Prophet Margin, Part 3

The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, June 27, 2010.  The text for this week's passage is 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14.


Last week, we looked at the story of Elijah in the wilderness.  We were left with the piercing question that God asks Elijah, “What are you doing here?”  Certainly it is a question that we have to ask ourselves from time to time to make sure that we are staying on track in responding to the call of ministry that we all have.

Following his experience in the wilderness, Elijah leaves and comes across a guy plowing in the fields.  Elijah casts his cloak (or mantle in some translations) upon him, and essentially calls Elisha to follow him.  Elisha then becomes Elijah’s assistant in his prophetic ministry.  From this point until we get to where we find ourselves in today’s Scripture there are a few other good stories to share, but you’re just going to have to read them for yourself.

At the beginning of today’s passage, we know right away what is going to happen.  It begins by saying, “When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind.”  That’s pretty self-explanatory, which tells me that Elijah being taken up in the whirlwind is not necessarily the most important thing that is going to happen in this passage, and the more time I spent thinking and praying over this passage, the more I realized that was indeed the case.  It’s not about the end of the story.  It’s about the journey and the transition.  What I’d like to do this morning is look at the journey that Elijah and Elisha take through this passage, and explore why those locations are important for us, even today.

As the chapter begins, Elijah and Elisha are traveling away from the town of Gilgal.  Gilgal was a pretty significant town in the history of the Israelites.  It was the first place where the Israelites camped after crossing the Jordan River and entering the Promised Land.  Gilgal is a place of new beginnings.  It is an appropriate place to start today because we are going to see a new beginning in just a few short verses.

Now, this may be an absolutely ridiculous question, but where do most of our journeys start?  Our journeys start at the beginning.  It sounds kind of obvious, but if we really stop to think about it, it’s more profound than we believe.  When we enter into a new phase in our lives, when we start a new journey, we have to start at the beginning.  What’s that mean, though?  It means that we aren’t necessarily tied down to the past.  It means that we have a clean slate with which to work.  We are never totally divorced from our past, but we don’t have to be held back by it either.

I think I’ve shared it before but, it’s good, so I’ll share it again.  When I was in seminary, our president said, “The Church that got us to where we are today is not the Church that is going to get us where we need to be in the future.”  Now, at the time, he was talking more specifically about the United Methodist Church as a denomination, but I think the same can be said for all churches – big, small, denominational, non-denominational, urban, and rural.  What got us to where we are today will not be able to get us to where we need to be in the future.  It was good enough to get us here, but now we want to go beyond here and move to there.

Now, before you hit the panic button, let me make something clear.  I’m not saying that we are going to change the way we do everything around here.  I’m not necessarily saying that we need to shift to a different style of worship or anything like that.  But we have to ask ourselves two questions: 1) “Where do we want to be in 10 years?” and 2) “What do we have to do to get there?”  These questions are not about changing the mechanics of what we do; they are about changing the mentalities and attitudes behind what we are doing.

Today’s Scripture is about journey and transition.  Do we have an attitude and a mentality that will lead us into the future that God has for us?  What are the transitions that we need to make in order to make God’s future for us a reality?  There is no better way to prepare for the future than to realize that we are in need of a new beginning.  That’s an attitude and mentality issue.  We need to have a place like Gilgal – a first stop in a new journey.

We are told that the prophets are going from Gilgal to Bethel.  Bethel was another important place in the history of Israel.  It is mentioned several times in the book of Joshua, which details the conquering of the Promised Land, but more significantly, Bethel is the location of Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28.  In this dream, Jacob encounters God, who promises that the land all around him would belong to his offspring.  Bethel is a place of revelation and dreams.

Do we have dreamers here this morning?  I’m not talking about the kind of dreamer that just sits back and wonders what life would be like with a few million dollars.  I’m not talking about the kind of dreamer that fantasizes about telling off the boss or living the life of a rock star.  I’m talking about the dreamers that pray about and listen for God’s call in their lives.  I’m talking about the people who are open to God’s revelation in their life.
Do we reflect on the future?  Do we reflect on what can happen if we only submit ourselves entirely to God?  It sounds a little crazy when I put it like that, but we need people that can see an ideal future.  If people aren’t thinking and dreaming about what God has in store for us as a congregation, we will never get there.  We need people to be dreaming about an ideal future, and we need people willing to do what it takes to get there.

