Set up. As you can see, we'll be talking about Elijah, and particularly some events after Martin Carmel. The Martin Carmel event in Elijah's life is pretty famous. I personally have known about this story since I learned about it in Sunday school as a very young kid. And I had the pleasure of teaching it to Sunday school class recently, and I saw some things as I was studying for it that really kind of raised some questions and piqued my curiosity, so when I was asked to communicate with me about speaking, I decided to do a deep dive into Elijah, and I was very, very encouraged. I found some, by looking closely at the stuff, I learned some new things about Elijah, stuff that I didn't know until now, and I'm very, very encouraged, not only by who Elijah is, what he was and how God, he was treated by the Lord. And as you'll see in this situation, the events after Mark Carmel. So one of the verses I came across while studying was James 5.17. And the first part, James 5.17a reads, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. So when I say the name Elijah, I don't know about you, but I start, I think about the highlights of his ministry. Powerful miracles, praying for no rain, and then praying that it would rain. The incredible events on Mount Carmel, raising the widow's son from the dead, being fed supernaturally by ravens for years, for a long time, and then supernaturally leaving this earth in a fiery chariot with fiery horses. We also know that Elijah is one of the people that stood at the transfiguration of Christ with Moses and Jesus Christ and God himself. So, Elijah, a man with a nature like ours. So in this context, let's take a look at what happened after Martin Carmel. What stood out to me this time is Elijah had a rough time. We're going to see that he's going to go through a rough time. He had a high spiritual, a very spiritual high, and then a very spiritual low. We're going to see how he reacted to this, what he did, and how he rebounded from this. And we're going to see how it affects the rest of his life. So, let's get on with it and let's take a look at what he did. Technical difficulties here. His job. Elijah was a prophet of God to the nation of Israel. He was born in the region of Gilad, which is west of the Jordan River. of a village called Tishbe. He lived 116 years before Christ. He had complete faith in God. He was very active, very courageous. He had a burning zeal for the one true God, and he was a prophet for about 25 years. Elijah bursts onto the scene in 1 Kings 17, verse 1. There's nothing said about him until this verse. And when he shows up, he comes in with a bang. 1 Kings 17, verse 1. And Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead said to Ahab, As the Lord of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall be no dew or rain these years except at my word. So here he is. There's no introduction here. He didn't work anything up. He just said, that's it. No rain or dew. Other scriptures that show us he was a prophet, and he's not some guy just walking up to King Ahab, is in chapter 18, 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 present yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the earth. So we know that he is a prophet of God and he is a prophet to the nation of Israel specifically. So let's look at his work environment. To say the least, Okay, I'm sorry. Backwards. His work environment was hostile, very hostile. We've seen Ahab here. Ahab is considered to be the most wicked king of Israel, and that is not something to be very proud of. There's a long list of wicked kings in Israel, and he's the most wicked. We know from the Bible, 1 Kings 16, 29, and 33, an overview of Ahab is this. In the 38th year of King Asa, king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel and Samaria for 22 years. Now Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. And it came to pass as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. He took a wife, Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbal, king of the Sidians, and he went and served Baal and worshipped him. Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he built in Samaria. And Ahab made a wooden image. Ahab did more to bevoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. 1 Kings 21 verse 25 says this about Ahab. There was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord. No one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness. Interactions that are recorded for us between Ahab and Elijah are very, very hostile. 