Chapter 8
“Lord, kill me”
*I’m sure that you’ve all heard of the prophet Elijah. To most of us, he is a man of wonder and amazement. We look at how the Lord used him and are staggered. This man has no history. We have no clues or insights to his past. He suddenly appears. I love that word suddenly. It is a fragrant word that boggles the imaginations. How could it be that one man would suddenly appear, seemingly, out of nowhere? Not only that, but he would challenge the entire system of religion, destroy the nations pride, bring repentance back to the land, and slay the false prophets of Baal.
*From the inception of this man in Scripture to the finality of seeing him carried away in chariots of flame, the inner-child within us is brought forward. Every scene is packed with intensity. Even the times where nothing is happening in the life of Elijah he lives in such an intensity and extremity of life that we can only play with the stories imaginatively. What must it be like to live as Elijah?
*As most great stories in Scripture, the story of Elijah is a prophetic statement of how the end will be. To set the stage, we must understand the spiritual climate. Israel had one of the worst kings of all her years, Ahab. Next to Ahab, we had his pagan wife Jezebel. Together they tore down the alters of God and promoted the alters of Baal and Asherah. Asherah was the goddess of fertility, and was likened unto a pole in the shape of an erect penis. Baal was the god of prosperity, and was likened unto a bull with a fire in his stomach.
*The moral atmosphere was one of, “Whatever feels good, do.” The nation had fallen into a place of such wickedness that there really seemed to be no hope. What is worse is that these were God’s people. It wasn’t the other nations that didn’t know any better. The very people of God were the ones who gave themselves over to Baal and Asherah. Though a wicked king and his pagan wife led them, these were the people of God. We can liken this unto a congregation and his pastor. They are the people of God, no matter who they are “under.” It says in Ezekiel that the Israelites did worse than the other nations, so as to cause for even them to turn up their noses and scoff.
*It does something to my heart to read the story of Elijah. Because of this black backdrop I have hope for our generation. The last great king of Israel was Josiah. The very next generation after him was the generation of Daniel. Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego were princes. How is it that the rest of the princes and nobles of Israel were eating and drinking and indulging in the things of Babylon as if the defiled meat is what God was providing? Why were there only these four men to break from the crowd? Why could no one else intuit that God had judged the people, and He still expected them to obey the Law? How do we ensure ourselves to be like these 4 men, since we live in a time similar to that of Daniel?
*We are called, as a Church, to be an Elijah people on the earth. Elijah must come first to restore all things. Jesus told us in Matthew 17 that he already had come, and he must come again. Elijah was separate from the rest of Israel, whether clean or unclean. In the same way, the Elijah people must also be separate.
*Whether the majority of the Church is in the institutions or not, whether they are clean or not, those who are called to be an Elijah people will separate themselves from the crowd. They will be called out into the wilderness places, like Elijah and John the Baptist were called to the wilderness places. They will stand and be a voice that opposes the system that has been faulty and corrupt, but they will display the power of God unto salvation for all who turn aside and hear their message.
Elijah’s Word
*“Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain this the next few years except at my word.’ Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah,” 1 Kings 17:1-2.
*The words that Elijah speaks are quick and powerful. Even from the first part, he makes a monumental statement. As the Lord, the God of Israel… Who? The God of Israel… This isn’t a false God from foreign lands. This isn’t something made from wood, stone, or metal. This is the God who was with Abraham, and spoke to Abraham. This is the God that created all things and walked with Adam. The Israelites had gotten to the point that they didn’t even believe that God spoke. They didn’t think that He had His own will or mind or opinion or anything of the sort. They were so accustomed to the gods made with human hands that they couldn’t even recognize the difference between dumb idols and God.
*The proof of this is in the next word: lives. As the Lord, the God of Israel lives… Who now, even today, believes in a living God? Who really believes that He has spoken and means what He spoke? The proof of an Elijah is not even that he speaks powerful things, but that he shows the people of God that God lives. This is what it means to restore all things. The people need to come back to an understanding of the God who lives.
