170: Matt Parry - Practical Lessons from Elijah

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   Welcome to Good Christadelphian Talks. I'm Levi. And I'm Chris. And I'm Brian. Thank you for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our daily news feed. We post a new episode at the start of each week, with a short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you're about to listen to.

2. 0:33

   And now, let's talk more about this week's talk. This week's talk is by Brother Matt Perry. It is the last class in a series that he gave at the Detroit CYC Fall Gathering, or the Football Challenge. This was class five. It was the Sunday school period. I so enjoyed this class. It was suggested by someone who had listened to every class and suggested this one as the best.

3. 1:10

   But I think we run into this a lot. Sometimes the last class, when we also get the benefit of the summary of the whole of the study and kind of the final points made by the speaker, you know, it's usually a good class to listen to. And Brother Perry has done a really good job, I think, on this study and asks a lot of kind of what if or why does that need to happen that way, and I think he's going to take questions about Elijah and how he communicates and how God works with him.

4. 1:37

   And I think he lands two really good points that I'm going to be thinking about for a while, about the still small voice and then also about how God works with us over extended periods of time. Really, really enjoyed this class and I'm excited to share it. Again, thank you to the person that suggested this and to all of you who send in suggestions.

5. 1:59

   It is a huge help for us and this was a great class. And so here is Matt Perry on practical lessons from the life of Elijah. Okay, we're coming now to the last class when we consider Elijah. And there was so much to cover in the still small voice that I wanted to just deal with that separately as well and spend some time on that.

6. 2:23

   And so this class, we want to talk practically about what was the lesson that God was teaching Elijah about the power of the still small voice and ultimately what was he teaching us as well. And then the second half, this is a bit of a shorter talk. We'll conclude by looking at the last couple of events in Elijah's life and seeing him taken up in the whirlwind.

7. 2:44

   And I guess reassuring ourselves that Elijah learned this lesson, this really important lesson. I want to make sure that that's clear as well. We've been, you know, somewhat harsh on it, Elijah, how we've looked at it. I'm clear that he really did learn. And that's the reason that God was willing and able to work with him, as we said in our first session, because he had that passion and that meekness.

8. 3:05

   He was able to learn and do what God was looking for. So we saw just before in the exhort, didn't we, that the power of the hurricane and the earthquake and the volcano, and that was contrasted really powerfully with the whispering word. And the record was really clear. Yahweh isn't in those big things.

9. 3:27

   He was in the still small voice. Those big things drove Elijah away. They pushed him to the back of the cave. But it was the still small voice that attracted him forward in wanting to learn more about God and more about the still small voice. So what does that mean for us today?

10. 3:43

    What can we learn from the still small voice ourselves? And I thought, let's take a look at it from a preaching perspective first, because that was really what Elijah's mission here at this first time was really focused on preaching and turning the people back. So I think that's the immediate lesson that Elijah learned and we can consider as well.

11. 4:01

    So his greatest triumph, as we talked about, and his first, this first part of his life was really the conversion of the widow and her son. A huge triumph, a really important thing. That in itself is enough for Elijah. Should have been enough for Elijah. But that was his greatest triumph. And how was that brought about?

12. 4:21

    Was it with the fire, with the rain? As we said, probably not even the resurrection. It was spending the time with that family, building a personal relationship with that, caring for somebody. That's what resulted in the conversion of that widow, the highlight of Elijah's life. So when we think about that in our lives, what does that mean?

13. 4:43

    I think it teaches us that the most effective form of preaching, we see in Elijah's, we see in the power of the still small voice, is caring and connecting with those around us, building personal relationships, showing people the power of God in our own life. It's not big showy acts. It's not ultimatums.

14. 5:03

    It's not challenges that Elijah did. They attack people's egos. They stop any chance of discussion. Don't know if we come in aggressive or we come in fighting people against their, what's your belief against my belief? These things push people away. They get their defences up, rather if we come in caring and understanding and looking for an open discussion and showing people how God has affected our lives and the power of the still small voice in our lives.

15. 5:28

    And that means building relationships with people around us. We talked about, we looked at two types of relationships this weekend. We saw two people that had potential, that God wanted to work with. We talked about Elijah. We talked about Ahab, didn't we? Two people. Now, Elijah kept his conviction. He ensured that his relationships with this widow was positive and it produced fruit.

16. 5:54

    Ahab, on the other hand, got intertwined with the wrong kind of relationship, one that was no good for him. He sold himself to do evil, as we saw. And so when we're building relationships, we're going to talk about it, it is important to keep that lesson in our minds. We need to ensure that we are firm in our own faith, that we are in control of that relationship.

17. 6:14

    And if we can be, it's the power of the still small voice that's affecting them, not the other way around. So it's important, yes, to build relationships. But I think it's also important to understand that the power that comes from relationships and understanding that we're forming those and we're in control of our own faith.

18. 6:29

    I think Jesus has some great words about this. Come across to Matthew chapter 5. Take a drink, a bit croaky, sorry. So Matthew 5, I want to talk about this, the salt of the earth, which some of you have heard me talk about. But I think this is a really powerful lesson for us when we consider what does it mean about the effect that we have on people around us?

19. 6:52

    So Matthew 5 and verse 13, Jesus has a direct commandment to us. He's talking about disciples and what he wants from his disciples. And so ultimately what he wants from us as well. And there's not too many times when Jesus directly speaks about us or directly speaks about disciples. But here is one of those instances.

