The Prophet Elijah and the One True God

To see where God ranks among your priorities, just wait for a crisis to come. Dr. David Jeremiah reveals the tragic events that transpire when a king fails to follow God.

When Jesus Christ went to the cross and paid the penalty for our sin, the fire came down on all that we have ever done wrong or will ever do wrong.
And Jesus introduced at that day, the age of grace.
Today, God’s method for dealing with rebellion is not to send down fire from heaven, but to send the love of Jesus Christ into the heart of the rebel.
Listen to these words from the apostle Paul.
Do you despise the riches of His goodness forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance.
We have no shortage of stories of ordinary people who changed the world.
People born of humble beginnings, who came out of obscurity, the unexpected, the unknowns, the unlikely heroes, the underdogs.
It’s hard to imagine lives so recognizable being anything like you or me, but no matter the achievements, everyone is human and to some degree ordinary.
So the question then becomes, what can someone like you and I do to change the world even further?
What can someone like you and I do to impact the world for eternity like those who have gone before us regardless of age, station, stature passed or assumed future when we offer God a life, no matter how ordinary God takes it and uses it for extraordinary impact.
That’s the story we find in the bible again and again, God’s people, his profits.
His apostles all appeared average and unexceptional until God worked in and through them.
So then someone like you can walk in the footsteps of the greats who have gone before like them, someone like you can live with purpose, meaning and intent, bearing witness to God’s extraordinary actions through you.
God was looking for someone like them, but he is also looking for someone like you.
I’m David Jeremiah, welcome to Turning point.
The prophet Elijah’s world was no less complicated than ours.
And this ordinary man who God called to be a prophet found himself right in the middle of one complicated situation after another, often dealing with kings.
The lesson from Elijah’s life in today’s message carries lessons for leaders at every level of society, from nations to families and those who seek to stand for God.
This series is called someone like you because Elijah was an ordinary man who sought to live an obedient life for God in an ungodly society we can and should learn everything we can from Elijah.
Today we see Elijah’s words to a king who sought counsel, not from God but from a pagan idol.
And we will see the result of that king’s choice. My message is called whatever happened to God.
It’s coming up today on this edition of Turning Point.
Dr Jeremiah first released understanding the 66 books of the Bible, helping thousands of Bible readers fully comprehend the place and purpose of every book in the Bible.
Now, Dr Jeremiah wants to help you live out the entire breadth and depth of scripture in his new companion volume.
Living the 66 books of the Bible in its pages, Dr Jeremiah identifies each book’s purpose theme, challenge, verse and prayer, which will help you learn and live all 66 books of the Bible too, put them into practice and to be a doer of the word request, living the 66 books of the Bible, when you give a gift of any amount in support of this program, and if you give $60 or more, Dr Jeremiah will also send you in appreciation the first companion volume, understanding the 66 books of the Bible and the Genesis through Revelation.
In 66 scenes DVD, understand the Bible and live the Bible with these resources from turning point call or go online today.
Thank you for watching, turning point. Now here is Dr Jeremiah with his message.
Whatever happened to God, surely the people who were living in Israel under the leadership of King Ahab were looking to the future with the hope that something better was in the wings.
You see Ahab was a burden to his people.
He was an embarrassment to God to take the word of God at face value.
He was one of the most wicked men ever to walk on the earth.
He married a pagan princess by the name of Jezebel.
The two of them sponsored the worship of a false God by the name of bail because of their rebellion.
Their nation suffered for 3.5 years of draught and misery.
And at the end of his time as king, he led the nation into a disastrous military campaign against the Syrians.
You can read about that in first kings chapter 22.
Finally, Ahab Wicked rule comes to an end in the most amazing and unusual way.
The Bible says that a faceless nameless bowman shot an arrow into the air and the arrow came down and lodged in the space between the harness of Ahab’s armor.
When am died, I suppose everybody in Israel sighed a sigh of relief and thought now there’s gonna be a change in our government.
The next king has got to be better than the one we just had. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.
We read in first kings 22 A haze a a the son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria and he reigned two years over Israel and did evil in the sight of the lord and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother for he served bail and worshiped him and provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger.
According to all that his father had done, he was so captured by his culture and so into what he had learned to be comfortable with that he became deaf to the voice of God.
And as he ascended to the throne, there were at least three things in his life that should have turned his attention to the God of Israel.
First. There was the tragic death of his father. I mean, Ahab died in an unusual death.
It came about exactly as Elijah had predicted.
And if you had heard the story of Ahab’s death, you would have thought, wow, that’s not normal for someone just to shoot an arrow in the, in the sky, a random arrow according to the scripture and find the only place on this man where it could do any damage, the little space between the harness of his armor and it hits him and takes him out.