1 Kings 21 20 says, Ahab says to Elijah, you have found me, my enemy. And Elijah answers back, I have found you because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord. If you look in your Bibles, 1 Kings 18, 17 through 19 records another interaction. Then it happened when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said to him, is that you, O troubler of Israel? This word trouble means to entangle, or put in discord, or bring disaster, or to bring ruin. It's also in the active voice. Ahab is accusing Elijah of actively being a disturbance, trying to ruin the nation of Israel. And Elijah, being Elijah, answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have. in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals. Now therefore, and we will see you gather all of Israel to me among Carmel." These guys did not like each other. Ahab and Jezebel, as king and queen of Israel, were actively leading the nation of Israel in the worship of false gods. Now Ahab certainly didn't have what you'd call a righteous father figure to look up to, but I wanted to know what the environment was nationally going on here. And was Ahab just doing, you know, doing what everybody else did? But the fact is, is Ahab, as king of Israel, the kings of Judah that reigned during his entire 22 years were both righteous kings. King Asa and just Josaphat are recorded in the Bible as both righteous kings. Speaking of Abasah, and he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as did his father. And he banished the perverted person from the land, removed all the idols that his father's made. And he removed Maka, his grandmother, from being a queen mother because she had made an obscene image. And he cut down obscene images and burned them. No, so Asa reigns, and then his son Jehoshaphat takes over, and Jehoshaphat is recorded for us in 1 Kings, and he walked in the ways of his father Asa, and did not turn aside from them, doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord. So both kings to the south during Ahab's rule were considered righteous kings by the Lord. So up in Israel, or the kingdom of Israel, Ahab and Jezebel are actually leading the worship. In verse 31, In 1st Kings 16 it says, and it came to pass as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jerome, to walk in the sins. So it was kind of like Baal worship and false worship wasn't just, wasn't enough. It was kind of whatever, that's just an everyday thing. You know, it was, so, so it was just a trivial thing for him to be leading the nation in the worship of false gods. He also married part of this, he married Jezebel, who was a princess from the neighbor nation, and she worshipped, who worshipped Baal, who was a Canaanite storm god. It's said in the, it's said this about Ahab, He was exceedingly righteous, more righteous than all his predecessors. He married a wicked woman, a woman, who he knew he would bring worship to Baal, and he seemed to marry her for that design. He didn't have to marry her, but he did that so that they were kind of partners in leading the nation of Israel in false worship. Speaking of Jezebel, Jezebel, who's the queen at this time, used her position as queen to murder the prophets of the Lord and Naboth. 1 Kings 18.4 records for us, for so it was while Jezebel massacred the prophets of the Lord. And then we see that a servant of Ahab named Obadiah, if you read the rest of the verse, had taken 150 of the prophets and hidden them. But Jezebel, Ahab, is not credited with the murder of the prophets. The Lord Jezebel is. And we know from other scripture that she had no problem using devious ways to kill to get what she wanted. 1 Kings 21, 1-15 records for us the fact that Naboth was murdered because Ahab wanted his vineyard. And Jezebel went and got it for him. you want to read that story that's in First Kings 21. This is something new that I kind of figured Ahab and Elijah kind of had this back-and-forth banter type of thing, but there was a little bit of a, I'll leave you alone if you leave me alone type of thing. And we find out in 1 Corinthians 18, verse 7, that Ahab hunted for Elijah in every nation and every kingdom. So the gist of this, 18 verse 7 through 10, Elijah presents himself to this Obadiah, who's servant of King Ahab. Ahab and Obadiah are out looking for grass for their animals. And all of a sudden, Elijah is there in front of Obadiah, and they have a conversation. If you want to read that, it's in 1 Kings 18. So, but Elijah says to Obadiah, go tell your master Ahab that I am here, Elijah is here. And Obadiah jacks, he goes, you're going to have me go tell him that, you're going to disappear and Ahab's going to kill me. So, verse 10 says, Obadiah is talking to Elijah, he says, as the Lord our God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to hunt for you. And when they said he is not here, he took an oath from that kingdom and nation that they could not find him. So Ahab was seriously looking for Elijah. It wasn't just a, you leave me alone, I'll leave you alone type of thing. He was seriously hunting him down during these three and a half years. So this is when we come to, as our Lord lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to hunt for you. So, now we come to the famous part. Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal. First Kings 18, 19, Elijah is talking to Ahab and he says, send and gather all of Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table. So he finds Ahab and he tells him to bring all the people and all the prophets of Baal to Mount Carmel. And once he gets up there, as is recorded for us in 1 Kings 18 verses 20 through 40, so Ahab and all the people of Israel are on Mount Carmel, and Elijah then challenges the people. And he challenges, and this is what he says, starting in verse 20. So he sets up a test and he proposes a test and this test is The one true God set up an altar, make a sacrifice, but do not put fire to it. The one true God will burn up the sacrifice. So after 12 hours of the prophets of Baal of doing their thing, I like verse 27 here, kind of gives us a look at what Elijah's personality here. So it was noon, verse 27, 1827, that Elijah mocked them and said, cry aloud for he is a god. He is either meditating or is he busy, or is he on a journey? Perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened. So they cried aloud and cut themselves as was their custom. Then the midday passed and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. There was no voice, no one answered, no one paid attention. Then Elijah said to the people, come to me. So all the people came to him. He repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. He took 12 stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob. When the stones were built in the name of the Lord, he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two Two seeds of seed. He put wood in the order, cut the bowl in pieces, laid it on wood, and said, fill four water pots with water, pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. Then he said, do it a second time. And they did it a second time. He said, do it a third time. And he did it a third time. So the water ran all the way around the altar and filled the trench with water. And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and prayed and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let this day know that you are God in Israel, and I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that these people may know that you are the Lord God, that you have turned their hearts back to you again. Then fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the dust, and it looked up the water that was in the trench. Then when all the people saw it, they fell on their face and said, The Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. Then Elijah said to them, Seize the prophets of Baal. Do not let one of them escape. So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook of Kirshan and executed them there. So what are the results of this test? All the people say the Lord is the true God. The immediate result are all the people say the Lord is the true God. Verse 39, then all the people saw it and they fell on their faces. And they said, the Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God. Huge victory for Elijah here. He just proved Who is the one and true God? All the people thought. They're all chanting, the Lord, He is God, the Lord, He is God. Second thing that happened is all the false prophets of Baal are killed. All the false prophets are seized and killed. This is according to the Mosaic Law. Deuteronomy 13.5 says, But that a prophet or a dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken an order to turn you away from the Lord your God. So shall you put away the evil from your midst. Deuteronomy 18.20 says, But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, and who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. So this was kept according to the Mosaic Law. Thirdly, the result is Elijah tells Ahab that the drought is over and he goes and prays for rain. And Elijah says to Ahab, go up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of an abundance of rain. Then Elijah went to the top of Mount Carmel, he bowed down to the ground, put his face between his knees, and he said to his servants, go up now and look toward the sea. So he went up and looked, and there is nothing. And seven times he said, go again. And it came to pass the seventh time, he said, there is a cloud, as small as a man's hand, rising out of the sea. So he said, go up, say to Ahab, prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you. Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was heavy rains. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel. And the hand of the God came upon Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. So these are the immediate results of the test. The drought is over. All the people are chanting, the Lord, he is God. The prophets of Baal are killed. Not everybody's happy with these results, though. One of the results, Jezebel threatens to kill Elijah by the next day. Chapter 19, verse 1. So Ahab gets back to the city, which is about 20 miles. Mount Carmel to the city is what I read. And then Ahab tells Jezebel that all that Elijah had done and how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a message to Elijah saying, let the God do to me and more so if I do not make your life as one of them by tomorrow about this time. So what struck me here was the hard-hardness of Jezebel here. Absolutely hard heart. Her gods had just been proven false. All her prophets had just been killed. The entire, all the people are, saying the Lord, He is God, not Baal, and she threatens to kill Elijah. Now, she can't do anything against God, so she's going after the messenger. And