LIFE LESSONS
THE PROPHETS: ELIJAH
DR. JIM DIXON
1 KINGS 19: 1-8
JANUARY 4, 2004
The Hebrew-speaking people referred to Elijah as “Eliyahu ha navi,” which simply means, “Elijah, the Prophet.” For the Jews, he was the greatest of the prophets, the summation of the prophetic office. He appears kind of mysteriously in the pages of scripture and on the stage of history. In the middle of the 9th century, in the middle of the reign of the wicked King Ahab, he is anointed of God. He stands against the wicked King Ahab and his wicked Queen Jezebel. He confronts the 450 prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. He champions the oppressed. He performs miracles and he vanishes into heaven on a blazing chariot of fire. He is Eliyahu ha navi, Elijah the Prophet.
Today, we come to him and we look at his life. From his life we have two life lessons. The first life lesson is this. God provides for His people. God provides for His people. Now, some of you have heard of J. Wilber Chapman. J. Wilber Chapman was a famous Presbyterian minister. He was ordained to the gospel ministry in the year 1882. He served Presbyterian churches in five different states, that last of which was the state of Pennsylvania.
In the year 1903, J. Wilber Chapman became “Evangelist at Large” for the Presbyterian Church USA. In the year 1917, J. Wilber Chapman became the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA. He loved to tell a story about an elder in his church in Pennsylvania, his church in Pittsburgh. This elder had lived an amazing life. As a child, this elder had run away from home. He had rejected the faith of his parents and the morality and the theology of his parents. He had gone in the world and lived a debauched life. He had become an absolute financial failure and ultimately he was destitute and living on the streets of Pittsburgh by the train station by the Pittsburgh Depot. There, he just lived as a bum. He begged day after day, week after week, month after month. For more than a year he just lived as a street person. one day he was begging for money. He saw an older man in front of him. He was looking at this older man’s back. He came up behind the older man, touched him on the shoulder and said, “Sir, could you spare me a dime?” This was back when a dime could actually buy something. The young man was stunned when this older man turned around because it was his father. True story. It was his father.
When his father saw him, his father began to cry. His father’s eyes just welled up with tears. He began to cry. He said, “Son, I’ve been looking for you. I’ve been looking for you for months. I’ve been looking for you and now I’ve finally found you. You don’t need to beg me for a dime. All that I have is yours.” That changed this young man’s life. His father did provide for him emotionally, physically, financially. This young man accepted Christ and became a great servant of Christ and was an elder in the church of J. Wilber Chapman. J. Wilber Chapman loved the story because it’s so much like the story of the prodigal son in the Bible, and he believed it illustrates how, when we come to Christ, when we come home, we come into the whole world of God’s provision and God says, “All that I have is yours.” We come into the world of God’s provision. When you come home, when you come to Jesus, you come into the world of God’s provision.”
In the Book of Genesis in the 22nd chapter, we read about Abraham and Isaac and how they went up on Mt. Moriah and how Abraham was tested there. You’re all familiar with that story. It’s in that context that Abraham gave us this great title for God, this great name of God, Jehovah Jireh or Yahweh Jireh which means, “The Lord Provides.” This name, Jehovah Jireh, has become a favorite for Jews and for Christians because we love to think of God as our provider. We love to think of God as providing for us. You don’t know what I am facing, but I know this. We all need His provision, do we not? Whatever we’re facing, we need Him to provide. God can provide very supernaturally and He wants you to believe this today. He can provide very supernaturally.
Perhaps some of you have heard of the Diet of Worms. Sounds like a really bad high protein diet but the Diet of Worms actually was a council or an assembly that met in the city of Worms in Southern Germany. The word diet is also capable of meaning “assembly or council.” So, the Diet of Worms was assembled in the city of Worms in Southern Germany in the year 1521 and it was assembled by the order of Charles V, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
To that council, to that assembly, to that diet, Charles V summoned Martin Luther. He ordered Martin Luther to recant because Martin Luther had brought certain accusations against the church. Martin Luther had accused the church of moral misconduct, of theological distortion and of the abuse of polity. These were serious accusations but they were true, and so Charles V, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, orders Luther to recant and he refuses. He said, “Here I stand and I can do no other.” And so, it was that the Diet of Worms issued the Edict of Worms and the Edict of Worms was this. Martin Luther is a heretic. Charles V not only hated Martin Luther. Charles V hated every Protestant Reformer, every leader of the Protestant Reformation. One of Luther’s friends was a man named John Brenz. John Brenz was a great leader of the Protestant Reformation and a close friend of Martin Luther’s.
