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Today we begin a series on the Old Testament prophet Elijah. As a prophet, Elijah spoke God’s word to the people of his day, so it’s important for us to know what was going on in Israel when God called Elijah. After King Solomon died, the nation of Israel divided into two kingdoms, a northern kingdom called Israel and a southern kingdom called Judah. Each kingdom had their own king and when a good king was on the throne, the people worshiped God and followed His law. When a bad king came along, the people often turned from God and worshiped false gods and idols - usually Baal and Asherah, the gods of the people around them.
When Elijah was called by God, there had been 19 consecutive kings in Israel that were bad. That means for almost 200 years there had not been a king who encouraged the worship of God. The current king in Israel was Ahab. Ahab wasn’t just a bad king, he was a truly evil king. The Bible says Ahab did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. Ahab was married to Jezebel and the two of them promoted the worship of idols. They supported large groups of priests to Baal and encouraged the worship of Asherah. They were corrupt and evil in every way.
It was into this spiritual darkness that God finally said, enough was enough and He called one person to step up and make a difference. This in itself is significant. God often calls individual people to step out in faith to make a difference. God called Moses to lead the people out of slavery. God called David to be a king and lead His people. God called Jonah to save an evil nation and God called Paul to advance the gospel around the world. While each of those people had help and support, God often chooses to work through individuals to bring hope and salvation to the world, and that individual just might be you.
Today, God might be looking at a situation that is breaking His heart and is saying, I want you to make a difference. If you are a student, maybe God is asking you to step out at school and share your faith or start a bible study. Maybe on your team God is calling you to be the one to step up and say, if you need prayer, let me know. Maybe there is a problem at work and your stepping out in faith can make a difference for everyone. Or maybe God is showing you a need in the community that if Jesus were here He would say, enough is enough, and He would do something about it. If you see that need, maybe God is asking you to be the one to do something about it. God often looks for people who are simply willing to be used by Him and that is what He found in Elijah.
The name Elijah comes from three different words, El - i - jah. El is short for Elohim which is a name for God. I simply means my, and jah is short for Jehovah, or Yahweh, which also means God. So Elijah’s name literally means, God is my God. In a culture that was encouraging the worship of false gods and idols, we already see there is something different about Elijah. He doesn’t worship Baal. He hasn’t bowed down to Asherah. He is faithful to God and God alone and that is the kind of person God can use to make a difference.
Beside his name, all we know about Elijah is that he comes from Tishbe, Look at 1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”
We don’t know anything about Elijah’s upbringing or how God called him, but we do know that he was bold in telling Ahab that because of his sin and the sin of the people, there would be no rain or dew unless he said so. With this pronouncement, Elijah is not only condemning the people for their sin but he is also making it clear that the drought to come is from God and that he serves God alone.
Elijah’s boldness put his life in danger and when the drought came people would be looking to blame and kill him, so after he spoke God’s word, God sent him to safety.
Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 1 Kings 17:2-5
Elijah is entering into a season where God is going to prepare him to be the prophet He needs. Elijah is going to be called to do even greater things than this and God needs him fully committed to Him. Through Elijah we are going to see what it often takes for us to become men and women and servants of God. And it all started with where God sent Elijah.
God sent Elijah to a place called the Kerith Ravine. The word Kerith means to be cut off or cut down. For some time, Elijah was going to be cut off from God’s people. In fact, he was going to be cut off from all people. Elijah was also going to be cut down. Elijah was going to suffer the pain of isolation and loneliness. God was going to humble Elijah in order to lift him up and use him for great things later on.
The first step in becoming a true servant of God is total humility. In Elijah’s isolation and pain, he is going to see that it is God alone who can and will care for him. Elijah has to learn to stop trusting in his own strength and ability, his own wisdom and power, and come to trust God alone - and for many of us this comes when we are broken and humble.
Can you imagine how difficult it must have been for Elijah, how many questions he must have had for God. God had just told him to tell off the king and pronounce a drought that will devastate the people and then cut him off from everyone. In this place of isolation, Elijah has no one to cry out to, no one to listen to, no one to turn to but God. He humbles Elijah to form in him a heart and mind and spirit that will trust in God alone.
If you are going through a difficult time right now, it could be that God is preparing you for something great to come. There can be purpose in the pain we feel if the pain draws us closer to God and helps us learn to trust God more deeply. If we are willing to totally humble ourselves before God and not ask, Why God? But What God? We will not only draw closer to God but God will have the ability to strengthen us and prepare us for what is to come. So as we heard last week, if you are going through a difficult time, ask God; What God are you trying to teach me? What are you trying to do in me? What do you want to do through me?
It is doubtful God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply. AW Tozer
With total humility comes total dependence. When Elijah was isolated and alone, cut off from others and being humbled by God, God was also providing him with everything that he needed.