I have been reading a book lately and one of the chapters is about how we need to slaughter some of the sacred cows in the local church because they can get in the way of what God is trying to do through us.  I want you to think about what some of those sacred cows may be in your own life, or in the life of this congregation.  What are the things that can potentially get in the way of what God is trying to do, but we hold on to them because “that’s the way it has always been”?

If we are looking towards the ideal future, if we are really dreaming about what God has in store for us, then we need to realize that some things don’t really matter.  God’s revelation of where we could be has to surpass everything else that we think is important.  We need to have places like Bethel, places where it is okay to dream and to follow those dreams.

The next stop on the journey is Jericho.  Jericho is one of the better-known cities of the Old Testament.  It was the location where the Israelites claimed their first major victory as they began their conquest of the Promised Land.  Jericho stands for the victories and the promises of God that have been fulfilled.  The story of Jericho also helps remind us that our victories are not our victories; they are God’s victories.

When the people went to attack Jericho, they were given very odd orders.  They were going to march around the city… for six days.  But on the seventh day, they were going to lay siege to the city’s walls and attack, right?  No, that’s not what they did.  On the seventh day, they marched around the city seven times, then the priests would blast their trumpets, and the people would yell.  That was their battle plan.

Anybody want to suggest that plan to a high ranking official in the United States Army?  No, of course not, it’s a ridiculous plan.  And I can imagine that when Joshua told the people his plan, they thought to themselves, “Who put this guy in charge?”  But that’s just the point, isn’t it?  Joshua wasn’t the one that was in charge.  The people weren’t the ones who were going to claim a great victory over Jericho.  It was God, and as ridiculous as that plan sounded, the walls around Jericho came down and the Israelites emerged victorious.

When you look back at the victories in your life, or when we look back at the victories in our church, who gets the credit?  Do we pat ourselves on the back and say, “Good job, self!”  Or do we realize that the victories we celebrate in our lives come not from our own hard work, but from the grace of God?  Jericho reminds us of our victories, but it is also a reminder of who gets the credit for our victories.

We can look back on our past and talk about the good times, but the thing we have to remember is that God was the one who led us there.  And sometimes, in order to gain a victory, we have to be willing to do something that is unconventional.  Comfort with where we have been can be devastating to where we need to go.  If we are willing to follow God into the future that He has promised us, we must be willing to do something from time to time that may seem a little crazy.  What does that mean?

It’s going to mean something different for each one of us.  For some, it might mean taking the time to read through the Bible this year.  For some, it may mean reaching out to that neighbor that you never really talk to, or talking about your faith with those people at work.  For some, it may mean helping “those people.”  It’s going to look different for each person.  But there are two things that are going to be constant: 1) the need to listen for God’s direction, and 2) the need to give Him the credit.  There certainly is victory, but it is not our victory, it is God’s.

The fourth and final stop on the journey of Elijah and Elisha is the Jordan River.  The Jordan River was another significant landmark in the journeys of the nation of Israel.  It was the place where the Israelites entered the Promised Land.  It marked the end of their wilderness wanderings, and the beginning of their new life.  It was a place of transition, and that is certainly the case here for the two prophets.

We are told that Elijah takes his cloak, or his mantle, his symbol of prophetic authority, rolls it up and smacks the water with it.  Again, it sounds like a crazy thing to do, but what happens?  The water stops flowing, and the two prophets cross over on dry ground.  Of course, this would evoke memory of the Israelites crossing the Jordan River on dry ground when they came into the Promised Land.  The priests went ahead of the nation carrying the Ark of the Covenant, and when they stood in the river, the waters stopped flowing, and all of Israel passed by them into the Promised Land.

