Sermon
The Prayer of Elijah
January 22, 2006
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'd like for you all to take a Bible. There is a Bible there in the pew in front of you, and I'll give you the page numbers as we study together. We're not going to use the notes today. We're just going to use our Bibles. I have for you I think a fantastic story, in fact, if I were in Hollywood and I was a producer I could produce the world's number one movie from the life of Elijah.

He's a man that comes out of the wilderness, walks into the presence and the palace of the king, a wicked king, announces there's going to be no rain, hides by a brook, fed by the ravens, goes to a home, brings a boy back to life from the dead, goes upon a mountain prays and fire falls from heaven and consumes the sacrifice, and he outruns a chariot. Now that makes content for a great movie.

And the story is found in your Bible on page 193. Would you turn there with me? This is the story of Elijah, and our thoughts and our theme for this month has been prayer. And last Sunday we talked about the prayer of Jacob, and today I want to talk about the prayer of Elijah.

Now in 1 Kings chapter 17 the story begins. It says: "And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab..." Well, Elijah is a man who lives in a small village. He's a prophet. If we had the map of Palestine before us we'd have the Sea of Galilee up here and we would have the Jordan and down here is the Dead Sea, and on East where the deserts are, out there in the deserts is a little village called Tishbe. And Elijah is a man of God, lives in this little village, and he's deeply concerned about the spiritual condition of his nation.

Fifty years before King David had ruled and he had ruled in righteousness, but now after 50 years there has been a spiritual deterioration, and a nation that was taught to serve God only have turned to idols, and those idols have become the center of worship. The nation is filled with licentious sin, godlessness, and it was one of the darkest hours spiritually of the nation of Israel. And Elijah walks into Ahab's presence, and the question is, who is Ahab?

Well go back a few verses in chapter 16 to verse 29 and it introduces Ahab to us. "In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel; and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him." Now that's a terrible reputation. He did evil more than anybody else before him.

"And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians; and he went and served Baal and worshiped him. Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a wooden image. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him."

Now we know who Ahab is. He is married to Jezebel; two of the most wicked people that have ever lived. You see Jezebel had arranged for all of the priests, the godly priests, of the temple to be massacred, and then she brought in from these pagan lands, she brought in all these pagan priests. She's got 850 around her dinner table, but she has killed off all the godly people who served as priests. And the nation is at its lowest ebb.

Now old Elijah is out there in his little village praying and he knows that in ancient past God had said something about a nation that sinned. Hold that place in your Bible and go back to page 103 in your Bible, because here is where, it's Deuteronomy chapter 11, here is where most likely Elijah finds his reason to pray the prayer that he prays.

Look at what it says in verse 13: "'And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.' Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, lest the LORD's anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you."

Here's what God said, if you do what I tell you to do and you follow My commands, I'll bless you. The rain will come in its season, you will have the early rain and the latter rain, and I'll make sure that the fields are green for your livestock; only under one condition, and that is that you serve Me. But if you start worshiping false gods and bring in all these idols and these pagan gods I'm going to turn off the faucets of heaven. There will be no rain.

Now Elijah knew that God had said that in ancient past, and as he is praying in his little village the burden for his nation, knowing that it has turned to idols, they're worshiping false gods, he decides as the Lord prompts his heart I'm going to walk into King Ahab's palace and I'm going to pronounce God's judgment.

Now I can just see him as he leaves that little village. He is probably wiry haired and he's got this rugged clothing on his body and he walks into the palace, wherever Ahab was, and he stands there and says, Ahab, "As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word." Now old Ahab had forgotten the God of Israel a long time ago. But old Elijah walks in and said I want you to know that the God of our forefathers, Jehovah God, is the God that I worship, the God of Israel, not these gods you brought in, Ahab, but the God who has always been our God, Jehovah God, that's my God and I forever stand in His presence.

And what he is simply saying is I live a life where I know that the words that I speak and the deeds that I do, God's going to observe, and my burning passion is to so live that in my words and my deeds I bring God honor and bring Him glory. I stand, as it were, I live in His presence ever sensitive to the fact that God is observing my life. Now Ahab, Jehovah God is my God, I stand in His presence, and I want you to know the faucets are turned off.

