The Actual Days of Elijah: A Reflection on God's Faithfulness

Understanding God's Sovereignty in Troubling Times

The sermon centers on God's enduring faithfulness to His people, illustrated through the story of Elijah and the remnant of 7,000 who had not bowed to Baal, as referenced in Romans 11. It emphasizes that despite widespread apostasy in Israel under King Ahab and Jezebel, God had preserved a faithful remnant, demonstrating His sovereign grace and foreknowledge. The narrative traces the spiritual decline of Israel from Solomon's idolatry through the northern kingdom's apostasy, culminating in Elijah's confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, where God's power was revealed through fire.

After Elijah's despair and flight, God reassures him that He has not abandoned His people, affirming that a remnant remains by grace, not by works. The message calls believers to trust God's sovereignty in times of cultural decay, to remain faithful in private and public life, and to recognize that God's promises endure even when things seem so dark.

The Context of Elijah's Time

Okay, we've been in Romans for a while. If y'all have been sitting here with us, you can feel it. It's heavy lifting, right? This is not a light affair that you can just kind of pick up and go with. You gotta hang on to it, right? We have a continuous argument and presentation of theology that's just boom, boom, boom, being laid out. At the same time, Paul is dealing with counter-arguments that people could raise, and he's gonna go ahead and knock those out. So it's a lot to hang on to.

Y'all may be physically exhausted from listening to me try to go through it. I may be physically exhausted trying to go through it. A couple of weeks ago, we paused last week as we were looking at communion. A couple of weeks ago, I alluded to this passage in Romans 11 about Elijah. We sang that song, and I'm glad we were able to. So I'm going to read this passage in Romans, and then we are going to actually go back and look at what was going on in the days of Elijah. It's not enough to just know, well, he sang this song in the days of Elijah. What does that mean? What happened?

The Question of God's Faithfulness

This is something that was alluded to by the Apostle Paul as he's answering questions in Romans chapter 9, chapter 10, and chapter 11. It's basically, why don't all the Jews believe that Jesus is the Christ? The short answer is that among Israel, the Jews that were God's children, He gives them the ability to believe, and they do. There are those who aren't, and they don't. He's laying that out systematically, chapter by chapter.

As Romans 11 picks up with verse 1, He asks the question, "Hath God cast away his people?" Right? He's talking about the nation of Israel, His people. Has He somehow decided that they're not His people? Has He cast them away? The answer is, God forbid. Whenever Paul uses the language "God forbid," that's the strongest no. It's a strong no, don't even say that. God forbid that you should say that. Has God cast away His people? No, God forbid.

Paul says, "For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin." He says, "I'm a natural Jew." But Paul is also a follower of Jesus Christ. So what's the difference? Why do some believe? Why do some not? God hath not cast away His people, which He foreknew. Well, who are we talking about there? We're talking about the ones that He foreknew before the world began, among Jew and Gentile. He foreknew them, He elected them, He predestinated them, He calls them, glorifies them, justifies them—all those things back from Romans 8. He's got the same ones, right? He hasn't cast them off.

Elijah's Intercession

He says, "Know you not what the scripture saith of Elias?" That's the Greek pronunciation of the Hebrew name Elijah. What does the scripture say about Elijah? How he made intercession to God against Israel. You often think about making intercession as someone pleading on your behalf. Elijah was not pleading on Israel's behalf at that time. Israel was in great wickedness. We'll look at that in great detail. He was pleading to God against Israel, saying, "Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and dig down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life."

It was bad, but he was framing it as worse than it was because the Lord, how does the Lord answer him? "But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself." Who is the actor in that statement? God. God says, "I have reserved to myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal."

Paul uses that illustration to say, even so, then at this present time, the time he's writing this letter to the Romans, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. A remnant among the nation of Israel, the natural descendants of Abraham, there was a portion that God had formed in Him, that He had elected, and those are the portion that either presently or will yet, at some point in their life, believe and recognize that Jesus is the Christ. So he's using this as an illustration of saying, look, Elijah thought he was the only one left. And God says, no, I have reserved to myself 7,000 that you don't know about. Even though Elijah felt very lonely, there were 7,000 others that he didn't know about.

