[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
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We're going to continue tonight in our study of encounters with God and this is our last night together. I have really enjoyed this class, this study, so thank you all, especially for those that have had comments in class and several folks have followed up with this afterwards as well. Please continue to do so. If something jumps out to you, you see something that is worth mentioning or that intrigues you, then we definitely want to hear that and want to glean from that as well. Tonight we are going to be looking at a fellow by the name of Elijah. Eventually we'll get to Elisha. Elijah is famous for a couple of things and typically the first like VBS trauma related memory of mine would be Elijah and the Prophets of baal. That was a very aggressive knight VBS when I was younger and it's ingrained in there. So go ahead and open to First Kings, chapter 18. We're going to read through that because chapter 18 is going to lead us to where we're ultimately going to be Tonight in chapter 19, the actual encounter that he has with the Lord.
Elijah is a prophet of God and he stands in contrast to prophets of BAAL and Asherah. And there's a young lady by the name of Jezebel who is married to King Ahab. And Jezebel is he's a real big fan of every God other than the God of Israel. And that's very, very plain to see. There's a severe famine in Samaria. Looking at verse two, Elijah went to make an appearance before Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. So Ahab summoned Obadiah who supervised the palace. This is not prophet Obadiah will come to know. This is a servant here in his court. So Ahab verse 3 summoned Obadiah who supervised the palace. Now Obadiah was a very loyal follower of The Lord. When Jezebel was killing the Lord's prophets, Obadiah took 100 prophets and hid them in two caves in two groups of 50. He also brought them food and water. This will be important in a little bit because Elijah's perspective is not going to be completely factual, but it's going to be based off of what he feels and what he sees in those moments. The Savior's spot right there. You're welcome. You're welcome. Alright, so we get through Elijah. He confronts Ahab, tells him about the drought. The drought comes. And then in verse 16, when Obadiah went and informed Ahab, the king went to meet Elijah. There's a conversation between Obadiah and Elijah where he says, listen, man, I'll definitely die if you tell me to go and tell the king that you're here because he's been looking for you. Ahab has been looking desperately for Elijah. Again, not a big fan, but Elijah promised him. Hey, I'm going to be here. He says, I've not brought disaster on Israel, but you and your father's dynasty have, by abandoning the Lord's commandments and following the Baals, now send out messengers. This is verse 19, the messengers and assemble all Israel before me at Mount Carmel, as well as the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah whom Jezebel supports. So it's interesting that even Elijah draws. The direct connection to Jezebel and her influence in this chapter without actually physically being present is still massive.
We got a total of 850 prophets. They're going to meet up at this mountain. So 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah versus one prophet of God. And this is big. These are big numbers. And one guy. But he also calls Israel to come out to witness this. And so they make their way and they assemble at Mount Carmel. Verse 21. Elijah approached all the people and said, how long are you going to be paralyzed by indecision? If the Lord is the true God, then follow him. But if BAAL is, follow him. But the people did not say a word. I think that that verse to me, kind of stunned me for just a minute. How often do we find ourselves paralyzed, find ourselves just sitting silent when we know that we should do the right thing or we know that the wrong thing is being done. But there's inaction. And I think that is a very, very good place to spend some time just looking internally. What are our motivations? We've talked a lot in this class about how circumstance tends to drive Certain people's faithfulness. We're very loud and vocal when it's easy and we're surrounded by people. Maybe in a Bible class setting or at church. But then when we get sort of more isolated and on our own, the speaking up part, that reflex isn't always quite as strong. I had a weird experience high school and college. There was an interesting contrast. In high school, I went to a pretty large public school in Montgomery, and especially my junior and senior year, I felt like I was very vocal about my faith. There was a very clear line of those that believed and those that did not believe. In my high school, mostly certain particular fragrances that followed. Some folks that identified no, not a believer. When I got to school, I went to a Christian college.
It felt like everybody was a believer.
But our definition of conviction was very different.
And so there were times, even looking back, it seems odd to me, there were times where I was more hesitant to speak up in that environment, surrounded by Christians, when our convictions were different. I still hesitated when I was in the other school setting, when there is a clear us and them almost dynamic. Sorry for the squeak. That gave me more boldness, and that was just kind of an odd. Still don't know why that is. But circumstance.