20. 7:10

    It's Matthew 5, verse 13. He says, Jesus says to us, Now, what does that mean? Well, there's no point worrying about what we use salt for, you know, seasoning food or whatever. What was Jesus meaning by what is salt? What was in his mind? Well, thankfully, we don't have to think about that.

21. 7:39

    We're actually told about that. And I'll put it on here. Luke 12. He actually gives Luke 14. Sorry. He gives two examples of what salt is used for. So it says here, So it says there's two purposes for salt. It's good for the land. Now, salt that they got from here was from the Dead Sea.

22. 8:09

    So it was often full of a lot of other minerals that were good for fertilizing and using on the land. Sea salt itself even today is actually still used to help grow tomatoes and things like that. So salt has a fertilizing property. It's good for the land. It helps and generates positive things on the earth.

23. 8:26

    But he says here as well that salt is good for the Dunhill. And that's the salt that we might know of. It kills the bacteria. It preserves food. So when you put salt on things, it kills off the bad things. So they put it on the Dunhill there to kill off all the bacteria and the smell and those sort of things like that.

24. 8:44

    So there's a positive and a negative thing that salt is good for. It produces things. It's a fertilizer. It helps things grow in that environment. And in other environments, it kills things off. It stops bad things from growing as well. So Jesus says, this is what I want you to be. But he's very clear.

25. 9:01

    He says, I want you to be the salt of the earth, not the salt of the shelf. Okay, that's the really important thing. Salt is a very powerful element, but only when it comes in contact with the earth. In order for salt to be a fertilizer, it has to be put on the earth.

26. 9:16

    In order for it to kill and to get rid of the bad stuff, it needs to be in contact with the earth. Salt just on the shelf is inanimate. It doesn't do anything. It doesn't have any effect. Salt is very reactive, but only when it's used. So if we are a good disciple, then we need to be in contact with the earth in order for us to make a difference to those around us.

27. 9:42

    So it's going to make a difference. And that's why Elijah wasn't an effective prophet when he was off in the wilderness by himself. He was totally isolated. He wasn't in contact with people around him. It was amazing. He had a lot of potential. But being there in Gilead, isolated away from people, he wasn't able to be an effective salt and an element for change around him.

28. 10:05

    It wasn't until he became in contact with the Gentile family, till he spent time with them, till he could have an effect on them, till he was right there living with them. Suddenly, he could be effective. Suddenly, he could be a positive influence on their life and ultimately help them to be converted.

29. 10:21

    And what does salt do when you pour it on the ground as well? Does it sizzle? Does it fire up? Does it do all these amazing things? No, you wouldn't even know that salt was being active. You just pour it on the ground. It isn't a showy element either as well, is it?

30. 10:36

    But it's incredibly effective. Salt is one of the most expensive, valuable minerals in Christ's day. Yet it was almost nothing. You couldn't tell at all. It wasn't the big showy works. Salt is very effective in contact, working quietly behind the scenes. That's the power of it. Everything that it touches is really important and does a lot of work there.

31. 11:01

    And its salt is just by its very being. It doesn't have to mix with other things. Just its presence there in the environment is able to produce good, is help foster good things, to encourage positive things. But also as well, it reduces negative things. It cuts back all the bad environment and helps an environment stay pure.

32. 11:19

    Just us being present in the environment, being a positive example around us to people around our lives has a huge effect. We don't have to be, as we say, we don't have to be showy. We don't have to have all the Bible verses and quotes and do all the seminars and those things.

33. 11:34

    Just being a positive example to our friend group, whether that's in the ecclesia or outside in our school or what have you, we can have that effect to bring positive change or to help reduce a negative environment. It's what Christ is asking us to do, to be that guide and that moral compass to our group.

34. 11:51

    But here as well, we have also, I think, a really important element to salt. And it's the lesson from Ahab as well. You see, Jesus says, if salt at the top, if salt has lost its savor, it's not any good either. If it's lost its taste, then salt is of no good. It's worse than being in the bag, just leaving salt on the shelf.

35. 12:09

    If salt is not salty, then it's not salt at all. It's nothing. It has no opportunity, no potential to do anything. Now, it's an interesting thing. I've never tasted salt and thought, oh, that's not very salty. Is my salt off? Check the use by date of the salt. That's not how salt works.

36. 12:25

    So what did Jesus mean when he said that salt has lost its savor? Well, it comes back again to how salt was used in those days. As I said, it was incredibly expensive because it could help things last longer and they didn't have fridges and things like that. So it was an incredibly expensive mineral.

37. 12:41

    So what the traders used to do is mix sand in it or other minerals in it, particularly if it came from the Dead Sea, so that there was less salt in there. So, you know, they could spread out their money, make more money for it. So salt used to get diluted. And suddenly, if there's more sand in the bag, if there's more dirt in the bag, suddenly salt loses its effectiveness, becomes diluted with the elements around it.

38. 13:03

    It's not salty anymore because it's not pure salt. It's what Jesus is talking about here and why this makes such an important lesson for us as well. Because we think about with Ahab, it's exactly what happened with him. He became diluted. He became influenced by Jezebel and by the nations around him. He became less and less and less salty each time.

39. 13:23

    There was salt there. God knew it and he tried to work with him. But he chose instead to put all those other elements in and become less and less effective until he was totally ineffective at changing that environment. Yes, he was in there. He was in that relationship, just like we're talking about.