You might want to say, you know, something’s going on here.
Secondly, Isaiah should have learned from the defiance of Moab because if you read the story carefully, Second Kings, one tells us that as soon as as I became the king of Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab second kings chapter one verse one.
Now, why is that important? It’s important because Moab had always been angry with Israel, they were their enemies.
But during the reign of King Ahab, he somehow kept him at bay when he died in a haze, a a became the king Moab rose up and they began to be active against the nation of Israel.
And finally, and this is the one that should really have settled it for him that maybe God was trying to get his attention.
He had a most unfortunate accident and let me just read it to you because this is what it says in verse two of second kings one and a has a, a fell through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and was injured.
He fell out of the window apparently in the houses.
They had little lattice in front of the window.
He leaned against the two are the Bible doesn’t tell us how far he fell.
What it does tell us was he hurt himself big time.
So his father gets shot with an arrow that was randomly launched an enemy that hasn’t done anything in a long time.
All of a sudden becomes active and the dear old boy falls out of the window.
Hmm hmm.
The narrative says that the fall led to serious injury that has a a was in doubt as to whether he would recover from his injury.
And that resulted in an intriguing series of events which I’m going to put under the heading of the abomination of the king.
Here he is now the son of Ahab, the newly crowned king. Verse two.
So a Isaiah sent messengers and said to them, go inquire of Beelzebub, the God of Ekron, whether or not I shall recover from this injury.
And according to the word of the Lord, what a Isaiah did was an incredible abomination and sin.
Here is a man who is king over Israel, the chosen people of Almighty God, he is hurt.
And instead of going to the Lord to inquire of the Lord God, he sends messengers to a Philistine city to inquire of an idol, a wicked idol.
He sent someone to call on the Lord of the flies to see whether or not he’s going to get better.
Now, as a, as a a was sending his messengers to Akron, I like to think about this sometimes in the scripture, I want you to think about it this way with me this morning.
Split screen. All right, something’s going on over here.
Something’s going on over here, sort of like once in a while on television. That’s the way it is.
So over here, a as a, a is sending messengers to Akron to find out if he’s going to get better from his injury.
And over here in this screen, God is sending his messenger to Elijah and the prophet is minding his own business.
I think Elijah was trying to retire if you want to know the truth.
How many of, you know, that’s really hard. A lot of people tell me it’s hard.
I don’t know because I haven’t tried yet, but I hear it’s hard.
And so when the angel of the Lord tapped him on the shoulder, I don’t think Elijah was looking for another assignment, but he gave him one more assignment you read about this.
Now, remember over here the messengers of a, his a a are going to Akron and over here is Elijah, he’s kind of cooling his jets and here’s what we read.
But the angel of the Lord came to Elijah, the fish bite and he said, arise, go to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, is it because there is no God in Israel that you’re going to inquire of bales above the God of Ekron.
Now, therefore, thus says, the Lord, you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.
And Elijah departed. So here comes the messengers from Isaiah, here comes Elijah and they have this little meeting.
And in that sense, Elijah says, no need to go any further. I’m gonna tell you what’s gonna happen.
Your boss is history. He’s gonna die.
And when the messengers returned to as a a, he said to them, why have you come back?
And they said to him, a man came up to meet us and said to us, go tell the king who sent you and say to him.
Thus says the Lord is because there’s no God in Israel that you’re sending to inquire bales above the God of Ekron.
Therefore, she’ll not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.
And as I was sitting there thinking, I bet, I know who that was.
And he said to them, what kind of man was he who came up to meet you and told you these words and they answered him, he was a hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist.
And a, as I said, I knew it.
It’s Elijah, the Tish bite in his heart of hearts, a his eye.
A new, the rebuke of his life was from none other than Elijah the prophet.
Now, you would think that would make him a little sensitive to maybe there’s something I can do to get back into good graces with this profit.
But we go from the abomination of a, his a a to the arrogance of him.
Watch what he does. Then the king sent to him, a captain of 50 with his 50 men.
So he went up to him and there he was sitting on the top of a hill and he spoke to him and said, Man of God, the King has said, come down.
So anyway, Elijah is sitting up on this hill meditating having a sandwich, you know, just cooling it.
I mean, that’s kind of the picture I get. He’s sort of in retirement.
He’s up there on the top of the some people think he might even have been sitting on the top of Mount Carmel reviewing his victory up there.
That wouldn’t be a cool thing to do when you’re retiring and they come to him and they see him up there and they’re arrogant and they say, man of God, come down, the king wants you.
And Elijah answered and said to the captain of 50.
If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50 men and fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50.