So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. 1 Kings 17:5-6
I’m sure Elijah was thinking, how am I going to survive here alone in the wilderness, but because he did what the Lord told him to do, because he humbled himself and was faithful, God provided in a way I’m sure Elijah could never have imagined. Every morning and evening ravens brought Elijah bread and meat. Can you imagine praying for food and then seeing a raven come and drop a piece of bread. And then another one some meet, and the flocks of them bring you all the food you need, not once a day, but twice a day and every day. God was teaching Elijah that if he will depend on Him, He will provide all Elijah needs.
No matter what we are going through, we need to remember that God will provide what we need. That was one of the promises we heard last week. God will supply all our needs and to that we say YES and AMEN. Now it does say needs and not wants. God might intentionally not give us a surplus so that we will learn how to depend on Him every day and not in our strength and power. Even in the Lord’s Prayer we ask God to give us this day our daily bread. We don’t ask for this week’s groceries or a surplus of bread so we can be sure that tomorrow is taken care of. God wants us to depend on Him day after day after day.
If you are in a place where you are being forced to depend on God day after day - don’t see it as a season of suffering but a season of strengthening. God is helping you become totally dependent upon Him and if we can learn that, then we can handle any and every situation in life. If we can learn total dependance, we will do all God wants us to do which I guarantee you will be more than you ever thought or imagined you could do.
Elijah became the servant of God by learning total humility, total dependance, and then total obedience. Look at 1 Kings 17:7-16
Sometime later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”
“As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”
Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’”
She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.
In time the brook that God had provided dried up and instead of complaining that the brook was gone, or asking God why He had stopped providing for him when he was doing God’s work, Elijah listened to God’s word and obeyed. In fact, obedience is all over this part of the story. Elijah was obedient to God’s word and went to Zarephath where he met a widow. When Elijah asked her for some food, she said that she only had enough for her and her son to have one last meal before they died, but Elijah said, make me some bread and God will not let your grain or oil run out.
Now it is the woman who is obedient and she makes a cake for Elijah and her grain and oil never run out. God has not only provided for Elijah but He has provided for this woman and her son. First God used ravens to care for Elijah and now God uses a woman and the miracle of her grain and oil never running dry to provide for him. Elijah is learning that God can meet his needs in a variety of ways if Elijah will be faithful. Obedience to God’s word was needed for God to provide.
When we are willing to obey God’s word and promptings in our lives, God can use us to do great things. This season of humility, dependence and obedience led Elijah to do his first great miracle.
Sometime later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”
“Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. 1 Kings 17:17-22
Other than Jesus, we don’t know of anyone else who was able to bring the dead to life. But Elijah, completely dependent on God and crying out to God for help, simply did what he believed God would want him to do. He restored the boy's life and gave him back to his mother. What prepared Elijah for this first amazing miracle? What prepared Elijah to do something no one else had ever done? Total humility, total dependence, total obedience.
Elijah is a different man now than when he was first called by God. When we first met Elijah he was only described as a Tishbite from Tishbe in Galilee. But now he has been given another name. When the widow received her son back from Elijah, she said, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”
Elijah is a man of God. He is a prophet and every word of his mouth is from the Lord and it is truth. It wasn’t an easy season for Elijah but it prepared him to do all that God wanted and needed to do through him. Our own season of preparation isn’t easy. There are struggles and trials but through them, if we learn humility, dependency, and obedience, we will become the men and women God can use right here and now to do more than we ever thought we could do. I believe God wants to use each and every one of us in some way, so let us humble ourselves, let us learn how to depend on God for all things and in all ways, and let us follow God’s word and spirit so we can see God’s power at work in our lives.
Next Steps
Elijah - the making of a servant of God
Read 1 Kings 17. What stands out to you about Elijah’s call and journey in this chapter? How does God shape Elijah during this season of his life?
Total Humility
Elijah was sent to the Kerith Ravine. Kerith means to be cut off or cut down.
● Has there been a season in your life where you felt cut off or cut down? What did you learn?
● How is God teaching you humility today?
● What is God’s promise when we humble ourselves? (James 4:10)
Total Dependence
Name all the ways God provided for Elijah in 1 Kings 17.
● What unexpected ways has God provided for you? What did these situations teach you?
● How is God teaching you to completely depend on Him today?
● Reflect on the prayer, Give us this day our daily bread.
Total Obedience
How is obedience seen throughout I Kings 17? What is the result of this obedience?
● When have you felt God’s leading in powerful ways? Were you obedient? What was the result?
● Is there something God is calling you to today that is a struggle for you? What would obedience require of you? What might the result be?
Which is more difficult for you, humility, dependency or obedience? Reflect on why that is and how you can more faithfully follow God.
