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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends, my what a week this has been!
You know I like to ask questions, so here’s an important one: what do YOU do when you run out of patience? What did you experience in your childhood family when the adults in your family ran out of patience? Here’s an even more important question: what does God do when God runs out of patience with us, the human race He has created, and for whom God supplies everything for sustaining life on our planet earth?
What causes God to lose patience with us? What are God’s options when humanity rejects God’s truth, refuses His love, and slaughters millions of defenseless, perfect babies He has created, while they are still in their mother’s wombs? What are God’s options when humanity rejects His clear design for marriage and family, and insists on celebrating marriage between any two human beings for any length of time? What are God’s options when people refuse the gender by which God created them, and they insist on changing themselves through surgeries or medications, and even changing their birth certificate, and they demand that society affirm their self-changed gender identity? What are God’s options when humanity invites into leadership men and women who reject all God given truths and values, for living God honoring lives? Do you think God may be running out of patience with us, wicked, rebellious humanity, especially in America? If so, what are God’s options? What might God be planning in response, right now, as His patience runs out?
Wind-swept wildfires, some ignited by lightning, have burned thousands of square miles in the western USA, destroyed thousands of homes and businesses, and taken several lives. Hurricane Zeta this week was the 27th named tropical storm of this year! 2005 is the only year on record to have had more, at 28 storms! Ice and snow storms in mid October as far south as Texas and Oklahoma, really? And do you remember the unprecedented, hurricane force winds which struck the cornfields of Iowa this summer, destroying nearly 1/2 of their corn crop? Do you notice that each and all of these are not man-made, nor can they be man contained or man prevented!?
In other parts of the world it has been record heat waves, earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, and typhoons. People in eastern Africa this summer experienced the largest locust invasion perhaps in history, destroying every green plant, grass for grazing animals and crops for humans, over a vast region. Nearly every nation in the world has experienced the ravages of an unseen plague… Coronavirus COVID-19, now with more than 1.1 million deaths. Is this all evidence that God is running out of patience with humanity?
Today let’s look at God’s Word. . .1 Kings 17, and God’s response to the moral and spiritual rebellion of both the leadership and people of Israel. It had only been 56 years since the death of king Solomon, and the split of the nation of Israel, but in that time 7 corrupt men had served as leader of Israel… Jeroboam, Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Omri and now Ahab. By God’s description, each was more morally corrupt than those before him. Listen to this: “Ahab, son of Omri, did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam, but he also married Jezebel…and began to serve Baal and worship him..Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel to anger, than did all the kings of Israel before him.” (1 Kings 16:29-33)
Did you hear it friends? King Ahab’s evil leadership PROVOKED God to anger and action!
Now my friends, knowing all God had done for the people of Israel, going all the way back to their miraculous Exodus out of Egyptian slavery…what, in your sense of fairness and justice, should Holy God do in response to such wicked rejection of Him? When you look around the world, what should Holy God do in response to how He is being treated where you live?
Have you ever considered what would happen where you live, if beginning right now, there was not another drop of rain, not even dew in the early morning, for a long, long time? Look at the first few verses of 1 Kings 17: “Now Elijah…said to king 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.” God’s patience had run out on king Ahab and all the people of Israel who had followed wicked, immoral leadership! They had been warned and invited to return to God many times, but they refused. God could not do nothing. His love for the children yet to be born in Israel, required that He do something to bring change in Israel! Think about that! As God looks at America, or wherever you live, and God considers the children of the future, is it time for God to intervene?
Now watch this carefully my friends. When God’s patience runs out, and He sends calamity as a punishment for the rebellion of humanity against Him, most often God has historically sent it in the form of what we often call ‘natural disasters’. You’ve noticed I’m sure, that ‘natural disasters’ do not discriminate. They strike everything and everyone with their fury and devastation! Now I invite you to ask yourself… are some of the things I mentioned in my opening paragraphs, God sent punishment against rising wickedness in both leadership and the general population of many nations in our world, but especially the USA in our lifetime!?
We know little about Elijah. He was evidently a man of God who lived in the little known town of Tishbe. Do you remember God’s promise to king Asa in 2 Chronicles 16:9? As God had done many times before, and has done many times since, God looked for someone whose heart was fully committed to Him, when God wanted to intervene in the imploding society of Israel. But please notice Elijah was not exempt from the calamity of God’s punishment of no rain or dew! While God miraculously provided for Elijah for a while, soon the brook dried up due to no rain. Watch that friends, God’s people suffer along with everyone else, when God pours out His punishment on a rebellious nation!
But friends, also please notice God’s eye is always upon His people, as He promises in many Scriptures including Psalm 33:18-22. As the brook dried to a trickle and then to nothing, what do you suppose Elijah was thinking? Of course he was wondering what God was going to do to provide for his bare essential need of food and water! What have you done when your supply started to dwindle? Do you see God’s plan of provision? “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.” (1 Kings 17:9) Now to you and me that sounds wonderful…but to Elijah, it sounded like a death sentence. Do you know why? Zarephath of Sidon was the last place on earth Elijah would be safe! That was queen Jezebel’s home territory and both she and king Ahab had sent word far and wide that anyone found harboring Elijah would be killed!
Have you ever sensed that God was inviting you to take a great step of faith, in partnership with God, which seemed risky at best and perhaps even foolhardy? I say ‘partnership with God” because everyday, all over our world, God is working His purposes here on earth through His people, and that means they partner with God ,as they obey His leading. Are you living like that right now, my friend?
Widows and orphans in many parts of the world, throughout all history, often find themselves to be the most unwanted of society, and are ignored, left alone to die. Ahab, Jezebel, and their government, had no concern for this widow and starving son in Zarephath, but God cared! The miracle that Elijah, the boy, and this widow lived each day, as God provided just enough, day after day, for a long time, has stood for centuries, as a story of hope for destitute people who trust God, all over the world. I urge you to read 1 Kings 17 carefully, slowly, thoughtfully, putting yourself in Zarephath with them, not just for today, but for months, without a drop of rain.
Can you see the excitement of the little boy as each day he runs to the pottery flour jar, takes off the lid, and sure enough, there’s flour in the jar!! Even though yesterday, after they finished their meal, the jar was totally empty, and it had not been moved or touched since they put the lid on the empty jar yesterday! How did it happen, day after day…and the oil in the oil jug in the same way? In this wicked town, starving under God’s judgment, one widow, her son, and an old man of God, were not starving…they were living in God’s faithful, daily provision of… just enough!
Finally, as you will see in 1 Kings 17, things got worse rather than better for the widow, as her son fell ill and died. But once again Almighty God poured out His love on this dear widow and she received her son back to life again!
Friends, I do not know what the next days and weeks will bring to America and our world through the election process and the choices of voters. I’m told more than 50 million people have already voted? One thing I do know… God is watching very carefully as the people once again express their values and priorities, their respect or disregard for God and His values, His truths. What will God do in response to what He is seeing deep in the hearts of leaders and people in our day, as they choose the leaders who they want to lead them where they want to go?
Click to read today’s chapter: 1 Kings 17; Psalm 33:18-22. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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