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 14, 1988.
About this sermon
1 Kings 11 through 16 sets the stage before Elijah ever appears, a long descent into apostasy that makes his sudden arrival all the more striking. His ministry carries a real priestly character alongside the prophetic, prophesying Christ’s own office. Like Christ, Elijah’s mission is finally about bringing God’s love, not simply announcing judgment.
Sermon transcript
We are venturing into some new territory tonight. We are moving into the book of 1 Kings. We will be in the 11th chapter to start with, and then we will move on to chapter 16. But first of all, chapter 11, verse 26. This is 1st Kings 11 26 then Jeroboam the son of Nebat an Ephraimite of Zerudah Solomon’s servant whose mother’s name was Zeruah a widow and also rebelled against the king. This was the reason why he rebelled against the king. Solomon built the Milo and closed up the breach of the city of his father David. Now the man Jeroboam was a valiant warrior, and when Solomon saw that the young man was industrious, he appointed him over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph.
It came about at that time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem that the prophet Ahijah, the Shilonite, found him on the road. Ahijah had clothed himself with a new cloak, and both of them were alone in the field. Then Ahijah took hold of the new cloak which was on him and tore it into twelve pieces. He said to Jeroboam, Take for yourself ten pieces.
For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and give you ten tribes. But he will have one tribe for the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel.
Because they have forsaken me and have worshiped Asherah, The goddess of the Sidonians and Hamish, the god of Moab, and Milcom, the god of the sons of Ammon. And they have not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my sight and observing the statutes and ordinances as his father David did. Nevertheless, I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of my servant David, whom I chose, who observed my commandments and my statutes. But I will take the kingdom from his son’s hand and give it to you, even ten tribes. But to his son I will give one tribe that my servant David may have a lamp always before me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen for myself to put my name. And I will take you, and you shall reign over whatever you desire, and you shall be king over Israel. Then it will be that if you listen to all that I command you and walk in my ways, and do what is right in my sight by observing the statutes and my commandments, as my servant David did, then I will be with you and build you an enduring house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you. Thus I will afflict the descendants of David for this, but not always.”
Solomon sought, therefore, to put Jeroboam to death, but Jeroboam rose and fled to Egypt to Shishak, the king of Egypt, and he was in Egypt until the death of Solomon. Now the rest of the Acts of Solomon and whatever he did and his wisdom, are they not written in the books and the Acts of Solomon? Thus the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David. and his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.
Then in the 16th chapter, beginning with verse 29. Now Ahab, the son of Amri, became king over Israel In the thirty-eighth year of Asa, king of Judah, and Ahab, the son of Amri, reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. And Ahab, the son of Amri, 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 Ethbel, 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 a buyer in his first born and set up its gate with the loss of his youngest son should go.
According to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Joshua, the son of none. Our father, your spirit goes forth with your word. and that spirit is our comfort and also our goad that truly we may be provoked into the way of our God if indeed we have strayed. Lord, we pray that you would encourage us as we are pointed by you and your word in the right direction and as we move them along the road which you have ordained. May we find that road pleasant and pleasing, and may we be content to walk upon it. Truly, your word is a lamp unto our path, a light for our feet. Hear us, our God, for the sake of your Son, in whose name we pray.
Amen. Now, we have all heard about Elijah. We know, each of us, something about him. And we have heard about Ahab, the king, that one who opposed Elijah. We are familiar with Ahab’s wife. She has become something of a proverb in the world. Jezebel. That all women should avoid in association with that name. And we have heard of Elisha. Elijah’s successor. In the weeks that are to follow, we will be looking at the life of Elijah, and as well, at the lives of those famous persons, figures, or should I say, in some cases, infamous. Those famous or infamous figures associated with him.
We will be concerned mainly with a section of scripture beginning with 1 Kings 16 verse 29, and running through to the conclusion of 2 Kings chapter 2. You will want to read this section of scripture for yourself. It is certainly one of the more dramatic and exciting portions of the scriptures. You might also, as you think on those scriptures, want to read about Elijah in the treatments found in some important works written by good and godly men.
