Word of Salvation – Vol.17 No.21 – June 1971

 

The Word of God Preached by Elijah to Ahab

 

Sermon by Rev. A. Nijhuis, B.D. on 1Kings 17:1

Scripture Readings:  Deuteronomy 28:7-21; James 5:16b-20

Suggested Hymns:

Psalter Hymnal 162:1,2; 55:1 (Procl. grace) 55:4 (Law) 210:1,2,6,10; 287:1; 469:3

 

The time of king Ahab was a very bad time.  We read in the last verses of 1Kings 16: “Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all that were before him.”  So he was a champion of evil.  There was a development from Jeroboam up till Ahab’s days.

When we look at the picture shown in the previous verses, we may conclude IT WAS HOPELESS.  There is no cure for that bad situation.  We are rather quick to use that word “hopeless”.  No wonder.  We cannot do much when it comes to the point.  We are very quickly helpless, though we may use a lot of words if we don’t carry the responsibility.  Words are sometimes very, very cheap.  Doing things is a different matter.  It is not so difficult to give a depressing description of the present world-situation, or to make an address on the decline of morals and the increasing indifference to the most vital doctrines.

There are masters in this field, who show a certain joy in painting the situation – as they see it – in the darkest colours.  It may happen that these critics overlook their own failures, and are not concerned at all for the things they talk about.

However that may be, a quite different attitude is found in the Bible.  The Lord is really concerned out of love.  And His love is not a matter of talking, but of deeds, of involvement.  He does not stand aloof from our world, but He is giving Himself for it by sending His only begotten Son.

And here in 1Kings 17:1 we read that the Lord does not just withdraw from Ahab and his people, but He sends His Word to them in order to help and to save.  I want to draw your attention to:

THE WORD OF GOD PREACHED BY ELIJAH TO AHAB.

1.  Address of the Word of God;

2.  the Preacher of the Word of God; and

3.  the Message of the Word of God.

1.  The Word of God came to Ahab, the king of Israel.

After that picture given of his life in the previous verses, there is no full stop.  Those words are not the last words.  They are rather an introduction.  The Lord does not speak about “sin”, just as an interesting discussion-topic.  That’s what we sometimes do, speaking about sin by itself.  It has no purpose.  We have it only as a subject to talk about.  It may even be that our purpose is to slander and to blacken another’s name.

That is never so in the Bible.  Oh yes, there we read of sin – or, rather, about OUR sin – but it serves a purpose, the most beautiful and useful purpose of salvation, to turn us away from sin and death, and to give us life, life eternal.

After we are informed about Ahab and the development of his life, after we are told that he did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger, than all the kings of Israel who were before him, we can expect something else.  After Ahab spoke and acted, we can be sure that the Lord has something to say and to do.

That’s what we read in the first verse of ch.17: Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said TO AHAB….!

You know, Elijah was the prophet of the Lord, the God of Israel.  God does not say: Ahab, you have done so much worthy of condemnation that I don’t send a servant to you anymore, but I just destroy you.  I cannot bear you anymore.  Instead, we read of a prophet who spoke to this king.

Isn’t this amazing, brethren and sisters?  That the Lord God of Israel who had so many reasons to lose patience, and to open the fountains of his anger, still spoke to Ahab?

You know, there are people who ask: “Where do we find in the O.T. the love of the Lord as we do in the N.T.?  Well, you’ll find it here for instance; and you’ll find it everywhere.  The whole Bible is abundant proof of this love of God.  The fact that we have a Bible in which the Lord speaks to us, is a continual proof of His love.

When you ask: what was the position of Ahab; was he still a servant of the Lord or was he a real heathen, a devoted servant of Baal”?  To answer that question I refer to the moment when Elijah called the prophets of Baal together on Mount Carmel to decide who was the God, Baal or Yahweh, the God of Israel.  On that occasion Elijah said to the people: “How long will you go limping with two different opinions?  If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him.”  That was the attitude of the people of Israel in Ahab’s days: limping.

At one time you would say: they are servants of the Lord, but at another time you would conclude: they are serving Baal.  They did not follow a definite course.  They were wholehearted worshippers neither of the Lord nor of Baal.  Now they showed a tendency towards the God of Israel, then they turned away from Him towards Baal.  They lived as it were in two worlds or at least they tried to do so.