40. 13:39

    He was in contact because he'd allowed himself to be diluted with the things around him. He was no longer an effective salt. He no longer became an effective disciple. And we saw this morning, didn't we, when he came back from the contest on Carmel, was he able to affect change in Jezebel? Was he able to bring all of that momentum and that change and that positiveness that he'd experienced in the Ecclesia and bring it into that environment and change it?

41. 14:03

    As we know, he had no effect whatsoever. In fact, it was the opposite. Jezebel had the huge effect on him. And so he was useless. And so Christ here says, if you're watered down, if you're not pure salt, if you're not able to be an effective disciple, then you need to be cast out.

42. 14:20

    You're of no use. It's why we're here, to affect change in the world around us. So that's how I think about from our own life. How can we be salt? How can we be the still small voice in the groups around us? We've said as well, we don't need powerful, showy things. We don't need to be, you know, have all the answers.

43. 14:40

    I just think it's worth as young people and as Brent says to think about this week ahead, is think about our own groups. Where's examples for me that I can show the still small voice in my life? I think it suddenly makes it a lot more real. Suddenly we're all on the hook before.

44. 14:55

    It's, oh, I can't do this. I can't lead a seminar. I can't do this. I, you know, don't have pamphlets to give out. But suddenly preaching becomes very real when God's saying to us or when our Lord is saying to us, what effect are you having on people around you? Are you a positive effect on them or are you not having any effect on them?

45. 15:13

    That's something to think about for us from a preaching. But as well, what about in our own life, in our own context, on how God talks to us as well? What else can we learn from the power of the still small voice? Well, let's talk about volume first. I think that's a really thing.

46. 15:32

    The thing of all these things were enormous and loud and God chose to use the word a gentle whisper is his chosen method, he told Elijah. And a gentle whisper is calm, it's confident, and it's refreshing. But only if we can hear that whisper. And I think that's the really important point for us as well.

47. 15:52

    God will talk to us. God will interact with us. But at a whisper. And if we fill our lives with shouting, with distraction, with all the other noise around us, it's really, really hard to hear God speaking and communicating with us. Our thoughts are full of all the concerns and the stuff of today.

48. 16:11

    When God talks to us, when he speaks to us through his word and through environment and our circumstances, unless we're listening, it's really hard. It's really easy to miss that. Because God speaks to us in a whisper. He'll speak to us, as I said, as we read our Bible. But if we're too busy doing all of the other things and getting caught up with the noise of the world, we won't hear it because he hasn't spoken to us.

49. 16:33

    God will show us the way to go. He will provide us the answers. But he won't scream it to us. He won't hear us in the face with it. It's not like the fire or the wind. He'll speak to us calmly and gently. And it's our responsibility to listen for that and to look for it in our lives.

50. 16:50

    And if we're making time to listen out and to make time to hear that voice, then we'll hear God very, very clearly in our life. I think it's a really important principle that we see time and time again in the Bible. We'll look at some in a second. And to be honest, it's something I'm not very good at.

51. 17:08

    Something I've come away from studying this to think about how can I do better at this? To create time and space to allow the whisper to reach me rather than being on the go so busy. And none of it is always bad. Like we live in busy ecclesias. True, COVID has helped quiet things down.

52. 17:25

    I think that's one of the blessings that we've had over the last 12, 18 months is time to hear the whisper. But as life gets busy again, as things pick up, as we have more events, busyness can be really distracting. And we need to make sure that we're creating time for that. Let's look at some of these verses here.

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    And there's many more I could have put up. I just wanted to show that this is actually a real principle in the Bible that God talks about. Be still. Just listen. Sit. Know that I am God, Moses said. But the Lord is our holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him.

54. 17:56

    Be silent before Yahweh your God. Exodus. Yahweh will fight for you. You only have to be silent. You don't have to join in the fight. You don't have to be loud. You don't have to be noisy. You have to be at the front. Let God do it. You just sit there quietly and let him do that.

55. 18:12

    For God alone, my soul waits in silence. From him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be greatly shaken. Just sitting in silence and allowing God to talk to us. I think is a hugely important skill and something that we need to learn definitely as young people.

56. 18:31

    We love busyness. We love being on the go. But are we listening out to that word? And a good reminder is that God doesn't always communicate through big supernatural shows of power. If we're waiting for some magical moment to happen, some aha moment of, oh, now I know that God is real. That's not always how God works.

57. 18:51

    Remember the widow that we talked about? She got just enough day by day to keep her going. Just enough each day. And that's how God works with us. Gentle whispers in our life. Small incidents that nudge us and direct us in certain directions. Our conscience, if we listen to it, will help guide us and direct us there in what God wants.

58. 19:10

    It's true. Some people have amazing conversion stories and they share that and they're really powerful. But for a lot of us, we don't. We don't have some big aha moment about how we knew that this is it and the truth is real. It's just God slowly over years working in our lives, helping us, directing us.

59. 19:30

    And that's okay. Sometimes we know it's there. We know that whisper is there and we keep pushing it aside, waiting for the earthquake or waiting for the fire. God doesn't always work that way. I mean, he's been mindful of that and prepared and listening out for the whisper because that's how God chooses to talk to us.

