Elijah A Man of Heroism and Humility by Charles H Swindoll

 

ELIJAH A MAN OF HEROISM AND HUMILITY

by

Charles H Swindoll

 

 

I haven't looked at 1 Kings in any format yet but decided instead to do a character study for a change on the life of Elijah who bursts on the scene in chapter 17. This book by Charles Swindoll has given me so much background historical evidence that it makes me want to read the book of 1 Kings now. I left 2 Samuel with David now king of Israel and his son Solomon followed him. For over 100 years the throne of Israel had been dominated by 3 kings - Saul, David and Solomon.

 

"At the end of Solomon’s life a civil war broke out in the kingdom that had been untied under God’s anointed leadership. As strife grew in intensity, the nation became divided into a northern kingdom, most often called Israel and a southern kingdom, usually referred to as Judah. This division remained until both kingdoms fell to foreign invaders and the Jews were led away into captivity.

 

From the beginning of that division until Israel’s captivity, a period of over 200 years, the northern kingdom had 19 monarchs, all of them wicked. That environment of evil prevailed in Israel until the Assyrians invaded in 722 BC.

 

The southern kingdom on the other hand was under the leadership of 17 rulers for well over 300 years. 8 of these monarchs “followed the Lord their God” but 9 of them were wicked men who did not serve or walk with God. The southern kingdom of Judah ended with the destruction of Jerusalem in 586BC and the subsequent 70 year Babylonian captivity. The southern kingdom was later revived when men such as Nehemiah, Ezra and Zerubbabel returned from exile. They moved back into the land of their forefathers, rebuilt the temple and restored the worship of the one true God.

During this period of the northern and southern kingdoms, because of the wickedness of many of the kings and the apostasy of the Hebrew people, God sent various prophets to call both the rulers and the people to repentance. Being a prophet wasn’t an easy calling. Most of the monarchs wanted nothing to do with God’s anointed messengers, disdaining their warnings and ignoring their rebukes or worse."

From chapter 13 this morning I have been tracing the various kings in the northern region right up until Ahab.

 

“And it came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worship him.” 1 Kings 16 verse 31

In all the previous chapters none of the kings wives are mentioned.   So why is Jezebel mentioned?

 

"First, she was the dominant partner in the marriage. Jezebel really ruled the kingdom. She was the power behind the throne. Jezebel ruled her husband, the monarch and therefore she ruled the people of Israel.

 

Second, she was the one who initiated Baal worship. Jezebel’s father Ethbaal, was from Sidon; he was in fact, king of the Sidonians. Baal worship, which originated with the Canaanites had long existed in that area of the world. But the actual worship of Baal did not find its way into the hearts of the Israelites until it was introduced by marriage into Israel by Ahab. When Ahab married her, she brought her religious heritage with her: the idolatrous worship of Baal.

Baal was worshiped as the god of rain and fertility, who controlled the seasons, the crops, and the land. And when Baal worship entered the kingdom of Israel, bringing its heathen practices and barbaric sacrifices, the wickedness in the land only increased."

 

What a picture of a wicked woman.

 

 

"You can't talk the talk if you've never walked the walk. You can't encourage somebody else to believe the improbable if you haven't believed the impossible. You can't light another's candle of hope if your own torch of faith isn't burning."

 

Nothing makes us more uncertain and insecure than not being sure we are in the will of God. And nothing is more encouraging than knowing for sure that we are. Then, no matter what the circumstances, no matter what happens, we can stand fast. We can be out of a job but know that we are in the will of God. We can face a threatening situation but know that we are in the will of God. We can have the odds stacked against us but know that we are in the will of God. Nothing intimidates those who know that what they believe is based on what God has said. The equation is never 850 against one. it is 850 against one plus God. When we know we're in the will of God, we're invincible."

 

Our most effective tool is the prayer of faith. When it came down to the wire, when Baal had failed and God was about to do his work, the one instrument that Elijah employed was prayer.

 

Isn't it amazing how often people try everything but that? It's like the old saying 'when everything else fails, read the instructions.' So it goes with prayer. When everything else fails, try prayer. 'OK, OK ... maybe we should pray about it.' But Elijah didn't use prayer as a last resort. Prayer was his first and only resor.t A simple prayer of faith was his major contact with the living Lord. It set everything in motion.