Now you may object: all right, this was true of the common people, but was it also true of Ahab?  Did he not surrender himself to his idol?  Was there still doubt in his heart?  Was he also limping with two different opinions?  I would answer: sure, he was!

Just look at the names of his children.  Here they are: Ahaziah, Jehoram and Athaliah.  They are beautiful names, aren’t they?  Moreover, in all the names of the children, Ahab mentioned the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.  “Strange,” you say?  It is not that strange.  It is the typical attitude of somebody who has lost his faith, but is still keeping some old dear traditions.  You know: father and mother don’t go to church anymore, but the children have to attend Sunday school, and of course they must be baptised.

You may find this attitude in many and different ways.  The parents made their immense promises at the baptism-font of their babies, but they don’t move a finger to act accordingly.  They are afraid that they might lose contact with the present world, but don’t worry at all about their relationship with Christ.  They try to combine two worlds which cannot go together.  They want to pick the best from both, and have neither in the end.  Poor people, who try to live in two worlds and don’t belong anywhere!  Poor children, who have this as their example and who don’t know where to go.

Later, the Lord Jesus Christ warned us in these words: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon.”

We may try it, but it does not work.  The end will be that all is lost, though we thought to win the whole world.

The Word of God came to Ahab and to all those who chose a similar way, trying to combine the service of the Lord and the service of their idols.  What a blessing that God did not lose sight of Ahab and of us and of all the people in the world; that He still spoke and speaks; that He did not keep silent and let us go our own way!

2.  The Lord used His prophet to call Ahab back to Himself and into His service.

He sent Elijah.  All of a sudden he appears on the stage.  There is no introduction whatsoever; no story of his being called by the Lord; no description of his past and of his office.  Immediately he is there in his prophetic power, face to face with the king of Israel.

Who was Elijah?  Where did he come from?  What did he do before?  We may ask a lot of questions, but there are few answers.  We are informed that he was a Tishbite; he came from Tishbe in Gilead, a district beyond the river Jordan.  We don’t know the name of his father and mother.

The main thing is that he was the bearer of the Word of the Lord.  He came like a bolt from the blue, to speak the Word of the Lord in those days of religious decline, in that time when king and people drifted away from the Lord to serve Baal, when they were walking along the road to ruin, trying to combine church and world, religion and idolatry; limping with two different opinions.

However there was one who was not affected by the general decline.  His name was Elijah.  This name is already a protest against the spirit of the time.  Elijah means: my God is Yahweh (“the Lord”).  That is his name, and that is also a summary of all his speaking, of all his sermons: the Lord is God, the Lord is God.

This name suggests that he had a pious father and a faithful mother who knew the trouble of that age.  Here is his life’s task, his battle against the growing belief that the service of the God of Israel and of idols, were not contrasts, which excluded each other, but that they could go together.  And that is not only the sin of those days, it is still the greatest danger in our present world, also in our own life.

The name Elijah is a total condemnation of this tendency, and it is with that message that he appeared among Israel.  This name expressed the problem accurately; a problem that was not noticed by Ahab and his people anymore.

Elijah: my God is the Lord.  In that way Elijah expressed the power of the Word of God among people who had lost their strength and their calling in the world to be the people of God.  Elijah, my God is the Lord – that is the mighty introduction of God’s servant to fight Satan, who tried to defeat God’s own people.  Elijah, my God is the Lord.  This is his power; this, his only strength.

Moses was the servant of God, through whom the law was given to Israel.  Elijah was the servant of the same God, through whom Israel was called back to Him and to His service.

Elijah was the fervent prophet for the honour of his God.  And the first words we hear from his mouth are: “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before Whom I stand.”  This word is filled with prophetic power and majesty.  Elijah was not a man who appeared with his own views and opinions, different from those already put forward, so that you can make your choice.  This is the only possibility, the Word of the Lord and nothing else.

Yes, Elijah has a message, because he speaks the Word of God, the Only One and the Holy One, the God of Israel.  Therefore he can speak so boldly even to a king.  He does not depend on men, but only on the Lord who sent him, the Lord, before Whom he stands.

People may argue that Elijah did not love his king or his people; that he was intolerant and narrow-minded; that he was not open to other ideas.  But this is not true.

When you call people back to the Lord, with whom alone is salvation, is that an evidence of hatred or of real love?  When you see a person in danger and you try to help him, is that a matter of concern for that person, yes or no?

