Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Book: 1 Kings

  • Elijah Must Die to Live

    Elijah Must Die to Live

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Life of Elijah” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, June 5, 1988.

    About this sermon

    Ahab’s refusal to repent after Carmel sends Elijah, and Israel in him, fleeing into the wilderness rather than forward into victory. Only God can raise him there, twice, in the same rhythm that runs through the whole story of resurrection. Elijah must die, in effect, before he can truly live.

    More sermons from 1 Kings · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we begin our scripture reading in 1 Kings 18. We will start with verse 41. We will read through chapter 19 verse 8. This is 1 Kings chapter 18 and we are starting at verse 41. We will read through chapter 19 verse 8. Now Elijah said to Ahab, Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower.

    So Ahab went up to eat and drink, but Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and he crouched down to the earth and put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. So he went up and looked and said, there is nothing. And he said, go back seven times. And it came about at the seventh time that he said, behold, a cloud as small as a man’s hand is coming up from the sea. And he said, go up, say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down so that the heavy shower does not stop you.

    So it came about in a little while that the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy shower, and Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. Then the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and outran Ahab to Jezreel. Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done. and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a message, sent a messenger to Elijah saying, so may the gods do to me and even more if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

    But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under the juniper tree. And he requested for himself that he might dine, and said, It is enough now, O Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my father’s. And he lay down and slept under the juniper tree, and behold, there was an angel touching him. And he said to him, Arise, eat. Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you. So he arose and ate and drank and within the strength of that food, forty days and forty nights to horror the mountain of God. Pray briefly.

    Father, it is no small thing that you raise up servants for yourself to stand in the line of Elijah and the other prophets and also the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yes, Lord, truly, in the light of such company as that, are not all those messengers, all those servants of yours, greatly humbled? For indeed, if Elijah was humbled, how much more so we who serve today? Or if the apostles were humbled, how much more so we who serve Now, Lord, may it be then to a pleasure to utilize this service that you may exalt yourself and bring honor and glory to yourself for the sake of Christ, your Son, whom we serve, whom we love. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    Now I think by now that you are aware of what I have been trying to do with the story of Elijah through the 18th chapter. I have presented that confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal as something of a premonition of the end of the world. a confrontation between the forces of evil and the kingdom of our God. So it’s as if, as we run through that 18th chapter, that we have something of the end of the world in miniature. God has vindicated his name, the enemy has been judged, and justice has been executed and that by the servant of God. But you know also how I have approached the latter verses of that chapter, verses 41 through 46. For even beyond this matter of the confrontation between the forces of evil and the kingdom of God is the dawning of that kingdom which belongs to God in all of its glory, in all of its splendor.

    We have spoken about the feast in which Ahab participates. This feast has been interpreted by some quite negatively, as if Ahab were here given over to sensuality, carnality. As if in keeping with the testimony of a life given to dissipation, this wasteful proves further his incompetence and his ungodliness. But we’ve also seen how improper that interpretation is of Ahab at this point.

    Rather, Ahab is utilized by God in a most remarkable way. So that now, as the confrontation between the forces of evil and the kingdom of God are resolved, Ahab seemingly takes up the role of the anointed of the Lord. He becomes one in whom we see the patterns of the Lord Jesus Christ. This one, the King of Israel, in the very best sense of that title. The end of the world then, but also something of the manifestation of the Messiah, and the rescue of the people of God, the reclamation by God of his own. Thus not only a positive use of Ahab, this wicked king, but as well the cessation of the drought and the coming on of the showers of blessing.

    Maybe you recall how we painted the picture last time. how it must have been for those who lived in Jezreel to see Elijah, the prophet, the forerunner of the king, entering the city gates first, then behind him in his royal chariot, the anointed of the Lord, and then on the heels of the anointed of the Lord, the sweeping showers cascading down from the mountains across the plain, as an indication of God’s blessing and the coming, even if you will, at this point, a premonition, truly, of the days of the Spirit. So the Prophet, the Messiah, the Spirit, Jezreel, there witnessing it all, but sadly, seemingly hopelessly, blinded to the reality. All of this, however, being played out before Ahab, before the nation of Israel, and before Elijah.

    As we move into the 19th chapter, it is important for us to think through Elijah’s position and his expectations. What specifically is it that Elijah is looking for and to? He is no stranger to the plan and purpose of God. He is a prophet who has stood in the council chambers of the Lord. He has heard God speak His word. He understands it. He brings that to bear upon the nation of Israel. And now, having seen this judgment occur on Carmel, having seen Ahab so positively used, having seen the cessation of the drought and the coming of blessing, upon the land, Elijah’s expectations could not be higher.

    Will there not then follow the appropriate fruit of repentance for the nation as a whole? Will not Jezreel cleanse itself if there has been that execution of prophets on Carmel, that judgment of the religion of Baal there. What now at Jezreel? Will there not be a cleansing and a sanctification for this city, this royal city in Israel?

    And possibly, possibly, in Elijah’s mind, the expectation of an era that is permanent, lasting, an era, an age coming in which it seems that repentance unto God will have a lasting, enduring effect, that this cleansing and sanctification will not just be temporary, and that something of a golden age for the people of God will commence. So, the expectation. An expectation that is focused upon the land that Elijah loves, and the people that he loves, and those whom he serves in keeping with his commission from all.

    But here we go, into the 19th chapter, and the convolutions of that chapter, and the struggle that is here, articulated well. Ahab, the king of Israel, proves no man standing in himself by the strength of the Lord. royally used by the Lord he caves in as it seems the first person to whom he speaks is Jezebel and not for the purpose of converting her he informs Jezebel Ahab proves Ben no rock There is no permanence to be found in him, no consistency. He, having been used of God in this most glorious way at the conclusion of the 18th chapter, now gives way, it seems, to one much stronger than himself. The one who seems rock-like is not Ahab, but Jezebel. so perfectly, so perfectly convinced, so consistently living out her faith, the commitment which she has to her God. Her God is one of the world. She is confident that victory is hers. Jezebel hears sending out a messenger to Elijah, speaking to him an oath expressive of her wrath. She will see him as one of Baal’s prophets. As they have died, so he will die. And that, before the next day ends.

    What of Elijah now? His expectations had been raised, he looked with hope upon the circumstances in Israel, and now everything seems to be falling apart. This king proves to be no one upon whom he can lean one upon whom he can defend. The power in the throne is corrupted to the core, and he now sees that something of his expectation with regard to the nation and that age of permanence, or that age of gold, is fleeting.

    Before then, the threat of Jezebel, his pursuit of him, he flees. What a contrast. This one who has seemingly been fearless, now perfectly fearful. He flees to the extremity of the land. not just of the northern tribes, but the extremities of the land as a whole, to the southern regions of Judah, towards the Negev, the wilderness. He is moving off towards the Sinai desert, to the city of Beersheba. There he finds himself, and there he leaves behind his servant. He then, a solitary figure, he moves then into the wilderness a day’s journey. He comes and sits down under the juniper tree and then makes his request that he might die.

    It is enough now, he says, O Lord, take away my life. for I am no better than my father. He speaks as one confessing and his confession is because of the difficulty that has arisen for him and the realization of his own weakness. He is confronted now by the sin of his own heart which has caused him to flee. He has not trusted. How he in this circumstance contrasts that fearless portrait that we have of him that portrait of his fearlessness that we have in the preceding chapters. But he is now no better than his fathers, and he finds himself a day’s journey into the Sinai. You may ask yourself the question, why has he moved to the south, and why is he out there in the desert by himself?

    Why is he expressing himself the way he is? Yes, there is that testimony within his heart that because of his fearfulness, he has sinned, he has broken faith and broken ranks with God, and he is now fleeing not only Jezebel, but the purpose and the intention of God. The wilderness is the appropriate place for all of this. His movement itself becomes part of his confession.

    For you see, his fathers proved faithless in the wilderness. And there they exhibited their disobedience to God. And he is drawn to that wilderness because he feels that fraternity of spirit with them. he know better than they they sinners overthrown there he will seal his fate in the desert with them and the hope and expectation of the nation and of Israel as a whole will end right there it is therefore not just Elijah that is a day’s journey south into the desert. It is Israel and her folk that is a day’s journey south into the wilderness.

    And Israel’s life is hanging now by a thread. It’s even worse than that. Israel’s life is over. but then we have verses 5 through 8 we have the intervention of God and the inclusion of God’s grace into the hopelessness that is here portrayed Elijah undone one as great as he, seemingly overthrown. What hope remains for Israel? What hope remains for the purpose of God? None whatsoever except God, by His grace, intervene, and that is the significance of what follows in these verses 5 through 8. We have the prophet in verse 5 laying down, sleeping under the juniper tree. We are not to think of this as simply an expression by Elijah of the fact that he is tired and exhausted.

    That, to be sure, is there, but you see When he lies down and he sleeps under that juniper tree, it is a testimony to his abandonment of all hope. He is giving himself over to death. The lying down is to die. And the angel’s subsequent visitation and touching of him is that he might live. So even with an Elijah, as great as he is, what strength is to be found in him In the end, there is none at all, for he proves by his own confession to be no better than his father’s. The only hope for the people of God is the grace of our God, and by that grace, the power to raise to death. Elijah has laid down to die. And the angel, the visitant from heaven, comes and touches him that he may rise and live.

    But you see, you go through two cycles of dying and rising here. Lying down on the ground and then getting up again, eating and drinking. In the first instance, The focus is exclusively upon the physical side of things, as if foremost may well be that physical exhaustion, despair, even physical death, a hopelessness in the face of it. And then comes the angel’s touch, and there’s a resurrection of sorts as the prophet arises to the service of God.

    But having been touched once, it isn’t enough. As if that touch were the corollary of what happened in the wilderness with the children of Israel. No, it wasn’t enough for the children of Israel to go through that wilderness and be, as it were, raised from the dead in that experience. Not at all. Something greater had to follow. Something more had to come.

    And thus, then, Elijah the prophet lies down again, and this time exhibiting a spiritual exhaustion, a spiritual despair, a spiritual death from which there is no rising at all. The angel visiting once more, touching him, and he arising, giving testimony to the fact that it is not just from the physical death that we are rescued, but it is from the physical death, the spiritual death, that we are rescued as well. It is in the strength of that food given in that circumstance that we are told that Elijah goes on for 40 days and 40 nights and thus emphasizing the supernatural, not the natural.

    And where does he go? He moves out of the borders, beyond the borders, leaving behind the borders of Israel and Judah. That for which he has labored, that in terms of which he has seen his life, He leaves that behind, and in this you see there’s something of a formal similarity between him and the prophets of Baal. The prophets of Baal are prophets of the earth, but insofar as Elijah’s heart is set upon that land, he too is a prophet of Baal.

    And that is what makes necessary this experience in his life, for he must move beyond that to see God as he truly is. Elijah has to lose his God to find him. Elijah has to lose his hope to hope aright. He must confess that he hasn’t seen it all in order to begin to see. He must die in order that he might live.

    And his death, you see, comes in terms of those things that he loves most. He loves Israel. And we sit here and we say, well, what can be wrong with that? But you see, Israel isn’t the end. Heaven is the end. Zion is the end. And that is what Torah is all about. That is what the mount of God is all about. He must forsake Israel for the mount of God. And at the mouth of God, he will meet God. Elijah must lose Israel to gain Israel. The people of God must lose the church to gain the church. Elijah must lose God to gain God. The people of the church must lose Christ, at least as they have too often understood him, in order to gain him.

    There is an interpretation of the God of Israel that places him in the company of Baal. And there is an interpretation of the Christ of Scripture that places him in the company of David. And those interpretations make of God and make of Christ deities of this world.

    This all will be played out again around A.D. 30 outside the city walls of Jerusalem and in that day it will be as if all Israel and Judah is concentrated inside the city walls while outside at the Mount of God The true prophet, the true priest, the true king is being executed.

    And only there will the true God be met and seen. Only there. Do you understand what Elijah must learn as one who is so great? Our God is one who calls us beyond the cities of this world, past all of the pretentious deities, even if they are called by his name, to that which lies beyond. It’s very hard for me to stop here and not say something about what follows.

    You see, when Elijah finally comes then to Horeb, and there is this confrontation between him and God, the way in which God confronts him is in terms of those things by which he has been known formally, which can be especially associated with the Old Testament and its administration. And even those things that are specifically related to the ministry of Elijah that has taken place previously. There comes, don’t you know, the great and strong wind, rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks. There comes the earthquake and the fire, and it’s hard to think about the fire mentioned in verse 12 of this nineteenth chapter without thinking about the fire that is mentioned in the eighteenth chapter. But beyond the experience of Carmel, there is the experience at Poland. And in the experience of horror, when the fire comes, the testimony is given, God was not in the fire.

    But he was in the thunderous, tumultuous force of his presence. And when he heard that, All other revelations of God were judged inadequately. All other revelations of God were judged inadequately. The earthquake at Sinai, the great mighty rushing wind, the fire at Carmel, all judged inadequately. Well, that which is played out in front of us now, here in these chapters, will be tied and summarily comprehended when God reveals himself in his son and by that revelation in his son he will judge all previous revelations to be woefully inadequate and that revelation in his son alone sufficient in him the Lord Jesus Christ you meet your God and through him you realize the relativity, temporality of all that pertains to this world and the truth and eternality of all that pertains to the kingdom that is God Lord, it will never be enough to have sat at Carmel to witness the fire.

    It will not have been enough to stand on the plains of Jezreel and witness the mighty rushing wind and the onslaught of the rains, the showers that came. Nor was it enough to stand at Sinai and there witness the quaking of the earth, destruction of the elements of this world. Even Elijah in his despair and disappointment, in his sin and in his confession had to learn that and did so by your grace as you taught him about greater things.

    O Lord, we who have been privileged to understand even better than Elijah, may we be found to be faithful servants of yours, so that we live in terms of the true mount of God, Zion, the heavenly city to which we have come as the church of the firstborn. And Lord, we ask that you would set the patterns of eternity well in our consciousness and within our hearts, that we might be found faithful to you unto death. And until

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Ahab, an Unlikely Figure

    Ahab, an Unlikely Figure

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Life of Elijah” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, May 29, 1988.

    About this sermon

    Ahab’s frivolity and gluttony make him easy to moralize about, and that reading is too simple. Even a king this compromised can, strangely, take a Christlike place in the structure of the narrative. What that says about the dawning age of the Spirit matters more than what it says about Ahab.

    More sermons from 1 Kings · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we are in 1 Kings 18, verse 41. We will be reading to the end of the chapter, and then we’ll take a look at some verses in Ezekiel. This is 1st Kings 18 verse 41 to the end of the chapter. Now Elijah said to Ahab, go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of the roar of the fish shower. So Ahab went up to eat and drink. But Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and he crouched down on the earth and put his face between his knees. He said to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea. So he went up and looked and said, there’s nothing. And he said, go back. Seven times.

    And it came about at the seventh time that he said, behold, a cloud as small as a man’s hand is coming up from the sea. and he said go up say to Ahab prepare your chariot and go down so that the heavy shower does not stop you so it came about in a little while that the sky grew black with clouds and wind there was a heavy shower and Ahab rode and went to Jezreel then the hand of the Lord was on Elijah and he girded up his loins and out ran Ahab to Jezreel.

    And then from Ezekiel chapter 34 beginning with verse 23 and reading to the conclusion of the chapter. This is Ezekiel Then I will set over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them himself and be their shepherd, and I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them.

    I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will make a covenant of peace. with them and eliminate harmful beasts from the land so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places around my hill a blessing. And I will cause showers to come down in their season and they will be showers of blessing. Also the tree of the field will yield its fruit and the earth will yield its increase, and they will be secure on their land. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bars of their yoke, and have delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. And they will no longer be a prey to the nations, and the beasts of the earth will not devour them, but they will live securely, and no one will make them afraid. And I will establish for them a renowned planting place, and they will not again be victims of famine in the land, and they will not endure the insults of the nation anymore. Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord God. As for you, my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, You are man, and I am your God, declares the Lord God.

