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A Homiletical Study of I Kings 18:16-45

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A Homiletical Study of I Kings 18:16-45 A Homiletical Study of I Kings 18:16-45 Presented By Pastor Seth Dorn Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church Fredericksburg, TX Spring South Central Pastor‟s Conference Grace Lutheran Church Lowell, AR May 3, 2011 1 The sermon serves a very important function in the church service. The preacher gets to stand in front of his congregation and proclaim law and gospel. The text has been studied. Much time and preparation went into outlining, writing and memorizing the sermon. The preacher prays throughout this entire process that God may grant him wisdom and guidance. As rewarding as a sermon is, it can be a daunting task. It takes much time in our weekly schedules. The eyes of the entire congregation fix themselves squarely on the pulpit. The knees shake. A lump sits right in the middle of our throat, before the sermon begins. Once again the preacher takes their concerns to God and asks for his strength. We trust that he will guide us. We take comfort in knowing that we are not speaking for ourselves, but we say with confidence, “This is what the Lord says.” The topic of this paper is a homiletical study on I Kings 18:16-45. I make no claims to be the greatest preacher among this crowd. Many of you might feel the same way. However, God has entrusted to us this opportunity to study his Word. Through the study of these verses we can apply them to our lives as well as to the lives of our members. This paper will consist in three parts: the context of the text, a look at the verses with some applications and finally some ideas on how the sermon might begin to take shape. I. The Context This text falls on the fifth Sunday after Easter in year A of the lectionary found in Christian Worship Supplement. This year that day will be Sunday, May 22, only a few weeks from now. The Easter season allows the preacher to focus on the victory Christ won for us. The resurrection serves as a main theme throughout the Easter season. This tells us that Christ has been raised. He has kept this promise. Through Jesus‟ death and resurrection we also see that he has procured the victory over all his enemies. At first reading it might be hard to see the connection between Easter and Elijah‟s battle on Mt. Carmel. However, through these verses we see emphasis on God‟s power and victory over the prophets of Baal. This shows us that God will not only win the victory over idols, but he has also won the victory over the devil. The second lesson for this Sunday comes from I Peter 2:4-10. The Apostle Peter talks about the stone the builders rejected has become the capstone. It is easy to see the connection between the first two lessons. Many people will reject Christ, just as the nation of Israel did. The Jews rejected Christ. In the world today many people reject the gospel message. That rejected stone becomes the chief stone by which believers build their faith. Jesus, our Savior, will reign as King of kings over everything. The Gospel lesson comes from John 14:1-12. Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure from the world. Jesus comforts his disciples with the fact that he is the way to the Father. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. This shows that there is only one way to Christ. It goes against the unionistic thought that permeates in the world today, which we will talk about later in the paper. 2 We will move from the context of the church year to the context of our text. Professor Gurgel instills in his homiletical students to remember that a text is part of a pericope. This means it is cut out from a larger section. One important part of looking at any text is to examine the immediate context as well as the wider context. Elijah serves as one of the main characters in this account. Elijah might be one of the most courageous prophets to serve in Israel. He works at a time of great spiritual lethargy among the people of Israel. The Israelites have become entrenched in the worship of Baal and Asherahs. They had forsaken God‟s covenant. They still knew about God. They worshiped him sort of. They just combined the worship of the true God with various false gods promoted by other countries and people. King Ahab ruled over the nation of Israel at this time. We know him as one of the most evil kings that ruled over the Israelites. He married the even more wicked Queen Jezebel. These two pushed the worship of the true God aside. Jezebel brought the worship of the Asherahs and Baal to new heights. The people followed blindly behind Ahab and Jezebel. Not the ideal situation for anyone to work under. However, Elijah worked among these conditions. The people did not care what God said. Elijah‟s message fell on deaf ears. God‟s patience wears thin with the people‟s hard hearts. Elijah prophesied that God would send judgment upon the land. He says, “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” (I Kings 17:1). During this severe famine Elijah fled to the Kerith Ravine. He then moved on to stay with the widow of Zarephath. After three years from the time of the famine God told Elijah to present himself to King Ahab (I Kings 18:1). God gave Elijah a message to give to Ahab. After the land suffered under this severe drought, rain would once again come upon the land. As Elijah made his way to meet the king, he probably wondered what was going to happen. How would Ahab receive me? Will I be thrown in prison or killed? These are questions that I am sure Elijah asked himself, as he went to meet Ahab. Before Elijah met Ahab, he saw Obadiah. Obadiah served as a faithful follower of the true God. He saved many prophets of God by hiding them in a cave. This was strange especially since Obadiah worked in the service to King Ahab. Right away Obadiah recognized Elijah. He was overjoyed to see this prophet from God. Elijah then told Obadiah to announce his arrival to Ahab. Obadiah‟s joy turned to fear. Ahab has been searching for Elijah for a long time. Obadiah did not want to go and tell Ahab, and then Elijah would disappear. Surely Obadiah would then be killed. Elijah promised to remain in this place, so Obadiah went off to fetch Ahab. Now come the verses for the topic of this paper. II. The Text 1 Kings 18:16-18 (NIV) 3 16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. 17 When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” 18 “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father‟s family have. You have abandoned the LORD‟s commands and have followed the Baals. 1 Ahab comes out to meet this fugitive, whom he has been looking for since the time of the famine. Ahab‟s first words to Elijah are so telling. He calls Elijah the troubler of Israel. is the Hebrew word Ahab opens up with. The opening prefix, , of this word shows more of an exclamatory force than anything else.2 Ahab blames Elijah for everything that has happened in the land of Israel. Ahab does not confess his sins. He shows no signs of repentance. He passes the blame to someone else. Elijah brought this trouble, , or social chaos among the nation of Israel. Does this accusation sound familiar? The pastor who faithfully proclaims law and gospel to a world will be seen as a troubler by many people in the world. God‟s Word does not always coincide with what the world wants to hear. The members of our congregations sit in the same boat. This faithful proclamation of law and gospel makes one an easy target. The world wants to constantly pass the blame to someone else. They do not want to hear what they are doing is wrong. They look for a church that will speak the words they want to hear. While doing this, they look for a scapegoat. The one who faithfully proclaims the Word of God makes an easy target. Elijah does not take the bait. Instead he turns the tables on Ahab. Elijah places the blame where the blame properly lies. Ahab‟s family was to blame. Ever since the nation of Israel split into two kingdoms, the Northern Kingdom did not follow God‟s commands. King Jeroboam introduced the worship of idols. Things quickly went downhill from that point. Ahab, the worst of the kings, introduced more pagan rituals for the people. Elijah mentions one god in particular, Baal. We hear about Baal in the pages of the Old Testament. A few words on Baal might be in order at this point. The Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly gives us an insight into what Elijah faced. The Ras Shamra texts have provided an essentially new picture of Baal, the major figure among the 70 gods which comprised the Canaanite pantheon. Baal is the vigorous young fertility god, the god of rain and storm. Elijah‟s struggle (I Kings 18) was not against some local godlet, but against the god whom the Ugaritic epics call “Great Baal,” the one who occupied the leading position in the religions of the ancient Near East.
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