He walks out and it says, verse 2, "The word of the LORD came to him, saying..." Now I want to lay down a spiritual truth here that will help some of you. I'm often asked, Pastor, how do I know the will of God? You know I pray and I just want really to do His will, and it's so hard to find. And I back up and say, that's strange; I don't understand you. To me the will of God is the easiest thing to understand. Because if we're walking in obedience in pathways of righteousness, it's obvious from the text God leads us, and He gives us wisdom in our decisions and we know what He wants of us. His will comes to us. It doesn't say that Elijah got on his knees and said, God, now what do I do next? Because he's in the pathway of obedience God says Elijah it's time to go hide yourself, go underground, because He knows that Ahab is going to be after him, that Jezebel could kill him.

And so what does he do? Verse 3, "'Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.' So he went and did according to the word of the LORD, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook."

Now for all these years I've read the story and said, man, that's an ideal situation. All the rest of the land is perishing and he's got this little brook and most likely it's just a wonderful little comfortable place, and in the morning the ravens come and give him his meal, and they come back in the evening with his meal. And then I picked up a book this week written by Dr. Keller and he pointed out something I had never thought about. He said who are the ravens? I mean they are scavenger birds. I mean they pick up from the garbage dump; they go to the outside of the village, go through the scrap heap, they find bones lying in the wilderness, they'll peck away at those bones. They are animals that eat garbage.

And old Dr. Keller says God feeds Elijah one year on the garbage from the ravens. And I'm saying, God, I'm sure that You fed a better meal than that? But think with me, you know when there are vultures around there's something dead down here and you don't want to go near it. So God protects this prophet by the ravens who he participates in their diet. You say that's not a very good diet. But at least he's safe, and he is eating.

Now notice verse 7, it says the brook dried up, because there was no more rain. And verse 8 says that God says to him, the word comes to him in verse 9 and says, "Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you." So he leaves where Jordan is and he goes clear out to the Mediterranean Sea to city of Sidon, and God has already talked to a little lady that she is going to run a cross a man who is going to need to help.

So look at what happens: "'Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there...' So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, 'Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink." And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, "Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.'" Not only water in a drought, but bread.

And the little lady answers back and says, "As the LORD your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son..." and then we are going to die. Man I don't have any food. I've got a little flour and a little oil, and I'm going to make a fire and I'm going to cook our last meal and we're going to die.

Listen to Elijah, he said, "Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son." Old Elijah says use what you've got, but I come first. But he goes on to say, "For thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.'" Now she's got her cue. He's speaking of the Lord of Israel. God has already talked to her and now He's identified the prophet. Now she knows that God is in this thing.

So what does she do? "She went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke by Elijah." So here he is now in Sidon, and God has this flour bin and this oil jar never going dry, but the little boy dies in her home, and Elijah prays for the little boy and the boy comes back to life.

Now three years now have gone by and look at chapter 18, it says, "And it came to pass after many days that the word of the LORD came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, 'Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth.'" Here God is telling him to walk right into the jaws of death. Go talk to Ahab. Ahab is burning with anger. His people are dying. His stock is languishing, I mean his whole nation has gone to pot. I mean it's just...it's an economic crisis, and God said I want you to go talk with them.

Well he remembers that he is the guy that stopped the rain in the first place. And what happens is Elijah was aware that in the king's palace was a man by the name of Obadiah, one man, who somehow served...he was in charge of some activity there within Ahab and Jezebel's palace. And that's interesting to me that God placed a godly man in a very sinful place to help his people, because here is what Obadiah would do, when he knew that people were being massacred, these priests, he took 50 of them and hid them in one cave and he took 50 and hid them in another cave, and then off of Jezebel's table he fed them so that these godly priests are being cared for from the food that comes from wicked Jezebel's table. And Obadiah was the man responsible for this gracious act.

So a one day Ahab says to Obadiah, Obadiah this thing is getting bad, I mean, the livestock are dying on us and we've got to do something. You go that way, I'll go this way, and let's see if we can find some grass for our livestock. So they went on their way and we come to verse 7 in our chapter 18 and it says: "As Obadiah was on his way, suddenly Elijah met him; and he recognized him, and fell on his face, and said, "Is that you, my lord Elijah?" And he answered him, "It is I. Go, tell your master, 'Elijah is here.'"

And Obadiah said now just a minute, he said, Ahab has been sending to every country around and making people promise that when they find you they'll bring you, and if I go and tell Ahab that I saw you here, and then I bring him here and you don't stay here, he's going to kill me because he's going to say, hey, he was in your presence and you didn't hold him for me, and so he said what are you trying to do, get me killed?