    Pray with me briefly. O how your word comes to us as refreshment, our God, truly a refreshment to our souls. and we are revived by this means of grace. For surely, Lord, you have trained us that our refreshment is found nowhere else. Lord, now we ask that as the showers came to Israel of old, and as the showers of the Holy Spirit came upon your church, we may be refreshed to the full that our hearts may be strengthened in serving you and doing those things that please you. We pray this with our whole heart, in Jesus’ name, Amen. 1 Kings 18, 41-46 has proved to be a confusing passage, a difficult text. And that difficulty is caused by the fact that we are trained in our senses.

    We are accustomed, because of what we know of Ahab, to see him exclusively in one light. That is, a negative life, in a negative way, in negative terms. For us, it is impossible for Ahab to be viewed positively in any sense whatsoever. He cannot, therefore, be useful to the Lord to positive ends because He is such a negative, an evil person.

    Yes, it’s true. Ahab is as wicked a king as we will meet in Israel’s history. So wicked, in fact, that he is fittingly compared to Satan himself, a sort of Satan incarnate. Satan in the flesh. That’s Ahab. It is in terms of this assessment then, this persistent assessment of Ahab, that the entirety of his history is judged, and this story concerning him is judged as well. So then we come to these last verses of the 18th chapter of 1st Kings and we see these verses as intelligible only in terms of that negative rendering of Ahab. So it is suggested by good exegetes, good interpreters of scripture, that following the judgment that we have seen, that overwhelming and dramatic judgment which we have seen on Mount Carmel, and the execution, the bloody execution of the prophets of Baal by Elijah, that Ahab now, in this subsequent story, becomes a picture of dissipation. A picture of one who is given over to bare sensuality as he goes off to eat and drink. Maybe even eat a great deal and drink a great deal. Drink himself into a stupor.

    And of course, in keeping with this interpretation then, we have over against Ahab, contrasting Ahab, the figure of Elijah. Who in this story, very fittingly, gives himself to acts of devotion. Acts that demonstrate a love for God. Ahab in dissipation, in rebellion, given to sensuality, carnality, Elijah given to God. So we have Elijah in abject humility. Note his posture, crouching down upon the ground. his head between his knees in abject humility, applying himself to spiritual ends, while the world and those who love the world go to hell.

    Elijah, the epitome of spirituality, They have the epitome of frivolity, callousness, a hardness of heart against the things of God and the kingdom. So the interpretation goes, and from that point, we are then served up a good dosage of moral Yes, the crisis has been compounded for Israel in that presently she is suffering beneath God’s judgment in this three-and-a-half-year drought, and has now witnessed firsthand God’s fury upon the mountain.

    Now could there be anything like it? I mean, it wasn’t enough for the fire to come down and consume the offering. It wasn’t enough for the fire to come down and lap up the water that was in the trench around the altar. No, the fire comes down, consumes the offering, the water and the stones out of which the altar was made. Israel has been witness to the fierce fury of God, His wrath at Carmel.

    Yet, so it is suggested, now, as we view Ahab in the closing verses of this chapter, so it is suggested Ahab is not moved by any of this. and easily, with not so much as a thought, traipses off for a banquet to in effect forget his promise. He is compared with various historical figures, Belshazzar and his noblemen, who are feasting inappropriately as the Persians invade the city. Nero, fiddling while Rome burns, and English royalty diddly-parting while William the Conqueror invades. Ahab is representative of leaders and people, so it is said, who pursue pleasure intoxication while ruin is crashing down around their heads. He is indicative of circumstances that, in the end, overtake the wicked in their sin. The Lord comes as a thief in the night. So, Adam, due to a hardening of his heart, is unprepared. While Elijah, representative of the elect, is preparing himself for the advent of God. And like him, we must watch and pray.

    So that’s generally the approach that has been taken to this text by reformed interpreters of scripture, by conservative and evangelical interpreters of scripture. Now what do we do with this interpretation, this approach. First of all, we must of course stand our ground against all ungodly sensuality, and that is clear. So whatever is said subsequently, let this point stand. However we interpret the passage, we will of course add our voice to those who speak out against all ungodliness and wickedness, and the voice of those who speak out against Ahab and what he represents. Secondly, we stand our ground with regard to the demonstration of proper piety and godliness.

    Elijah is a man of prayer. an example of one who gives himself to effectual fervent prayer, and we know how he is utilized in the New Testament in the epistle of James to that end. So whatever is said subsequently about this passage, let us always keep in mind that pursuit of piety and godliness, which is correct for all of God’s saints, and let nothing be interpreted as taking away from that emphasis a proper biblical emphasis indeed. We are not to forsake prayer. We are always to be alert. We are to watch for the Lord is coming. We are to direct our affections towards God our expectation is for him.

    But, is that what this passage is about? Is this passage about the cultivation of proper piety in this respect? Is it about avoiding sensuality as is suggested with regard to a his pursuits. Well, I want you to consider a few things about this text in order that we might understand it a little better. Did you notice that he had here at the Lydians.

    Elijah gives the word, and Ahab obeys. Is it a trap that is being set for Ahab? Elijah driving him off to sort of fulfill his destiny? We all know what you are, Ahab. So here, why don’t you just demonstrate it for everyone to see. your own judge and condemn yourself by your actions. Is that really what’s going on here? Ahab feasts at Elijah’s command. In fact, each of the acts of Ahab in this account, to the end of the chapter, is at Elijah’s command. Ahab will go down to Jezreel at Elijah’s command.

    So you see, the feast looked upon in light of this fact must not be viewed as an irresponsible descent into riotousness, a blatant exercise of carnality. No, not at all. Rather, this feast is at the command of God, and this king keeps the feast in obedience to that command. The feast is no exhibition of carnality, it is rather the celebration of the triumph of God.

    And Ahab himself is now compelled to celebrate. How great our God, how thorough His triumph, how magnificent. The feast is positive, and even Ahab himself now is being transformed seemingly, when we know that it doesn’t take. But nevertheless, in this particular instance, Ahab is being transformed into a positive figure.

    Here then, the celebration of the triumph of God over the forces of evil. The prophets of Baal destroyed, God vindicated. But there’s something else here as well. Notice how Elijah phrases his statement to Ahab, Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of the roar of a shower. The triumph celebrated here is not just God’s victory over the prophets of Baal, over Baal himself, but it is in anticipation of the end of the drought and the coming of deliverance and salvation.

    This feast, then, is commended by God, and it is a positive festival. And Ahab’s presence at this feast is positive as well, and we are compelled to see him in a positive light. Ahab, then, as king, as king, as king of Israel, goes up. and under the constraints of the prophetic word, he representatively leads the nation in celebrating the deliverance and the salvation effected by God.

    Now there is another thing that you should notice in this connection, which puts a different light on Ahab and these events. You will note that there is no evidence of animosity between Ahab and Elijah in the story that is given to us here. In fact, we can go so far as to observe that Ahab and Elijah are not here antithetical to one another, but rather complementary. Each doing what he is supposed to be doing. And as such, they together present something of a complete picture of the activity of those who are to be leading God’s people.

    You remember Ezekiel 34, that’s the great shepherd passage. Woe to the shepherds of Israel! Well, Ahab was a shepherd, proven faithless, but now here in this story, He is being turned upside down, even if it is against his will. And through him there is shining the light of the true shepherd of Israel.

    Ahab is made here to be king in the very best sense. He is compelled to leave behind, as it were, the infatuation with David, and become one in this story through whom the messianic light of the good shepherd, the true shepherd of God’s people shines.

    As he leads the people of God in a meal, a feast, a festival, memorializing the triumph of our God. There you have Ahab, viewed positively. Complementing him in his kingly role is Elijah, who is pleased to be one in whom the priestly and prophetic ministry is focused. So you have the full complement for the leadership of Israel. King, prophet, priest. It’s all there, in these two men. Elijah, priestly in his intercession, prophetic with regard to his anticipation. The showers of blessing are coming. His effectual, fervent prayer is to that end, and that prayer is available. Ahab and Elijah, therefore, together in this passage, speak most positively about the Lord’s administration of things and His administration of His people.

    Beneath anointed leadership. And finally, in this respect, Again, underscoring the fact that we are not here to see Ahab negatively, but positively, we have in this passage that overwhelming positive theme of salvation. And that, in deference to judgment, you see.

    There’s no note of judgment here. In the episodes that are reported here, this is a story about salvation. The drought is ending. The rain is coming. Salvation is at hand. God will bless, does bless, his people. The feast is to be understood in this light. It is a feast that has its focus in salvation. The prayer of Elijah is to be understood in this light. Salvation is coming, and the enigmatic episode with which this passage concludes, it also is to be seen in the light of that salvation which is being accomplished. That concluding episode.

    Tell Elijah to get down, go to Jezreel, because the showers are coming. And then before I’m sorry, tell Ahab to go down in his chariot, down to Jezreel, because the showers are coming. And before Ahab can arrive, Elijah precedes him into the city. This final, this concluding episode, here in this chapter, preaches the positive, climactic intent of God. and in it Ahab shines. You may think otherwise, because he is outrun by Elijah, but no, that’s not the purpose.

    You see, Elijah is the prophet. The coming rain is the end-time blessing of God, and Ahab is the Christ And that is why Elijah outruns Ahab, for he, as the prophet, goes before the coming King and prepares his way. Elijah is the Old Testament and the prophetic witness.

    Coming behind him is the King, and then behind him, the wonder. of refreshment, the glorious blessing of the showerings from God, and the reviving of the earth. Imagine it. For anyone who had eyes to see on that day, imagine the whole history of salvation played out before them as the prophet comes first through the city gates and behind him there comes the king and then behind him the blessings from heaven why that’s the gospel and in another day another Elijah appears in Israel preparing the wedding and behind him following along that way which has been prepared comes the King and after the King the Holy Spirit poured out from heaven for the refreshment the eternal refreshment of the people of God now you live in the day of that refreshment. If you can think for a moment about the joy that was experienced by a sinful people as God graciously opened the heavens and the showers came. The people dancing in the streets of Jezreel. The farmers coming out of their and literally going into ecstasy with joy and delight will announce the eternal beatitude has commenced and the rain and showers of eternal grace have commenced and you are living in the day of the showers of God for the refreshment of your soul and that unto eternity. Your lives now, not barren, the ground of your soul no longer parched, but you revived and fruitful for God. Well, they have a wicked king who serves God’s purpose now even as God causes him to be one through whom the Lord Jesus Christ shines.

    We see it, we understand it, but more than that, we experience everything. of which it spoke. Let’s pray. O Lord, we ask that in light of the things that we have heard, in light of the things that we have observed in this passage, he would realize that you were preparing your people for the day when another Elijah would appear and one surely greater, far greater than Ahab would come and that day in which he would pour out upon your people the showers of the Holy Spirit in lieu of the day when all things would be brought to a conclusion and how our festival with no diminishment or cessation could only be perpetual in your presence a feast of feasts in glory with our God forever. Train our souls now, Lord, that we, by what we observe in your gospel, would realize that these are the days of refreshment for our souls, and therefore we are to be heartened and also obedient.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Fire on Carmel

    Fire on Carmel

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Life of Elijah” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, May 15, 1988.

    About this sermon

    Mount Carmel stages a contest whose outcome was never really in doubt, since Ahab’s power, like Satan’s, is only ever derivative, borrowed from a throne that isn’t his. The fire that falls on Elijah’s altar pictures nothing less than the end of the world breaking into the present. Baal’s silence, and Satan’s, stands exposed against Revelation 19’s vision of Christ’s final victory.

    More sermons from 1 Kings · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    All right, we are in 1 Kings 18 this evening, and we are beginning with verse 20, and we will read through verse 40. 1 Kings 18, verse 20. So Ahab sent a message among all the sons of Israel. and brought the prophets together at Mount Carmel. And Elijah came near to all the people and said, How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. But if Baal, follow him. But the people did not answer him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, I alone am left a prophet of the Lord. The Dale Prophets are 450 men.

    Now let them give us two oxen. Let them choose one oxen for themselves and cut it up and place it on the wood, but put no fire under it. And I will prepare the other ox and lay it on the wood, and I will not put a fire under it. Then you will call on the name of your God, and I will call on the name of the Lord. And the God who answers by fire, he is God.

    And all the people answered and said, that is a good idea. So Elijah said to the prophets of Dale, choose one ox for yourselves, and prepare it first for you, our many, and call upon the name of your God, and put no fire under it. Then they took the ox which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, answer us. There was no voice, and no one answered.

    And they leaped about the altar which they made. And it came about at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, Allowed with a loud voice, for he is a god. Either he is occupied or gone aside, or he is on a journey. or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened. So they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves, after their custom, with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them.

    And it came about when midday was past that they raved until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, but there was no voice, no one answered, no one paid attention. Then Elijah said to all the people, Come near to me. So all the people came near to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, Israel shall be your name.

    So with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. He made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two measures of seed. Then he arranged the wood and cut the ox in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, fill four pitchers with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood. And he said, do it a second time. And they did it a second time. And he said, do it a third time. And they did it a third time. And the water flowed around the altar.

    And he also filled the trench Then it came about at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, today let it be known that Thou art God in Israel and that I am Thy servant and that I have done these things at Thy word.

    Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that Thou, O Lord, art God. that thou hast turned, and that thou hast turned their hearts back again. Then fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stone, and the dust, and lit up the fire that was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said, The Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God.

    Then Elijah said to them, Seize the prophets of Baal, do not let one of them escape. So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Eshon, and slew them there. Our Father, may we remember that Elijah was the servant of your word. and that you were vindicated with your word before your people and thus you are vindicated still your word be it inscripturated or living as is Jesus Christ truly you have vindicated all of your promises and you have kept your word in and through him Our God, may we delight in Your Word, knowing that it is life to us and life on our path. We pray this in Jesus’ name.

    Amen. The Envoy of Hell. The Envoy of Hell. Of determined, wide-eyed, self-conscious apostasy. Ahab by name. This envoy of hell sends out his own envoy, as if he were the commissioning agent himself, the Prince of Darkness no less. This Prince of Darkness This king of hell summons the church, seemingly. The sons of Israel. These sons of Israel having been corrupted under his rule, and under the rule of those that have preceded him as those truly representative, no less than he, of the pit of destruction.

    He has also summoned his minions and angelic hosts, the ministers of Baal, all 450 of them. So, the church, if you will, and the ministers of Baal, all gather at Mount Carmel, a special and sacred place. At one time, from the story, so it seems, dedicated to the worship of the Lord in some fashion, for there was there an altar to God. But now a special and sacred place dedicated to the worship of faith. A mountain resort and shrine, which in its name memorialized the earthy, alien God that had usurped the love of the people in Israel. This mountain resort and shrine appropriately named Carmel, for the name itself means a fruitful park, a luxuriant garden.

    Remember, Baal is the God of fertility. Baal is the God of productivity and fruitfulness. He is the God presently worshipped in Israel by the Church. But now this servant of the abyss, Ahab. This servant of the abyss issues his summons, but as he does so, he proves one in whom there resides no ultimate power. For if we read the verses that precede those which we have read this evening, we realize that the summons has actually been issued by a counter-envoy, by the envoy of heaven, Elijah, who speaks on behalf of heaven’s king. the Lord God of Israel, the God and Father of our Savior Jesus Christ. He is the one who owns the earth. He is the one who owns the heavens. He is the one who owns all that is in the earth and the heavens. At His bidding, then, by His power, This envoy of hell, this one who symbolizes the king of hell himself, issues his summons.

    Truly, Satan conspires. He marks out a course. and vainly imagines a power for himself apart from the animating power of God. Does Satan have power in and of himself? Does Satan have a power which is his, of his creation? Is that power equal to that of God, whatever power he has to exercise? Are there actually two competing forces in reality? The power of God, the power of Satan, Both of equal strength. Both destined to continue forever. No, you see, even Satan’s power is derivative, subordinate. It is not ultimate. And in the end, it shall not triumph. God’s power alone. shall demonstrate itself victoriously.

