Thank you for listening to this sermon from Seven Springs Presbyterian Church. If you want to learn more about us, please find us on Facebook or visit us at sevenspringspresbyterian.com. This is where we'll begin looking at this section of passage. It's a long chapter. We definitely will not be getting through all of it, as you could imagine. But before we begin, we need to understand, before there was GLaDOS-1, before there was GLaDOS-2, there was another GLaDOS. And this GLaDOS, GLaDOS-L word, is not well known as many people But yet she made a significant impact through her life, particularly as a missionary in China. Gladys Allward was a British Evangelical Christian who worked really, went over to China. She began, felt called to be a missionary at China, but then on her pilgrimage to China, beginning of her journey to be able to try and make it over there. There was many obstacles that she had to face. She was actually turned down by mission agencies before heading over due to because she didn't have any formal education to be able to accompany her over there. But yet she persisted. And then in 1932, she headed over to China all by herself. She eventually settles in the province of Shanxi and she worked tirelessly to be able to spread Christianity with the people that she met and helped with humanitarian aid during these times. And you think about 1932 and just the era that was, not a very pleasant time to be in a foreign country and by yourself. But one of the most notable achievements that she was established an inn for travelers on the mountain paths of Yongcheng. And here she helped travelers as they passed her way through. But here she, again, she shared the gospel and practical assistance of those who need. And during World War II, she still remained in China. And she demonstrated, again, her care and compassion, traveling with 100 orphans across the terrain to be able to find them, a group of orphans, sorry, for 100 miles, taking these orphans to a safe passage around bombings and enemy attacks. And she continued her work in China, even after the war, serving orphans, disadvantaged children. She founded an orphanage to herself, again, helping those young children, orphaned or abandoned. And you just think about what that would be like. in a war-torn post-war time. I mean, even just think about America and the lives that were lost, and then the fatherless, the people struggling back here, and then you just imagine that in a different setting like China. And here she is, dedicates her life to all of this, and yet probably we have never heard of her. We don't know what she's done, the sacrifices that she's made, helping really thousands of people across her life, serving basically by herself. And all of these, you just think about any point in history and any, we hear and read biographies a lot about all these great people that did great things, but yet there's many people like this. have served tirelessly. And tonight we find one of these unsung heroes particularly in the Bible. Again we know of Moses, and Abraham, Joshua, David, the prophets, Jeremiah, Paul, and Peter. And we know of all the great people in the Bible but yet how often we don't know of the small people, the people that pop up, disappear, sometimes nameless and yet they carry out a long thing. And tonight we meet a man called Obadiah. And Obadiah serves in one of the most unlikely places during this time. And again, I love stories like this. I love stories about hearing about these men and women of the Bible, not only the great heroes of the faith, encourages us that as we are even studying the life of Elijah that we can see these great things that he does. And James points out in James chapter 5 that Elijah is a man like us. That here that great humbling fact as we read about Elijah these great things that he does. He is a man like us. But I like hearing about these men and women in the Bible because often many of us are not going to be Paul or an Elijah, Moses or David. I mean they are very specific roles. But even just we might not ever write a book. We might read a book at some point in our life and get through all of it. Our impact is not gonna be something of a global scale. Our impact is not gonna be something where we get a plaque or a statue made in our honor or even a library or anything. To have a small plaque somewhere, I don't even know what they would name after me. Maybe a tree somewhere, but even that, very unlikely. But here, these men and women in these unlikely places still serve God. And so tonight, we meet this man called... Obadiah. So let's begin as we read 1 Kings chapter 18 verses 1 and 2. After many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying, Go show yourself to Ahab and I will send rain upon the earth. So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now this is really the movement, the drive of the passage that it begins with Elijah being told by God to show yourself to Ahab and it ends with Right in verse 16 and 17, Elijah meets Ahab. And so this is really the movement of the passage. This has been the conflict up to this point. The issue, the dramas that have come is because when we met Elijah in chapter 17, verse 1, When he comes to Ahab and he says, And so now in chapter 18 after three years God instructs Elijah to be able to show himself to Ahab. During this time the jug and the jar have not run out in Zarephath and yet here find ourselves in this story. Now what is interesting is that here we have Elijah the obedient prophet who is going to show himself to Ahab, who is going