I have mentioned in the bulletin today the name of A. W. Paint. He is a man who is known to us because of a series of very useful essays under the title Sovereignty of God. I might suggest, if you have not read that collection of essays, please do so. They are of great benefit.
Mr. Pink, however, was about as independently a thinking Baptist as you will find. Nevertheless, his book on God’s sovereignty and his book Elijah are classics. They are devotionally written and the thoughts he presents are easily accessible to you. Another name is M.B. This man is not as well known to you, I’m sure.
He lived a comparatively brief, but active life as a scholar, a pastor and church leader in the Reformed Church of the Netherlands. He wrote a book on Elijah, entitled, My God is Yahweh, which, after all, is the meaning of Elijah’s name. And this book is a crown to the labors of Pastor Van’t Veer.
His goal was to place Elijah solidly within the boundaries of the covenant of grace. So as you work your way through that volume, which is quite extensive I might add, you are continually reminded of how Elijah is grounded in the covenant of grace. His goal as well is to encourage us in the direction of an appreciation of just how Jesus Christ is related to the activities and the events in Elijah’s life. So a Christological approach to the life of Elijah as well.
In addition to these two works, I might also suggest to you the appropriate chapters in The Graphs, Promise and Deliverance, Volume 2. I can give you the pages if you’re taking notes, 241 to 294. These chapters deal extensively with the life of Elijah, again presenting us with excellent material great food for thought Tonight we want to consider Elijah the man and his times First Elijah the man This man simply explodes upon the scene. He is introduced to us dramatically and his dramatic introduction invariably draws comments from those writing on him.
He is called the Tishbite. Some have therefore placed him in a town which they believe was located along the banks of the brook Cherith. You may not know where that brook is. It is in the regions of the Transjordan on the east side of the Jordan River in the land of Gilead in the territory of the half-tribe of Manasseh.
We know nothing about his parentage, nor of his life, his manner of life, previous to his introduction in 1st Kings 17. Because of this, it has become common amongst those reflecting upon him to place him in the company of another whose genealogy is obscure, if not non-existent.
You will recall what is said about Melchizedek, that mysterious figure that pops up inexplicably in Genesis chapter 14. Where in the world did he come from? You might recall what is said about Melchizedek in the book of Hebrews, the seventh chapter. Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he abides a priest perpetually.
Well, we must admit we know a little bit more about Elijah than we do about Melchizedek. We may even think when we survey Melchizedek and then Elijah that the comparison is a bit strange. Still, the parallel is striking. As Melchizedek’s absence genealogy and seeming perpetuation into an eternal ministry foreshadows Christ’s eternal priesthood, so Elijah’s absence of genealogy and his translation supernaturally through the gates of death, who can forget the chariots of fire, foreshadows Christ’s eternal prophethood from priesthood and its perpetuity to prophethood and its perpetuity. Elijah epitomizes the office of the prophet as Melchizedek epitomizes the office of the priest. And as Melchizedek anticipates the great priest, Christ, so Elijah anticipates the great and final prophet, the Lord Jesus himself. Now it may well be that Elijah has even a closer proximity to Melchizedek. We have noticed something of a dissimilarity while we have been speaking about the parallels. For Melchizedek is a priest, but Elijah is a prophet.
Still, Elijah is familiar as the story unfolds with the altar and with the sacrifice. This seems apparent to us from the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel and his confrontation with the priests of Baal, priests against priests, not simply a prophet. Therefore, it could well be then that because of this familiarity on Elijah’s part with altar and sacrifice, that we are not off-base when we conclude that he too was a priest. Prophet, yes, but also priest.
We will certainly remember then That connection, that connection that we find between the figure of Elijah with the Messiah in the book of Malachi. A relationship that is expounded for us in the third chapter of that prophecy, and again as we compare it with a passage in the fourth chapter of that prophecy.