    So, the church assembles, and the legions of death gather to a mount in the territory of Israel. Up the slopes they go, to the plateau, as if keeping a rendezvous, as if destined for this meeting, as if convening for an ultimate confrontation, a final confrontation between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness, here being played out before their eyes, and through scripture, our eyes as well.

    The people are challenged. As if this envoy of heaven were saying, You cannot serve God and man. As if this envoy from heaven were saying, He who is not for me is against me. They’re hesitating. The hesitation of this people, their silence is deafening. But Elijah preaches. The message goes out. The call to the church is to repent and turn to the Lord. But this church of Latter-day Saints will wait and see.

    This church of Latter-day Saints will wait and see who the true God is. So then, she lacks perception, insight, understanding. She seemingly fails in her silence to respond to the gospel. She rejects God in failing to accept openly the offer placed before her.

    So you see, here, as it will be in the end, judgment begins at the house of God. And though her later confession, verse thirty-nine in this story, in this account promises to us a message of grace and forgiveness. Yes, yes, there will come that day when any form of a later confession will not save us. And she The Church, like the virgins with untrimmed lamps, will awaken in the night of the Lord’s Advent, in the midst of the conflagration around her, in which more than an altar, with a sacrifice upon it, is consumed. And she will see her world and all that she has lived for, in disobedience to God, consumed.

    So it is that in Elijah’s day, the fire that comes forth from God is a four-tenth of the last day, a symbol of impending judgment. How wonderfully we resonate to this story. and that in part because, you see, in Elijah’s day time remains for a change of heart.

    But the day is coming and is already upon us when no change of heart will be possible. Indeed, as the Prophet intoned in the Old Testament, and as the message of Revelation repeats, Those destined for the sword will go to the sword. Those destined for famine and pestilence will go to famine and pestilence. Those destined for destruction will meet destruction. The day of opportunity expires, and the time of judgment comes.

    But what of, what of this prince of the domain of this world? What of this king of darkness? This pretend god with whom the world and the church has played? with whom they have delighted themselves. You see, the prince of darkness who presently plays himself with the flames of his abode can produce no flame himself.

    He who is confined to the fire can produce no fight himself. And whatever reality stands behind this deity, this pretend god, this veil, whatever reality stands behind this veil is ultimately impotent. There is a sense in which This pretender, this vapor god that fails is as real as evil itself, as real as the pit of hell. But there is that sense as well that this god is but an apparition, an invention, a contrivance of men and their imaginations. He is but a mask. He is but a charade behind which Satan parades. He is hollow, but a shell. He is as nothing. Baal is non-existent. He is incapable of any action whatsoever. He can do nothing.

    The sight of his servant’s blood, while they dash themselves, while they tear at their flesh and open that flesh, the sight of his servant’s blood cannot move him at all. for he has no eyes with which to see. The sound of his servant’s cry cannot move him, for he has no ears with which to hear. And the humiliation Think of the humiliation of the 450 prophets of Baal. The humiliation of his servants cannot move him, cannot even move him, because he has no arm. And he extends no head to his own. Baal is non-existent.

    He has no reality, yet there is reality behind him. Reality as bold as evil and as plain as the pit of hell. As real as Satan. For Satan struts behind the mask. He is the one who is behind the charade. Good night. Good night. Just as the inoperative, incapable, impotent, non-existent veil, Satan too is incapable of action. Any final action.

    It is as if he were bound. As if Satan were bound. So, Bound is he, he cannot act. He is not free in himself. How tied up might he be? How constrained might this being be? He is doubly bound, for he is bound by the power of God. He is like one whom God is set on a journey and is not even proximate to hear the cries of those who serve him or observe their behavior by which they thought to compel his action. He is like one asleep. He is as if one preoccupied. Because God sends him away. God puts him to sleep. God diverts his attention. Yes, bound by the power of God. That power, ultimate. But I have suggested that he is doubly bound. not just bound by the power of God, but bound by his own nature.

    In the end, you see, Satan proves he proves no helper to anyone who serves him. For Satan not only will not say, he does not want to say, He does not give a damn about your soul, except as that soul flatters Him. He knows nothing about the meaning of the word salvation. Satan has no love. He doesn’t even have any love for those who serve him.

    And he must be seen in the end, as is obvious from this text, this story which we have read, he must be seen as one who delights in the torment of those who serve him, tormented as he is himself. As these prophets of fail make fools of themselves, The supreme fool is thriving in their foolishness. So much does he hate those who call him war.

    For he is the perfection of hatred. You see, in the end, Satan, the god of this world, will not lift even a finger to aid any who has served him. There is a sense in which he is perfectly, completely preoccupied with himself. He is the epitome of selfishness, existing in and out of absolute self-absorption. That is His soul.

    But over against Baal, and Satan, and Ahab, is the Lord and His messenger. God and His Son expose the fraud, the fiend, this perfect expression of conceit and self-love. So dance on, you prophets of Baal. Whirl wildly in your dance macabre. spend and expose yourselves for the sake of this perfect expression of vanity live for him if you will he is no friend of yours he has lied to you For he is a liar from the beginning, and he has deceived you, and you foolishly have fallen into his trap. But Elijah’s God, the God and Father of Jesus Christ, he is true. call to him day and night, and will he not answer them quickly? From beneath the altar they cry, and their cry ascends, How long, O Lord?

    And this one, the Lord our God, who seems so restrained at times, seems so far away, seems as if he were the one that was non-existent. This one, in conclusion, at the climax of things, bursts forth in the flames that affirm that he lives and reigns. And in that day, the bright champion of the Kingdom of God, when blazing light shall streak across the sky, and he shall ride upon a white horse, his name will be called Faithful and True, his eyes a flame of fire, his head be decked with diamonds, his robe dipped in blood, his name the word of God and from his mouth there shall issue forth a sharp two-edged sword and he will tread the winepress of the wrath of God Revelation chapter 19 verses 11 through 15 hallelujah Father, we know of the call that has come forth from heaven, and we are addressed by it, that we might be prepared because we have been awakened through your call to serve you. So let us be alert, awake, so that the day of the Lord will not overtake us and we be found to be unprepared. Instead, Lord, let our cry ascend. How long, O Lord?

    And may we look forward to, with longing and great anticipation, that day in which the Lord Jesus Christ will appear in all of His glory, and every hope and aspiration which we have held because of what Your Word has told us will be realized and accomplished. So may we trust, so may we abide in your grace, so may we believe for the saving of our souls.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Three and a Half Years

    Three and a Half Years

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Life of Elijah” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, May 1, 1988.

    About this sermon

    The three and a half years of drought in verse 1 work both literally and figuratively, a number that recurs throughout Scripture to mark a set season of persecution under God’s own protection. Ahab and Herod share more than a taste for tyranny; both preside over that same kind of set-apart suffering. Elijah’s return after those years anticipates Christ’s own return after his appointed time.

    More sermons from 1 Kings · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Let’s see how well I do here. I think my voice is coming back. We are in 1 Kings 18. Continuing with verse 1, we will be through verse 19. Now it came about, after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth. So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab.

    Now the famine was severe in Samaria, and Ahab called Obediah. who was over the household. Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly, for it came about that Jezebel destroyed the prophets of the Lord. But Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifty in the cave and provided them with bread and water. Then Ahab said to Obadiah, Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the valleys. Perhaps We will find grass and keep the horses and ewes alive and not have to kill some of the cattle. So they divided the land between them to survey. Ahab went out one way by himself and Obadiah went another way by himself. Now as Obadiah was on the way, behold Elijah met him. And he recognized him and fell on his face and said, Is this you, Elijah, my master? And he said to him, it is I. Go say to your master, behold, Elijah is here.

    And he said, what sin have I committed that you are giving your servant into the hand of Ahab to put me to death? As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent to search for you. And when they said he is not here, he made the kingdom or nation swear that they could not find you. Now you are saying, Go say to your master, Behold, Elijah is here, and it will come about when I leave you that the Spirit of the Lord will carry you where I do not know. So when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I, your servant, have feared the Lord from my youth. As it not been told to my master what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, that I hid a hundred prophets of the Lord by fifties in the cave, and provided them with bread and water.

    And now you are saying, Go say to your master, Behold, Elijah is here. He will then kill you.’ And Elijah said, As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.’ So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him that Ahab went to meet Elijah. And it came about, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, Is this you, you troubler of Israel?

    And he said, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s health have, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and you have followed the Baal. Now then, send and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, together with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah. who eat at Jezebel’s table.

    Our Lord, you set forth your word, and in doing so, you set forth your Son. You set forth that salvation for us, and Lord, may we delight in that redemption accomplished for us and rejoice in the grace provided us. And may we not shy away from the confession of our sins in light of the cross, knowing that if we confess those sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Lord, we with this kind of confidence then come continually to your word. that again reminded of the redemption that great salvation our hearts might also thrill in the realization that continually our sins are provided for by you through the cross of Christ and the answer to them is provided us so that we may not bear the burden of those sins but have them removed and that because of Christ and his sacrifice on our behalf. Hear us then, Lord, as we would come to your word this evening, that your richest benediction would be upon us, your children, in hearing that word. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    There is mentioned here in the opening verse of 1 Kings 18, the three years of the famine which had been experienced, or the drought that had been experienced, by the nation of Israel, the ten northern tribes, which were living under the rule of Ahaz.

    This period of three years is not exactly precise, for in that first verse we are told that it was in the third year that the message then comes to Elijah that he is to present himself before Ahab, and then the rain would come again upon the face of the earth. This three-year period, however, is spoken of more precisely in other portions of the scripture. We could turn, for instance, to Luke’s Gospel, the fourth chapter, the twenty-fifth verse, and there read of Jesus’ comments to the people in Nazareth, his hometown, where he had preached a sermon to them, and they were in the midst of their reaction to that sermon and to him specifically. He speaks to them in that context about the ministry of Elijah, and he talks about the drought, the cessation of the rain. He speaks of three years and six months. Three and a half years, then, are mentioned by Jesus as that precise time the drought lasted in Israel.

    Now, this calculation of the time of the drought is mentioned once more in the New Testament. You might recall our readings from the Epistle of James, and there in the fifth chapter, the seventeenth verse, once more, the three years and the six months are mentioned. Three and a half Now, what interests us here is not so much the specific calculation or even the specific reference to those six months that go beyond and into the three years that are mentioned in 1 Kings 18, verse 1. Rather, it is what the three years and six months period comes to signify, and how it is used in the Word of God.

    Actually, it becomes somewhat cryptically rendered in other places in Scripture. For instance, in Daniel’s prophecy, the seventh chapter, the twenty-fifth verse, we read about a time, times, and half a time. Well, you know, that those who have spent a great deal of time on prophetic literature have made a great deal out of a statement like that. A time, time, and half a time.

    And this has often been translated by others, a year, two years, and a half a year still. So we have there in Daniel chapter seven, verse twenty-five, a mention of a three and a half year period. A year, two years, that’s three, and then a half a year. Adding them all together, you get three and a half years.

    Well, if you read through that seventh chapter of Daniel, the theme that you read of there is one that is thoroughly apocalyptic. That is, it reflects in figurative language the great battle between the forces of evil and the kingdom of God, and the final triumph of the kingdom of God and the destruction of all the forces of evil. It’s magnificently described there for you in that seventh chapter of Daniel. Now, you may recall something from that chapter. The exceedingly dreadful fourth beast that is described for you there, that fourth beast that appears in Daniel’s vision, spoken of in many places in that seventh chapter, but specifically from the nineteenth verse on. So that fourth beast wages war against the saints of the Lord.

    This beast has ten horns. signifying ten kings, after which comes another king, yet another one. Verse twenty-four. Into the hands of this ruler, the saints are given up for a period of, yes, a time, times, and half a time, three and a half years. After that, after that, this ruler comes into judgment. His kingdom is devastated, it is destroyed, and the eternal kingdom of God triumphs. Well, it’s magnificent stuff.

    Stuff from which we can derive tremendous encouragement if we read it with patience and with reverence. But we’re not done with Daniel yet. We’re going to talk about time. and times and half a time, one more time. In the twelfth chapter, the seventh verse, the three and a half year period is spoken of again.

    Here it is that time immediately prior to the end of all things, the end of the world, in which the power, the power of the people of holiness for the people of holiness, the holy people of the Lord, will be shattered because of a severe persecution. The end of the world is coming, but prior to the consummation of all things, the power of the people of holiness is shattered because of a severe persecution. Once more, unmistakably, the scene is apocalyptic. And in view is the suffering that is coming to the people of God prior to their ultimate and certain triumph.

    We find the three and a half years, the time, times, and half a time mentioned in the New Testament also. Where would you think you might find it? But in the book of Revelation. If you turn to the 12th chapter, the 14th verse, there you can find it spoken of one more time.

    It is a great, great passage. You have the description of the woman and her birth to the child. The dragon has risen up to oppose the woman and the child. The dragon seeks to devour the woman’s child, but God provides a way of escape. That 14th verse of the 12th chapter speaks there of a time, times, and half a time again, the three and a half years mentioned here as well. The two notes But in contrast to what we found in those Daniel passages, the image is somewhat reversed in this passage itself. As before, the scene is unmistakably apocalyptic. It, with the other passages we’ve looked at, envisions a time of persecution for the people of God, The people of God signified in the figure of the woman and her child, verse 13.

    The dragon, or the force of evil, persecutes the woman and her child, but the Lord, despite this persecution, preserves them as they are literally, that is, literally, flown on eagle’s wings into the wilderness. and nourished there for a three and a half year period, that’s verse fourteen.

    Now we put the passages together, the one from Daniel and this one from Revelation, and we realize that it is not difficult for us to see the relevance to the story of Elijah. All of these passages speak of a time of extreme difficulty for the people of God. That certainly came out for us in the first Kings 18, so bad is it that it’s even dangerous to be a prophet, for Jezebel is about executing the prophets of God, though the guy is spoken of in that regard. So yes, all of these passages that we’ve referenced here do speak of a time of extreme difficulty, a time of extreme persecution for the people of God.

    They talk about a concentration of the power of evil, either in a ruler specifically reference for the dragon in Revelation chapter twelve. And that revelation, it speaks of a provision. for the people of God, and that’s what I mean about something of a reversal of the image. Where in the other passages from Daniel, the emphasis was on the persecution, here the emphasis is on the preservation. The preservation of the people of God through a time of distress.

    Now truly, as you reflect upon these passages which we’ve reviewed, and you think of them in light of what we know about Elijah, It’s as if the story of Elijah can be specifically brought into view. Baalism under Jezebel has set in motion a period of extreme persecution and distress. Evil has been concentrated in the house of Adam, and the people of God, signified in the person of Elijah, were being persecuted and persecuted severely. But know this well. the correlation of the Elijah story with what we find in that Revelation passage. The woman’s flight into the wilderness, her literal flight, her nourishment there, these things are reminiscent of God’s rescue of and care for Elijah. Like the woman and the child, that’s those in whom God’s promise is focused They parallel, if you will, Elijah, the one in whom God’s promise is focused.

    However, that three-year period mentioned in 1 Kings 18.1 now becomes the specific three-and-a-half years in the biblical tradition as it is worked out. mentioned by Jesus in his sermon, mentioned by James in his epistle, spoken of as well in Daniel and in Revelation. And those three and a half years are associated with Elijah’s ordeal and the drought in Israel, and they become typical for the biblical tradition.

    They become typical of the times immediately before the great conflagration in which the kingdom of God meets the region of hell in the final battle. So, when God now comes to Elijah and says to him, go show yourself to The meeting with Ahab and the subsequent contest between Ahab’s prophets and Elijah is comparable to and an anticipation of the end of the world. Judgment coming upon the servants of Satan and also promised blessings upon the children of God. The Lord says to Elijah, not just go show yourself to Cahab, He also says, I will send rain upon you. The judgment is coming, but after the judgment, the blessings. rain will come well the scene is set Elijah returns he returns to face the kingdom of hell And the world is about to end. But next, into this apocalyptic thing, comes the figure of Obadiah. There intrudes this enigmatic personality, Obadiah, and we are somewhat baffled by him.

