Transcript
Smiles, okay. I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. My heart is full today.
I thank God for his grace and mercy and for the opportunity to share the word. I don’t take any opportunity for granted. I thank Jim for extending this invitation and I certainly would be remiss if I didn’t thank my beloved, that beautiful, brilliant, mighty woman of God, Reverend Doctor Yvette W. Jackson for being here today and for loving me in ways that continue to leave me speechless.
And I thank all of you for your love, your prayers, your encouragement, and your support while I was here as a resident and ever since. I know that we already prayed this morning, but I ask your indulgence briefly, just for a minute, as we prepare to hear what the Lord has to say. Lord, thank you for the greeting of the saints, the singing of hymns, the praying of prayers, the giving of gifts, and the recitation of your word.
Now be with us in the preaching moment and let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, for you are our strength and our Redeemer. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
So, whenever I get an opportunity to preach the word, I like to let people know kind of where we’re going, so we’re all on the same page. Today we’re going to spend a few minutes considering the passage that was read to you earlier from 1 Kings. However, we’re gonna do it a little differently today.
It’s okay, you’ll be alright. What I mean by that is we’re going to hear directly from the horse’s mouth, as they say, from the prophet Elijah himself, in the form of an imagined journal entry from the prophet, which could have been written around 870 BC or so, where Elijah reflects on all the events that led him up to the point of Scripture that you heard earlier. The entry reads this way, Lord God Almighty, thank you.
I am in awe of your love for me and your people. I confess, Lord, that I could not have predicted the journey you would take me on when I accepted your call to be the prophet to the people. Because of the persistent idolatry and disobedience of your people, you used me to share a message of judgment that there would be neither dew nor rain over the next few years, except at my word.
Lord, you knew that as a result of this prophecy, I would be in trouble. Ahab and Jezebel would seek my life. So you sent me to the Kareth Ravine east of the Jordan to, of all things, drink from a brook and be fed by ravens.
Ravens! Who would have thought that you could use those annoying birds to feed a human being? But you did, showing once again your everlasting love and care. And when the brook dried up, you sent me to Zarephath, to the home of a widow who was at her wit’s end and the end of her resources, and who had resigned herself and her son to die. You performed a miracle that day, enabling the widow not only to feed me, but to have enough flour and oil to feed her and her son until the rain would come.
And if that wasn’t enough, when the boy died tragically, you raised him back to life. And how could I forget what you did on Mount Carmel? Three years after you prophesied the drought, you sent me back to Ahab. I must confess that I had some misgivings about this.
After all, Ahab and his murderous bride hated me and would have loved to have seen me dead. But I could not disobey you, so off to Ahab I went. Now when I encountered Ahab, something rose up within me.
Maybe it was my reaction to him calling me a troubler of Israel. I think it got under my skin a little bit. I knew in my heart, Lord, that you had sent me to prophesy your word regardless of whether it was well received or not.
I also knew that I was not the one troubling Israel. The one who was causing distress, confusion, and frustration was Ahab himself, along with his wife. They were the ones who had led Israel into disobedience and idolatry, directly violating your commandment that we shall worship no other God but you.
Lord, I still marvel at your magnificent display of power and authority that day. You indulged my challenge of Ahab and the challenge to the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah. What I saw was that, Lord, when you show yourself, you leave no doubt as to who is sovereign.
Now we both prepared bulls for the sacrifice. Ahab and his folks prepared one for calling on his God and I prepared one for calling upon you. Now I was led to have neither of us light the fire under the offering but to wait to see who showed up, Baal or you, God.
Whichever God showed up with fire would be the one that was sovereign. Now I have to laugh when I remember the scene to see Ahab’s side calling on Baal all day, dancing and shouting and weeping and cutting themselves with swords until they bled. But Baal was silent.
It was a serious moment but I couldn’t resist teasing him just a little bit. Maybe he’s sleeping or on vacation or maybe he’s relieving himself. Now when it was my turn, we rebuilt the altar to you that had been torn down.
Then we prepared our bull for the sacrifice. However, before we called on your name, we soaked the bull and the wood with so much water that it filled a trench around it. And when I called on you, Lord, in your mercy and protecting your name, you sent a fire so powerful and so intense that it burned up the offering, the wood, and the water.
