1 Kings 17: 1 -7 (part 3)

Here is the third and final part of the study on Elijah at the brook Cherith.

Read the verses here: 1 Kings 17: 1 - 7

Here are the first 2 parts to the study - Part 1 and Part 2

Faith from the Father


Hoeksema (I think) said of faith that ‘our faith was merely us clinging to His faith’. Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones phrased it slightly differently – in the context of our faith he commented that it was “not my grasp of Him but His mighty grasp of me!” He has control, He is sovereign and He is faithful in all.

All His promises will come to pass regardless of our personal faith in Him or even our actions, what God wills happens. We have seen this as we have studied the Exodus and Moses. Moses griped, 'not me Lord?' He made excuses and tried to avoid responsibility, but God’s will was fulfilled. Jonah too. He ran away! But was ultimately delivered to do God’s will.
Time and again in scripture we read of men of God doubting and avoiding God’s direction and we wonder why? Men like Elijah are rare, we don’t hear of his failings and his flaws so much. Moses ducked and dived, Noah got drunk, David was David, even the Apostle Peter was a prejudiced hothead. In Acts we hear about the Apostles arguing and going their separate ways. They were after all just sinful men and as prone as we are to sinful traits, temptations and behaviour.
But here is Elijah – a picture of faith and obedience. But he was still just a man. It stillappears though so very strong. Why?

Elijah clung tighter than most to the Lord’s promises and directions. He felt fear, anxiety, hunger, heat, pain, discomfort (this fear and anxiety is reflected in 1 Kings 19:10 where he says “they seek to take my life away”). He was tempted and attacked by Satan – but his faith stayed strong, he applied his faith in God’s service.

Dr Lloyd Jones used an analogy to explain faith like this: a man and a baby possess strength. The man is stronger, but both possess some element of strength. Yet a baby using every ounce of its strength is stronger than the man who uses none of his at all.

Using and applying one’s faith is what makes the difference. Having faith and keeping it wrapped up and hidden renders it powerless. Straining with every sinew of the faith we do have in His service will affect others.

What helped him to stay so faithful? He was prayerful. He spoke to God, communicated with him. Not going through the motions, but active, live prayer.
I will use an analogy of a boxer to illustrate how faith develops. A boxer has 3 main areas of training – fitness, coaching/padwork, sparring. In the Christian context we can consider this as prayer (our fitness/stamina), padwork and coaching in his word by the Holy Spirit and sparring in witnessing and testifying to the Lord Jesus.

• Fitness (or prayer) - to develop fully this requires time and quality. No corners can be cut. An unfit fighter cannot last the distance. An unpraying Christian has no stamina for the spiritual fight. Elijah was fit – his prayer life and coaching supreme.

• The coaching/Holy Spirit’s guidance – the coach first teaches simple combinations, 2, 4, 6 punch combinations, then parrying, bobbing and weaving and so on. As the fighter’s knowledge and skill increases he becomes more dangerous to his foe with an understanding of the nuances how to fight. A Christian coached in the Word is a well equipped fighter. The coach will gradually and surely impart his knowledge to the fighter, but only as he sees fit.

• Sparring – witnessing and testifying. A fighter doesn’t enter the ring cold. He is well versed and hardened from sparring. He learns how to take blows and continue fighting, sometimes when badly hurt. But it is here that his fitness and his coaching comes through, helping him through the fight. Without testifying to the Lord Jesus a Christian cannot and will not become battle hardened and when he does he runs the risk of getting badly winded, or his spiritual eyes blacked.

As time goes on the understanding and the relationship between the fighter and coach develops too, they are more familiar with each other, the coach knows the fighter's strengths and weaknesses, the fighter may even express lack of confidence in one area. There may even be times when the fighter needs disciplining and reminding of who has control and who taught him what he knows. In this respect Elijah was a world beater, his communication and daily devotions to God would put most to shame. Great also fighters apply themselves, they don’t sit around waiting for the coach to just ‘make them great’. His Sovereignty, our responsibility.

It must be stressed that faith is not a power we possess in ourselves or can generate. Many can view faith like a willpower – ‘if I really, really believe my faith will make this happen’... GOD makes things happen, not our faith. Many think faith is like that TV programme 'Deal or no deal'. That in some way their hope, they're relying on the faith they have in fate will provide for them. Our faith should be that God is right and just and that He has things well in order, that He will always make good on His promises. Our faith itself cannot generate or 'do' anything in itself, it is not like 'the force' in the Star Wars films. This is not to say that faith does not have a powerful impact in our lives, but the power is of God's hand.

