Please turn with me in your copy of the scriptures to 1 Kings chapter 18. This evening we'll read the entirety of this new chapter, though we will focus only on the first six verses. The context of the latter verses are helpful for setting the scene. 1 Kings chapter 18, reading verses 1-19, you'll find this on page 380 on your Pew Bible. Hear now the word of the Lord. 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 the famine was severe in Samaria and 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 of water and to all the valleys. Perhaps we 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. And as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him. And Obadiah recognized him and fell on his face and said, Is it you, my Lord Elijah? And he answered him, It is I. Go tell your Lord. Behold, Elijah is here. And he said, How have I sinned? that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab to kill me. As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my Lord has not sent to seek you. And when they would say, he is not here, he would take an oath of the kingdom or nation that they had not found you. And now you say, go tell your Lord, behold, Elijah is here. And as soon as I have gone from you, the spirit of the Lord will carry you. I know not where. And so when I come to tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me. Although I, your servant, have feared the Lord from my youth. Has it not been told my Lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord? How I hid a hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water. And now you say, go tell your Lord, behold, Elijah is here and he will kill me. And Elijah said, as the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, is it you, you troubler of Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you have and your father's house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. Now, therefore, send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, this is your word. Would you bless your people in their hearing and be with me in its preaching, that we would know you and serve you, Lord, and keep your commandments. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. This is now the third time the word of the Lord has come to Elijah. The first time is recorded in the beginning of chapter 17. There, the word of the Lord came to Elijah, commanding him to depart and to hide himself by the brook Kerith, which is east of Jordan. And in that word, the Lord promised Elijah that the ravens would feed him there. And so Elijah went to Kerith, drank from the brook and ate the food which was brought by the ravens morning and evening, day by day. until the brook dried up. This was the first sign of the curse being fulfilled. At that time, when the brook dried up, the word of the Lord came to Elijah a second time, commanding him to arise and go to Zarephath, a city which belonged to Sidon. And in that word, the Lord promised that he had commanded a widow to feed him there. So he went to Zarephath and stayed with the woman, and over the last several sermons we've been considering that text. How she and he and her household ate for many days from the jar and from the jug. And now, for the third time, the word of the Lord came to Elijah. We're told it's in the third year. And the third year is a relative time marker. It's not an actual date. something something BCE. It's indicating an approximate duration between the first occasion when the word of the Lord came to Elijah and this third occasion. During this period of time Elijah had lived at the brook by Kerith and then after with the widow at Zarephath and how long he stayed at either location is not exact or certain but the total time exceeded more than two years. The brook by Kerith Of course, it was a seasonal water source, a stream that would have dried up in drought in a matter of months. So probably, given the drought, most of this time was spent in Sidon with the Zarephathian widow. Now, when the word of the Lord came to Elijah on those previous occasions, this is what I want us to focus on first this evening, they contain both commands which he was to obey as well as promises which he was to receive and to believe. For example, the Lord commanded Elijah to depart from here. He said, arise. He said, go to Zarephath. All of those were imperatives by which the Lord was telling Elijah what he absolutely must do. And in this respect, the word of the Lord which comes to Elijah in the third year now is no different. It also begins with a command, go, show yourself to Ahab. Actually, there are two commands here. It's a two-fold command. Go and show yourself and the implied connection between them is one of purpose. This is implied in verse 1. It's made explicit by the narrator in verse 2. Elijah must go in order to show himself to Ahab. Well, after these commands, we might expect to find another promise. Such has been the case in both the previous two occasions. When the word of the Lord first came to Elijah, he guaranteed, I have commanded the ravens to feed you. On the second occasion, he assured Elijah, I have commanded a widow to feed you. And in both examples, the Lord's actions were expressed as definitive and complete, already done. Not I will or I may command, but