SUMMARIZE 1 KINGS 17 SUMMARIZE 1 KINGS 18:1-16 Lessons From Elijah Page 1 Holy Fire Lesson 3 1 Kings 18 After three-and-a-half years, God instructed Elijah to present himself before Ahab so that He might bring the people to repentance and thus send the rains upon this droughtparched land. Elijah first met Obadiah, who was both a believer in God and a faithful servant of Ahab. Obadiah set up a meeting between Ahab and Elijah. Ahab (describe his evilness) blamed the man of God for all of Israel s troubles. Vs. 17 Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, Is that you, O troubler of Israel? Elijah s response, Vs. 18 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. The ungodly think its all God s or the Christians fault, o They would have us believe their standard of dishonesty and immorality is right. o They want to do what is right in their own sight rather than God s standard. Political correctness says we must not hurt anyone s feelings, but, they can say anything they want to against Christians. Elijah stood for truth. Our nation is as great as it is because of God s people in it living and standing for the truth. THE MT. CARMEL CHALLENGE Elijah instructed Ahab to summon all Israel to Mount Carmel. Vs. 19-20 Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel s table. So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. o Elijah told the King what to do. o Elijah had a word from God and he stood on it. When you have God s Word on something, it puts you in the driver s seat. Elijah said, lets have a showdown between your god and my God. There are not many politicians who will stand up to the President for God s way, but, God will bless those who do!
Lessons From Elijah Page 2 o It was supernatural power that gave Elijah such position of respect and authority. In vs. 37 he said it was God who had turned their hearts back to Him. It was signs and wonders that gave Jesus acceptance and influence. If we trusted God to work supernatural signs, we too would have greater influence. There was a time when businesses and sports would not compete with Sunday and Wednesday night services. Recently the Saints were the flagship promoting Christianity. DECISION TIME Vs. 21 Elijah rebuked the Israelites for wavering between God and Baal and he called the people to make a decision. (KJV) How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. CEV How much longer will you try to have things both ways? If the Lord is God, worship him! But if Baal is God, worship him! The people did not say a word. o They could say nothing to justify themselves, and they would say nothing to condemn themselves. o The Israelites wanted it both ways. o Sometimes we do too. We want the way of the Cross and the way of the crowd; The way of the Lord and the way of our lust. o Jesus said, He that is not with me is against me. (Matt. 12:30) o Jeremiah, contemporary with Elijah, showed the absurdity of what Israel had done. He said, look at all the other nations around you. Has any nation ever traded its gods for new ones, even though they are not gods at all? Yet my people have changed their glorious God for worthless idols! (Jer. 2:11) o It is absurd to try to add to that which is already perfect. o The people did not say a word. The silence of indecision is deadly. Maybe they were waiting to see who would be the winner! THE CHALLENGE: BAAL VS. GOD Vss. 22-24 He proposed a contest which would settle the question of who was the true God. 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
Lessons From Elijah Page 3 the God who answers by fire, He is God. So all the people answered and said, It is well spoken. o The God who answers with miraculous powers, He is God. In the OT some were given supernatural powers such as Moses, Elijah and Elisha. The miracles confirmed God s word. In the NT not only was Jesus given supernatural powers, but all who believed in Him. The signs and wonders the miracles proved that their message was true. 1 Cor. 4:19-20. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. People today are being drawn and being born again where God s power is manifested. ELIJAH GAVE THEM ALL THE ADVANTAGES Elijah gave them first try. Vs. 25 Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it. Elijah gave them the home advantage. o King, court, people, 850 priests were all rooting for Baal vs. Elijah -- one man/but with God. BAAL WORSHIPPERS TRYING TO GET THEIR GOD S ATTENTION Vs. 26 So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, O Baal, hear us! But there was no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped (danced) about the altar which they had made. Baal worshippers tried different things to get their god s attention. o Long prayers from morning till noon. o Shouted imagine the noise. o Danced trying to please their god. o Offered themselves as a sacrifice. Vs.26b Three translations say that the prophets of Baal leaped upon the altar. Perhaps, the animal on the altar was not enough for their god. They were upping the ante. ELIJAH S HUMOROUS REACTION Vs.27 About noontime Elijah began mocking them. You ll have to shout louder, he scoffed, for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened! NLT
