Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

This portion of scripture has two of the most well-known incidences in the Word. Both of them have to do with Elijah and they both revolve around fear. Fear offered and fear totally rejected. There is some obedience here that is staggering, when you think of it. There is anointing and the visible difference that anointing makes.

Elijah shows up full throttle. No previous background. He’s a Tishbite. Lived in Gilead. And he comes into Ahab’s place (his home or palace or town or garden or wherever he was) and declares there will be a drought until he (Ahab) says it’s over. Then he leaves. Either God told Elijah to come and say this or God chose to back up whatever Elijah’s play was, this drought happened. The judgment itself is scriptural because Israel had turned away to other gods (Deuteronomy 11:16-17; Exodus 20:3-5). It was the second commandment. Elijah was anointed of the Lord and this was the declared judgment. He declared it BEFORE it happened so that no one could say it was a coincidence.

AFTER Elijah spoke judgment, THEN the Lord talked to him. Interestingly, the Lord told him EXACTLY where to go and that at THAT spot, ravens were going to bring food. If Elijah went anywhere else, he would be on his own. If Elijah wanted God’s provision, he had to go to the place God had appointed for that provision. He did. Ravens brought him food in the morning and in the evening: bread and meat. You have to wonder where they were getting bread and meat in a drought. We have ZERO evidence of where it came from. My OPINION is that they stole it from the palace or the priests of the idols. That isn’t really important. What IS important is that God was Elijah’s source of provision and he had to go to where God said in order to partake of that provision – a good lesson for all of us.

Time passed. The drought continued. The brook dried up. Now he had no water. He didn’t move. He stayed right there until God spoke again. God told him of a town. And a widow in that town. If he went THERE, he’d be provided for. Thing was the town was the hometown of Jezebel, 137 km away, and fully in enemy territory. But Elijah went because THAT was where his provision would arrive. He got there and behold a widow outside the town. He isn’t sure she is the one. She isn’t sure about him. We have no idea if God spoke to her or gave her a dream or what He said. She doesn’t identify with God. She calls Yahweh Elijah’s God, not hers. She tells him the situation: enough food for one meal and then nothing. Elijah asks her to make him food before she and her son have some.

It’s a law of seed time and harvest that we HAVE to give in order to receive. Elijah was giving her the opportunity to be blessed. She took it. The great thing was that the promise to the widow that Elijah gives is that she would have food until the drought was over. It didn’t matter where HE was. SHE would be taken care of. She did it and they had food for a long time, but she still doesn’t acknowledge Yahweh as anything but HIS God.

The woman’s son got sick. She didn’t ask him for help. The woman’s son died. First thing she does? Blame him. She thinks that he came as a holy man to make her pay for her sins by taking her son. That attitude is WRONG and is just as prevalent today as back then. God is not taking your kids/spouses/friends to punish you. God isn’t killing them. Unless they are in full knowledge hardening their hearts on purpose (the truly evil humans), He’s doing nothing but try to save them from themselves. God teaches by the Word, not pain and suffering (2 Timothy 3:16). Elijah took the boy and prayed for him and the boy’s soul returned to the body and he lived. THEN the woman acknowledged that Elijah was a Man of God.

Also, this is the FIRST TIME in scripture that someone is raised from the dead. There is no record that it had ever happened before anywhere. Elijah had NO WAY of knowing if it would work or not. But he prayed BELIEVING God could do something. By trust in Jesus’ yet-to-be-completed-work, God raised the boy (Revelation 13:8; Mark 11:22). Amen. We’ve been given the SAME trust God used (Ephesians 2:8; Romans 12:3).

“So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria.” (1 Kings 18:2)

God spoke to Elijah. This is about three and a half years since this started (Luke 4:25). Elijah was still with the widow and her son. He hadn’t moved because the last word he had from God was go there. Now he was being told to go confront Ahab, so he left. The widow stayed fully provided until the rains came again (1 Kings 17:16). Elijah went back to Israel, to Samaria where Ahab was.

Ahab was searching the land for grass for the livestock. He was working with Obadiah, who was the head of his house. Obadiah was also a follower of Yahweh. When Jezebel was killing as many of the prophets of Yahweh as she could find, he had taken a hundred of them and hidden them in a cave and fed them bread and water. So these two men were scouring every place water usually was in an attempt to find fodder for the animals. While Obadiah was searching, Elijah showed up asking for Ahab. Obadiah was hesitant because he didn’t want to be caught holding the bag if Elijah took off. But Elijah promised to stay, and did.

Ahab tried to blame Elijah for the trouble, but Elijah spoke the truth. It was Ahab and the turning away to idolatry that caused the problem. To prove it, Elijah asked for ALL the priests and practitioners of the idols (the 450 temple prophets and the 400 grove priests) to gather on Mount Carmel and for the people to be told. Ahab did it. Elijah spoke to the people and told them this criss-cross thing they were doing between Yahweh and idolatry was wrong. He said (falsely) he was the only true man of God left (he’d been told there were others) but there were hundreds of idol worshipping priests. He told the people to pick the real thing and stick with it. Elijah proposed a test. If the idol was real, they’d all follow it. If Yahweh was real, they’d all follow Him. The people felt it was fair and gave the go ahead.

This was the test. Two altars. Same type. Two bulls. Same type. Idol priests would build one and Elijah the other. Idol priests could have the first go. Whichever altar was lit by the power of who was prayed to, that one was the real deal. Idol priests went first. They did their thing. Built it. Put on the bull. Prayed. Danced. Cut themselves. Frenzied. After awhile Elijah started teasing them with the inability of their idol to do anything. They did it from morning to evening and got nothing.

Elijah built his. Put the bull on and then had them pour water on the bull, the wood, and the altar until everything was soaked. They poured water all over it three times. They made a trench around the altar and it filled up with water. Elijah prayed and ASKED – no cutting, no frenzy, no begging, no rites – Yahweh to move. God sent fire. It burned the bull, the wood, the stones, and all the water. It even ate some of the dust. When God was done, NOTHING was left. Everybody fell down and worshipped Yahweh. Elijah commanded the deaths of all eight hundred and fifty idol worshippers. The people executed them.

Elijah told Ahab to eat and drink and sustain himself because Elijah heard rain. He climbed to the top of the mountain and prayed. He sent his servant to look for rain. Nothing. Seven times Elijah sent the servant because Elijah KNEW rain was coming. On the last time, the servant reported a tiny cloud way in the distance. Elijah went and warned Ahab to get into his chariot and make for home as fast as he could or the rain would overtake him and be so bad it would bog down.

Ahab took off for Jezreel. The Lord touched Elijah, and Elijah lifted up his robe and ran the same way. Elijah ran the whole way to Jezreel (Ahab’s destination) in FRONT of Ahab’s chariot which was going for broke. This was thirty-two kilometres away. That’s a powerful sign of what God can do with us.

Summary

Key Players: God, Elijah, Widow, Ahab, False Priests

Key Themes: Obedience, Right Worship, Idolatry

Key Verse(s): 1 Kings 17:1-6, 9, 15-16, 22-24; 18:3-4, 13, 22-24, 29, 38-40, 44-46