You may want to look at Malachi chapter three, verse one. Behold, writes the prophet, I am going to send my messenger and he will clear the way before me. and the Lord will suddenly come to his temple. The mention of the temple there in relationship not only to the coming of the Lord, but this one who is identified as the messenger. But then you turn over to chapter 4 of Malachi and you note verse 5. In language that seems deliberately reflective of what we have already read in chapter 3 verse 1, you have the prophet saying this, behold I am going to send to you Elijah the prophet for the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. It would seem then that the messenger spoken of at the beginning of chapter 3, none other than the Elijah spoken of in the fifth verse of the fourth chapter.
Elijah, the prophet, is associated here with the temple service. He is also associated, as you run down that passage in Malachi 3, with the sons of Levi and their purification. so that they are enabled then to serve God aright. Now we take all of this and then we bring it to bear upon what we know about Elijah through the pages of the New Testament. For in the New Testament, the figure of Elijah and the fulfillment of those Malachi prophecies are identified with John the Baptist. We are told by Jesus, Elijah has certainly come.
But we also know that John the Baptist was a Levite of the priestly line, and his service unto God as the messenger who goes before the Lord, clearing his way, is unto the purification of the final eschatological temple into which God’s people are to be drawn. We make, therefore, this connection. that from what we know from other passages in Scripture and the inferences that we can draw between the relationship of Melchizedek to Elijah, that Elijah may well have been a Levite, a priest himself. a priest who found himself, for whatever reason, in the Transjordan, ministering to the tribes in that region.
And if this is so, it would certainly be in keeping with the general biblical pattern. For after all, most of the prophets that we read of and hear about in Scripture were also priests. Their prophet ministry arising out of their priestly ministry. I might, as an aside, make comment about that connection. The connection, by the way, which has been very important in the history of Presbyterianism. You see, Presbyterians traditionally have maintained a doctrine of the priesthood of believers.
But in maintaining that position, they have not relegated the priestly ministry, if you will, to the ash heap. In other words, there are appropriate priestly functions that belong to the ministry. the ministry in the church, and that is the reason why a minister is to teach. A minister teaches in keeping with the pattern of things that arise out of the Old Testament. That ministry in the Old Testament being that the priests were not only to serve at the altar, but they were to instruct the people of God in the law, in the word. As well, a minister still to this day, ordinarily I might say, within Presbyterian circles, is to officiate into sacraments. That again is not an indication of priesthood, but it is a priestly role.
And he also is commissioned to pronounce the benediction upon the people of God. unique to his office. But you see, in the Old Testament, a special function of ministry of the word arose out of the priesthood, and that is as it is now. There is that priestly function and there is that prophetic function that is particularly apropos to the ministerial office. Making that office unique.
That then is the general pattern of biblical truth, and one upon which Presbyterians have insisted, at least traditionally. This then is Elijah the man. A prophet, but very likely a priest. Possibly one whose priesthood preceded his prophetic ministry. What about his times? In dealing with his times, we must deal with the broad vision and the narrow.
The broad picture begins to develop in 1 Kings 11.26. That is why we read from that point this evening.
In that scripture we are introduced to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite. a warrior, a leader under Solomon. Because of Solomon’s decadence, the Lord sends Ahijah the prophet to Jeroboam with the charge and with the promise. The charge was that he was, after all, to be one who would stand up as an example of obedience over against the glaring disobedience of Solomon, and the promise that if he did this, then he would have built for him an abiding house, as had been promised to David. He would be given ten tribes. If he followed the Lord and honored David’s right That is, if he continued to revere the supremacy of Jerusalem, even though he had a house built for himself, then he would be blessed. And he would be blessed with a perpetual heritage.
But when Solomon found out about this charge and promise, he set about to execute Jeroboam, who then fled to Egypt. Solomon died. and Jeroboam returned. And true to the prophecy of Ahijah, ten tribes were assembled under him in revolt against Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. But you will recall, Jeroboam did not revere David’s memory, nor did he revere the name of the Lord God who had given him charge and given him promise.