    For this man seems to have great authority in Ahab’s house. What is it that is said of him? Verse 3, And Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. Why doesn’t seem to be anyone more important to Ahab than Obadiah? Maybe that’s why he can put off somewhat the hand of Jezebel in her pursuits, and deserve some of the profits at least, alive. But at any rate, this man seems to have unparalleled authority in Ahab’s house, yet at the same time he demonstrates great devotion to the Lord. Who is Obadiah? What is Obadiah? Obadiah is a testimony to the confusion that abounds even as the world is facing its conflagration.

    The confusion that abounds with regard to proper role, with regard to proper standing and setting, for Obadiah makes Ahab appear to be better than he actually is why should Ahab keep a man like this around anyway? but Ahab makes Obadiah appear to be worse than he actually was why would Obadiah hobnob with the likes of Ahab? pray tell so Thus the confusion.

    Are the sons of hell all that confident? Are the children of the devil all that certain? They serve the prince of darkness, there’s no doubt about that. But are they not in so many ways compelled to cover all the bases? Do they not flatter themselves with regard to their breadth, their liberality? Just how wide and expansive their tents are. How inclusive and tolerant, even though they are involved in the execution of the servants of God.

    Ahab, in fact, does not let go altogether of his tie with the true religion and service of Jehovah. Thus the confusion. The admonition comes to the church, try the See if they are of the Lord. Don’t be deceived. There will be many out there, wooled in sheep’s clothing, deceiving you and seeking to take you in. The confusion, before the end comes, all of this will abound.

    Think of another parable. As far as Ahab is concerned, For in him we have a remarkable parallel to another potent age, another servant of the kingdom of darkness, another embodiment of the forces of hell. Ahab’s counterpart in the New Testament is the Herod of the days of Jesus. Think about that man. how similar he was to Ahab, apparently under the thumb of a vile woman.

    And that’s not unwillingness. But one who wanted to keep his hand in the worship of Jehovah, keep contact with it, cover his bases, while he is at work seemingly persecuting the truth and opposing it, yet courting it, and courting it in the very man he is seeking to destroy. Isn’t it ironic? We are told that he feared John the Baptist, but called for him often because he loved to listen to him. Herod is hardly in the confusion that precedes the conflagration overtaking Palestine in those days. Herod hardly recognized who he was talking to. You see it?

    Elijah sends Obadiah to tell Ahab Elijah is here. We send him to tell Ahab that before the great and terrible day at Carmel, and the destruction of the entirety of the house of Ahab, But Herod sends for John the Baptist in order to hear him. But in so sending for him, he is actually sent for no one less than Elijah himself. The New Testament Elijah.

    Before the great and terrible day of the Lord.

    Elijah has indeed come. The appearance of Elijah, the return of Elijah from the region of Sidon to the territory of Israel. is a premonition of the end of the world the appearance of Elijah in the days of Aaron his coming then is a premonition a testimony to the certain end of the world the three and a half year period a time, times and half a time, symptomatic of the period of time in which we live, a time in which the people of God are persecuted, yet a time giving way to God’s ultimate justice, his destruction of the forces of evil and the triumph of his kingdom through the Lord Jesus Christ. the one to whom the kingdom belongs well there is gospel in 1st Kings 18 for us an encouragement so that we would be certain though the three and a half years seems like a couple of millennia Truly, it will come to an end as certainly as the drought did in Israel, as certainly as the weight in Israel came to an end and the Messiah appeared. Surely, as certain as these things, the time will come when finally and fully Satan’s realm will be utterly evacuated and the Kingdom of Christ wonderfully, gloriously, appeared. Truly, Lord, we ask that the significance of the appearance of Elijah in Israel so many years ago would not elude us, but we, refreshed and nourished by the truth that derives from his would be encouraged all the more since we are able to judge these things in light of other passages written and specifically in light of the coming of Jesus Christ.

    His forward being an Elijah promised. So surely the Elijah of the New Testament, John the Baptist, prepares the way for the Lord. Lord, we ask you that we prepared by you, though persecuted, though opposed, though times of suffering have intervened, would not despair. The judgment is certain. The forces of evil shall be destroyed. The kingdom of God shall triumph.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Cling to the Resurrection

    Cling to the Resurrection

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Life of Elijah” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 24, 1988.

    About this sermon

    Rejecting the word of God is finally the same thing as rejecting God himself, a point this text makes twice over. The brook drying up in verse 7 and the widow’s son dying in verse 17 both strip away every earthly security Elijah and the widow might have leaned on. What remains, in both cases, is nothing less than resurrection.

    More sermons from 1 Kings · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we are reading from 1 Kings 17, and we are beginning with verse 8, and we will read to the end of the chapter. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” So he arose and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks.

    And he called to her and said, Please get me a little water in a jar that I may drink. And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.” But she said, as the Lord your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in a bowl and a little oil in the jar. And behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die. Then Elijah said to her, do not fear. Do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first, and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son.

    For thus says the Lord God of Israel, the bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth.” So she went and did according to the word of Elijah. And she and he and her household ate for many days. The bowl of flour was not exhausted, nor did the jar of oil become empty according to the word of the Lord, which he spake through Elijah. Now it came about after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick, and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. So she said to Elijah, what have I to do with you, old man of God?

    You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death. And he said to her, give me your son. Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living. and laid him on his own bed. And he called to the Lord and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying by causing her son to die?

    Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and called to the Lord and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child’s life return to him. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child returned to him, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, See, your son is alive. Then the woman said to Elijah, Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord is and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is true.

    Our Lord, we realize that your word does not return to you void, but accomplishes what you have sent it to accomplish. For ourselves, in our lives, we look for the fruition of that word, and we also look for the fruition of your word in the lives of those whom you are calling. For surely, through our efforts, through the proclamation here, through our participation in the gospel, your word shall be heard, and there shall be that response that pleases you. Therefore, Lord, with all confidence, may we give ourselves over to that gospel which we have embraced, that gospel which is the hope of the world. May we ourselves be committed to it without reservation, May our prayers be in keeping with the things that we have heard and read, and may our souls be strengthened in keeping with your provision. We ask this through Christ our Savior. Amen.

    In so many ways, The time of Elijah was a time of crisis for the Word of God. A time of crisis for the Word of God. You’ll note in this passage which we’ve read, and also in those verses that have preceded, just how serious this issue of the Word of God was in the days of Elijah, and how central the whole matter of the Word of God is to the stories that appear here.

    You will know, for instance, the end of the sixteenth chapter. How it was in the days of Elijah and Ahab, the king of Israel, that Hiel, the Bethelite, built, or shall we say rebuilt, Jericho, in direct contradiction to the word of God, that word which had been spoken through Joshua, the son of Nun. So it is that the word of the Lord is rejected by Israel in the days of Elijah the prophet. Note also, as we move into the seventeenth chapter, the prophet’s word being the word of God, it also there being central to the prophecy now that has been given to Israel and to the king Ahab. The first verse of the seventeenth chapter, as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives before whom I stand, says Elijah, Surely there shall be neither do nor rain these years, except by my word.

    Verse two, the word of the Lord came to Elijah. The effort then is in keeping with a restoration of that word for the Prophet, as he labors for Israel, as he labors before the Lord, the word of the Lord being re-asserted, re-established, if you will. Verse eight, once more those words appear. The word of the Lord came to Elijah, saying, note also how it is at the conclusion of that second episode that we have in the seventeenth chapter, verses eight through sixteen.

    The woman goes and does as Elijah had bid her. According to the word of Elijah, the word of the prophet, once more the word of the The fulfillment of that word which he had spoken to her, that the bowl of flour would not be exhausted, nor the jar of oil become empty. Verse 16. And note also how this chapter concludes. Then the woman said to Elijah, verse 24, Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth. The age of Elijah is an age of crisis concerning the word of God, and in that respect not unlike our own.

    We aren’t certain that what God has said is true. We’re not confident that what he has proclaimed will actually come to pass. We devise substitutes for the Word. Now even though we are engaged in constructing substitutes or joining ourselves to substitutes for the Word, That doesn’t mean that we’re not religious. We may be very, very religious. But the word is something that we can play fast and loose with.

    The word, possibly taken seriously, possibly not, Some circumstances, yes. Some circumstances, no. The Lord takes his word with absolute seriousness. For the word, you see, is an extension of the word himself. One cannot take the word any less seriously than they take the Lord. The word of God in crisis in the day of Elijah. That word by a very religious people challenged and rejected. They have decided that the word is vacuous, empty. Obviously, Hiel had concluded that. Obviously, Ahab had concluded that.

    There would be no recrimination for abandoning the word of the Lord. What would, in fact, happen They had decided in that day that whatever the Lord had projected with regard to the future certainly would not come to pass. And therefore there was no fear of God and there was no fear of his word. The word was empty.

    Interestingly, The sin of Ahab, the sin of Israel, is so much like that original sin that we hear about in Genesis chapter three. Who is God to say that if you eat of this fruit, partake of this tree, you will die? Certainly that will not happen, so the word then is challenged, challenged by Satan, and then consequently rejected by Eve and her husband Adam. The word spoken by God is vacuous. What God has said will not come to pass. There is therefore no reason to fear Him. there is no reason to obey him.

    You might also take note that the word of God is challenged and rejected because it is judged to be unprofitable It is judged to be a word suggesting to us delay in the fulfillment of our desires. It is judged to be a word that compounds the frustration of our lives, and in what it denies us, extends to us death rather than life. suggesting such things as these with regard to the Word of God, then drives someone to conclude that embracing the opposite, in rejecting the Word of God, one will then experience profit and satisfaction, gratification, and life to the full. Once more you may drift back through the pages of the Old Testament to the story of the Garden of Eden and realize that what is being suggested here in the days of Ahab and Elijah is not different from what was suggested in the Garden and the conflict that arose between God and Satan around our first parent. For what was it that Satan was suggesting? He was suggesting that a rejection of the word of God and the acceptance of his word was the route to profit, to life, to satisfaction, to gratification. But to accept the word of God and to live by it was to accept a road of inordinate delay, in which our satisfaction was put off, and life and the fullness of its promise was denied us, and that deliberately by God, if in fact there was a God at all. Now you think about it. You think about your sin, and the arguments that go on inside of yourself.

    What’s the argument? God doesn’t know. If He does, He doesn’t care. So I’ll do it like this. The Word of God says, I’ll die. Oh no, I won’t die. The Word of God says, I will be judged. No, I won’t be judged. My sin suggests to me that life is somehow truly being denied. That the only way to live is to live in terms of my desires and their instant, immediate gratification. If I am not perfectly satisfied while I am worshipping God, then the worst for God, because I simply will not put up with that.

    Battle lines are drawn. Will you live by the word of God, or will you not? Will you accept what he says, or will you not? Does God actually know what the future will bring, or does He not? Will I deny myself now, on the basis of the word of God, knowing that if I do, God will supply me such satisfaction in Him that surpasses any gratification that I can presently know?

    Well, Israel was not willing to wait. And Israel was not willing to trust. So, Baal presents himself as if he were an extension of that serpent out of the garden. A God, if you will, offering immediate profit and prosperity and instant, immediate satisfaction.

    Why deny yourself when there is a God who will give you everything that you could wish for in this world? And he took him up into a high mountain. And he showed him all the kingdoms of this world. And he said to him, all of this I will give to you if you will bow down and worship me. Well, these stories of Elijah, then, are for the purpose of reasserting the claim and the power of God’s word.

    And so it is. The theme over them could well be, the Lord, not they, the Lord gives life in accordance with his word, and life is sound nowhere else but with God and by his word. Jesus says in a later context, the words that I speak unto you are spirit and life. Peter confesses to Christ, to whom shall we go? For you are the Holy One of Israel and you have the words of eternal life. Word then in relationship to life The Lord gives life and that in keeping with his word.

    And these stories that are given us here for the purpose of reasserting that claim and demonstrating the power of God’s word over against the world, the word of pretended gods. You have the structure of these two stories. The story that you find in verses two through seven that speaks about Elijah’s sojourn in the Transjordan by the brook Cherith. And then Elijah’s trip into Zarephath and his sojourn there with the widow and her son.

    And in each story, the word of God is prominent. Faith in this man, this servant of God, with regard to that word. He embraces the command of God and he obeys that word. He doesn’t hesitate. There is promise given with the command, and by that faith he embraces the promise too, and he sees the fulfillment.

    I tell you, Elijah, you’ll go and the ravens themselves will provide you food, and the brook cherub will supply you drink. Go to Zarephath, Elijah. I have commanded a widow there to provide for you. He arrives and the widow is at the point of death, and in keeping with that which God Himself has declared, He commands that widow then in light of that which God Himself has said.

    The Word of God gives life. We see the fulfillment. And in reading these stories, our souls ought to be strengthened, our hearts themselves revived, because we now, seeing these things worked out in the life of Elijah, take heart. God’s word is true.

    He will provide for his people. And especially if we read these things in light of the history of redemption. For Elijah crosses the Jordan and he goes into the land east of the Jordan as an anticipation of the exile of the people of God themselves. Will God desert his people or will he enable them to survive? Indeed he will. How? By the word. He will sustain his people by the word. Elijah doesn’t remain in the East. Neither did the children of Israel. They came back from the outside. They passed through the land, if you will, through the regions of Israel to the West and into the territories of the Gentiles.

    Will God’s purposes fail? No, they will not. Why? Because his word is sure and you can count on it. That for your encouragement, but also that for your chastisement. For your falterings and your failings are proportionate to your lack of confidence in that Word, your refusal to live by faith. But having given us this lesson with regard to the matter of the Word of God, Our life, if you will. These stories are not without complication, and we’ve spelled that out in part already.

    For here you have Elijah going, in keeping with the command of God, into this territory of the transjordan, to the east, to live along the banks of the brook Cherubim. But then the brook dries up. Complication comes. What will you do when the book dries up? Will you continue to live by the word of God, or will you cave in and say, well, I guess Baal was right after all?

    I might as well go and serve him. And what use is this prophet? We move on to the next story about the widow and her son, and we find out that the prophets there, the one who’s carrying the word of God, and when you know her son is dying. Now, let me tell you something about the word of God.

    Is it there simply to provide you the comforts of life so that you in embracing are guaranteed of a better annual income? So once you take up with God, life will be rosy and you won’t know a period of depression or decline or declension the rest of your days. Yes, the book dries up. and the child dies. To what end? Well, with regard to the drawing up of that book, we are being taught that life is not to be found in the things of this world, but in God himself and in his word, to drive us to trust all the more in that word which shall sustain us.

    And the significance of the story of the widow’s son, why this word is so powerful. And so much is it the fact that it has its focus in life, that this word is able to give back life from the dead. Isn’t it ironic that as the gospel word moves into the Gentile regions, that at the center of that message of the gospel will be the resurrection, and the word’s connection with that resurrection. You’re playing with life and death issues here. So great, so wonderful, so powerful is this word. That God, by it, gives life back to the dead.

    Even if it’s true that Elijah has made his visit, that the sins of the widow may be exposed, and the judgment of those sins may be extracted. Yet, in keeping with the word, life comes. The prophet of God may visit you His word may be read out over your life. You may be slain by your sin. All of the judgments read out over you justly in keeping with that word. But is that the end? the word of God promises you life and the God who gave the word gives you life through his word so indeed The life lived in keeping with the word sees complications arise. The book dries up. The widow’s son dies. But the word cries out to you. Life. And not just life here. Eternal life. Now do you believe that? Does it make a difference to you? Eternal life.