she basically says, by this time tomorrow, I'm going to kill you. Now, I was kind of surprised at first at this, but the more I thought about it, I shouldn't be surprised. The Bible is full of people. and nations that have revealed truth available to them and they still reject God, and they hostilely reject God. In a sense, they can't do anything to God. They become very hostile to God, to God's people. This has been seen throughout the Bible and throughout history over and over again. The other thing that I thought about here was the people's response to this threat. Now, we have nothing recorded for them, even if they even knew about it, but I was kind of, it's kind of discouraging about this situation here. Elijah just proved the Lord, he is God. The wicked queen is threatening his life, and we have absolutely radio silence from the people. Where are these people now? Where did they go? Did they even know about the threat to Elijah's life? Were they too busy? Three and a half years of drought had just ended that day. Were they out in the fields planting? Were they having a partying because the drought is over? I don't know. We can speculate what was going on, but we have no idea what the crowds were thinking here. The very same people that were chanting, the Lord, he is God, we have nothing recorded for us about what they said. One of the things I thought is maybe these people were extremely afraid of Jezebel and Ahab. But as I thought about this, I go, there's examples in the Bible for us where the crowds kind of changed minds of the authorities. When the nation of Israel wanted a king, they demanded a king. This is recorded for us in 1 Samuel 8, 1-22. They went to Samuel and said, we want a king to be like the rest of the other nations. And Samuel said, you're not going to like it. There's all these things. You're going to get taxes. They're going to take your kids. They're going to take a tenth of your food. And they're like, we don't care. We want a king. Verse 19 says, Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, No, but we will have a king over us, that we may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. So the Lord said to Samuel, Heed their voice, make them a king. The most famous pressure from a crowd, somebody bowing to the crowd, is the trial of Jesus. The crowd, The authorities wanted to do one thing, the crowd wanted another thing, and they let their will be known. And they let it be known loudly, and the authorities changed their minds. Luke 23, 13 through 25 records us when Pilate had gathered together the chief priests and rulers and people and said, you have brought to me this man as one who misleads the people. Indeed, I have examined your presence and found no fault in this man of the things you accuse him of. Neither did Herod. I will therefore chastise him and release him. And they all cried at once, saying, Away with this man, release to us Barabbas. Pilate, therefore wishing to release Jesus, called out to them again, but they shouted, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. A third time, Pilate says, Why, what evil has he done? I have found no reason for death for him. Therefore I will chastise him and let him go. But they insisted, demanding with loud voices that he be crucified. And the voices of these men and the chief priest prevailed." So again, I don't know what the crowds in Jezreel, the people that had been on Mount Carmel were thinking or even they knew about it, but I just thought I wanted to contrast the radio silence of the population versus these two examples where crowds changed the leaders' minds. So let's take a look at Elijah's response. Elijah's response, he runs with his servant to a city in Judah on the southern border. back in 1 Kings 19, verse 3. And then when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life and went to Beersheba, which belongs in Judah, and left his servant there. We know at this time the kingdom of Judah is being ruled by a righteous king. But he still does not feel safe, so he leaves his servant in the southernmost border city in Judah, and he goes out into the wilderness. He travels one day of the wilderness and prays. Now this is the guy that, last time we heard from him, is yelling at the, talking about the prophet Baal and how he needs to be woken up. And here's what he's, the next thing we hear from him is in 1 Kings 19 verse 4. And he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, It is enough now, Lord. Take my life, for I am no better than my father's." So he goes out into the desert or into the wilderness, sits down and prays, and he wants to die. And he prays to God that he might die, because he's failed to turn the hearts of Israel away from worshiping false gods. We have recorded for us after this prayer, he falls asleep, but he's awakened by an angel to food and water. Verse five. Then he lay and slept under a broom tree and suddenly an angel touched him and said, arise and eat. Then he looked and there at his head was a cake baked on coals and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him. Arise and eat because the journey is too great