ELIJAH’s APPEARANCE[1] 1 Kings 17:1 Setting:
Do we still have fertility gods today? What are the gods of our day? Why do we worship them? The confrontation
Elijah’s Prayer: James 5:17
MT. CARMEL The challenge
The Mockery 1. Pink says that this mimics the mockery of God. It is a sort of just retribution for the fool who mocked the warnings of God. Psalm 2:4; Prov. 1:24-28 2. Notice also that the mockery encouraged the people to do more outrageous things. God gave them over to their lusts. Consistency in sin is sometimes urged on by God so that one faces more and more misery The slaying of the Baal prophets
ELIJAH TAKEN UP[2] Baal was supposedly a warrior god and the “rider of the clouds.” E’s being taken up in a chariot of fire (glory cloud) would have dismissed the idea that this was Baal’s tag. “When Elisha saw the whirlwind, the fire and the hourses, the symbolism was unmistakable. The Warrior God, the captian of the armies of heaven, had come to retrieve his servant and catch him up into his war chariot. Elijah had fought the good fight, and now his commander would take him out of the fray and into his heavenly reward.” Parallels the Son of man who was taken up and hid by a cloud, and will come again on the clouds of heaven as a warrior to dispel idolatry once and for all “The Chariots and the Horsemen of Israel” This is not a term directed at the theatrics. It is a word ascribed to the prophet himself. He is the Lord’s vehicle of war. (see also 2 kings 2:12) The church today carries on this work. They are the prophetic voice in the world ELISHA HEALING OF THE WATERS (2 Kings 19:15-18) Why were the waters poisoned? Perhaps because of Joshua’s curse and the setting up of the gates by Ahab & Heil. (Josh 6:26; 1Ki 16:34) The restoring of the water is a redemptive sign. One of the curses of Deuteronomy 28 was infertility. God removed the curse on the land and the people as a sign of his grace. TO KILL A MOCKING BOY (2 Kings 2:23-25) These boys were not just poking fun at a bald guy. They were carrying out the sins of their fathers by mocking a prophet of the LORD. To mock the word of god is to mock God himself. In sum, they were breaking the 3rd commandment in an egregious way. The bears were an apocalypse, a cursing of the people for their mockery. God cannot be mocked! This ultimately served as a sign for all of Israel. This idolatry and blatent disregard for the word of God will not go unpunished. In time, Assyria—whose emblem was that of a bear—came down and mauled Israel. DEAD MAN WALKING (2 Kings 13:21) That the Israelites were being attacked was a sign of God’s curse for their unfaithfulness. God had promised that their enemies would flee before them and that they would not need walls of protection. The more you sin, the more on guard you must be. The dead prophet still works miracles. His life giving power testifies to the fact that God is not dead. Even though the instrument may pass away, God’s word abides forever. Death is a curse of the fall. But the word promises life. Any who fall upon him may receive it. [1] Sources: The Life of Elijah, AW Pink.; My God is Yahweh, MB Van’t Veer.; [2] Faith in the Face of Apostasy, Raymond Dillard.
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