ELIJAH, MAN OF MIRACLES
#162 ELIJAH, MAN OF MIRACLES
Scripture I Kings 18:22-39, 19:13-18 NIV Orig. 1-7-62
Rewr. 4-71, 8-14-74
Passage: I Kings 18:22-39 22 Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left,(A) but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets.(B) 23 Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. 24 Then you call(C) on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord.(D) The god who answers by fire(E)—he is God.” Then all the people said, “What you say is good.” 25 Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.” 26 So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called(F) on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response;(G) no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. 27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”(H) 28 So they shouted louder and slashed(I) themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. 29 Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice.(J) But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.(K) 30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar(L) of the Lord, which had been torn down. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.”(M) 32 With the stones he built an altar in the name(N) of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs[a] of seed. 33 He arranged(O) the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.” 34 “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again. “Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time. 35 The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench. 36 At the time(P) of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham,(Q) Isaac and Israel, let it be known(R) today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.(S) 37 Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know(T) that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” 38 Then the fire(U) of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. 39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate(V) and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!”
1 Kings 19:13-18 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face(A) and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left,(B) and now they are trying to kill me too.” 15 The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael(C) king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint(D) Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha(E) son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah(F) to succeed you as prophet. 17 Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael,(G) and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu.(H) 18 Yet I reserve(I) seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed(J) him.”
Introduction
The main problem that a preacher has after choosing Elijah for a sermon subject is the way in which the subject should be developed. Should I preach on his faith, his courage, his lack of faith, his fear or maybe even his perseverance. This is the kind of man that we respect, for there is never any doubt where he stands. When he is intent on serving the Lord, then he lets nothing stand in his way. When he has a frustrating problem, he doesn’t cover it over with a thin veneer of false piety. The thing different about him was that his moment of defeatism came just after he had won a major victory.
“To reach the port of heaven we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must sail and not drift or lie at anchor.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
When the victory was achieved, he had begun to drift, and he nearly piled up on the rocks.
Four words are all that are needed to suggest the stages in the life of this prophet of God. Food! Fire! Folly! Favor!
I. Food! 1 Kings 17:4 “And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.” In this period we notice several commands from God: V1 to tell Ahab of the looming drought; v3 to go to the brook Cherith (we note God’s provision and we note the contingency of his provision); and v9 to go to Zarephath. We notice the man of God being used to help others—providing a meal v13-16 and raising a dead child v17-22.
We notice much use of natural provisions. We notice also, the food from heaven. Elijah made his proclamation to Ahab, assuming that there would be days when he too would be hungry. Food has always been one of the besetting problems of mankind.
II. Fire! I Kings 18:29 “And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord: and the God that answers by fire, let him be God.” Here we see the faith of this man: faith in God; faith in principles of righteousness; faith in his countrymen that they would agree to the test; faith in his mission—this is the point where we fall short.
We see the fearlessness of Elijah. There were 450 prophets of Baal, and one of God, Elijah; their offering was dry, his was wet. V26 They danced on the altar, and Elijah came near. We see the fire from heaven: Some people take more to convince.
III. Folly! I Kings 19:4 “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.” It has always been true that man cannot live forever in the mountain peaks. To get from one peak to another we must go through the valley, a valley of despair and a valley of hope. The greatest of men have had occasion of stumbling. The food of heaven is weak when mingled with humanity: In Exodus 16:3 the people of Israel asked if it would have been better to remain in Egypt and die. Martin Luther’s wife, Katherine, put on a black dress one day when Luther was depressed and despairing. Luther asked, “Are you going to a funeral?” “No,” she responded, “but since you act as though God is dead, I wanted to join you in the mourning!” Exactly what Luther needed to hear (source: unknown).
IV. Favor! I Kings 19:13 “What doest thou here. Elijah?” V15 “Go . . . and anoint.” V18 “Yet I have left me 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal.” God had erased forever that moment of weakness; William James says that sin always leaves its mark. God has given Elijah a new challenge, a task that would be impossible to attain in his lifetime—the preparation of Elisha.
The lesson in life: Never look back on our attainments, look forward to what can yet be.
Conclusion
When Thomas Carlyle had completed his first volume of The French Revolution, he entrusted the manuscript to John Stuart Mill for proofreading. A few days later, Mill was forced to return and tell Carlyle that the manuscript had been destroyed. A chambermaid had used it to start a fire. Carlyle remarked to his wife that they must never let Mill know the seriousness of the matter—serious because the Carlyles were penniless, and because he had destroyed all of his notes.
The next day he made this entry in his diary: “It is as if my invisible school master had torn my copybook when I showed it and said, “No, child, thou must write it better.”