Welcome back folks to another Daily Bible podcast. I am Pastor Rod and I'm grateful to have you with me today. These podcasts are about a hundred percent less googly, and I can rough and dirty estimate that because there's a hundred percent less of us at the microphone. And that's still the case for the next, I don't know, five, six days. Lemme see. What's it, it was Tuesday, uh, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, uh, let's just call it six days, maybe five. I can't quite keep the math straight in my head, but there's still several more days and I'm grateful to do this with you and I don't have a whole lot to talk about on the front end today. So why don't we just jump in? One Kings chapters 17, 18, and 19. In chapter 17, we're taking a brief pause from looking back and forth at the V, various Kings of Israel and Judah, and I think the reason why is because God wants to give special attention to the ministry of Elijah. He's a very important and fascinating character that sometimes we oversize to the point where he's no longer helpful to us. He gets superhero Superman status, and he's no longer practical to our day-to-day experience. But we're gonna find out that scripture is, particularly in James chapter five, gives us every reason to look at Elijah's ministry and also look at the particulars and the practicalities that are readily applicable to our lives. We'll get to that in just a few brief moments, but before, let's jump in to one King. 17. Elijah the Tibit is introduced. He is a northern kingdom prophet, and right now we're still under the leadership of King Ahab in the north. Remember, the northern kingdom is Israel. The southern kingdom is called Judah. And right now we're looking at the northern kingdom. And so Elijah prophesies as a Lord God of Israel lives, which is a formula for oath, a formula for taking an oath of, not an oath of office. It is a formula for oath, suggesting that this is not just his words, but these are God's words, and he says, there shall be neither due nor reign for these years except by my word. And so then Elijah hoofs it to get out of there in order to hide. He hoofs it because he knows that there's a bullseye on his back, and so he makes his way to a remote place where God promises to feed and care for him. Once his place of provision is dried up, he moves over to a widow of Zerephath. This is a widow who's in Gentile territory. This is not one of the Israelites. She's someone who's an other and outsider, and yet God utilizes her to feed and care for the prophet, so he sends him to her she says in verse 12, as the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour. I. And then he says, look, if you provide for me, God will provide for you and he'll keep you provided for all the way through this entire season. And so she agrees to that. In verse 16, he says, the jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord, that he spoke by Elijah. While things are going well until they're not, at some point the widow's son gets sick and he dies. She accuses Elijah of bringing. Her sin to remembrance, which tells me that she thinks that her guilt. Is somehow connected to her son's death. She thinks God is vindictive and that God is taking away her son because she had done something evil in God's sight. So she accuses him of remembering her sin. You've brought up my sin against me. Your presence has caused God to look down upon me and judgment. And so Elijah does what any of us would do. He goes to the Lord and says, oh Lord, what's going on? You've brought calamity upon this woman. I don't like that. Would you please do something different? And so he prays, oh Lord my God, let this child's life come into him. He does this three times, and that's gonna be an important number because we're gonna see that Elijah's per life is uniquely highlighted, not only here, but also for us in the New Testament. He prays for him three times and the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah and the life of the child came back into him and he was revived. I suppose this is probably as good a time as any to bring to your attention the fact that Elijah's prayer life is one of the most distinctive features of his ministry. He prays and God answers and that's one of the things that we see in James chapter five here. He says in James five, verse 16, therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working, and we know that we've quoted this to ourselves probably multiple times. He says here in verse 17, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. In other words, he wasn't a superhero, he wasn't a super apostle, he wasn't someone out of the ordinary. He was a regular person like you and I. And he prayed fervently that it may not rain, and for three years, in six months it did not rain on the earth. And then he prayed again and heaven gave rain and the earth boards fruit. So you see here in the life of Elijah, we're meant to see his prayer life we're meant to see and take note of the fact that when he prays, God answers, and James notices here that it's the prayer of a righteous person that has great power. So we might look at Elijah and say, I'm not righteous in the same way he is. He clearly has a very close relationship with God, but the truth of the matter. So Elijah was righteous in front of God in the same way that you and I are righteous before God. That is to say it's by faith, our faith in Christ, not for Elijah. Elijah would have had faith in God in a general sense. He wouldn't know Jesus the