"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9).
There are always things God knows that we don’t. There are many reasons for God leading Elijah to Cherith. Many of these purposes he did not understand. There are some that we can decipher from the events the Scripture tells us.
Jezebel is going to soon begin killing prophets (1 Kings 18:4). Ahab will begin a search for him and become so angry that he will make nations themselves swear that he is not there. Elijah doesn’t know that. He likely didn’t until meeting with Ahab and God’s servant in the palace Obadiah.
The people of the land are soon going to be starving. Was God protecting His prophet from seeing their need for food? Elijah may be bold toward Ahab, but what about the appeals of the innocent people who were hungry? Could Elijah stand if he daily heard the cries of the emaciated? Many bold people can withstand pain themselves but quickly succumb when forced to witness another suffer. Would such a situation tempt Elijah to do something in the flesh? Only God knew the secrets of his heart.
The absence of Elijah will speak louder than his presence will. Sometimes God sends prophets when He is angry. Other times He keeps them away. "We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet; nor is there any among us who know how long." (Psalm 74:10). "Behold the days are coming, says the Lord God, ’That I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, not a thirst for water, but a hearing of the words of the Lord (Amos 8:11).
Elijah is not only being sheltered from others. He is being protected from himself. In addition to the works God is doing in the land, God is also preparing a work in the life and heart of Elijah. He is shaping him for future labour for which Elijah is not yet ready.
When God leads us in a new direction, there are usually many reasons for it. We likely will not understand all of them. In the midst of what we go through we can be certain that the Lord knows all the details and keeps from us many of the dangers we know nothing about. His ways are higher than ours.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Turn Eastward
Then the word of the Lord came to him, "Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan." (1 Kings 17:2-3)
With God’s command obeyed and Ahab’s court confronted, there came another order. This one was to go into hiding east of the Jordan at a brook named Cherith. We do not know precisely where he hid but the name "Cherith" gives us a clue. The word means "to cut." This would be very descriptive of the landscape around the Northeast side of the Jordan River.
These ravines are called "wadis" and they are deep gorges where the water cuts through the land and leaves a large gorge higher than a man’s head. Sometimes the wadis are 12—40 ft. high and about 6-10 ft wide. Parts of the wadis are like Canadian Mountain streams where water can flow through places that may only be a foot across. The wadi is at the bottom of a hill that is so steep sand or other debris can slide down into it. Some wadis only fill once a year in flood season. If one is trapped in these a wall of water 10 ft. high might wash them away. Inside these wadis are many caves.
If Ahab sought for Elijah here, he wouldn’t have looked long. One can’t take a horse or a pack animal such as a camel into a wadi. Trying to ride around the sides or even to walk along them while looking down is fruitless. The searcher’s feet would soon slide out from under him and he’d be in the bottom.
One can imagine a military commander saying, "forget it, men, nobody can live here."
Yet Elijah is living there, almost impossible to find.
God may want us to speak to a king, or he may have us hide. In whatever direction he leads, He instructs us to trust in Him.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding: In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths." (Proverbs 3:5-6).
The God of Elijah is also our God. He will lead. We must trust.
With God’s command obeyed and Ahab’s court confronted, there came another order. This one was to go into hiding east of the Jordan at a brook named Cherith. We do not know precisely where he hid but the name "Cherith" gives us a clue. The word means "to cut." This would be very descriptive of the landscape around the Northeast side of the Jordan River.
These ravines are called "wadis" and they are deep gorges where the water cuts through the land and leaves a large gorge higher than a man’s head. Sometimes the wadis are 12—40 ft. high and about 6-10 ft wide. Parts of the wadis are like Canadian Mountain streams where water can flow through places that may only be a foot across. The wadi is at the bottom of a hill that is so steep sand or other debris can slide down into it. Some wadis only fill once a year in flood season. If one is trapped in these a wall of water 10 ft. high might wash them away. Inside these wadis are many caves.
