Image: Window on the World, 2017, Monticello, Va.
1 Kings 17:24 (NKJV) 24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is the truth.”
1 Kings 18:17 (NKJV) 17 Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?”
1 Kings 18:20–21 (NKJV) 20 So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. 21 And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.
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(I am indebted to Ralph Davis for insights from his fine commentary on 1 Kings leading to this meditation.)
These two chapters are filled with exciting stuff. There are several important encouragements we could draw from it. We could look at how God preserves His people even in the face of drought as even the ravens of the air provide Elijah's needs. There is the widow of Zarephath example. A Gentile woman in the Pagan Phoenician land of Sidon is chosen by God to provide hospitality to God's servant and is blessed in return. She like other women before her (e.g. Rahab) demonstrates how even the lowliest "dog" is allowed to eat "crumbs from the Master's table" (Mark 7:28). We can be warmed and fed by the assurance that our God has meaning and purpose and love for us even in the most difficult of times. Here we have a bounteous feast of encouragement from the details in these chapters.
But we must not get lost in the trees and miss the forest. These chapters are about war: the war between God's Word (vested in the person and type of Elijah) and the demonic forces that surround us and are even now raging against the people of God and the peace of mankind.
Elijah is not just any old prophet. When God wants to represent to us the Old Testament in terms of the "Law and the Prophets" it is Moses and Elijah that He chooses to represent it (the Mount of Transfiguration, Mat. 17:3). Elijah figures as the Word of God present in the world confronting and doing battle with the evil spirits that seek to cover the world in darkness. Here we see that very real and deadly conflict represented to us in extraordinary detail and we see its ultimate conclusion foretold with clarity and significance.
First we see the Word of God "coming" to Ahab and to all of Israel in power and judgment (17:1). God brings the plague of drought on the land because of the evil that is in it.
Second we see the Word of God being "withdrawn" from the land as Elijah is sent into hiding (17:5). God's most terrifying judgment is to withdraw His Word from a people so that they, in their corporate accountability, have no benefit from it. The drought is nothing compared to this horrifying prospect as God's Spirit is held back and the people are given over to suffering and hope turns to despair.
Third we see God preserving His Word in the remnant of faithful believers in the face of apparent defeat by the forces of evil (17:5-24) and how God uses that persecuted remnant to touch and transform the lives of others. God will always leave a witness to His power and greatness as He preserves His Word.
Fourth we see how God calls forth His Word in due time to confront evil and to proclaim the truth and how that truth is publicly and powerfully vindicated. (18:1-45)
Fifth we see how God's Word is viewed by those who are held in Evil's power. Elijah is characterized as "the troubler of Israel" (18:17). This is the type of blindness that covers the world. Rather than seeing that it is not their own wickedness that brings "trouble" into their land, those who are the instruments of Satan react angrily and vindictively against the Messenger that God sends to them. Can we fail to see the parallel here between Elijah and the Lord Jesus Who was rejected by men because He was God's Word incarnate and the world loved darkness instead of light (John 1:3-11)?
Sixth we see the nature of God's final victory when the forces of evil are proved to be nothing at all, helpless to demonstrate any true power over mankind to their well being. Elijah contemptuously calls on the wicked servants of Baal to prove himself as god in the direct confrontation between the Word of God and the powers of darkness (18:21). The Word of God then, as Jesus did later, stood alone in this conflict (18:22) and prevailed against all the hosts of Satan.
And we see the terrible prospect of final judgment as the prophets of Baal are summarily executed (18:40) and God's Word alone stands as the Truth, the Whole Truth and nothing but The Truth.
In 1 Kings 17 & 18 we have a summarized view of all history. God's Word is at war with the forces of deception and evil. There are times when that evil appears to be triumphant and God's Word is of seemingly small effect. But the power of God's people is "ministerial and declarative," it is to proclaim the Truth when God's brings about confrontation and to standby and see the power of God proved in their time and place. All of this is reinforced in the powerful symbology present in the Revelation given to John.
It is this calling which all of us are to pursue and it is the hope of these chapters that will sustain us. God will not allow His Word to be vanquished. It will triumphant and do so gloriously such that all the world will know that there is only One God and He is the Triune God of the True Israel, the people of God.
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