Elijah had a great victory against the false prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.
• He challenged the 450 prophets to call on their god to bring down fire and burn up the sacrifice. They failed, after a whole day of shouting.
• At the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah repaired the altar of the Lord, prepared the sacrifice, soaked it with water and said a prayer.
• The fire of the Lord fell upon it and burned up the entire sacrifice, drying up even the trenches.
• The people saw this and cried out, “The Lord–He is God! The Lord–He is God!” (18:39)
• Elijah slaughtered all the false prophets in the Kishon Valley.
Elijah went up to Mount Carmel a second time. God would bring back the rain.
• Bending down to the ground, he waited in faith, and the rain finally fell, after 3½ years.
• King Ahab hurried back to Jezreel and informed his wife Jezebel everything that has happened.
• The victory on Mount Carmel and the return of the rain were awesome displays of God’s sovereignty and power.
Elijah ran after Ahab to Jezreel too. So empowered by God’s strength, he beat King Ahab to the place.
• He was in Jezreel to hear some good news. Elijah anticipated a turn-around for the leaders of his land.
• Surely when King Ahab tells Jezebel everything that has happened, they would be moved to acknowledge the Lord as God.
• But NOPE, nothing of this sort happened. Instead, Elijah got a message from Jezebel: “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” (19:2)
• Jezebel wanted to kill him in 24 hours!
Elijah came to Jezreel with great anticipation and now he has to flee with fear.
• IT WAS A GREAT SETBACK. Elijah wasn’t expecting this. He was devastated.
• After 3½ years of struggling through the drought and a bold challenge against 450 false prophets, the leaders were not repentant.
• Jezebel wasn’t moved by the fire nor the rain, but by the death of her prophets.
• You see, signs and wonders don’t change a person’s heart. Only God can, IF we allow Him. God shines the light, but people has to be willing to receive it.
Elijah was forced to flee. He ran from Jezreel, as far away as he could, to Beersheba the farthest town in the South.
• He was afraid (19:3), gripped by fear. It’s doomsday. This was the hopeless end to all that he has done.
• “No pat on the back for all my hard work and now they are coming after my life.”
• “Fear is the dark room where negatives are developed.” The negatives are heightened.
ARE YOU DISCOURAGED? We would be, if that’s all we are seeing - the great setback.
DON’T LOOK AT THE BIG SETBACK, SEE THE BIG PICTURE (WILL OF GOD)
We need to SEE THE BIG PICTURE. In other words, see the GOD’S PICTURE.
• God is still at work in Israel and in Elijah’s life and ministry. Nothing has been derailed, from God’s perspective.
Disappointment and discouragement can lead us to despair, if we cannot lift our eyes above the circumstances and ourselves.
• The sense of FAILURE plus FEAR plus FATIGUE (running from Jezreel to Beersheba) equals total DESPAIR.
• Elijah prayed that he might die (19:4). “I have had enough, Lord,” he said.
In these two chapters (18 and 19), we’ve seen Elijah viewing himself as the only true prophet left.
• 18:22 while on Mount Carmel, he said, “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left…”
• 19:10 when he was in the cave at Mount Horeb, he tells the Lord: “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
• 19:14 when the Lord asked a second time, he repeated the same words: “I am the only one left.”
Strictly speaking, this was not the true picture. He wasn’t the only prophet left.
• In his earlier conversation with Obadiah (official in Ahab’s palace), Obadiah told him he had saved 100 prophets and kept them in two caves (18:13).
• The author put it clearly to us - 18:3b-4 “(Obadiah was a devout believer in the LORD. 4While Jezebel was killing off the LORD's prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water.)
Wasn’t this great? We have a devout believer within the palace of King Ahab. We can imagine the difficult circumstance he was put in.
• He held on to his faith, and not only that, he managed to save 100 prophets of God and kept them in caves, and supplied them with food and water, and in a famine!
• To save them is already a great feat. To supply them with food and water, is a step higher. And to achieve this in a famine, while working in the palace, that’s remarkable! It’s a great risk and sacrifice.
• And for how long? We don’t even know. Are we encouraged by this?
Yet Elijah was filled with self-pity. Two times he told the Lord that he was all alone, the only one left.
• God has to set it straight. 19:18 “Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel-all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.”
DON’T LOOK AT THE BIG SELF, SEE THE WORKS OF GOD
Look at the works of God. He has been with Elijah at the brook, in the widow’s house, on the mountaintop and now in the desert place.
• He provided for him at every juncture and even now in the desert place. Don’t worry, God is capable of providing for you.
• 19:6 - the angel of the Lord prepared him “a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.”
• 19:7-8 “The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you." 8So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he travelled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.”
Clearly Elijah needed rest and food. When we are drained physically, we need to sleep and eat. We can serve God well because we take good care of our bodies.
From the desert place near Beersheba, Elijah fled to Mount Horeb (Sinai).
• Look at the map, Elijah was still running South fleeing away from Jezreel, all the way now to Mount Horeb (Sinai).
• Was he directed by the Lord? No. He was fleeing. Running away as far as he could.
• Just like Jonah, running in the opposite direction from Nineveh (E) to Tarshish (extreme West, Spain) right across the Mediterranean Sea.
Finally the Lord asked him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (19:9 and 13)
• All along we have God directing Elijah - to the brook at Kerith Ravine, and then to the widow’s house at Zarephath, and to Jezreel to talk to King Ahab.
• But “What are you doing here, Elijah?” This was not a place God directed him to. It was a place he fled to.
• His answer was: “I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” (19:10, 14) “I am running for my life.”
The Lord asked him to go out and stand on the mountain to see His passing by.
• A great and powerful wind came, and then an earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord wasn’t in any of these.
• The Lord came finally and made His presence through a gentle whisper and Elijah heard Him. God came in a very quiet way, without any sign and wonder.
DON’T LOOK AT THE BIG THINGS, LISTEN TO THE WORD OF GOD
God can make His presence felt without signs and wonders.
• He accomplishes His will, not necessarily through spectacular ways like having ravens drop food, jars of flour and oil not running dry, or fire coming down from heaven on mountaintop.
• God can speak and accomplish His purposes through His spoken Word.
19:15 “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus.” (Look at map)
• God set Elijah back on track and redirected him back into ministry.
• He has work for him to do. There are unfinished tasks. Elijah was to anoint Hazael King over Aram (Syria), Jehu King over Israel and Elisha his successor as prophet.
• God’s plan is still unfolding and Elijah still has a role to play in it.
It might not LOOK that way but we have to trust the Word of God.
• He does not always operate in the realm of the spectacular. He works in quiet and unseen ways.
• In fact, the miraculous and spectacular are the exception in the Bible.
• God does not need signs and wonders to prove His presence. His Word is enough.
God speaks through His inspired Word today, very often in a gentle whisper or a quiet prompting.
Remember the story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:27-31.
• The rich man asked Abraham to send Lazarus back to his father’s house to warn his brothers.
• Luke 16:27-31 “Then I beg you, father [Abraham], send Lazarus to my father's house, 28for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' 29"Abraham replied, `They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' 30"`No, father Abraham,' he said, `but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' 31"He said to him, `If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"
Listen well. God is speaking through His inspired Word.
Don’t look at the big setback, know the will of God
Don’t look at the big self, see the works of God
Don’t look at the big things, hear the Word of God