I have commanded." But when the word of the Lord comes to Elijah in the third year saying, go show yourself to Ahab and I will send rain upon the earth, we see something different. First notice the word, I will send, is imperfect, signifying incomplete action. Not I have sent. I will send. The Lord hasn't done it yet. Secondly, notice the same word. You can't really see this in English, but it's marked by what's called a cohortative suffix. What that means, it signifies an expression of volition or willingness. In other words, the Lord wants to send rain, but he has not yet and he still may not. Thirdly, and perhaps this is most important, this expression follows an imperative which implies the Lord's revealed desire to send rain is contingent on or consequent to one or more previous preconditions. And the first and most immediate condition we see is Elijah's own obedience. He must go to show himself to Ahab, then the Lord will send rain. And yet, in the broader context, we should realize that there is a second condition. Think back to the beginning of chapter 17, after Elijah had pronounced the covenant curse of drought upon the land before the king. What did he say? He said, as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years. except by my word. Elijah has been praying fervent and precatory prayers for many years. He's been calling down covenant curses. And the second condition that we should be looking for is that he would stop doing so and start praying for rain. As long as he keeps praying for the Lord to withhold the dew and the rain, there will continue to be drought in the land. And it will not be until he stops praying for drought and starts praying for rain that the Lord will then pour out rain upon the land. There is a third condition. Remember, all of this began really at the end of chapter 16. We're given the biographical summary of Ahab's reign. All of this began because Ahab led Israel into idolatrous sin. He took Jezebel, the daughter of Ephel, to be his wife. He went and served Baal. Worse than this, he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria, the capital of Israel. He led the Lord's people to worship this false pagan god. And in all this he violated the Lord's covenant law. The Lord is willing to send rain. He even wants to. He's desirous to do it. He's willing even before Ahab or the people have repented But these three conditions must be met before he will do so. First, Elijah must go and show himself to Ahab. Then there must be repentance from sin. If not by Ahab, then at least by the people. And finally, Elijah must pray for rain. Only then for the Lord send it upon the earth. Now in the Old Testament, rain was one of several blessings which the Lord promised to his people provided they kept his commandments and repented when they failed. The Lord wasn't looking for perfection. This wasn't even how his people were saved. He had already redeemed them. but he desired to bless them in the land, to do them earthly good. His purpose in offering these blessings was really to encourage his people to live holy and godly lives that would glorify him but were in fact good for themselves. He wanted to discourage the destructive sin patterns and to teach his people the way of blessing is the way of obedience and that's not legalism. It's biblical Christianity. Now, we expect already that Elijah will obey. We've seen him go through this pattern three times now, twice before we're looking at the third. We're not really worried about Elijah. Twice already, the word of the Lord has come to him, and he's obeyed both times. He's got a good track record. The third time's no different. The first half of verse 2 records the beginning of his obedience. So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab, He hasn't shown himself to Ahab yet, but he's on the way. He's not going to show himself till the very end of this passage. It'll probably take us several more sermons to get there, but he's started. Verses 1 and the first half of verse 2 teach us an important truth about the Lord, namely that he desires to bless his people. Let me take a moment before we move on to apply these verses practically and directly. First, if you're a member of the Lord's people, a member of His covenant people, His covenant community, whether as a covenant child by one or more professing adult believers, or you're a professing member, a communing member, remember that the Lord's desire is to bless His people. That is what He wants to do. He wants to bless you. You know, one of my favorite parts of our worship services on the Lord's Day, morning and evening, is the very end, the benediction. It's not a prayer. It's a pronouncement, actually, of God's blessing upon His people. And what are the blessings with which He blesses us? Or is it not, as we heard this morning in our scripture reading, everything good that you may do His will? See, what the Lord wants to give you is every spiritual grace in Christ that you could possibly need so that you can serve Him in holiness. So first, remember that the Lord's desire is to bless you. But secondly, never forget that He will do so on His own terms. He is blessed and His desire is to bless, but He is absolutely sovereign. As His people, we are always subject to Him