Messiah, but we do Our faith in Christ is what makes us righteous in his sight. And now therefore, we have the ability to have powerful prayers because of our faith in our powerful Christ. I hope you see that, and I hope that you even see the fact that Elijah didn't pray once. He prayed three times here in order to save this young man's life. And he also prayed for this famine, this drought to take place. And God responds to that. God is responsive to prayers. In fact, we learn in another text that we have not because we ask, not, we're not praying to God sufficiently. And when we do pray, we pray short and we don't pray sufficiently long enough to ask God for what he wants to give us. And then he says, James will say later, earlier, rather, you have not because you asked not, but also you ask wrongly, dis spended on your passions. One of the things that sends our prayers astray is that we're not praying like Elijah. We're not praying for God's glory and honor. We're praying for ours. We're praying for our comfort. Our comfort is not a bad thing to pray for. Certainly there is something to be said about asking God to do good things to us, but our larger overarching goal has to be I'm doing it for the glory of God and for the good of others, myself included, ideally. So one King 17 gives us a picture of Elijah as a man of prayer. One Kings 18, Elijah confronts Ahab, or now in the third year of no rain on the Earth. And in fact, we learned from James chapter five this drought lasts for three and a half years. And elijah went to show himself to Ahab. It turns out that Ahab and his servant Obadiah, who is over the household, are looking for anything, any kind of water. Elijah meets Obadiah. This is not the same prophet Obadiah that you might know of. This is not the minor prophet. This is a different guy. He meets Obadiah and says, I'm here to present myself to Ahab. Go get Ahab. Now Obadiah is in a difficult spot because he's on the Lord side. He's been protecting and caring for the prophets, and he knows that it's very possible that if he goes to get Ahab, Elijah could very well disappear. And where does that leave him? That leaves him on the business end of a sword, very likely. And so he says, Lord, I can't do this. Please give me some assurance. And that's what Elijah does in verse 15, as a Lord of hosts lives, that's an oath formula before whom I stand. I will surely show myself to him today. And so Obadiah goes, he brings him back. When Ahab sees Elijah, he calls him the Troubler of Israel. So interesting that sin does that to us, doesn't it? Sin will often have us look at other people and find a way to blame shift. You are the problem, not me. It's not my idolatry, it's not my sinful leadership. It's you. You're the issue. Now, in Ahab's mind, that makes perfect sense because Elijah's the one who called for the drought, and yet Elijah is not operating on his own volition. He's doing it in response to God's leadership. And so even though Elijah is the one who is the. Uh, immediate cause it is really Ahab who is the bigger, ultimate cause. And so when he says, you're the troubler of Israel, Elijah rightly responds. It's not me buddy. That's you. And the reason why is because you've abandoned the commandments of the Lord and you followed the Baals. And then he says, you know what? Let's just resolve this right now. Let's have your prophets, your a hundred, your 450 profits of bail, and your 400 profits of asura. Meet me at Mount Carmel. This is cool. I like this because it's like, let's meet after school behind the handbook court. Let's settle this like men. And that's exactly what they do. Ahab agrees. He finds those prophets, he meets Elijah on the mountain. This is the one that you know and love. And I love this at the beginning of this whole scene because Elijah calls to the people and he says, how long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if it's Baal, then follow him. I love this because it showcases the authenticity behind our beliefs. We want to follow truth. We want to follow what is real and genuine. We don't wanna be misled to follow some figment of our imaginations. And so what he does is something reminiscent of what Joshua says. Remember he called Joshua before he departed. He said something like this in Joshua 24, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of your fathers or the other gods of the Emirates. He says, but as for me in my house, we're going to serve the Lord. And I feel like that's what Elijah's doing right here. He's challenging them. Look, choose your God. Choose the one true God and follow him. Elijah sets the stage, he says in verse 24, the God who answers by fire, he is God will each call out to our gods. Whoever answers, that's the one. True God. And that's gonna be an important phrase here because throughout the rest of this chapter, you're gonna see the God not answering and then God, the God of the Bible answering. It's what distinguishes the difference between this two. And that's what's most fascinating about false gods. They are Gods of the lowercase G. They are demon entities that are behind whatever the image is being presented. But the true God is the one who has the power to answer. He's the one who has the power to respond to prayer, which again, this really pairs nicely into all that we're learning about Elijah. Elijah teaches us that prayers are answered by the one true God, and so he challenges them, and then he lets them go first. He's a gentleman. He says, you guys go, there's lots more of you than