Gifts of grace Elijah had in the brook and the ravens’ provision God increases it as He wills. We can ‘work’ at our faith in what we do, and God will bless sincere devotion and obedience. But as with saving faith which justifies, it is a gift of grace. Our responsibility is to do the things which will increase our ‘fitness’ for gracious faith to be increased. We must turn up for training ready to sweat.
Elijah knew (had faith) that God would provide and protect him, but the fears and discomforts remained. Peter Jeffrey tells a story about when he was open air preaching saying if he died that night, he knew where he would be going. Then a heart attack! But he commented in hospital that he was sure of his place in heaven had he passed. He was in discomfort and pain and the experience was surely distressing and frightening, but his faith never left him.

God has promised us over and over again in His word that we are His. Elijah did God’s will regardless of his fears, because it was God’s will. Fear is borne of Satan, he wants us to be distracted and to prevent us from doing the Lord’s work, but we should remember:

Romans 8: 39 “nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus”
John 10: 28 – 30 “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.
Our faith must be that Jesus Christ is our Saviour and that in Him lies the only way we can be justified. In our repentance and His atoning sacrifice we are freed from the bondage of sin and consequently fear too.

He has promised to do this and will always stay perfectly faithful to His promises.

We can cling to His faith and pray that ours increases. We can do as Elijah did, we can be bold and confident, even if our knees knock and our lip quivers, because we “can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” Phil 4: 13
We can trust him for our eternal salvation, we can trust him to feed, clothe and house us, we can trust him to put the right words in our mouths and a truer more loyal friend there cannot be. Fall on him in faith, pray and read His promises in this His God breathed infallible word.

We should be as Elijah, we should listen and obey the Lord and if need be suffer discomfort and trials to do his will. The blessings which come from serving him far outweigh any worldly comforts. When we profess the Lord Jesus Christ and our love and service of the Lord God Almighty, he smiles on us, blesses us and sates our every thirst and hunger.

Serve him, love him and your faith will be increased.

1 Kings 17: 1 – 7, Elijah at Cherith

1 Kings 17: 1 -7

Elijah and Ahab, the brook at Cherith

There are 3 parts to this post and I'll post them separately, one post for each of the following points.

1. The faithful obedience
2. Food for the prayerful
3. Faith from the Father

Context

• Ahab King of Israel, Phoenician wife Jezebel supporter of 100s of prophets of Baal. She would slaughter many men of God.
• Prior to Ahab there had been many kings descending from David. In ch.16 we see Baasha, Elah, Zimri and Omri had all done "evil in God's eyes" (Ch15:34, 16: 7, 19, 25, and 30). They had also (v.13) "provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger with their idols."
• Judgement was coming. They were sinful, worshiped idols and mocked God.
   

The faithful obedience – verses 1 and 2
Text suggests Elijah 'popped up from nowhere', but consider his situation. A faithful, prayerful man of God in a land filled with sin and idolatry. Indeed the Lord had given them over to their sins. Elijah had clearly felt the call to speak out against their sin.
Verse 1 – Elijah's witness and statement. He testifies to the living God of Israel. Baal had replaced God, God had been declared dead even (just as science has declared God dead once again in our day – science is just the new Baal in this respect). In walks Elijah, to the throne room! He makes his proclamation doubtless to incredulity, scorn and resentment – who does he think he is?!?! (Picture that today?)
Prior to this proclamation Elijah's preparation would have been deeply prayerful and also filled with anxieties, fears and doubts. He was a man, a sinner like you and me, maybe even not as brave! He was a man, not a robot. A lot of his time would've been spent in prayerful consideration.
AW Pink on Elijah's prayerful preparation – "Prayer in private was the source of his power in public: he could stand unabashed in the presence of the wicked monarch because he had knelt in humility before God"

But Elijah trusts in the Lord and in v2 we read that 'the word of the Lord came to him' at just the right time. If we too are prayerful, obedient and trust the Lord to do so he will do this for us when we testify of our love for Christ Jesus.
Psalm 81:10 tells us "open thy mouth wide and I will fill it" if we're hungry for the word of God, he will feed us and at the right time the words will be put in our mouths by Him. This is why studying your bible and memorising verses is so important. We can at the right time recall infallible words and instructions from our fallible, sinful lips. It avoids conjecture and gives us a biblical basis for our words.
Elijah's faith wasn't perfect however. God's is. As a fallible man he will have worried unnecessarily. God had things in hand – he must have wondered what they would do to him, would they lock him up? Kill him? Laugh at him and ignore him? All of the great men of the bible felt doubt and fear, Noah, Moses, David and here I am sure so did Elijah, the Apostles too. We can empathise a little I'm sure – creeping anxiety that we later look back on and shake our heads saying 'I should've trusted him more!"