And we come now to verse 15 and "Elijah said, "As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely present myself to him today."" In other words, count on it Obadiah; I'll stay right here. You go get your man and bring him here. So Ahab comes and look at what he says, I mean what an introduction, verse 17, "Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, 'Is that you, O troubler of Israel?'" I mean that's not a nice way to greet somebody who is the only one who can open up the windows of heaven. But I mean Ahab is wicked and he is mad - you troubler of Israel.

And old Elijah answers, "I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and have followed the Baals." You have gone off into heathen pagan worship. You're guilty. I'm not. That's why God has closed the windows of heaven, but now Elijah said it is decision time.

Here's what he says, "And Elijah came to all the people, and said, 'How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.'" Now this is probably the first time in 50 years they are confronted with Jehovah God. Here is this massive man of a prophet, wiry haired standing there and said, listen! It's time you get off the fence spiritually. If Baal is God then we will worship him, but if the Lord Jehovah is God we're going to worship Him. And it says all the people were silent. You know why?

I think it was because when that old massive man of Elijah said the Lord God, immediately their memory flashed, because now he's referenced the God of their forefathers, the God who caused the Red Sea to split, the God who rained down manna from heaven, the God who caused water to come out of a rock, and Elijah says if He's God were going to know, but if your god Baal is god were also going to know.

So old Ahab goes and he rounds up all of his false prophets and they arrive at Mount Carmel and a multitude of people are there because this is decision day. They're going to see who is God. Look at what happens, verse 22, "Then Elijah said to the people, 'I alone am left a prophet of the LORD; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Therefore let them give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD; and the God who answers by fire, He is God.'"

And all the people answered and said, it's a deal. So what Elijah does is says you guys go first, there are more of you. So they build their altar, place their bullock on the altar, they're going to make a sacrifice in front of all the people. This is very typical in the old ancient way of Judaism. And what happens is these false prophets start praying at nine o'clock in the morning. Can you see 450 running around, yelling, screaming, and jumping? Because that's what it says they did. Baal hear us! hear us, hear us. And for three hours there is absolute silence.

Finally, at noon, it says Elijah began to mock them. He said, hey, maybe your god has gone on a business trip. Maybe he's asleep or maybe he's in conversation and you've got to disturb him and tell him you need his attention.

Now what I did is I have about 10 or 12 different versions of the Scriptures so I laid them all out on my desk because I wanted to see how they interpreted some of the words, the Hebrew words, in Elijah's mockery. And one of the text, in the original Hebrew, it says he has gone in retirement. And they interpret that as he has gone to the restroom. Can you imagine old Elijah mocking them saying, look at, your god is either on a trip or he has gone to the restroom? Or you've got to wake him up; he is sleeping.

And now they really get excited and they start cutting themselves and they are really making a scene. And some interesting things about that...you say, why did Elijah ask for a bullock? Because you see in ancient times it was usually the offering of a lamb or a goat or a bushel of grain, but here old Elijah says I want bullocks for the offering. Do you know why? Because way back in the ancient text of Leviticus God had told the priests and the prophet that when it comes to offering your offering for your sin, it has to be a bullock.

Elijah was doing something under the command of God probably totally unknown, unrecognized by the multitude around him. What he is doing is in his offering it's a bullock, and he is saying God, I'm a sinner, I've sinned, and I offer this offering to You because I want to confront the matter of sin before I know You'll answer my prayer. Ladies and gentlemen, this is one of the secrets to having prayer answered by God. Elijah knew that if he had sin in his life and in his heart, God wouldn't hear him.

Isaiah had said in Isaiah 59:1-3, The Lord's hand is not shortened, that he cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that he cannot hear; but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and he cannot hear you. This is a divine truth. God is a holy God and He will only hear the prayers of someone who has dealt with the sin issue first. That's the reason why Jesus Christ went to Calvary's cross, to pay the debt for our sin; that's why we come to Him and seek Him and receive Him as our Savior. That's dealing with the sin issue first; then once we've dealt with the sin issue, God hears our prayer.

Three o'clock in the afternoon and these guys have raved on now for six hours, and Elijah said that's enough. You all come here. He did something very interesting. Again, he knew the Old Testament Scriptures. He knew that God had instructed that when you build an altar you build it in a certain way. It had to be made out of stones that had not been cut or hewn, and it had to be set a certain way: four stones, four stones, and four stones, 12 stones which represented the 12 tribes of Israel. So after you build the stones then God says you lay the wood a certain way, and then you lay your sacrifice a certain way. So God is very specific, God's very specific in how an altar should be built, and how a sacrifice is to be made.

