Elijah Part 1

When we first meet Elijah in 1 Kings 17, times are not good for prophets of the Lord. King Ahab has just been introduced as King and we are told right off that "did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him." (1 Kings 16:30) His wife Jezebel (who, it seems, really "wore the pants" in that household) only made matters worse. They worshiped Baal and erected altars and even a temple for this false god. Ahab was awarded the dubious distinction of doing "more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him." He was a bad guy.

So Elijah comes on the scene as God's man, and obediently proclaimed the Lord's word in predicting the severe drought that was to come, and then went and hid. The Lord directed him to hide near a brook and commanded ravens to feed him. Talk about being totally dependent upon the Lord — Elijah saw God's provision in a miraculous way during this period.

But life must have been difficult there all alone in the wilderness, being sustained only by God's gracious provision of a brook and food from ravens. No doubt there was still the nagging fear that he might be discovered by those who would kill him. So we can only imagine what Elijah must have been thinking as the brook - the one God had led him to - began to dry out as the drought worsened. Here he was, totally dependent upon God, who had provided for him in miraculous ways, and slowly but surely the creek ran dry. Where was God? What happened?

Sometimes, even when we have seen God working on our behalf, our circumstances begin to change and we wonder if God has forgotten us. Maybe we wonder if he's really all-loving and/or all-powerful after all. We wonder where he went. Maybe Elijah had these thoughts, but God was no doubt at work building his faith. After the creek totally dried up, God again spoke to Elijah and sent him somewhere else.

A last observation is that Elijah did not leave that creek before God directed him. Even as it was obviously running dry, Elijah did not take matters into his own hands to try to fix the situation. He probably did wonder what was going on, but ultimately he trusted in the Lord to take care of him, just as he had done through the ravens to that point. We can learn a lesson from Elijah here because I suspect that many of us are prone to want to "fix" tough circumstances quickly (after all we live in the "your way right away" culture). But Elijah demonstrated uncommon patience and trust in the face of a worsening situation. How would we respond in similar trials?

Well God was not done building Elijah's faith....

Thoughts on the Word

A few nice quotes on the Scriptures from Daniel Montgomery:

"The Scriptures are God's Voice: The Church is his echo." -John Donne

"We enjoy Christ only as we embrace Christ clad in his own promises." -John Calvin

"God has opened his heart to us in the Bible." -Richard Sibbes