Jason Hensley - Class 2: Elijah's Drought

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

1. 0:00

   This is day 2 of the 2022. Idlewild Bible School. Our first period teacher is brother Jason’s Hensley. His General subject is Elijah. A man of like passions today’s topic is Elijah’s drought brother Jason. Thank you for the Josh. Good morning, everyone. I gotta tell you something really exciting. I was accepted into the text and picture this morning so there you go. I feel I feel like I finally made it. I’ve been trying trying for a year so there you go. Okay, so today we’re going to be talking about Elijah’s drought yesterday.

2. 0:41

   We set up kind of the context with what was going on with a have. Why was he worse? And really, we saw this overall message that God was the one who is in control and so we sort of set up this Foundation to see that that’s really going to be Elijah’s major struggle.

3. 0:58

   It’s going to be this feeling that he has to be the one to change everything. I think it’s probably a feeling that a lot of us can relate to. And what we’re going to see is that God is going to teach Elijah in a very dramatic way, again that he is the one who’s in control.

4. 1:17

   It’s not about Shh, changing the king. It’s not about Elijah changing the people but that God is the one who has a plan and he knows what he’s doing. But interestingly that plan is flexible. And that’s the piece that we’re going to see today, as we talk about Elijah’s drought. So here we are in class number two and I just drought our main message yesterday was God is in control and the message today is that God hears prayers.

5. 1:43

   So it’s going to be an interesting relationship as we see the interaction between God, Being in control and yet God, being flexible and hearing Elijah’s prayer. So these two ideas are going to to go back and forth and work with one another. All right. Tomorrow, we’re going to see that God gives lessons that push us beyond our comfort zone. These lessons have fantastic blessings. God decides what it’s time for judgment and God does not relent.

6. 2:16

   All right? So that’s where we are. We’re going to have three sections today, successes and challenges. So this is what we’re just going to see. As far as Elijah is concerned. This is sort of going to be like an overview. Just now, as we begin to introduce him as a character. So what is it that we see as an overview?

7. 2:34

   Then we are going to Spending the entirety of the class on First Kings 17, 1, Josh asked me if I wanted a reading and I told him, well, you could read 1st Kings, 17 one. And he, he told me that I could do that. So, there you go. So that’s what I’ll do.

8. 2:51

   I’ll go ahead and do it. That’s, that’s what our class will be about First Kings. 17, one. So the last part is then going to be looking at how God works and God’s flexibility with Elijah. Our main message is that God hears prayers and the big. Why question is why did God bring a drought on Israel?

9. 3:10

   This is one of those. Why questions that? I think probably seems really easy to answer. But I don’t think it actually is so let that kind of stew and sink in for a little bit and if you come to a really quick answer, start to doubt your answer. Okay, so so that’s a That’s what I want you to take from that.

10. 3:31

    Why did why did God bring a drought on Israel? I don’t think it’s as easy as we think. So, here’s our reading, First Kings 17. 1, it says now, Elijah the tishbite of tishman Gilead, said to Ahab as the Lord the god of Israel lives before. Whom I stand there shall be neither do nor rain these years except by my word, there’s a lot of things there. And this is how we’re going to introduce Elijah. Whenever I pictured, remember, Elijah with the flowing, beard the wind and like, you know, the light behind him and all that the, the triumphant music death.

11. 4:05

    Okay? It’s like it all happens, right here. Can you picture it? Like, here’s Elijah. He walks into the palace. He pushes open the doors. So, the first thing he ever says, in the whole Bible, right? There’s no, hey, I’m Elijah or anything like that, right? He pushes open the and he says no rain and then he leaves Okay, so it’s very dramatic, very superhero-ish, right? All right, so I think there’s good reason just to put it out there.

12. 4:35

    There is good reason, I think for us seeing Elijah in this superhero, kind of light. Now again scripture doesn’t give us these cardboard, one-sided characters. So there’s also a good reason for us, not seeing him that way. But I want to spend a little bit of time on why we should and I think that’s a good way to start.

13. 4:58

    So his story starts with a miracle. Now. I want to ask you this question. What would you say, since his story starts with this miracle? What would you say is the difference between a miracle and Providence? Anybody want to just Venture a definition here? Ones ones more natural. More Supernatural. Yeah ones more Supernatural.