If Ahab sought for Elijah here, he wouldn’t have looked long. One can’t take a horse or a pack animal such as a camel into a wadi. Trying to ride around the sides or even to walk along them while looking down is fruitless. The searcher’s feet would soon slide out from under him and he’d be in the bottom.
One can imagine a military commander saying, "forget it, men, nobody can live here."
Yet Elijah is living there, almost impossible to find.
God may want us to speak to a king, or he may have us hide. In whatever direction he leads, He instructs us to trust in Him.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding: In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths." (Proverbs 3:5-6).
The God of Elijah is also our God. He will lead. We must trust.
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.
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.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Why No Rain?
"As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word." (1 Kings 17:1).
Elijah’s message is short but filled with meaning. The Lord is the true God of Israel, not Baal. The Lord lives and does not die. God controls the rain, not Baal, the "rider of the clouds." There will not be dew—the only source of rain in the summer. There will not be rain--the season that falls from October to March. These are called the early and the latter rains.
The message is a direct affront to the Baal-worshipping King and Queen. Do you believe your god controls the rain? He does not.
In addition to the message being an attack against Baal, it is also a return to the covenant that God gave in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. Deuteronomy 11:16 & 17 promised that worshipping other gods would cause the Lord to "shut up the heavens so that there be no rain." In other places God said that He would "change the rain of your land to powder and dust" (Deut. 28:24), and He would "make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze." (Lev. 26:19).
Elijah would undoubtedly have known what the Lord’s law taught. As the nation fell further away, his appeals to God were reminders for Him to invoke the covenant. God eventually answered and made him the messenger of those stern remembrances.
Whether negative discipline or positive affirmation, God always answers according to His word. Elijah knew that in his prayer life and so can we.
Elijah’s message is short but filled with meaning. The Lord is the true God of Israel, not Baal. The Lord lives and does not die. God controls the rain, not Baal, the "rider of the clouds." There will not be dew—the only source of rain in the summer. There will not be rain--the season that falls from October to March. These are called the early and the latter rains.
The message is a direct affront to the Baal-worshipping King and Queen. Do you believe your god controls the rain? He does not.
In addition to the message being an attack against Baal, it is also a return to the covenant that God gave in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. Deuteronomy 11:16 & 17 promised that worshipping other gods would cause the Lord to "shut up the heavens so that there be no rain." In other places God said that He would "change the rain of your land to powder and dust" (Deut. 28:24), and He would "make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze." (Lev. 26:19).
Elijah would undoubtedly have known what the Lord’s law taught. As the nation fell further away, his appeals to God were reminders for Him to invoke the covenant. God eventually answered and made him the messenger of those stern remembrances.
Whether negative discipline or positive affirmation, God always answers according to His word. Elijah knew that in his prayer life and so can we.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Provoking God
"He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord,… to anger than all…who were before him." (1 Kings 16:32, 33).
Baal worship was no innocent religion, no misguided belief, no slight error which some may think God overreacted to. It was first of all a stench to God because of the false gods it worshipped. It was also infuriating because of what the worshippers did.
Baal worship celebrated how Baal, "rider of the clouds," was supreme god over the rain and storms. When the earth was dry, it was because Mot, the god of sterility and death had slain Baal. Baal was then rescued by his sister Asherah, the goddess of love and war.
The sexual union between the gods was celebrated by the gross immorality of the worshippers with temple prostitutes of both sexes. These acts promised fertility for agriculture, beasts, and humans. One of Baal’s rites was the sacrifice of children as burnt offerings (Jer. 19:5).
We may think that God holds no anger for us. Perhaps we comfort ourselves with the thought that we today do not believe such idle tales as Baal, Mot, and Asherah. But does this truly change how God views us? We do not need gods today to justify our sexual conduct outside of marriage. We do not burn children with fire, but abortion kills them just as finally as if there was some vile god to serve.
God is never provoked without reason. Let us not forget that. If He did not overlook Ahab, He will not disregard us.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Two Types of Stirring
There is a story of a bride going to visit a coal mine with her white dress on. She asked the miner leading her into the ground, "will I get dirty?' He replied, "I can tell you one thing. You won't come out looking like you did on the way down."