One day John Brenz was in Spain. He was in a city in Spain and informed that the armies of Charles V had come for him and that they had just entered the city and there was no escape. John Brenz, church historians tell us, went up to his room, got down on his knees and he prayed. He prayed and something amazing happened. For the very first time in his life, he heard God speak audibly to him. He heard God speak audibly and God told him to go to an abandoned building on the north side of town, the door would be open. He was to go up into the attic and there God said, “I will provide for you.” Amazing.
So, John Brenz went to this building on the north side of town. Sure enough, it’s abandoned. He had never seen it before. Sure enough, the door is open just as the Lord described. He went up into the attic and he just sat down there and waited. As he waited and the hours passed by, he got thirsty and he thought, “How am I going to get anything to drink? How am I going to get anything to eat?” No sooner does he think this and it began to rain. It began to rain. There was a pan up there in the attic and there’s a hole in the ceiling and the drip came right into the pan. The pan just filled up with water. This was amazing because this was a part of Spain where it didn’t normally rain and a time of the year where it did not normally rain. “The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.” I think. So, this was truly a miracle.
John Brenz was thinking, “Well, what can I eat?” Then a chicken came up in the attic and deposited a couple of eggs. He’s amazed, truly amazed, though he shouldn’t be because God said, “I will provide.” The next day, exactly the same thing happened. The rain began, filled the pot again, and another chicken came up and left some eggs. This happened every single day for 13 days. On the 14th day there was no rain and no chicken. He went out of this abandoned building and he was informed that the armies of Charles V had just vacated the city and he was safe.
I don’t know how you feel when you hear a story like that told by church historians. Maybe you doubt it, but do not doubt this. God is Jehovah Jireh. He is the Lord who provides, and He can provide for you and he can provide for me. He is the Lord who provides, and His provision in the life of John Brenz was nothing when compared to his provision in the life of Elijah.
Elijah appears around the year 864 in the middle of the reign of the wicked King Ahab and he appears in the court of the king to pronounce judgement on this wicked king, to pronounce the judgement of God. He calls a multi-year draught upon the land. This was dangerous. This was really dangerous in history, both biblically and extra-biblically. When you see a person go into a royal court to condemn a king, usually they’re executed. Elijah had great courage. He had a lot of fear but he had great courage. You can’t have courage unless you have fear, because courage is not letting your fear get the best of you. He had great courage.
Well, he fled by the instructions of God to the Brook Cherith each of the Jordan. There was no food there, but God is Jehovah Jireh, so God feeds His prophet day after day after day. Ravens came in the morning and at night bringing meat and bread. A miracle, a divine miracle. He drinks from the brook, until eventually the brook dries up as a consequence of the very drought he proclaimed. God is still Jehovah Jireh, however, so God sends him to Zarephath, a village near Sidon close to the Mediterranean Sea. God sent him to a widow in that village who was very poor. God said to Elijah, “This widow will provide for you. I will provide for you through this widow.”
Well, the widow is so poor she only has a little flour and a little oil, and she’s about to prepare her last meal for her son and herself. She just figures they are going to die. But Elijah comes and he tells her of God’s pronouncement, and she agrees to feed him but she doesn’t know how. He says, “Don’t worry, God will provide.” And God does provide. By a divine miracle again, as the flour is multiplied and the oil is multiplied. Every time she uses it, it does not diminish. Every time she uses it, it does not decrease. And so, they were able to eat day after day after day by God’s provision.
Then Elijah is on Mt. Carmel, 1 Kings, chapter 18, and he confronts the prophets of the Baal cult, the 450 prophets of Baal. There’s kind of this contest on Mt. Carmel. You know the story. You know how Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal to building an altar and to make a sacrifice but not to light it, to summon the power of their God Baal to light the sacrifice from heaven. “You seek to do that and I’ll do the same. You ask your god to light your sacrifice and I’ll ask my God to light my sacrifice and we’ll see which god is God.” Well, you know the story, how the prophets of Baal set up the sacrifice. They started praying and they started pleading and they cried and prayed to their god Baal all morning until noon arrives and nothing has happened.