and to His covenant conditions. And so if you are not repenting, believing and following Jesus, the Lord will not bless you. No, he will discipline you just as he is disciplining Israel and Ahab now. You know, sometimes he disciplines with natural consequences, not natural as if God's not involved, but providentially he uses the natural order of things to discipline his people. That's what we're really seeing now with the withholding of the reign. And it's not so different even now, right? If you commit acts of sexual immorality or indulge in drunkenness, often the case is you get diseases. You end up with conditions. That's a natural consequence. Sometimes the Lord exercises his discipline through families. Often this is the case with children. You lie or disrespect or dishonor your parents and there is discipline. The Lord uses families and especially parents to do so. Other times he does so through the church, through formal admonitions, suspension from the Lord's Supper, excommunication. But often the word Often the worst form of discipline is simply the Lord withholding His blessing. That's what we have really here. It's not merely a natural consequence. It's the withholding of what God would otherwise give. When Ahab led the people into sin, the Lord could have sent fire from heaven. In fact, we're going to see in a few verses fire from heaven. He could have consumed their fields supernaturally and brought about famine in other ways, more direct. That's not what he does. He simply withholds the blessing of rain such that there's drought and then famine. I just remember these things. Who knows what spiritual blessings the Lord is withholding from you or from your family or from this church because you refuse to repent. The Lord's desire is to bless, but he requires us to repent. And until we do, spiritual blessings will be withheld. I think parents understand something of how this works in a very material way, right? Your children are disobeying, and so perhaps you take away the tablet or all the toys, and you're teaching your children how to walk in obedience for their own good. The Lord's not so different in His discipline, is He? He will withhold His blessings if that is what's necessary. Well, verses 1 and the first half of verses 2 reveal the Lord's sovereignty to bless, and then verses 2, the last part of verse 2 through 6, show us His severity to curse. It's been many days, more than two years, since the narrator's shown us anything about Israel, and so we might be curious. How are things in the land? And the answer is, not good. The famine, we are told, was severe in Samaria. Now, we shouldn't be surprised that there's famine in the land. There's been a drought for over two years. But what should surprise us is that it's severe in Samaria. Even in Samaria, the capital city of Israel, It's now being seriously affected. Under normal circumstances, obviously, the capital city would be well fortified with supplies. It would have vast food reserves for the king and for his household, his military and government officials, even the ordinary citizens who lived within its walls. But now we can all but guess that these things have been consumed. It's severe in Samaria. Well, how severe was this famine? Well, it's bad enough that even Ahab's own household was starting to feel its effects. So just think about the whole land of Israel and as famine, as drought is taking hold of the land and then the consequences of famine and it's going through the land and now even in the capital city that would have had the most insulation and resources to survive a famine. Even the city is being afflicted, but not just the city, now even the king's household is starting to feel it. Even as the city's regular people in the city would have been suffering famine, surely the king himself would have his own resources for himself and for his own needs. You know, famine tends to kill the very young and the very old. the weak and especially the poor first. But we know that Ahab was a mighty man and that he was a king. He's both strong and rich and no doubt he felt very secure for a very long time, comfortable even during lean times and in famine. But after several years of drought even Ahab is feeling it in his household and so he calls Obadiah This Obadiah is not likely to be the author of the prophetic book. It's a different Obadiah. This one's not a prophet. Rather, he's an over-the-household. That is, he's a servant. He's a chief steward. He's a head housekeeper. He's responsible for overseeing the management of Ahab's estate. He supervises the servants, manages the supplies, and everybody's favorite job description, other duties as assigned. As the chief steward, it's evident that he did his job well. You don't get to that position very easily. Probably he was promoted several times before he reached such a high rank. He'd likely been serving in Ahab's household for many years, and so it's unlikely that he was unfamiliar with the sins of Ahab's household. He did his best not to participate in them, And on one occasion at least, he actively sought to hinder sin. And the narrator interrupts Ahab's call to briefly introduce the reader more fully to Obadiah. And the first thing he tells us is that Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. Of