Part 2 coming soon!

Romans 5: 1 (for the last time... until next time).

Romans 5: 1 “... peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”


For a third time we can visit this verse and consider something more. We are justified by faith we know. We are also consequently at peace (or have peace) with God where once there was enmity. This process is by grace – our salvation, every part of it, is an act of grace. We have also established that this grace can only be imparted to us because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s propitiatory death and his glorious resurrection. The sacrifice made in atonement has allowed us to reach this state of being considered worthy in His sight, again, only as we are clothed in His righteousness.

Now while it may seem to be revisiting a point already made, these things are made possible through not only the Lord Jesus Christ but, note Paul’s words, our Lord Jesus Christ. Our personal saviour and our corporate high priest. Verse one is such a complete statement, in just 15 words Paul manages to convey and underscore so many essential aspects of our salvation. The sentence would be correct without adding ‘through our Lord Jesus Christ’. Paul has already in Romans 3 completely established our depravity and in chapter 4 he has incisively stated our justification can only be through faith, using Abraham as an example. He also underlines that out righteousness before God is imputed to us, never earned.

So again, the mention that this is achieved ‘through our Lord Jesus Christ’ is unnecessary to our understanding of the process of justification. So why add it?

Well firstly and fore mostly it is a comment surely of praise and glorification. Paul is reminding the Romans of the essential vehicle of salvation that is both the man and the Lord Jesus Christ. In all things we should include the wonder working power of Jesus and His blood. It is not enough to merely comment on the functions and legality of atonement, propitiation and justification. It is not enough to merely describe the peace in our souls gained where once there was hostility. The Lord Jesus Christ “delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification” stands astride all this in His Glory. He straddles the eternity between condemnation and salvation as a bridge for us to access eternal life. He is the peacemaker and doorway through whom we can be justified.

To omit His name is to defame His part in the process! (for without Him there would be no process!) To pay lip service to the name of Jesus is not enough! His name should not sneak quietly from the corner of our mouths or be added to a prayer as an almost forgotten addendum! We should in all things praise and magnify His name!

Paul was not merely reminding us of who our intercessor is. He is not even being repetitious or verbose in his wording. He is reinforcing and reminding the Romans and us of who achieved this wondrous work. Not some faceless god, not a legal action performed behind closed doors, but our loving, all sufficient Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ. One whose name should leap fully from our mouths in praise and adoration at every possible turn. Paul was making an unambiguous statement in verse 1 of this fifth chapter, but in it he is also posing a question.

Are you adding His name to all that you do?

Is it lip service?

Are you giving Him the praise his gift of eternal life and joy should merit?

Do it today Christian, do it in everything you do!

Prayer... how do you do it?

Prayer - why do you pray? What do you pray for? What are you actually doing?

These questions and more are ones I have asked myself recently. It is easy to make prayer a 'shopping list' of requests for God's intervention in worldly matters and I am often conscious that I am asking so much while giving so little in return. But that's the thing isn't it?

I realised this week that the power of prayer lies not in the act of prayer itself, the power lies with God and His will, nowhere else. Prayer is the vehicle through which we see glimpses of God's grace. I say this because driving home I felt a guilt at forgetting to pray about an issue I had previously noted... the insinuation my subconscious was trying to impress was that if I didn't pray then God wouldn't know what to do... what a fool I am!

Praying is an act of faith which God delights in. It is an act of faith on our part everytime. It is us saying "show me, guide me/them, help me/them, encourage me/them." because we realise we need and crave His intervention at every turn.

It is of course much more than that also. It is praise, thanks, penitance, obedience, reconciliation and hope amongst I'm sure many, many other things. But whatever the context prayer is an incredible act and while it can be so formalised and reverential it is also the most informal, personal conversation you can ever have.

There are suggestions in the bible that prayer changes God's mind on certain issues. The problem I have with this being that an omniscient God would know that His mind was going to change. Ergo: it isn't a change of mind for God, but in our terms it would appear to be so... my brain aches just thinking about it!

Anyway I have considered my own prayer life this week and would encourage everyone to do likewise. It's not a shopping list is it? It's a chance to kneel at the throne of Grace and have a conversation with the Lord God Almighty, the Creator, your Saviour and the best friend you will ever have.