This year we have been looking at the theme of “In focus”. Rightly seeing God & How he sees us. Vision matters. 

As we look at each person this year, we are going to ask two questions: 

1. How did they see God? 
2. How does God see us? 

In this post, we are going to look at one of my favorite people in the Bible. Elijah. 

Elijah was a prophet. Now in a normal time a prophet had a hard job. They were to speak on God’s behalf delivering messages to people. Sometimes that was to a king sometimes to a whole nation. They also acted a protector of the laws and covenant of God and called people to repent and return to following the law. That job is certainly hard enough but Elijah did not live in a normal time. 

He lived in a time around 870-850 AD, after the death of Solomon. Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, becomes king but after trying to collect more taxes, the northern tribes split from Rehoboam and form their own kingdom, (still named Israel.) Rehoboam is still king of the southern kingdom, now called Judah. The northern kingdom makes Samaria their capital and set up two idol temples in Dan and Bethel. They do not produce one single king out of 20 who faithfully followed God or stayed away from idol worship. The southern kingdom only had 8 kings out of 20 who followed God. 

So in 1 Kings chapter 17, God calls Elijah, a man who lives in the desert to serve as a prophet. We are not told anything about his family. The first thing we are told about him is the message he sent to give. 

1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” 

This is a big deal because he is sent to deliver this message too is Ahab. One of the most evil kings in Israel’s history. He is married to Jezebel, equally evil. He did more to anger God than all the kings before him. (1Kings 16:30,33) He erected an alter to Baal. In the Canaanite religion, they believed Baal controlled the rain. So this becomes a big deal to have God show that He, not Baal, is in control. 

Elijah delivers the message and then is told to go hide and God would feed him by ravens and a brook. And he does until the river dries up. He is sent to a widow who God has told to feed him. This widow had enough to feed herself and her son one more meal, she trusted God, listened to Elijah, made the meal to feed him, and never ran out of flour and oil again. Soon after her son got sick and died. Elijah asks God to bring him back to life. 

1 King 17:21Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” 22 And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” 24 And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”

Notice how God sees him. He calls him to serve as a prophet, trust him to deliver an extremely hard message so people began to turn back to God again. How does Elijah see God? He trust him. He obeys God without question. He believes God will do what he says. He allows God to take care of him. We find 7 miraculous things God does through the life of Elijah. And it comes down to seeing God the way God sees us. Elijah needed this kind of vision because what was coming next would be harder than before. 

1 Kings 18:1 After many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth.” 2 So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. 

On the way he runs into Obadiah, who was over king Ahab’s house. It says Obadiah feared God but he also feared Ahab. He informs Elijah that Ahab has sent people to every nation looking for him. He says go back and tell him you found me. Odadiah said, no way! Ahad will kill me. 

1 Kings 18:13 Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred men of the Lord’s prophets by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water? 14 And now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Elijah is here”‘; and he will kill me.” 15 And Elijah said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.” 16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him. And Ahab went to meet Elijah.

17 When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” 18 And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. 19 Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

He see God working through Obadiah right under Aha’s nose hiding a hundred prophets of God. He continues to see God protecting him. He does his job as a prophet and reminds Ahab that he was abandoned God. He lays down a bold challenge to Ahab and instructs him to bring all the false prophets. Baal was the storm god. Asherah was the wife of the high god El. 850 vs 1. How do you think Elijah saw God? 

What happens next is one my favorite parts of Elijah’s story but it is not the focus of the story we are going to focus on. Elijah wins the challenge to call down fire from God to prove that God is God. His vision was perfect. 

1 Kings 18:36 And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. 37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.”

Next comes the rain. (1 Kings 18:41-46) But then there is a change in Elijah. 

1 King 19:1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3 Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” 

He was afraid. Up to this point we do not find Elijah afraid. He is the one who trust God, who knows that God is able. He become depressed. He wanted to die. This does not sound like the confident Elijah we all know. His vision has changed. 

God sends an angel to strength him. He gets up and continues. 

1 Kings 19:9 There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 

He starts believing that he is the only one. He thinks he is alone even though it says God is with him. What does it take for him to become this wrong? Does he not remember what Obadiah said? There are 100 prophets hidden. But he still feels alone. So God shows up to remind him who he is, to refocus how he sees things. 

1 Kings 19:13b ”What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 15 And the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. 16 And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. 17 And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. 18 Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” 

God did not just reserve 100 but seven thousand. Elijah is not alone. God brings him Elisha to take his place as prophet. Elijah see that. He thought God had left him alone. But God did not. Serving God can sometimes feel very lonely. Even when we are faithfully obeying God. We are going to have days where we ask, where are you God? Where is everyone else? We don’t feel connected to God. And God pulls back the curtain and show us not only has He not abandoned us but He has preserved his people who are standing alongside us all along. 

Look next to you. Put on the right set of eyes that sees a God full of power to protect, work, and to enable us to be people who work powerfully for him, even when it feels like the world around us is serving someone else. Keep serving God. Watch what He will do with your devotion. It is not in vain.