to confront Ahab told by God to instruct him. But in the middle of this period, in the middle of this we have this interesting story. These middle passages, and again, you could jump from verse two almost all the way to verse 17 without much of a comment, maybe comments that one of Ahab's servants told Ahab where to find him, and Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab saw to him, is it you, you troubler of Israel? Yet that's not what we get. That here in recorded in scripture, we get this story in between this movement of this passage. passage is really broken up into three main sections, conversations between different people. It begins, I was hoping to be able to do this all in one week, but as normally it happens that I can't cover it in the space of time, so either you need to stay longer, or I just divide it over two weeks, and that's what we're gonna do here. But here, the first part that we're gonna look at today is Ahab and Obadiah. That's the first conversation that we see in this passage. The next then is Obadiah and Elijah. We'll look at this next week. And then finally Elijah and Ahab. We'll cover those next two conversations next week. But this week we'll begin with Ahab and Obadiah. You see this clearly in verses 3 to 6 where we read, Then Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. And when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water. And Ahab said to Obadiah, Go through the land to all the springs and water and all the valleys. Perhaps you may find grass and save the horses and mules alive. and not lose some of the animals. So they divided the land between them to pass through it. Ahab went in one direction by himself, and Obadiah went in another direction by himself. So what we see here is again, providence is always striking, always something that you can see that here the man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. And what's interesting about this passage is that we meet a man called Obadiah. As mentioned before, he serves in the household of Ahab. Recently, we've been watching the TV show, The Crown, which is a story about the monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who recently passed away. But each of them have their own private secretaries. Every royal member of the household has a private secretary. The queen gets two. Here, every member has a private secretary, and that private secretary is responsible for overseeing their calendar, their agenda, all these staff that oversee in their houses and make sure everything runs smoothly so that when the royal family member arrives, things are ready for them, they're closed, everything's right. The American equivalent would be the chief of staff in the White House, a very high official position, which is not merely just for show or stamping or kissing babies or whatever it is that the higher officials do. There's one where they manage a large amount, and this is what Obadiah's role would have been, close to something like this. He was overseeing the House. And he would have a close relationship with King Ahab. Now we've met someone like this before back in 1 Kings chapter 16. Zimri the commander of half his chariots conspired against him when he was at Tisra drinking himself drunk in the house of Azar. He was in the household of Tisar. And so Azar here is serving in that role looking over this household for him. And now this is where the story really gets interesting. that we've seen the contrast before between Israel as a nation and then the widow at Zarephath and how the widow at Zarephath is one who shows forth faith in the end by the words and the signs of Elijah the prophet who puts their faith in God. But yet, if we were to read through this at a glance, and to be able to read through what's happening during this period of time, we'd assume that there's no one really in Israel who's serving God. Even this is Elijah's problem in later chapters when he complains against God, even when he's speaking next, in a couple of weeks when we get to later in chapter 18, he says that he's the only prophet. But here, if we were to read through this, we would just assume that Israel is a complete and utter nation. That is what we would assume as we read through the pages of Scripture. But yet what we see here is during this period of time is that there is at least one man and 100 others and then we'll find out 7,000 more. There is always a remnant as Paul points out in Romans chapter 11 that God always preserves for Himself a remnant even if this nation of Israel is going wayward and turning towards Baal. And we would just assume that there's no one faithful in Israel. Yet that's not the case. Here we are and we'll find out there's 7,000 more people that have not bowed the knee to Baal. We find out there's 100 prophets later in this passage. But here at least we find out one of these names is Obadiah. Now what makes Obadiah so interesting is the first thing that we find out in verse 3 is that he feared God greatly. And we're told this specifically by the author during this period of time. And Ahab called Obadiah, who was over his household. If we were to stop there, we would just assume that Obadiah was like everyone else. That he was just someone who served Ahab and carried out his means. He was someone who worshiped Baal. But yeah, what we get is this hidden information that's revealed to us through the Holy Spirit in Scripture that here Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. Now, as far as I can see, it's hard to be able to see and pinpoint this without