When I look back on both of those, the conclusion I come to is that circumstance is not supposed to have that much influence on my reaction. Either way, whether I'm surrounded by people that I assume agree with me or I'm surrounded by people that I know disagree with me, that shouldn't stop me from speaking.
I think that's a little bit of what we see here in Israel. They were paralyzed by this indecisiveness almost. Do you have anything to add on that? No, you're doing great, so let's keep going. Therefore he goes. And he sets up this wonderful illustration in verse 25. He told the prophets of Baal, choose one of the bulls for yourselves and go first, for you are the majority. Invoke the name of your God, but do not light a fire. Verse 26. So they took a bull as he had suggested, and prepared it. They invoked the name of BAAL from morning until noon, saying, baal, answer us. But there was no sound and no answer. They jumped around on the altar they had made at noon. Elijah mocked them. Yell louder. After all, he is a God. He may be deep in thought, or perhaps he stepped out for a moment. He's taken a trip. Perhaps he's sleeping and needs to be awakened. So they yelled louder and in accordance with their prescribed ritual Mutilated themselves with swords and spears until their bodies were covered with blood for just a moment. I want you to think about the reality of this situation for hours.
We've got 850 people, or at least, I guess Baal was what, 400, yelling and screaming, jumping up on top of this altered apparatus. And now they're at the point where they're starting to cut themselves.
I don't know if you've ever been around a person who's truly in hysteria. It's a very unnerving setting.
And Elijah starts to smack talk in the midst of that again, these stories sometimes, and I don't want us to lose that.
There's an emotional drain that I think is. We're going to start to see really play out in Elijah. There's a fatigue that's going to start setting in. And this is a part of that. This is a big cause of that. To see someone who is in such defiance of your God that they're now cutting themselves. They're truly hooping and hollering for hours on end. They started in the morning and then we're going to see, let's see, throughout the afternoon, they were in ecstatic, an ecstatic frenzy. But there was no sound, no answer and no response. So they go from morning until the evening. Sacrifice. Doing this with no result.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I was just. One of the things I was thinking too is, you know, one of the things that we've tried to do in this class too, is to connect everything with Jesus. Look backward, of course, and forward. And one thing is to think about these guys were cutting themselves in order to show something to their God. And you think about the flip of that. You know, our God hurt himself, let himself be cut for us. You think about. I remember when we went to Thailand, they had emerald Buddhas everywhere. And if. I don't know if you've ever been to Thailand or seen Buddhist mosque or anything like that, but they put a lot of like Coke bottles with straws and food. And it's all about trying to show and to perform enough in order to get his attention. And I know what was so interesting about why the gospel spreads so quickly in Thailand is when they hear that our God is the direct opposite. It's, you know, that is something that was what like it. And he takes the form of a servant, you know, those kinds of things. It's just kind of interesting that. I think it's also important. I think he's also said. I guess I'm saying that to say two. I think he's also setting up a contrast for us about our God versus other lowercase g gods.
[00:09:58] Speaker A: I think there's power in the contrast.
[00:10:00] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: Salt and light, which should stand out, should be different and the more different than the more true. Our God is right.
Verse 31. Then Elijah took 12 stones corresponding to the number of tribes that descended from Jacob, to whom the Lord's message had come, Israel will be your name. With the stones he constructed an altar for the Lord. Around the altar he made a trench large enough to contain two seahs of seed. He arranged the wood, cut up the bull and placed it on the wood. Then he said, fill four water jars and pour the water on the offering in the wood. When they had done so, he said, do it again. So they did it again. Then he said, do it a third time. So they did it a third time. The water flowed down all the sides of the altar and filled the trench. When it was time for the evening offering, He, Elijah the prophet, approached the altar and prayed. O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are the true God and that you are winning back their allegiance. Then fire from the Lord fell from the sky. It consumed the offering, the wood, the stones and the dirt and licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground and said, the Lord is the true God. The Lord is the true God. Elijah told them, seize the prophets of baal. Don't let even one of them escape. So they seized them and Elijah led them down to the Kishan Valley and executed them there.