14. 5:29

    Making the other more natural. Yeah. yeah, Peter Yeah, yeah. So both have divine intervention and one is one is very clear, divine intervention? You know, what’s funny? The only other time I’ve given this class you gave that same answer you’re in the, that’s pretty awesome. Look at that and I, you know, I didn’t ask you to say that either so that it was good. Thank you.

15. 5:53

    Yeah. So I agree. I think that’s the difference between a miracle and Providence and the just biblically. As far as, like our words. Here’s the Hebrew word for miracle. It’s my fate. That’s your strongest number 4159, a lot of times it’s translated as Wonder so you’ll see it like in regard to the plagues and Exodus 7 verse 3, Exodus 1110 Deuteronomy 6 22 you can see very much the supernatural element here that these are things that people would say. Whoa you know you can’t explain this a has a sundial do you remember that story that that Hezekiah is going to be healed? And so he asks for a sign and that is the a has a sundial will go.

16. 6:35

    Backwards. That’s a miracle second chronicles, 32 24. It’s also translated as the word sign so it’s what false prophets are said to perform and Deuteronomy 13 verses 12 to jeroboams altar. So jeroboam makes an altar as he’s going to have this golden calf worship and it splits in half. That’s a miracle described in First Kings chapter 13, verses 3 through 5. And then again you also get another sense of the word sign in Isaiah’s children.

17. 7:06

    And sorry, Ezekiel. In Ezekiel chapter 12 verse 6, and Zechariah 3, verse 8, where you have people being referred to as a sign or a miracle. That’s just a quick overview of how Miracle is used in Scripture. Versus Providence, which I think tends to be more subtle as we kind of came to that conclusion. The reason that this is significant, as it comes to the story of Elijah is because when you look at Elijah, you’re suddenly struck by the fact that the first thing he ever does. And the first thing he ever says, is a miracle. and, Miracles were not things that people did a whole lot. They were things that God did.

18. 7:52

    So you know, God God would cause miracles to happen, but it was fairly rare for a human to say I would like for this to happen and it happens. So I’ll put out a couple of examples. So Moses does that. I say we see it fairly frequently and Moses his life. The plagues are an example of that Moses prays.

19. 8:14

    Like scum Joshua prays that the sun will stand still see, see it in Joshua’s life. Samson. You see it in his life when he asked for the strength to come back. But as far as anybody else before. Elijah. That’s what I could come up with. Now, you might be able to prove me wrong and that’s okay.

20. 8:32

    I totally don’t mind. If you stand up and yell something out and say you know, you miss somebody that’s fine with me. But I got I got Moses Joshua, Samson. As the only people who specifically request Miracles before Elijah and they happen, Okay? But I recognized, you know, maybe I’m missing somebody but I don’t think that takes away from the point that this was a fairly unique thing, you know, by Elijah’s time, if this had happened with only three people in history, it’s kind of a big deal that here he is being able to pray for a miracle to take place.

21. 9:08

    So we have Moses Joshua, Samson, and then Elijah. The only person interestingly who had performed more miracles. Before Elijah was Moses. So Elijah performs a number of them. And I think that’s part of what brings that Superhero status, you know, that that kind of thinking that you always think of him as the guy that says fire, you know, and then fire comes down and like burn stuff up, right? This.

22. 9:37

    That’s kind of how we see Elijah and, you know, I think it’s kind of it kind of makes sense. So here’s his catalogue of Miracles, he has a three and a half year drought First Kings 17 verse 1. He multiplies flour and oil first king 1714. He raises the Dead 1st Kings 17 22. He calls down fire from heaven, at Mount Carmel. First Kings, 1838.

23. 10:01

    He calls down rain from Heaven at Mount Carmel. First Kings, 1841, he calls down, fire from heaven, twice and burns up the Commander’s Second Kings, 1 verses 10 and 12. You might recall, he was going to call it down three times, right? But the last guy says, please don’t burn me up. And so he doesn’t so you only calls it down twice and then he divides the Waters of Jordan and he walks through So, these are the Miracles of Elijah. Again, the only person to have performed more than him before him was Moses.

24. 10:33

    Now. On the other hand, what’s interesting about looking at Elijah is he gets the superhero status. I think, from all these Miracles, one thing, I think though that we haven’t noticed, because we tend to portray him in this way, is Elijah has a lot of interesting social struggles. Now, I know there’s a lot of a lot of different ways that we struggle as humans socially, so I’m not trying to like diagnose him or anything like that.