This journey of the prophets has come full circle, literally.  Gilgal was near the Jordan River, and they made a circle right back to the Jordan River as they traveled.  In this story, the area of the Jordan River serves as both an ending and a beginning.  Physically, it is where the story began and where it ends, but more significantly, it is where the ministry of Elijah ends and the ministry of Elisha begins.  The Jordan River stands in this story as a point where the baton gets passed.  A transition takes place.  There are some very important lessons for us to take away from this portion of today’s passage as well.

First, there are seasons to ministry.  No matter what we think, or how hard we try, there are seasons when a particular aspect of our ministry needs to come to an end.  We see this all the time in the secular world, but for some reason, we fail to acknowledge it in our spiritual world.

Just a few weeks ago, Ken Griffey Jr., one of the greatest players in my generation, retired from baseball, but many people were wondering why he was still around in the first place.  He was long past his effective years and wasn’t contributing very much to the team.  Simply put, he stayed for too long.  People recognized it.  It seems like the last person to realize that Ken Griffey Jr. should retire was Ken Griffey Jr.  This happens in ministry as well.  People stay past their effectiveness.

Now, let me make something clear here: people staying past their effectiveness has nothing to do with age.  I’ve said it before, and I stand by it – you are never too old to accomplish God’s will in your life.  It has nothing to do with age, and everything to do with it being time to move on in ministry.  We have to be willing to recognize when it is time to transition out of something.  And this isn’t always about people either.

The same is true for ministries.  Ministries have their seasons.  They may start out great, but, over time, lose their effectiveness.  This happens for all sorts of reasons, but it’s important to realize when a particular ministry is no longer effective and when it is time to move in a new direction.

Secondly, this passage is about journey and transition.  We have to be willing to travel alongside other people and we have to be willing to allow them to transition into their ministry.  How much could Elisha have done if Elijah were still around?  People wouldn’t come to Elisha; they would still be going to Elijah.  Elisha never would have had the opportunity to fulfill his ministry because Elijah would have still been doing all the work.

I’m a firm believer that we need to be training people to replace us.  When we do that, we recognize a couple of things.  First, training others helps us recognize that we aren’t going to be around forever.  In spite of what happens to Elijah here, the human mortality rate is still pretty much 100%.  We aren’t going to be around forever, and we need to be able to allow others to continue what we have started when the time comes.

Second, training others helps us recognize that there are seasons in our ministries.  There will be times when we have to step aside and allow somebody else to take over.  Sometimes, this is so that our ministries can go to the next level.  Sometimes it is so we can move on to something different that God has in store for us.  Even Jesus trained people to do ministry when he was gone.  If Jesus did it, how much more do we need to do it?

As we walk alongside Elijah and Elisha in this passage, we come across some significant locations in the history of Israel.  These locations would have served as a reminder of the history of the nation, and the original readers would have seen some significance in what is going on.  The fact that Elijah was taken into heaven in a whirlwind really isn’t the main part of the story.  Again, we know this from the very beginning.  It is not a surprise.  What we learn and where we go along the way is what is really important for us.

Perhaps we can say the same about life.  We all know how this life is going to end.  We may not know the details of how we get there, but that is kind of the point.  We aren’t called to know the end, we are called to be obedient and to learn from the journey.  There will always be a need for new beginnings; let’s recognize when it is time to start fresh.  There will always be a need for dreamers and those who listen for God’s revelation; let’s not block them with what we think is important in order to maintain our comfort.  There will be victories; let’s make sure we give God the credit.  There will be times for us to pass the torch; let us be prepared to leave a legacy.

Prophet Margin, Part 2

The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, June 20, 2010.  The text for this week's message is 1 Kings 19:9-15a.


We are picking up where we left off a couple weeks ago in our series exploring some stories about the prophets Elijah and Elisha.  Last time, we looked at our introduction to Elijah, and how he had to rely on God for his provision in a difficult time.  Elijah is introduced by telling Ahab, one of the worst kings in the history Israel, that there will be a severe drought in the land.  Ahab, prodded on by his wife Jezebel, led the people of Israel into worship of the Canaanite god Baal.  Elijah’s proclamation that there would be no rain was a direct affront to the sovereignty of Baal, who was the storm god.