    Let us pray. Father, if we have fallen away, if the Word of God has slipped from us, if we have forgotten it, if we have put it on the shelf, if we have even in rebellion refused to open it, to read it, to store up that Word in our heart, Lord, be gracious. Turn us around. And as you prevailed with Israel, May you prevail with us. May we, Lord, be receptive to that word. And may there be life, life in us, because of the word. A life that will never end.

    We pray, our Father, that you will increase our faith. We may rely upon you completely, because you’re the God of truth. You have proved it over and over. You proved it in the days of Elijah. And even more perfectly, you proved it in Christ your Son.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Irony of Elijah’s Travels

    The Irony of Elijah’s Travels

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Life of Elijah” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 17, 1988.

    About this sermon

    1 Kings 17:8-16 deliberately mirrors 17:1-7, and each stage of Elijah’s exile teaches the same lesson in a new way. Irony runs through his travels, as a Gentile widow at the edge of Israel’s world feeds Israel’s prophet. The ravens’ bread and the widow’s jar both point to Christ, the Word and the Life.

    More sermons from 1 Kings · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    We are reading from verse 8 through verse 16. Then the word of the Lord came to him, that is Elijah, saying, Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.’ So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks, and he called to her and said, please give me a little water in a jar that I may drink.

    And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, please bring me a piece of bread in your hand. But she said, as the Lord your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar. Behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.” Then Elijah said to her, “‘Do not fear. Go, do as you have said. Make me a little bread cake from it first and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son.

    For thus says the Lord God of Israel, the bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth. So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days, the bowl of flour was not exhausted, nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord which he spake through Elijah.

    We would wait upon you, our God, For from you alone will come our refreshment and our nourishment. Father, we may well turn to many things in this world. We may look to them as if they were our source of life. But you alone are our source of life and we depend completely upon you. Therefore, our God, may we, with all of your people, depend upon you in keeping with what you have promised. May we see the fruition of that word in our life, namely, that life itself and all of the wonders of it, that is, eternal life, is ours. We pray now that we may be those who live with deepest gratitude, our hearts opened by you, that we from those hearts might show forth devotion to you. We realize that you have sent your son, that we might be sanctified entirely, and that we might live before you as those who have heard the word, been receptive to it, and now live by it.

    We pray these things in Christ’s name, Amen. As we begin tonight, I ask you to take note of the structure of the passage. Now, we’re not going to be able to deal with all of the particular features of the passage which we’ve read this evening, for it is definitely a complex passage, one that is quite complicated. Nevertheless, there should be something that is obvious to us all. Look at verses 8 through 16. But as you look at those verses, back up with your eyes to verses 2 through 7.

    You will note that there are definitely distinct parallels between those two portions. It’s as if the one story of Elijah at the brook Cherith parallels the story of Elijah at Zarephath. The two then constructed in such a way that they are to be read deliberately in light of each other. You might note certain features that stand out.

    For instance, look at verse 2, then look at verse 8. Each section begins with language that is virtually identical. Note as well, verse 3 and four, and then verse nine, especially the latter part of each of those particular sections. You’ll note in verse four, for instance, the words from God are these, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there. then look at the end of verse 9, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you. Again, the language is virtually identical.

    So we have this deliberate parallel, this pairing of these two stories so that they are to be read in light of each other. Let’s look a little bit more have the similarities. You might recall some of the things that we said last week about verses two through seven. For instance, we noted in verses two through seven a command. Elijah is given the command by God, Go away, go away from here and turn eastward, he said. Hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.”

    And we commented on the significance of that command given by God, realizing that we are here dealing with more than just the story of a prophet. We are dealing with a story that opens up to us. the prophetic dealings of God with his people, so that more than just the life of the Prophet, the life of the people of God is being opened up for us. The life of the Prophet itself becomes prophetic. It becomes prophetic of the life of the people, who will be in fact known because of their relationship to him and what he stands for. You understand then the significance of this command in verse 3, given by the Lord.

    Serious business! Go away from here, says God. Well, the departure of Elijah from his native land is nothing less than the departure of the word of God and the people of God from the land of promise. The movement across the Jordan eastward is an anticipation of the coming exile of the people of God themselves. where they, like Elijah, will be hid out and preserved, in order that the promise of the word of the prophet may be preserved.” The command, then, in verse 3. But we have a command as well in verse 9. The Lord now says to Elijah, rise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. The command to move east, and now the command to move west. Well, the significance of that move. a command which we ought to understand not simply in terms of the specifics as they relate to the prophet in his individuality, but as then that prophet signals for us the outworking of God’s redemptive program.

    The exile. Will that be the final resting place for the people of God? It may well appear that they couldn’t have had it better. Why, here we are, beside the brook sheriff, well provided for. The ravens are bringing us our food, morning and evening, and the brook is running. for us, the fresh water coming down from the mountains. We here alone will serve the Lord in this desert place, and we will be content. But you know how, in fact, verses two through seven end. The waters of the brook Cherith dry up.

    This is no perpetual habitation. The fullness for the history of redemption is not reached in exile. There is yet something to be accomplished. The fullness for God’s people is not reached by some sort of refuge-taking beside the brooks of this world. Rather, there is something yet to be accomplished. So back from exile. Elijah must cross the Jordan once more through the land of inheritance, which is under the edict of God now, under his curse, moving westward into Gentile regions, into Sidon.

    The objective of the prophetic word of God? The objective of the bearer of that word will be the habitations of the Gentiles. And that is precisely how Jesus reads the story in Luke chapter 4. You remember what Jesus says to the people who lived at Nazareth, why there were many widows. In Israel, in the days of Elijah, God sent Elijah to the widow in Zarephath, the Gentile, and their blessing came. The reaction of those who lived in Nazareth was, Such an interpretation as that upon the story of Elijah means then that God’s blessing has abandoned Israel for the Gentiles.

    It’s an either-or, it’s not a both-and, and that’s precisely what Jesus was getting at. Yes, the movements of the prophets, but also the movement of the history of redemption as you move eastward into exile towards Babylon, if you will, then back across the Jordan through the land of promise to the Gentile regions.

    It’s all there. The promise of God is destined for those yet to be called. Notice something else about this command. Isn’t it interesting, and I wish that I had the mental capability right now to unpack all of this for you. But this has been a particularly exhausting week, and I don’t think that I do have the mental capability at this point to do that for you, and I’m sorry, but note what’s happened. The incredible symmetry of the whole thing.

    Into Israel has come one from Sion, by the name of Jezebel. And she has brought her heathen god into the regions of God’s promised inheritance. And the land has been defiled. Now, Jezebel is the epitome of opulence and corruption. But notice the wonderful contrast. Elijah is passing through the land of promise, which has taken to itself all of this decadence. He has gone to the regions of the Gentiles, those that have now been abandoned by Jezebel herself, and he takes up with a widow who has absolutely nothing.

    She becomes the epitome of those who are the object of the Lord’s ministry. Notice this well. The land of Sidon, in which we find Zarephath, is the territory of the god Bilion. And the drought is there, as well as in the land of promise. the judgment of that God who is, judgment upon his own people for their apostasy, but also an exposure of the impotence of the God, claims for whom are such that he is capable of supplying perpetually the productivity of the earth, and into the regions now of Sidon, Zarephath, comes Elijah, and as he moves there, it is apparent to us that this God is utterly vacuous, empty.

    So then, the command. the prophets moving and keeping with the directive of the Lord. There is the matter of the promise. We noticed that last week, you may recall. Not only is there the command that is given, but the promise as well, verse 4, speaks of that promise It shall be that you shall drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there. And we move down into verses 8 through 16, and we come to verse 9 again, and we are told there that the Lord says to Elijah, Behold, I have commanded a widow to provide for you there. The promise. Indeed, God has promised provision for those who bear his word, and those who are united to them, those who are joined to them, who have like faith. The promise is for their provision they shall in fact endure the provision we have noticed has to do with both natural provision and supernatural, the fact that our sustenance must be both of the natural and even more importantly from the supernatural. There is a similarity as we note the features of the promise.

    The ravens mentioned in the first instance are unclean birds, and this woman herself is unclean. She is a Gentile. So it is from an unclean source that God is providing, compounding then the difficulty with regard to the judgments that are coming upon Israel and what is necessary because of that judgment. That which was unheard of. for the Jew now is curved. The reversal of the unclean-clean distinction, the eradication even of it, as the people of promise move out from the administration that is particular to Israel itself and into the regions of exile and beyond, the regions of the Gentiles. There is the matter of the obedience.

    Elijah is one who reflects a faith exemplary. He hears the command, he obeys because he believes God. The promise has been given and he gives himself over to that promise, confident that that promise will in fact be fulfilled. So we move from command to promise We see the prophet himself acting upon the command as one who has faith, he having faith in the promise of God, God will in fact provide. Is it to be any less the case for the people of God, they hearing the command? they acting in light of the promise, they being found faithful.

    We spoke as well about the fulfillment of the promise and how in verses 5 and 6 we see the provision of God here supplied. But the same is true as we look at the story of Elijah and the widow, the provision promised is in fact supplied. We noted complications last week with regard to the story of Elijah at the brook Cherith, for while the supernatural provision through the ravens continues, the waters from the brook Cherith are dried up, and thus is brought into focus the fact that the prophet’s life as the people’s life is dependent upon the supernatural provision of God. When, in fact, the natural provision is taken away, it is denied, then that prophet and the people must rely upon that supernatural provision, and thus, in that test, become convinced of the priority of that supernatural provision, that, after all, life depends on it, foremostly. It has the priority. As we move into the fulfillment, in the story of Elijah and the widow, we note a number of things. First of all, we note that there has been a transition here. While in the story about Elijah on the east side of the Jordan, there was that solitary figure of Elijah. He abiding by himself, supplied by the ravens, but there’s no other human figure in view.

    As we move westward now and into the territory of Zarephath and Sidon, we see that others are brought into view. Humanity itself is brought into view through the woman. In verses 2 through 7 and the story of the brook sheriff, the focus is life as it is supplied to the prophet and the people of God in him. That God is faithful in providing them life, and life that has as its source and as its objective Those realities that are beyond even the natural. But now as you move westward, the focus shifts a bit. For the woman brings into view humanity as a whole. She and her son bring into view the nations.

    So it’s not just Elijah, it’s Elijah and the woman and her son. the promise of God, the prophet of God, bearing the promise, and the peoples of the world as well. The point being, you see, that it’s not just life for them, that message bearer, or the people who are most immediately attached to him, rather now it is life for him and life for the world. The provision then will not only supply the prophet, the provision will supply the woman.

    She’s utterly destitute, she has no strength, she has nothing to draw upon, she’s utterly bankrupt. So the gospel goes into a world, a world which when looked at at face value has nothing at all that it can offer to save itself. There is nothing in it to appeal to that can give life.

    That provision must come from God. There is the natural provision once more spoken of. Elijah asked the woman for a drink of water. She goes to fetch it for him. There is water in Zarephath, but there is no food. And the food can only be provided by the supernatural intervention of God.

    These stories, therefore, are stories about life. They are then a preview of God’s program to bring life to the nations by preserving his promise alive in the figure of Elijah, first of all, and then in a ministry of life through Elijah to the nations. That life comes by way of the word of God. you may well have a provision of nature like the water the widow will give to Elijah but what will keep her and her son alive is the supernatural provision from God and only God can supply it What was life? How will you live? Are you alive? Has the supernatural life come to you? are you now supplied from a supernatural source so that even if the natural provision is denied you have bread to eat of that the world does not know well Of course, there are many wonderful parallels between this story and stories we read elsewhere, especially in the life and ministry of the great prophet Jesus Christ.

    He it is who brings the word. He himself is the word. He himself brings life. He is nothing less than life itself. Our life We, the bankrupt Gentiles, pagans all, poverty-stricken widows at the point of death, are revived through the provision of God and His eternal birth. And by this ministry to us from God, we shall live forever. Our Father, there is the provision of this world, but it runs out. It fails. There is the provision which comes at your command, and it is never exhausted, nor does it fail.

    O Lord, We are alive because of your provision, and that provision is given us by you in Christ, and through Him we now live forever. May we, as those who are alive from the dead, rejoice before you and give you the glory because you have provided for us even when we were destitute and without health or strength. Hear us Lord for Christ’s sake as we would in fact live out that life to the full which you have given to us.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Fed by the Word Alone

    Fed by the Word Alone

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Life of Elijah” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 10, 1988.

    About this sermon

    Elijah’s fate is bound up with his people’s, even as God sends him alone to the brook Cherith. God’s word to Elijah as one man embraces the whole people at the same time. At the brook Elijah receives a small picture of the larger truth, that God himself is our inheritance, more than the ravens’ bread.

    More sermons from 1 Kings · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we are reading from 1 Kings 17. We are reading the first seven verses. Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word.

    And the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. And it shall be that you shall drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.” So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. For he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan, and the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook. And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land. Today, O Lord, your word has gone out, and where there have been barriers erected, those barriers are no obstacle to your power. We thank, Lord, of barriers in the Islamic world.

    But even now, your word goes forth with power. as servants of your choosing are raised up to proclaim it. We do ask that your servants may proclaim it in the spirit of Elijah, that they may tell the truth, the whole truth about you. We also realize that in this world there is that grand opposition born of political arrogance raised up against you. Lord, it may well be called an iron curtain, but surely it is not impenetrable, for your word and your spirit are effectual, accomplishing that which pleases you. into even the precincts of the Soviet Union and into the diocese of the Eastern Orthodox Church. You bring your word and your spirit, you are therefore convicting and you will set matters straight so that your people would be gathered together in your name and for the sake of the truth that is found nowhere else but in Jesus Christ.

    We plead with you our God in keeping with that plea you have made of us that we would pray earnestly for laborers in the harvest. May they be granted to this harvest in our day we may see a grand and marvelous harvest even now. We pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    I have suggested to you that in order to understand Elijah, in the setting that is presented us here, that we must grasp hold of a certain parallel. Now that parallel is most specifically the union of Elijah with the people of God, that you would observe in this servant of the Lord, the people of the Lord, that his movements comprehend their movements, and that before they live out their lives, this servant has, as it were, lived out their lives. He in them, they in him. Familiar words, familiar terminology.

    Surely we have thought of the covenantal structure of scripture, we have thought of various heads of the covenant, and how the life of the people of God is subsumed within them. But no less this prophet, this very important pivotal prophet in the history of the people of God. We have the particulars as well of the text.

    You can chart it if you will from verses 2 through verse 7. First of all, in verse 3, the command of God. Then in verse 4, the promise of God. Then in verses 5 and 6, the fulfillment of the promise. Then in verse 7, the complication of life to those who live in the place where God fulfills his word. Command, promise, fulfillment, complication.

    That’s the order that we will follow. It is the order of the life of the people of God in their redemptive historical development, as they move covenantally, as we see their historical progress, but also it is reflective of individual life, of the solitary figure within the company of the redeemed, so that you can read this passage and not only find the history of the people of God as a whole, but your own individual history as well. That is what makes for the comprehensiveness of scripture in terms of its application, for it deals widely with the life of the people of God, historically speaking, but it also deals with the life of the person who belongs to God, the individual, his life, specifically considered. How marvelously rich, then, the word how wonderfully rich this text. We will try to deal with it this evening, touching upon these matters.

    Verse 3, the commandment. Go away from here. The word of the Lord comes to Elijah, the Lord says, go away from here. What is the here? What place is in view? How monumental this command. You see, the here of the text is the place of God’s promised blessing. The here is the imperatives promised to Israel. But the Lord says, go away from here. The place of blessing has become a place of desolation. The place of blessing has become a place of judgment. No longer blessing found there, blessing must be found elsewhere. Think of a Jew leaving the land.

    Think of the Jews that you know now. And when you speak to them about the land, what do you observe in them? It’s almost as if you can observe in them a transformation of personality. Speak to them about the land. and it’s as if you are touching their life. Why is Palestine so important to the Jew? It is the very center of his vitality.