25. 11:00

    I’m not qualified to do that. So so I’m not I’m not trying to do that but I think God does when he portrays, Elijah it easy. He’s actually trying to get us to see that here was somebody who really struggled when relating to people It’s fascinating to see if you look at when Elijah prays, you’re going to see these beautiful long heartfelt prayers. When you look at when he talks to people, you know what you see.

26. 11:30

    Like three words. That’s it like no matter what you know the situation might call for if somebody’s kid has died. He walks up and he’s like where’s your kid? Who would say that to somebody, right like that doesn’t make any sense. So this is this is what we see and I think that that’s an important thing to recognize. He seems to struggle with communication particularly in the.

27. 11:52

    He just doesn’t say nice things to people. It’s all you know I don’t know what anybody would call that but that’s that’s sort of the what we see it. He’s consistently speaking in short sentences except when he’s talking to God. So these are his first words as Yahweh. The god of Israel lives before.

28. 12:10

    Whom I stand there shall be neither do nor rain these years except by my word. Now that’s pretty long as far as Elijah is concerned. But you think about this, there’s a lot of things that are missing here. If some person just walked through the door and said as God Lives it’s not going to rain till I say it is and then they walk away. How would you feel you’d probably be like well that was weird right like you wouldn’t you wouldn’t think wow. You know that’s definitely that’s going to change everything for me.

29. 12:40

    You’d be like, who is that? Crazy guy, you know, and that and that I think is a helpful piece to recognize that when Elijah talks to people, there are very much things. You would expect that are missing and I think we don’t notice it because we’re so used to his story. So that’s the first example. Now, take a look at this.

30. 12:59

    This is when he meets the Widow of Zarephath. So these are the next words that he says, this is like a year later, right? So, you know, I don’t know exactly how it works but maybe Elijah went a whole year without saying any words, but, you know, it, we don’t know. He was living at a brook by himself, like he could have talked to the birds, I guess, but like the there weren’t a whole lot of people to talk to. So these are the next things that he says in the biblical record.

31. 13:25

    He rose and went to Zarephath when he came to the gate of the city Behold. A widow. Is there Gathering sticks? You remember the background? What is going to die? Because she doesn’t have any food, right? Okay, keep that in mind and consider what he says to her. Because the famine, right? And a drought. And he called to her and said, bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink.

32. 13:46

    That’s like an awesome introduction. Right. You know in the middle of a drought, you walk up and you’re like hey I want some water Now, what do you think would happen if Southern California is in a drought, right? But it’s not like that bad and as far as people are like, you know, collapsing on the streets.

33. 14:05

    Imagine that that’s happening and you’re just walking through l.a., right? And you walk up to some random person who doesn’t look so good, she’s about to die, right? So you know all like shriveled and hunched over or whatever and you walk up and you’re like hey Give me some water, you know? She probably hit you, right? Like that’s it’s, it’s fairly fairly amazing that the lady actually says.

34. 14:30

    Okay, right? And she goes, and then just to add to this, you’re ready. Look at what happens as she was going to bring it. So she goes and she’s gonna go like look for water. He calls to her and says bring me a morsel of bread in your hands, right? So. Oh and by the way, I want bread too. Right.

35. 14:48

    Like this is you look at this in your life. Wow. Hike. It would have been good to get a little training or something, you know, here on. How is it? How is it good to talk to people so that they like you? So, you know about this is this is what he says.

36. 15:05

    So then she turned to him and she just says, like, you know, can I just tell you? This is totally ridiculous. Like, what you’re asking me. So she says, as the Lord your God Lives, I have nothing baked. Only a handful of flour, and a jar and a little oil in a jug. And we just read this normally, because it’s like a cute Sunday School Story, right?

37. 15:22

    But it’s not Not because she says, and now, I’m gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son that we may eat it and die. So she’s like, okay look you asked me to bring you water and I was going to do it then you’re like hey bring me bread.

38. 15:38

    Well you want to know what I’m gonna go die. Like that’s that’s what I’m about to do because I don’t have any food so like this I think just shows us like Talking to people was not like Elijah’s favorite thing ever. Okay, it was, it was probably a difficult sort of thing that he struggled through. Okay?

39. 15:59

    Now interestingly he goes and he ends up living with this woman for a while. And so here’s the interaction there. It doesn’t get better. After this, the son of the woman, the Mistress of the house became ill. His illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. She said to Elijah, what have you against me? Oh man of God.