I don't know exactly what this, this column of fire that comes down from heaven looks like. I've been around explosives a time or two. Most of the time not intentional. And there's both a sound of the whoosh and a physical feeling of that as well. I imagine in order to completely. We're not talking about college things, right? We agreed to just leave those in the past.
It completely wipes the ground that had been set saturated.
This is a very forceful, powerful fire.
Once this happens, the priests try to retreat. Then Elijah takes them into the valley and slaughters hundreds of people.
After all day they're hollering, cutting themselves.
At Elijah's words, the power of God is on full display. Then he kills 850 people.
This is a long, heavy day that Elijah participates. A lot of times we focus on this part, and that's kind of sort of the resolution. But that's not what happened. Let's keep reading. That's not where it ends, at least. Then Elijah told Ahab, go on up and eat and drink, for the sound of a heavy rainstorm can be heard. So Ahab went up to eat and drink while Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel. He bent down toward the ground and put his face between his knees. He told his servant, go on up and look in the direction of the sea. So he went on up, looked and reported, there is nothing. Seven times Elijah sent him to look. The seventh time the servant said, look, small cloud the size of the palm of a man's hand is rising up from the sea. So Elijah then said, go and tell Ahab, hitch up your chariots. Go down there so the rain won't overtake you. So Ahab rides towards jezreel. In verse 46, the Lord energized Elijah with power. He tucked his robe into his belt and he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel. This is like that scene in Forrest Gump where he just outruns everybody. He puts on flash, he tucks in his robes and he takes off and he runs what I think is about 18 miles and gets ahead of the chariots that are being pulled by horses.
That's more fatigue, I assume. That takes a lot out of a man. He was obviously given special power by God. But I keep emphasizing the fatigue here and the exhaustion because I think a lot of times we find ourselves in these mountaintop experiences. In youth ministry, we had several kind of strategically planned throughout the year. They were retreats and mission trips and a couple of other events that were strategically very challenging spiritually. And oftentimes, so many times our teenagers would rise to the occasion and they would really, really impress you. You'd have really deep, meaningful conversations. And that was all very encouraging, but also very draining. And when you come back from that, we would talk about especially like mission trip. High is kind of what we refer to it as. You get on this high on a mission trip and you're willing to talk to everybody. Spiritual high, just to clarify, you get on this. This mindset of every. Every opportunity, or, excuse me, every interaction is an opportunity.
Then you come back and within about three or four days, every interaction is an opportunity to not talk to somebody. Right. It just kind of flips back and you get back into that comfort mode. I think a lot of times our mountaintop Experiences end up casting a really long shadow and the trip down the mountain can be very frustrating and lonely and feel more empty than it really is. And that is where Elijah is headed. This is a huge victory. This is a very physical and spiritual event that happens. And right after this, Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done. 19 verse 1, including, including a detailed account of how he killed all the prophets with the sword. Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah with this warning. May the gods judge me severely if by this time tomorrow I do not take your life as you did theirs. Elijah was afraid, so he got up and fled for his life to Beersheba in Judah. He left a servant there while he went a day's journey into the wilderness. He went and sat down under a shrub and asked the Lord to take his life. I've had enough now, O Lord, take my life. After all, I'm no better than my ancestors.
This is a big 90 degree turn about face hearing. He just faced off against 850 prophets, presumably all males. He has been face to face with King Ahab multiple times here, giving him some very straightforward prophecies.
He then killed those prophets and the king's wife says, I want to hurt you. And he runs away scared.
It's just kind of weird. It's an interesting change. He went from this really bold, confident, even seemingly smack talking in the face of these false prophets to the queen saying, I'm going to kill you. And he takes off running.
He ran 18 miles, now he's going to run 80 miles to flee and escape.
This guy is running himself into isolation and complete exhaustion. How would you describe. How do you anticipate his mental and physical state to be? Up to verse four of chapter 19. It seems when God is the focus.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Energy is not a problem.
When he turns to fear for himself, then physical problems.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: What else?
[00:17:17] Speaker C: I think he was probably very weary, just bone tired, mentally drained.