 

Do you personally pray? Now notice that I didn't say 'do you listen when the preacher prays or when your parents pray?' I didn't say 'do you know a good bible study on prayer?' I didn't even say 'have you taught on prayer?' I asked 'do you personally pray?' Can you look back over the last 7 days and pinpoint times you deliberately set aside for prayer? Even just a solid 10 or 15 minutes of uninterrupted time with God?

Howard Taylor once wrote of his father's discipline in prayer: 'The sun never rose on China for 40 years but that God did not find my father (Hudson Taylor) in prayer'."

 

 

God keeps his promises. Agree with it or not, his word is final. Many things were happening behind the scenes in Elijah's life. God's servant was put through the paces as his Lord prepared him for the mission he had in mind for him. The only 'headline news' was the dreadful drought, day after monotonous day. But behind the scenes, unheralded, God was working his sovereign will in the heart of his man, Elijah, just as faithfully as he was sustaining the drought across the land of Israel. And even though it may have seemed that he had forgotten all about his earlier statement regarding the land, he never forgets anything he promises. That's right ... never.

 

God's agenda continues to unfold right on schedule, even when there is not a shred of evidence that he remembers. Even when the most extreme events transpire and 'life just doesn't seem fair,' God is there, carrying out his providential plan exactly as he pre-arranged it. And to complicate matters, he doesn't feel the need to clear any part of that plan with any earthling. Why should he? Chances are good we'd not agree anyway. And so we wait. And wait. And wait. Our faith is stretched because I repeat, there is absolutely nothing that makes us think he even remembers the promise he made.

 

And then suddenly, without warning, he keeps his word. He decides it's time to step back into time as we reckon it (which is not at all the realm in which he exists) to make good on his promise. It's the right moment. Enough waiting. And wouldn't you know it? As he said he would. He acts. Changes occur just as he promised it. It's happened like that ever since our creator has been dealing with his creatures. Yet we still doubt. We still worry. we still wonder if he will remember. Strangely we just don't get it."

 

 

 

In 1 Kings 18 we read Elijah separated himself - 'Elijah went up to the top of Carmel."

Never underestimate the place of prayer. One of the reasons we are so lax in prayer is that we have never prepared a place to meet with God. When you want to draw near to the heart of God, you have to get away from the din, away from the confusion, away from the noise and distractions. Now granted, you can't always climb or drive up to a mountaintop. You can't always get to the sea. But you do need a place apart - a place where you can separate yourself from the distractions of daily life and meet, alone, with God.

 

Abraham frequently returned to Bethel, the place where he had first built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord It was there, in that familiar, intimate setting, that he found refreshing fellowship with his Lord. It was there that he received cleansing from his failures. Abraham separated himself and got alone with God.

 

We too need such a place. It can be a place as simple as a closet or a room where you can shut the door and be alone. That's all you need - just a place to be alone with God to pray, to wait, to seek his will, to claim his promises."

 

Where is your closet/room today? Mine is my sunroom as it helps me to reflect on the beauty of God's creation but also focus on him as my creator God, the one who gave his Son to die in my place on Calvary. It helps me to remain here because it is there I can pour out my thanks to God for all his goodness in my life and also to ask him for his help in the hours of the day ahead.

 

 

Elijah was persistent. He told his servant in 1 Kings 18 to 'go back' 7 times - what was he looking for - a sign of rain - after 3 years of waiting! Get that - 3 years of waiting!

 

When testing comes, it often comes when we have to wait. We want the answer fast - right now. It's difficult to wait Waiting, however, brings needed perspective. And we learn, as well, to be patient. God's timing is not based on our clock. He is never late, but he often deliberately 'delays'. He loves it when we 'go back seven times.' Or seventeen. Or seventy!

Elijah knew that the answer to his prayer would come in God's own time and it would come only because God had promised that it would. Because he knew this .. believed this ... Elijah would wait. As he did, he persisted in humbling himself before God. Fervency and faith go hand in hand."

