Articles
Elijah and Us
You’ve probably realized by this point in your life that your mind can lie to you if you let it. Sometimes we let lies reign (or live “rent free” as the kids say) in our heads. They take up so much space and focus, that we begin to believe these lies to be truth. One that plagues a lot of people, Christian and non-Christian alike, is the feeling that you are alone.
In 1st Kings 18, we see an awesome story that shows the power of God, the faith of Elijah, a victory of God, and people becom-ing believers in Him. In this chapter, Elijah told Ahab, who is the king of Israel at this time, to send orders to all of Israel, to 450 prophets of Baal and 400 hundred proph-ets of Asherah (a female deity) who ate at Jezebel’s table. These orders were to tell these people to go to Mount Carmel. King Ahab does as Elijah says and what we see unfold throughout the rest of this chapter is the answer to the question of Which is truly God: The LORD or Baal (v24)? Elijah is the only prophet of the LORD there, while Baal’s prophets numbered 450! Both Elijah and these 450 prophets of Baal were to be given two oxen and prepare a sacrifice, but they weren’t to put any fire underneath the sacrifice. Elijah is going to call out to the LORD and Baal’s prophets were to call to Baal. Whoever’s God or god answered by fire would become evident. The people agree this is a good idea. Throughout the remainder of the chapter the great power of God is seen clearly. Once God answers by fire (following Baal’s obvious lack of action, as he’s just an object!), the people say in verse 39 “The LORD, He is God; the LORD, He is God!” Elijah tells the people to seize the prophets of Baal, and the people do so. Elijah then brings the prophets down to the brook Kishon and slaughters them there. Again, we see another victory for God and one that Elijah was blessed to be a part of.
Then we get to chapter 19... Keep Elijah’s great victory that he just had in mind. In 1st Kings 19:2, Jezebel sends messengers telling Eli-jah “So may the gods do to me and more so, if by about this time tomorrow I do not make your life like the life of one of them.” Es-sentially, she says by about this time tomorrow, you will be dead if I have my way. How did Elijah react? Did he remember the great victory He was blessed to be a part of? No, he was afraid and ran for his life. He gets to Beersheba and leaves his servant there and continues to travel, now into the wilderness. He is so distraught that he says in verse 4 “Enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” Despite that great victory just days ago, Elijah has decided that he wants his time on earth to be over. I want us all to notice how God treats Elijah. In verses 5-8, we see an angel comes to Elijah to give him food and water on two different occasions. The second time, the angel told Elijah the journey was long and that’s why he needed to eat. Elijah did eat and travels on with the strength from that food for 40 days and night to Horeb, which is called the mountain of God in verse 8. Elijah comes to a cave and spends the night there and the LORD asks Elijah what he is doing there. Elijah tells God that he has been zealous for Him, yet the sons of Israel abandoned God and killed His prophets, leaving Elijah alone, and that there are plans to have his life taken as well. What God does in verses 11-12 is show Elijah His power. Following
this, consistent with the same dialogue that we saw in v. 9-10, repeats itself at a different point in time in v. 13-14. This time, God responds by telling Elijah there was work to do, that He was to go anoint a king over Aram, a king over Israel and a prophet that will take his place. What sticks out the most to me though is v. 18 in 1st Kings 19 that says, “Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
Elijah thought that he was alone. He had been committed to God, yet the people abandoned God and killed the other prophets, leaving Eli-jah alone. God showed Elijah there was going to be a prophet after him, named Elisha. God showed Elijah not all of Israel had turned to Baal. Elijah was indeed not alone, as another prophet would soon be with him for a time and there were many people who hadn’t bowed to Baal! In application, how often do we tell ourselves that we are alone? We tell ourselves that there aren’t people that know what it’s like or we tell ourselves that no one else cares. These are just lies! You and me, like Elijah, are not alone! First and foremost, our God cares and He always has a plan. Elijah felt as though he was the only one left and is told there will be another prophet, there will be kings that Elijah is to anoint, and there are people like him, who have never bowed to Baal. God still had a plan and a purpose, as he does today. He’s always active in our lives, even when we may not see it our-selves. Trust in Him and know that you are never alone! He has given us brothers and sisters to lean on. The issue sometimes is that we don’t take use of that blessing. Perhaps we can be accepting of help much like Paul in Philippians 4:17. I encourage you to read that verse and its context, as its powerful to this point. (Perhaps Philippians 4:17 will soon be an article coming to a bulletin near you!) All jokes aside, you like Elijah, are not alone. You have people around you that want to help. Let them help, and I’m speaking to myself just as much as an-yone else that reads this. You aren’t alone!