there are of me. Let's see what happens. They call out to Baal and they say, oh, Baal, answer us, but there was no voice and no one answered. That's in verse 26, verse 27. Elijah starts mocking them and says, Hey, maybe he's going to the bathroom. Maybe he's on a long journey. Maybe you need to speak more loudly. And so they grow in their intensity, and verse 28 says, they cry aloud and they cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances until blood gushed out upon them. This is. Characteristic of false gods and false religious systems. There's always some kind of physical payment that the God's demand, lowercase G, they demand from people as opposed to giving to people. Notice that instead of our blood being poured out to satisfy God, he pours out his own blood to satisfy his righteous wrath, and he restores the chasm. He remedies the chasm that separated us. Verse 29. As it after midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the ablation, but there was no voice. No one answered. No one paid attention. No one responds. Elijah's turn now after midday, he says, okay, it's my opportunity to showcase who the real God is. And so he sets the deck, he stacks the deck against himself. He pours water upon his offering. After repairing the ulcer of the Lord, he sets 12 stones around it, and then he soaks it. He drenches his offering so that no one can say, oh, there was an accidental spark somewhere. He does everything in his power to demonstrate that this is a work of God. And then in verse 37, he says, answer me, oh Lord, answer me that. Here's the reason why that these people may know that you oh Lord are God, and that you have turned their hearts back. This is beautiful because this is the northern kingdom. Remember, these are God's people. Israel in rebellion against the Lord. And yet God is still even here through his prophet Elijah. Beckoning and calling them back to repentance, turning their hearts to himself. And so in verse 38, the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering in the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. This is an all-consuming fire. This isn't just taking out the offering. This is everything inside. The whole thing is made into dust because God's fire consumed it all. That would mean that this is more than just lightning. This is more than just fire from heaven in that this is a supernatural event. This is miraculous. This is not something that you can explain with nature as some people often try to do. God could have used lightning, I suppose, but this is not what God is trying to communicate. And in fact, verse 39, these guys get it, the Lord, he is God the Lord, Yahweh, he is God. And then Elijah in that moment says, okay, get the prophets of Baal. Let no one escape. We're gonna take them out. And you might think Elijah's being mean here, or he's doing something that's un unsavory. But this is what the law of God commanded. Deuteronomy 13 said that if someone tries to call your heart away from the Lord, Yahweh, then you're on the right response is to kill them. And that's exactly what he does. Then Elijah tells King Ahab, go prepare for rain, but notice this when Elijah goes and prays to the Lord to deliver the rain, God just, God didn't just give it to him. He prayed how many times? Seven times. The first time he prayed for this little kid, he prayed three times. The second time he's praying for rain. He prays seven times and both times there's reason to believe that he knows that this is God's will, and yet he prays multiple times. Christian, do not grow weary in your prayers. Ask and you will receive, seek and you'll find knock in the door will be open. Don't lose hope in your prayers. Okay, one Kings 19, let's resolve this. Jezebel is unhappy about this, to put it mildly, and so she threatens Elijah, and Elijah is terrified. After experiencing one of the greatest events in his life. He finds himself in a very difficult spot. He runs away from Jezebel and he runs as far south as the borders of Judah will allow. Beersheba, you might remember sometimes the scriptures we'll talk about from the, from Dan to Beersheba. That is to say all of Israel and all of Judah. Judah's Southern most border at this point is Beersheba. So he runs to Judah and he runs to Beersheba. And then if that weren't enough, he leaves his servant there in Beersheba, and then he goes another day's journey just to make sure there's plenty of space between him and Jezebel. He's hiding there. Southern Kingdom, he's heading even further now into the wilderness. And then he's tired. He's tired, and so in an exasperated sense, he says, it is enough now, Lord, take my life for I am no better than my father's. I want you to pay attention to how God treats him here. Does Elijah have depression? Is he just really sad? Is he exhausted and discouraged? Hard to know exactly what's happening here, but I want you to pay attention to how God responds to him. God sends an angel, and perhaps it's the angel of the Lord. That is the Lord Jesus pre-incarnate, and what he does is says, arise and eat. After taking a nap, he brings him up, feeds him some water, feeds him, gives him something to drink, and puts him back down to bed again. Verse seven, the angel of the Lord came again a second time, touched him and said, arise and eat for the journey. He's too great for you. Feeds him, gives him something to drink, lays him back down. And then in verse eight it says, he went in the strength of that food for 40 days and 40 nights to Mount Horrib the