A Journey Back in Time

Let's go back in time, all right? This was written in Romans about 2,000 years ago. We're gonna have to go way back before then to get to the days of Elijah. So I want you to go ahead and turn to 1 Kings. All right, little children, when we sing a song about someone who's armed with a sling, what's that little fella's name? Only a boy named David. Right, and he was described as a lad. Now, in a previous chapter, he was also described as a mighty man of war, so he probably wasn't a little fellow. But lad, you know, maybe he was a teenager, maybe he was in his early 20s, I don't know. But he fought a giant with a sling, right? We know that story.

Eventually, he grew up to be what? King, right? God anointed David to be king, and he reigned for 40 years. He had a son who was a very wise man, the wisest man who'd ever lived up to that point and would live up until Jesus came. His name was Solomon.

Solomon did some pretty impressive construction work. He built a massive palace for himself and an even grander temple for the Lord. Very impressive.

Solomon's Downfall

Solomon got himself into trouble because he started marrying a bunch of strange ladies. I say strange as in they weren't weird, but they were from different nations. And they had different gods. He wound up having 700 wives. How many do you think you ought to have? One. One. 700 wives and 300 concubines. We won't talk about that. Ask about your parents. Alright?

He started building temples to all of his wives' gods. Do you know who would appear to Solomon on two occasions? God. Jehovah had appeared to this joker, giving him wisdom and wealth and peace and prosperity. Yet, towards the end of his life, he was building altars to Moloch and to Ashtoreth and Baal and all these gods around. For that, a prophet comes and basically tells him that the kingdom's going to be lost for your sins. For David's sake, I'm not going to do it in your lifetime, his father David, but in your son's lifetime.

Forty years later, Solomon dies. His son, Rehoboam, comes on the scene, and all of Israel gathers together to confirm that he's gonna be their king, right? It wasn't just a given that the son of the king was gonna be the king. They had to have the consent of the people, which is interesting.

They asked him a question. They said, "Rehoboam, your dad was really hard on us. Can you make our lives just a little easier?" Rehoboam asked his counselors. He had some old men there. The old men said, "You speak kindly to them. You make it a little easier. They'll love you forever." Smart move. The young men said, "No, you got to be tough, man. You got to show them you mean business. Dad, you thought he was bad? He disciplined you with whips. I'm going to take scorpions and I'm going to beat you with scorpions." Does that sound pleasant? No.

He tried to come off as big and bad. So he listened to the young men. And do you know what happened with all the people who heard that? They said, "What do we have to do with you? We don't want you to be our king." Ten of the tribes left. The only two that followed him were the tribe he was from, which was Judah, and the nation and the tribe of Benjamin.

The Split of the Kingdom

This was a split, alright? You've heard of church splits. This was a nation split. The northern portion, we know that as the nation of Israel. Ten of the tribes followed this other guy named Jeroboam. So you got Rehoboam in the south and Jeroboam in the north. Funny names, right? Rehoboam is in the south. He's got his two little tribes, and he wants to go kick some tail. God says, "Nope, you're not permitted to." So they don't.

Now, Jeroboam in the north thinks, "Hmm, now we're all descendants of Abraham. We're supposed to be following this law here. We're supposed to go down to Jerusalem, where Solomon built that big temple. If my people go down to Jerusalem and worship there, eventually they're gonna decide that they like that southern king, Rehoboam, and they're gonna worship there, and they're gonna have him as king, and I'm gonna wind up dead."

So he comes up with a political solution. He says, "Well, in Israel's history, there was a time when we had some golden cows for gods. Remember that? Aaron made a golden cow. He says, 'Israel, it's too difficult. It's not convenient for you to go all the way down south to Jerusalem. In fact, you've got to climb up mountains. I'm going to make it easy for you. I'm going to make not one, but two golden cows. I'm going to put one in the south down here in Beth-El, and one in the north in the city of Dan. You've got the convenience of two different locations. And I tell you what, we will make some feasts. Y'all like going down to the Feast of Jerusalem? That's fine. We'll do a feast very similar to it, just at a different month.'"