40. 16:14

    You’ve come to me to bring my sin to remembrance to cause the death of my son. He said to her, give me your son. Okay, he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber, where he lodged and laid him on his own bed. He cried to the Lord, look at what he says to god. Notice the difference here, give me your son vs. O Lord.

41. 16:35

    My God. Have you brought Calamity even upon the Widow with whom I sojourned by killing her son? Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord O. Lord, my God, let this child’s life, come into him again. And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah, the life of the child came into him again and he revived ready for the contrast. Here we go.

42. 16:55

    Elijah took the child brought him down from the upper chamber into the house. Delivered him to his mother to the kids alive. You know? You’d think. Yes. Like this is so exciting. And here’s what he says, see your son lives. Give your kid he’s alive like whoa. Yeah, okay. So that’s what. That’s what you get.

43. 17:15

    And I think this is an important thing for us really, to understand Elijah. Now, let’s contrast all of this with Elijah’s first words. See if you can feel the difference here. Now, what’s really funny by the way? Is anybody remember how Elijah calls Elijah? Yeah, that’s right. He there’s no words he just walks by and he like throws his jacket at him and he keeps walking right?

44. 17:41

    And, you know, Elijah gets whacked by this and he’s like, all right, you know what I need? He takes the jacket, but so what he says to him is let me kiss, my father and mother and then I will follow you. Do you see this? Do you sense the difference here? Elijah is like okay, I think you’re telling me you want me to follow you. Like this is your mantle, your special coat but like I got Relationships here.

45. 18:05

    I want to go kiss my father and mother goodbye. So it’s a very interesting contrast in the first words between Elijah and Elisha Okay, now it goes on that way. And if you just read through the story of Elijah versus Elijah, there’s a lot of similarities except like their similarities in the Miracles except in terms of how Elijah’s talks to people.

46. 18:28

    So he has an instance of working with a widow. And in this instance, the Widow actually comes to him and amazingly says, can you help me or she recognizes that he can help her? Now, I don’t know if you know, Nobody ever comes and asks for help from Elijah you want to I I think probably because he’d say things like yeah, once you get your act together like I’ll help you you know something along those lines but she comes and she asks for help from Elijah, and this is what he says. What will I do for you?

47. 19:00

    Tell me. What do you have in the house? Right. Do you see how that’s so different than how Elijah talks? Okay, so there’s that sense. Now, just just to be fair to Elijah, okay? Just to be fair, and I think it’s important to be impartial. Elijah also works with a child, who’s died?

48. 19:21

    That’s shunammite son. And I want I want to bring this out to you. Is that he does say, Call the shunammite and then he says to her kid has died. He says, pick up your son. Okay, and that’s those are the only words so, you know, maybe that was like, a cultural thing, somebody’s kid is died. That’s what you say to them, I don’t know, but it does. There does seem to be.

49. 19:44

    There’s this, this contrast between Elijah and Elijah. Elijah is almost always alone. Elijah works with gehazi. Elijah rarely is ask for help. Elijah is constantly approached for help. Elijah seeks. God’s Wrath on. Israel were specifically told that by the Apostle Paul in Romans 11 that he prays against Israel, whereas Elijah is seen as someone who cares.

50. 20:07

    And I think that’s a really important piece for us in understanding. The story of Elijah because a lot of times we come to the him with the superhero focus and, and this is crucial. and I think we come to him with a new testament lens, what I mean by that is by the time of the New Testament, Elijah’s a different person.

51. 20:33

    Elijah has learned the lessons, the spirit and power of Elijah are going to move John the Baptist, but they’re going to be different than the Elijah that we get in a lot of the Kings stories, because Elijah has learned but that point. And so that’s why you have him leading the second Exodus.

52. 20:51

    That’s why you have Elijah turning the hearts of the father’s to the children, all of this kind of idea because he’s a learn, but he’s not there yet. And what we’re going to see is the transformation. So as we’re looking at the story of Kings, we are seeing on Elijah who doesn’t like people who finds people frustrating, because they never listen who causes a three-and-a-half-year drought because the people can’t seem to figure it out how to follow God.

