30 More Days... Day 16

1Kings 17:20 Then he cried out to the LORD and said, “O LORD my God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son?”
1Kings 17:21 And he stretched himself out on 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.”
1Kings 17:22 Then the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived.
1Kings 18:36  And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word.
1Kings 18:37 Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”
1Kings 18:38  Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.
1Kings 18:41  Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.”
1Kings 18:42 So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees,
1Kings 18:43 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.”
1Kings 18:44  Then it came to pass the seventh time, that he said, “There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea!” So he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.’ ”
James 5:17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
James 5:18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

Elijah. The man who prayed. He prayed and the heavens were shut up so that it didn’t rain for over 3 years. He prayed and fire fell from heaven and burned up the sacrifice, the altar, the water and the dust! He prayed again and it rained. He is remembered as a mighty prophet, a mighty man of God. He wasn’t always viewed that way though. When Ahab “greeted” him, he called him the “troubler of Israel”. James on the other hand calls him a man with a “nature like ours”. Some translations put it “just like us”.

Perhaps the biggest problems during Elijah’s time were a king named Ahab and queen named Jezebel. It was because of their wickedness and idolatry that God sent Elijah. He called on Elijah to pray and shut up the rain for a long time. Of all the events of Elijah’s ministry, perhaps, none is so well known, told and re-told as the face-off on Mt Carmel with the prophets of Baal. Challenge. Drama. Impossible odds. Fire from Heaven.

After 3 1/2 years of hiding out, Elijah comes back into the open. He must now go to Ahab, a king who has been searching for him high and low for all this time. Ahab has sent agents and emissaries all over looking for this “troubler”. He has made foreign governments take oaths that they are not hiding Elijah. Yet, we really don’t see any hesitation or fear as Elijah once again emerges out into the open. Nor, is there any hesitation as he challenges the (false) prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel. He openly mocks them. Fire from heaven isn’t enough. He soaks the sacrifice and the altar, the wood and ground around it. He doesn’t sound like a man just like us.

On the other hand Elijah has had a track record of listening to God and seeing Him work. God sent him, he went. God told him, Elijah prayed. God hid him, he hid and was safe. God fed him by the ravens, he ate. The brook dried up, God provided. The widow had a handful of flour, the three of them ate a long time. Over the past 3 1/2 years Elijah has been faithful to carefully follow God’s directions and he has learned from experience that God is true to His word. God is faithful to provide. God is good ... all the time!

Even when God allowed the widow’s son to get sick and die, Elijah had already seen God work in impossible ways. He had been seeing it for some time, yet here is a chance for that faith to grow. The story is interesting. Most of us probably know this one as well. He has been staying with the widow and she has been feeding him. The oil and flour continue to be there even though it is impossible. However, one fateful day her son dies. Elijah takes the boy, prays for him and God resurrects the young man. The the woman makes an incredible statement.

“Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is the truth.”

Here is a woman that recognized Elijah as a man of God from the first. She gave him the last of her food trusting that God would honor the man’s word. She has seen the oil and flour there day after day when she had used it up the last time. Yet, only now does she state that now she knows he is a man of God.

The widow was not unlike the people of Israel. She has seen over and over again. She has been provided for day after day and yet, there is such small faith. So little belief. It is almost a sign to Elijah. A way to help him understand the nature of the people. They have seen so much, but at the first sign of trouble, at the first chastisement of God, they start to wavier.

Therefore when Elijah stands upon the mountain he can call to the people and ask “how long will you wavier between two opinions?” He can identify what obstacles their faith might face. He has not missed the lessons God has taught him during his long years of hiding. The people have their history, their traditions and their background. They are caught between that and the prevailing political climate and popular culture - Baal worship. God has brought trouble on Israel so that they may once more know the truth and not wavier. Elijah has already been prepared through his experiences to meet the needs of others. It is because he has been faithful. Each day he had to make decisions. Do I trust God? Do I do as He says? Is He able? Will I be safe in His hands? Can He provide? Can He do it? He has found God to be unerringly true and faithful. But Elijah didn’t just wake up one day and walk to the top of Mt Carmel to challenge the prophets and see fire fall. God has prepared him and brought him to this place.

Even his prayer then becomes one of letting the people know what he has come to know. That God is God in Israel. He has not been displaced or supplanted. Elijah speaks the truth. He has no aims to deceive or dominate the people. His concern is that they would know and worship God. That they would know He is true as Elijah has come to know that He is true. In the house of the widow, Elijah’s cry had been that of Ahab.

“O LORD my God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son?”

“Is that you, O troubler of Israel?”

The difference, of course, was that Elijah cried out to God. As he did, the widow knew that the word of God was in Elijah’s mouth. Elijah has simply wanted to help this woman. He wanted to ease her grief. God wanted her to truly believe, not just live and survive. Now having experienced this, Elijah also wants not just to ease the grief and suffering of the people of Israel, but that they would truly believe. He has caught God’s heart in prayer for the people. However, his prayer doesn’t end there. He goes on then at the end of the chapter to pray for the coming of rain. The people have seen and proclaimed that the Lord is God. Now Elijah will pray that rain will be restored to the land. His concern and care for their physical, as well as their spiritual, well-being blossoms. It doesn’t matter that Ahab is still king. It doesn’t matter that Jezebel is still queen. The people know that the Lord is God and that He makes Himself and His truth known. What they do now is choose day by day if they will walk in that truth, as Elijah did, or not.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. He was a man like us. He had to follow God step by step. He had to be faithful. He had to learn from God and be taught His words so that he would know what to say and what to pray. His prayer is unremarkable. He only asks that God would hear and convince His people. The results on the other hand...

The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Prayer Request
*Please pray for our friend Miha. He is a teacher and this week has an opportunity to teach a class about the Bible and religion in his music school. After “advertising” the class in school he has had 70+ people sign up (they expected maybe 15). Please pray for him as he teaches to have wisdom and for the students as they ask questions that God would work in many lives through this opportunity.