When Elijah spoke in favour of the Lord, he spoke also out of love for His people.  The real welfare of the people is at stake.  There is no future for Israel or for us, apart from the Lord and apart from our obedience to Him.

Oh yes, Elijah is a spoil-sport (spelbreker) among the Israelites, sure.  Those people were set apart by the Lord to serve Him and Him only.  That was the meaning and the purpose of Israel, in order to be able to prepare the way for the coming and promised Messiah.

The Lord of Israel is the husband of His bride, Israel and of course He wants His bride for himself alone.  Is that strange?  Is that being narrow-minded?  Is that being intolerant?  The same is true today.  The Lord wants us for Himself, for Himself only.  Is that not as it should be?

We cannot divide our life between Him and somebody else; between the Lord and idols, between God and Mammon, between the Lord and the world.  That is what Israel did, limping with two different opinions.  God could have a part of their life, and Baal another part.  Was Baal not the god of sun and rain, the god of nature?  So why not leave this part to him?  And another part to the Lord?  However, hear the Word of God: Elijah: That means: my God is the Lord; He alone!

Is there any other message that we need so badly as this one in our days, now that combining things is the order of the day?  Let us then listen to this message and put away our idols, whatever they may be.  Let us not believe the preachers of today who say that they can go together, the Lord and idols, but let us serve the Lord, the Lord Who made his covenant with us and with our children, who set us apart in order that we should live for Him and in obedience to His will.  Let it be our confession, a confession of our mouth and of our hearts: “Elijah” – my God is the Lord.

3.  The first message which Elijah delivered to Ahab the king of Israel, was:
“There shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

In that way the Lord will show to Ahab and to his people that He is God; He only.

You know that in the opinion of his worshippers, Baal was the god of nature, especially of the sun and the rain.

The Lord told His people ages ago that He would give them all they needed if they kept His commandments and walked in His ways.  I read it for you from Deut.28.  The Lord promised to open to them His good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain of their land in its season, and to bless all the works of their hands.

On the other hand He warned them also that He would curse them if they would not obey the voice of the Lord, or be careful to do all His commandments and His statutes.  In that case He would send them all sorts of curses, among others fiery heat and drought.  The Lord did not forget His own Word which He had spoken, He gave them His blessings.  But now that they had forgotten all about Him and His service and were serving Baal, the Lord should show them what would happen: There would be neither dew nor rain, except by his word.  His judgement would break out over the fields of Canaan.  To show His people that the whole of life is His.  There is no such thing as a nature that is independent from the Lord, and that belongs to a certain power called Baal and the spiritual things which are the Lord’s.

Life is one; it is a unity, and all things are the Lord’s.  And when Israel has forgotten this, their God will teach that lesson again by stopping His dew and His rain.

You cannot reserve the Lord for part of your life, say for the Sunday, and forget about Him in your daily work.  That’s impossible.  He is the Lord of all the days and of your whole life, nothing excluded.  And when Israel forgets this and turns to other gods for rain and similar things, the Lord will show them that He alone is the Giver of all things.

Neither dew nor rain there shall be, except by the word of Elijah, His servant.  Yes, this is God’s judgement upon His people.  And, at the same time, it is His grace that He tries to bring His people back to Himself.  The Lord speaks through His Word and also through this judgement, in order to bring His people back from their sinful ways to the way of the Lord.  Even in His judgement, His love is burning towards His own.  He is a gracious God, merciful and patient.  The way is still open to come back to Him.  He sent Elijah.  He gave His Word.  He did all He could do.

Even afterward He sent His Son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.”  When the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.”  And so it happened.  God’s Son was nailed to the cross.  That’s what the Lord did for His own to save them, to bring them back to Himself.

Do we hear the voice of His love?  Do we listen to the Word of God?  Do we forget that the Lord is the God of everyday life?  As Ahab and his people forgot?  Let us listen to His voice and let us turn to Him, who wants His people for Himself, and Who cannot forbear that they give their service to other gods.

There is hope for all those who go to the one who came to do the will of His Father, and who are willing to surrender to Him Who will be their strength and their power.

But there is no future if we try to follow idols, whatever they may be, and turn away from the God of the covenant who wants us wholly to be his people, willing to obey His will, and to serve Him with an undivided heart.

Amen