ELIJAH: The
The churches of Christ Greet You (Romans
TEXT: 1 Kings
"Now then send and
gather to me all
Introduction
One of the great
needs at all
times in a society, but especially in times of great apostasy, is for
God's
people to step forward for God and His truth. Those who do, however,
are nearly
always a minority. While God always has His people, they are, as they
are
described in the Bible, a remnant or a minority. Even in Elijah's day,
there
was a remnant. Seven thousand had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings
Taking a stand for
the truth
and facing a majority that stand against the truth often leaves us
feeling
lonely. Humanly speaking it very often appears we are alone. We must
remember,
however (as Elijah did at this point), when we stand for the Lord we
are in the
majority because standing with us is the Infinite Almighty and His
myriad of
hosts.
One of the
descriptive titles
of God in the Bible is "the LORD of Hosts." What we need is the
insight and faith of Elisha, Elijah's successor. Elisha prayed for his
servant,
"O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." Elisha's servant was
terribly disturbed because he could see only the large number of enemy
that
surrounded them. Elisha prayed that his servant might have eyes to see
the
myriad of God's host surrounding them (cf. 2 Kings
Now back to Elijah.
Later, in
a state of depression with his eyes off the Lord, this feeling of
aloneness
covered Elijah like a cloud and wiped him out (1 Kings 19:4, 10, 14).
Here,
however, Elijah was in essence saying to the people, "Look, I stand
here
alone against four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal. Unless the Lord
is who I
claim He is, what, humanly speaking, can one man do against so many?"
In
view of what Elijah knew God would do, he was calling their attention
(and
ours) to an important truth. When we stand for the Lord of the Bible,
we stand
in the sovereign strength and majority of the true God of the universe
who
surrounds us with His hosts.
Principle: This is a day in which the body of Christ
needs to be
like Elijah. As in Ezekiel's day, God is calling out from among His
people
those who will stand in the gap and count for the Lord. There are huge
gaps in
the walls of our nation and society. These are breaches in the wall of
biblical
values and our Christian heritage. These are places where the enemy has
been
swarming through to destroy and corrupt. Ezekiel wrote, "And I searched
for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap
before
Me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one"
(Ezek.
22:30).
Application: Do you feel alone at the office or on the
job? Are
you facing that call to stand in the gap or stand before the majority
and take
a stand for the Lord? Ask the Lord to give you eyes to see His presence
with
His multitude of hosts. Before we will do this, however, something
dynamic must
happen in our lives.
The place chosen
for the
contest was
No spot in
Elijah's Demand
For a
Decision
"And Elijah came
near to
all the people and said, `How long will you hesitate between two
opinions? If
the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.' But the people
did not
answer him a word" (1 Kings
In verse 21 we see
one of the
key issues of our day and any day - the instability of indecision and
double-mindedness. It's so easy to straddle the fence. But what a
dangerous
position! It's inconsistent with the reality of God and it leads to
great
instability in every part of one's life. Sometimes it seems like the
thing to
do because of the pressure, but it is pure insanity.
It would seem
reasonable to
conclude that both King Ahab and his subjects were expecting Elijah to
pray for
rain to end the drought. But not so. Neither Ahab nor the people were
in any
way ready for the blessing of rain. The Lord had them under judgment
for
neglecting His Word and for their idolatry, which they had as yet
failed to
acknowledge. There were some serious issues in their lives that had to
be faced
before God could bless them with rain. How like us! We want God's
blessings
without facing our responsibilities concerning our relationship with
Him and
the need for deep down repentance. Much of “Christendom” today,
departing from
the message of the Bible, appeals to this desire for blessings without
calling
attention to man's real need as set forth in Scripture.
Let's look at 1
Kings 18:21
in four parts: (1) the problem, (2) the question, (3) the issue, and
(4) the
silence.
The basic problem
is seen in
the words "hesitate between two opinions." "Hesitate" is
the Hebrew pasach. It is debated whether or not there are two distinct
verbs in
Biblical Hebrew in this form, but the form of this verb with the
consonants
psch is used in two distinct ways: (1) "To pass over, spring over;"
or (2) "to limp, be lame, or be crippled." It is translated
"crippled," (NASB) and "lame," (KJV, NIV) in 2 Samuel 4:4.
In 1 Kings
Here in 1 Kings
18:21, it
means "to limp" and refers to the unsteadiness of a person because of
indecision. It is like a person who limps and hesitates between steps.
It gives
us a striking picture of what we are like when we are double-minded
about our
commitment to the Lord. "Between two opinions" is literally,
"limping on two opinions" like someone on two unequal legs.
"Opinions" is the Hebrew, seippah "division, divided
opinion." An adjective of the same root is translated
"double-minded" in Psalm 119:113. The Psalmist says, "I hate
those who are double-minded, but I love Thy law." Clearly the people
were
divided in their allegiance between belief and commitment to Yahweh and
belief
and commitment to the idolatrous cult of Baal. The Spirit of God and
their
conscience warned them against Baalism and pulled them toward the Lord,
but
their fear of men, persecution by the queen, and their attraction to
the immorality
of the cult pulled them in the other direction.
Likewise today,
there is
always a great pull for people to lead lives of duplicity to some
degree. They
may go to the church building on Sunday, but the rest of the week they
are
dominated by other loves, concerns, and commitments (cf. Rev. 2:4).
They feel
the tug of God on their hearts and the love of the world at the same
time. Like
a fan, oscillating back and forth, they become indecisive because they
are
trying to love God and the world at the same time (cf. 1 John
Elijah, as with the
rest of
Scripture, demanded a definite decision. A decision that is fundamental
to all
of life. We cannot walk the fence with the Lord (cf. Rev. 3:15-16).
Scripture
and a true grasp of who the Lord is demand our full commitment.