53. 21:24

    That’s what we’re going to see and we’re going to see God working with him to change him and say, well you know, I will bring the three-and-a-half year. Drought but, I’m going to have you learn from it. You’re going to learn from this and realize. You don’t know what manner of spirit. Your of So these are all the requests for Elijah’s help versus the none of requests for Elijah’s help. So again, I think it’s a helpful contrast. Elijah is not ask for help where as Elijah is constantly, ask for help.

54. 22:07

    Okay, now what God is constantly teaching him then is how should he be treating others? And I think we’re going to see this with that background. Now we can approach this first, king 17 verse 1 again because there’s a very telling phrase in First Kings 17, one that we might not have noticed until we Branch out a little bit and compare Some of the other passages about Elijah. Here it is.

55. 22:35

    First Kings 17 one. Notice. Notice what brings the miracle. Do you notice anything that’s missing in this verse? Elijah the tishbite of Tish being Gilead. Said to Ahab as the Lord the god of Israel lives before whom I stand there shall be neither do nor rain these years except by my word. What’s missing from this Proclamation.

56. 23:02

    Think about what you know the prophets, right? Jeremiah stands up and he says thus says the Lord. This is going to happen, Isaiah gets up and he says thus says the Lord, so it’s going to be what is Elijah not say?

57. 23:18

    Thus says the Lord there’s no that’s us Lord. You notice he says, as Yahweh lives, you know, this is just a way of swearing back then. Notnot, like cursing, you know what I’m saying? This is, this is a way of saying, you know, I’m really serious, right? As Yahweh. The god of Israel lives there will be, neither do no rain these years except by my word.

58. 23:42

    That’s really interesting that he says my word. You could say, you know, you’re kind of stretching it. And if you feel that way, that’s good. I want you to feel that way because I’m gonna now in Ever to prove to you that this is very much. What’s going on? I’m not just reading in these verses. This drought, I would suggest to you was Elijah’s request. God, did not say bring this drought. Elijah looking at the law said, if the people are Unfaithful, God says, I’ll close up the Heavens, so therefore clearly the people are Unfaithful.

59. 24:18

    Ahab is the worst King bad, bad bad, right? So clearly there Unfaithful, so there should be a drought. So Elijah says It’s going to be rain except by my word. Now, let me try and prove that to you I think what’s missing is there is no thus says the Lord, there’s nothing about this being God’s word and in fact I would suggest the record itself emphasizes this because the very next words are and the word of Yahweh came to him. And in fact, what you will find, if you read through the story of Elijah is that Elijah never does anything until the word of God comes to him and says go do this. The only time that Elijah says or does anything without the word of Yahweh coming to him is when he stands up and says no job except by my word, the only time. So let me prove that here.

60. 25:16

    First Kings 17 to the word of Yahweh came to him. This is where he’s told to go hide by the Brook. So he supposed to go by the Brook word of Yahweh, tells him that first Kings 17, 89, then the word of Yahweh came to him. Arise go to Zarephath, which belongs to sidon, and while there. So, he’s now going to The Widow according to the word of the Lord.

61. 25:36

    Where the Lord came to him first Kings 17, 13 to 14. Elijah said to her, do not fear. Go and do as you have said, but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me and afterward make something for yourself and for your son. So he says, don’t worry. I know that you’re scared.

62. 25:49

    You’re not going to have any food but guess what? Thus says the Lord right thus says the Lord the god of Israel. The jar of flour will not be. Spent the jug of oil shall not be empty. This is what motivates? What empowers Elijah all the time except The word of God is nowhere in the drought. It’s fascinating.

63. 26:16

    The jar of flour was not spent first king. 1716 neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of Yahweh. 1st Kings, 18 1, after many days, the word of the Lord came to Elijah and the third year saying go show yourself to Ahab. So, he’s told now leave, and now I’m going to send rain.

64. 26:38

    First Kings, 19, there are three times that God meets up with him, an angel touches him and tells him Elijah, you need to eat. So, again, essentially, he’s commanded by God to eat. Verse 9 again, the word of Yahweh says to him. Why are you here? When he’s at Sinai, verses 11 and 12, Yahweh passes by and you remember how he passes by as the still Small Voice, right?

65. 27:06

    So you constantly have this theme in Elijah’s life. The word of God is always coming to him and telling him what to say. And he’s always listening when he curses Ahab and Jezebel First Kings, 21, 17 and 19. It’s because God told him to say that word of God comes to him and says That one, he lightens Ahab sentence.