After witnessing that mind-blowing display, finally the people saw that you were and are the one and only God. Now emboldened by witnessing your miracle and the subsequent response of the people, we seized the prophets of Baal and slaughtered them in the Kishon Valley. Shortly thereafter, Lord, you predicted an end to the drought and had me give Ahab the good news.
Now, Lord, I would have thought that the promise of rain after all that drought and famine would have been cause for celebration and rejoicing. But Ahab ran back to Jezebel and complained about everything I did. Why did he have to go and do that? He knew who he was married to.
He knew she had a short fuse and no fear of or allegiance to the God of Israel. I guess the good news of rain was not enough to dissuade him from still wanting me dead. I confess, Lord, that when I received that message from Jezebel’s servant that she was determined to make me like those prophets who were slain, I got scared and I ran.
I’m ashamed to say, Lord, I wanted to die. But Lord, you have to understand, I couldn’t take living in fear for my life. I know, I know.
You had just performed this miraculous demonstration of your power on Mount Carmel and here I was afraid that it wouldn’t be enough to make Jezebel stop her murderous rampage or that you wouldn’t protect me. But Lord, once again, instead of punishing me or abandoning me, you showed me how much you loved and cared for me, that your promise to never leave me or forsake me was one I could count on. You met me in my despair and my exhaustion.
You fed me and revived me and cared for me as a father would. And then you confronted me, asking me what I thought was a strange question. You asked me what I was doing there.
At that moment I thought to myself, why would you ask me that? You see all and know all. You know how diligently I served you. Even as so many people around me were disobeying you, I was faithful.
I told Ahab what you told me to tell him. But it seemed that his heart was still hardened. He and the rest of the idol worshippers were determined to go their own way.
Again, I was afraid, so I ran. Then you told me to do something else that didn’t make sense at the time. You said go and stand on the mountain in your presence because you were about to pass by.
What? You were about to pass by? Oh well. I thought this is really gonna be the end. If the Lord’s passing by, it must be my time to go.
But it wasn’t. After all my bellyaching and all my crying out, you showed me a great and powerful wind that tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks. But I couldn’t find you in the wind.
After the wind, there was an earthquake, but I couldn’t find you in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was a great fire, but I couldn’t find you in the fire. Now that was a head-scratcher.
I thought to myself, Lord you said you were gonna pass by, but I couldn’t find you in either of those incredible displays of nature. And as I pondered this, there was a gentle whisper, a still small voice, and I knew right then that was you. So in awe I was that I tried to hide and I stood at the mouth of the cave.
I pulled clothes over my head as if you couldn’t see me. You then asked me that odd question again. What are you doing here Elijah? I didn’t know what else to say, so I gave you the same answer I gave you before.
But instead of another demonstration of your power, you gave me some instructions as if you weren’t even listening to what I said. It seemed or felt like you were ignoring my pleas and my plight and were unconcerned that I was still living under the threat of death. But this is why I must thank you.
As I look back over all that you had allowed me to experience and remembered all the ways that you preserved me and protected me and loved me, maybe, just maybe, in the midst of my despair, I failed to understand a few things. I failed to understand who you are, loving, kind, faithful. I forgot what you could do, anything and everything, and protect me from all hurt, harm, and danger.
I forgot that I am, and indeed none of us, are ever truly alone. Lord, you were showing me that you are with us in every situation, situation, and that you cannot be contained or controlled or predicted or put in a box. Like you showed Moses, our blessed ancestor, you are the everlasting, the omnipotent, the omniscient, the omnipresent one, unchanging, eternal, full of love, grace, and mercy.
Lord, no matter what I or any of us may face now or in the future, help us to always keep that in mind. Thus endeth the journal. May it be so.
Let us pray. God, thank you for the reminders of who you are, what you can do, and that you never leave us alone. Thank you for sheltering us and protecting us and providing for us when we couldn’t provide for ourselves.
Thank you for reminding us that your love is better than life itself. Burn your word upon our hearts. Bring it back to our remembrance in the times that we need it.
We need thee. Every hour we need thee. Bless us now.
In Christ’s name, amen.