Anything else
is not only insane, but leads to serious consequences that affect every
aspect
of the life. Indecision leaves us spiritually and morally lame and
unstable in
all our ways.
Scripture speaks
clearly
on this:
1. Matthew
2. Matthew
3. James 1:5-8 -
Teaches us
that failure to completely rest one's life in God's hands leads to
instability
that touches every area of the life.
The Question
With the words,
"How long"
the prophet was asking them what it was going to take to wake them up.
How much
of God's discipline would they have to endure before they realized the
way of
life they'd chosen was not working? Not only had God closed the
blessings of
heaven, but also He was revealing the emptiness and barrenness of the
life they
had chosen. What was it going to take?
The question here
relates to
two things: (1) It relates to time. "How long" brings out the
principle of the hardening of one's heart as time passes (Heb. 3:7-8).
(2) It
relates to the effect, just limping along with a walk that is lame and
weak. It
calls attention to a walk far from God's plan of abundant living for
His
children. Isaiah spoke to the dynamic effect that faith in God's person
and
plan brings into one's life. He said, "Yet those who wait for the LORD
will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They
will
run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary" (Isaiah
40:31).
We might compare
the
challenge and call of Hebrews 12:11-15. The recipients of this book
were under
the discipline of the Lord because they were not walking by faith in
the
sufficiency of the Savior. In these verses the author shows us what
happens
when we depend on our own means of living the Christian life. We become
weak
and feeble. We are like a person who is lame because of a limb that is
out of
joint. We need to allow the Lord to bring healing and His strength into
our
lives by resting in His means of sanctification through the Lord Jesus.
This is seen in the
two
conditional clauses beginning with "if." The first "if"
calls attention to the reality of the God of the Scripture. Here we see
the
principle that the reality of God, who is the Creator and Sovereign,
demands that
mankind, the creature, trust Him and then follow Him. Anything else is
logically absurd; it is pure madness. The second "if" challenges us
to acknowledge the fact we may have placed our faith in a false god. If
that is
true, we need to acknowledge the futility of that false god. Once we
know whom
the true God is, it's absurd to follow the false gods of our own
making. Our
false gods cannot save us nor deliver us from the pain of this life.
They only
distract, destroy, and deter us from the blessings of the true God.
Finally, two
religious
systems that are diametrically opposed might possibly be right if God
was not
God, but not if God has manifested Himself clearly in human history. In
view of
that, both paths simply cannot be right. Contrary to modern opinion,
one must
be right and the other wrong. One must result in blessing, life and
peace - the
other in cursing, death and destruction.
Application: When we totter along in indecision about our
trust
and commitment to God, we need to be reminded of the ultimate issue and
of
Elijah's challenge. If God is God (and He is), follow Him. Don't try to
sit on
the fence or pursue what is clearly false.
The text tells us,
"But
the people did not answer him a word." We are reminded of Job's
response
to God's revelation to him concerning His infinite majesty. Job
repeatedly
proclaimed his innocence to his three friends. In the process, he
became
somewhat demanding of God. Then the Lord came on the scene and began to
reveal
His majesty to Job. After God's first speech, wherein He revealed His
awesome
majesty, Job was brought to silence. He said, "Behold, I am
insignificant;
what can I reply to Thee? I lay my hand on my mouth" (Job. 40:4).
Likewise
when faced and challenged with the truth of what Elijah said, the
people were
speechless. There was simply no room for self-justification. They had
no
argument that would make sense against this challenge of Elijah, and
neither do
we.
There is no
argument, at
least not one that makes sense, against total commitment of our lives
to follow
the Lord. Any other decision is nonsense. It is absurd in view of who
God is,
what He has done for us in Christ, and the emptiness of a life without
total
commitment to Him. When the reality of the true God and His claims on
our lives
grip us, we find we have no logical or sensible choice but to trust Him
to the
degree that we then commit our lives totally to Him.
The decision for
God as our
one and only true Master, is also the decision to lay up treasure in
heaven. It
is also the decision to cast our needs and burdens on Him (1 Pet. 5:7).
Above
all, it is the decision to trust in God's solutions rather than our own
tactics
to handle life. Enslavement to the visible and man-made gods of this
world like
materialism, power, pleasure, position, etc., makes faith in the
invisible
suspect. Certainly, if we are so enslaved, God is not directing our
lives.
1 Kings 18:21, like
Matthew
6:19-21, is a challenge concerning heavenly treasure and a call for a
radical
evaluation of our lifestyle, our sources of trust, our goals in life,
and our
commitment. Jesus sees earthly and heavenly fortune hunting to be in
direct
competition. He says, do not lay up earthly treasure, but lay up
heavenly
treasure. We might prefer it to be a question of both/and whereas He
shows us
it is an either/or.
First Kings
Who is a Christian?
A
Christian is one who has obeyed God’s Plan of Salvation (see John 8:24;
Rom.
10:17; Heb. 11:6; Luke 13:3; 2 Pet. 3:9; Matt. 10:32-33; Rom. 10:9-10;
Mark
16:16; Acts 2:38; Rev. 2:10). A Christian is one who is in vital
relationship
with the sovereign God of the universe through faith in the person and
work of
Christ. A Christian is a child of the living God – the God who created
the
marvels of the universe. In view of that, perhaps nothing is more
pathetic than
to see a child of the living God tottering between two opinions, torn
between a
vital commitment to the Lord, and seeking happiness in the gods of this
world.
The Principle of 1 Kings 18:21 and that of Matthew 6:19ff
means that
as long as the idols of this world fascinate us, i.e., the things we
think we
must have to be happy - money, power, praise, attention - we are going
to find
life miserable. We were created to have one center. To have two is to
be
miserable and to enjoy neither spiritual things nor material.