And when you're in that state, it's really easy to focus on self because that's like all you got and take your mind off of where our strength really lies.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: Have you ever found yourself at a point where you are just so drained that you just. I just want to be alone. Even when helpers aren't helpful.
I think verse three is important.
He got up and he fled for his life to Beersheba in Judah. He left his servant there.
There is a tendency sometimes, and I think when we get very anxious or when we find ourselves getting maybe depressed to isolate ourselves further is sort of the response to that. Situation, I don't think that's always the best thing. Sometimes we do kind of need our alone time, right, to process things. And I imagine if you just slaughtered 800 and something people, you need a minute to kind of take it in.
But in this situation, I think leaving his servant there while he then went a day's journey into the wilderness, he didn't just say, hey, man, I'll be back.
He walks for another day, runs for another day. So he puts intentional distance between him and the person that's there to serve him.
I think we got to be real careful sometimes or just aware. Are we intentionally isolating ourselves for the better, or is that making things more difficult for us? When you find yourself in very dark places, sometimes closing the door is the easiest thing to do or feels like the easiest thing to do. But when you get the counseling term, if we were using some of those, it would be the cognitive distortions where you start to see things not always as they are, but as they feel to you. And there are several verses that we have throughout scripture that tell us that that can be a dangerous place to be when we're only. Like you were saying, Cam, we're only seeing as we see. We're not seeing as God sees. Right? His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways.
I think this is a really good place to go when we find ourselves in those dark places.
[00:19:40] Speaker B: Before we came here, the church that we were at, we had a youth group member that took his life. And, you know, that'll shake any congregation, but especially our size being a smaller church. But also he was a very involved young man. His dad was a deacon. Everything there. And right after that happened, you know, it shouldn't ever, of course, ever take a tragedy to get you to pay attention to certain things or notice certain behaviors. But with all of that, they joined a suicide support group. And it was at some church, I think it was in Fairhope. And so I decided to go with them. And I was going with the goal just to be, you know, be with them. But I also kind of wanted to learn, too. And one of the things. And some of y'all maybe have heard this before, but one of the. In one of the support group sessions, one of the things that they mentioned is that this text is one that is used a lot from. From counselors, like Christian counselors, especially if people are having suicidal thoughts or maybe wanting to hurt themselves. Because it. It shows two. Two sides. It shows sometimes the path that we get to that, like, what leads us into that. Because, you know, when I used to, like, growing up, when it was on the flannel board only, like, highlighted the highlight, which was, you know, the calling fire down. And it destroyed the. Well, then he also think about the PTSD as if it were of having to slaughter the 850. Like the. The mental images and the toll that he's taking with that. And so anyway, this is oftentimes used. But what was interesting is in that they highlighted a few of the things that went wrong with him. One of those was the faulty thinking, which was, I'm just going to be like my father's. You know, he heard one person's opinion and then let that one opinion say, well, I'm. I guess, like, she didn't say anything about his fathers. But now he's like, well, I guess I'm going to be like the other people that have been unfaithful. But the other one was the isolating himself.
That one, you know, when we were talking a lot about it with our home series right now, with fellowship and community, and one of the things that I hope that we see as we get into this, for all of us to understand the idea of each other and fellowship, that is not a luxury. That's a necessity. We have to have each other. And especially if we're in a place of, like, he is what they call ruminating, kind of thinking negatively. When we're that low, the last person we need to listen to is us.
And I'm not saying you got to tell everybody, but what I am saying is you got to tell somebody if you are at a very low point.
But the other thing that I think about, too, is the. One of the little detail that I guess we're going to get to in just a second is that he rested.
And, you know, I think it was at Lamentations 3, it says, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercy never comes to an end. His mercies are new every morning. And one of the things that they talked about in that support group is that if you are struggling with that in your heart, in your mind, go to sleep. I know it just sounds simple, but really, go to sleep and experience his mercies.
So, anyway, I just thought that was kind of interesting that I had never thought about that text from that standpoint. But the more you dig into it, the more you can kind of see that.
[00:23:21] Speaker A: Just about any counselor, if you go and you talk about depression in particular, the first question is, how are you sleeping? How are you eating? What is your physical Fitness, like those kinds of things, they have a huge impact on how, how we live when we find ourselves. Even if it's innocent, we're just working a lot, we're drained more when we get home. We're shorter with our family members or with our friends. Right. Our interactions become more contentious more quickly. Sensitivities bubble to the front a lot quicker.
