I can see I've got a few birthdays this month. All right, we haven't gone into the Old Testament in a while. So if you would, turn in your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 18. I Kings, I'm in II Kings, chapter 18 and we're going to read verse 46 and then we're going to start into chapter 19. And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. Verse 1, And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. In other words, this is a threat from her. I'm going to kill you. And when he saw that, he arose and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree. And he requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough now, O Lord. Take away my life, for I am not better than my father. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, Behold, then an angel touched him and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and behold, there was a cake baking on the coals and a cruise of water at his head. And he did eat and drank and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee. and he arose and did eat and drink and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God. I want to preach this morning and next Sunday because it's going to take me a little bit to wade through this. Lessons from Elijah. The prophet Elijah was one of God's choicest servants in the Old Testament. He was sent by God unannounced to the nation of Israel when their apostasy seemed to be growing and their idolatry. Ahab and Jezebel One of the most fiendish and unholy duets in the Bible were reigning upon the throne. The Jews were given over to the idolatrous worship of Baal, following the example of their cowardly king and his Baal-worshipping bride. In the midst of all the wickedness and idolatry, you have a prophetic voice crying in the wilderness. And he's heard with a resounding clarion call of repentance and restoration and victory and trust in God. Elijah comes on the scene denouncing Ahab as the troubler of Israel. He challenges the prophets of Baal to a duel and calls upon God for full victory. As I read all that, I thought, what a man of God Elijah must have been. He must have stood out as a great man among lesser men. His ministry was marked by courage, and faith, and power, and trust. His ministry was filled with suspense, excitement, and results. Now that's the opinion that you would have of Elijah until you come to chapter 19. Where we find out, interestingly enough, there's a New Testament commentary on the life of Elijah in James 5, 17. You find out that Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are. As great a man of God as Elijah was, he was like you and I. He had an old fleshly nature. And in essence, Elijah was overcome by the sin of self-pity that sent him sulking in Juniper Jungle. I'll never forget, I remember old Clyde Hancock, he was preaching on Elijah and he said, you know, I've been like Elijah a lot of times. I feel like quitting. I feel like the Lord's done with me and I try to find a juniper bush. He said every time I come to one it says no vacancy because there's too many preachers already under there. He says I just had to keep on preaching. Never forget that. Now in order to understand Elijah We're going to have to go back and look how He came. Some of the events prior to where we find Him despairing, despondent, discouraged, and depressed. Go back to 1 Kings chapter 17. And we are going to look at large portions of Scripture today. And again, I think it's interesting that The backdrop here is that Ahab and Jezebel were leading people, their example was one of idolatry and ungodliness. And we find Elijah bursting on the scene preparing to take down the prophets of Baal. It says in verse 1 of chapter 17, And Elijah the Tishbite who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Abraham, or unto Ahab. This is a bad thing when preachers start putting Moses on the ark and Elijah preaching to Abraham. No, this is Ahab. As the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand, There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Carith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord. For he went and dwelt by the brook Carith, that is before Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening. And he drank of the brook. And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. I think it's so amazing how he comes on the scene. He comes preaching against the most powerful man of his day, Ahab the king. And he explains to them that there will be no dew nor rain according to God's Word. He was obedient to the voice of the Lord. He preached even though he knew he was going to face opposition from Ahab and Jezebel. He was fearless. He was courageous. He felt as though the power of God was upon his life. And after he speaks to Ahab, then the Word of the Lord comes to him. And I love the fact that he did not say, well Lord, I want to go back at Ahab again, I want to get this thing settled. He obeyed the word of the Lord. Even though he had no idea at this point where it was going to lead him. And the Lord said, I want you to go to the brook of Kareth, that is before Jordan. And I want you to drink of that brook. That's back when the water was pretty clean. And here's what I'm going to do for you, Elijah. I'm going to have ravens. Now, if you've ever seen We got big crows near our house. Now, I don't know how they compare to ravens. But I mean, these crows are huge. And if there's a dead deer or anything out there, they're gonna feed on it for days. That's just their nature. They go out there, whatever their scavengers, they find whatever they can and they eat it. So it's against the nature of this bird, a raven, to bring bread and flesh to Elijah every day. This tells you something about God. God controls animals. I mean, I've always marveled when I read the account of the ark, how that God had all of those animals come to the ark and then walk in orderly procession up the plank and then be led into their stalls where they were kept. I marvel at that. You know what now, Chuck