60. 19:47

    Okay, so I think a couple of lessons there and I'd love to talk to more afterwards of other people that have thought about how does the still small voice affect your life? How do you think about that? What does that mean for you and how God talks to you? But I want to spend now the rest of our time here just finishing off this story of Elijah and showing what happened next.

61. 20:08

    You know, we can sometimes end it at the Mount Horeb there, Mount Sinai, but that's not where the story of Elijah ends. He lives another 10 years after this. And what happened? Did he learn that lesson? Well, let's come across to 1 Kings 19 and look at this. What does Elijah do next?

62. 20:27

    God gave Elijah some very specific commandments on the mountain there of what he wanted him to do. We had that read for us before in 1 Kings 19, verse 15. Yahweh said to him, go and return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you should anoint Hazel, the king of Syria.

63. 20:48

    And then go, I want you to anoint Jehu, the son of Nimshi, to be king over Israel. And then I want you to go and anoint Elisha, the son of Sefat of Abel Melhorah, which you shall appoint the prophet in your place. Okay, so he says, there's three things I want you to do.

64. 21:03

    And then what's the reason for those? And those who escaped the sword of Hazel, so Jehu put to death. Those who escaped the sword of Jehu, so Elisha put to death. It tells him about the 7,000 still in the land. So Elijah went there asking God to be a jealous God, to avenge him, to wipe out the people.

65. 21:21

    God responds with three things. He says, I want you to anoint Hazel, who's going to come down and wipe out the people from Syria. I want you to anoint Jehu, who's going to go and wipe out Ahab and Jezebel. And then I want you to anoint another prophet who's going to help and build up the people.

66. 21:40

    Three things that he asked. Now, how would have the old Elijah responded to that? I think it would have been a mixture of delight and possibly fury as well. Why do I say that? Well, I think he would have ran straight away to anoint Hazel, to give him the good news. Right. Elijah went down there to wipe out the people of Israel.

67. 21:59

    And God said, OK, go and anoint this person to wipe this one. Go and anoint this person to kill these people. He would have been straight off, straight to the Assyrians. Perfect. Come down, wipe them out, just like I asked of God. Then he would have been off to Jehu, skipping along the way that finally Ahab and Jezebel are going to get what they wanted.

68. 22:16

    That's not what he did, did he? He completely ignored those two. And he chose the third option, one where God said, I want you to anoint another prophet that's actually going to replace you and is going to work with the people. That's the one that Elijah went and chose to do straight away.

69. 22:32

    And I think that's a really interesting change in the Elijah that we've seen and the Elijah that the way he looks at things. This is now a man, I think I said, that's such a powerful example for us because Elijah was willing to learn from his mistakes. He was passionate. He was dedicated, but he was meek.

70. 22:51

    And he quickly pivoted here at this time and was prepared to do what God wanted. He still struggled with it. And we'll see that later on. It's not like it was a switch that he could just flick and turn off and be a totally different person. That's not how life works. But he was prepared to at least start and work on that side of him.

71. 23:08

    And so he goes and does the exact opposite. And we'll see that verse 19. So he departed thence and found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with a yoke of oxen and him with the 12th. And Elijah passed by and cast his mantle on him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I'll follow you.

72. 23:31

    And he said, go back. I said unto him, go back, for what have I done to thee? And so here's the interesting thing. Not only is Elijah gone off to anoint someone else, it's someone that is the complete opposite and contrast to him. And we know that that's something Elijah struggles with. Unless people are like Elijah, unless they think like him and act like him, you know, he almost dismisses him.

73. 23:53

    But he is someone who's the complete opposite. And he's prepared and willing to try to work with him. Just think about their appearances. We talked about it on our class, wasn't it? That Elijah was known as the lord of the hair, this big, hairy, gruff, unapproachable man. You probably remember the story of Elisha when the people made fun of him for being bald.

74. 24:14

    So here just physically, these two men are totally different. Elisha was probably younger. Elijah was older. One hairy and gruff and out in the wilderness. One modern and young and bald. Elijah had no family connection whatsoever. There's no mention of any of his family. No background. No nothing. We don't even know Tishbe where that was, the town that he grew up.

75. 24:35

    But here we see Elisha had a family. A family that he was very close to. That he didn't just want to leave. A family that he was connected to. We saw before that he was told to Elisha, the son of Japhat of Abel-Menholah. So Elisha lives in this area. What does Abel-Menholah mean?

76. 24:54

    It means the meadow of dancing. So it's this beautiful, lush, green, amazing place if you're calling it the meadow of dancing. We see there that he's ploughing with 12 oxen. So it's obviously very fruitful and lots of opportunity. We cast that to Elijah. A man that chose to live out in the wilderness, in the desert, by himself.

77. 25:14

    Everything is a contrast here. Even that, the fact that Elisha had 12 oxen, you know, shows he was incredibly, you know, his family was very wealthy. They had resources. They had land to produce that. And not only that, that he had them there. He was working with 12 oxen. We talked about 12 this whole weekend.

78. 25:33

    The tribe. And what's he doing? Is he berating the oxen? Is he throwing fireballs at them and screaming at them? No, he's there. He's working with them. He's in the middle of the oxen. He's directing them and guiding them and working with them. The exact opposite of Elijah. So there's so many contrasts between these people.

79. 25:52

    And as well, Elisha understands people. Not only in this parable of working with oxen, but he knows he can't just leave his family. He can't just walk out in the middle of the field and just leave them. No idea when he'll be back or where he's gone. He understands that that's not an appropriate way to treat your family.