*Because He lives, He continues to speak. His words are not some sort of cheap and glib statement, either. The living God, who knows all things, sees all things, and hears all things, weighs the hearts of men, and speaks to the root of the issues is going to make statements that are barely more than clichés? Most of our prophets and so-called apostles seem to employ these terms and can’t even speak something of a depth and magnitude to show that the root of pride is unbelief. They think pride is pride. Any form of pride is a manifestation of unbelief. This is why the false prophets ask, “Who has seen us, and to whom shall we have to report?” They don’t truly believe, and thus they are immorally prideful and wicked.
*He is alive and well, and absolutely sovereign. When catastrophes take place, God is to be found in them. When genocide and wars and bombings and shootings and beatings occur, lift your head to the skies; God is there. He is within even these most grotesque things. We would like to believe that God was not part of the Holocaust and that it was all because of evil men that 6 million Jews died, but you find in the very Scriptures that God tells them He will take them through such things for disobedience.
*Psalm 102 speaks of a man who’s “days vanish like smoke,” and who’s “bones burn like glowing embers.” He suffers because “all day long my enemies taunt me; those who rail against me use my name as a curse. I eat ashes as my food and mingle my drink with tears because of God’s great wrath, for He has taken me up and thrown me aside.” These are words that sound like some one wrote them while in Auschwitz or Dachau…
*Until we are a people who can truly see and understand the sovereignty of God, and yet still say, “God is love,” we will never be the Elijah people, and therefore will never see the consummation of the age. Elijah knew and understood full well the judgments of God. It was only with this understanding that he could pray for the rain to stop, which would essentially bankrupt the nations.
*“… God of Israel lives, whom I serve.” This is a statement that has depth beyond what we initially think. What kind of service to God must Elijah have if he had the authority to turn off the heavens? There is something massive hidden within this service to God. Elijah knew what it meant to have no will of his own. The words of Paul rang true for this prophet, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me.”
*Any true prophet of God must be brought to this kind of a place. The amazing thing about prophets and apostles is not what they say or do. What makes a prophet or an apostle so distinct is who they are. Whether some one is called to be a prophet or an apostle, either way, that person is called to represent the Lord Jesus Christ as He is to all men and women. There is no “stock-market” Christianity where sometimes you’re having a “good day” and other times you’re off your game. It isn’t a roller coaster ride. There is complete submission to God, and therefore there is complete obedience to Christ.
*Their character and lives match God in every way. Their lives are open before the world. They are completely transparent. That is what makes them such powerful men. When the world, or Church, sees one of these giants of the faith, they will shake because of the utterances of their walk.
*What is also key to note is that there are flaws. If someone wants to find a flaw in the man, they will find it. They don’t have to go searching through files of old lifestyles, but there will be obvious flaws in the man or woman who is called to be a prophet or apostle. Why would God allow this? It is in this allowance that God Himself extends mercy and free will. If the people want to find fault, they will. They found it in Jesus; they will find it in you.
*“There shall be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.” The thing about this prophecy that baffles me is that Elijah put himself under the same “curse” every one else underwent. How many Christians (or so-called prophets, apostles, men of the hour, and spiritual hotshots) do you know that would humbly, and gladly, undergo condemnation with those being judged? This is the nature of God being manifest. This isn’t a romantic kind of dedication to his people, nor is it Elijah humbly submitting to the will of God. Though Elijah did humbly submit to God’s will, it was Elijah’s choice to undergo the same chastisement. He gladly took up the cup of judgment and suffered with his people.
*By speaking this to the king, he had to suffer whatever outcome would follow. This very possibly would mean death. Even if he lived, he still would most likely suffer death because of the famine. No matter what happened, Elijah was sure to suffer. The only way that this man could have kept going was if God Himself would sustain him. Do you have that kind of an intensity of life? Are you willing for that kind of intensity?
The Brook and the Raven
*Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.” So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
*What goes unnoticed to most Christians is that God tells Elijah to break the Law. Elijah will be fed by ravens, which are unclean. For Elijah to eat what God provides will be to eat something unclean. At least, that is what it seems like to human interpretation of Scripture. Many times when God commands His people, He tells them to do something that is against what is normally taught. My question is whether or not most people who will be called will be willing to obey God when it seems like it is breaking His law.
*If God tells Elijah to go to the brook and be fed by ravens, and Elijah does this, it is a sign (to the religious world) that he is not hearing the word of the God of Israel. Why? Their traditions and their ideologies of what Scripture teaches would forbid a man to eat such food. In our world, this could be God telling us to leave the buildings. Why would God tell you to do that? It is written, “Do not forsake fellowship.”