reading through the whole Bible and seeing this exact phraseology or similar phraseology. This is the only time in the Bible that we're told that someone fears God greatly. the only time that I could see. Again, that doesn't mean it's not there. We see other times where nations fear God greatly, or people, the people on the boat. As the captain says, what do you mean your sleeper arise? Perhaps the God will save us that we may perish. Later on in verse 16, we find out that here the sailors fear God greatly. So here's this group of people, the sailors on the boat, and they fear God because of His power and His signs. In 1 Samuel chapter 12, when Samuel calls upon the name of the Lord and sent thunder and rain that day and the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel." So here again we see these signs and wonders of these great things that have done and here the whole people fear God and also Samuel. And so we see it in groups of people but we are also told in Psalm 89 that God greatly to be feared in the counsel of the holy ones and awesome above who are around him. So again it's something that we should see. And we're told that even people have great fear in Joshua chapter 10, Adonai Zedek the king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had captured Ai and had devoted it to destruction, knowing to Ai and his king as he had done to Jericho and his king, and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them. He feared greatly because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai. all his men were warriors." And yet here where it says that he feared greatly it is not so much that he feared so much God in a fear and reverence awe inspiring way that we would think of fear often. It is that he was petrified of what Joshua was able to do. And yet Obadiah in all of Scripture is the only person that we can see that fears God greatly. Now there are many people that fear God. Even we saw with Elijah as he goes and confronts Ahab and he stands before the king who is able to be able to destroy him and he tells him that it's not going to rain until he says so. And so we see this, but here Obadiah fears God greatly, so much so that it's above Ahab and Jezebel. That here the fear of the Lord is the fountain of life, the one may turn from the snares of death. And here, fear is higher than that. Or Psalm 27, I'm sure Obadiah probably had read this Psalm and maybe even memorized this Psalm as he lived and served God. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is my stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? Now you think about being a staff member of Ahab's army, a staff member in Ahab's house, and here he is, Jezebel, who, as we will find out, goes and destroys all these prophets, and yet he is the one who fears God greatly. Again, a contrast, again, to Ahab and the people of God, as we see. Praise the Lord, the psalmist writes in Psalm 112, blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. And this is Obadiah. In the most unlikely situations, in the most likely places, there's a man that fears God greatly. The second thing, not only does he fear God greatly, the second thing we see is that he feared God since his youth. See this down in verse 12. Right at the very end it says, although I, your servant, have feared the Lord from my youth. And so right from even the very beginning, his life has been one of service towards God. That actually what his name means. Obadiah, servant of God. You might even say that it's a worshiper. Worship and serve is often two different, you know, synonyms used throughout the Bible. But again, where does he get this name from? Has to be named by his parents most likely. And here Obadiah is God's servant and he's been so since his youth. So again, when we think about Israel in its time, the wickedness of the king and what's prevailing and how blim and bleak everything looks, and yet there's at least a family of Obadiah's household that fears God and so much so that the parents of Obadiah names him servant of God. Now wouldn't it be great to be able to read a biography about Obadiah? To be able to get more than these verses that we see in this passage about the one who fears God, how he fears God even while walking the halls of wicked King Ahab. How did he get this position? How did he rise to the top? How did he, of all situations and places, end up here at this time? How did he protect his conscience? Why he fears God greatly and yet so much so that Jezebel and Ahab don't want to destroy him, kill him. How did he balance that? Again, we need to stop here and think about this for a minute. You think about during this wicked time that God had placed on the throne wicked Ahab, but yet also God had placed within Ahab's house next to the throne, a God-fearing man, Obadiah. You just think about the impact that Obadiah could have had over his whole life. We hear about one instance specifically. But the counsel as he gave to King Ahab and the effects that would have happened and had on the nation. And Obadiah served God above all. He was a servant of God rather than a servant of Ahab. who was placed in this position, placed and prepared there by God for this position, that he would not fear man, but he would fear God above all. Now we pray for those who sit on thrones, who sit in big offices, but also do we pray for those who serve alongside them. It's a strange thing to be able to think about. Those men and women who bring godly counsel to even the most wicked of kings. And Obadiah in this passage is not someone who is told to