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July 21, 2018 |
| What's With Elijah and Jezebel's Prophets | ||
The story of Elijah and Jezebel's prophets is a well-worn, oft-preached story. Most people would summarize it this way. Elijah, the great prophet of God, calls everyone together for a contest to show which God is real - a battle of the Gods, if you will. God proves himself by sending down fire to consume the sacrifice. Jezebel's prophets are killed. Jezebel focuses only on the killing of her prophets and threatens Elijah's life. Elijah runs away and meets with God.
All of these events occur but these chapters aren't just a compilation of those stories. There is an over-arching theme:
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours … (James 5:17)
In this lesson we will show how that theme is developed and what we can learn from it.
Before we get into the meat of the study, we'll look at an interesting feature of these two chapters. The Bible often conveys information in forms that are below the surface text. It uses commonly know forms like alliteration, metaphor, simile, allegory, and hyperbole. It also uses less common forms like gematria, chiasms and other structural techniques.
In these two chapters it makes use of repetition of a key word - voice. In chapter 18 the word appears twice and in chapter 19 twice but the usage is exactly opposite and that will tell us something.
The first two times the word is uses refer to Jezebel's prophets and their attempts to get their gods, Baal and Asherah, to answer them.
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 about the altar which they had made. (1 Kings 18:26)
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. (1 Kings 18:29)
First, remember the rules for this battle of the God's, "the God who answers by fire, He is God." The god who answers (or speaks in response) to his prophets, he is God. Therefore they will hear his voice through fire. Keep that in mind; we'll come back to it.
In these two verses the word "voice" is used to indicate that their god had not answered.
The next two times the word is used is in chapter 19, when God speaks to Elijah.
and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. 13 So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" (1 Kings 19:12-13)
In these verses we see the word "voice" used to show that God does answer. We also see something important - God does not need to be provoked into speaking.
Remember the context of the story. God has brought a famine on Israel through Elijah and that has lasted for 3 years. Elijah has been off-the-grid while Ahab searched for him.
And it came to pass after many days that the word of the LORD came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, "Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth." 1 Kings 18:1)
What's missing from God's instructions that we know will happen? Where is the mention of the altars, sacrifices, and the god v. God battle? Where is the instruction to destroy the prophets of Baal and Asherah?
One possibility is that God just decided not to include those details in the Bible. As we read on we'll see if that's the case.
Next Elijah meets with Obadiah while heading to meet Ahab. At first this story appears to be out of place and its extraneous details are a complete waste of ink. Passages like this are something we need to be watching for. When we read the Bible we should always be asking ourselves why each passage was included. That is especially true of passages that don't seem to be related. God doesn't waste ink and he knows that papyrus costs money.
This passage is included because Obadiah is going to tell Elijah something he doesn't know, something that is going to bother him and eat at him.
Was it not reported to my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD, how I hid one hundred men of the LORD's prophets" (1 Kings 18:13)
There are various references in Samuel and Kings to a school of prophets. Elijah would have had a strong connection with other prophets and understood their struggles. He is affected by this news; we see it turn up in his words later on.
Elijah meets with Ahab, as God instructed, and tells Ahab to call everyone together.
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." (1 Kings 18:22)
Elijah is probably engaging in hyperbole here - overstating the truth to make a point. Obadiah indicated that there were still some prophets. So it's more of a statement about how he feels about the loss. It's certain that some days have past and Elijah is still affected by Obadiah's news.
Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD; and the God who answers by fire, He is God." (1 Kings 18:24)
Elijah now sets up this battle of the gods. Is that what this really is though? Look at the wording. Is it really a battle of the prophets? Is the question really whose prophets can get their god to act?
We also see something here that we'll see again. Elijah's view of his relationship with God is wrong. He has come to view himself as a partner or coworker with God, instead of a servant of God.
We can all fall prey to this way of thinking. We don't raise the dead or do the other things that were done by Elijah but when God works through us, we feel very good about it and it's easy to start thinking you are something special - that you are part of God's A-Team.