Immediately after he confronts Ahab, Elijah goes into the inhospitable wilderness east of the Jordan river, where God provides for him with a brook and food delivered by ravens.  In due time, the brook runs dry and Elijah must move on.  His time of spiritual preparation in that location had come to an end.  It was now time for him to go to Zarephath.

When Elijah arrives in Zarephath, a town near Jezebel’s hometown of Sidon and a town located in the heart of Baal worship, he sees a widow collecting sticks.  He asks her for some water and some bread.  In the difficulty of the drought, she was running low on both.  In fact, she was at the end of her supply, and was preparing to make one last cake before sitting back and waiting to die alongside her son.  Elijah reassures her that she will not run out of flour or oil until the drought is over.  God once again had provided in a miraculous way.

As we keep going through the story, we see that Elijah was used by God in some amazing ways.  The widow’s son dies, and Elijah prays that he would live again, and he does.  After three years of severe drought, it comes time for Elijah to confront Ahab once again.  Elijah is very bold when he talks to the king, and challenges him to bring all the prophets of Baal and all of Israel together at Mount Carmel.

Elijah addresses the people and tells them that they need to make a decision.  They need to decide if they going to follow Baal, or if they are going to follow Yahweh, the one true God.  And they have a demonstration.  They put a bull on the altar, and Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal to have Baal consume the bull with fire.  If Baal is truly God, then this should not be a problem.  And all morning and all afternoon, the prophets of Baal try unsuccessfully to get Baal to burn up the offering.  Finally, it’s Elijah’s turn.

Elijah puts the bull on the altar, and then dumps twelve giant jars of water all over the offering until a trench that he dug around the altar was overflowing with water.  And after half a day of listening to the prophets of Baal cry out to their god and watching them dance around and cut themselves, Elijah simply offers a prayer.  He says, “God, let these people know that you are God and that I am your servant.”  That’s all he says, and then a fire comes down from heaven and burns up everything – the offering, the wood, the stones, the dust and even the very water is consumed by a flame from heaven.  The people return to the Lord, seize the prophets of Baal and have them all killed.  Then the rain comes and the drought is over.

Ahab tells Jezebel what happened, and instead of realizing that indeed Yahweh is God, Jezebel sends a messenger to Elijah and says, “By this time tomorrow, you will be dead.”  And Elijah is afraid.  He gets up and runs for his life into the town of Beersheba in Judah.  Once he gets there, he leaves his servant behind and goes another day’s journey into the wilderness.  He sits down under a tree and says, “This is too much.  I can’t take it any more.  God, please be through with me.”

It was probably about a six-day journey to Beersheba, plus another day into wilderness, and in just one week, Elijah goes from this amazing spiritual high to calling it quits in the wilderness.  Do you ever feel like that?  Do you ever feel like you just can’t take any more?  That’s where Elijah is.  And to be at that point so soon after the spiritual high of Mount Carmel has to be devastating.  There was a reason why Elijah needed a period of spiritual preparation, and this is it.  He’s at the end of his rope, and it is all because of one person who threatened his life.

Elijah falls asleep under this tree, and twice he is woken by a messenger from God, an angel, who invites him to eat and drink.  The second time, the angel tells him that the journey he is about to go on is going to be too much for him.  He gets up, eats and drinks a second time, and begins his journey deeper into the wilderness.  For forty days and forty nights, Elijah had nothing else but that food, and he goes to Mount Horeb, the mount of God.  In an earlier time, it was known as Mount Sinai.  And it’s there that we come to today’s passage.

By this point, you have an idea about the dejection and exhaustion that Elijah must be experiencing.  In verse 9, we are told that Elijah came to a cave and lodged in it.  A better translation of the Hebrew, however, tells us that he went to “the cave.”  Up to this point, the writer has made some serious connections between Elijah and Moses.  Both of them went 40 days and nights without food, and both of them went up on the same mount.  And perhaps  you remember the story where Moses asked to see God’s glory, and God told him to go to a “cleft in the rock,” and He would pass by, allowing Moses to see the glory of the Lord.  It is believed that where Elijah stands during this passage is the same place.  We know that something significant is going to happen here.