Elijah began to do a little trash talk. He began to say, “Hey, maybe your god is on vacation. Maybe your god is taking a nap. Maybe your god is having a little snooze here. Maybe you need to speak a little louder. Maybe you need to shout or maybe your god is just in deep contemplation and concentration and cannot hear you.” Trash talk. Of course, the prophets of Baal continue their prayers. In their desperation, they beat themselves, they cut their bodies as was their custom and it availed nothing because their god did not exist.
Elijah the prophet built his sacrifice, taking 12 stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel and he orders that the offering be flooded with water—three times that it be flooded with water so that it would be hard to light. Then he made a simple prayer to Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides, and God sent fire from the heavens and just torched that sacrifice. Judgement fell upon the prophets of Baal. Jehovah Jireh.
But of course, the wrath of Jezebel sent Elijah to fight again in our passage of scripture for today, and Elijah arrived in the wilderness outside of Beersheba. He sat down under a broom tree and he was ready to die. The broom tree was a desolate bush-like tree that grew in the dry valleys of the desert. He was just ready to die but God came to him again. God provided. He sent an angel who touched him and ministered to him and fed him supernaturally. Elijah went to Horeb or Mt. Sinai, the Mountain of God, to a cave there. God visited Elijah. Elijah was depressed. He knew that the prophets of God are now being killed by Ahab and Jezebel. He had no armies to confront their armies. He felt weak and he felt like a failure and he felt like he was the only faithful man in Judah. He was depressed and God came to him. God provided for his depression.
God wants you to know this. When you’re depressed, He can provide for you. He can respond to your depression. God knew just what Elijah needed so God gave Elijah a purpose and sent him to anoint two kings. There were going to be some political and religious changes in the land. God knew that Elijah not only needed a purpose, but he needed a friend. So God, right there on Mt. Horeb, commanded Elijah to befriend Elisha and to tutor him and to mentor him and to train him ultimately to replace him. That friendship was precious. But God knew that he needed a friend and God knew he needed encouragement. He had said he was the only faithful man in all the land and God knew that wasn’t true. God knew exactly the number of faithful men and women there were in Judah. God said, “You’re not alone. There are 7,000 faithful here. Be encouraged.” So, God again, Jehovah Jireh, God provides. When you look at the life of Elijah, it’s all God’s provision. And so, you see, God wants you to know this. He cares about you. He has power to provide for you.
There’s a second life lesson and this is really important lest we misunderstand God’s provision. The second life lesson is this. God’s provision is contingent. God provides but His provision in our lives is contingent. I want to say His provision is contingent on two things. First of all, His provision is contingent on His providence. God provides providentially. Therefore, we must be people of faith. We must be people of trust.
I want you to see a little clip, black and white, from a 40-year old movie called “Lilies of the Field.” Or maybe not. The computer is down? Well, we’ll just forget that clip from “Lilies of the Field.” I do recommend that you see the movie. You can rent it. It was made in 1963 and starred Sidney Portier. He received the Academy Award, the first black man to receive the Academy Award for Best Actor. That was the same year Martin Luther King gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech in Washington, D.C., a great year for civil rights. But I want you to see the movie “Lilies of the Field” because it’s all about God’s providence.
Homer Smith, the character played by Sidney Portier, arrives in front of the farm of these German nuns who had escaped from behind the Iron Curtain. His car breaks down on their property. He’s an out of work handyman and a Baptist. His car breaks down in front of these nuns. It’s all God’s providence as God brings them together and begins to provide for each, for Sidney Portier, for this Baptist and for these Catholic nuns. God provides for them all. It’s all unto the kingdom of heaven and God provides. It’s just an incredible movie of God’s provision by virtue of His providence.
In the year 1603, Roger Williams was born in London, England. I think most of you who know American History have heard of Roger Williams. He was the son of a shopkeeper. He was brilliant. He went to Cambridge University. He graduated with highest honors and then he went to theology school and he became an Anglican priest. He became a minister in the Church of England. But he got in trouble with the ecclesiastical authorities in the church because he believed in religious freedom.