Whoa whoa, of course, you know Elijah was a prophet of fire And he had called down fire on Mount Carmel and now he calls down fire on a delegation of men who were doubting his credentials as a prophet of God.
So the word gets back to a Hazara of what happened.
And he sent to Elijah another captain of 50 with his 50 men.
How would you like to been in that detail? And he answered and said to him, man of God.
Thus has the king said and he adds extra word, a little more intensity in this guy.
He says, man of God, the king has said, come down quickly and we would say it this way.
Look, we send some other guys up here once and you and you didn’t listen.
I’ve come back to tell you the king wants you to come down right? Now.
So Elijah answered and said to them, if I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50 men And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50.
I mean, what does it take to get through to this king?
A S I still isn’t impressed with Elijah’s authority.
So he sends another captain and the Bible says in verse 13, that the third captain of 50 went and he came and he’s been taking good notes on what’s happened so far.
And he fell on his knees before Elijah and he pleaded with him.
And he said to him, Man of God, he’s already believing. Now this Elijah is the man of God.
That’s not an issue anymore, man of God.
Please let my life and the life of these 50 servants of yours be precious in your sight.
Look, fire has come down from heaven and burned up.
The first two captains of 50s with their 50s, but let my life now be precious in your sight.
Now, as I may not have been humbled, but this captain was really humbled in contrast to the arrogance of the first two captains.
The third captain approached Elijah with respect and asked if he would accompany them back to the king’s palace in Samaria.
And in 1st 15, we read and the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, go down with him.
Do not be afraid of him. So he arose and went down with him to the king.
Now, Elijah is going to have the chance to tell the king what he’s already told 102 people.
He’s going to tell it to him face to face and that brings us to the annihilation of a Hazara.
Here’s the interesting thing, Elijah wasn’t afraid of anything when you’re in the power of God and you know God’s powers in your life, you don’t have to be afraid.
So Elijah walked right into the presence of wicked a haze.
IA delivered this message from Almighty God and he said to in verse 16, thus says the Lord because you have sent messengers to inquire of bales above the God of Ekron, is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of His word?
Therefore, you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die and he dies an unrepentant and lonely man.
Now, that’s the story. And you say, what does that have to do with us?
So I want to tell you what I’ve learned from this. And there’s four takeaways.
Number one, this story tells us how God warns us.
Stop and reflect on all that had happened in a s eyes life.
His father dies in a strange accident, suddenly a nation that had been friendly, rebels against him.
And one day he’s minding his own business and he falls out of a window and almost kills himself.
And when a series of events like that happens, you might want to stop and say, Lord, is there anything you want me to know?
Let me ask you a question here. Class God ever gets your attention.
Do you ever give you a wake up call just to wake you up and make you start to listen again.
Get you off the path you were on and get you on a new path.
So now you’re back walking with the Lord. God loves us so much.
Once in a while, he’ll break our leg, he’ll break our leg.
How God warns us. Second thing is how God woos us.
When Jesus Christ went to the cross and paid the penalty for our sin, the fire came down on all that we have ever done wrong or will ever do wrong.
And Jesus introduced at that day, the age of grace today, God’s method for dealing with rebellion is not to send down fire from heaven, but to send the love of Jesus Christ into the heart of the rebel.
Listen to these words from the Apostle Paul.
Do you despise the riches of his goodness forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance.
There’s coming a day according to the scripture. When the Old Testament way will return.
How many of you know, the Bible teaches that when the seven years of tribulation happens in the future.
It’s gonna be an awful lot like the Old Testament was in those seven years.
Fire will fall from heaven again. But here’s the good news, brothers and sisters.
We live in the parentheses between what’s in the Old Testament and what’s coming in the tribulation.
We live in the age of grace and in this age, the fire that falls is the fire of God’s love that penetrates our hearts and blazes within us until we can’t stand it any longer.
And we have to respond to the love of God. Thank God. We live in this age.
I hear people say all the time. I wish I lived in the good old days.
Frankly, I’m glad to be living in these days. Who knows what the good old days were?
I’m not sure there is such a thing.
What I want to tell you is we live in the greatest time of opportunity, the greatest time of grace.
God woos us with his grace. He woos us with his love. How God warns us.
We learned that in this story, we learn how God woos us and then how God wins us.
Some 800 years after Elijah delivered his message to a Hazara.
There was another faithful messengers who came from God.
He was Jesus Christ, God’s own son and he was worthy of the reverence and devotion of all people yet what happened to him?
They hung him on a cross and no fire came down from heaven to rescue him.
In fact, isn’t it interesting? Elijah is mentioned in that narrative in Matthew 27.
It says some of those who stood there when they heard Jesus’ words said, this man is calling for Elijah and immediately one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and offered it to Jesus to drink.