66. 27:24

    So he says, they have, you know, dogs are going to kill you, lick your blood, all of this, a have humbles himself and God says, you know what, good Ahab and tell him because he humbled himself, it’s not going to happen in his lifetime. So sentence is lightened. And again, he’s told to do that by God, he’s told to respond to the King’s Men, the ones that he lights on fire, right? He’s told that by the word of God. So, I hope you got the idea that when I say everything, that Elijah does in his life, Is moved and planned by the word of God.

67. 28:00

    I really mean everything. Like every single story is thus says the Lord, the word of God came to him and said this, the one place is here. The drought does not have that and so I would I would suggest to you that I think scripture is really underscoring for us that this drought was his idea. now, in case that doesn’t convince you yet, This drought is referenced a handful of times in the New Testament.

68. 28:32

    And in one of those places consider this Revelation 11 verses 3 to 6. See if you here Elijah. Revelation 11 326 listen for Elijah. It says, I will grant authority to my two witnesses. They will prophesy for 1260 days. Anybody know how many years that is Yeah, well, if you do day for a year, sorry I mean if you take the days and you and you turn it into how many days, yeah, it’s three and a half but yes, 1260 years to if you do day for a year, yeah, three and a half.

69. 29:06

    Three and a half years is what is what’s made up by 1260 days, right? Which is how long Elijah’s drought was three and a half years. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth, if anyone harm them You here. Elijah fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes here’s a revelation.

70. 29:28

    Fire portion their mouth if anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed, to be killed. They have ready the power to shut the sky? That no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying now, how long do they prophesy? 1260 days, which matches up with the three and a half years of Elijah’s drought. So, that’s interesting, right?

71. 29:51

    You get these Echoes of Elijah here and you will notice that it specifically says that they have the power to shut the sky. Right? And so I would put to you this is an illusion back to Elijah’s drought. When Elijah himself said drought, I want there to be a drought. Because this is what the people deserve Revelation attributes, the drought to Elijah.

72. 30:16

    And if you read James chapter 5, as well, talks about Elijah’s drought, again, I think you might see some Echoes of it. You can see though, you can read James 5 Echoes that this was Elijah’s idea. Now I want to be really careful here with this line. Elijah didn’t realize that his plan didn’t align with God. Now, God’s plan is so much bigger than we can ever comprehend.

73. 30:43

    God has his plan and he makes his plan work. So I don’t know if this is strange for, you know, a speaker to say I’m not actually, I don’t actually like the way I wrote that down. So Don’t hold me to that line. Please. What I what I mean by that is God accommodates, Elijah, but I think humanly speaking the way that we would see this as humans is we would say this was not the direction that God was going to take things.

74. 31:16

    And because Elijah requests, it God says, okay. I’ll do it, I’ll do the drought and I’m going to use it to further my plan, that’s how God can work, right? I mean, he takes even sins, like David and Bathsheba and he uses Solomon to further his plans. Right? So, so we can’t destroy God’s plan.

75. 31:37

    There’s no way that we can totally mess it up, but I would say, I would suggest to you that here, what’s going on, is that when Elijah says, let there be a drought God, says well, Because you’re a righteous person, that’s how James describes him, right? The prayer of a righteous man avails much because you’re a righteous person.

76. 31:55

    I’m gonna listen to The Prayer. And I’m going to use it though to teach you that. In fact. You didn’t quite understand what I was doing when you prayed this prayer. Okay, I hope that makes sense. And if you want more clarification from that, you know, raise your hand or something, or, or come, and come and ask me later. Okay, he didn’t quite realize that this didn’t totally fit for a long time.

77. 32:22

    In fact, he thinks and he says, this drought is what God wants. He says it at Carmel First Kings. 1836, that, this is what God wants it, but I want to, I want to bring us to a really interesting point. This plant did I have scriptural backing Deuteronomy 11. Makes it clear that if Israel did not worship, God, God would bring a drought.

78. 32:47

    So was Elijah. Right in saying, idolatry brings a drought. Yes, I think he definitely was. It was totally biblical, you know? And if you said chapter and verse Elijah, he could be like, well, Deuteronomy 11, you know, it’s there. You’re on the 11 13 to 17. It says it right down here at the bottom. If you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you. He will shut up the Heavens so that there will be no rain. So was it biblical?