Roger Williams wanted everyone to believe in Jesus Christ and he himself believed in Jesus Christ. He was faithful to share Christ with others but he wanted people to come to Christ freely. He believed in religious freedom, that people ought to be able to believe whatever they chose. This put him in a bad posture with regard to the Church of England. He came to the American Colonies. He was offered a church, the only Anglican Church in the city of Boston. He turned it down because it was so tied to the Church of England and also because he believed there was corruption amongst the church leaders. He took a lesser church in the city of Salem, but this was the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Puritans were strong. They didn’t really believe in religious liberty either. They believed in religious liberty for themselves but not necessarily for others and so Roger Williams got in trouble with them too.
He wound up going as a missionary to the Indians. This was in the year 1636 when he led many Indian men, women and children to faith in Jesus Christ. The Indians loved him. They loved him because even when they did not respond to the gospel, Roger Williams still loved them. He just loved people. Well, the Indians sold Roger Williams a piece of land and he formed a town there. I think you know he called it Providence. It was later that he went back to England and the King gave him the Charter to the Rhode Island Colony.
Roger Williams is the father of the State of Rhode Island and the founder of the city of Providence. Why did he call that city Providence? He called it Providence because he believed that everything that happened in his life was God’s providence. It was God’s hand at work. He would never have scripted things the way they went. He was often frustrated, often disappointed, but he trusted that it was all God’s providence and that God was providing in accordance with His divine providence.
Do you have that confidence? Do you believe as a Christian—because if you’re a Christian, if you’ve come to Jesus Christ—you’ve entered into His providence. Do you believe that he’s providing in accordance with what He foresees? Do you believe that His provision is tied to His providence? You know, I do. I really believe that. I believe that’s been true in this church. I see Bob and Allison Beltz sitting here with their son Baker. Bob and I have co-labored in the gospel for more than 20 years in this ministry and in other ministries, and we know that it’s all God’s providence. Everything is God’s providence and God provides in accordance with His providence.
In my life I see it too. I never wanted to be called to the ministry. I truly didn’t. I never wanted to work in a local church. It wasn’t a dream or an aspiration of mine. It was the call of God. God foresaw things I would never have foreseen or dreamed of but He’s provided through the years in accordance with His providence. He gave me my wife Barb, and she is so perfect for me and my very best friend. What an incredible gift, but it’s all His provision that’s based on His providence. God works providentially in our lives. I don’t mean to say that we don’t have valleys, that we don’t have tragedy, that we don’t have hard times, but there’s a trust that as Christians we have; that God provides in accordance with His providence.
Finally, there’s another contingency. His provision is not only tied to His providence, but it’s also tied to our faithfulness. I couldn’t let you leave this morning—I would not be faithful to God’s word if I didn’t bring this up. His provision is tied to our faithfulness. When we look at Elijah, we’re looking at an amazing man biblically. One of the most mysterious doctrines in the Bible is the doctrine of Elijah Redivivus. Redivivus is a Latin word meaning, “to be brought back to life.” We find this doctrine in the Bible, the Doctrine of Elijah Redivivus. We find it in the Talmud and in the Jewish literature and in the oral tradition of the Jews as well.
You look in Malachi, chapter 3, and in Malachi, chapter 4, and you see, at the end of the Old Testament, this doctrine of Elijah Redivivus, that Elijah would come back to life, would come back to this world. He was taken from the world in a blazing chariot of fire. He would return for two purposes. One, to herald the coming of the Messiah, Christ, and two, to herald and announce the consummation and the end of the world.
You look at Matthew, chapter 16, or Mark, chapter 8, or Luke, chapter 9, and you see very clearly that many people thought Jesus was Elijah Redivivus, that Jesus was Elijah brought back to life. And so, at Caesarea Philippi, as recorded in Matthew: 16, and Mark: 8 and Luke: 9, Jesus says to His disciples, “Who do you say I am?” Some say, “Elijah. Elijah Redivivus.” Jesus said, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Not the one who was to herald the Christ but the Christ Himself. Jesus said, “Blessed are you Simon Bar Jonah. Flesh and blood does not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven, He is the Christ.” But the question remains, “Well then, if Jesus is the Christ, where’s Elijah Redivivus who was to herald His coming?” When you look at Matthew, chapter 11, and it’s kind of a strange little passage where Jesus says, “If you’re able to accept it, John the Baptist is Elijah Redivivus.”