    But God says to Elijah, go away from here, leave that which You judge most important, most significant. Abandon it. Why? Because the judgment of God rests upon it. The people who were intended for blessing have by their disobedience now distinguished themselves and they are set apart for God’s justice. Forsake then the land, because God himself has forsaken it. All right. Go from here. This place of blessing has become a place of judgment. and turn eastward. What of the east?

    Israel had left the east behind when she had entered the land. And historically, through the record of the scriptures, the east spoke to the Israelite of that place of abandonment, exile, judgment, and sin. Cain was driven out eastward of Eden, a place of abandonment itself.

    To the east was found Babel. From the east the four kings arose, one of them being the king of Shinon. They carried away to the east Lot and his family, Abraham having to pursue them to retrieve them. It was, after all, out of the east that Abraham had come. But now, Elijah, by God’s command, is told to turn eastward.

    That place is the place of desolation. But you see the significance of the reversals taking place as Elijah moves eastward now. The place of blessing has become the place of desolation. But the place of desolation has now become that place of blessing.

    Hide yourself, says the Lord to Elijah. There is that hiding of the servant of the Lord significant because In hiding him there is a hiding of the word attached to his person. From those who are no longer worthy to receive it, those to whom it no longer belongs, hide yourself This place of desolation turned to a place of blessing. The place into which you have gone, a place of exile, has become a place of refuge for you. The command of the Lord then, leave this place. formerly of blessing for desolation. Turn eastward to the regions of desolation which now become the regions of blessing and refuge for you.

    Hide yourself there. There will be with your hiding a hiding of the word attached to you from you are from my people.” But there is another dimension to this command from God that Elijah hide himself east of the Jordan. The hiding becomes a form of discipline to the servant.

    For in the land the land that is sought to be than the inheritance for Israel. A blessing reserved for her and to be maintained throughout her generations. That being so important to the people of God and to Elijah. the thought may well occur to this servant of God, will why leave? There is power in my ministry. There is a message to be delivered. There is a response to be elicited.

    Now that the rain is withheld from Israel, will not the people turn? Will they not find their relief in what I can supply them? Is this not the time at which my powers are at their highest? Why desert now? Why depart now? Why hide myself now? Why not seize the opportunity? There is another one, of course.

    And for him, the crowds will gather and assemble. pursue him persistently, seek him out, but he will withdraw and he will hide himself from them. There is a discipline then that comes to the servant of the Lord, a discipline that is expressed only through withdrawal, not through pursuit. How strange and odd, for now the would-be prophets in our own day know only the pursuit of the crowd. They know nothing of the withdrawal, and they know nothing of the discipline of the Lord.

    What is in itself a temptation has become a way of life for them. They live for the adulation, and the applause, and the admiration, and the crowds. They could not abide an assembly like this. The command, go from here. Of course you see the parallel for the people that died, for eventually they too will be taken across the Jordan out of the land of promise and into exile for the refuge there. A place of hiding, until the time of restoration.

    The promise, verse four. You shall drink of the brook, says the Lord. A promise to Elijah. Here God gives to his servant what his judgment withholds from his people. What is being denied others is given the servant, and what is given here is emblematic of natural provision. The brook, sheriff, supplied by the mountain streams, a natural provision given. That which is denied Israel is given Elijah, this by the promise of God, that he demonstrating his power over nature itself, that this is in his realm of authority.

    But notice well what is promised. Not only this natural provision from the brook cherished, but the supernatural provision, the ravens will bring the meat and the bread, morning and evening.” How strange! What are these ravens? Ravens are birds of prey. How is it that they do not devour what they would ordinarily devour?

    Instead, by the hand of God, and by His control, and in keeping with His promise, they bring to Elijah that which is necessary for his nourishment. Yes, a nourishment of the body, but insofar as this is a supernatural provision, a nourishment that is of the soul. God will nourish his servant, even in exile, while in this refuge, while he is in hiding, with both natural and supernatural provision.

    This he will do. The command comes. What is expected is that the servant of the Lord obey. Obeying then is in keeping with those promises. We move on to the fulfillment and see the servant then complying with the command of God, verses 5 and 6, and that provision promised of God’s supply. The place then of exile becomes the place of fulfillment. The servant submissive, seeing then the provision of the Lord.

    Why does he submit Why does he comply? Why does Elijah move from Israel across the Jordan? Because he believes the Lord. He obeys because he believes. He trusts. His faithfulness has its reward in that he sees the promises of God fulfilled for him. Here is the exposition of the covenant in relationship to Elijah with regard to the people of God as a whole. The command comes, the people obey, the promise is given. They in faithfulness comply, and the reward of that faith is evident.

    Elijah goes. He does what God has asked. He lives by the brook Cherith, east of Jordan. He sees the realization of God’s promise, the ravens do in fact bring the bread and meat morning and evening, and Elijah drinks of the brook. But now comes the complication. Does Job serve you for nothing? He’s placed a hedge about him. Doesn’t Elijah have it easy? Ravens bringing him bread and meat morning and night, and an endless supply of water. Why concern yourself any longer, Elijah? Have you not found the end of the road? Has not the desolation of the wilderness been reversed? Have you not found the answer to the curse that rests upon the earth? Has not even been restored? I could shout for all that I am worth Do you not see it?

    The answer to those questions is a resounding no. No. To this day, many Bible-believing, many well-intentioned Christians still do not get the point. I believe the Lord. I obey Him. I see the fulfillment of the covenant in my life. I enjoy prosperity. Eden has come to me. For after all, life is for the sake of that water, it comes down the wine, the brook cherry. That’s why you live, is it not? That’s why you have believed. That’s why you trusted. Is it not? Because God promised you endless provision of the things of this world. of the things of the created order so that you might dwell at ease until you breathe your last. Nonsense.

    Now how is God going to get across to you? Yet the objective of His covenant is not the endless provisions of the stuff of this creation. How is He going to communicate that to you? How is He going to train you with regard to the objective of the covenant? For is that objective a place here in this world perpetually?

    No, it is not! And the way in which he proves it to you is to take all of that away from you. It is specifically the natural wonder that is removed from Elijah in the East Jordan. In fact, it is precisely that judgment that rested upon Israel on the west side of the Jordan that now affects the east side of the Jordan. No rain. It dries up. The brook dries up. You don’t live for the water. That cannot be the objective of your life.

    Well, if that isn’t, then what is? You may well say, well, if it’s not the water, then it’s the bread and the meat. But you see, the bread and the meat is the supernatural provision of God. And when we talk about the supernatural provision of God, we are ultimately talking about God himself. Let me tell you, the inheritance is not payment. The inheritance is not the stuff of the created order, it is not the water of the book of The inheritance is God.

    Is God. Now how is the Lord going to know if you serve him for his sake? He will take away from you. everything else. And he will see how you fare. Now does that mean when these things disappear from your life that the Lord hates you? No. It means that he loves you. Because he is facing you squarely with the matter that means the most. That matter which is of eternal significance. Himself. Israel will serve God for what she can get out of him. She will live in the covenant because the covenant is profitable. Live in the covenant and foster. Well then Israel, what happens when the prosperity is removed? Will you love me still? Will you serve me? Will you serve me for myself? Will you trust me?

    There is one greater than Elijah. He too will cross the Jordan. He will abide in the desert. And all of the natural provisions will be removed. and when faced with temptation, he will say, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. In him you will see the covenant perfectly expressed and that citizen of the kingdom perfectly tried and successful. Why? For the kingdoms of this world would I abandon him? No. I will serve the Lord God only. and he shall be my inheritance.” So, the command, the promise, the fulfillment, then the complication. A trial of faith.

    Why do you serve? We see it all working itself out in the life of Israel, do we not? For before Israel will go across the Jordan into exile, Elijah has gone. before Israel returns from exile and passes through the land and even embarks into the regions of the Gentiles, Elijah will have done that. We will see what is worked out in Elijah, worked out in the life of the people of God, and we will observe however successful Elijah was, the failing of Israel preparing the way for that one who is greater than Elijah, even greater than Elijah, that by root of him the people of God may understand the ultimate intent of the covenant, that they may be introduced to an eternal inheritance above and to their reward.

    God himself. For you have died, and your life is fit with Christ in God. And when he who is your life is revealed, you shall be revealed with him in glory. O Lord, in the life of your people there came the day when the brook Cherith dried up. Lord, we know that in that day of testing your people failed, but Jesus Christ is triumphant, and he points out the way for us. he himself being the way, the truth and the life.

    Unto the Father we would come, but no one comes to the Father but through him. Our God, while we are tested and that sorely, we pray for an abiding faith in the power of Christ that our eye through him may be focused upon an internal inheritance. Therefore, when times of privation come, let us not turn upon you and reject you. May we not hate you, spurn you, turn our backs upon you. Rather may we love you all the more because in our trial you are demonstrating your love for us and purifying us even though it be by trial through fire.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Jezebel’s Seduction of Ahab

    Jezebel’s Seduction of Ahab

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Life of Elijah” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 27, 1988.

    About this sermon

    Ahab’s blindness to Jezebel’s devotion to Baal, a devotion Revelation later calls ‘pure,’ sets the pattern for Israel’s own blindness under his reign. Deuteronomy’s covenant curses, drought among them, are already coming due. The rain Elijah withholds, and later restores, pictures nothing less than Christ’s own blood washing sin away.

    More sermons from 1 Kings · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    And Ahab, the son of Omri, reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. And Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. And it came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel, the daughter of Beth Baal, king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worship him. So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria, and Ahab also made the Asherah. Thus Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

    In his days, Hiel, the Bethelite, built Jericho. He laid its foundations with the loss of Abiram, his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son, Shebu. According to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Joshua, the son of Nun. Now Elijah, the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word.” And then Deuteronomy 28, looking at verse 15.

    But it shall come about, if you will not obey the Lord your God to observe all, to observe rather to do all his commandments and his statutes which I charge you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.

    Cursed shall you be in the basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. Cursed shall you be when you come in and cursed shall you be when you go out.

    The Lord will send upon you curses, confusion and review. in all you undertake to do until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds because you have forsaken me. The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until he has consumed you from the land where you are entering to possess it. The Lord will smite you with consumption and with fever, and with inflammation, and with fiery heat, and with the sword, and with blight, and with mildew, and they shall pursue you until you perish. And the heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you iron. The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust. From heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed. The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies.

    You shall go out one way against them, but you shall flee seven ways before them, and you shall be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. And your carcasses shall be food to all birds of the sky and to the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away.”

    Your servants are taught by your instruction, Lord. They are to be humble in the earth and before your people. So, O God, may it be for your servants who carry your word, who proclaim it in truth, that their own hearts may match the word which you have given to them, and may it please you, Lord, to strengthen them by your spirit that they may not depart from that word. O Father, we ask that the example of Elijah may in fact impress itself upon the servants who bear your word to this present generation. May there be boldness and strength, a strength that truly comes from you. May it please you, Father, to warn those who are abiding in sin, and may it please you as well to shake them in such a way that they will flee the wrath to come. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    How blind sin is. How blind sin is. It professes to see, but it doesn’t see at all. Claiming to have sight has no sight whatsoever. Looking, it misses even the obvious, the obvious truth. Ahab, the son of Amri. Maybe the greatest king, as far as the secular world would be concerned, may be the greatest king over the northern tribes since the days of Jeroboam. Ahab is seventh. He is seventh from Jeroboam, now ruling over those ten northern tribes. He has eyes, but he is blind. He sees, but he recognizes nothing. He looks, but he misses the obvious truth. playing with a trifle.

    His heart aspires to adorn his court with a beautiful bauble from the North and the West, an ornament for the royal precincts one by the name of Jezebel, who is in actual fact a courtesan, a courtesan of one Baal. You see, Jezebel before she is married to Ahab is married to another.

    She is married to the vile god of Sidon. Did you know that her name actually means purity? One who is chaste. Believe it or not, this woman who has become the byword of wickedness has a name that means chaste purity and so she is if you understand her for she is absolutely pure and absolutely chaste in her devotion to her Lord.

    Her Lord is Baal. So it is then, that in her soul, she is devoted to the service of her God. Her Father also has a name which has memorialized the name of her God. Beth Bale is his name, King over Sidon. She in her spirit is reflective of a spiritual kingdom to which she is utterly committed. absolutely committed. That is in her spirit. But what of her flesh? In her flesh, she now sleeps in Ahab’s bed.

    She now prostitutes herself in such a way that she becomes the epitome of prostitution when her name appears again in scripture in Revelation chapter 2 verse 20 she has prostituted herself in the flesh in order to gain the victory in the spirit in order, you see, to seduce a son of Abraham who is supposed to be a servant of the true God through him, her spiritual mission is to seduce all the sons of Abraham.

    We now begin to understand the scope, the scope of the story, its height, its depth. What is at stake? Indeed, the kingdom of hell and the kingdom of God. Elijah will step forward for the kingdom of God. Jezebel has already offered herself as the servant of the kingdom of God. Well Ahab, not seeing he likes what he sees. He looks to the north and to the west and he is intrigued by this bobble, this ornament. Not seeing, blind, he likes what he sees.

    She promises political and economic advantage. Seal a treaty with the Sidonians and you have access to the Mediterranean Sea. Seal a treaty with the Sidonians and the prosperity experienced by the Phoenicians will spread to you. Seal a treaty with the with the Sidonians and you will not have to worry about an attack from the North and the West your border will be secure you have gained for yourself an incomparable ally the richest of allies to fight with you in your battles against the Syrians. Ahab, blind, he can’t see, but he loves what he sees. Not just the economic advantage, the political advantage, but he likes what he sees in terms of the sensuality offered.

    In terms of the spirit preached by the gospel, there is nothing of the spirit left to Jezebel. Though she in her spirit serves Baal, she is the perfect servant of the flesh, and she flaunts it well. There is no modesty in her, none at all. She plays the part to the and Ahab likes what he sees.

    He succumbs. If a surrender was necessary, as he played the game of seduction with Jezebel, he willingly surrender. She now is his bond. A bond for the peace that has been effected with Sidon, with the prosperous Phoenician a bond beyond that sealed in the flesh for the triumph of the same. What a fool. What a fool. How blind sin is. how willfully blind sin is. Seeing it sees nothing, looking it utterly misses the point.

    Jezebel, on the loose in his she preaches her doctrine of purity she expounds her name to the sons of Abraham and her message begets unrestrained and unrestrained promiscuity her purity service to that purity builds a house and if there ever was a house of ill repute it was constructed for her by her husband at Samaria in the precincts of that city now the capital city of the ten northern tribes into the precincts of that city she has now imported others to help her seduce the sons of Abraham can you imagine 950 I’m not going to spare you the language 950 parents under the protection of the king’s edict serving under the protection and the guise of religion That is what is going on at Samaritan.

    They are prophets of Baal and of the Asherah. The groves along with the wooden symbols representing female sexuality, built in those groves. These now gods in Israel. This purity and chastity This devotion in spirit that Jezebel preaches makes war on the prophets of Jehovah. Because, you see, now the prophets of Jehovah are considered the intruders. They no longer belong.

    The boundaries which were formally set for the northern tribes as those boundaries of the land promised by God to the sons of Abraham have now been taken over by one who calls himself the Lord of the Heavens, the Lord of the Storm, Baal by name, and by his Queen, the Goddess of the Earth, Ashtartha memorialized in the Asherah. The judgment coming upon the northern tribes hastens.

    Already Under Jeroboam, their first king, they had been led away from the ordinance of God. Jeroboam had been told by the prophet of the Lord that he was to maintain his contact with the sanctuary of God in the city that God had determined to place his name. The ordinance of God had declared that God’s name would be situated, placed, that it would adorn the precincts of Jerusalem, and that proper service unto God would take place there, despite the division in the nation. So it was. According to the word of Jeroboam that the sanctuary of God at Jerusalem was forsaken.

    He did not want them going up there to serve because he considered that a threat to himself and to his authority, to his power over those tribes. So he established cultic centers at Bethel and Dan. And the people were to worship there rather than to go to Jerusalem. But now the people have embraced the religion of the Canaanite.