Never coach a basketball game after a long day at work. Right. It's just not good. Or just take the tech as you walk into the court. That helps too, get it out of the way. I think there's hypothetically, I think there's a lot of really practical that's right here. Because in just a few moments, the next few verses, we're going to see how did God, what was his response to Elijah's state at that time? Before we do that, I wanted to mention that depression. And in Scripture, we don't necessarily see the words we use today. Depression, anxiety, suicide, ideation, those kinds of terms, but we see those concepts and we see those situations. We see terms like deep sorrow all throughout. Read the Psalms, read David's Psalms and he talks about deep, deep sorrow, deep regret and remorse.
A struggle to let go of things in the past. And those are things that in Christ we are freed from. But that doesn't make it easy necessarily. The access is free, but the relinquishing of those things and calibrating our hearts and our minds with God's truth is sometimes much more difficult. And so to your point, you don't have to tell everybody, but you got to tell somebody. We live in a very algorithm driven lifestyle these days. And one of the challenges of that is that what you look at and, and what you think about on your phone will then be reflected back to you in your algorithm. And so oftentimes, algorithms highlight our impulses more than they highlight our actual convictions in Scripture. Right. More so than truths of God. They highlight whatever our passions can be led one way or the other. So we get in these echo chambers and you see it in the political season, it's just an echo chamber. Why doesn't everybody see what I see? Well, because the algorithm is different. When you find yourself in these dark places and you go to some of these, some of our devices, sometimes they offer more hurt than help in that same way that it just churns those, that faulty thinking, it amplifies it sometimes louder than it really is. It is so vitally important for us to do the same thing that David, that job that Elijah ultimately will do as well is the Question is, where do you go with your despair? To experience despair makes you human, it doesn't make you bad. The question is, where do you go with that despair? And I think that's the pattern we've seen, especially in the last couple of weeks with these folks that are in some really dire situations. They go to God. Job, to his credit, went back to God repeatedly with his deep sorrow and despair.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: I was also thinking about Matthew 5:1 5:4. Excuse me. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. And you know that one, it takes two. So one to mourn and one to comfort. And to understand that in the way that was worded too is you are blessed to mourn, you are blessed to comfort. Which sounds odd, but it's saying that there is a blessing on us to be blessing to people. Exactly.
[00:27:04] Speaker A: Alright, so let's look then at essentially God's response to his state there. In verse five, he says he stretched out and he fell asleep under the shrub. Suddenly an angelic messenger touched him and said, get up and eat. He looked, and right there by his head was a cake baking on hot coals and a jug of water. He ate and drank and then slept some more. And the angel of the Lord came back again and touched him and said, get up, eat and drink. Excuse me, get up and eat, for otherwise you won't be able to make the journey. So he got up and he ate and he drank. And that meal gave him the strength to travel 40 days and 40 nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God, telling on what we just talked about. Rest and nutrition. Sometimes it's as simple as that as key components to get us to be able to. To start to move forward.
That in and of itself did not solve all of Elijah's problems. It didn't bring complete resolution to his current situation, but it allowed him to move forward. And I think sometimes we focus so much on trying to be able to move on that we feel like we aren't able to move forward. And there's a little bit of nuance there. The moving on part sometimes says, well, I just got to forget about it and bootstraps and giddy up. Moving forward means that you're able to acknowledge what happened and also acknowledge the things that you can't do that you're not in control of so you can learn from it that you can. Grief is one of those things that you don't Often most people aren't able to move on from losing a loved one, but we have to find ways to move forward, to still honor their impact on our life in positive ways. We honor them by continuing to live in a way that glorifies God. God. And I think that's. We have a little bit of that process starting to take place here simply with nutrition and rest. So it is a big deal.
Tonight's class is not sponsored by any medical professionals in any capacity. Just a heads up on that.
[00:29:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:04] Speaker A: So he went in a cave. And we're getting now to verse nine of chapter 19. Sorry, would you mind reading nine, ten.