course, that's in stark contrast to Ahab, who seemed to not fear the Lord at all. Obadiah, we're told, feared him greatly. And first, we might not think very much of this description. Isn't the Bible full of people described as fearing the Lord? At some level, yes. Job is called as one who feared God. Abraham, we're told, feared God. Joseph feared God. And yet, Obadiah is the only person in all of Scripture I could find who is described as fearing the Lord greatly. The Israelites feared the Egyptians greatly. They feared greatly for their lives, but only Obadiah is ever said to have feared the Lord greatly. What a thing to have on the history books about you. So great was his fear for the Lord that 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. Jezebel, you'll remember, is that evil Sidonian princess. We were introduced at the end of chapter 16. Ahab married her. She was the daughter of Ephel, the king of Sidon. and her father was formerly a priest of Astarte before he committed an act of regicide, killing his king and taking over. Not a good family to marry into. Obviously, Jezebel was very zealous for her religion. The word translated cut off here does not simply mean to kill. I think sometimes we read that and we gloss it as such. She killed the prophets. Bad, but okay. It means to thoroughly sever. It's often used in ceremonial and sacrificial contexts and here it's expressed in a causative form. Jezebel caused the prophets of the Lord to be thoroughly rooted out removed from the land, exterminated. That's what this language describes. Given her zeal, she probably had some direct first-hand involvement in this. It's possible that she caused them directly to be exterminated. But it's also very likely that she would have had help. The prophets of Baal and Astarte who sat at her table no doubt assisted her in this work of religious genocide. That's what we have here. Religious genocide by Israel's king's wife. Obadiah, after realizing what was happening, took hold of 100 prophets and hid them by 50s in a cave. He couldn't save everyone. We assume there were probably a lot of others who died. But he did what he could to save some. It's very commendable. He even risked his own life to hide them. It's a dangerous thing, going against the queen, especially when she's your boss's wife. He risked his own life to hide them, and at great personal cost to himself, he provided them what they needed to survive, bread and water, during a time of drought and famine. He is not so bold as Elijah to stand before the king and to confront him in his sin and to pronounce covenant curses. But that really wasn't his role. He wasn't a prophet. Excuse me. He was not so bold as Elijah. He did not confront his king, but he quietly maintained his integrity. That's the point. He quietly maintained his integrity and sought to protect God's people as best as he could in a time of persecution. The narrator's introduction of Obadiah for these reasons, I think, presents a very compelling case that it is, in fact, possible to fear the Lord while faithfully serving a very wicked master. Sometimes you hear Christians ask whether they ought to quit their jobs because their boss is a sinner. Perhaps they've witnessed some horrible sin and they wonder maybe I shouldn't be a part of this. And I think at very least this text tells us the answer is not necessarily Christians serving in the workplace and government ought to find encouragement and instruction in Obadiah's example, and many men like him. Think of Joseph and others. But it is, in fact, possible to be a Christian and to serve unbelievers. We don't want to participate in their sin. We don't want to promote it. We want to, where we can, when appropriate, especially in egregious situations like religious genocide, to do whatever we can to prevent it and to save who we can. But it is possible. Obadiah, we're told, was a man who feared the Lord greatly. You don't get that title recorded in the scripture. for being a compromised person, as some commentators seem to accuse him of being. Well, after this introduction, Ahab's call continues in verse 5. Ahab calls his chief steward, and now he commands him to search for pasturage. That's what's going on. Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the valleys. Perhaps we may find grass. and save the horses and mules alive and not lose some of the animals. The scope of this search is broad. It's through the whole land of Israel. And it's also thorough. After so many years of drought and famine, all the regular pasture lands would have long been eaten up and dried out. The only places where there might be even a little grass left would be the perennial springs and the seasonal valleys. Valleys here doesn't simply refer to the low parts of mountains though it does. Geographically in the watershed of Israel these valleys would be small seasonal rock beds that would fill with water that flows down from the mountain. And so what they're doing is that they're really To borrow from an illustration from a previous miracle, they're scraping the bottom. They're looking for the last vestiges of grass and the last places it might be. And what we need to realize is that this is a complete wild goose chase. He's sending Obadiah out on