1 KINGS
Elijah and Ahab
1 Kings 16:29-17:24
INTRODUCTION
When we come to this passage, we are coming to the greatest crisis which faced the northern kingdom of Israel. Whereas it had been pretty black for the 10 northern tribes after Jeroboam introduced idolatry into their worship, Israel sunk to the bottom with the reign of Ahab. The darker it gets though, the more brilliant the light shines forth. Lightning may be pretty remarkable whenever it strikes during the day; however, it is spectacular whenever it streaks across the midnight sky. That is what happens here. With the ministry of Elijah, the lightning pierces the darkness.
This is the critical moment for Israel. The word "crisis" has as its root the idea of "decision." This is the time of decision for Israel. She has flirted with idolatry for the past 70+ years; now God says it is time for her decide. Her decision will determine her fate. She will either renounce idolatry once and for all and enjoy God's blessing, or else she will continue to vacillate between worship of God and worship of Baal and be totally destroyed as a nation.
This applies not just to the nation of Israel but to each individual, family, and nation. There will come a moment in the life of this nation in which she will have to decide whether to follow the Lord's leadeship or not. When we go to the voting booth, we as a democracy are making that decision. In our own individual lives God brings us to the point to whether or not we are going to be serious about Him. Those moments cannot be recaptured. The way we respond to God during those times to a large measure determines our destiny as a nation and as individuals.
INTRODUCTORY SUMMARY OF AHAB'S REIGN (16:29-34)
1 Kings informs us right off the bat that Ahab's reign is a disaster. To drive home the point that Ahab was evil, this passage twice informs us that he was worse than any of the Israelite kings who had preceded him (16:30, 33). He was so wicked that his sins made the sins of Jeroboam look trivial by comparison.
His primary sin was in allowing his wife Jezebel to impact the religion of Israel. Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal the king of Sidon. According to Josephus, Ethbaal had originally been the priest of Astarte in Sidon; however, he rose up in rebellion against the king of Sidon, murdered him, and became king in his place. This man was so powerful that not only did his daughter Jezebel become queen over Israel but also his granddaughter Dido became the founder of the city of Carthage which proved to be Rome's major nemesis for over a hundred years.
Jezebel introduced the worship of Baal into Israel. Baal (later identified as Hercules in Greek mythology) was worshiped as the Lord of the heavens, while his consort Asherah was worshiped as the goddess of the earth. These 2 served as the major deities of the Canaanite fertility religion. The land of Palestine has always been just a few inches of rainfall away from being a desert. Rain literally became god. In order to entice Baal to rain down upon the earth Asherah, the male worshipers of Baal would have sexual relations with female priestesses, while female worshipers would have sexual relations with male "priests," prostitutes. The coming together of the worshipers and priests/priestesses was supposed to entice Baal and Asherah to come together, that is, to have Baal rain down upon Asherah. Because Ahab allowed Jezebel to introduce worship of Baal into Israel, he is noted as the worst of Israel's kings up to this point.
Another example of Ahab's flagrant disregard for God and His word is seen in the building of Jericho. Jericho lay at the southeastern end of the nation of Israel. Since the time of Joshua Jericho had been left vacant. In fact Joshua under God's guidance had cursed the city (Josh. 6:26). He had declared that the man who rebuilt the city would suffer God's wrath--his firstborn son would die upon the laying of its foundations and his youngest son would die upon its completion (the hanging of the gates). Ahab totally disregards God's Word and allows Hiel from Bethel to rebuild the city. (This reconstruction could have only been carried out with the blessing of Ahab.) God's curse falls upon Hiel.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF JUDGMENT (17:1-7)
Without any announcement or prior warning, Elijah who came from the city of Tishbe in the region of Gilead (today's western Jordan) marches rignt into the capital of Israel, Samaria, and lowers the boom on Ahab. Because of Ahab's sin the rain will cease to fall until Elijah gives the word. Having pronounced that word, Elijah immediately departs. No room for discussion or negotiation. Judgment has been called down upon Israel.
Although Elijah is speaking God's word to Ahab, we see in James 5:17-18 that more is involved. According to James it was because Elijah prayed that God refused to send rain upon Israel. In other words, because of Israel's sin Elijah believed that the only appropriate response of God should be judgment in the form of a drought. The implication is that God would not have sent the drought unless Elijah had prayed for it. This is not the prayer of a bitter old man who wants to see others suffer; it is the prayer of a man zealous for the righteousness of God and for the salvation of his people. This is the prayer of a man who wants to take back his nation for God. (James stresses the fact that we too can have this same kind of prayer life.)
