14 ELIJAH APPEARS

The history of Elijah begins somewhat abruptly. Usually, when a prophet enters, we read something about his parents, whose son he was and of what tribe; but Elijah appears as though out of thin air and immediately begins his work speaking for God. Melchisedek also seems to appear without any record of a father, without mother, and without descent, which made some of the Jews think that Elijah must have been an angel sent from heaven. But James puts that false idea to rest quickly in James 5:17a which says, “Elijah was a human being, even as we are.” Elijah had normal feelings like we do. Another translations says, “he was a man subject to like passions as we are” which perhaps suggests, not only that he was liable to the common weaknesses of human nature, but that, by his natural temper, may have been a man of strong passions, more hot or zealous than most men, and therefore the more fit to deal with the daring sinners of the age in which he lived. Could this be a demonstration of how wonderfully God suits men to the work he designs them for. Rough spirits are called to rough services. The reformation needed such a man as Luther to break the ice, for example.

Notice the meaning of this prophet’s name: Elijahu—“My God Jehovah is he”—“is he who sends me and will own me and bear me out, is he to whom I would bring Israel back and who alone can effect that great work.” We are told of his country; he was of the inhabitants of Gilead, on the other side Jordan, either of the tribe of Gad or the half of Manasseh, since Gilead was divided between these two tribes, but we do not know if he was a native of either of those two tribes. The obscurity of his parentage, however, cannot reduce the powerful role he played and reputation he had later. We need not so much ask where men come from, but rather more importantly what they are: if it be a good thing, no matter though it come out of Nazareth.

Israel was sorely wounded with sin and national leadership leading them into idolatry when at this time God sent them this balm from Gilead and this physician from there. He is called a Tishbite because he came from Thisbe, a town in that country. We find two things important to the life story and message of Elijah as he appears at this beginning of his story:

First, How he foretold a famine, a long and grievous famine, with which Israel would be punished for their sins. That fruitful land, now because of a severe need for rain, would be turned into barrenness, because of the iniquity of those that lived there under the government of Abab and Jezebel. He went and told this to Ahab. He did not whisper it to the people, to make them discontent with their the government, though they should have been very unsatisfied with the direction the nation was going, but proclaimed it to the king himself, in whose power it was to reform the land and so to prevent the judgment. It is quite possible that he criticized Ahab for his idolatry and other wickedness and told him that unless he repented and reformed this judgment would be brought on his land. Such a reprimand would certainly be consistent with his personality and his prophetic calling.

Verse 1 says, “Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.’” “James tells us more. James 5:17, “Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.” There would be neither dew nor rain for some years, none but according to my word, that is, “Expect none until you hear from me again.” The apostle James teaches us to understand this, not only as a word of prophecy, but primarily as an invitation to prayer such as Elijah’s prayer which turned the key that locked then unlocked the clouds. James tells us this in James 5:18, “Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.”

He prayed earnestly, probably in holy indignation at Israel’s apostasy and also holy zeal for the glory of God whose judgments were defied, that it might not rain; and, according to his prayers, the heavens became as brass, until he prayed again that it might rain. It may be an allusion to this story as it is said of God’s witnesses recorded in Revelation 11:6, “They have power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; “Elijah lets Ahab know, three specific things: 1. That the Lord Jehovah is the God of Israel, whom Ahab had forsaken. 2. That God is a living God, and not like the gods he worshipped, which were dead dumb idols and 3. That Elijah himself was God’s servant in office as a messenger sent from God: “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve” or to expand Elijah’s meaning he may have been intimating, “whom I now represent, in whose stead I stand, and in whose name I speak, in defiance of the prophets of Baal and the groves.”

A fourth thing Elijah might have been communicating is that, notwithstanding the present peace and prosperity of the kingdom of Israel, God was displeased with them for their idolatry and would chastise them for it by withholding rain. The prosperity of Israel depended on rain. When God withheld it, it was not in the power of the gods they served to give Israel rain. Jeremiah 14:22 says, “Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies themselves send down showers? No, it is you, Lord our God. Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this.” Having no rain would effectually prove the weakness of Baal the Canaanite rain god and the impotency and folly of those who left the living God, to make their appeal to such gods who could do neither good nor evil. All of this Elijah confirms with a solemn oath, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives,” that Ahab might stand the more in awe of the threatening, the divine life being engaged. God was involved!