*The verse actually goes, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching,” Hebrews 10:25. What the writer of Hebrews is trying to tell us is to not abandon one another. We should not go into hiding. Understand that there was persecution that had broken out, and so some of the brethren wanted to stop meeting with each other in fear of being killed. It had nothing to do with not going to church on Sunday morning.
*Yet, my question is still persistent: would you obey the voice of God, even if it seems to be contrary to what you have been taught? What if God told you to stop giving your tithes at your congregation? What if God told you to leave your denomination? What if God told you that you are to move to such and such a place? What if you were hoping to leave for the sake of ministry, but God said stay? What if God tells you not to preach or witnesss to people? These are things that don’t seem too large until the moment is there.
*The point of my continual asking this question is because this is something so critical in the life of Elijah. If we are to be the end time people of God, we must understand this. Elijah was fed by ravens. This was forbidden. It would be a suffering to endure eating this bread and meat. We don’t necessarily need to be isolated from all of society, but even within the crowd we must be men and women who eat from the ravens.
*Another thing that I would like to point out is that Elijah was isolated from society. He had no human contact whatsoever. For 3 years he ate from the ravens, drank from the brook, and fellowshipped with God. There was no one to talk to except God Himself. This speaks to my heart about a people who are strangers in the land. Who can you go to with these things? Who do you know that would accept you pouring your heart out? Who do you know of who also shares a burden that not all is well? This man was isolated. There are many people of God who are isolated, even when sitting next to someone in a pew or Bible study.
*Who is the one who can speak to them? Who is the one who they can talk to? Who understands their need? Who sees that they are broken, and there is no help offered in the buildings? Who can offer more than a program? God. He alone is the one whom this people speak to. There isn’t another who could possibly mend the soul and give bread and meat to eat with water to drink. There is nowhere else that you receive spiritual food and drink.
The Woman at Zarephath
*1 Kings 17:7-11: Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.” So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”
*What is so important about Zarephath? Jezebel was born there. This was a Gentile city. It was completely contradictory to what an Israelite would do. Once again, God tells Elijah to do something that is against the Law. “It is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him,” Acts 28. God just keeps raising the bar. He keeps pushing the limit. He keeps going against the grain. Why? Whether Elijah knew it or not, God had a plan that He would have a showdown with Baal on Mount Carmel.
*God wanted to refine Elijah more and more, whittling away every bit of false security in the “doctrines of the faith.” If God were to use Elijah, He needs an instrument that is not tainted by the religious system. There are too many people who are searching for something more than the religious system offers, but won’t let go of the unclean thing. They find their hope in the buildings.
*The question that most often pervades is, “Where else can we go?” This is a denial of the sovereignty of God. It is not trusting in the Lord, but instead trusting in what we see. Because we don’t see any “ministry” that offers an alternative, we won’t leave the buildings. I have said it before that I am not against going to church on Sunday morning. Yet, what part of Sunday morning is Church? Where are you getting challenged? Where are you meeting with God with other believers?
*What most often happens is that because there is nothing else immediately offered, the children of God settle. Instead of suffering, they would rather stay where they are. But if there is a famine in the land, why would you not strive with all of your might to find the better? “If we say, 'We'll go into the city'--the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let's go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die," 2 Kings 7:4.
*Let us be like those 4 lepers. When there was a famine and they weren’t getting fed, they went from where they were at to find food. They even went to the enemy’s camp. How does this translate for us? If you aren’t getting fed, and you join small group after small group and aren’t being cared for, then leave. Find your Church. Go to the brothers and sisters that you know are also hungry, and start something new. This doesn’t have to replace Sunday morning. If you feel that Sunday morning is a benefit, then by all means, stay. Yet, don’t settle. There is better.
*These 4 lepers went to the enemy’s camp to find food. I see this as a direct reflection of Elijah being told to go to Zarephath. This was Jezebel’s hometown. We don’t have to surrender to Satan to go to the “enemy’s camp.” That isn’t what is being expressed. In the eyes of the religious society, merely going to Zarephath is going to Satan. Breaking the Law is going against God. But, they don’t understand the Law. They look at it through human eyes to gain human wisdom and insight.