 

 

Many years ago I called on a man in the Veterans Hospital who had suffered a series of heart attacks and had undergone major surgery. The day I arrived to visit, I saw a touching scene. This man had a young son and during his confinement in the hospital, he had made a little wooden truck for his boy. Since the boy was not allowed to go into the ward and visit his father, an orderly had brought the gift down to the child, who was waiting in front of the hospital with his mother. The father was looking out of a fifth-floor window, watching his son unwrap the gift. The little boy opened the package and his eyes got wide when he saw that wonderful little truck. He hugged it to his chest. Meanwhile the father was walking back and forth waving his arms behind the windowpane, trying to get his son's attention.

 

The little boy put the truck down and reached up and hugged the orderly and thanked him for the truck And all the while the frustrated father was going through these dramatic gestures, trying to say, 'it's me, son. I made that truck for you. I gave that to you. Look up here!' I could almost read his lips.

Finally the mother and the orderly turned the boy's attention up to that fifth-floor window. it was then the boy cried 'Daddy! Oh, thank you! I miss you, Daddy! Come home, Daddy. thank you for my truck.' And the father stood in the window with tears pouring down his cheeks.

 

How much like that child we are. We are shut away in our cave of loneliness and discouragement, and then God brings along the gifts of rest and refreshment, wise counsel and close, personal friends. And we fall in love with the gifts rather than the giver.

 

He gives us a verse of scripture and we worship the bible rather than the one who gave it. He gives us a loving wife or husband or friend and we fall more in love with the person than the One who gave us that important individual. He gives us a good job and we love the job more than we love him. And all the while he stands at the window and says, 'look up here, I gave that to you.' He longs to have us look up and say 'oh thank you, Father! I miss you. I want to be with you."

 

 

Several places in scripture often have great significance. The last 3 places Elijah visited are no exception.

Gilgal was the place of beginning. Joshua 4 tells us Gilgal was where the children of Israel camped just after they crossed the Jordan into Canaan. This was the beginning point where they were still safe and secure, just before they began their invasion into enemy territory. They were near the place of battle but were not there yet. They were still in the place of safety, the place of communion, the place of sharing, the place of preparation. Gilgal was the place of beginning for Elijah's final journey.

Bethel, Elijah's next stop was the place of prayer. Bethel means 'house of God.' It's where Abraham built an altar and where he often met with his Lord. He frequently returned to Bethel, the place where he had first worshiped and communed with God. Possibly, when Elijah walked the streets of ancient Bethel, gazing at stones still marked with the etchings of his spiritual ancestors, he thought back upon all the altars of his own life.

Elijah then went to Jericho, the place of battle. Jericho was the place where God's people had driven a formidable wedge into the opposition. Jericho was a city of magnificent and vivid memories. Elijah in his minds eyes saw the walls as they fell; he heard the swish of the arrows and the cry of the enemy. And in that moving place of battle, Elijah no doubt relived the battles of his own life.

Finally Elijah travelled on to the Jordan, which was the place of death - not just physical death but death of the self-life. There Elijah remembered those days when he had died to his own wishes, his own plans and surrendered the strength of his own flesh. Through the passing years, this rugged, muscular, determined man of Tishbeh had learned to rely on his God, not himself. He had learned to walk in the strength of the Lord, not in his own will. He had learned to submit, to wait, to obey.

The place of beginning, the place of the prayer, the place of battle, the place of death. We too have such places in our lives.

First there's a place of beginning. That's home base - the very beginning of our Christian experience when we are born anew. That is our place of a whole new beginning. At our own Gilgal, we become brand new. Can you remember when you took your first few baby steps? And you learned the basics of life: how to get into the word, how to pray, how to have time with God, how to share your faith.

And then comes the place of prayer. You first began to learn what it was to sacrifice, to surrender things dear and precious to you. The loss of a child, loss of a husband/wife, loss of a job, business, lifelong dream. You learned to pray.

Next the place of battle. Rebellion, addictions, thought life, doubt, flesh. You have endured difficult struggles at the Jericho of your life.

And finally there is the Jordan, the place of death. Some of you may be aware that you will soon be approaching this place. Most of us, of course, don’t know how soon we will reach our Jordan. it could be decades away ... or as near as the next breath.

But there is also another kind of death and that is the death of self, when we learn, the necessity of self-denial. This death is part of 'taking up his cross and following him' (Matthew 10 verse 28). When we finally learn to do that - and it is such a difficult rite of passage - peace pervades."