And the rest of them said, listen to this.
Let him alone, let us see if Elijah will come and save him.
And I’m here to tell you, Elijah did not come to save him.
If Elijah had saved him, we all would be lost the full penalty, the full price, the fire from heaven fell on Jesus completely.
He suffered at all. We can’t even comprehend it. I don’t even know how to explain it.
He was the infinite son of God suffering the infinite penalty for the sin of the world.
But Elijah didn’t save him. Elijah didn’t call down fire. Elijah wasn’t the savior of Jesus.
Jesus was the savior of Elijah.
Last thing how God warns us how he woos us, how he wins us finally, how he wants us.
Do you remember what Elijah said to A as I A after, as I had sent to inquire after bales above, let me refresh your memory verse 16 of chapter one of second kings.
He said, thus says the Lord because you have sent messengers to inquire of Beelzebub, the God of Ekron.
Is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word?
I wonder sometimes if God in heaven isn’t saying to us you’re running after all this stuff trying to find satisfaction for your life.
Is it because there is no God was a, has a, a dismissing the God of Israel?
No, he wasn’t getting rid of Jehovah God. He was not subtracting. He was adding, he was hedging his vets.
He was practicing idolatry. He was going to bow down before an idol.
Kyle Eidelman says, idolatry isn’t just one of many sins.
It’s the one great sin that all others come from.
So if you start scratching at whatever struggle you’re dealing with, eventually, you’ll find something underneath, that’s a false God.
And until that God is dethroned and the Lord God takes its rightful place. You will not have victory.
That is why when Moses stood on Mount Sinai and received the 10 commandments from God.
The first one was this, I am the Lord, your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me. Exodus chapter 20.
ST Augustine said, stress, worry, anxiety, strife, jealousy and dissatisfaction.
All of that is just the smoke rising from the altars that we have erected to false gods.
The God of the Bible demands our highest allegiance, our total adoration and our unconditional obedience.
We know there’s only one enjoyable way to walk with God and that’s with God at the center.
You can’t fling God out into the circumference of your life and visit Him every seven days.
He will never ever allow that. You talk about some warnings.
He will get your attention if you’re a follower of Christ.
When people say I can’t believe, you really believe God is a jealous God.
I flat out believe God is a jealous God.
He is the only one who has the right to be jealous.
And because of all that he has done for us and all that he desires for us.
He is jealous that we put him first in our lives, that everything that we do revolves around Him.
God at the center, not us.
And ladies and gentlemen in the way in which we do that.
And as much as we do that, that is the measure of whether or not we will be happy in Jesus, that’s the simplicity of the Christian life.
Getting it all down to you realize I’m responsible to one person and that’s almighty God in heaven.
Let me tell you what I’ve learned about that. You please Him, you please the people that count.
But if you try to live your life to get your response back from the people that you’re with.
If you’re always trying to get the acclaim of people around you, you will live a frustrated, stressful life that will send you to your grave early.
How blessed it is to know the God who is one and the God who was at the center.
Dr Jeremiah will return to close today’s program right after this, Dr.
Jeremiah would like to offer you living the 66 books of the Bible to help you put the entire breadth and depth of scripture into action and live out every book in God’s word, yours, an appreciation of your gift of any amount in support of this program.
And for a gift of $60 or more, Dr.
Jeremiah will also Send you his first companion volume, understanding the 66 books of the Bible, beloved by many readers to help you journey through God’s word and comprehend the place and purpose of each book, plus the genesis through revelation.
In 66 scenes DVD. Thank you for your support of turning point call or go online today.
I am continually amazed at Elijah.
He lived in the world, but he wasn’t of the world.
He wasn’t afraid to speak truth to power and trust God with the consequences.
How did Elijah get to be such a man of God?
Well, as I’ve said, scripture tells us he was an ordinary man, but he followed God’s direction daily and allowed himself to be used in extraordinary ways.
That’s the kind of life. God wants each of us to live and it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from the life God wants for you, begins with trusting Christ as Lord and Savior and then following his lead every day, I would love to send you two free gifts from turning point that can help you begin and continue such a life.
One is our booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point and the other is our monthly devotional magazine Turning Points.
We will gladly send both of these resources to you free of charge if you will contact us here at turning point today.
Next time on turning point, Elijah ends up on the mount of transfiguration.
For one reason, Elijah has always been about Jesus and the Books of the Old Testament are all about Jesus.
If you study them enough, if you watch them enough, if you read them enough, you’ll find Jesus almost everywhere.
There really aren’t many messages in the Bible. There are one message and the message is the message Jesus Christ.
Thank you for being with us today. Join Dr Jeremiah.
Next time for his message, passing the torch here on turning point.