Elijah

Hi, everyone! Just got back from my morning walk, and it is beautiful outside. Of course, I am still walking in sweat pants because I am so cold natured!!! Praise God I am able to walk though!!!

I wanted to catch everyone up on the story of Elijah. I jumped way ahead of myself yesterday because the lesson had touched me so much. I started at a point where several critical things had happened in Elijah's life prior to him being told by God to travel to Zarephath. So, I feel like we need to start at the beginning, and I will share the rest of the information as it happens.

Elijah is introduced in 1 Kings 17 simply as a Tishbite. Tishbeh cannot even be located on a Middle Eastern map today. Doesn't this scream, "God can use anyone from anywhere!"? The author feels it is important to understand the history of the land of the Israelites before diving into Elijah's life. Most of you know this, but refresher courses are always great!!! For over a hundred years, the Israelites were ruled by Saul, David and Solomon. Then, a civil war broke out that divided the kingdom into a Northern Kingdom, known as Israel, and a Southern Kingdom, known as Judah. There was a 200 years period that elapsed between this division and when the kingdoms fell to invaders. (That's a whole different soap opera)! During the 200 years, however, the Northern Kingdom had 19 different monarchs. All of them were wicked. In the Southern Kingdom, 8 of their monarchs followed the ways of the Lord, and 9 of th em were wicked.
We want to focus on the Northern Kingdom. Jeroboam was the first king of the Northern Kingdom, and he introduced idolatry to his kingdom. He created priests of pagan altars to worship their false gods. The wickedness continues, and we see Omri come to power. He was considered more wicked than all the kings before him. He built Samaria, which was an evil land in the sight of the Lord. That is why you often read that Jews would walk a far distance around Samaria and never travel through it. Now we come to the beginning of "our" story. Omri, the very wicked one, had a son named Ahab. Ahab married a not-so-wonderful young lady named Jezebel who liked to rule the roost. She brought the worship of Baal to Israel. It is interesting to note that we are never told the names of the king's wives until Jezebel comes along. The Canaanites were the first to worship Baal with her. Baal was the god of rain and fertility (to them). They believed he controlled the seasons and the crops. Asherah was the mother of Baal.
Now our hero steps onto the scene!
Elijah comes forward from Tishbeh. He is a rugged man of the land...a take charge kind of guy. His name literally means "my God is Jehovah". He marches right up to the king and declares himself a servant of the Lord, God of Israel. He tells Ahab that no dew or rain would fall on the Northern Kingdom until he says so. Can you imagine the guts it took for this man to walk up to this wicked king and just announce this tragedy that is going to occur? God's protection is over him because, normally, he would have been killed for even going before the king.
Once Elijah prophesied the drought, God told him to go hide himself by the brook in Cherith, east of the Jordan. What? God wants him to go out and make this bold announcement and then run and hide? It may seem like hiding to us, but God had greater plans for this time. He had Elijah live there in quiet so that he could teach Elijah two very important things. Number one, God would provide for him every single day. He had the ravens bring Elijah food. He also provided the brook for him to drink from in the time of drought. This taught Elijah to be completely dependant on God's provision. If not for this time, Elijah may be tempted to lean on himself for even his basic needs. God did not want that. He wanted Elijah's body and spirit to belong to Him.
Number two, God needed to teach Elijah to be humble. It would be simple for a prophet of God to get "the big head" when they are able to tell a king the future that God has planned. God did not want Elijah to gain anything from the attention he would get from the people. He wanted Elijah to be able to humble himself to the purpose God had for him. I am sure it was difficult for Elijah to just sit there during this time. However, the lesson we need to learn from this is that it is very important for us to take time out in our time of ministry to grow. We have to take care of our walk with God so that we do not become stuck in a routine that is no longer the service God desires of us. Some times God will set us aside in order to teach us patience. He may want us to get away from the busyness of one service so that He can grow us for another one.
As time passed, the brook dried up. Elijah's time in "boot camp" had come to an end. God was ready for him to move on in his ministry.
We are now at the point that we picked up on yesterday. God gave Elijah the instructions to go to Zarephath. He told Elijah that He had commanded a widow to provide for him there. Notice that God did not tell Elijah where to go, what to do and who to touch. He simply told him to go and that he would take care of him. Elijah went immediately.
I know today was a long one, but it covered two chapters of the book!!! Tomorrow will be shorter!
Have a blessed day! Today is Landon and Ridge's last day of school for the summer. I am headed out to enjoy their parties at school!!!
In Him,
Tiffany