He's crafting all of this to look very similar to what's going on in Jerusalem, but different enough so his people stay in his territory. Do y'all remember what Beth-El means? Beth means house, and El is an abbreviation for God. That's where Jacob had the vision on the rock of stone and saw the ladder going up to heaven. He thought, "This must be where God is, the house of God." That's where he decided to put one of these golden cows. And you know what he said? He says, "Israel, these be your gods that brought you out of Egypt."

He had historical precedent, right? Because you could look back in family tradition at one point, there was a golden cow. It didn't go so well, but someone who grew up in the city called the House of God doesn't care about what God said all that long ago.

The Rise of Ahab

So, are we anywhere near the days of Elijah yet? No, we're not. Jeroboam reigns for 22 years. Two years before his death, there's going to be a new king over in Judah. His name is King Asa. King Asa lived a long time, reigning for 41 years. In the northern kingdom, kings didn't reign for 41 years. You know what tended to happen to them? Conspiracies, murder, overthrow, death, destruction. It was a mess.

Jeroboam's son gets on the throne. He only reigns for two until someone comes up and kills him. His name was Bashar. His son gets on the throne. He only reigns for two years until the captain of his chariots killed him. His name was Zimri. He was like, "I'm gonna be king." All the people gathered together and fought against him, and he saw that he was gonna lose. So he wound up burning the palace around himself. Zimri only reigned for seven days.

Then there's a period of civil war because the Northern Kingdom wanted this guy to reign, and some wanted that guy. The top general and this guy fought it out for four years until the top general, named Omri, secured the victory. He bought a hill and built a new capital city, naming it Samaria after the guy he bought it from.

So, Omri has a son named Ahab. Ahab was king in the days of Elijah. You said, "Brother Jonathan, that was a lot of names. I have no idea where we are." David reigned for 40 years. Solomon reigned for 40 years. Then you've got about 60 years until you get to Ahab, and he's the king in the north. In the south, you've got King Asa for most of Ahab's reign.

Ahab's Wickedness

So, what's the deal with Ahab? The kings, until you get down to Ahab during those 60 years, followed the pattern of Jeroboam. They weren't really creative on this. They were just kind of going along. It was a mixed-up religion where they still talked about God, but they were confusing what they were worshiping. They had altars built up in high places, which God specifically said not to do. They were only supposed to worship in one spot, which is Jerusalem.

But they were still giving lip service to Jehovah being God, even though they were confused about these cows. Ahab comes on the scene in the 38th year of King Asa. He reigns for 22 years. Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. It came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, he took a wife named Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbel, king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshipped him.

Sometimes people will use the word Jezebel like they're talking about a prostitute or a woman of ill repute. That's really not the issue with Jezebel, but her very name shows her devotion to this false god of Baal. Her name means "Baal exalts." Her daddy's name means "with Baal." The Zidonians were an idolatrous nation. Ahab actively served Baal and worshipped him.

The Prophets of Baal

He reared up an altar to Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. They have now not just made an altar; they built a whole temple for Baal. We're not really giving much lip service to God anymore. Jezebel is serious about Baal being the god that's worshipped because she instigates a campaign to murder anyone speaking in God's name. The prophets of the Lord had a death sentence, and she wiped out a whole bunch of them.

When Elijah was talking about being the only one left, it wasn't an exaggeration because publicly there were no other prophets of the Lord operating at that time. There were some that existed, and there were obviously people because of the 7,000, but it was bad. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.

The Consequences of Rebellion

In his days, Hillel the Beth-el-ite laid the foundation of Jericho. Why would you build a city and use your son as a foundation? If you don't have the backstory, this doesn't make sense. 600 years ago, when Joshua came into the land, the very first city they attacked was Jericho. The walls came tumbling down. The only survivor was Rahab and all her family members. Joshua said this city is cursed. It will not be rebuilt. If anybody ever rebuilds this, it will cost them their oldest child when they start the project and their youngest son when they finish.