a desperate last-ditch effort. In fact, his whole statement is couched in the language of doubt and uncertainty. Perhaps, perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and the mules. Ahab's broad and thorough search is not based on any evidence or a credible report. It's not even based on the rumor. He's looking for a needle of grass in a barren desert. The horses and mules mentioned here would have been significant military assets in a king's household. Ahab's desire to save them reflects his priorities. We already saw in the very beginning when we considered the life of Ahab, he was actually a pretty good king from a secular perspective. He was fortifying borders. He won many battles. He was an effective political and military leader. After a lot of people were being assassinated one after another, as soon as they came to the throne, Ahab managed to keep his for a little while. He had good success in these things. And so saving the horses reflects his same sort of prevailing priorities, military and political power. Horses were used obviously to move chariots and mules would be used to carry military supplies, that sort of thing. So Ahab's chief concern here is to preserve his own war-fighting power to protect his political reign. He doesn't want to become the next guy on that long list of kings who've been assassinated. Ahab, we're told, is also concerned for the livestock. In contrast to the horses and the mules, These have a different purpose. He hopes not to lose some of the animals, referring probably to cattle, sheep, and goats. These animals had no real military purpose, but they tasted pretty good, especially when they're well-fed. And so Ahab's desire not to lose some of them suggests the possibility that he may, it's not even a certainty, that he may have to slaughter some of them prematurely. Remember the context here for a minute? Samaria is in severe famine and King Ahab is sitting on a whole herd of animals that he's just wanting to make sure that they can be fully fatted before he slaughters them. He doesn't want to eat later on the lean, scrappy, dried out bits of a prematurely slaughtered animal. He wants the A5 Wagyu. He wants to have that fully flavored, marbled, Beef. All those people are starving. The irony is that if Ahab had worshipped and served the Lord in holiness, the Lord would have probably blessed him in many of the ways that he was trying to bless himself. The Lord would have secured his military strength, provided him with a peaceful reign. He would have fed and multiplied Ahab's flocks, multiplied them greatly. He had every reason to believe so. Those were among the many promises that the Lord made with regard to his covenant blessings. Even now, after years of drought and severe famine, the solution should have been obvious, Ahab, I think. Tear down the house of Baal, tear apart the altar, repent, and serve the Lord. But instead of doing this, what he does is he divides the land between him and Obadiah to see if either of them can find grass. And what I want to conclude with As we stop our text here, we'll see the rest of it later. It's just the callous, hard-hearted nature of Ahab. He doesn't care about his people at all. He only cares about himself. And we might wonder, in a situation like this, how on earth are the people of God going to be delivered from this awful curse So many of them are already suffering way worse consequences than the man who's responsible for it in the first place. It would seem that there's no hope. And I think what we need to be anticipating relates to those conditions we considered before. The Lord wants to send rain on his people. He wants to bless them. But in order for him to do so, Elijah must go and show himself to Ahab. And so, what Ahab needs, he thinks he needs grass. But what Ahab really needs is to behold Elijah. And providentially, that's what the Lord is arranging here. He's driving Ahab into the wilderness so that he will see Elijah, behold Elijah. And then the Lord will work from that point and will go to Mount Carmel and fire will fall from heaven and the people of Israel will say, the Lord is God, the Lord is God. Well, how do we connect this to Christ? I think the answer is in considering who is like Elijah in the New Testament. It's John the Baptist. And what did John the Baptist come to do? Well, ultimately, the same thing that Elijah was coming to do. To prepare the people with repentance so that the Lord could pour out His blessings. Not the covenant blessing of rain, but the better covenant blessings of God's grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. What God's people desperately need is to repent because the Lord wants to bless them. The Lord wants to bless you. Let us repent and be blessed. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, which is true. And we thank you for the prophet Elijah and his obedience this faithfulness to go and to show himself to a man who certainly wants him dead. To call him to account that the people of Israel would see that you are God. Would I pray that you would work by your word even in our people here this evening. Show us your word. Help us to repent that we might be blessed in Christ with every good thing that we might do Your will. We pray these in His name. Amen.