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Hello my dear “Walking with Jesus” friends,
We’ve arrived at the eve of the first weekend of August, 2020! Oh how our world, where-ever you live, has changed in the past 6 months! Think back for a moment. . .to the end of January 2020. We were just beginning to hear about a virus spreading in a place called Wuhan, China, a place and a virus most of us knew nothing about. And now, in 180 days, look at our world!! What hasn’t changed in your part of the world?
So I invite us to spend the next three days with one of my great heroes… Elijah! He lived almost 2900 years ago… and yet the world in which he lived was amazingly similar to your world and mine right now! We meet him as an old but courageous prophet in 1 Kings 17. Israel is being led by a wicked king, Ahab and his even more wicked wife, queen Jezebel. Rarely had times been so evil, so chaotic in Israel. Just take a moment and read 1 Kings 16:29-34 and in 5 short verses you’ll see how horrible things had become in and around the great city of Jerusalem.
God’s patience was running out, and when that happens, God takes action. God sent His spokesman Elijah to king Ahab with shocking news: “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.” (1 Kings 17:1) Now think about that just a moment. How does your front lawn look after two weeks or a month of no water?
My friends, our world has had more than six months to figure out what to do in response to Coronavirus. I believe God has been watching and waiting. Who will turn to God and repent, and implore God to intervene in this horrific, global pandemic? Rare has been the human voice which has called people to seek Almighty, Holy God.
Many have been the human leadership voices or media voices, which have called for masks, and social distancing, and good hygiene, and closure of business and schools and churches. Many have been the voices of blame, anger, accusations. Many have been the voices calling for scientists to work overtime in figuring out how to combat this virus.
But I have this question for us: WHO are they, in your part of the world, who have called people to worship God, to repent of their sin before God, to beg God for His solution? What about YOUR voice? What has your voice been saying in these months?
When God wants to call humanity to pay attention to their sinful condition, their rejection of God, their self-reliant pride…it’s not difficult for Him. Simply shutting off the heavenly water supply is one way, and it will get everyone’s attention very quickly. How long can you go without drinking water?
Notice how God proved His capability to supply what He knows His people need, specifically for old Elijah, as the rain stopped. First cool, clean water from a brook and both breakfast and dinner flown in by ravens. (1 Kings. 17:2-6) And then, when the brook dried up, not only food but also shelter, for a long time, through the miraculous provision of a never ending supply of ingredients for daily bread, for Elijah, a widow and her son in the town of Zarephath of Sidon, which by the way was the home area of queen Jezebel (1 Kings 16:31 & 17:7-16). You may recall Jesus mentions this area as being particularly dark spiritually (Matt. 11:21,22)
“So there was food everyday for Elijah and 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.” (1 Kings 17:15,16) So, pause here for a moment. How has God been providing for your needs during this global crisis? How have you thanked Him? And then finally, God even raised the widow’s son back to life in another great miracle of His compassion. (1 Kings 17:17-24).
So, as you look out over the landscape of the past six months in your part of the world, what have you seen? Do you suppose God is attempting to use the Coronavirus as He used the drought in Elijah’s day? Day after day, week by week, month after month, there was no rain and God waited for the people to repent of their wickedness, turn away from their idols, and call to God for help.
Three years passed… dry years, without a drop of rain or even morning dew. Gardens, fields and meadows turned to dust. Animal carcasses were everywhere having died for lack of water and grass. People were also dying, as the famine was widespread across Israel and the surrounding nations. Yet king Ahab, queen Jezebel, and many of the people remained hard-heated, totally opposed to anyone who would suggest perhaps they should seek God’s help! Does that sound familiar where you live in our world? How many churches are closed in your city this weekend? What are the politicians and other leaders and the media in your city urging you to do about this pandemic?
Finally, “After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.” (1 Kings 18) God has a tender, loving heart. It deeply grieves God to see people suffer when their leaders refuse to consider God, when facing crisis. What do you suppose God has been feeling these many months as He looks at the people in almost every country of the world and considers how their leaders have been leading them? What has God been feeling as He looks at your city?
Down through history it’s amazing to me how God strategically positions God fearing, God loving people in leadership positions to be advisors to kings. I don’t know if Elijah had ever met or knew anything about a man named “Obadiah” who was “…in charge of Ahab’s palace and a devout believer in the LORD.” But as you read 1 Kings 18:1-16 look closely at what we discover about the strategic role God entrusted to this man. Does it remind you of Joseph and the Pharaoh of Egypt, or Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar, or Mordecai and Esther? Do you know if there are such men or women in strategic places in the government of your nation or even your local government?
Notice that Obadiah tells Elijah “I your servant have worshiped the LORD since my youth. Haven’t you heard what I did while Jezebel was killing the prophets of the LORD? I hid a hundred of the LORD’s prophets in two caves, fifty in each, and supplied them with food and water.” (1 Kings 18:12-14) “And Elijah said, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, whom I serve, I will present myself to Ahab today.”
We’re going to pick up this remarkable account tomorrow, as God’s prophet Elijah and 450 prophets of Baal and King Ahab, and thousands of Jewish on-lookers all gather atop Mount Carmel, for a divine show-down. Which God will respond to the cry of His worshipers and cause fire to fall from heaven directly to the top of Mount Carmel, and burn up the sacrifice of His worshipers. Which deity, Baal, or Almighty, Holy God of Elijah… will respond and prove Himself the only true God capable of resolving the 3 year drought and restoring life to Israel?
Meanwhile, I invite you to consider how your city, your country’s leadership have responded to Coronavirus in 2020, and what do you suppose God is prepared to do in response to the genuine call of His people in your city?
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Click to read today’s chapter: I Kings 16:29-34; I Kings 17; I Kings 18. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
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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