And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, "Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened." (1 Kings 18:27)
What is the attitude of a person who mocks another person? Is it a Godly attitude of humility, or is it arrogance? The answer is obvious. Elijah is not acting according to God's will.
Jezebel's prophets have worn themselves out and now Elijah begins his prayer
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. (1 Kings 18:36)
Yes, this is a prayer for God to act but it's also odd. He says "let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant." Why is he referring to himself if this is a battle of the God's? Is there any doubt in Israel that he is a prophet of God. Again he is showing his view that it is team God-Elijah against these unworthy prophets.
Most strangely he says "let it be known … that I have done all these things at Your word." Why does he need to say that? He is asking God to validate this battle of the gods he has set up.
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. (1 Kings 18:37)
He is using "I" and "me" a lot here. Why does he need to say "You have turned their hearts back to You again"? Altogether it seems like he is building a list of reasons why God should go along with what he has done.
God does act and the people are impressed and they all say there is only one true God. Elijah tells the people to grab all Jezebel's prophets and he oversees their killing. In the context here this can only be seen as eye-for-an-eye, you kill my prophets, I kill your prophets.
Elijah prays for rain, which was part of God's stated plan, and God brings rain. This is probably also significant. When God first told Elijah to meet with Ahab and then God would send rain, Elijah may have been a lot like the prophet Jonah. What have these people done that they deserve rain? They are no closer to God now than when the rain stopped. Like Jonah was with Nineveh, he may have felt they only deserved destruction.
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. 1 Kings 18:46)
At this point three amazing things have been done through Elijah. God had shown his power to his people and the prophets of Jezebel have been killed, God has brought rain, and God has allowed Elijah to outrun the chariots. Elijah has to be very happy. It is probably such a gleeful high that it seems like his feet can barely touch the ground.
It's a little different for King Ahab. Elijah speaks to him but he doesn't speak back. He's probably a little stunned.
And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. (1 Kings 19:1)
Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time." (1 Kings 19:2)
All the miracles done through Elijah have no impact on Jezebel. All she cares to hear is that he killed her prophets, whom she cared for at the palace. She calls down a curse on herself if she has not killed him in 24 hours.
It's a little odd that she would give him fair warning like this. She may have been afraid to carry it out given what had happened with the fire from Heaven onto the altar. If so, she just wants to see him run in fear. She gets her wish.
Elijah is stunned by her response. He believed calling down fire like he had and the other miracles would convince the people to worship the true God. It doesn't work that way though. People forget or ignore what happened. Lies and denial cover it up. Soon another miracle is needed. All that has been achieved is a need for more and greater miracles to keep impressing the people.
Elijah's plan is in total ruin. He sees it as a failure of him and God. Later on his words will show that. It stuns him so much that he stops trusting in God and starts running.
This is a mistake that we can make as well. If you see yourself as God's partner instead of his servant, you start to make yourself the judge of what is a success and what is not, as though you knew the mind of God.
This can happen to preachers and teachers when they see people they've worked with or taught fall back. They can find themselves asking "why am I beating my gums to death for people who never put it into practice, who never learn?". It can happen to all of us when we've worked with a loved one or friend and they fall back. We can see it as a waste of time.
Instead of being in the role of determining successes and failures, our role is that of the servant. We are to do as we are told. Generally the servant does not know the plans of the master. At best we only see the plan after it has come together.
Elijah goes from the heights of joy, to plowing the gravel with his nose. He can't understand that people would act that way.
At least he doesn't pick a random direction and run. He chooses to run to mount Horeb, also called Mount Sinai, the place where the 10 Commandments and the beginnings of the law were given to Israel. It's a long journey through difficult terrain.
But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, "It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!" (1 Kings 19:4)
No one is entirely certain what he means by "I am no better than my fathers." Does he fully understand his failure at this point? He may only be referring to his sense that the whole battle of the gods was a failure. If so then he means that he has achieved no more than anyone before him. He may be beginning to understand that he has failed God. That seems doubtful because God schools him in that later on.