for you. Here we see that the Lord is graciously providing him food and water because the journey is too great for him. And this journey is 40 days and nights. So he has two meals and for the next 40 days and nights he goes on these two meals and he ends up at Mount Sinai. So he's running for the next 40 days. Verse 8 says, So he arose, ate, and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the ancient, the mountain of God. Now a direct trip from where he was to Mount Sinai is by walking is 14 days. So if he walked it directly, it's about 200 miles, it's 14 days. So why the 40 days and 40 nights? I believe it's because he thought or thinks that he was being chased. And so he's out in the desert and if you think somebody's chasing you, you kind of make big circles and backtrack and see who's coming behind you, right? And the other thing is what's amazing about this gracious supply that the angel gives him is he can avoid eating or drinking for 40 days. Now if I was in a desert and I'm looking for somebody, the first place I'm going is the local well. And I'm going to sit there. I know Moses, when he ran away from the king of Egypt, that's where he was found. He was found at a well because he needed to drink. So for 40 days and 40 nights, Elijah is running from people that are probably hunting him down, looking for him, and he's able to avoid all of them. because of these two meals. I just thought that was pretty amazing. The other thing I thought about this was God allowed and enables Elijah to get some time and distance from the situation. The last thing we heard from Elijah, he's like, just kill me. I'm worthless, I'm useless, just kill me. So these 40 days and nights, in my opinion, are a little bit of get some distance, actually miles between you and the situation, and get some time between you and the situation before the Lord takes some time to communicate with him. We see that he reaches In verse 9, we see that Elijah feels safe enough to stop and get a good night's rest. And this is the time when God confronts Elijah and asks him a question. Verse 9, And then he went into a cave, spent the night in that place. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. And he said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah? So he asked the question, what are you doing here? Verse 10 is Elijah's answers. And he had said, I am very zealous for the Lord God of hosts and for the children of Israel. For the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, tore down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take my life. So Elijah's answer to this question is the truth as he saw it. I am very zealous for the Lord God of hosts. The children of Israel have forsaken your covenant. True. They have torn down your altars. True. They have killed your prophets with the sword. True. They seek to take my life. Notice the change from just kill me dead because I'm useless to what the real problem here is. I think this is part of the 40 days is Elijah is able to speak truthfully to what's really bothering him. And the Lord graciously encourages them. I'm sorry, the nation of Israel had forsaken, and he was the only one left, and they were trying to kill him. And so the Lord answers this. The Lord demonstrates his power over creation. Verse 11. And then he said, go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake. But the Lord was not in an earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, a still small voice. The Lord shows Elijah that he works in different ways. He can do the big powerful stuff or he can do the small still voice. Verse 13, So it was when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah? Then Elijah repeats what he said before, the very same thing. We also see that the Lord tells Elijah the real truth and sends him back. 1 Kings 19, 15-18, And the Lord said to him, Go, return your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, anoint Hazil over king of Syria, and when you also anoint Jeru the son of Nephesh over king of Israel, and Elisha the son of these people, and shall anoint as a prophet in your place. And it shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hashel, Jeru will kill. Whoever escapes the sword of Jeru, Elisha will kill. Verse 18. Yet I have reserved 7,000 in Israel. all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him." So Elijah thinks that he's alone. It's nobody but him. He's alone. That's the truth as he understands it. And we hear from the Lord, the real truth is that there's 7,000 in Israel that have not worshiped Baal. Elijah's not alone. So Elijah, after Mount Sinai, he anoints a successor, Elisha. Goes back and does verse 19, 19 verse 19. He departed there and found Elisha and anointed him. We see that at the end of his life, he is taken to heaven on a fiery chariot. 