Upon delivering his message of judgment, Elijah is forced to flee the city of Samaria and the inhabited parts of Israel and Judah first in order to escape persecution by Ahab who might force him to recant and second in order to escape the pleadings of the Israelites whenever the drought caused them to suffer terribly.
Elijah flees to the brook Cherith, a wadi which emptied into the Jordan River. (A wadi is a type of ravine which floods during the rainy season but which is dry during the rest of the year. The location of this wadi is unknown.) Elijah is completely isolated from people while at this brook. In order to supply him with food, God sends to him ravens who carry with them meat and bread every morning and every evening. (Some doubt that this miracle occurred since it seems so preposterous. C. S. Lewis though has shown that if the miracle of the resurrection is true--the greatest of all miracles, then there is no reason why all the other lesser miracles in the Bible aren't true.) This provision continues until the brook dries up because of the drought which has hit the land.
ELIJAH'S SOJOURN WITH THE WIDOW OF ZAREPHATH (17:8-24)
Upon leaving the brook Cherith, Elijah heads north to the village of Zarephath which lay on the Mediterranean coast between Tyre to the south and Sidon to the north. The ironic thing is that it was governed by none other than Ethbaal the king of the Sidonians, the father of Jezebel. Ahab and Jezebel are searching high and low for Elijah and cannot find him, while all along he is right under their noses in the territory of her father. Upon entering Zarephath, Elijah is told by God that He has arranged it for a widow to care for him. Although apparently the widow does not know it yet, God in His providence has already made the necessary arrangements.
When he sees the widow, Elijah asks her for some water. Then he says: "Oh, by the way, would you make me a little cake to go along with the water?" The woman replies that all she has left is a little bit of flour and oil, that she is going to make some little cakes out of them, then along with her son eat them and die. Elijah tells her though that if she gives the little cakes to him, God's prophet, the oil and flour will not run out.
Now picture this if you can. All you've got left is that oil and flour, and an unknown traveling preacher comes up and asks you for all you've got with the promise that if you do so, you won't run out of provisions. Yeah, right. You and I wouldn't buy that for a minute. We would figure that he would take advantage of us and then leave to prey upon some other poor little widow. Yet this woman's faith is so great that she actually does what Elijah asks.
What is ironic about the whole situation is the woman's words are literally true. If she had taken that oil and flour, and had made cakes for only her and her son, they both would have died. It was only when she gave what she had away to the Lord that she was able to live. The same applies to us. Each of us has things in our lives which are so dear and precious to us; by the way we act and live, we believe that we will just "die" if we don't have these things or if they are taken away from us: our careers, families, children, friends, reputation, control, possessions, fame, etc. While all along the opposite is true; these are the very things that will kill us if we don't let go of them and give them to God. A loving Father who wants only the best for us wants us to give Him the very things that will kill us if we don't give them to Him. We give Him our relationships, and He gives us relationships which truly give us life. Our money no longer controls us; instead we have freedom with regards to our money and enjoy it the way God intended for us to enjoy it. Our homes don't possess us; instead they become the places where God blesses our families and enhances our relationships with other Christians.
What prompted her to do as Elijah requested? Suppose Elijah had lied; it would have really been no big deal since she was going to die any way. That oil and flour were all she had left. Eating the little cakes would have prolonged her and her son's lives for only a few days longer; then death would have certainly followed. Eating the cakes meant certain death, while giving the cakes to the prophet might mean life. Whatever reasoning was going on in her mind, the woman yields and gives the little cakes to Elijah. As a result, the oil and flour do not run out during the entire length of the famine.
Once more we're looking at a miracle which appears on the surface a little far-fetched--oil and flour being miraculously produced in their containers so that they don't run out! We of all people should be the least surprised by miracles. Christianity should be regarded as nothing less than miraculous. If your life is not a miracle, then it probably is not the result of Christ living in you and me. Many of us feel so disgusted with the feelings that we have. Having those feelings though does not make us wicked people. They are simply the results of being human. What is miraculous is that we don't give into those feelings, those desires which would truly debase us if we did. The lives of love which Christ produces through us are miracles because they overcome the ungodly urges and desires we naturally experience.