It's hardly something new for God's prophet's view of right and wrong to clash with God's view and for the prophet to say, "That's it, I quit, kill me now." Jonah said it after God showed mercy on a people that Jonah wanted to see destroyed.
And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." (Jonah 4:3)
Jeremiah said something similar when God kept sending him back to a people who were really beginning to hate his messages of "negativity."
Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me never be blessed. (Jeremiah 20:14)
Even Moses said it.
If this is how You are going to treat me, please kill me right now--if I have found favor in Your eyes--and let me not see my own wretchedness. (Numbers 11:15)
With the help of an angel, Elijah makes it to Mount Horeb. God begins to show him some things, first a powerful wind that breaks rocks, then a great earthquake, but God was not in either of those.
and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. 13 So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" (1 Kings 19:12-13)
How odd, God was not in this fire. But surely he was in the fire that fell on the altar and sacrifice. That is exactly the point God is making here, "I wasn't in that fire either, I don't work that way. I work through a still small voice that changes the inside of a man, not big physical events that only impress him."
Like a loving father, God is showing his child how God works, allowing Elijah to see where Elijah went wrong.
It seems certain that Elijah now understands but he heads for the entrance to the cave. We can't be certain but he is probably pouting. This puts him with Jonah after Nineveh repented. Even after it was explained to him, he said "I knew you were a merciful God who would show mercy on these horrible people."
When God asks Elijah "What are you doing here" he doesn't mean "Hey, howdy, what a surprise to see you. Are you in town on business." God already knows why Elijah is there. The question really means, "Look back at all the steps that have been taken that resulted in the situation you are in."
Once again, God is speaking like a loving father to a child, saying let's review how we got here. What could have been done differently? Notice also that God has done this correction in private. He could have refused to send down fire on the altar, but then Elijah's credibility as a prophet would have been destroyed.
Also remember that God knew in advance what Elijah would do and has built his plan for it. Likely God would have destroyed Jezebel's prophets anyway. He can still use our failings to achieve his will.
Now we come to Elijah's answer to God's question, "What are you doing here?".
And he said, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life." 1 Kings 19:14)
Elijah's answer shows the problem - it's you and me against them. I have nothing at heart but the things of God, he says, but they care nothing about you. And here it comes, they have "killed Your prophets with the sword." The words of Obadiah have come back. Elijah had forgotten he was a servant and when he heard that so many of his fellow prophets had been killed he did what he was sure God wanted - but it wasn't.
Elijah was fighting the battle for God according to what seems right to a man. It was never Elijah's battle though. God informs him of something Elijah could never know - there are still 7000 people who are true to God. He isn't alone.
Jesus' Disciples were about to make the same mistake when they were rejected by the people of a village. Jesus' answer to them is also the answer to Elijah.
And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?" 55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. 56 For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them." And they went to another village.(Luke 9:54-55)
There is someone who does like an impressive show of power. We see him at work in Revelation.
And I saw another Beast that ascended from Earth, and it had two horns and was like The Lamb and was speaking like the Dragon. 12 And it will exercise all the authority of the former Beast before it and will make The Earth and those living in it also to worship the first Beast, whose mortal wound was healed. 13 And it will perform great signs so as to make fire descend from Heaven on Earth before the people. (Revelation 13:11-13)
"People in ministry recognize this story, if without so many feats of fire and rain. We work hard and burn out. Doubt, depression - even despair - can result as our focus turns onto us and our limitations. The moral of the story is trust God. His strength moves us, not our own. And He is in control. Most of all, He rescues and restores."2
1 picture from https://sbcvoices.com/water-on-the-altar-letting-god-be-god/
2 Bible Studies for Adults, Bible Advocate Press, Transforming Vision Into Reality, Part 6, Lesson 8