1 Kings 16 tells us about a king who is on the way down into the coal mine. In this case he, the husband, is the one who is about to be drenched with soot.
The sixty years of rebellious leaders before him were "trivial" (1 Kngs 16:31). Ahab went further and willingly married into a family of murderers and sexual prostitutes. 1 Kings 21:25 notes "there was no one who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up."
There is another sort of "stirring" mentioned in the New Testament--"And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works." (Hebrews 10:24).
Before one considers a marriage it is important to contemplate what type of "stirring" the other person will do in the years to come. A sober analysis beforehand may bring a signal of trouble. The prophet Amos raised the question "Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?" Obviously no. If one is trying to stay clean while the other is making trips deep into the coal mine, it will follow that both will end up being dirty.
Had Ahab taken a lesson from the miner he would have known that one important thing--when you knowingly choose the wrong person you never come up looking like you did on the way down.
1 Kings 16 tells us about a king who is on the way down into the coal mine. In this case he, the husband, is the one who is about to be drenched with soot.
The sixty years of rebellious leaders before him were "trivial" (1 Kngs 16:31). Ahab went further and willingly married into a family of murderers and sexual prostitutes. 1 Kings 21:25 notes "there was no one who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up."
There is another sort of "stirring" mentioned in the New Testament--"And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works." (Hebrews 10:24).
Before one considers a marriage it is important to contemplate what type of "stirring" the other person will do in the years to come. A sober analysis beforehand may bring a signal of trouble. The prophet Amos raised the question "Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?" Obviously no. If one is trying to stay clean while the other is making trips deep into the coal mine, it will follow that both will end up being dirty.
Had Ahab taken a lesson from the miner he would have known that one important thing--when you knowingly choose the wrong person you never come up looking like you did on the way down.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Rebuilding what God has Stopped
Hiel of Bethel rebelled against God by rebuilding Jericho despite a divine curse that Joshua had invoked generations before (1 Kngs. 16:33, Josh. 6:26). Jericho represented the Lord's first victory in the establishment of a nation under Him. God had destroyed the city and it was not to be reconstructed. Any who dared would lose both his firstborn son and his youngest. Hiel disobeyed and received the consequences. Elijah appeared in the very next verse (17:1). It was not coincidence that God's servant was now speaking against the king.
The verses teach a godly principle--"don't rebuild what God has stopped."
Noah is a less severe example. After the many years of building the ark, Noah then lived inside it while the world was destroyed by the flood. When the time came to let the animals out and for his family to again take up the creation command to "be fruitful and multilply, and fill the earth" (Gen. 1:28, 9:1,7), did he hesitate? Was he tempted to hang on to the ark as something sacred when God was calling him to move forward? The ark was quickly becoming a sign of another time, another command of God. Would he try to renew that trace of the familiar or press forward into the new?
Would he try to rebuild what God had now stopped?
God gives fresh vision while we often have difficulty in letting go of the old. We may not provoke God as Hiel did, but we can swiftly become guilty of disobedience if we continue to ignore His call into a new direction.
Is God doing a new work? Don't rebuild what God has stopped.
The verses teach a godly principle--"don't rebuild what God has stopped."
Noah is a less severe example. After the many years of building the ark, Noah then lived inside it while the world was destroyed by the flood. When the time came to let the animals out and for his family to again take up the creation command to "be fruitful and multilply, and fill the earth" (Gen. 1:28, 9:1,7), did he hesitate? Was he tempted to hang on to the ark as something sacred when God was calling him to move forward? The ark was quickly becoming a sign of another time, another command of God. Would he try to renew that trace of the familiar or press forward into the new?
Would he try to rebuild what God had now stopped?
God gives fresh vision while we often have difficulty in letting go of the old. We may not provoke God as Hiel did, but we can swiftly become guilty of disobedience if we continue to ignore His call into a new direction.
Is God doing a new work? Don't rebuild what God has stopped.
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