Mount of God, which is also Mount Sinai. But I wanna point your attention to the very practical care the Lord provides. It's interesting because God could have said, you need to pray more, Elijah. You need to trust me. You need to do what I say. And those are true things. He could have said that. But instead he meets some very practical needs for the prophet. I love how tender and kind God is to consider that we're dust and that what dust needs, at least in this case, is food and water and a nap. So many of our problems are better after we've had a nap and a snack. Let's just see it right here in one Kings 19. Well after this, he flees even further. He runs in the strength of that food, 40 days and 40 nights, and from where he was. It wouldn't have taken him that long to get to Mount Horeb again. Mount Sinai is another name for this place. This is of course where God revealed himself to Moses and revealed his law. And so this is where God meets Elijah. Very significant that he meets him there. It wouldn't have taken him all 40 days, but God is teaching him throughout those 40 days who he really is. And so you know the story. God sends the spectacular, there's great and strong winds. There's an earthquake, there's fire, what God just previously utilized to consume the offering. He uses all these things and yet Elijah notices that the Lord is not in those things. After the fire, the sound of a low whisper, and when Elijah heard it, he came out and he said, notice how God talks to him. He says, what are you doing here, Elijah? God asks him and invites him into this deeper. Love and trust that he previously was struggling with. God does something very similar to Jonah. He says, Jonah, do you do well to be angry? I love this because it showcases how kind and gently God deals with us. God is such a generous God in that he's patient with us. He's slow to anger. He could have been angry with Elijah. He could have said, what's wrong with you? Don't you trust me? You just saw me do these amazing things, and if. We are honest. A lot of the times when we're counseling people, we might be tempted to do the same. Don't you know that God has been faithful? Why can't you believe this? God is patient. He questions him. Elijah is honest. He thinks I'm the last one standing. There's no one else like me. These people are gone. And the Lord says to him in verse 15, go return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. It's back in Syria, and when you arrive, you'll anoint hazy El. To be king over Syria and Jehu the son, Nichi you shall anoint to be king over Israel and Elijah. Elijah, rather, the son of Chait. Of Abel. Mela, you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. So he's given him work to do. God has heard him, and yet what God thinks is most necessary for Elijah is to get back to work. Is to focus on what his calling is and to not be distracted by all the things that he's talking about. And then he also encourages them in verse 18, I have 7,000 in Israel who have not bowed the knee. Elijah, trust me, he does get to that, but not before he ministered to him in some very real impractical ways. And so Elijah then goes and finds Elisha. This is the only thing that God gives him to do that he does. Himself. The other things he delegates to Elisha, and so he calls Elisha. Now, Elisha's probably loaded, he's got 12 yoke of oxen. This guy has a lot of means. He comes from a family of great means, and yet when Elijah calls him, he says, all right, let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I'm gonna follow you. And he says, great. Go do that. And then he gives it to the Lord as a sacrifice, which would've been a very expensive one. And of course, because of this his willingness to give full allegiance to the Lord ends up being a great blessing to Elisha. That's our story in a nutshell. First King, 17, 18, and 19. A lot of good stuff there. So many interesting nuggets of truth, things that we could pull from it that I hope what you found helpful. They were helpful to me as I read through them this week. Let's pray together. Lord, it is so appropriate that we pray. Knowing that you are a good and faithful God, we never wanna take that for granted. And yet, sometimes, Lord, we're so weak, uh, we grow fickle in our prayers or we grow weary or tired, help us never to forget that you are a God who answers prayer and that you're good. You'll always do what's good for us and what will bring you the most glory. And if we can trust that, I think our prayer lives have become a lot stronger. Lord, help us to believe, help us to fight, to believe, and help us to have a prayer life like Elijah's. We're encouraged by James, the brother of the Lord Jesus in their flesh. To be the kind of people that pray and not give up because the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working, and that Elijah was like us. He prayed fervently that it wouldn't rain and it didn't rain and Lord, he prayed again and heaven gave rain and the earth war fruit. We wanna be the kind of people that pray and get answers. Help us to be resolved to do that, like Elijah whose life we appreciate reading about today. And in today's reading, we thank you for all these things. In Jesus name, amen. Thank you for joining me. Again, it is always my honor and privilege to do this with you. I appreciate you listening in, and I look forward to joining you again tomorrow. God willing for another round of the Daily Bible podcast. I'll see you then.

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