80. 26:09

    I want to go back. I want to say goodbye to them. I want to tell them what I'm doing and involve them in this. He understands how to work and communicate and talk to people. He wants to make sure they're okay. This is a completely different contrast to Elijah. And notice Elijah's reply here when Elisha asks that.

81. 26:29

    He says, go back. What have I done to thee? And it's a strange one. And I think it shows us that Elijah is struggling a little bit with this change. There's been a lot written about what did Elijah actually mean by this phrase? What does it mean? Why did he say it like that?

82. 26:47

    And I think the fact that there's no clear explanation and so many people wonder about what he said is actually the point. I mean, we don't really understand. He's still struggling with communication. I mean, he walks up to this person, he drops his mantle on it and then just keeps walking. Elisha had to run up to him to sort of ask him to stop and that he would have been out of the gate if he'd give it another minute or two.

83. 27:10

    Look, how is that communication? Like, what does that mean? And so he says, like, what have I done to you? It's sort of almost dismissive. It's not, hey, I want you to be the next prophet. I've just come from God. He's anointed you. This is amazing. Congratulations. I'm really excited for you. This is what we're going to do.

84. 27:27

    It's all about the still small voice now. Let's get in and do it. Could have been another way that Elijah did it instead of just throwing his cloak at him and keep walking. So he's struggling still with this. And I think, as I said, that's important. That's important for us to acknowledge because it's unrealistic that you would have a man like Elijah.

85. 27:45

    His whole life is one way and then suddenly he has a vision and that's it. He turns and he's totally healed or fixed. That's not how life works. We learn. We are over time. God works with us. The power of the still small voice works over and struggles. And we change over time.

86. 28:03

    We try and be better over time. It's like our point. We don't wait for a big, you know, fire, ball of fire to come out to be converted. These things take time. It's a lifelong journey that we're on. We're going to have good and we're going to have bad days. And that's okay.

87. 28:17

    Long as we keep getting back up and we keep focusing, we keep trying to do that rather than Elijah who has a bad day and he's down for the count and wants to stay down. That's not realistic. So there's this beautiful quote that I think is worth reminding us here. Proverbs 2 verse 49.

88. 28:35

    The righteous fall seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumbles in times of calamity. So what's the difference between a righteous person and a wicked person? Is it that the righteous person never falls over? Is that what makes us righteous? The fact that we're perfect and we do everything right? No, both parties stumble.

89. 28:53

    Both parties fall. Both parties struggle. The difference is the righteous keeps getting back up again. That's the difference between the righteous and the wicked. We keep getting back up. Okay. And I want this to be a key personality trait of Elijah when we think about him. He wasn't perfect. He had issues. He struggled.

90. 29:14

    But he learned to keep getting back up. He learned to keep trying to save people, to keep trying to be a better version of himself, to be the best servant of God that he could be. And that's the really important thing. And we'll see this time as we go through here, how he has changed and he's working on changing as well.

91. 29:31

    So if we come back to Elijah here, verse 21, I don't think Elisha's comment here as well is a lack of motivation or commitment to what he's doing. I think Elijah is telling him off for that.

92. 29:47

    Verse 21, let me see, he returns back. He takes a yoke of oxen and slew them and boiled their flesh and the instruments, all the wood there. And he gave it to the people and then arose and he went after Elijah. And what did he do? He ministered unto him. And so firstly, he burns the instruments.

93. 30:06

    They're part of the sacrifice. So I think this is 100% commitment from Elijah that he can't go back. There's nothing to go back to anymore. Going back and saying goodbye to his family is not weakness. It's not showing that he isn't committed. He's gone back. He said goodbye. He's burnt his old way of life.

94. 30:22

    He's 100% committed. I can't go back. He's burnt the boats, as they say. And he's now going to. And what's he going to do? And we have this familiar word in the life of Elijah as well. He ministered unto Elijah. First the ravens, then the widow, then the angel. And now we have Elisha ministering and caring.

95. 30:43

    Once again, God has provided for Elijah and ensured that he has someone there to help him and to sustain him. This time not physically with food, but this time with the support that Elijah needs to spiritually minister and develop and help and be with him here. And we made this point. We keep making it right along.

96. 31:03

    This is not the story of national conversion. This is not the story of Elijah, the successful prophet. This is the story of the individual development of a single man, a man of passion and dedication that needed some instruction and some spiritual development. And the amazing thing, hopefully, we've seen God willing this weekend is the huge lengths that God went to to help and to minister and to develop Elijah.

97. 31:32

    He answered his prayer. He sent the ravens. He sent the widow. He sent Obadiah. He sent an angel, and now he sends Elisha as well, as we said, this time to comfort and help. And I think the irony in all of this is, would Elijah have spent this much effort on himself? He would have written off that old Elijah long ago.

98. 31:53

    But that's not the loving and graceful God that we have. When James tells us that Elijah was a man just like that, doesn't that mean that God is prepared to do the same for us? That it keeps coming to our father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom. He doesn't want any of us to perish.

99. 32:09

    He's that same, same long-suffering one, that same long-suffering he had with Elijah. Elijah kept making mistakes. He kept choosing the wrong. He kept trying to model his life on Moses and getting it totally wrong, not understanding Moses at all. But did God just brush him off? No, he kept working with him, kept ministering with him.