Todd, one of the news commentators said, that's all a fairy tale. The ark, Noah's ark in a worldwide flood. Well, I'll tell you what. I believe it happened. I believe it with all my heart. I believe the Word of God is true. God has control over all of His creation. And on this occasion, He's going to put Elijah, the prophet, next to a brook where he could have water to sustain him, And then God's going to bring ravens and He's going to have those birds actually feed Him morning and night. Would you have that kind of obedience to God? If God told you, I want you to camp out near this brook and every day I'm going to have some birds come and make sure that you're sustained and fed. Come on, preacher. Nobody would do that. Elijah did it. Every day, God furnished a table in the wilderness for Elijah the prophet through controlling these ravens. And he stayed right there until the Lord moved him. It says that the brook dried up. And I would encourage you, if you weren't here for our fellowship meeting in August when Brother Chris, Ron Chris, preached on when the brooks of life, when the brook dries up, you ought to go on Sermon Audio and listen to it because it was a fantastic message. talks about the providence of God in our lives. Where He places us, often times we may not understand the full import of it, but God has a purpose in every crook in our life. God was sustaining him and He moved him from there. He moved him to Zarephath. Verse 8, And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. All right, now this is going from bad to worse. Here he is at the brook of Kareth. I'm assuming he's getting pretty accustomed to having whatever the ravens would bring every day. And can you imagine picking food out of a raven's beak every day or letting it drop in front of you and then eating it? Now here's an obedient prophet. Well, the brook dries up and the Lord says, so it tells me he had to be there a while, depending, trusting on the Lord for His sustenance. Well, that brook dries up and then he says to Elijah, now I want you to go to a widow woman's house. Now, normally widow women were pretty poor, didn't have much means whatsoever to sustain themselves. And he said, Elijah, I want you to go from this dried up brook, now I want you to go to this widow woman. and she's going to sustain you. Because I've commanded her to sustain you. And here's the amazing thing to me. Every time I read this, I am astounded by the fact that there is no argument, no questioning by Elijah. The next verse says, so He arose and went. Verse 10, he went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks. And he called to her and said, this is not real politically correct. I'm just warning you. Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water and a vessel that I may drink. As far as I know, the widow woman and Elijah had never met. And he says, Hey, lady, get me some water and a vessel so I can drink. Fetch it for me. That's a good biblical word. Verse 11, And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. All right? So he's gone from a drink of water to now something to eat. And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal and a barrel. and a little oil in the crews. And behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die." Alright, Elijah goes to this woman in Zarephath. She's not real hospitable. She basically says to Elijah when he requests, hey, can I just get a drink of water and a little cake of food to eat? Well, let me tell you something, Elijah. I'm out here fetching these sticks. Here's what I've got. I'm going to go home, make some food, and me and my son are going to eat it and we're going to die. I mean, that's her outlook on life. We don't have enough for ourselves, much less you, a prophet. God moved him to Zarephath to be sustained by a poverty stricken widow woman in a miraculous way. He says in verse 13, in spite of her bleak outlook, Elijah said unto her, fear not. Thank God for preachers who in the times of great trial and adverse circumstances are able to stand on the Word of God and proclaim the promises of God and the glory of God and the power of God and say to the people that they minister to, fear not. Go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruise of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah. And she and he and her house did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruise of oil fail according to the word of the Lord which He spake by Elijah. What enabled him to keep walking by faith? Well, he'd already seen the Word of God come to fruition when he was by the brook Cary. He saw how God, in a most unconventional way, sustained him. So he took the next step of faith when God says, go to this widow woman at Zarephath, she's impoverished, but I'm going to sustain you there. And that's exactly what he did. And God miraculously caused this barrel of meal and this cruise of oil Even though she just had a little bit left, God kept supplying it in a miraculous way. You know, when you think about it, God's done that for you and for me. At different times in our lives, it may be with food, it may be with spiritual sustenance. where God has given you an unending source of provision and grace and mercy to walk one day to the next. To serve Him from one day to the next. Not knowing what's in the future, but depending upon Him. That's what Elijah's doing. He is a man that is feasting on God's Word. And he's sharing his faith. with this woman who had such a terrible outlook. You know, we don't have much time left, we're going to die. The prophet comes into their life, and all of a sudden this provision does not fail. This went on for many days. Well, after a while, The woman's child got sick. Verse 17. And it came to pass after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick, and his sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him. Well, that's tragic. Her son died. She was overcome with grief. Verse 18, she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? There was something she felt