Sunday, February 27, 2011

Reaction to Elijah

What was the reaction to Elijah? The Bible doesn’t say but I think Proverbs 29:9 will probably speak to two of the possible reactions—"If a wise man contends with a foolish man, whether the fool laughs or rages, there is no peace." If any have dealt with slippery people for any length of time, I think they’ll probably agree with the Bible’s assessment of it. Fools never deal with you in any manner that’s appropriate. They either ignite in your face or laugh at you. Then, just as the proverb says, there is no peace.

The reaction was probably hostile. They may have laughed. You control the weather, Elijah? There may have been some fear. Elijah was God’s man speaking under a divine directive. No doubt Jezebel met his pronouncement with her own unbending demonic rage, quickly snapping any thought the vacillating character Ahab may have had of truly considering his message. Considering that God took Elijah into the wilderness, we can guess that there was an angry rebuttal.

Perhaps it took a while to settle in. How many days of no dew and no rain did it take for them to realize that Elijah was no idle threat? Then his absence would begin to speak more loudly than his bold presence. They would begin the search to find the man who had spoken God’s judgement against them. Repentance was not an option to them.

Romans 2:4 asks us "do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?" How long does it take for us to hear a divine command? Do we find ourselves angry or scoffing at a person who has delivered a powerful message to us? Do we despise something that the Holy Spirit has convicted us of time and again?

Let us turn back to God when we hear these things. Laughing and scoffing are only reactions of the fool.