*1 Kings 17:12 says, “As surely as the Lord your God lives, she replied, I don’t have any bread – only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it – and die.” Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land.”
*Elijah had the word of the Lord, but He also knew that God wouldn’t lead him astray. If God said the widow would provide for him, then she will provide. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind, even with the worst of news. How many times do we get a bill in the mail, and forget so easily the words of our Savior, “Are you not more precious than a sparrow?”
*What must this have sounded like to a non-Jew? I wonder what kind of foreign language this must have been. He is so sure. He is so unwavering. I’m sure there was even a glint in Elijah’s eye when he spoke of how the Lord will provide. He was peering beyond the situation. It is nothing for the Lord to provide. It is nothing for Him to keep the flour and the oil coming.
*What Elijah knew as doctrine was expressed in his life. So many times, even though we “know” that God provides, we’re too fearful of what might happen. Since it is out of our control, we are fearful and anxious of what the future might hold. That needs to be purged out. It is unbelief.
*“She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. The jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.” I must wonder if the Lord had told Elijah that the flour and oil wasn’t going to run out, or if Elijah had that much confidence in God, and like Samuel, the Lord kept the word of Elijah.
*It is still a marvel that this woman was so responsive to the word of Elijah. What must she have seen in him that would cause her to believe in the God of Israel, instead of her own god? What was it about Elijah that brought new hope? I believe that even in the countenance (face) of Elijah, there were words that cannot be spoken. There was a reality there. There was such confidence in the God that he served that it went beyond any god that she might have followed. What does that say about us, then, who do not give that kind of a display to the world around us?
*1 Kings 17:17-24: Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”
*“Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”
*The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive.”
*Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”
*This episode of the boy dying speaks to me about a generation all over the world that has been slowly dying and loosing hope. I wonder how close to death it is. I believe that God is waiting for this generation to come to that ultimate point of no return where they are totally dead to the things of spirituality.
*It is in that moment that the man of God took the boy up to his own room. When I look at this demonstration of laying the boy out in his own bed, and stretching himself upon the boy three times, I see it as a sign of conflict and struggle, even in Elijah, that had to be fervently prayed out. In Elijah’s prayer, I wonder if he looked back to Genesis 2 and said, “You put breath within the nostrils of Adam. Put something within me that would breath life into this boy once more.” Then he laid himself upon the boy and breathed. When nothing happened he would turn back to God and desperately cry again for life to enter the child, “O Lord put something within me that would reach this lost and damned and dead generation! Give me the breath of your Spirit to breath upon this dead body that life might return to it.”
*It wasn’t until the third time that God answered. I’m not sure that the number three means anything. I think that the point is that Elijah would have continued praying even if it took 30 times. This was a prayer that Elijah couldn’t let go until answered. Much like Jacob wrestling with the angel, Elijah wouldn’t let up until God blessed him.
*The Lord heard the cry of Elijah. I wonder if there are many people who can say they have come to this place that Elijah had. God had placed a power within the very breath of Elijah to bring forth life with his words. The message of Elijah would emit life, even life from the dead. How many people have wept over the deadness of our country? How many people have wept over the deadness of our world? How many people have been brought to a place in God that to see our society is to see a land filled with idols, and it breaks them to the point that they must debate in the synagogues and churches? Any place where there is idolatry all over the city, it is a direct statement of the condition of the Church and of the Jewish people.
*It was from the raising of the dead that the woman, through tears, proclaimed, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.” He is a man of God… What does that mean? When you read the books of Kings and Chronicles, you find that it will say, “They were like their father David,” or, “They were not like their father David.” David wasn’t the immediate father of the dozens of kings. When it says that they were like David, it means that God held them up to exultation like that of David. To say they were like David is to say that their character and “goodness” was matched with David’s.
*When Jesus told the Jews of His day that they were not Abraham’s offspring, He told them that, “If you were Abraham’s offspring, you would act like Abraham.” For the woman to call Elijah a man of God is to in the deepest, most intimate and ultimate way, call him a man who is like God. More than being Jewish, and more than being Christian, are we a people like God? That is the standard. That is the requirement for the generation of the end. Even if we are not the end-time people, where will our children or grandchildren see the example of what it means to live a holy life before God?