100. 32:28

     And, of course, it's exactly the same with us. If God will do this for Elijah, then God will do it for me. So, well, I'm not a prophet. I'm not as good as Elijah. You know, I've done worse than Elijah. Well, really? We've seen Elijah this weekend. He wasn't perfect. You know, God will work with those people.

101. 32:49

     We saw this morning, even if there's a tiny spark left, he paused that prophet's ministry for two years just so he could convert one little Gentile woman. Ahab, who was actively killing the prophets, God only stopped working in Ahab's life when he finally turned back and wouldn't have anything left for God. Elijah, a man that begged and prayed for God to kill his own people, was so self-absorbed that he couldn't see all the other believers out there.

102. 33:17

     I only am left. God, I'm the only chance you've got God. This is Elijah. He wanted him to kill all these 7,000 people. So when we say, I'm not Elijah, really? Have we done as bad things as these people? We know the other examples of Paul and Saul and what he did. People, God is willing to work with us.

103. 33:35

     Absolutely. God worked with Elijah, a man that had crippling mental health issues, a man that was socially awkward and difficult, that couldn't relate to people, that was always left out and isolated. God worked with him. He sent minister after minister after minister to this man to help and to build and to shape.

104. 33:57

     And our God will do the same for us if, as we've talked about, we're willing to be meek and teachable. God does not give up on us, nor does God expect us to be perfect. That's the whole point of this weekend as well. He will work to make us that way. Okay. So let's look at the last final little part of his life before he goes up, which is in, before we come to 2 Kings 2, there's five chapters between now and then when Elijah appears.

105. 34:27

     So that in itself is interesting in itself because the fact that nothing much is recorded of Elisha after this is actually in itself, as I say, a really powerful point. You see, Elijah was all about making headlines and creating national conversions and doing things on the public stage. But now it's not. He almost disappears.

106. 34:48

     He's working, but it's not all that big, mighty things. He understands that working is behind the scenes and on an individual level. And instead, what do we see? Well, let's just look over the next couple of chapters here. Chapter 20, what's that about? It's this, sorry, give me two seconds.

107. 35:08

     Okay. You see down in verse 35 is where I'm going there of 1 Kings 20, verse 35. We have this random story, but verse 35. Now the men did diligently observe where the other thing would come and they'd hastily catch him. They said, thy brother Ben-Hadad. Then he said, go, you bring them Ben-Hadad came forth.

108. 35:31

     That's not the right one. Sorry, I'm reading the wrong one. 35. A certain man of the sons of the prophet, should I say, said unto him from his neighbor in the word of Yahweh, smite me, I pray thee. And the man refused to smite him. So suddenly we have a man of the sons of the prophet is able to do work and able to step up and do that.

109. 35:48

     What's the next chapter? Chapter 21. You probably know is Ahab and Naboth's vineyard. So suddenly there's a man, Naboth, who's faithful, that believed in the promises and the traditions of God, that was prepared to deny the king and say, no, I'm not going to. This is my inheritance. I believe in God more than the king.

110. 36:06

     We go on to chapter 22. If we look at verse 7 and 8 here, what do we have? And then Jehoshaphat said to them, is there not here a prophet of Yahweh besides these who he might inquire? And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, there is yet one man, Micaiah, the son of Imah, by whom we have endured of the Lord, but I hate him.

111. 36:25

     He doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. So he said, suddenly there's another prophet here that talks to the king and he's standing up to the king and he's able to prophesy. So all of a sudden we have these faithful people appearing out of the woodwork, doing all this other work. These people were here.

112. 36:42

     They didn't suddenly appear. They've been here the whole time. But now Elijah is able to see them and they're able to step up and do their work. They're coming forth. And I think that's why we have this gap before we come back to Elijah, to show that there were all these people here.

113. 36:57

     But come across now to 2 Kings chapter 2. And we'll look at this last day in Elijah's life. We see verse 21. And it came to pass that, sorry, verse 1 of chapter 2. And it came to pass when Yahweh would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgab.

114. 37:20

     Now we don't have time to go through all the specifics here. I just want to pull out a couple of sort of key points to show how Elijah has changed over this period. Firstly, let's look at the dramatic change over those last 10 years. Last class, we saw Elijah was lying alone in a desert, feeling isolated like no one was there.

115. 37:41

     And now we're going through some of the worst towns. Bethel, this is where the golden calf was set up. Then he'll go through Jericho. Remember, we talked about Jericho right at the start. That was a symbol of idolatry and stood for everything that God was against. But all of a sudden, there's all these faithful people.

116. 37:59

     You can't move for prophets in this final chapter. They're everywhere. They're following him around. You can't get away from them. So much growth has occurred in these last 10 years. And once again, he just picks towns that are traditionally bad. Suddenly, there's prophets there. Imagine the good towns. How many prophets, how many faithful people were there?

117. 38:15

     Elijah and Elisha were able to get in and to blow on this spark and to build it into a fire here in this land. And so verse 3, the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came to Elisha and said unto him, Know us thou that Yahweh will take away thy master from their head today?

118. 38:33

     And he said, Yeah, I know it. You know, hold your peace. And then they go on. And verse 5, the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho come to Elisha and say unto him, Know us that Yahweh will take away thy master from their head? Yep, yep, I know it. Hold your peace.