Unfortunately, many Christians limit God's miracles to the production of the Christian life (if they even allow for this). Every now and then you will hear sincere Christians claim that the age of miracles is over, that God did miracles only during 3 major times in history: the exodus from Egypt, the ministries of Elijah and Elisha, and the ministries of Jesus and His apostles. Apart from these 3 times God did not and does not do miracles. To make that declaration utterly denies the claims thousands of Christians have made throughout the centuries about the miraculous in their own lives. Corrie Ten Boom in The Hiding Place claimed that she and her sister Betsy experienced a miracle similar to the one just recorded in 1 Kings. While in the German concentration camp, Betsy, Corrie's sister, desperately needed certain medicine to survive. When they were imprisoned, all the medicine Betsy had was in a purple colored bottle. Each day Betsy took the medicine, she felt it would be the last. Miraculously the medicine continued coming out of the bottle as long as Betsy lived in the concentration camp. Maybe Corrie Ten Boom was a liar; however, her character militates against such a charge.
As great a miracle as that was, the one which came later was even greater. While they were in the concentration camp, one of the female guards was especially vicious towards Corrie and Betsy. Whereas Corrie did not like the way the guard treated her, she was especially bitter over the way she treated poor Betsy. Hate swelled up within Corrie whenever she saw the guard. She blamed the guard to a large degree for Betsy's dying in the concentration camp. After the war when Corrie was in church, still feeling bitter over Betsy's treatment in the concentration camp and subsequent death, she saw the prison guard in the very same church she was in. When she saw the guard who was weeping bitterly over her past, Corrie was filled with rage; however, God spoke to her, commanding her to forgive the prison guard. Only by God's strength was Corrie able to forgive the woman and develop a healing relationship. As a result, in place of bitterness and hatred, Corrie felt love for the prison guard, and even developed a relationship with her. Now that is a miracle.
After some time passed, the widow's son became sick and died. She immediately reproaches Elijah. Apparently she had committed some sin in the past and believed that Elijah's coming had been nothing less than the footsteps of doom, bringing her own sin back upon herself. Her response is quite common but mistaken. Because we are human, many of us have sinned in the past. We asked for God's forgiveness, and God responded by blessing us, giving us wonderful families, careers, etc. The moment though something goes wrong, we feel that God is punishing us. If that is true, then God has been playing a joke upon us by leading us to think that things are good between us and Him, and then pulling the carpet out from beneath our feet.
The condemnation and guilt we feel many times is not from God at all. Instead it is like the episode in C. S. Lewis' Perelandra in which this scientist is going mad because of this demonic lizard resting on his shoulder. The lizard continues to whisper condemnations into his ear, telling him how wicked and evil he is. The amazing thing about the lizard is that it has learned how to speak just like the man himself, using his tone of voice, inflections, etc. The man was not condemning himself; Satan was. How do I know if it is God or Satan condemning me when I am a Christian? God specifically convicts regarding specific sins in our lives, whereas Satan tries to beat us down telling us that we are no good. God's convictions are like arrows which hit a single specific target, while Satan uses the shotgun approach, blasting away at the entire person.
Elijah after hearing the woman's reproach, prays to the Lord. Notice the boldness in his prayer: "O Lord my God, hast Thou also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die? . . . I pray Thee, let this child's life return to him." He is not grovelling before the Lord; he is approaching God with boldness and confidence Job's prayers are other examples of God's people praying boldly. He doesn't whine and snivel before God; he contends with God! Hebrews tells us: "Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:16). What gives us the right to approach God this way? The fact that we are His sons. Only a mean-spirited, little person of a father would want his children to approach him snivelling. Well, God is the best Father of all, and if we want our children to walk confidently with us (not arrogantly but confidently), how much more does God desire that?
Look at Elijah. Look at the brash nature of his prayers. He prays that the heavens be shut up; he prays that the dead will rise again. How dare he? He dares because his God is a great God, a brash God who does brash things. We have so reduced God to being the God of doing nothing more than finding our car keys. Well, if God finds our car keys for us (which is so insignificant), how much more will He give us the greater things, the things that really concern Him. Let's pray and claim Corsicana for Christ. Let's take back our state, our nation, our world. Heck, let's even take back our families--whether you are a parent, a grandparent, sibling, etc. The only things that will prevent this are our lack of faith and our laziness.
Elijah then takes the lad to an upstairs room (most likely the open roof), and lies upon him three times to demonstrate the coming down of God's Spirit upon the lad. The lad is restored to life, leading the mother to confess faith in God.
Jesus uses the story of this woman to rebuke the people of God in His day, the Jews. The Jews for 1400 years consistently rejected God, while a non-Jewish woman from Zarephath accepted Him. There are other non-Jewish people in our midst who will accept Him. They may not now make up FBC Corsicana and the other traditional churches in Corsicana, however, some , for example, the Hispanics, may be these very women in our own midst right now.