guilty about. She felt as though maybe this was retribution for some sin that she had committed. And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourned by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray Thee, let this child's soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came again, came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the chamber into the house and delivered him unto his mother. And Elijah said, See, thy son liveth. And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth. To me this is an amazing miracle. After a while that widow's son got deathly ill and that caused her to question the presence of the prophet in her home. The boy's breath left him. We see that Elijah took him up into the loft and prayed for God to restore his life. And the things that Elijah did, there wasn't anything special or significant about the way that he did this. What was important is Elijah understood the gravity of the situation. And he goes to God and he honestly talks to the Lord. And he said, Lord, I've been living here And you've been providing for me and this widow and her son. Now are you going to let evil come and take away her most precious possession? And he took that child up to his chamber and he just prayed for God to give him life. And God did. I've never seen anybody raised from the dead. You say, well, do you really believe this? Absolutely. Because I believe this is an account. Sometimes preachers say this is a story. A story is something that could be fabricated. This is an account of a historical event where God used this prophet to bring this child back to life in a miraculous way. And it caused the woman to glorify God. Can you imagine the joy that must have come into her heart when her son's life was restored? And how God answered in a miraculous way. And then in chapter 18, We're not going to read all of 18, we're going to go to the good stuff. It's all good, but some are just a little more exciting than others. It says in verse 1, And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth. Now, there's something significant here. Elijah is walking by faith. God is preparing him for perhaps the greatest spiritual battle that Elijah had ever happened to him in his life. This was going to be so significant because God was going to openly show His dominance over the prophets and the worship of Baal. The point being is, God is preparing this prophet to listen to what He says, to go where He tells him to go, and do what He tells him to do. Now let's go to verse 20 of chapter 18. Let's go to verse 17. And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? By the way, those that are living for the Lord and a prophet of God like Elijah, who speaks the word of God boldly and unashamedly, how does this man of power look at Elijah? How did the king look at Elijah? He thought Elijah was the one that was bringing trouble to Israel. He said, Art thou the troubler of Israel? And I love Elijah. Verse 18, He answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and has followed Balaam. Now therefore send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal 450, and the prophets of the groves 400, which eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. Do you see how fearless Elijah was? He was figuring in his mind, with the grace of God and the power of God, I can overcome any odds. Even though the king is idolatrous and evil and backed up by Satan, and even though there are 450 prophets of Baal and another 400 Which eat at Jezebel's table." That's 850 against one. Elijah said, gather them all together. We're going to have a showdown. Oh, that God would raise up preachers who don't fear the faces of men. who don't fear what men can do unto them, who come to the place in their lives where they say, I belong to the Lord, He's going to do with me as He pleases, I'm trusting Him fully, no matter what position, wherever He puts me, I'm going to serve Him and I'm going to do what He says. That's in essence Elijah's life up to this point. Verse 21, And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the LORD be God, follow him, but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word, not good or bad. It's like they're sitting there, now this is quite an announcement He has for them, this challenge, this question. How long are you going to pay any attention and listen to these prophets of Baal who are filled with wickedness, who are leading you into idolatry, who are destroying our nation? How long halt you between these two opinions? Are you for the Lord or are you against Him? Are you for Baal or are you against Him? We need to think along those lines today. Most people are going after Baal. Most people are going after idolatry. not serving the Lord, not being faithful to God, not reading the Word, not seeking His face, not being a witness. Too many are halting between two opinions. We need Christians today to take their stand and say with Joshua of old, as for me and my house, We will serve the Lord. I don't know what the rest of you are going to do, but I'm not going to halt between two opinions. When He says, choose you this day whom ye will serve, I'm for God. I'm with God. I'm on the side of the Word of God no matter what happens to me. I'm going to stand for Him. I'm going to be faithful to the Lord. And that's really what Elijah is saying. How long halts you between two opinions? And folks, the essence of this thought is you can't serve God and Baal at the same time. You can't serve God and the world at the same time. It just doesn't work out. And he offers a challenge. Verse 22, Then Elijah said unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets, are 450 men. Let them therefore give us two bullocks, and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under. And I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under. And call ye on the name of your gods, plural, and I will call on the name of the Lord. And the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken. You talk about a challenge. As