Instead, he built golden castles and erected altars in the cities of Dan and Bethel. He also supported a cult priesthood, which was operative in the high places of the land. Nadab, his son, followed him to the throne, ruling over those ten tribes, as had his But he was just as bad as his father. He, with his father, forsook the covenant made with them and demonstrated their disregard for David and the supremacy of Jerusalem. In forsaking that covenant, and David and his city Jeroboam and his seed were forsaking Christ. You might recall Nadab, Jeroboam’s son, was murdered.
He was murdered by Basha, who was of the house of Issachar. Basha was succeeded by Elah, his son. who was a profligate, became drunk at a banquet and was killed by Zimri, a man of the military. Zimri’s rule lasted but seven days. He was attacked by another general by the name of Omri, who caged him up in the city of Tirzah. Zimri fled to the citadel of that city He himself set it ablaze and sat there while the building collapsed around.
Omri is now succeeded by Ahab, the seventh king from Jeroboam, and the wickedness is perfected. With broad picture then of Elijah’s day, the consistent decline and resolute apostasy of Israel. The tribes follow the kings into wickedness and into oblivion. The narrow picture is of the reign of Ahab itself. All you need to do is read those completing verses of chapter 16 to get a feel of things. We are introduced to consistent Baalism. through an injudicious union with a Sidonian king’s daughter, Jezebel.
Baal, to some he was the sun god, to others he was the moon god, to others he was the storm god, but to all he was the god of the forces of nature. upon whom depended the prosperity of the land. Baal is the god of success. He is the god of prosperity and promise and plenty. He is joined now in the Parthenon of Israel He is joined with Asherah, an idol, a female deity. Together these two, God and Goddess, King and Queen, exalted carnality to the heights.
Now with this picture of consistent resolute apostasy. There is also mentioned for us the rebuilding of the city of Jericho. Not only are these people and their kings, their queens, running off after false gods but in the process they are casting aside flagrantly the word of God and the certain judgments of it. They are rebuilding the city which God specifically told them not to rebuild.
And with the rebuilding of that city, Jericho, The people have in effect declared their identification with the Canaanite tribes they had displaced. The message that arose out of the rubble of Jericho was that by God’s grace alone, by his might and power, my people shall prevail. For what arm of any Israelite was lifted in order to conquer that city all they did was march around the city and then go home God brought down the walls of that invincible fortress and in doing so he provided there at the entrance into the land a perpetual testimony to his might, his power, and his grace. But now, Hiel, the Bethelite, the one who lives in the city whose name means house of God, rebuilds the house of Canaan. the house that symbolizes human strength and power and might, pretense and pride. Countering then the message of divine grace so eloquently preached in the conquest of that city originally is now the gospel of works the gospel of righteousness achieved by might and salvation by power through one’s own hand.
Into this situation comes Elijah. Believe it or not, he is first of all an ambassador of God’s love. In him there is heard and entreated If they’ll be God, follow Him. But if the Lord be God, then follow Him. That entreaty, that demonstration of God’s love comes before the great and terrible day in which Israel, the ten tribes, will be destroyed. and their memory erased.
In white fashion, a later day Elijah comes. He comes before the great and terrible day that descends upon Jerusalem. His voice too is one of entreaty, believe it or not, one of love. Repent. The time is fulfilled. the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Similarly, the Elijah-like message goes forth from the pulpits of the true church of Jesus Christ before the great and terrible day of the Lord. It is a message of love and of intrigue. Turn. Be welcomed by God. Embrace Him through the tears of your repentance. Let that day not overtake you as it overtook Israel and Jerusalem. Let us pray.
Father, we would delight ourselves in the message about and from Elijah. And Lord, we would immerse ourselves in the testimony that is borne by that spirit that drove him and drove John the Baptist now comes forth from Christ himself that we may in fact turn and be healed before the great and terrible day of the Lord. May we apply our hearts to wisdom that that day may not overtake us as a thief in the catch us unaware and we be consumed. We ask this through Christ who entreats us through the prophetic ministry.
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