119. 38:47

     Verse 7, and then 50 men of the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar off. So as I mean, it's gone from Elijah being alone to now he can't get away from prophets and sons of prophets and faithful people everywhere. This is what's happened. It's amazing turnaround. And what's going on here?

120. 39:03

     Why do they keep asking about is Elijah going away? And then they're wondering who's going to be next and all of that. And I think this is we have our first sign here of the new Elijah. Remember before he wanted nothing to do with these people. He wanted them wiped out. He wanted everything gone.

121. 39:19

     Now we'll see here is he's spending time with them. He doesn't want to leave them. I think he's almost in denial a little bit. He hasn't planned for this. He hasn't prepared for it properly. I think he's struggling to be apart from these people. What a contrast that is between the Elijah that we've seen this week.

122. 39:37

     And I think, however, unfortunately, his refusal to appoint a public successor and to acknowledge his departure is causing some issue for Elisha and the prophets. They're all wondering who's going to be next. Who's going to lead the people after this? Who's going to care for the school of the prophets? And we haven't done that.

123. 39:58

     And we get hints of this that he's struggling with this. Firstly, Elisha has to specifically ask Elijah, I want to be your successor. Verse 9, he says, I want a double portion of what you want. I want to be your firstborn. And Elijah says, oh, I can't give you this. I can't answer this.

124. 40:15

     And I'm not sure why he said that. Why couldn't Elijah? God had very clearly on Mount Horeb said that I want to anoint Elisha. He's going to be your successor. He's going to be a prophet after you. So why couldn't he? I think he struggled a bit with that. Elijah wasn't ready to be taken up.

125. 40:33

     His mantle as well. Previously, he'd given that to Elisha. Now he doesn't want to take it back. So much so that in verse 13, God has to forcibly remove the mantle off him, almost pull it off him and give it to Elisha. It was dropped from his grasp. He wasn't going to give it up.

126. 40:48

     And so I think he's struggling a little bit here with this point. And what Elisha should have done is as much as he loved Moses, we have a great example of how Moses passed on this. And unfortunately, whilst he tried to copy everything in Moses' life, he didn't copy this one. Numbers 27 shows us how or what God was looking for with this transfer of power.

127. 41:09

     We come to Numbers 27. We see how it was handled between Joshua and Moses. And in Numbers 27 and verse 18, Yahweh said unto Moses, Take thee, Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay thy hand upon him. Set him before Eliezer the priest and before all the congregation and give him a charge in their sight.

128. 41:44

     And thou shalt put some of thy honour upon him, that all the congregation of Israel shall be obedient. And he shall stand before Eliezer the priest and shall take counsel of him after the judgment of Urim before Yahweh. And his word shall go out and his word shall come in both he and the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation.

129. 42:03

     So God says, right, it's time to appoint a successor. You need to do this publicly. You need to do it before everyone. Lay your hands and your honour on him so everyone knows that he's next. And Elijah didn't do this. And so God has to create this situation where he almost does it for Elijah.

130. 42:20

     He makes sure that the prophets can watch Elijah. We saw that before. The 50 came and watched. So he made sure that they're there. He makes sure that Elisha gets the mantle and is able to perform this miracle to come back in in front of everyone. So it would be really clear that God and Elijah had picked Elisha to be the next secession.

131. 42:38

     But because Elijah didn't do it, God had to fabricate this opportunity to pass this on. It's an interesting question. Why didn't Elijah do it? Was he still struggling? Maybe he didn't want to go. Maybe he's still, you know, this part we talked about, you know, it's difficult to change. He didn't want to let go.

132. 42:55

     Or maybe he just was sort of avoiding this. And in a positive sense, he wanted to stay there. He wanted to keep working with those people and keep being a part of their life. I'm not really sure, to be honest. It's an interesting thing to think about. But while we're here, just come to Deuteronomy 32.

133. 43:09

     Why did Elijah come this way as well? So he goes through Bethel. That's fine. Through Jericho. And now they're right here at the Jordan. They're going to actually cross out of Israel and go out into the wilderness. Seems like a funny place to go. But once again, as all things, he's following Moses.

134. 43:27

     So Deuteronomy 32 and verse 48. This is the time when Moses is going to be taken as well. And Yahweh spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying, get thee up, up into the mountain Abram and unto Mount Nebo, which is at the land of Moan, that is over against Jericho. And behold, the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession and die in that mount, whither thou goest, and be gathered unto thy people as Aaron, thy brother, down, died in Mount Hor, and was gathered unto his people.

135. 43:58

     So just like Moses, Elijah goes to Jericho. Right in front of Jericho, there's the Jordan. He's going to cross over the Jordan and follow that same path that Moses took there that is over against Jericho there in Deuteronomy 32, 49. So this is the path that he's taking. He's following Moses' final footsteps.

136. 44:19

     So let's come back then to 2 Kings and look at some examples, some more examples, I think, that show how Elijah has changed. And so in 2 Kings 2, verse 11, it says, It came to pass. I think here's some three key things. As it came to pass, they still went on and talked.

137. 44:41

     But behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire and parted them asunder. And Elijah went up in a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it and cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more. He took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces.

138. 44:59

     And I think this really highlights a lot of change in his life. And why do I say that? I think there's three key elements here. Remember that the Elijah that we considered at the start of the weekend, the very first class, the rough, insensitive man. We looked at some of the things that he said.