[00:29:11] Speaker B: Nine and ten.
[00:29:11] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: Okay. Therefore he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. And he said, what are you doing here, Elijah? And he said, I have been 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.
[00:29:37] Speaker A: So I skipped over verse eight there we talked about the 40 days and 40 nights. Think back to Deuteronomy, chapter nine. And Jesus, of course, in Matthew, chapter four, Deuteronomy, Moses, 40 days and 40 nights had a fast. Jesus, 40 days and 40 nights when he was in the desert and the devil came to tempt him over that period of time. Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, all three have these supernatural fasts. Essentially no food or water for 40 days and for 40 nights. What's interesting here, one thing that I read was that the journey that he took normally would take like 11 to 14 days. That's the reasonable span of time to journey. But it took him 40 days and 40 nights.
Israel, when they left Egypt to get to Canaan, it's really only 11 to 14 day trip. It's about that same window of time. But because of their disobedience, they wandered in the desert for how long?
For 40 years.
Just thought it was interesting. So verse nine, we get to this typical response from God. Right. We've seen this multiple times throughout the study. He asks a question, and it appears to be a rhetorical question. Why are you here? Why do you think he would ask that question?
[00:30:54] Speaker C: To give Abraham a chance to voice.
[00:30:56] Speaker A: What he's feeling and thinking. Sometimes it helps to just talk about Elijah.
[00:31:02] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:31:04] Speaker A: That's very good. Yep. To give him the opportunity just to voice his own. Yeah. His reason, his rationale. What up?
What were some of the other instances that we saw where God would ask a question similar to this?
[00:31:18] Speaker C: It kind of gets him to admit some truths that he's not totally letting out there, like this kind of self pity that he's holding in himself. Like, it's just me. I'm the only one to be able to kind of be put in this situation where he has to start vocalizing all his feelings, like she was saying. But then to really dig to the heart of like, what's actually bothering you, like why it's not just that she threatened his life, but it's that he's run away because at the heart of it all, he feels totally alone. And that's kind of what this question draws out of him.
[00:31:52] Speaker A: Okay, in chapter 17, Elijah sent God to the Cherith Valley and he sent some ravens there to care for him. They brought him food every day. He drank water there in the valley. And then he was sent to Zarephath, I think is how you pronounce it later in chapter 17. And there a widow came and cared for him, and he would go on to heal her son. And then in chapter 18, God sends him to go and talk to King Ahab.
But God didn't give him instruction to run here.
He chose to run here. God never sent him to Sinai or Horeb.
I think to some degree, maybe that's in there as well. Why are you here? I didn't send you. You ran here with your own purpose. And then I think certainly getting to Julie's comments there as well. In verse 10, Elijah does what any good kid does. He deflects. Right? Who does that remind us of?
Genesis 3.
Why have you done this?
This girl. You gave me the woman, right? The woman made me do it. There's this unfortunate pattern of deflecting responsibility or good judgment, you know, oftentimes. And this is a very similar response that we get from him. In verse 10, he answered, I've been absolutely loyal to the Lord God of Heaven's armies, even though the Israelites, he doesn't answer the question right. He goes through with his. With his lament.
And God has a response to that as well. That's a little bit unconventional. I go back to he highlights here that I alone am left and now they want to take my life. Well, we know for a fact that that's not true. And we know that he knows that's not true. How do we know?
Just before this, when he talked to Obadiah, what did Obadiah do?
[00:33:42] Speaker C: He felt him and hid me some folks away.
[00:33:44] Speaker A: Yeah, he hid a hundred prophets in caves, right? So we know there's at least 100 that are faithful to Him. 101, we'll count Obadiah as well. At least 101 souls and Dalmatians probably that are very, very loyal here. So again, this is some of that faulty thinking that I really think Satan has just a playground in our mind oftentimes where he's able to pull on the piece of yarn and just kind of run with it to make us, to help us stay in that mental state that is not actually grounded in the truth of God. And that's why I think the word of God as well as the accountability as we've talked about on Sundays, being in this fellowship together is so, so important to have wise counsel in your ears at every stage of life. Sometimes you're going to be that voice of wise counsel, but other times you're going to need that voice of wise counsel. Regardless of what our life stage or our ages may be, I think that's so, so vitally important to help us. So why. Why are you here? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, no, no. You know, he. God's responses in this interaction seem, seem very calm in that contrast God's power that we just witnessed on full display with the fire.