I don’t believe that Jesus intended us to view John the Baptist as Elijah in the flesh come back to earth but Jesus intended us to view John the Baptist as coming with the same spirit of Elijah the Prophet. And so, you have this concept though of Elijah Redivivus… And then you come to Revelation, chapter 11, and you have this portrayal of two mysterious prophets who appear at the consummation to herald the end of the world and these two prophets have the power to turn water to blood and to cause the heavens to cease their reign. Of course, it was Moses who turned water to blood in the Nile River, and it was Elijah who caused the heavens to cease their rain. Most Bible scholars view these two prophets as Moses and Elijah described in Revelation: 11. When you look at the Transfiguration in Matthew: 17 and in Mark, chapter 9, you also see Moses and Elijah appear with Christ on the Holy Mountain as they’re transfigured together. In Malachi, chapters 3 and 4, you see Moses and Elijah kind of paired again together.
And so, you have these mysterious parts of the scripture where the lawgiver, Moses, and the greatest of the prophets, Elijah, have some role in some sense even in the New Testament era. You realize, WOW, this Elijah is a pretty significant person, not only in the Old Testament but also in the New.
Of course, when you look at Judaism, both in the old world and today, you see the importance of Elijah again because as the Jews practiced circumcision and as their children go through the rite of circumcision, a chair is always set there in the room, an empty chair. Who is it for? It’s for Elijah. At every Jewish circumcision that chair is for Elijah, that he might protect their child, an interesting concept. At Passover, the Jews pour an extra glass of wine and it’s for Elijah. They set out an extra chair for Elijah. At the Passover service, they open the doors for Elijah to come in and they sing the Passover Song, Elijah the Prophet, Elijah the Tishbite, Elijah the Gileadite, may you come quickly to us with the Messiah. And so, you see the prominence of Elijah in the world of the Jews and even in the Christian world.
You might ask, “Well, why?” I’ll tell you why. It’s because he was faithful. He thought he alone was faithful and that was not true, but he was more faithful than any. He was faithful as a prophet to proclaim the Word of God, to speak forth God’s Word in his time. He was faithful to do everything God commanded him to do no matter what the risk to life or limb. He was faithful, and the provision of God is tied not only to his providence but also to our faithfulness you understand. The question before us is “Are we faithful?”
I know as we close there are probably many of you who know the story of Henry M. Stanley who, in the year 1869, was sent by The New York Herald to find David Livingstone the medical doctor, the missionary, the explorer in Africa. When Stanley was sent to find Livingstone, he had significant provision. He had significant funding and that all came from James Gordon Bennett. Bennett said to Stanley before Stanley left the States, “Here’s $1,000,” which was a lot of money in 1869, “buy whatever you need and if it’s not enough, wire me and I will send you $1,000 more.” He said, “If that’s not enough, wire me again and I will send you $1,000 again. I’ll send you $1,000 as often as you need it but FIND DAVID LIVINGSTONE!” My provision is unlimited. Just find David Livingstone. Be faithful to the cause. And he was faithful to the cause. In 1871, Stanley found Livingstone.
How about you? Are you faithful to the cause? How about me? Am I faithful to the cause because His provision is tied to this. His provision has no limits if we’re faithful to the cause. How we treat our wives, how we treat our husbands, it’s all part of faithfulness to the cause. How we treat our children. How we do our work. That’s all part of His cause. But know this. God is concerned about the poor and the oppressed. If we’re faithful to His cause, we must be concerned about the poor and the oppressed. God is concerned about the Gospel, that it go forth in power over the earth and that the Gospel be taken to this community and to every nation and people. If we’re faithful to His cause, we must be concerned with the Gospel. God is concerned with the church. Jesus Christ said, “I’ll build My church and the powers of Hell will not prevail against it.” If you’re faithful to the cause, yes we must be concerned about the church.
So, as we begin this New Year, 2004, let’s seek to be faithful to the cause in every sense, knowing that we will indeed have His provision. God provides for His people. His provision is tied to His providence and to our faithfulness. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.