    In forsaking the sanctuary of God, they have embraced that which was driven from the land by God, They have embraced it in direct contradiction to the prescribed word of God. Had not Moses written, Watch yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which the Lord your God has commanded you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. Deuteronomy 4, verses 23 and 24.

    But sin is blind. Seeing, it sees nothing. Looking, it fails to recognize the obvious truth. The Word had been given. Promises had been made. That word in time is ignored, and Ahab here, king over the sons of Abraham, willfully, blindfully, pursues a course destined for doom. Now underscoring the situation, is what we find in the 34th verse of the 16th chapter in 1 Kings. Jericho is rebuilt. The word was sure, it was certain, it was set. It came to the Israelites through Joshua. You can read it.

    Joshua 6 verse 26, Then Joshua made them take an oath at that time, saying, Cursed before the Lord is the man who raises up and builds this city Jericho. With the loss of his firstborn he will lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest he will set up its gates.

    Then you read 1 Kings 16.34 How could they possibly miss it? How could they possibly not see?

    As with Ahab, so with the nation as a whole. The complete blindness of the people despite the obvious revelation of God. This then itself becoming an indictment against the entire age. connected with Ahab and Jezebel. The spirit of the time, not just the spirit of the woman, not just the spirit of the king, the spirit of the time was a willful and arrogant blindness.

    All knew what the Word said, and they deliberately turned against it. Knowing what it said, they rejected it, and they rejected it willfully. But they continue. They continue in their disobedience. That which the word speaks concerning the Spirit, speaking rightly about that Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord has been lost to them, so that they, like their king and like their queen, are servants only of the flesh, they cannot even see the Spirit, nor can they hear the words of the Spirit. They pursue their disobedience despite clear judgments from God.

    Hiel builds Jericho with the laying of the foundations, he loses his firstborn, with the setting up of the gates, he loses his lastborn. But now, the heavens themselves are shut up by the word of Elijah. That one who considers himself, at least according to the doctrine of Jezebel, that one that considers himself the Lord of the heavens, the Lord of the storm, cannot control the heavens, and he cannot manipulate the storms. The religion of the flesh rises no further than the flesh. Above it is the spirit. The Spirit comes forth with its message that takes precedence over any word of the Spirit. The word of the Lord reigns.

    This in keeping also with the judgments that had been spoken out by Moses previously. Hear what Moses said in Deuteronomy chapter 11. I will give you reign. says the Lord, for your land in its seasons, the early and the late rain, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil. Beware, lest your hearts be deceived and you turn away and serve other gods.” It’s almost as if he had in mind the circumstances in 1 Kings. Turn away and serve other gods and worship them. or the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain, and the ground will not yield its fruit, and you will perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving to you.”

    How could it be made more clear Then later, Moses speaks again in that incomparable 28th chapter of Deuteronomy. Speaking for the Lord, he cites again God’s gift of the rain in verse 12. But he also, in that overwhelming section about the curse due to sin, says, The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust. from heaven it will come down upon you until you are destroyed.” Verse 24.

    So Elijah prays to God, and Elijah then gives word to Ahab, no rain. Dael and his consort were the deities of the created order of the flesh. of the world, guaranteeing the productivity of the flesh, the created order, the world. But now there is no reign, and this is a direct assault by the true God upon those who are no gods at all. how blind sin is. To those buried in sin, the word comes. The events transpire. but nothing registers nothing registers a whole nation of sons of Abraham hear the message of the Lord’s true King is anointed. He proclaims to them the certain judgment that shall overtake them in keeping with the Lord’s word.

    But seeing, they see nothing. Hearing, they don’t understand. And after they have nailed him to a cross they go on their way willfully, blindly into oblivion the spirit speaks to the seven churches in Asia Minor in the opening chapters of the book of Revelation warning the churches that if they turn from the word they will be consumed will the church be spared if she ignores the truth if she runs hell-mell after the promise of the flesh and the opportunities of the world bowing down before the creature rather than the creator Revelation 2 verse 20 tells us that Jezebel still lives and those who love the flesh even though they be in the church are being thrown into bed with her and they will suffer with her her end now as it is for the people as a whole So it is for you.

    Have you been warned? Have you been told? Do you see? Do you understand? Do you realize the seriousness of the matter the end of the matter. If you willfully turn your back on the true God and service to Him, if you claim to see when living in your blindness, you will be destroyed. There is grace. After three and a half years, rain comes.

    Even though Christ is crucified Redemption flows from His side. His blood covers the sins of His people. And while the Spirit is speaking about judgments for the churches in Asia Minor, He is also saying, if you will repent, I will heal you, and I will bless you incomparably and wonderfully. how blind Satan is, but how powerful our God. He shows it in the ministry of Christ when Christ reaches out his hand and touches the eyes of one blind. and the blind see. Against the flesh, against the lasciviousness in the service of Dale, is the sight in the Spirit, the Spirit of God.

    That, our heritage. For once we are blind, but now we see. O Lord, in pride your church even may rise up to claim that she sees, but her sin deceives her. We ourselves may be deceived by that deception that comes forth from Satan, a deception that we accept willingly. but we appeal to your grace and to your power and the fact that by that power you can heal us that repentance in fact is that to which we have been called that we might indeed see truly after the order of the spirit of the living God against all pretenses of hell and of Satan.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Wisdom From Above

    Wisdom From Above

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Life of Elijah” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 6, 1988.

    About this sermon

    James’ epistle has drawn real scholarly debate over the centuries, some of it questioning its value altogether. Read rightly, James and Paul agree: Gentile believers are not bound to follow Jewish practice. The wisdom James commends comes from above, not from the temple, which is exactly what makes his letter worth taking seriously.

    More sermons from 1 Kings · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we are beginning our scripture reading in 1 Kings 17. We will then read from the 18th chapter, and finally we will turn to the book of James in the New Testament. This is 1 Kings 17 verse 1. Now Elijah, the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dune nor rain these years except by my word. Then from the 18th chapter, beginning at verse 41, Now Elijah said to Ahab, Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower. So Ahab went up to eat and drink, but Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and he crouched down on the earth and put his face between his knees.

    And he said to his servant, Go up now look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked and said, there is nothing. And he said, go back seven times. And it came about at the seventh time that he said, behold, a cloud as small as a man’s hand is coming up from the sea.

    And he said, go up, say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down so that the heavy shower does not stop you. So it came about in a little while that the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy shower, and Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. Then the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and outran Ahab to Jezreel.” Then from the letter of James, Beginning with the thirteenth verse of the fifth chapter, chapter five, verse thirteen.

    Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that ye may be healed The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit. My brethren, if anyone among you strays from the truth, and one turns him back, let him know that he turns a sinner from the air of his way, and will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.

    Lord, your word comes forth for the ordering of your people. You have set forth your blueprints and thus the structure is built. Truly, Lord, you build according to wisdom. Your wisdom speaks forth and your glory is revealed. Father, we pray that as that wisdom is expressed, we would be found to be receptive to it. And Lord, may our own lives be structured as the life of the people of God as a whole, always in keeping with your word. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    We are considering the life of Elijah, and as an extension of that consideration, we are turning this evening to the book of James. And that’s because of James’ use of the example of Elijah. And we will be building forward a consideration of those verses at the end of James’s letter. This evening, we are venturing onto ground that is anything but settled. and may well be unsettling, simply because of the history that consideration of James’s letter has had in the history of the church. You know of the conflict, and the battles continue to rage in that conflict over the intent of James, the perspective that he renders for the church, to the church, for the church’s good.

    Some have said James is of no value at all. He is anti-Pauline. He stands over against Paul. His epistle is weak, an epistle of straw, hardly one in which we can find a clear picture of Jesus Christ, a clear announcement of the gospel. Well, James, what do we do with James. We will move from that question, which we hope to at least attempt an answer for, to a consideration of James’s use of the figure of Elijah later on. What then do we do with James.

    James, the younger brother of our Lord, a son of Mary, he sits in the shadow of the temple in Jerusalem. He sits there with the apostles, the elders, and the brethren. Together, he, with them, constitutes a rival kingdom in the midst of an ancient dominion.

    They are the Church, Christ’s Church, in the midst of Still, James sits in the shadow of the temple, and those with him, converted Jews, also sit in the shadow of that temple. The old structures, the old order, the familiar forms of worship still persist. They still frequent that temple. Although devoted to Jesus Christ as Lord, they still frequent that temple. Their order The structure of their assemblies stands side by side with the impressive structures of old Israel. Their forms, their approach to God taking shape as it does, is unimpressive by contrast. James and those with him belong to the new order, but they still honor the old.

    The present temple, that structure that is there in the city, is the grandchild of Solomon’s temple. And Solomon’s traditions, those traditions cling to this erotic, ostentatious replica. Nevertheless, in the mind of the Jews and in the mind of these Jewish Christians, that temple signals wisdom. the wisdom that arises out of the judicious and prudent application of the law. The administrations in that temple then speak volumes concerning the traditions that have arisen. Solomon and his understanding of the law as that exposition of the law becomes programmatic for the people. No priest speaks ignorantly if he is aware of or reflective upon the great treasury of wisdom found in the tradition of the temple under the heading of the name Solomon.

    But now, for James, for the other apostles, for the elders, for the assembly of Christ in Jerusalem, during the years that they have existed, the strain for them has been intensified. The strain for them because they, although frequenting the temple, suspect the temple’s obsolescence. In the shadow of that temple, the council of the church convenes in the year 50 A.D., and in the end, It is as if James, being a rival Solomon, stands up in the midst of that council and speaks authoritatively to that assembly.

    Don’t trouble the Gentile converts, he advises. As if wisdom were speaking in him. No need, he says, to circumcise them since they are saved without circumcision. Only let them, he goes on, abstain from things contaminated by idols. Let them abstain from fornication and from those things strangled and from blood. The account of this council we find in Acts 15. And then years later, after The conclusion of Paul’s third missionary journey, we find the strain intensified all the more.

    James, together with the elders, sits in the shadow of that temple of which we have been speaking. Paul himself has now arrived in Jerusalem. He has caused a stir within the Jewish Christian Church. For this Paul, so it is said, has been speaking throughout the Gentile world in the hearing of the Jews about Jesus Christ. He has been speaking in such a way that the Jews have concluded that the law itself is challenged, the traditions of the fathers are challenged, and the temple itself is challenged. What if then Paul shows himself in the city? What if he goes to the temple? Therefore, in the midst of the strain and the struggle for the church sitting in the shadow of the temple, And the elders convene, and they speak, giving advice to Paul.

    Take a vow, James said, in keeping with our traditions. Once the Jews see your heart in this matter, they will accept you as one who walks in our ways. Acts 21. So Paul takes the advice. and he appears in the temple in order to fulfill the vow which he has made.

    However, before the end of the feast, he is recognized by some Jews who have come to the feast from Asia, and they are outraged And what results is nothing less than a riot. Paul is dragged outside the temple. And in one of the most loaded, deliberately loaded statements in all biblical literature, Luke tells us in that 21st chapter, the 30th verse, and immediately the doors of the temple were shut.

    The end. The end. The doors of that temple. The temple in the shadow of which the Church has continued to meet. That temple which they have continued to frequent to this time. The doors are shut. Luke’s meaning is not simply that they were shut on that occasion. His intent is to convey the fact that those doors were shut permanently against the truth, against the gospel, and against the Church.

    So now, although James, the brother of the Lord, a son of Mary. Although James and the elders and the brethren in Jerusalem sit in the shadow of the temple they have no access to it, any longer. And in time, that temple, in whose shadow they have lived, will cast no shadow at all. For it will prove to be in the end but a shadow itself, fleeting, gone.

    There will be the roar of God’s judgment that will unhinge the doors the roar of God’s judgment that will leave not one stone upon another. But now, in light of that judgment which God is bringing about And in light of that separation which he is affecting between his people, the church, and that temple, between the new and the old, what then becomes of the wisdom that has been traditionally associated with the structures of the old? What becomes of that wisdom and the Jewish assessment of it, and the assessment of it in the minds of these Jewish Christians.

    How will they fare in the period of this transition, this radical, traumatic transition? After all, have they not all been weaned on the Temple, and its institutions, and its forms, and its ceremonies? Have they not been weaned upon the wisdom that is associated with that structure, with that edifice that stands in the midst of their lives like a testimony to the immovability of God himself? The temple, however, is doomed. Its future is a rubble heap.

    But it has been considered by Jew and Christian Jew alike as the source of spiritual stability. If not, that which is absolutely essential to proper spiritual vitality. It is now into the complex of these affairs into the catastrophic character of that complex of affairs that James speaks.

    His eye is being trained by the Spirit as he speaks for the Spirit. And that eye is being directed away from the centrality of the temple at Jerusalem. As he says, as if there were yet twelve tribes to address in the first verse of his letter, to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad.

    Greetings to you. Wisdom will still speak, though the temple is petted for destruction, and though the traditions of Solomon and Solomon’s wisdom seemingly lies upon the rubble of the stones. For there is a new vantage point. A better vantage point. A vantage point from which one can look with all certainty that destruction will not overtake it.

    It is from heaven. It is from heaven, then, that that focus for our wisdom comes. It is to heaven that James himself looks for wisdom, true wisdom, as he affirms in the third chapter of this letter, the fifteenth verse. True wisdom is that which comes down from above. like every other good and perfect gift. Chapter 1, verse 17.

    The eye is redirected. It is focused upon heaven now, where formerly it may have been confused, looking at everything through the veil of that temple, stopping even halfway, as if by compromise But God forces the issue. He pushes his people, even these Jewish Christians, past the temporality of that temple to that which is eternal. He causes their eye to look above by taking away from them that which would deter them.

    This wisdom is not the monopoly of Solomon, it is available to all who ask in faith. If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives liberally. Chapter 1, verses 5 and 6. This wisdom then becomes the building material out of which then God is constructing for him a people of wisdom.

    But a wisdom that is better than the old, greater than even that wisdom of Solomon, it is a wisdom of heaven and of glory and of eternity. And this wisdom It is no bare rehearsal of commandments after the order of the old administration, nor a slavish, oppressive application of the law’s prescriptions. James makes distinctions in his consideration of the law, for he calls this law, which now he applies, the perfect law.

    He calls it the law of liberty. Chapter one, verse twenty-five. Chapter two, verse twelve. This law chases all mere externalism, all mere formality. It calls forth for mercy, a mercy that triumphs over judgment. Chapter two, verse thirteen. Yet, This new law, if you will, is called by James the whole law. Verse 10 of chapter 2, and its exactness leaves no room for sloth and indolence.

    Do not think that this law of liberty can now become the occasion for your flesh. For we are to be doers of the word and not hearers only. Chapter one. We dare not, therefore, appeal to our faith. As a defense against or an excuse for lack of obedience for faith without work is dead. Chapter two, verse twenty six.

    Is James our friend? Though he speaks in ways that may be hard for us to understand. Indeed he is. For James, in his letter, becomes the preacher of a better wisdom than even that he expressed in the Jerusalem Council, and later on when he gave advice to Paul about keeping oaths in Acts 21. James becomes the spokesman for a complete reorientation of religious devotion. and commitment. From a temple in the earth to the temple in the heavens, from the tradition of Solomon’s wisdom and its connection with the law to the tradition of Christ’s wisdom and its connection with the perfect law, the law of liberty. Well, it is true.

    It is true that many in the church and many even today have reacted violently against James. They have judged him a writer who fails to present Christ, a writer who fails to present Christ sufficiently, who fails to express the gospel adequately. But you should know that James, James is a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ as he confesses at the opening of this epistle. And while it is true that he does not often expressly mention Jesus in this letter, nor does he spell out specifically the particulars of Jesus’ life and his death and his resurrection.