I stand here today, I think he really had a lot of faith. Because in essence, he's saying, and the Lord hadn't said anything to him about this that I can read in here. But he's challenging, said, you get your bullet, cut it up, we'll see, and I'll get mine. And whichever one God answers by fire and consumes the sacrifice, That's who the true and living God is. Well, you know what? The Baal worshipers thought, we got this in the bag. There's a whole lot more of us than there is of this scrawny looking prophet. I mean, you can tell the guy's been fed by ravens and lived with an old widow woman that didn't have two nickels to rub together. Look at him. They thought they were going to win. They set it all up. They said, it's well spoken. Verse 25, and Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one... He goes on to explain this again to them. In verse 26 says, And they took the bullock which was given them and they dressed it and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. You know, people who are worshiping false gods, they pray. You realize that, don't you? They're sincere. in their error. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of death. These people were sincere idolaters. It says, But there was no voice, nor any that answered, and they leaped upon the altar which was made. Can you get the visual? They're crying out night and day. Oh, Baal, hear us. Look, we're dancing. We're jumping around. Can't you see? We need this. Come on, Baal. Consume the sacrifice. And it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them. He had a sense of humor. I love prophets like that. He said, cry aloud, for He is a God. Either He's talking, or He's pursuing, or in a journey, or peradventure sleepeth and must be awake. Hey, you know what? Your God may be just too busy. Cry a little louder. Talk a little bit more. Dance with greater fervency. And they cried aloud and they cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets till the blood gushed out upon them. Heathen religions often do this. They cut their flesh. It's like they're giving an offering, thinking somehow their gods are going to answer. And it came to pass, when midday was passed, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, and there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded. And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. So he begins to set up his altar. He put the wood in order, verse 33, he cut the bullock in pieces, and then he says, to make it even harder, fill four barrels with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. Now think about this. He is making all this completely wet. Contrary to human reasoning. Who throws a bunch of water on kindling before it's lit? Nobody. And then He said in verse 34, do it a second time. Those four barrels that you've just emptied, Now, fill them up and empty them again. And they did it the second time and he said, do it the third time. I mean, can you imagine the prophets of Baal sitting around? They're exhausted. All of their efforts have come to naught. They're bleeding. They're tired. They are completely defeated. And Elijah's there basically showing off. Saying, all right, guys, let me show you how, let me show you the true God, let me show you how it's done. And three times they emptied four barrels, that's 12 barrels of water. There was so much water, it says, verse 35, the water ran about the altar and he filled the trench also with water. And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me. that this people may know that thou art the Lord God and that thou hast turned their heart back again." I don't think this prayer took more than a minute or two. I can envision the prophet simply bowing his head and talking to God directly. Then the fire of the Lord fell, verse 38, and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, The Lord, He is the God. The Lord, He is the God. God answered by fire. God consumed the sacrifice. God answered the prayer of Elijah. Verse 40, Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape. And they took them and brought them down to the brook Kishon and slew them there. On this occasion, God moved upon the prophet to slay the false prophets. to eliminate them. They were the ones that were causing the children of Israel to err in idolatry. The rest of chapter 18, and again, can you envision this? How miraculous this was, how it must have stunned the people that day. They recognize now, at first they wouldn't say yea or nay. They wanted to see who was going to win. But now they're humbled before the Lord and calling upon God. The rest of the chapter, Elijah prays for rain and he gets it and the drought ended. God's cause was vindicated. Elijah's ministry was a crowning success, demonstrated by courage and faith. I mean the power of God is on this man. And chapter 18 ends in an interesting manner. The hand of the Lord was on Elijah, enabling him to run 18 miles to Jezreel. You ever ran 18 miles? I haven't either. To get there ahead of Ahab who rode in a horse-drawn chariot. Now we're going to pick up with chapter 19 next week, but I want to leave you with this vision of Elijah. is obedient to God, he's full of faith, he has courage, he's got trust, he's fearless, he hates idolatry and evil, and he's leading Israel back to God. Now, if I would have started the message off with all of that, you all would have thought, wow, this guy, this is amazing. But I wanted to start off where he was. Seeking refuge under a juniper tree because he feared an idolatrous male worshiping woman. So next week, We're going to look at the steps of Elijah's downfall. How did he get to the place of such great faith and exuberance to one of such despondency? And the answer is something that afflicts all of us from one time or another. He had a bad case of self-pity. Woe is me. I've been there. You've been there. And the point is it can take down some of the most fearless soldiers of the Lord. So we'll look at this next week in chapter 19 as we continue. Let's all stand.