2 Kings 2 11 record for us when it happened as they continued and talked and suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire and separated the two of them and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. He appears in Luke 9 verse 28 through 33 at the transfiguration of Christ. And it came to pass, Peter, John, and James went up to the mountain to pray. And as they prayed, the appearance of his face was altered, Jesus' face, and his robe became white and glistening. And behold, two men talked with him, who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his decease, which he was about to clomp beside Jerusalem. So Elijah, We see this is what happened after his encouraging talk with the Lord, after his running for his life to Mount Sinai. There's lots of stuff I have questions for Elijah, like what happened in those three and a half years, what happened after, some fill-in-the-blank stuff. I'm gonna have to wait to heaven to talk to him about that. We know for sure that Elijah's in heaven just by from Luke 9 for sure. There's somebody's in heaven. We know for sure Elijah's in heaven. So I'm gonna, I would, after this study, I would like to sit down with Elijah in heaven and have a conversation about his life in Israel at this time. And if you want to have the same conversation as Elijah, you have to be saved. Heaven is a gift of God. Eternal life in heaven is a gift of God for those who believe in Christ alone, by faith alone. And to wrap this up, let's turn in our Bibles to James chapter five, please. What was encouraging to me in this story, the aftermath of Mount Carmel, is the character of God in dealing with Elijah. He had a phenomenal, great victory, spiritual victory on Mount Carmel. He was used to do awesome things for the Lord. He stopped the rain for three and a half years, proved that Baal was a false god, proved that the Lord was a true God. He prayed for rain and it came. We also saw that he was a man, that he had some things and some people that made him afraid. We know that from the Bible that Elijah, for whatever reason, Jezebel, Elijah was afraid of Jezebel. It could be because she had the power. She had killed the prophets of God. She had no problem doing what she needed to do to kill. And so he ran for his life. And even in the midst of running for his life, the Lord graciously provided what Elijah needed to get to where he needed to be, so the Lord could talk to him. He was miraculously given two meals that sustained him for 40 days and nights, and the time he needed to clear his head. I like how the Lord encouraged him by reminding him of the power of the Lord at Mount Sinai. He also showed Elijah that, I have different, multiple ways of doing stuff. I'm not, I just don't have to be a big show. Sometimes it's just a small voice. He corrected the thinking of Elijah by telling him the truth as the Lord thought and not as Elijah thought. Now, I don't know about you, but I can personally relate to this. And this story made Elijah more real to me as a human and the Lord more real to me. I have been through, and I'm pretty sure you have been through, highs, spiritual triumphs, only to be brought low the next day, or next week, or the next month, by something or someone in your life, a Jezebel in your life. It could be a person, it could be a situation, where the day before, the week before, You're having a spiritual triumph and everything spiritually is going great. And then now you're like, why God? Why am I still here? This Christian life is terrible. I'm tired. I just want to be done. So something or somebody will send, you know, and it's different for everybody. What I could really, doesn't bother me one bit, may send you running for the hills. What doesn't bother you guys at all may send me running for the hills. We do know, though, that the Lord is, as we can see from Elijah here, that the Lord is gracious to give us what we need and the time so we can get to the end of ourselves. He never overwhelms us. to the point we cannot escape. And through the Bible today, he speaks to us, encouraging words, truth, and promises about himself. So we can be encouraged and we can carry on again and do the will of the Lord for us in our lives. This study of the life of Elijah for me was very encouraging on how I saw that he was, as James 5.17 says, a man with a nature like ours. And even though that's what caught my eye on this, as I read the context of James 5.17, let's back up to verse 15. and the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another. Pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." James uses Elijah as an example of a righteous man's prayer availing much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months." Elijah, a man with a nature like ours, ups and downs, prayed earnestly and it did not rain because he was a righteous man. Very encouraging to me, I hope is very encouraging to you. That is Elijah after Mount Carmel. Let's have a word of prayer. Jeremy, Father, thank you for this episode in Elijah's life, recorded first in the Bible, that we can look at it and study it and see who Elijah was and who you are and how you encouraged him and gave him the power to do what he needed to do. And even though we saw low points in Elijah's life, Tonight we know that He bounced back and used mightily by you, and He will. And just thank you for the example recorded for us in the Old Testament. In Jesus' name, Amen.