L E A R N I N G F R O M T H E L E A D E R S Old Testament Portraits of Life ELIJAH GOD’S ONE-MAN ARMY Text: 1 Kings 16:29—22:40 without doubt one of the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, a man of unfailing faithful- For some time now I have heard the remark ness, untiring obedience, and unflinching ad- “The world has not yet seen what God can do herence to the duty that God had given him. through one person totally dedicated to Him.” Due to the antagonistic environment into Well, it has and it has not. Of course, there is which God sent him, he did not give long dis- a sense in which this statement is true; for no courses on the beauty and power of love or on human being, regardless of how consecrated, the value of positive thinking; rather, he demon- could ever exhaust the mighty power of the strated miraculously the authority of truth. He Almighty God. However, in another sense, we did not bring a new revelation, but he defended could say that the affirmation is not true at all. a revelation that had already been given. He was Every once in a while, a faithful soul will come not a teacher, but a reformer—not a local evan- along to show us what God can do through a gelist, but an itinerant preacher. solitary person who chooses to walk faithfully His life, his walk with God, was so impres- with God regardless of the cost, the commit- sive that God granted him the privilege of skip- ment, or the criticism. Enoch (Genesis 5:22), ping death and took him home in a limousine of Moses (Deuteronomy 34:10), Elijah (2 Kings 2:12), fire, to be with Him. Truly, he came like a clap of and Paul (Acts 26:16–18) are a few examples thunder, swept across Israel like a fire, and who stand out like snow-capped mountains swirled home in a whirlwind. against a level landscape in the Word of God. He was the Lord’s one-man army at a crucial One of these spiritual dynamos, Elijah, must juncture in Israel’s history. Wicked Ahab and be discussed as we continue to learn from the evil Jezebel had brought almost all of Israel over leaders of Israel. He comes into the pages of the to the worship of Baal. The nation was on its Scriptures “in a tempest,” as someone has said, spiritual death bed. Not only had Israel been and leaves “in a whirlwind.” With the sudden- seriously affected by the paralysis of idolatry, ness of a thunderbolt, he crashed into the midst but the deadly disease was rapidly spreading to of Ahab’s court, denouncing idolatry and pre- Judah. Godly men were scarce. Trying to find a dicting a drought. faithful worshiper of Jehovah was like trying to He is represented in the Scriptures as “a man find a small diamond in a muddy field. The with a nature like ours” (James 5:17); yet, he was future of Israel depended upon someone’s com- 1 ing on the scene and making a difference—some religion of Jehovah and Baal worship. The faith- extraordinary person who could be a strong, fulness of the people of the Northern Kingdom spiritual wall to stand against the rising tides of to the law God had revealed to them was the big wickedness. Israel desperately needed a man issue. James E. Smith wrote of this epoch in who could stand fast for the truth when no one Israel’s history: else would. God chose Elijah to be that man, and Elijah, in humble obedience, accepted His deci- The age demanded a messenger; the messen- ger must have credentials; the credentials could sion. only be miraculous. Only mighty miracles such God’s method of bringing His people back to as were performed by Elijah and Elisha could Him has always been to use men—not ordinary have been sufficient to counteract the influence of Jezebel and her eight hundred fifty priests men, but holy men. Such men walk by rigid and prophets. The greatest prophet is reserved discipline and scorn the values that the world for the worst age.3 prizes. The pure fellowship they share with God makes them a spiritual breath of fresh air that Elijah was God’s man who threw himself blows away the putrid odors of the garbage into a crisis. Were it not for him, the cause of God dumps of sin and paganism scattered across the might have been lost in Israel. land. Since Elijah was one of God’s greatest men, Elijah was a Tishbite, having been born per- we want to ask, “What kind of heart did he haps at Tishbeh in Galilee; but he lived in Gilead have?” We cannot really see a man until we can (1 Kings 17:1). He wore a garment of skin or of see his heart. Great men obviously have great coarse camel-hair, which he draped over his spirits. They are made from the inside out, not sun-kissed shoulders and tied about his loins from the outside in. Greatness always grows out with a leather girdle (1 Kings 19:13; 2 Kings 1:8). of devout thinking, not out of bulging muscles. He was a man of strength and courage, a man True might comes from strength of the heart, not who was rugged, stern, independent, and aloof. from athletic prowess. Since he had no attachments which would local- The eight episodes recorded about Elijah ize him, we find him swiftly moving over great show us an x-ray of his spiritual heart. By look- distances, suddenly appearing and suddenly ing at these incidents, we can gain insight into disappearing. His prophetic ministry was within what makes a man into a one-man army of God. the twenty-one years of 918–897 B.C. The unique era in which Elijah lived required HEART QUALITY: CHARACTER not only a messenger, but also miracles.1 The The starting place in appraising Elijah’s heart supernatural events which occurred during the has to be His oneness with God, his spirituality. ministry of Elijah belong to the second of the He had true character, the kind that springs from four miraculous periods2 of redemptive history. a right relationship with God. He lived up to his This series of miracles was necessitated by the name, Elijah, which meant “My God is Jehovah.” life-and-death struggle going on between the In other words, he was Jehovah’s servant. This truth about Elijah comes out in his 1Eleven miracles were associated with Elijah’s life: prayer life and in his daily walk with God. He (1) the prevention of rain (1 Kings 17:1); (2) the supply of knew God, talked to God, and lived with God. food by ravens (1 Kings 17:6); (3) the multiplication of meal and oil (1 Kings 17:14); (4) the raising from death of the son Though bereft of physical companionship at of a Zidonite (1 Kings 17:22); (5) the fire from heaven which times, he was never without heavenly fellow- consumed the sacrifice on Carmel (1 Kings 18:38); (6) the ship. He did not just talk about God, but he talked opening of the heavens in rain (1 Kings 18:45); (7) the cake and water provided for Elijah by an angel (1 Kings 19:5); to God. He did not just think about God, but he (8) the fire from heaven which consumed fifty men (2 Kings made his way through this world in stride with 1:10); (9) fire which consumed another fifty men (2 Kings the greatest of friends, the God of heaven. 1:12); (10) the dividing of the waters of the Jordan River (2 Kings 2:8); (11) the translation of Elijah to heaven by a Ahab, under the influence of his wife, Jezebel, whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11). had become entrenched in the worship of the 2Those four periods are (1) the Hebrews’ coming out of Egyptian bondage through the series of plagues, (2) the time of Elijah and Elisha, (3) the life of our Lord, and (4) the 3James E. Smith, I & II Kings, Bible Study Textbook beginning of the church as recorded in Acts. Series (Joplin, Mo.: College Press, 1975), 356. 2 Tyrian god Baal. At this crucial time, Elijah ap- Above all, Elijah teaches us that there is no peared before him and predicted a drought as a substitute for spirituality. One can be as straight penalty for his rejection of Jehovah (17:1). Be- as a gun barrel doctrinally but as empty as a gun cause of the famine that came, Elijah retired first barrel spiritually. Can you think of anything to the brook Cherith, where he was providen- more pathetic than a man trying to preach to tially fed by ravens (17:6). When the brook be- others when he himself does not know God, does came dry, he was instructed to go to Zarephath, not walk with God? True, God sometimes leads on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of others to Christ in spite of the preacher, but that Tyre (17:9). He was told to go to a widow who is an exception, not the rule. A spiritual resolve would provide his sustenance. When the widow that should be as firm with us as the plan of hesitated to part with water and bread because salvation is that I must “take heed” unto myself of the famine conditions, he urged her to believe before I try to “tend to” the spiritual needs of and trust in God.