    Yet he is expounding that Christ, as that Christ is the very wisdom of God. You may recall how we treated 1 Corinthians 13. and how it has been the habit of so many expositors to approach that text as if Paul were considering the subject of love abstractly, out there to be defined, and thus applied. Abstracted, if you will, from the person of God, and specifically from the person of Christ, That is a complete misunderstanding of what Paul is doing in 1 Corinthians 13. He is expounding Christ by expounding love. And you can just as well substitute the name of Christ for love in that love chapter.

    No less here. Christ is operative. in the epistle of James, as that one whom James is expounding, although he may not be naming him as often as some might like. to the fifth chapter of James. It becomes apparent to us, as James sweeps to the conclusion of his letter, what in large measure stands at the center of his understanding of that explication of Christ as the wisdom of God. There is a new temple. There is this perfect law, this law of liberty operative. All of this expounded in terms of the person of Jesus Christ, who is bearable wisdom of God, a temple himself into which we have been introduced, that we might live as it were, as residents within that temple, and behaving ourselves accordingly.

    How would you behave? in the Temple. If you were a Jew, how would you behave in the Temple in Jerusalem? How ought you to behave in the New Temple? And how should wisdom come to be expressed in you? You being dwellers in the final, the eternal temple of God. Now James here has a lot to say about your actions. but he has even more to say about your words. Is it not interesting, if the theme of wisdom lies at the root of James, how he concentrates then upon the use of your tongue? What is wise speech? How will you use your time? How will you prove yourself to be a resident in the temple that is Christ’s? Well, note the theme.

    Chapter 1, verse 26. If anyone thinks himself to be religious and does not bridle his tongue, and yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Chapter 2, verse 12. So speak and so act as those who are judged or to be judged by the law of liberty. The classic passage on the use of the tongue and its liability. Chapter three verses two through twelve, especially six through eight, the tongue is a fire. The very world of iniquity, the tongue, is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of our life and is set on fire by hell. For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by the human race, but no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. Chapter four, verse one. What is the source of quarrels? Again, the tongue. Chapter five, verse nine. Do not complain, brethren, against one another. Verse twelve of that same chapter. Above all, my brethren, do not swear. He references an exposition of the wisdom appropriate for the final eternal temple.

    These are negative assessments and applications. But James also has positive ones. He says to us, If anyone of you lacks wisdom, let him use his tongue to ask of God. He says to us in the 13th verse of the 5th chapter, Is anyone among you suffering? Let him use his tongue to pray. Is anyone among you cheerful? Let him use his tongue to sing praises to God.

    If any among you is sick, let him use his tongue to call to the elders of the church, and they will use their tongues to pray over him. And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Positively, yet again, verse 16, therefore, confess with your tongues your sins to one another. and with your tongue pray for one another so that you may be healed.

    And now comes the figure of Elijah. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. He was a man of like passions with you and with us. Yet he prayed earnestly, using his tongue, that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. And then, using his tongue once more, he prayed, and the sky poured forth rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

    The temple into which you have been introduced The wisdom of Solomon, as it were, dwarfed by a greater wisdom yet, the power of which is being applied to your life, it is operative now. And that wisdom is instructing you in the use of your tongues, so that your language is fit for the courts of God. It is addressed to you, yes, negatively, that you might resist sin, but it is also addressed to you positively, so that in the wisdom that is now yours, you might praise Him, pray to Him, as righteous men and women like unto Elijah of old who even before the time foreshadowed the coming of the time in which the glorious wisdom of God would be so expressed in the prayers of the people of God. at James’ use of the figure of Elijah next week.

    Let’s pray. O Lord, if in fact the Jews of old and The Jewish Christians of James’s day were awestruck in the presence of their temple made with stones. How much more should we be awestruck by the temple that is above, out of which now the wisdom of heaven comes? And we, as dwellers in this last and eternal temple, will we not have our lives molded and shaped by that wisdom which is expressed in Christ will not our works and our words be made conformable unto Him. Help us, Lord, for truly in the tongue is a veritable world of evil, but our hope is in our God who delivers us through the power of Jesus Christ after the pattern of the righteous man, Elijah.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Elijah Out of the East

    Elijah Out of the East

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Life of Elijah” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 28, 1988.

    About this sermon

    Elijah comes ‘from the east,’ a phrase that ties him to God’s own presence rather than merely a geographic origin. Paul’s own apostleship follows a similar pattern of coming from outside to confront the establishment. Ahab faces that same confrontation here, a warning that applies as much to today’s liberal and conservative apostasy as to ninth-century Israel.

    More sermons from 1 Kings · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we’ll begin our scripture reading in John’s Gospel, the 12th chapter. We’ll read from verse 44 to the end of the chapter, then we’ll turn back to 1 Kings. This is John 12, 44, hear the word of God. And Jesus cried out and said, He who believes in me does not believe in me, but in him who sent me.

    And he who beholds me beholds the one who sent me. I have come as light into the world that everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness. And if anyone hears my sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world. but to save the world. He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has one who judges him. The word I spoke is that is what will judge him at the last day. For I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father himself who sent me has given me commandment what to say and what to speak.

    And I know that his commandment is eternal life Therefore, the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me.” the son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa, king of Judah. And Ahab, the son of Omri, reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years.

    And Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. And it came about As though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel, the daughter of Beth Baal, king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him. So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. And Ahab also made the Asherah. Thus Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him. In his days, Hiel, the Bethelite, built Jericho.

    He laid its foundations with the loss of Abiram, his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son, Shebu. According to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun. Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word.

    Let us pray. Our Father, we may well be impressed by the greatness of Elijah. We ask, however, that our impressions of him will be measured by our impression of your son. For surely it is in light of the one who was from a yet future day that he Elijah was to be understood. Our God May it be plain to us, then, as we think about him and his life, as we think about his ministry, how that ministry still speaks, speaks effectively through Christ. And by that root, to us. May your church be taught by you. We ask this in Christ’s name.

    Amen. from regions forgotten in the territory of tribes living in isolation from the promised land from the transjordan east of the river the former dominion of the Amorites, the province of Zion, king of the Amorites, Og, king of Bashan, from the borders of Gilead, of the Transjordan tribe of Gad, a tribe renowned as a marauding scourge, according to the prophecy of Jacob in Genesis forty-nine, but also dressed in Messianic splendor, according to the prophecy of Moses in Deuteronomy thirty-three.

    From these regions forgotten This territory of tribes living in isolation from the promised land, from the Transjordan east of the river, comes Elijah, a most extraordinary figure, one who in stature rivals no less a figure than Moses himself. This prophet, then, from the East, enters the land of promise. Across the Jordan, the land of blessing. the land of Israel, territory for the northern tribes, separated from the southern tribes, over which now Ahab rules with his Sidonian queen, Jezebel, in the city of Samaria. This prophet enters the land from an unexpected region.

    He comes and delivers an edict. There shall be no dew, no rain these years except by my word. So the edict reads, and his edict registers well upon the consciences of those who would understand. He includes in this edict an oath. As the Lord, he says, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand.” Now, these words are hardly a stock phrase, a casual introduction of himself and his message. Instead, by them, Elijah is identifying himself as a spokesman for God. as a prophet of the Lord. It is almost as if out of the regions of the heavens, this man Elijah has come out of the East.

    Without genealogy, without mother or father, He appears from Gilead like one recently dispensed from the council chambers of the Lord. You see, ordinarily we have the wrong idea about a prophet. We think of a prophet generally as a visionary. peering into the future, in order to tell things yet to be. The biblical view of the prophet is quite different. According to scripture, the prophet is one who has been taken into the confidence of the Lord, as if he had been transported by the Lord into the courts of the Lord to hear for himself the designs, the plans, the will of God.

    When Elijah therefore claims that he stands before the Lord. Note the words, before whom I stand. When Elijah claims that he stands before the Lord, it is specifically in this sense that he speaks. as one who has been taken into the confidence of the Lord, as one who has been transported into the courts of the Lord to hear for himself the designs of the Lord, the purposes of God, what God wills and what God will do. He comes Therefore, as one not simply from the Transjordan regions in Gilead, but from God.

    That is the privilege of the prophetic office. One who has stood before the Lord. to hear what the Lord is saying, and then the prophet comes to tell the people what the Lord said. Jesus, certainly prophetic himself, a prophet. There being that prophetic dimension to his sonship, Jesus himself speaks similarly.

    And that is why we read this evening John 12. Take stock of verses 48 through 50. Those verses are filled with the sense of Jesus’ ministry, as he is the quintessential prophet of God. Notice especially verse 49, “‘For I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father himself who sent me has given me commandment, what to say and what to speak.’ Here is the epitome of the prophet of the Lord.” And then verse 50, he continues. Therefore, the things I speak, I speak just as the father has told me.

    Jesus, the son, having prophetic office truly as none before him, gives expression to the prophetic dimension of his ministry. The sense of prophethood than in Christ, is as it is in Elijah as well. Jesus has come forth from God the Father, from the council chambers of his Father, before whom he stands with the revelation, the climactic revelation of the will of the Lord.

    It may be well for us. To see just how consistently this is worked out. Even beyond the ministry of Jesus. For beyond him, there is the apostolic ministry. And that ministry is also prophetic. Prophetic in the sense of which we have been speaking of it in the ministry of Elijah. And, of course, in the ministry of Jesus. Turn, for instance, to second Corinthians chapter two. Look at the last verse of that chapter.

    Here you have an exposition or an expression of Paul’s consciousness of his office or his function in the church, and specifically now as it relates to the church in Corinth. And you know that he is busy about a defense of himself before that church. Now that consciousness at work in him concerning his status and standing for the church, leads him to use a unique phrase with regard to his ministry as it focuses upon the circumstances in Corinth.

    He says, I am not peddling the word of God, or if you will, I am not corrupting it like some, particularly those who speak in such a way that the non-authoritative and unprophetic character of their ministry becomes apparent. In the end, those who peddle the word, those who corrupt it, are speaking from themselves, and they speak from the earth. But notice how then Paul goes on to speak of his ministry. Contrasting the ministry of those non-authoritative, unprophetic types is this apostolic ministry, which is, according to Paul, from God. The origin is from God.

    As Paul speaks in Christ, in the sight of God, That is Paul’s equivalent to the phrase in first Kings seventeen when Elijah says that he stands before the Lord. Paul is claiming prophetic status and standing. Before the church. You see. He means more here than simply that God knows all things, and therefore he knows what I’m saying every time I open my mouth. Instead, he is speaking about what Elijah spoke of with those words in the opening verse of 1 Kings 17. I stand before the Lord. A unique standing, to be sure.

    As I have said, Paul here is claiming prophetic status as one whose authority arises because he is privileged to speak from God. The very message he has, he has heard while in the presence of God, for he speaks in Christ in the sight of God. And that this is the case, and that this is the proper interpretation of what Paul says in that seventeenth verse, is proved by what he goes on to say in the third chapter, where he compares his own ministry with no less a figure than Moses. the great prophetic figure of the Old Testament. The prophet, then, stands before the Lord as one privileged by the Lord’s own beckoning to be privy to the counsels of the Lord Himself. This notion of Paul, that he in fact does stand before the Lord, speaking in Christ in the sight of God, underscores much of what he says in various ways throughout 2 Corinthians.

    But of interest to you may well be what he says at the conclusion in the twelfth chapter. For the same phrase is used once more. Verse 19. All this time, you have been thinking that we, or I, am defending myself to you. Actually, he goes on, it is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ. and all for your up building below. This verse.

    Is a foundational verse for the practical outworking of the prophetic ministry, which is Paul’s for the sake of the church. You might know how this New Testament prophet goes on to apply the prophetic message to the circumstance of the church. The prophet comes, not for tearing down, but for building up. He comes and speaks as he does for edification. But he also comes as an administrator of the covenant.

    Note what Paul then says, for I am afraid that perhaps when I come, I may find you not to be what I wish, and may be found by you not to be what you wish, that perhaps there are these matters in your midst, strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbance.

    Now, the worship of Baal may well have brought down the wrath of God in the day of alignment. But what will bring down the wrath of God in the day of Paul and every subsequent day since Paul until Christ returns is the very things he mentions here. And the reason why you must believe that is because Paul speaks in Christ in the sight of God.

    Paul is a prophet who knows exactly what the Lord is thinking and exactly what the Lord will do. Well, enough has been said on this matter. Moving back to Elijah, it should be clear to us now that Elijah’s words establish his claim. point to the origin of his message and the authority of his person as one privy to the secret counsels of the Lord. He knows what the Lord is thinking and what the Lord will do. But because Elijah is, as he says, one who stands before the Lord, one who comes forth from God. No one better than he knows that the Lord, the God of Israel, lives. You see? The reason why Elijah can say that he has stood before the Lord, the reason why he can say that the Lord God of Israel lives is he has just been in the presence of the Lord God of Israel.

    Now Israel may judge that the Lord is dead. Israel may well have concluded that the Lord is obsolete, that he is unresponsive and therefore no longer worthy of our trust and our faith. Israel may well judge that a better God is Baal, and that Baal is love. He is a modern deity and he is receptive to us. interested in our circumstances. But the situation, you see, is quite otherwise. This prophet Elijah, whose name means, My God is Jehovah, comes as the ambassador of the living God, the living though exiled God of Israel.

    The Lord, this One, will no longer sit by. For as has been said of Ahab, evil has now reached a point of perfection in the seventh king from Jericho. Never has it been this bad. So therefore, this God, the living and true God, demonstrates that he is, in fact, alive by sending his prophet to the purpose of executing his covenantal justice.

    Apostasy reaps God’s wrath. Don’t be deluded. It may well be they have fine cathedrals and they have the biggest budgets imaginable, but apostasy reaps They may even have the best youth group in town. And the visitation of that wrath by the living and true God will expose just how dead the that are worshipped by those who have apostatized.

    Now take stock of this pronouncement by Elijah. You see, this pronouncement is a direct affront to the God who has now become so popular amongst the Israelites. After all, Bale is the storm god, the god of the rain, the god of the harvest, the god of the earth. But here now strides Elijah preaching the word of the living God, no rain, not even any dew, none, drought, and a devastation to all of your harvest. which you will recall your God they promised you a deliberate assault upon this phony deity and upon his consort the Asherah Now, it may be true.

    That we are not so much troubled by. Idle gods. Like they. That compromised Israel. Ones that we can easily identify. Nevertheless. Apostasy. Abounds. unfaithfulness to the one true God abounds. But tragically, you see, it abounds where the Lord’s name also abounds.

    Instead of exchanging God for Baal, What many have now done is to turn God into big while retaining God’s name. And it’s not just the liberals. It’s not just the liberals who have done this. who have apostatized by turning the gospel into an earthly agenda for social and political engineering. It is conservatives as well, who have done the same.

    Their God being no less now a Dale, a God of yearning, a God of fertility, a God of business, a God of social affairs, a God of affluence, a God of success. Interestingly, Jesus, in his ministry, speaks of the regions of tire and sight. those regions from which they’ll worship arose. And he says that those regions will fare better in the day of judgment than the sanctuaries of orthodoxy. Truly, must we not look to ourselves? Is not the prophetic word coming to us? Does not the judgment of God begin with the house of the Lord?

    Certainly, to whom much is given, and we have been given much, have we not? The word of the living God, which we have embraced, the saving work of Jesus Christ, in which we have said we have trusted. That word and that salvation coming forth from God Himself, and we, through His messages, privy to the secret counsels of our God. Yes, to us, much has been given. But you know how that concludes. Not someone else. You. Not the liberals down the street. You. Much is required. Otherwise, the liberal will fare better than you. Father, you have sent forth your word. You have authenticated that word.

    These, your servants who come forth from your presence, those who have heard what you have said and have delivered the same to your people. Before them, Lord, may we tremble for his your word that they convey and the certain outcome of our lives before that word that is made plain and clear. O Lord, may we continue to trust in you and in the ministry of that prophet our excellence Jesus Christ.

    For he was not just a prophet revealing the will of God. He was a priest. So that our sins and our offenses would be removed. And we would have access to you. May we trust him. We pray this that as he has stood before your presence and stands now, as Elijah did and Paul did as well, may we, may we also come to stand before your presence.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.