It's very interesting. And we're going to get to the actual small quietness. Did you have anything on that?
[00:35:07] Speaker B: No.
It makes you wonder too, that what made him say, I want to die. Then you hear him say, I've just been jealous for you. Then he says it again somewhere. He says it twice that he's jealous for God. It almost sounds like he really. What he's upset about is not really necessarily the fact that she's coming after him, but that really what it was once he kind of slept on. It was he had. He was so hurt that the other people had forsaken God and he had been seeing it, that he wants it back. Because that's why he says, I'm jealous for you, because I'm the only one doing this. And so kind of speaks to two things, I think is he had taken some of the hurt they caused and kind of took it on himself. And I think that is a reminder to us. Yes, we minister to people, but also having to spend time in prayer between the hurt that we see and the hurt that we could experience if we don't, you know, take some time to pray ourselves.
But also I think it's good to kind of come back to what is the real reason for me having that faulty thinking. Where's that coming from? And what is it I'm really after? And it sounds like what he really wants is just more of God. He just didn't know how to express it.
[00:36:22] Speaker A: Why do you think God doesn't in that moment say, hey, I've got these thousands of people that are faithful? Why do you think?
[00:36:31] Speaker B: I think he might just be kind of. I think, like you were mentioning Julie trying to or whoever, or what you mentioned is, I want to get to your hurt because he's a leader. If he's gonna lead and get Elisha to lead, I think he's got to address the real thing that he's hurt about. Maybe. I don't know.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: Sorry to put you on the spot.
[00:36:52] Speaker C: This is him seeking the loss like the one. Like, you know, I'm here for you and we're in this moment. Take everybody else out.
[00:37:01] Speaker A: That's right.
Well, now we get to the September portion of.
[00:37:06] Speaker B: I was not expecting that.
[00:37:07] Speaker A: There you go. Earth, wind and fire in verses 11 through 12. Would you mind reading that?
[00:37:12] Speaker B: Yes. And he said, go out and stand on the mount before the Lord, and behold, the Lord passed by in a great strong wind toward the mountains and broken pieces the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind.
And after the wind an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake, but after the earthquake of fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.
[00:37:37] Speaker A: So what. What do these verses teach us about God? What can we learn about Him? He doesn't fit in the box that.
[00:37:45] Speaker B: We make for him.
[00:37:46] Speaker A: What's that? He doesn't fit in the box we make. Doesn't fit in the box. We have this image of what he.
[00:37:51] Speaker B: Should do and it's rarely working village.
[00:37:55] Speaker A: That image is based off of what just happened a few verses ago. It makes sense that he would be in the fire because he was in the fire. Right? He sent the fire down, at least in the chapter before. But you're right, the unexpectedness of this. Some translations call it a quiet whisper.
Again, it stands in stark contrast to a raging fire, an earthquake, and these massive winds, which experienced pretty much all three of these over the last couple of months in our country in different places. Right? These massive weather events, they're concerning. If you're in your house and you hear the wind blowing, we had what, 40, 50 mile an hour winds here. That's a little terrifying. Imagine being in a cave where it's likely ripping off part of the cave as the wind blows. And then there's this raging fire. It's interesting. Interesting to me that. Let's see, what is it? Verse 12. So it says there was a soft whisper, verse 13. When Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his robe and he went out and he stood at the entrance to the cave. I assume that there was some kind of reaction to the other three things as well. But what Scripture highlights is he hides his face with the whisper. It just seems. It seems interesting that scripture would make a point.
I think a lot of times we look for God in these big moments, or we think he can only come packaged in this way. When I was growing up in high school, I had several friends that had very dramatic conversion stories. For years, I sort of devalued my conversion because I grew up going to Bible class and worship and one day realized, hey, I'm not saved, right? But they lived in abusive homes and came from unbelieving places. Like, there were these Road to Damascus type experiences. And for years I devalued, I think, the same salvation that we shared in Christ. And it was one day, actually, as an intern here at Madison, we were doing a vbs and we talked about Timothy and how Timothy was taught by his mother and grandmother. Oh, there's a guy I can relate to, right? Like, he went to Bible class, essentially, and. And it dawned on me, well, he's pretty valuable in Scripture, so maybe mine is too. Maybe it's not about trying to have all these aha moments. Our teenagers especially, I think, have this mentality that they experience on a retreat or an event.