That was 600 years ago. God made a promise through Joshua saying that this would happen. You've got 600 years of removal, and they're not fearing God anymore. Hillel learned that lesson the hard way. He started building that city and was told not to. What happened when he started? His firstborn died. When he set up the gates, his youngest son died.

Did God's Word change because the culture changed? No. So when we're making decisions about how do I interact, what do I do, where do I go forward, you have something stable, something firm, the assurances and the promises and the requirements of how you govern your life. That does not change or waffle based on the shifting sands of the culture around you.

Elijah the Tishbite

So, God sends Elijah the Tishbite. What's a Tishbite? Whatever the city of Tish is. We don't hear it other than associated with this guy. Elijah was one of the inhabitants of Gilead. He comes over to Ahab and says, "As the Lord God of Israel liveth, there shall not be dew or rain these years, but according to my word." This is a declaration, and God is telling him to do this. It's not just going on his own, right? Ahab, it's not gonna rain until I say so, and it's gonna be years before we see that.

You live in an agrarian society where you are very dependent on the crops coming up. If the grain doesn't come up, what happens to the people? They get hungry. They eat their leftovers. Eventually, some of them start dying. This goes on for three and a half years. No dew, no rain.

God's Provision for Elijah

The Lord tells Elijah to hide himself by the brook Chenerith that is before Jordan. He says, "It shall be thou shall drink of the brook. I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there." God fed this prophet using ravens. He went and dwelt by the brook Chinnereth, and he drank of the brook.

One day he looks out, and the brook is gone. Why? Because it's a little brook, and there's no rain. The word of the Lord came unto him, saying, "Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee."

The Widow of Zarephath

He comes to the widow, and she says, "As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake." She has just enough for one last meal for her and her son. Elijah tells her, "Fear not, go do as thou hast said. But make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me. And after, make for thee and thy son."

He promises her that the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruise of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. She obeys, and they eat many days.

The Resurrection of the Widow's Son

During this time, the woman's little boy gets sick and stops breathing. She gets distressed and goes to Elijah. Elijah takes the child and cries out to the Lord. The Lord hears him, and the child revives. The woman then says, "Now by this I know that thou art a man of God and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth."

The Confrontation on Mount Carmel

Meanwhile, Ahab is suffering in his dry kingdom. He takes his steward, Obadiah, and they go find some grass before their animals die. Elijah appears to Obadiah and tells him to tell Ahab that Elijah's here. Ahab meets Elijah and accuses him of troubling Israel. Elijah responds, "I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house have troubled Israel."

Elijah then challenges Ahab to gather all Israel unto Mount Carmel for a contest between the prophets of Baal and himself. The people agree, and the prophets of Baal go first. They call upon Baal all morning, but there is no answer. Elijah mocks them, and they become desperate, cutting themselves.

When it's Elijah's turn, he repairs the altar of the Lord and drenches the sacrifice with water. He calls upon the Lord, and fire falls from heaven, consuming the sacrifice, the wood, and even the stones. The people fall on their faces, declaring, "The Lord, He is God!"

The Aftermath

Elijah commands the people to slay the prophets of Baal. Afterward, he tells Ahab to eat because he hears rain coming. He climbs to the top of Mount Carmel and prays for rain. After several attempts, a small cloud appears, and soon a great rain falls.

Elijah's Despair

However, Jezebel hears of the events and threatens Elijah's life. In fear, Elijah runs to Beersheba and asks the Lord to take his life. He lays under a juniper tree, feeling defeated. Yet, God sends an angel to provide for him. Elijah travels for 40 days and nights to Horeb, the mount of God.

God's Gentle Whisper

In a cave, God speaks to Elijah, asking, "What doest thou hear, Elijah?" Elijah expresses his discouragement, feeling alone. God tells him to anoint Hazael as king over Syria, Jehu as king over Israel, and Elisha as his successor. God reassures Elijah that He has reserved 7,000 in Israel who have not bowed to Baal.

Conclusion: Trusting in God's Sovereignty

This story is a powerful reminder of God's faithfulness and sovereignty. Even when we feel alone or overwhelmed, God has a plan and a remnant. We can trust in His promises and continue to seek Him, knowing that He is always with us.

Thank you for your good attention.