As Elijah is in the cave, the word of the Lord comes to him.  The word of the Lord is a powerful force.  It is by this very word that creation took place.  It is by this very word that there is day and night, water and dry land, living creatures all over the place.  The word of the Lord is powerful.  We get a small glimpse of the power of His word when we read Scripture.  Scripture is the word of the Lord given to us.  But there is a problem in today’s world.  So many people will venerate the actual Bible, but ignore the word of God.  Do you see the difference?

There are people that refuse to throw away a Bible, but at the same time, couldn’t tell you what was in it.  The Bible in a Year challenge that we are going through right now is not just for the fun of it.  It is to get us into the word of the Lord.  Because that word is powerful.  That word has the power to change our lives.

There was a movie that came out at the beginning of the year called The Book of Eli.  You may have heard of it recently because it just came out on DVD.  I thought it was great, but I won’t recommend it for a lot of people because there is quite a bit of violence in the movie, but the core of the movie is that there is a book in the possession of a man named Eli that is exceedingly rare.  And it’s a Bible.  In fact, it may be the only Bible left on the planet because all the others were burned following a nuclear holocaust that scorched the earth.  Religion was blamed, and all the religious books were burned.

  The bad guy in the movie wants this Bible because he believes it contains the words that will help him control people.  What he fails to realize is that Scripture doesn’t contain the power to control people; it contains the power to change people from within.  And that powerful word of the Lord, comes to Elijah – a man who is broken down and ready to give up.

God says to Elijah, “What are you doing here?”  And just for clarification, this is not an informational question.  It’s not like God was spelunking on Mount Horeb and stumbled upon Elijah.  He is not surprised by Elijah’s presence on the mount.  In fact, an angel of the Lord sent him there.  God is not asking this in a “when did you get here” sort of way.  The question is more rhetorical, as in “What are you doing here?  You are supposed to be in Israel, sharing my word with the people there.”

Do you ever hear that question?  Do you ever find yourself doing something that maybe you shouldn’t be doing?  Of course not, me neither.  But when those times come, you look around and you think, “What am I doing here?”  You get convicted that maybe you aren’t spending your time in the best way possible.  Maybe there’s something that you could be doing that would benefit the kingdom of God right now, but instead there’s that really good show on television that you just can’t miss.  Maybe you’re playing Farmville on Facebook, and you’re getting really bored, but instead of turning it off to spend time with God, you just keep playing anyway.

I don’t think that God is trying to guilt Elijah into going back to work.  I think God wants Elijah to realize that he has been called to something much greater.  We can draw strength from this because remember what Elijah has been through over the past three years – ravens were feeding him twice a day, the same little jar of flour fed him and a family for a long time, a child was raised from the dead, fire came down from heaven and burned up the offering and everything around it.  These are things that Elijah has seen with his own eyes, and yet, one threat was enough to throw him into a tailspin.  “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  I think God is calling Elijah back to his great work.

We, as a church, have a great work that we need to be doing.  Have we lost sight of that work?  At Annual Conference last week, it was reported that 60% of the congregations did not welcome in a single new person to the faith last year.  What are we doing here?  Have we missed our call?  Have we gotten sidetracked from our great work?  As a United Methodist Church, we exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  But I can’t help but think sometimes that God might be saying to us, “What are you doing here?”

When that time comes, we can do what Elijah does here.  We can start coming up with all sorts of excuses as to why we are where we are.  But is it the reality of our situation?  Elijah says that there are none left in Israel who follow after the Lord, but right after the incident on Mount Carmel, the writer tells us that all the people fell on their faces before the Lord, proclaiming the Lord to be God, not Baal.  And Elijah wasn’t alone.  Obadiah, a man who was in charge of the household of Ahab, had hidden 100 prophets of the Lord and made sure they had bread and water.  Elijah is focusing on the bad that has taken place and is forgetting the good, and there has been a lot of good.

