Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: I Kings 17:1

Theme: Elijah is presented as a man of courage, faith and prayer who was rewarded by God in spite of his imperfections.

He is held up as an example for us to follow.

Elijah walked with God.

He was God’s man for the times.

He was a man used by God to turn an entire nation back to God.

We need such men today ... godly men, Christian men willing to stand in the gap and challenge the evil of our day.

At a time of desperate spiritual need in his nation, Elijah stood in the gap, virtually alone, for the cause of the Lord.

His world was very different from ours, but the issues that called him to stand with courage and conviction remain relevant to the 21st century.

Of all the biblical characters we have considered this summer, Elijah’s life provides us the greatest wealth of material even though we know very little about the prophet himself.

His story begins in 1 Kings, chapter seventeen and runs through the end of the book and into the second chapter of 2 Kings — seven full chapters of amazing events.

It is his challenge to Ahab and the prophets of Baal I want us to look at this morning, and the lessons we can learn from Elijah’s confrontation with idolatry.

I. ELIJAH’S BACKSTORY

“In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years.

30 Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him.”

(1 Kings 16:29–30, NIV84)

ILLUS.

Charles Dickens’s novel A Tale of Two Cities begins with the famous line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

The same could be said about the kingly reigns of Omri and his son Ahab.

A. ONE PEOPLE, TWO KINGDOMS

1. God’s chosen people had become a fractured people

a. Rehoboam, son of Solomon, was forty years old when he ascended to the throne of a unified Israel

b. he was not nearly the wise ruler his father was

1) while building the Temple in Jerusalem, Solomon had conscripted laborers from all over Israel

2) now that the Temple was finished, and Solomon dead the leaders of the ten northern tribes petitioned Rehoboam for relief from their labors

3) he wouldn’t give it

a) his response was ... My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier.

My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’

” (1 Kings 12:11, NIV84)

b) the people’s response was ... “When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king: “What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse’s son?

To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David!”

So the Israelites went home.” (1 Kings 12:16, NIV84)

c. the nation breaks apart — the ten northern tribes become Israel, and two southern tribes become the nation of Judah

2 by the time we arrive at chapter sixteen, it is approximately one-hundred years later and Omri has claimed the throne of Israel after a brief power struggle

a. he reigns for twelve years, he dies and his son, Ahab, comes to power and he reigns for twenty-two years

1) with the rise of the Omri dynasty, Israel entered a time of piece with its southern neighbor, Judah

2) Israel becomes a regional power, raises to international prominence, and economic prosperity

3) during his twenty-two year reign Ahab expands the nation and builds one of the most powerful armies in the region

4) oh ... yeah ... let’s not forget that he also marries a woman named Jezebel

b. almost any secular historian would look at Ahab’s accomplishments and give him a good review for political and national leadership

1) this all is the best of times

3. but God is more concerned with the spiritual success of His people than their stately success

a. spiritually speaking things are not well in the Northern Kingdom of Israel

1) the Kings of Israel have abandoned the worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

“Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him.

31 He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him.

32 He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria.

33 Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.”

(1 Kings 16:30–33, NIV84)

2) all of the Kings of the Northern Kingdom were wicked, but Ahab has the distinction of being the most wicked of them all

3) this was the worst of times

4. this is the milieu of Elijah’s times — national prosperity, but spiritual poverty

a. how reminiscent of our own era

II.

ELIJAH’S BATTLE

1. in our text, Elijah is not only going to battle against the King of Israel, not only against 450 false prophets of a false religion, but he’s going to do battle with unseen spiritual forces in high places

2. Israel’s idolatry is a stench in the nostrils of God

A. ONE TRUE GOD, BUT WAVERING BETWEEN TWO OPINIONS

1. enter Elijah — after Moses, Israel’s greatest prophet

“Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.” 2 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: 3 “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan.”

(1 Kings 17:1–3, NIV84)

a. Elijah is something like Melchizedek in the Book of Genesis in that he seems to appear out of nowhere

1) he’s a Thishbite living in Tishbe and suddenly he’s thrust into the political limelight of the nation

b. of his personal life, 1 Kings 17:1 tells us everything we know about the prophet’s personal life

1) his name is Elijah which means "my God is Yahweh"

a) as we will see his name fits his character and his mission

2) he is a Tishbite from the village of Tishbe — a small Hebrew village in the hill-country of Gilead of the tribe of Gad

a) he’s a “goat-roper” from the sticks ... in the world’s eyes an unimportant man from an unimportant community

3) he is a servant of the Lord

a) Elijah has not abandoned the worship of Yahweh as so many of his countrymen have done

b) he believes that he is literally the last true believer in Israel though he will find out later that there are 7,000 others who have not bowed the knew to Baal

4) he is a prophet

a) God’s Spirit has moved Elijah to travel to the City of Samaria, to seek an audience with King Ahab

b) he speaks in the name of Yahweh and announces that there will be no more rain or even dew until he gives the command

2. why choose a drought to manifest God’s judgment on an idolatress king, and a nation who has followed his example?

a. Ahab and Jezebel have turned to the worship of Baal (1 Kings.

16:31)

b.

Baal was the Canaanite storm God — the deity in charge of rain

1) Elijah is going to attack Israel’s idolatry at its theological center

2) Elijah is going to show that it is Yahweh who is in charge of the rain, not Baal, and that the true God of Israel is not afraid of a challenge

c. in three years hence there is going to be a challenge delivered to Ahab and the priests of Baal — put-up-or-shut-up!

3. the story is found in 1 Kings, chapter eighteen — it describes the world’s first great “grudge match”

a. life in Israel has become desperate, vs. 2 telling us that the famine was severe in Samaria

1) Baal had not come through — all the sheep and all the goats sacrificed over the last three years hadn’t worked

2) we know from history and archeology that when the sacrifice of sheep and goats didn’t work, they tried sacrificing their children

a) it was a detestable and wicked religion that Israel had chosen to follow

3) but God has not forgotten His people — in 1 Kings 8:1 the promise is, “I will send rain on the land”

b. when Ahab and Elijah meet, accusations quickly begin to fly

“When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” 18 “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied.

“But you and your father’s family have.

You have abandoned the LORD’s commands and have followed the Baals.”

(1 Kings 18:17–18, NIV84)

4. the challenge

“Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel.

And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

20 So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel.

21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions?

If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”

But the people said nothing.” (1 Kings 18:19–21, NIV84)

a. all of Israel, from the least to the greatest, are invited to the event