Lessons From Elijah Page 4 o Mocking and scoffed. That would be politically incorrect today. You could end up in jail if you did that concerning Buddha or Confucius or Mohammad. o Muslims have put people to death for mocking Islam. The Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, whose controversial caricature of the Prophet Mohammed had sparked a worldwide storm five years ago, was attacked in his own home in January 2010 by a man wielding an axe and a knife. "We will get our revenge," he reportedly yelled, before being shot by the police and taken under custody. THE PRIESTS RESPONSE Vs. 28-29 So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention. o They added their human blood to the sacrifice on the altar. o False religion is like that. They say that Jesus sacrifice of Himself on the altar of the cross is not enough, they have to add to it. They have to offer their works on the altar too. Or, they try making deals with God. Jesus + anything = nothing. Trusting Jesus + nothing = everything. Anytime you add anything to the sacrifice of Jesus you have just polluted the offering. They got no response. What they worshipped had no power and what they did had no results. o That is a good way to measure trust and worship. How s that working for you? PROPER PREPARATION Vs. 30-31 Then Elijah said to all the people, Come near to me. So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, Israel shall be your name. Notice: The Lord s altar had been there before, but, it was in disrepair from nonuse, and Elijah first rebuilt the altar a place where He met with the Lord. If you want the fire of God to fall in you life, you have to first be sure you have erected an altar to the Lord in your heart. o A place where you meet with the Lord and offer your life to Him as a living sacrifice; a place where you live for Him and with Him.
Lessons From Elijah Page 5 o You have to pursue the things of God. You can t forget about God for a long time and then expect an instant response from Him when you have an emergency. o God said, call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord. Jeremiah 29:12-14a, a contemporary of Elijah. Elijah had definite instructions in the scriptures as to how to build an altar natural stones, not hewn by man s hand and no steps leading up to it (Exodus 20:25-26) o Not just any way will do to approach the Lord. If God is not answering your prayers, look into your life and examine it in light of the Scriptures. o Don t look at Him as to what is the matter with Him! o There are certain things that draws God s power to you. Lightning doesn t just strike anywhere, indiscriminately. There are certain things that attract lightning like a lightning rod. In fact electricity goes up from the earth and meets with the electricity from the clouds. Answered prayer is like that. You can prepare your heart and diligently seek God with all you heart, and it will draw God s power to you. NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR GOD Vs. 32-35 Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord; and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seahs (four gallons) of seed. And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, Fill four waterpots (barrels) with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. Then he said, Do it a second time, and they did it a second time; and he said, Do it a third time, and they did it a third time. So the water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water. To remove any possibility that they might think that this fire was started by spontaneous combustion or that a small fire was hidden underneath, he had everything saturated with 12 barrels of water. Some people think healing is too much to ask of God, or that certain diseases are too hard to heal, so they ask Him to bless the doctors instead. Some people have many ailments, but they ask God to heal only one. It s like they think that if He healed all their ailments it would take so much power that the lights in Heaven would dim! Some people try to micromanage God giving Him instructions on how to do what they are asking Him to do. God is not afraid for us to ask big. Our unbelief is what is keeping God s fire from falling into our life.