79. 33:16

    Yes it was biblical Deuteronomy, 28 23 to 24 blessings and cursings. One of the cursings is curses is if the heaven over your head shall be bronze or sorry. The heavens over your head, shall be bronze. The Earth under, you shall be Iron, the Lord will make the reign of your land powder. I said that was one of the curses, no rain. So was it biblical?

80. 33:37

    Yes it definitely was a Biblical curse so the problem wasn’t necessarily the curse. I would put to you that the drought was in line with God’s word. The people had been warned that it would happen. but, I think this is this is where things get a little bit dicey. because, I think Elijah took the liberty. Of deciding.

81. 34:08

    When the people deserved what was coming? When the drought should happen. So was it biblical that a drought would happen? Yes, it was. Was it biblical that it would happen at that time? And I would suggest, you know, it wasn’t Because God does bring a drought. And he brings it during the time of Elijah. But he does, it not Elijah.

82. 34:35

    And I think that’s an interesting contrast. An important thing to notice that here Elijah almost sets himself up as the Arbiter without having heard it from God. I think this is something that Elijah is going to learn that God is going to teach him. He’s going to say, okay, I’ll bring the drought, but I am going to show you without a doubt.

83. 34:59

    That you’re thinking was wrong. Now, check it out. Okay, so not quite that’s not totally how God works and that’s what Elijah throughout his life is going to learn. So God listens to Elijah and he’s actually going to use this to teach him so for three and a half years Elijah believes that God had shut up the Heavens because of the people’s evil and God is going to be taking him constantly constantly through these. Three and a half years slowly, whittling away at this understanding until everything, all comes to a head at Mount, Carmel, and Mount Sinai.

84. 35:36

    Let’s take a look. Now, I want you to notice this 1st Kings, 18 1. Let’s just look for what is it? That God tells Elijah to tell Ahab. Okay. This is really important because again, the Sunday School Stories I think Sunday school is great. Obviously, I think so Sunday school’s a good thing but, you know, sometimes we read the cutesy little kid books, right?

85. 36:04

    And they’re wrong. Like so this is, this is important. Like notice what Elijah is supposed to say First Kings. 18 one, after many days. The word of the Lord came to Elijah and the third year saying, go show yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the Earth. Okay, what’s he supposed to say?

86. 36:25

    Hey AB, it’s going to rain. Okay, what does he say? Anyone know. Check it out. It’s I think this is just fascinating. So God that supposed to say God ended, the drought God, not the rain. That’s kind of the opposite. So got God, ended the drought and he sends Elijah to Ahab. Why does he well? Okay, because Elijah says it’s not going to happen by my word. So I think Elijah God’s allowing Elijah to keep a little bit of his authority here with Ahab, okay? So Elijah goes to Ahab and this is Ends up saying so you remember what he’s supposed to say, very simple. It is going to rain, right?

87. 37:11

    Okay. It’s not hard to say, you know, it’s an easy sentence. Okay? 1st Kings, 18, 17 and 18. This is what he says a Absol. Elijah, it helps had to him, is it? You you troubler of Israel? He answered. I’m not troubled Israel, but you have and your father’s house because you’ve abandoned the Commandments of the Lord and follow the Bales now. Therefore, send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Astra who eat at Jezebel’s table. Now, do you notice?

88. 37:37

    What does Elijah not say? It’s going to rain, right? The one thing God says, I want you to say, he doesn’t say instead, he has this whole like elaborate plan. So he goes up, and he says, okay have. Yeah, you’re actually the troubler of Israel, which I think is weirdly ironic, by the way.

89. 37:55

    Because Elijah was the one who prayed for the trout, right? So you can kind of see this a little bit of it, but He goes to Ahab and he doesn’t say it’s going to rain instead. He has this whole thing of meet me on Mount Carmel, bring the 850 prophets. Like we’re going to have a showdown all this God never told him to do that.

90. 38:17

    Is that weird? Like we read about this in Sunday school or you know we just we hear these stories and we think oh yeah you know, Mount Carmel. Yeah fire. You know, everybody learned. Everybody didn’t learn. All right. Like it was basically a major failure and it didn’t work. I’m not trying to be mean, I mean, that’s what it says, right? Like Elijah’s like, yeah, everyone knows. And then the records.

91. 38:40

    Like now they didn’t like they didn’t learn, right? They didn’t get it. Now, as we, as we kind of, see how this wraps up with this story. I think it’s fascinating to notice what he doesn’t say. So he doesn’t say it’s going to rain as he supposed to. So the question then becomes, Why did he not tell?