If you want to move forward into what God is calling you to do, you have to realize that you are not alone.  There are people that surround us who are on the journey with us.  One of my favorite things about Annual Conference is the people that I don’t see very often, literally people from one end of the state to the other.  We get together.  We enjoy each other’s company.  We talk about ministry together.  We pray together.  And there is no reason why every single person in the Christian faith should not have a group of friends with whom they share their lives and their faith.  The fellowship of Christian believers gives us the strength to live and minister in a world that doesn’t know, and doesn’t care, about Jesus.  Elijah claims that he is alone, but he is not alone.  We are never alone when we surround ourselves with fellow believers, committed to the same goal.

After Elijah has said his bit, God tells him to stand before the Lord.  A strong wind comes, but the Lord was not in the wind.  An earthquake shakes mount, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  A fire blazes, but the Lord was not in the fire.  After these three, there was a low whisper, and Elijah knew that God was present.  God is not always going to be present in the big and flashy things.  Sometimes, we have to be paying enough attention to know when God is present in a low whisper.

And once again, the voice comes, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  And he doesn’t get it, responding the same way that he did before.  It’s not enough to know that God is in the low whisper; we have to realize what He is saying as well.  God is telling Elijah to listen for His voice in the midst of the difficulties that he is facing.  Go where you are supposed to be.

The section ends with God giving Elijah more instructions – Go to the wilderness of Damascus.  Don’t sit here and wallow in self-pity; there’s no time for that.  You have a great work to be doing.  What are you doing here, Elijah?

When God shows Himself, we need to be seeing a profound life-change.  We don’t see that in Elijah.  In fact, he is no different than when he first got there.  He was so absorbed in his own troubles, that he missed out on what God was showing him.  Elijah does get back on the horse, so to speak.  He continues to fulfill his call, but we don’t hear much more about Elijah until he is taken up in a whirlwind, which is what we will look at next week.

It makes you wonder – did Elijah ever really regain his spiritual strength?  What happened here?  And then we bring it a little closer to home.  When we are at the point where we just want to give up, do we press on half-heartedly, or do we move forward, full force, knowing that God is the one who has sent us to do this mighty work in His name?

Let us not forget what He has done, let us forget that we are surrounded by brothers and sisters in Christ who have been called to a great work, let us not forget that we have been called to a great work.  Most of all, let us not forget that we have been given this great and awesome task by a great and awesome God.  Because it is through Him that our task is accomplished.

Prophet Margin, Part 1

The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, June 6, 2010. The text for this week's message is 1 Kings 17:1-16.

We are starting a new series this week called, “Prophet Margin.” The series is going to be slightly interrupted because of Annual Conference next week; so you’ll be blessed with a message from Mark McGrady, who, I’m certain, will do an excellent job. But this week and the three weeks following Annual Conference, we are going to look at four stories concerning the Old Testament prophets Elijah and Elisha.

Believe it or not, today’s Scripture is our introduction to Elijah in the Old Testament. It doesn’t seem like much, but we don’t hear anything about him prior to 1 Kings 17. We are told that Elijah is a Tishbite from Tishbe in Gilead, which is east of the Jordan River in modern day Jordan. His name literally means “the Lord is my God.” We know where he is from; we know what his name means; and we know nothing else about him. The first words that he speaks are directed towards Ahab, the king of the northern kingdom of Israel, which consisted of ten of the twelve tribes of Israel.

We know a little more about Ahab when we get to this point in the text because the writer gives us a brief summary of Ahab in 1 Kings 16. He was missing a leg and was obsessed with capturing a white whale. No, I’m kidding, wrong Ahab; however, the Ahab we read about in 1 Kings was certainly less pleasant than Melville’s infamous captain. In fact, the writer tells us that Ahab did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than all the other kings before him. Not exactly everyone’s goal in life. There had been some bad kings over Israel, but Ahab was the worst. And, then, it’s almost like the writer says, “As if being the worst king wasn’t bad enough, Ahab married Jezebel, whose father was the king of Sidon. She led him and all of Israel to worship the Canaanite god Baal.”