be evil, although he serves a wicked king. That is clear. And yet, he is not degraded. He is not condemned for holding this position. Actually, he sees that position was actually a good thing for him, as we will see. That's where we come to the third thing that we learn about Obadiah is what he's done during this time. See this clearly in verse 4. And when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water. And so you have Ahab, wicked king Ahab, and evil queen Jezebel. Here she destroys the prophets. Now clearly Obadiah cannot save all the prophets that she goes out and destroys, but here he is. He's not responsible for her actions. But read it again with me. Here Obadiah takes a hundred prophets. He hides them and he feeds them for three years during a time of drought where there's scarce food and water. While he's serving and managing Ahab's household, here he is providing for these a hundred prophets. God provided for Elijah the prophet through a raven, bringing him bread, and a brook, bringing him water, and eventually the unspent jars and jugs of the widow's house at Zarephath. But yet we also see God providing for these prophets, not through a raven, not through a widow, not through miraculous signs, but through ordinary means of a man named Obadiah who goes above and beyond to be able to ensure that these prophets survive. He divides them into two different groups just in case one of them gets destroyed. And here we see God's provision but also God's protection. That God is retaining for himself a remnant even in this unlikely time and situation. While Ahab is out trying to destroy them and Jezebel is seeking to cut them off and kill them, in Ahab's house there's a man placed there by God who's seeking to save them. to destroy them. Again, this is no small task. You think about feeding 100 people for three years during a famine. It's not something you can sneak, just a loaf of bread under your shirt and walk away. It's a tall task, and a task that if Ahab or Jezebel found out about it, you'd be dead. And yet, this is where we find ourselves. Makes you think about who's serving in houses and today. There's God-fearing people protecting God's people when a government or kingdom is actively seeking to be able to destroy them. People in positions where God has placed them to serve God's people. You see this even in the New Testament. Think about Paul's instructions at the end of Philippians as we studied this a month ago or so. It's all of you greatly, especially those in Caesar's household. Caesar was not a great friend to Christians. Elected officials, Romans, and the government weren't great friends to Paul in his missionary journeys. And yet, in that unlikely situation, in that likely place, here there are saints in Caesar's household. Or you just think about Acts chapter 13. You think about this bunch of misfits right in verse one. You had Barnabas, Simeon, Niger, Lucis of Cyrene, Mahanaan, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. Here in this group of people, in Acts chapter 13, you think about this, as they gather together to fast and pray in the church, and you think about Herod the Tetrarch, and again, how he related and dealt with Christians. And yet, one of his friends was here in this prayer meeting that day. In a unlikely situation, a likely place. And you see these three important things that we learn about Obadiah. Now just briefly, is this the same Obadiah that we see that writes the prophecy, that short little one chapter prophecy, Obadiah? Basically, we don't know. Many say it can't be Him because of what we find out in Obadiah. Obadiah speaks very clearly about what happens close to the destruction of Jerusalem later in, and very similar to Jeremiah chapter 49. And so many people say that it can't be Him. Now, I think that's not a very helpful way because often that's how you seek to be able to disprove prophecies in the Bible and just say, well, they have to be written after. They're so accurate and so clear. We talked about this when we saw in the first king of Israel and Jeroboam and the prophecy comes and says, Josiah is going to destroy this place. And people say, well, that cannot be true. because that's exactly what happens in 2 Kings. And the details are so clear, but we understand that God is a God who knows all things, that ordains everything that shall come to pass, that he can prophesy through means like that. So to be able to rule that out, I think is a foolish way to be able to handle that. Now, again, we don't know much about Obadiah. The name Obadiah appeals about 11 times in the Bible and speaks of at least eight different people, if not more. So it's somewhat not a super common name, but just because they've got the same name doesn't mean anything. And again, when we think about it in the terms of being a worshiper of Yahweh or a servant of Yahweh, then we can see why this name might be a little bit more popular. So some try then to be able to link it not to this time, but during the time of Jehoshaphat, the fourth king of Juva after the split in the early stages of the ninth century. Others think Obadiah is the one in this passage here. Generally many scholars kind of think that it's kind of later, like I said, Jeremiah 49 is very similar. We're not told. And so there were speculations. Up for debate, I think the Bible is inerrant word of God. And we're not told in the inerrant word of God, so we don't know inerrantly who Obadiah is specifically. So I mean it would make a great sermon, right, if we saw that this man who confronts who works in