92. 39:02

    He have. It was going to rain. And when does he tell Ahab, it’s going to rain. Okay. Why did he not tell you have? It’s going to rain and when does he end up telling him?

93. 39:18

    I would suggest to you, he doesn’t tell him it’s going to rain because in Elijah’s mind, he requested the drought, right? Because The people were Wicked people worshipped Idols, so in his schema, in his way of thinking, if it’s going to rain, so God’s just come and said it’s going to rain. So that means the people have to repent.

94. 39:40

    There’s got to be repentance. You can’t have rain without repentance because that’s what the law says. What the law says that must be what happens. This is how I just seeing it. So he says, well, what God really meant, when he says it’s going to rain, is he really means that people are going to turn And then it’s going to rain. So he says, okay, let’s have Mount Carmel. I’m going to convert the whole nation, the whole nation, appears to change, right?

95. 40:04

    And you know, what Elijah says, hey have it’s going to rain. It’s very next thing. He says, When he kills all the prophets of Baal, he turns to a have, any says they have go back home. Go as fast as you can because it’s going to rain. So in his mind, this whole drought rain, all of this is all about, are the people following God or not? Now, if you ever wondered why Elijah, suddenly has this whole big like his life falls apart at Mount Sinai, maybe we’re just kind of familiar again with the story and we don’t we don’t totally get what’s going on.

96. 40:39

    But we say all, you know, he’s struggled with their, there’s some emotional struggles going on, there he was depressed. And you know, that very well could be sometimes we blame it on Jezebel because she says beginning First Kings 19, The gods do so to me and more also if your life is not like the life of one of those profits by this time tomorrow.

97. 41:00

    But I want to ask you this. When was Elijah’s life, not under threat from Jezebel. It always was, right? This was who she was. She kills the prophets. It was like her is this was her job. So when she says, I’m going to kill you, you know, Elijah hears that message and he’s like, well yeah, you know, you’ve always wanted to kill me. Like what’s what’s new?

98. 41:25

    It’s and I don’t think it’s just a recognition of. Oh, Jezebel’s not going to let the people convert think it’s more than that. This is when you see, Elijah falling apart on Mount Sinai. When he says, only, I’m left, I’m no better than my father’s kill me, right? This is more than somebody who’s just a little sad, right?

99. 41:45

    This is somebody who feels like their whole life has fallen apart and why does he feel that way? I think because it suddenly Dawns on Elijah.

100. 41:56

     That is whole schema for understanding life. For understanding God has just exploded. Because in his mind, The drought came because the people were Wicked. If rain comes, the people are going to have to turn and all of a sudden he realizes God, just sent rain. And the people didn’t change.

101. 42:29

     And now he questions everything. What were the whole last three and a half years all about? How many people have died from a drought that I asked for? But didn’t actually understand what I was asking for. and suddenly, Everything comes Crashing Down. So I think that what we see as we look at Elijah on Mount Sinai is we see an Elijah who is being taught that lesson That God has a plan.

102. 43:15

     God knows what he’s doing and yes, God does judge, the people, God will judge the people. But it’s in his time. It wasn’t Elijah’s job. And so for us, I think this is incredibly powerful because how often does it happen that we see somebody doing something they’re not supposed to do and Is it biblical that we say? Oh yeah, they’re not supposed to do that. Yeah, it’s totally biblical.

103. 43:44

     You know, we can look at what they’re doing and we can say yes, that’s wrong. That is not a thing you’re supposed to do, but then we go and we condemn them for it.

104. 43:54

     And that’s when we’ve crossed the line we can say you know, brother I don’t think you should do that because it’s wrong, right? And we can take action on it. This Fellowship is clearly a Biblical thing. I want to make that clear, not saying it’s not. But when we enter the point of saying, I’ve now taken over God’s job as the judge and I can decide.

105. 44:16

     Are you righteous? Are you not righteous? That’s when we have to realize the lesson of Elijah and this is, in fact, I think what we’re going to see as we go through this story. That every one of these stories in Elijah’s life, Every one of these events. Is him being taught. God’s in control.

106. 44:38

     You don’t need to one be the one to bring judgment. God knows what he’s doing. So that’s what we’ll see tomorrow when we look at the story of Elijah and the Ravens