Ahab also allowed the rebuilding of the city of Jericho; something that was cursed by Joshua after the Israelites destroyed the city upon their arrival to the Promised Land. It was rebuilt by a man named Hiel, and we are told that it cost him two sons. We don’t know who Hiel is, and really he is not that important, except to point out that his sons died upon rebuilding Jericho.

It is possible that his sons died as a result of judgment on the family for rebuilding the city, but it is more likely that this is said to point out something much worse. Child sacrifice was not uncommon at this time, especially in Canaanite worship of Baal. It is likely that Hiel lost his sons because he sacrificed them to Baal. This is important for the reader to know because it shows the depths of the depravity into which Ahab led Israel.

Elijah’s first words to Ahab are a warning. Elijah tells Ahab that there will be a severe drought in the land that will last as long as he says it is going to last. It will only rain when Elijah, as the prophet and spokesman for the Lord, says it will rain. Not only is a drought bad news to begin with, but there is another layer to what is going on here. The drought is a direct challenge to Ahab and the worship of Baal into which he has led Israel.

The reason why the drought is a challenge to the authority and worship of Baal is that Baal was the storm god, among other things, in the Canaanite religion. According to Baal worshippers’ thought, it rains or doesn’t rain because Baal says so, not because of some prophet of Yahweh. Elijah’s words and the ensuing drought are intended to undermine the worship of Baal which had become so epidemic in Israel at that time.

Immediately after Elijah delivers his message to Ahab, he is told to hide himself by the brook Cherith. There are a few things about this area that are important for us to know in order to get an idea of what this time will look like for Elijah. First off, the Hebrew word “Cherith” refers to a “cutting, separation or gorge.” This is not the little creek running through Uncle Timmy’s farm. Looking at some pictures this week, there are parts of this area that make the Grand Canyon look like a ditch.

Okay, that may be a little extreme, but this is a rugged area. It is a difficult to travel and it is very steep and dangerous at times. People did not cross this area; they traveled alongside it until they came across one of the rare points that were safe for crossing. The brook Cherith is an empty, desolate place that lacked any kind of food source.

Spiritually, it is pretty significant as well. The idea of a place of separation, a place that is remote and cut off from the rest of the world, this idea is filled with spiritual significance. Elijah was about to enter a period of spiritual battle. He wasn’t just facing Ahab, Jezebel and the priests of Baal. Whenever there are things of this magnitude going on, there are always other forces at work. Elijah was about to be severely tested and he was going to need to prepare himself and gather his strength for the coming trials.

So, Elijah obeys God’s command and goes out to the wilderness east of the Jordan River, and while he is there, he relies solely on God’s provision. When there is a severe drought in this area, you can count on two things. First, fresh, drinkable water will become scarce. Second, the food will run out. However, these were things that Elijah did not have to worry about. God promises, and it happens, that ravens bring Elijah bread and meat twice a day. He also drinks from the brook. God is providing for Elijah’s needs.

But, as someone famously said once, “To everything there is a season.” These words are so true – there is a season to everything in life. There are seasons in our own life – times of rest, times of spiritual preparation, and times to move forward into what God is calling us to do.

I really believe that we are in a period of spiritual preparation at this point – reading through the Bible in a year, praying about God’s call on our lives as individuals and as a congregation, learning about our spiritual gifts – all these things, and more that lay ahead for us, are a part of our spiritual preparation. Soon it will be time for us to move forward to be who God is calling us to be, and to do what God is calling us to do. There is a season, and what we see in verse 9 is the end of one season and the beginning of another.

The word of the Lord comes to Elijah in verse 9, telling him to “Arise, go to Zarephath and dwell there.” The brook had dried up because of the lack of rain. God’s provision for that season of Elijah’s life was over. Realistically, Elijah did have a choice at this point. He could have stayed where he was. Of course, without God’s provision, he would have died pretty quick. No food + no water = no life. And that’s another key point for us.