And Elijah prepares his altar...he has his sacrifice ready and then he does something very strange. He says, go down and get me four barrels of water, but it's drought. When you look on your map of Palestine, Mount Carmel is right out on the Mediterranean Sea, so servants could've run down to the sea, gotten four barrels of water, brought it back, he said dump it on the sacrifice. He had already dug a trench around. They did it. He said go do it again. They did it. Go do it again. Twelve barrels of water are dumped onto that sacrifice and fill the trench so that everybody present would know that there is no fakery here, and then this massive man Elijah steps up to that altar. Can you imagine the tension that must have been in the air?

And he prays a prayer of 64 words. Listen to it. It's found on verse 36 of your text. Lord God of Abraham, of Isaac, and Israel. Now why did he start his prayer that way? In ancient times when you addressed God in prayer, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or Israel, what you're saying is, God, You're the God who has made a covenant with our people and You always keep Your word; the God of covenant. So he is saying God, you've made a covenant. "Let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again." A short prayer.

And all of a sudden the heavens open and a flash of fire comes down consumes the sacrifice, consumes the wood, consumes the stone, licks up the water, and all that's left is a black spot of Earth. The God who answers by fire. You say, why did he say that? Because when you go through the Bible it's amazing that God revealed His presence so frequently by fire.

Adam and Eve have sinned. He chases them out of the garden and then He places an angel there with a flaming sword, and so sinful man is introduced to a God of fire who protects now the Garden of Eden so nobody can come back in - a flaming sword.

Sodom and Gomorrah are sinful cities. God said I've had enough of it. Lot get out of town. I'm going to destroy, and fire comes down from heaven and Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed, and to this day on the banks of the Dead Sea is some evidence still of that destruction.

Moses, God wants to talk to Moses, he's out in the wilderness and God lights a bush afire and starts talking to Moses from a burning bush. The God of fire. Moses goes up into the mountain top to get the Ten Commandments and God lights the mountain afire.

Solomon finished building his beautiful temple and he goes in to say the prayer and when he has finished the prayer, fire comes out of heaven and licks up the sacrifice. So when Elijah said, the God who answers by fire, he wasn't asking for some extraordinary thing; that's the way God had always evidenced His presence.

It's interesting, you go into the New Testament in the Book of Acts, God starts the church and it says out of heaven came tongues of fire that set upon them and they spoke in languages they had never learned.

And 2 Peter 3:10 tells us this world will end in a conflagration of fire. It shall melt with fervent heat. So when Elijah asks for the God that answers by fire, he knew this was the way God evidenced His presence - amazing.

Now the sacrifice has been licked up and what does old Elijah do? He says take those false prophets, take them down to the brook, and I'm going to take care of them, and he slays them all. Then he goes to a mountain and starts praying, and when he sees a little cloud the size of a man's hand he said get down there and tell Ahab to get for home. He's got 20 miles to go with his chariot and his horses, and when that rain starts coming it's going to pour and there are going to be mud puddles and his chariots are going to get stuck, so make him get home.

So old Ahab gets everything in his chariot and he's got those horses going full blast heading for Jezreel, 20 miles to home. He looks in the rearview mirror of his chariot, and what does he see? Here comes the old prophet and he's running along and finally overtakes him, and the Bible says that Elijah outrun the horses and the chariots and beat them home to Jezreel. Now you see why I say it's a great picture?

You say, what's the lesson we learn from this story? It's this. James says it very clear: the prayers of a righteous man get through to God. All of us pray at some time or other. You say pastor, what are the prayers there are heard by God? It's the prayers that come from a man who recognizes his own weakness, his own humanness, his own failures, but he lives with that consuming passion that he wants to please God in all that he does. That is a righteous man. And the Bible makes this promise, you will live to please God and He will joyfully answer your prayers. That's the promise of Scripture. So effective praying is very simple, isn't it? Living a life dedicated to pleasing and honoring God in all that we do, seeking to live in harmony with His commands, bringing Him joy, and when He brings us joy, He brings us the answers. That's what God's Word says. Amen. Let stand together, shall we?

Father in heaven, You have made our prayer life very simple this morning, and yet very profound, and very challenging. Should we live our lives to please You and honor You in all that we do, when we pray, You will hear us. Help us to live lives dedicated to loving You, serving You with every ounce of our strength. Almighty God I pray, and everybody said, amen. God bless you all. Thank you all for coming.