Elijah, perhaps fifthly, also lets Ahab know what interest Elijah himself had in this project: It will be according to my word. With what dignity Elijah speaks when he speaks in God’s name, as one who well understood that commission of a prophet alluded to also in Jeremiah 1:10, “See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

You and I too, as God’s messengers, servants and intercessors today can see the power of prayer and the truth of God’s word; for God performs the messages of His messengers when those messages are truly from Him. Can just this much of this lesson not encourage us to listen to God, get messages from Him and then have the courage to give those messages? What good is it to study the life of this prophet if we do not make this application to ourselves? What profit can we gain from this prophet? Maybe we should ask this question every lesson in this series since we are studying the prophets. What profit to us is this study of this prophet?

Second, we notice how Elijah was himself provided for in that famine. He was hidden as God directed him to go to the brook Cherith as verse 3 says, This was intended, not so much for his preservation, for it does not appear that Ahab immediately sought his life, but as a judgment to the people, to whom, if Elijah had publicly appeared, he might have been a blessing both by his instructions and his intercession, and so have shortened the days of their calamity; but God had determined it should last three and a half years, and therefore, so long, appointed Elijah to remain out of sight, that he might not be asked to revoke the sentence, the execution of which he had said would be according to his word. When God speaks concerning a nation, to pluck up and destroy, He finds some way or other to remove the person that would stand in the gap to turn away his wrath.

It bodes ill to a people when good men and good ministers are ordered to hide themselves. When God intended to send rain on the earth then He told Elijah go and show himself to Ahab as we will see in the first verse of the next chapter, “After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: ‘Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.’” For the present time, in obedience to the divine command, he went and stayed evidently all alone in some obscure unfrequented place, where he was not discovered, probably among the reeds of the brook.

If God calls you, man or woman of God, to solitude and retirement, it is right to obey. When we cannot be useful we must be patient, and when we cannot work for God we must sit still quietly with and for Him. It is interesting to see how Elijah was fed. Though he could not work there, having nothing to do but to meditate and pray (which would help prepare him for his usefulness later), yet he will eat, for he is in the way of his duty, and truly he will be fed as God feeds His own even in time of famine. In Revelation 12:6 and 14 we have a similar record when the woman, God’s people, maybe Israel herself) is driven into the wilderness. God made certain she would be fed and nourished there, 1,260 days or time, times, and half a time, that is, three years and a half, which was precisely the length of time of Elijah’s concealment. Revelation says, “The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.” And later says, “The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach.”

Elijah must drink of the brook, and the ravens were appointed to bring him meat as verse 4-6  say, “4 You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” 5 So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.” The provision was plentiful, and good, and constant, bread and flesh twice a day, daily bread and food convenient. We may suppose that he did not eat as sumptuously as the prophets of Baal, who were then eating at Jezebel’s table according to verse 19 of the next chapters which says, “ Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” Yet Elijah ate better than the rest of the Lord’s prophets, whom Obadiah fed with just bread and water, as reported in verse 4 of the next chapter, “While Jezebel was killing off the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water.)”

It does not seem appropriate for God’s servants, especially his servants the prophets, to be nice and curious about fine food and to affect dainties and varieties. In life and health if nature be sustained, no matter though the refined appetite be not pleased; instead of envying those who have more pleasant or delicious food, we should think how many there are, better than we, who live comfortably on even coarser fare and would be glad to be able to eat what we leave over after being satisfied.

Elijah had just one meal brought him at a time, every morning and every evening. Could this have been to teach him, and through his experience to teach us, not to take thought for the morrow. Let those of us who have food just from hand to mouth, learn to live on God’s promise, and trust Him for the bread of the day in the day. Jesus taught us to pray for, and we assume He meant that would should also then be satisfied with, daily bread. Let us thank God for bread  today, and let tomorrow bring bread with it.