Ahab's is the one who writes the prophecy against Edom. But again, it's a common name. So then what about this conversation with this Obadiah? What does Ahab say to Obadiah? We see this in verses 5 and 6, Ahab said to Obadiah, go through the land to the springs of water and to all the valleys perhaps we may find grass to save the horses and mules alive and not lose some of the animals. So they divided the land between them to pass through it and Ahab went in one direction by himself and Obadiah went in another direction by himself. So we are told at the end of verse 2 that the famine was very severe in Samaria and we find out how severe it actually is. It was so severe that they had to go looking for water and grass for their animals. Now again, we looked at this last time when we met the widow. It's quite common for us to be able to see that famine would affect a widow's household. Someone who is unable to be able to glean any fields because there's nothing from growing, they don't have an abundance of wealth to be able to purchase things. She's on death's door, we can understand that. But here, the famine is so severe that it started to reach the king's household. Now you've got to think about this when we think about those desperate times. Again, Marie Antoinette, the queen consort of Louis XVI of France, you remember what she said, let them eat cake. She didn't really understand the desperate times they found themselves in. Often perceived to be able to show the indifference, lack of understanding of the difference between those who sit in high positions with great wealth compared to the poverty of those who are in society. But here, the famine is so severe that Ahab does not have grass for his horses. So what he needs to do is he needs to go find it. But also not merely that they need to go find it, that Ahab himself is looking, and he's called the chief of staff to be able to go looking for him. Now, we know a little bit about Jezebel, and maybe we understand why he said, I'll go look for grass, and he leaves the home, but specifically, we're seeing something of desperate times, and looking all over the land. specifically for springs of water in the valleys. Now maybe this is why Elijah was sent from the Berkureth to Zarephath, is because here they're going looking in those places. Then in verse six, we see that they divide themselves up, the land between them to be able to go pass through it. Ahab goes one direction, Obadiah goes another. And so they draw a line down the middle and say, you go this way, I'll go this way. But again, just the providence in the situation and circumstance, a lot is cast in the lap, but the Lord, every decision is from the Lord. Why is this interesting? Because in verse seven, as we see next week, as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him. Again, providence, the encounters that come to pass. Again, what an encouraging passage as we think about how Obadiah, a man who feared God greatly, used by God in such a great way, who feared God from his youth, who saved the lives of these at least 100 prophets that we're told of, and yet many people would not know what he did, what he has done, how he served God. Again, we don't know much based on these few verses here. But we see how his role as a servant of God, even in the most wicked house of Ahab. And it's true, the world changes through great and extraordinary men doing great and extraordinary things. That which people write biographies about, their strong personalities, their persistence and their ability to be able to carry out and do what they are tasked to be able to do. But yet, God also uses in his world, And more often than not, through ordinary men and women, serving God in the places where God has placed them. And the truth of the matter is that we don't know all the stories. We don't even know all the stories about Obadiah. We're told three things about him, basically. We don't know the names of the hundred people that Obadiah saved. who he hid, who he fed. Potentially some of these prophets might even be the prophets that write prophecies against Israel and they have a book of the Bible named after them that we wouldn't have an idea that they're the ones that Obadiah hid. And so to today we don't know the extent of God's providence throughout all the world in the houses and kingdoms and offices, parliaments, of God, people God has placed there. When we think about who runs the show visually, who we see making and calling the shots, again God is sovereign over all, but yet we have no idea who is serving God by their side, beside the wicked rulers. I think a great encouragement as we think of how we see and what we see in the world, basically what we don't see in the world. But also a great challenge for us as we think about where God has placed us. How we as ordinary men and women can serve God in an ordinary way. That we above all would fear God greatly. that we would seek to be able to carry out, to be able to help God's people, either to protect them, to pray for them, that we can serve God unseen and yet faithful. A great motto for us to be able to live by. Thank you for listening to this sermon from Seven Springs Presbyterian Church. If you want to learn more about us, please find us on Facebook or visit us at sevenspringspresbyterian.com. Seven Springs Presbyterian Church began in 1874 and is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America located in Glade Spring, Virginia. Please join us for worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. for His glory and His gospel.