. Let's fix our eyes on the great God, despite what may happen. And you know, I've got to take that advice as much as anybody. I've got to take that advice as much as anybody, regardless as to what things may be taking place. Let's finish up the story here. Verse 5, 1 Kings 19.5.

Then as he lay and slipped under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him and said, Arise and eat! God still loved him. God didn't walk away because he was having some issues. God doesn't walk away from you just because you're having some issues or some doubts or your faith is not as strong.

He still loves you. He doesn't want you to stay in that position. He doesn't want you to stay in that condition. Verse 6, Then he looked, and thereby his head was a cake baked on coals and a jar of water, so he ate and drank and lay down again. You know, the trial he had gone through was exhausting to him. Verse 7, An angel, the Lord, came back a second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you. So he arose and ate and drank and went on the strength of that food forty days and forty nights.

One of the examples of fasting for forty days and forty nights. So we see here God is comforting him through the angels. Put a marker here. Let's go through 2 Corinthians chapter 1. One of my favorite scriptures. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. Let us remember that in this coming year, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Verse 4 goes to the point I've made on a number of occasions, that our trials aren't just ours alone. God comforts us, doesn't remove the trial from us, doesn't even lessen the trial necessarily. But God comforts us, and then He walks with us through that trial. He walks with us through that trial. Helps us to get through the issues, the difficulties. And as we've gone past those, then we're able to help others. I made mention in a Bible study here recently, and what I'm about to tell you is not a state secret, but we have a member of one of our churches who had his own business, had, I don't know, 12 or 13 or 14 employees.

And when the economic bubble burst 2008, 2009, somewhere in there, his company began hemorrhaging funds. He had a big payroll. He's a church member. He's got this big payroll to meet. The people who were working for him were like his family. He provided for these people. But then the money simply wasn't coming in. And he had to begin laying people off. Eventually, he lost the company. Eventually, a man who was making, probably well into this, well, I don't know about well, but making six figures, he's out of work.

Then after a while, he finds work and he's pumping gas. But he said to people in his congregation, privately and publicly in messages, that all that he had learned, he wouldn't give any of that up for the closeness he developed with God as he went through those trials. He wouldn't give a single thing up. Just like, you know, as we go through the various trials we go through, God is there to comfort us so that we can comfort others.

Why is it the question was asked in the sermon that day, why is it we go through such long trials, such painful trials? Well, let's have a bigness of mind here. There's going to come a day when you're resurrected, I'm resurrected. And there's plenty of people out beyond those doors who have gone through years and years of years of privation and hardship and torture and all sorts of things. And God's going to ask you to go work with them. And as you as a spirit being work with them, first of all, they're going to understand you're different, you're a spirit being, but you're not going to just talk platitude.

You're going to discuss what it was like for you when you were going through the fires and the trials of life. And you'll comfort those people with your own personal stories. People who went through years of privation and hardship, those of you who are going through the same thing will be able to help those who have gone through that same thing. So here we see in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, why we go through what we go through to some degree.

Okay, let's finish up the story. I'll take you just a couple of minutes over time today. Let's go over to 1 Kings 19 again. One more thing I want to take a look at. 1 Kings 19 verse 9. And then he went into a cave, Elijah went into a cave, and spent the night in that place.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying to him, What are you doing here, Elijah? There's work for you to do. What are you doing here in the cave? I don't know about you, brethren. I know there have been times in my life, as I've held my pity parties. Pity parties are a depressing thing. There's normally only one person that comes to your pity party. That's you. So you're sitting there having your own little, you know, got your little hat on and whatever. And I've had to say to myself at times, Randy, what in the world gives here?

Why am I sitting here being all so blue? I mean, in fact, God has given me life. He's given me a living in the United States of America. God's brought me into his church. He's given me a great spiritual family, as well as a physical family. What's wrong with me that I've got to be blue right now? Verse 10, so he said, I've been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, killed your prophets with a sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.

That's his perspective. His perspective is a faulty one. We can have our perspectives, and our perspectives can be faulty ones. They've got to be illuminated by God. Verse 11, they said, Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, and behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks and pieces before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. Now there's times God can do that, but in this particular case, God was making a point.

Yes, I can be boisterous and powerful and earthshaking if I want to, but I don't have to. And after the wind and earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Same thing. After the earthquake of fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a still, small voice. Notice the Bible doesn't say he wasn't in the still, small voice. So again, as we've seen on a number of occasions here, whether it be Elijah being fed by the quail, whether it be the widow lady helping him, whether it be resurrecting a little boy, the victory there at Mount Carmel, God has a way of doing things the way God wants to do things.

So this coming year, let's stand aside, as Moses would say, let's stand aside and see the great salvation that God is going to bring into our lives through whatever the challenges we face.

Verse 13, so it was when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance to the cave. Suddenly a voice came and said, what are you doing here, Elijah? And in verse 14 he says the same thing all over again, you know, boo-hoo. Verse 15, and then the Lord said to him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness to Damascus, and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king of Assyria. So here's a physical matter. When we're feeling blue, when we're feeling down, let's get up off of whatever we're sitting on and do something. It's therapeutic. So God gives him here a threefold mission. He's going to anoint the king over Syria. Verse 16, that's one. In verse 16, you shall anoint Jehu, the son of Nimschias, king over Israel. Here's a second thing. In Elisha, the son of Zaphith of Abel Melola, you shall anoint his prophet in your place. So God here gives him three things to do, and Elisha is going to help him with the last two things.

Later on, God explains to him that you're not the only one who's left. There's thousands who have not bowed to need of Baal, and so on and so forth. Brethren, as I wrap this up, the story that we've looked at today, the story of Elijah, is one where we understand our need to depend upon God for all things at all times. You've got the example of the ravens feeding him. What does that teach us? It teaches our need to depend upon God to prepare us. Whatever you're going through right now, God has something in mind. He's preparing you for something. Preparing me for something. The second lesson, God's provision will never fail those who trust in Him. We depend upon God to provide for us, not only depending upon God to prepare us, but to provide for us. The third lesson expects us to do faithfully our part, then he'll faithfully do his part. We need to depend upon God to have the strength, to have the frame of mind spiritually to do our part and to know what our part is. We depend upon God to help us to understand that. And lastly, about comforting, we depend upon God to comfort us in the challenging times. No one says life's going to be easy. You know that. You're living it. Some of you are going through tremendous situations right now. Some socially, some physically, some economically. Any spiritually, I'm sure. Any number of things. But God will be there for us to comfort us. And as you feel discouraged at times or in despair at times, just like this man did, let's allow God to work through that and to comfort us.