Lessons From Elijah Page 6 ELIJAH PRAYED A SIMPLE PRAYER Vs. 36-37 And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, 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. Elijah didn t have to shout, dance, scream, lay himself on the altar, and cut himself. He didn t have to pray a long prayer. He didn t give God detailed instructions. He prayed a simple 10 second prayer. He just asked God to hear him and let these people know that He is the Lord God so their hearts might be turned back to Him again. o Dave Duell, who heads up Faith Ministries International says, The shorter your prayers, the greater your faith. Prayer doesn t have to be dramatic When Jesus prayed to raise the dead He just said, Lazarus, come forth. When He prayed to control a storm He simply said, Peace be still. In order to heal the sick He said, Be healed. We are not heard for our much speaking. We are heard for our much faith. Elijah also prayed, I have done all these things at Your word. o Elijah wasn t doing his own thing, God had already told him what His will was. Elijah had visualized the fire fall from Heaven and consume everything. o We, too, can know what God s will is and we can see in our imagination God doing what He said He would do. That will transform your praying. Before you see the power of God on the outside, you ve got to see it on the inside. If you can t see yourself healed, or thin, or out of debt, or whatever, in your heart, you probably won t see it materialize in your life. If you get sick and you see yourself going to the hospital, you might as well pack your bags. THEN, AFTER THESE THINGS, THE FIRE FELL Vs. 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. There was preparation first: hearing from God, visualizing it happening and then asking a simple prayer. The answer was quick. God wasn t asleep, on a trip, or gone to the restroom. God not only consumed the meat, and the wood, but also the stones, the water and the dirt.
Lessons From Elijah Page 7 THE JURY DIDN T TAKE LONG TO DECIDE THE VERDICT. Vs. 39 Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God! When God s power is evident in your life, you will be having people where you work and people in your family declaring that Your Lord, He is God. BY LAW ALL THE FALSE PROPHETS WERE PUT TO DEATH (Deut. 13:1-5) Vs. 40 And Elijah said to them, Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let one of them escape! So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon and executed them there. We need to be serious and have zero tolerance toward the things the Devil tries to put on us. Put those negative thoughts to death immediately. We need to come against a cold as fiercely as against cancer. ISRAEL REPENTS AND THE RAINS RETURN Vs. 41-44 Then Elijah said to Ahab, Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees, and said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. So he went up and looked, and said, There is nothing. And seven times he said, Go again. Then it came to pass the seventh time, that he said, There is a cloud, as small as a man s hand, rising out of the sea! So he said, Go up, say to Ahab, Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you. Based on God s promise (vs. 1) Elijah visualized hearing the sound of rain even before the first cloud appeared. Confession of God s promises brings possession. o Mark 11:22-24 "And Jesus, answering, said to them, Have God's faith. Truly I say to you, Whoever says to this mountain, Be taken up and be put into the sea; and has no doubt in his heart, but has faith that what he says will come about, he will have his desire. For this reason I say to you, Whatever you make a request for in prayer, have faith that it has been given to you, and you will have it." Bible in Basic English Translation. Have God's faith = "have the kind of faith God has. We should use faith in the same way that God uses it... by speaking it! God said, "Light be!" and, light came into being! Before He said it, light "was not yet". (Hebrew text) God kind of faith is described in Romans 4:17, God... calls those things which do not exist as though they did.
Lessons From Elijah Page 8 Jesus says, whoever says, not whoever thinks. The promise here is not to just everyone nor to whoever thinks! It IS to anyone that will "say!" The qualifier is that you speak God's word over the situation! Even in being saved, we follow the process of believing in our heart, and confessing with our mouth. Rom. 10:8-9 For salvation that comes from trusting Christ...is already within easy reach of each of us; in fact, it is as near as our own hearts and mouths. For if you tell others with your own mouth that Jesus Christ is your Lord and believe in your own heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. TLB Joel 3:10, Let the weak say, I am strong. Over and over again, the Bible makes it clear that to be saved and after you are saved, you must believe and then you must confess, or speak, the thing that you do believe. Now that the Israelites had repented and had proclaimed their allegiance to Yahweh, God could once again bring rain to the earth. Elijah encouraged Ahab to eat and drink, because he was soon to return to Jezreel. Elijah s prayers were heard, and the rains were soon to come, so the prophet told Ahab it was time for him to leave, while he could still travel in his chariot. Vs. 45 Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. Vs. 46 So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel. Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah; and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. Wow! The LORD energized Elijah with such power that he tucked his robe into his belt and ran ahead of Ahab all fifteen miles to Jezreel faster than chariot speed.