The LORD Is God, Follow Him 1 Kings 18
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The LORD is God, Follow Him 1 Kings 18 INTRODUCTION: • Welcome, open your Bibles to 1 Kings 18, prayer • Previously on Lost… • Picking up where we left off at the end of Chapter 17: o Setting: 9th Century BC, northern Kingdom of Israel, capital of Samaria (MAP) o King is Ahab: 7th King of Israel after the kingdom divided 1 Kings 16:30‐33: And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. o Baal: god of heavens (rain, thunder, lightening) and fertility; Baal worship had become the religion of the upper class and monarchy Nothing benign about Baal worship; it wasn’t neutral or harmless; it was an evil imposter and threat to God’s people and his sovereignty; sometimes resulted in the sacrifice of children and definitely resulted in the persecution of God’s prophets and drew the people away from obedience to God. o Elijah: has been in hiding in Zarephath, a city on the Mediterranean cost to the north in Phoencia (modern day Lebanon). Ahab has been looking all over Israel and beyond to find him. Elijah is a wanted man...#1 on Israel’s Most Wanted List, his face plastered in post offices throughout Israel. Why? • 3 years of drought: o Elijah prayed for the drought at the beginning of Chapter 17: Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” o Based on: Deut. 11:16–17: Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; 17 then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the LORD is giving you. • The story: o Before I begin, I want to state the obvious: this is one of the greatest narratives in the Bible and on my own I’m not worthy to preach it. So, relying on the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, I’m going to humbly let the Word of God speak and not get in the way of his truth. I will tell the story as the Bible tells it, make a few comments along the way, and hopefully bring out some points to help us understand how this great story points to Christ and how we are to live in light of God’s sovereignty, justice and grace. o This is one of those stories you wish they would make into a movie, but I don’t think even J.J. Abrams could do it justice. So let’s listen to his Word, his story and ask for the Holy Spirit to open our eyes, our minds and our hearts to understand and be changed by it. THEMES: • 2 Kings: In this corner we have a futile, failed king Ahab (with Jezebel as his trainer) and his tag team partner Baal. And a the other corner we have the perfect King, the Lord God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, the one and only Savior of the world, the Good Shepherd, and the prophet Elijah. At least Rocky had a fighting chance with Apollo. As we will see this won't be much of a match at all. • 2 Prayers (of Elijah): one for God to accept the sacrifice and show his power and preeminence, and the second for Him to provide for his people—one for justice and the other for grace and mercy. • 2 Results...Justice & Mercy: God (being rich in mercy...) is going to step in via Elijah and confirm his covenant, rebuke idol worship, and display his kingly power, his justice, his sovereignty and his mercy. The Lord will show the people who is God and Elijah will prove himself to be God’s true prophet and mediator. Main Point: See and Know the Lord is God and Follow Him as Your Eternal King—the true, perfect, and powerful Sovereign who loves and leads his people with mercy and justice forever. Do not follow and worship substitutes and idols that are fake and futile and will fail. OUTLINE: 1. Heed the Words of the King's True Prophet (18:1‐16). 2. Recognize the King's Rivals and See Their Futility (18:17–29). 3. Behold the King's Power. (18:30–38) 4. Submit to the King’s Authority. (18:39–40) 5. Look for and Live in the King's Reigning Grace. (18:41–46) 1. Heed the Words of the King's True Prophet (18:1‐16). Listen to and follow the words of the Lord’s authentic ambassadors, apostles, emissaries— those genuine representatives of God that speak his Word on his behalf. 1 After many days the word of the LORD came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth.” 2 So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. 3 4 And Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly, and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.) 5 And Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the valleys. Perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive, and not lose some of the animals.” 6 So they divided the land between them to pass through it. Ahab went in one direction by himself, and Obadiah went in another direction by himself. 7 And as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him. And Obadiah recognized him and fell on his face and said, “Is it you, my lord Elijah?” 8 And he answered him, “It is I. Go, tell your lord, ‘Behold, Elijah is here.’ ” 9 And he said, “How have I sinned, that you would give your servant 10 into the hand of Ahab, to kill me? As the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent to seek you. And when they would say, ‘He is not here,’ he would take an oath of the kingdom or nation, that they had not found you. 11 And now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Elijah is here.” ’ 12 And as soon as I have gone from you, the Spirit of the LORD will carry you I know not where. And so, when I come and tell Ahab 13 and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have feared the LORD from my youth. Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD, how I hid a hundred men of the LORD’s prophets by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water? 14 And now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, 15 Elijah is here” ’; and he will kill me.” And Elijah said, “As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.” 16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him. And Ahab went to meet Elijah. 1.1. The Lord Sends Elijah Back to Ahab to End the Drought. (Background & Context) (1) • Drought for 3 years, people are suffering, and the famine in the land was particularly severe in the capital, Samaria. People and animals are starving to death – under the nose of Ahab who as king was responsible for caring for his people. But he wasn’t. Ahab was far more interested in taking care of his own animals and feeding the prophets of idols than worshipping the one true God and caring for his sheep. As the drought went on—for 3 years—Ahab bowed down to idols and let his people starve. • Elijah was determined to see the promises of God come to pass and for the people of Israel to repent. Elijah had a passionate concern to see righteousness reign among God’s people and he so he prayed for drought even though he knew it would result in suffering. • Elijah a wanted man in Israel. Ahab and Jezebel are irate at Elijah, and Jezebel is systematically exterminating prophets of God while Ahab is searching the land for the troublemaker Elijah. Jezebel’s goal wasn’t just to promote idol worship but to also do away with those that promoted worship of one true God. Her plan included killing off the Lord‘s prophets (18:4), and so Obadiah, aware of her strategy, had hidden 100 prophets of the Lord in caves and was supplying them with food and water—surely a challenging task in light of the drought and Jezebel’s persecution.