*To the generations that might come after us, where will they be able to see a people who are like God? We can barely see it now. There are maybe a few men or a few women throughout the world, but there certainly are not a people. To whom do we send the next generation? What are we going to place in their hands? A religious system that creates two-fold sons of Hell? Clichés that give no life? Example after example of people who would rather watch television than read the Bible?
*We are not a people of God. We might be a people of our Gentile fathers, but we are not a people of God. We might even fit into the category of being like Judas, but we are not people of God. To have a people of God, you must be willing to suffer together. There needs to be iron that sharpens iron. Nothing else will suffice. If you can’t communicate, confess, console, hold each other accountable, chastise, encourage, edify, or rebuke each other, then you are not in the Church that Jesus Christ had established.
*The Church should be a people of God. It should cause even those of the world to proclaim, “I know now that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth.” Did you know we are to be the ground and pillar of truth? The world should not find hypocrisy or lies within us at all. When the world doesn’t even understand the term “truth,” how do you expect them to be able to understand that the words of the Lord, even from our own mouths, are truth?
*What constitutes for the people of this darkened age to proclaim “Now I know that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth”? There must be something. Even when Elijah had spoken about the flour and oil, the widow listened and obeyed. What has changed now that she wouldn’t just listen and obey, but believe?
*The very thing that constitutes the world to acknowledge our words as truth is the very thing that constitutes our preaching to be apostolic. This was the moment in which Elijah has stepped beyond the bound of proclamation and into the realm of the eternal, and the very words he spoke were event. His preaching was now something that dictated a moment in eternity that would reverberate to the end of the age and beyond. By the raising of this boy, Elijah had punctured even time and space itself to transcend into the realm of eternity and defeat the powers of the air over Zerephath. When we are a people that can do that, then our words will impart faith to the hearer, and the dark forces brooding over our cities will tremble.
Troubler of Israel
*1 Kings 18:1: After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah, “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.” What must this have meant? Elijah left Zarephath and presented himself to Ahab. We have the full story. To see this in the mind of Elijah would have been totally different. After 3 years of no rain, what was going to be said? What would God do next? Ahab’s response would certainly be to kill Elijah.
*When Elijah goes to seek after Ahab, he comes to Obadiah. Now, Obadiah is a representation of the people of God who are still within the religious system. Ahab is a full representation of the two fold sons of Hell that the system produces, but Obadiah is a pure and blameless man. It is worthy of noting that Elijah came to Obadiah instead of Ahab. God had orchestrated that Obadiah be the mediator between Ahab and Elijah. Why? There was about to be a full out war between Elijah and the system that Ahab represented. Obadiah was in the middle of it.
*Let me set the stage a little bit. Obadiah is the governor over the house of Ahab. Whether he ate at the table with Jezebel or not, he already has a bit of the filth from this religious system that is displayed by Baal. There wasn’t a way to guard him from it. I can’t say that God was telling Obadiah to leave the system, but it is quite evident that he had been within the walls of it. Because Obadiah was the man who hid 100 prophets of God in 2 separate caves, God is calling out to him now saying, “Flee from this.” This is God’s call of mercy to him. Will Obadiah be obedient to the Lord by bringing Ahab back to Elijah, or will he be too fearful of the consequences?
*I really see it as though Obadiah is a representation of those who want something “better,” or “more,” but aren’t willing to flee the religious system all together. They know that something is wrong, and they act in that understanding. Yet, they are not ready to give up their position. It is too much to ask of them to pick up, leave, and go to the land that God will show them. So, they are still within the walls of the infrastructure, but they desire the Church of God. It is a place where because they fear what might happen to them if they leave, they decide to continue to stay in comfort, because “at least we know that we’re safe here.”
*There are millions of Obadiahs in this land. They are seeking for something more, and so they create a new small group, or get together with friends who are also hungry for something more, or they join a different church or denomination, but all to no avail. Instead of completely leaving the institutions, they continue to embrace them while trying to find something else.
*In verse 16, we see Ahab meets up with Elijah, after his servant Obadiah informs him. When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” Isn’t it interesting at how when you follow the Lord, the religious society, represented by Ahab, always seems to scold you? No matter what you are doing, religion will always try and show you as a hooligan. It is much safer for the religious to believe that you are acting out of your own will and going against God than for them to accept that they