After we have been through a period of spiritual preparation, we can decide to stay right where we are, where God is no longer providing. Of course, if we choose to do that, we have to face the reality that without God’s provision, we are in a heap of trouble. Let’s face it, Elijah had it pretty good so far. He was drinking from a brook in the wilderness where nobody else would have been drinking. He was getting bread and meat delivered twice a day. It was probably a pretty comfortable life compared to what other people were going through at the time. But we can never get too comfortable with where we are, because if we do, that’s where we will stay, and that’s not a good thing.

When God says, “Arise and go,” what does Elijah do? He arose and went. He didn’t sit there and complain; he didn’t argue; he didn’t try to bargain for more time. He simply got up and left. When God says, “Get up and go,” you get up and go. It’s really an easy concept, yet we often fail to grasp it in our own lives. Go where God calls you to go. God’s grace always precedes us when we are going where He tells us to go. And that is what happens here. God’s grace went before Elijah, and he was going to need it because Zarephath wasn’t just any town.

Zarephath was north of Israel on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It was not a city that was located in Israelite territory. It belonged to Sidon, which, if you were paying attention during the intro, you’ll remember is the hometown of Jezebel, Ahab’s wife. Not only is this near Jezebel’s home in Sidon, but it is in the heart of Baal worship. God is sending Elijah from the relative comfort and provision of the wilderness into the center of enemy territory. We may not always like where God sends us, but that is no excuse to be disobedient to His direction.

Elijah is obedient and he makes the journey to Zarephath. When he arrives at the gates of the city, he sees a woman collecting sticks. How he knew that she was the one that God was talking about is unclear, but sometimes, when you are doing what God calls you to do, you just know. So, Elijah calls out to her and asks her to bring him some water.

This had to have been a difficult request for the widow. After all, they are in the middle of a drought. But she doesn’t say a word. She gets some water and begins to take it to Elijah. Then he ups the ante a little. As she is bringing him some water, he says, “Oh, yeah, bring me some bread too.” You have an idea how difficult it would be to get water during a drought. Water would eventually become more valuable than gold. Bread would also become very scarce. Why is that? No rain = no crops = no grain for bread. Asking for water was a lot, but asking for bread as well was literally too much.

The widow’s hospitality, which was a big deal in those days, is stretched too thin. She tells Elijah that she has nothing prepared and is at the end of her food supply. She is going to make one last cake for her and her son, they are going to eat it, and then they are going to die. She’s at the end of her rope. She has lost hope, and realizes that her time is almost up.

Y’all, we live in a world full of people like this widow. We live in a world full of people who have just lost hope. We live in a world where people are just waiting to die, and some of them died a long time ago. People are hungry – literally and figuratively. People don’t know how to rely on God when things are bleak. This widow is your neighbor. You see her in the bank or at the gas station each week. We all know somebody like this in our life, but what do we do about it? The truth is, we just don’t know what to do, so we don’t do anything. So, what does Elijah do? What can we learn from this story?

Elijah knows what it means to rely on God’s provision when there is nothing else. He just spent some time being waited on by birds. He knows that God will provide, so what does he do? He comforts her. He reassures her. He gives her the hope that she so desperately needs. He tells her not to fear. He encourages her to put first things first. Then he promises her something. He promises that her jar, which is almost empty, will not be empty until the drought is over.

Folks, we are sitting here this morning with a jar that will never be empty. We are sitting here this morning with the words of encouragement that people need to hear in order to make it through the day. Do you know what it means to rely on God? Do you know what it means to be obedient to God’s call in your life? Come back to this story time and time again because you will learn something from it. Elijah knows what it means to rely on God. He encourages others to trust in the Lord.

I want to encourage you in the same way this morning. God has provided for you. One thing that somebody told us several years ago that I will never forget and I want to share with you is this: God didn’t bring you this far just to leave you where you are. Trust in God’s provision. Go when and where He tells you to go. Share that faith, that hope, with those around you who need it the most.