139. 45:16

     Very insensitive. The translators had to put italics into half of it to try and at least make sense of what he was saying. He was dismissive and cold and abrupt. He only said a handful of words in his old ministry. But here, what is he doing now? It came to pass that they went on and talked.

140. 45:33

     So here he is, standing next to Elisha, a man completely the opposite to him. And they're walking and talking. And he was in the continual sense. They walked and talked and walked. And it seems like he went for a while. He was talking and discussing and educating and teaching. This is totally different to the man Elijah that we saw on that first time.

141. 45:53

     And it seemed like he talked for quite some time. A man totally different is in deep discussion with this man and connecting with him. The power of the still small voice is using his voice. So much so that they're talking that God has to send a chariot and a horse to separate these two.

142. 46:10

     Right? Elijah, we sometimes forget, Elijah didn't go up in the chariot. That's not what took him up. It was the whirlwind that took him up. Why was the chariot there? It doesn't make sense. The only reason I think the chariot came is to separate these two for a minute or two so that God could take Elijah.

143. 46:27

     He was there. He wanted to connect. He wanted to stay. But God had to force them apart. That's enough, Elijah. Stop talking. Like, that's the option. Anyone's ever said those words to Elijah in his life. We need to stop. We need to go. And he needed to force that mantle off him, to pass it on.

144. 46:42

     So here they are in deep discussion. He doesn't want to leave him. He wants to be there. He wants to spend those last few seconds with Elijah. And then finally, how did people view Elijah? He wasn't the lord of the hair. He wasn't this dismissive man that people were feared to approach unto, that Obadiah sort of trembled when he spoke to him.

145. 47:04

     What does Elisha say? He says, you're my father. My father, my father. That's how people saw Elijah now. He was a father figure in the nation. He helped and he encouraged. Paul says, though, yeah, we have thousands of instructors, we only don't have many fathers. A father is something totally different from a prophet, from an explainer, from a teacher.

146. 47:29

     A father is a man that cares, that understands, that mentors, that shows people the way, that protects. This is the man Elijah now. He's considered a father. We've gone from being a prophet to a father. And this is now someone that God can work with. And we think about, we won't turn it up as well, but this is how God now looks at Elijah.

147. 47:51

     It's almost like the first half of this section is forgotten. There's the incident, you may remember, with Jesus, where the disciples say, let us send down fire from heaven and destroy these people. And Jesus says, that's not the spirit of Elijah. You don't understand the spirit of Elijah. The spirit of Elijah wants to save.

148. 48:09

     And what's powerful about that is, that is the spirit of Elijah. The spirit of Elijah at the start of the weekend was to send down fire from heaven. But now that he's changed, God's completely forgotten about that old Elijah. That's no longer Elijah. That's not how God views Elijah. The spirit of Elijah, as far as God is concerned, is all about saving and helping and wanting to do these things.

149. 48:31

     He's forgiven that side. He's completely forgotten about it. When we talk about the spirit of Elijah in God's perspective, it's all about a father and a man that wants to save and is there coming to save. Come across to Malachi chapter 4, our last sort of verse here. The final thing that shows the real change in this man.

150. 48:51

     Malachi 4 and verse 4. It says here, Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the statues and the judgments. Remember my glory, how I appeared before Moses and spoke about my character and my willing, my mercy, my wanting to save. Well, behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

151. 49:28

     And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. And we saw this morning, didn't we, that Elijah stood on Horeb and he pleaded with God that he would come and he would come and he would destroy the people.

152. 49:45

     He would smite the earth and wipe them out. And now God said Elijah is going to come again. And what is his role? What's he going to do? Well, it's a thing that he's always wanted to do. Nothing's changed about that. He's always, as we saw before, wanting to turn the hearts of the people back to God.

153. 50:02

     But what's the big difference this time? What's the really important part? At the end of verse 6, Elijah there is trying to avoid that destruction. A Horeb this morning came and he prayed for God to come and destroy the people. And now God says, I'm going to come and I'm going to wipe out the wicked.

154. 50:29

     And Elijah says, wait, please let me go first. I want to go out and I want to save as many people as I can to try and avoid that destruction. I want to try and bring those people back to you, God. Let me do it before you wipe them out, before you destroy them.

155. 50:43

     We see this huge change in this man now. This desire to save, this desire to go out and work with people and bring them back to God, lest he destroys them. And that, young people, Burns sisters, it is the power of the still small voice. That's the power of our God, that we can have these extreme differences in somebody that we started the weekend with and what we end it with.

156. 51:08

     Someone that was totally different. But God, through the power of the still small voice, was able to work in his life, big and small events, but work over that period to bring about a totally new person that God now says he's willing to save and just like, and ready and he's just like me.

157. 51:25

     We've said it time and time again this weekend, but that's the point I want to leave with us now as we think about this. Not just the power of the still small voice. We need to think about that this week, about how we can do that, but also about God's power to change us in our lives.

158. 51:40

     What we are now is not what we have to be. We've seen that huge turnaround in Elijah. It's probably not as extreme in our own lives. And if God can do it for Elijah, if we let him in and open up, God can do it for us. We can find ourselves with our own role and our own purpose in the kingdom, God willing.

159. 52:12

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160. 52:28

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161. 52:49

     Thank you for listening. God bless and talk to you next week. God bless and talk to you next week.