Living
Like God is Real. 1 Kings
Elijah is operating in a pagan environment, in a culture that is
dominated by a pagan worldview that is completely at odds with a biblical,
theocentric view of life and of God’s creation. The introduction to this rings
out some important facets on Elijah at the end of chapter 16. He is, as James
points out, a man just like we are. He is subject to the same flaws and
failures that we are. James 5:17 NASB “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 earth for three years and six months.” It is important to
understand the context of James chapter five. That chapter is talking about
believers who are struggling with being able to hang in there in the midst of
trials and testings and difficulties. How do you hang tough in times of
suffering? How do you continue to apply doctrine when it doesn’t appear to
work? The paths of Christian lives scattered with people who have fallen aside
in their spiritual life because can’t hang in there, they can’t persevere, in
the midst of suffering to see that doctrine works. As a result they try this,
then that, and then something else. One of the reasons God allows us to go
through times like that when it doesn’t appear that anything is happening, that
God is not answering our prayers, there are not any changes, is because God is
testing us to see if we can remain faithful and consistent in our walk. So
James uses a couple of examples to point out and illustrate the importance of
persevering and enduring in the midst of extremely difficult external
circumstances. He uses Elijah as one of his examples. The phrase that James
puts in there— NASB “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours”—is
one that is very important, because we have a tendency to idolise or to make
super heroes out of these Old Testament prophets like Moses and Elijah and
forget that not only did they not have the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit
as we do in relation to the spiritual life but they were still just as human as
we are. Elijah still had a sin nature, as we do; and as we will see, he
crashes.
As we study Elijah we see that he is a believer who knows how to pray. When
he prays that there will be no rain he does it on the basis of promises in the
Word of God, so it is a great picture of how to claim a promise from the Word
and apply it to a particular situation and circumstance. He is a picture of a
believer who prays consistently and has dramatic results. He is also a picture
of a believer who stands against a false system of thinking, and he will give
us a pattern for how to stand against such a false system of thinking and how
to do so in such a way that it doesn’t compromise our own Christian position.
But he is also a picture of a believer who gets his eyes on circumstances and
becomes depressed despondent, thinking that God has forgotten about him, and
that he is just a failure. He faced overwhelming odds against him and yet for
much of his life and ministry he refused to put his focus on that and he stood
his ground and remained faithful to God. So he is an example for us of
endurance in the midst of testing; and not only enduring but doing it the right
way.
To summarize:
1. As long as we are
trusting God there are no hopeless situations, no matter what the situation may
be. God is the God who provides everything through grace. We are not to give
up, to despair; we are to trust in God and to keep strong in His Word. We are
to utilize every test like that as an opportunity to drive us further into His
Word, e.g. the Psalms.
2. Never think that
you are isolated, that you are standing alone. We can’t let our eyes get on
ourselves and become self-absorbed and think that we are the only ones who have
the truth. That is arrogance.
3. When God operates
in history and in our lives with tests God is the original multi-tasker. So
tests operate at different levels, different circumstances, and the whole idea
is to get us to focus on His grace solutions. This may involve using the
faith-rest drill, it may involve being grace oriented, with dealing with
somebody out of impersonal love, or any number of different problem-solving
strategies such as the 10 stress-busters or problem-solving devices in
Scripture. Each one of these tests gives us different ways in which we can
apply the Word to that particular circumstance.
4. When we do the
right thing the right way the results are not always what we expect them to be.
It doesn’t mean that we won’t go through suffering and difficult times. When
Elijah did everything he was supposed to do he still had to go through the
tests of the judgment that came—the tests of adversity. He had to experience
the drought and the famine just as much as everybody else did. Each day was
another opportunity for him to trust the Lord.
5. When a nation is
under divine discipline even the positive mature believers are going to suffer
by association. Just because we are positive doesn’t mean we are immune from
the judgments that God will bring against a nation. Believers who are living in
a nation under divine discipline are going to experience all of the
consequences of that discipline in their own lives. The way to handle that is
through the use of God’s Word. One of the things that is a principle in history
is that nations get the leaders they deserve, and the leaders that they get are
the products of the culture that they have. The solution is not political or
economic; the solution is a spiritual solution.
1 Kings 17:1 NASB “Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the
settlers of
1 Kings 16:29 NASB “Now Ahab the son of Omri became
king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, and Ahab the
son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years.
Then
Ahab comes along. 1 Kings 16:29 NASB “Now Ahab the son of Omri became king
over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, and Ahab the son of
Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years.
This is going to bring into play the whole spectrum the fertility
religion: the worship of Baal and also the Asherah, the female counterparts to
Baal. 1 Kings 16:32 NASB “So he erected an altar for Baal in the
house of Baal which he built in
Ahab ruled the northern kingdom from 871-852 BC, and he grows up in what is
arguably the most powerful court in the history of the northern kingdom of
The principle that we learn from looking at this much of Ahab is that
people and churches and nations get the leaders that they deserve; and they
deserve the leaders that they get. As we look out on the ecclesiastical scene
in America today we wonder where in the world did this crop of
biblically-ignorant, psychologically enthralled (with psychology, not the
Bible) pastors come from? These are not the kind of men that pastured and led
churches of generations before. We saw a big shift begin in the sixties as
there became more and more of an emphasis on size and numbers and growing
churches; and churches became more market driven and more commercial. It
characterizes seminaries. What do people want? not What do people need? And so
churches are getting pastors who are no longer capable of teaching the Word.
This all comes down to a spiritual crisis, and that is what we see illustrated
with Ahab. The real problem with Ahab is a spiritual problem and that comes as
a result of his marriage. Jezebel was the one who was the real spiritual
manipulator in the family. When she married she brought with her 450 priests of
Baal whose job it was to go out throughout the land and to spread their
teaching, to build altars to Baal, totally supported by funds from the state
treasury. This had a tremendous impact on the nation.
We see that is one example: 1 Kings 16:34 NASB “In his days
Hiel the Bethelite built