The waiters who brought this food to Elijah were very unlikely; the ravens brought it to him. Obadiah, and others in Israel who like Elijah had not bowed the knee to Baal, would gladly have carried Elijah’s food to Elijah; but he was a man by himself, and must be fed in an extraordinary way. He was a figure of John the baptist, whose meat was locusts and wild honey. God could have sent angels to minister to him, as he did afterwards as recorded two chapters later in his story as recorded in 1 Kings 19:5  Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” And you will recall that Angels did this same thing for Jesus after He had fasted for forty day and then been tempted as recorded in Matthew 4:11. “Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.”

But this time God chose to send by winged messengers of another nature, to show that when He wants to He can serve His own purposes by the simple creatures as effectually as by the mightiest. If it be asked where the ravens received this provision, how and where it was cooked, and whether they came honestly by it, we must answer, as Jacob did when his father asked how he found the wild game so quickly as recorded in Genesis 27:20, "Isaac asked his son, ‘How did you find it so quickly, my son?’ ‘The Lord your God gave me success,’” Evidently the Lord can make even ravens successful when it serves His purpose. We can remember when interpreting Elijah’s experience with the ravens, just as we can when God provides for us that the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, the world and those that dwell therein.

But we might ask, why ravens? They are birds of prey, ravenous devouring creatures, more likely by their own temperament to have taken Elijah’s meat from him, or to have picked out his eyes as Proverbs 30:17 says, “The eye that mocks a father, that scorns an aged mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures.” But we find here that Samson’s riddle is again unriddled, Out of the eater comes forth meat; instead of eating the meat, the meat-eating ravens bring the meat to Elijah and leave it with him. Ravens are unclean creatures. Every raven after his kind was, by the law, forbidden to be eaten because they were unclean according to Leviticus 11:15 “any kind of raven,” Yet Elijah did not think the meat the ravens brought any the worse because of the birds which brought it to him, but ate and gave thanks, asking no question for conscience’ sake.

After the flood as Noah tried to learn of the condition of the land, his dove was a more faithful messenger than his raven; yet here the ravens are faithful and constant to Elijah. Did you know that ravens feed on insects and dead meat themselves? Yet they brought man’s meat and wholesome food to the prophet. Just because we nourish our followers with the milk of God’s Word, bring the bread of life to our hearers and teach the meat of the Word of God, it does not mean that we can be careless about what we ourselves eat. In this case let us be unlike the ravens. Bring good bread, milk and meat according to the needs to those we lead and at the same time make only good and wholesome things our own diet.

Ravens could bring but a little, and broken meat, yet we assume that Elijah was content with such things as he had, and thankful that he was fed, though not feasted.  Another interesting thing about ravens is that they neglect their own young ones, and do not feed them; yet when God needs food delivered, they feed his prophet. Young lions and young ravens may lack, and suffer hunger, but not those that fear the Lord. We can take comfort from Psalm 34:10 which says, “The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.” According to Job 38:41 and Psalm 147:9, ravens are themselves fed by special provision from God. “Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?” and “He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call.” Yet in our story they now feed the prophet!

Have we experienced God’s special goodness to us and our families? Let us consider ourselves obligated by this to be kind to those that are His, for His sake. We surely can be as kind to others as ravens were to Elijah. Let us learn firstly to acknowledge the sovereignty and power of God over all the creatures; he can make what use He pleases of them, either for judgment or mercy. Then secondly, learn to encourage ourselves in God in the greatest difficulties and never to distrust him. He that could furnish a table in the wilderness, and make ravens waiters and cooks for His prophet, is able to supply all our needs according to his riches in glory.

So in this part of Elijah’s story, for a great while, he eat his meals alone. His provision of water, which he has in an ordinary way from the brook, fails him before something else we examine in the next teaching comes to him by another kind of miracle. The powers of nature are limited, but not the powers of the God of nature. Elijah’s brook dried up according to the first verse of our next lesson “Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.” If the heavens fail and consequently earth fails we lose our source of food like the brooks in summer Job talks about in Job 6:15. Let us learn a lesson from the streams, a lesson that Job is teaching as he complains about the inconsistency of his so-called friends who come to comfort him. Job says, “But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the  streams that overflow 16 when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow, 17 but that stop flowing in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels.”