‘Wait,’ you’re thinking, Elijah won the contest.
1 Kings 18:
37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”
38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.”
40 And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there.
Look now at the picture of the dejected Prophet sitting under the broom tree. Does this look like a man victorious?
Look at Moses in the wilderness. Was Moses rejoicing with the people who had walked through the Sea of Reeds while God Almighty lifted a wall of the sea? Was Moses rejoicing to receive manna from Heaven and a diet of food without flavor for forty years? And did Moses seem victorious standing on a mountain top looking at the Promised Land into which God forbid he should enter?
The victories of Moses, Elijah and Jesus were God’s, not their own.
Peter wanted to lift up Moses and Elijah (as the Jews still do, along with David).
Peter was all too happy to be a leader in of the Twelve in the victory parade leading the thousands of captives to the gates of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
Yet when the crowds disappear and there is no one else left to lead – when there is no hero left to follow: where do you go?
1 Kings 18: 45 And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. 46 And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
We have a brief moment of joy and celebration in the Lord’s victory through us. But then what?
Reality sets in of the difficulty of our earthly circumstances separate of God.
Elijah fled God to the broom tree after God’s tremendous humiliation of the leader of his country and the 850 leaders of their favorite churches (so to speak).
1 Kings 19:
3 Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree.
And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree.
Leaders of false prophets hear now the Voice and Power of the Living God!
You may kill more than 850 enemies, but two more evil ones will pursue your life.
Take refuge in the One God and Christ Jesus, God’s sacrifice of love for our sins.
1 Kings 19: [King] Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying,“So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.”
The true Prophet of God, Elijah, knew he had earthly enemies. The true Christ, the Messiah of God, God With Us, I AM in the Person of Jesus Christ, bowed down only to God the Father.
And the false leaders of God’s chosen people hung Jesus on a Cross in shame and suffering, until God raised Christ from death and lifted Him up in the flesh from His Blood of sacrifice!
And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said,
“The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.”
Now Elijah thinks that God has used him and is done with him; but like our loving Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in heaven, God has more difficult work for which to prepare him.
1 Kings 19: 7 And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” 8 And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.
The Lord Speaks to Elijah
9 There he came to a cave and lodged in it.
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Indeed, what am I doing in this cave of darkness?
Led by God; awaiting His word.
Here the prayer of a sinner, saved in Christ.
Speak, O Lord, and I will listen.
And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. 2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb…
4 The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, 5 while I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord. For you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain.
BOW DOWN! if you fear the Lord.
Yet raise your witness of Christ’s love, if you would live in the love of His Sacrifice.
He IS: Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
“The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.”
He said:
6 “‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
7 “‘You shall have no other gods before [ besides] me.
The LORD, He IS God! And Christ Jesus IS One in the Father and the Father in Him. Jesus IS!
Christ Jesus IS Lord!
Muhammad, Smith and many more are as the prophets of Asherah and Baal.
To be continued…
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