That's what it's supposed to feel like all the time. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's not as dramatic. Sometimes it's simply in the quietness of your bedroom, the quiet whisper of screaming Scripture into your heart.
That soft aha moment. Sometimes that's where things click as well. I think we have to be very careful to not seek out this perceived experience and only give validity to those moments in our lives. God works in all of those ways, right? The ones we would call big and the ones that we would call small as well.
We are going to run out of time, so we will just keep rolling here. Verse 13. When Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his robe and he went out and stood at the entrance to the cave. His response to that whisper was then to go out to the whisper. Suddenly a voice asked him, why are you here, Elijah? Here's the second question he answered. I've been absolutely loyal to the Lord God of Heaven's armies, even though the Israelites, he just goes right back to it, right? I alone am left. And now they want to Take my life, the Lord said to him. Go back the way you came, and then head for the wilderness of Damascus. Damascus, go and anoint Hazael king over Syria. You must anoint Jehu, son of Nimshi, king over Israel, and Elisha, son of Snapchat or Shaphat from Abo of Maholah, to take your place as prophet. Jehu will kill anyone who escapes Hazael's sword, and Elisha will kill anyone who escapes Jehu's sword. I still have Left in Israel 7,000 followers who have now not bowed their knees to Baal or kiss the images of him. He gives him three tasks and then reveals, oh, by the way, 7,000 people that are still standing, strong and firm and faithful.
God gave him rest, provided rest. He didn't yell at him, he didn't punish him, he didn't treat him severely. He gave him rest and then he gave him nourishment. And then when he settled down a little bit and was able to listen, it's a big parenting moment here. It feels like then he gave him something constructive to do. He gave him three things to do. First of all, everybody, verse 16, everybody needs a successor. Go find the person that's going to take your place. Go find the person that you are going to train.
You probably have that in your work, but do you also have that in your life who is younger than you in your world that you have an influence with, that you can be teaching, teaching them about life, about God's ways, about the way he has worked in your life? Everybody needs a successor. And then ultimately, I think what we see there in verse 18 is that you're just not as alone as you think you are. And I think that is. That was true for Elisha, that's true for us today. If you ever find yourself in those really dark places, I hope and pray that there will be some whisper that comes your way. And however God is able to do that, to show you that you are not as alone as you think you are. Satan is very, very good at what he does. And if he gets us alone, he wants that one sheep to stray from the 99. Because then there's no accountability, there's no encouragement. There's only isolation and despair. That's one of the things that made Covid so difficult, is that it was isolation.
We do need each other in each other's lives. Not just keeping appointments, but being in each other's lives. Yes, it was.
[00:43:29] Speaker C: Sorry, I know I have to go, but I just can't help but think about, like, through these classes, I feel like y'all have and like God has just revealed things about himself and y'all have, like, pointed that out about, like, what are we seeing about who God is here, Right? And in these last passages and through the way that God revealed himself to Elijah here, through the whisper, through the gentle blowing of the wind versus those other ways. I think two dreams can be, exists, can coexist. As in, like, God's character. Like, he is loving, he is kind, he's merciful, but he is also just, holy and righteous. And both of those things are true. Just like God could appear in the form of fire or the earthquake if he wanted to, or the tutorial. And like, I think because of the way he does appear to Elijah, it also speaks not that God is capable of doing both of those things, but he also cares so deeply for us and the state that we're in and whatever we're going through. Like, he's gonna need us where we're at for each of those instances because he cares about us. Does that make sense?
[00:44:38] Speaker A: Well, it's perfect.
[00:44:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:39] Speaker A: It's a great wrap up. Great wrap up. Thank you so much for your patience tonight, but especially for your contributions to our study. Hope everyone has a great week. Lord willing, we'll see you Sunday.
