Elijah and Elisha — Ken Baird

Well, we trust this morning that your speaker will be broken. That's good. I'm glad you made that mistake, Bill, and ran those words together. I'm not going to forget this. I like it. Mr. Harry Ironside, H .A. Ironside, for his initials, had a word, H .A .I., which is in the Bible.

There's a city by the name of H .A .I. It means a heap of ruins, and he liked to refer to himself, he liked, rather, referring to himself as a heap of ruins. I like it. I really do. Thank you, Bill. I wouldn't have missed that for anything.

Elijah in the Books of Kings and Malachi

In the seventeenth chapter of 1 Kings, we began a study of Elijah, and then it will go on into Elisha, for the false order. Elijah was one of the greatest of the prophets, the speaking prophets. There were two kinds of prophets, the writing prophets and the speaking prophets.

Elijah was a great speaking prophet. I think probably Elijah is quoted more times in the New Testament than any other Old Testament prophet. I did not check that out. I'm relying on my memory, but I think that that is correct.

I think you'll find that is correct. He is the last prophet mentioned in the Old Testament. He is mentioned in Malachi chapter 4, and we might notice that. It might be interesting to you. This great prophet, of whom God thought so much, and for whom he has such plans.

Malachi chapter 4, verse 5. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers.

Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Now the last verse in the Old Testament, the last name in the Old Testament, is the name I. And that is very fitting. We begin the Old Testament with the verse, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

We have God in the first verse of the Old Testament. We have God in the last verse of the Old Testament. And we have Elijah mentioned as coming. He has a tremendous responsibility, a tremendous ministry, at the end of the age, when he turns the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers.

Before the Lord comes and sets up his kingdom. Now this, even this build up in connection with Elijah, as to the importance of this man, we are immediately confronted with the fact that his posterity, or not posterity, his family tree is not mentioned.

Elijah's Unknown Lineage and God's Use of Nobodies

He is called Elijah the Tishbite. God likes to pick up nobodies and make something out of them. This is true of Melchizedek. Melchizedek's parents are not mentioned. His line of descendants are not mentioned.

And yet, in the book of Hebrews, Melchizedek is given such a mighty place that Christ is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. This is interesting. His descendants are not given to us at all. His descendants nor his progenitors are not given to us at all.

And the progenitors of Elijah are not given to us. Not at all. God picked him up in his grace. This should teach you and me, not to count too heavily upon our earthly lineage. We should feel very, very flattered that God picked us up.

And God can use us. That's his grace. And that was true of Elijah. We don't know his parents. Well, he's called the Tishbite. That's about all we know about this man. Yet he appears on the scene, abruptly, suddenly, as a prophet.

And of course, the ministry of the prophets was to rebuke sin. The prophet had a twofold task. He foretold and he foretold. And the prophets rebuked the sin that was in Israel. And this man rebuked the sin of wicked king Ahab.

Ahab, Jezebel, and the Danger of Idolatrous Marriage

Ahab was a wicked king. He married a woman by the name of Ephbaal, or rather Jezebel, the daughter of Ephbaal, of the Zidonians. She was a Baal worshipper and she brought the worship of Baal right into the nation of Israel.

This should be a warning that marriage is a very, very important thing. I think that the most important decision, outside of salvation itself, is who I'm going to spend my life with. Now, I hadn't thought that I would use this hour as a lecture to young people.

But it comes in so readily, and so handily, and so naturally, I'm going to talk about it a little bit. He got himself in trouble by marrying Jezebel. And she brought in idolatry. And I say it again, the most important decision that we've got to make in our lives, outside of salvation, is who am I going to marry.

It is very important. Wait on the Lord. The Lord can undertake for you in this area. Don't jump the gun. Don't take any old thing that comes along. Because God can provide for you if you wait and if you pray.

Well, he married the wrong one. He married the wrong one. And oh, the damage, the damage this woman does. She's even mentioned in the New Testament, in infamy, Jezebel. Well, King Ahab was extremely wicked.

And Jezebel helped him along in that business. Now, Elijah appears on the scene. We read in verse 1, Elijah the Tishbi, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God liveth before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

Elijah's Prayer and the Power of Earnest Intercession

Now, Elijah had had a prayer session before he went into the presence of Ahab. How do I know this? Oh, it isn't mentioned here, is it? No, it isn't mentioned at all. But James talks about it. Well, how does James know about it?

Well, the Lord told him. Let's turn to the book of James, the last chapter of the book of James. Elijah had a prayer meeting before he went into the presence of Ahab. James, chapter 5, verse 16. Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed.

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Now, here's the example. Elias, that's the New Testament, that's the Greek form of the name Elijah. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain.

And it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruits. Now, this man had prayed that it might not rain.

Now, I don't think for a moment that he had the audacity to go into the presence of Ahab and say it isn't going to rain until he'd had it out with the Lord. He said it's not going to rain these years.

Now, we know, James tells us, that the time was for three years and six months. The Book of Kings just mentioned these years. James is under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He's not wrong. He's not adding to the Bible.

He's just giving us information that we don't get in the Old Testament. Now, he prayed that there wouldn't be any rain. I think probably Elijah had in mind those verses in the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 11.

Deuteronomy's Warning About Obedience, Rain, and Idolatry

Now, I can't say this for sure. But I'm going to say that perhaps Elijah had that portion of the Scriptures in mind. When he prayed that there wouldn't be any rain, he just didn't say it. Pardon me. He just didn't say, go in there on his own.

He didn't go in there on his own and say, now, it's not going to rain for these years, and then go and pray about it. That's dangerous business. You'd better try it. You'd better pray first, before you make these bold statements.

He'd prayed about it. And I think that he probably had the 11th chapter of Deuteronomy in mind. Let's look at it. Deuteronomy, chapter 11. Deuteronomy, chapter 11, verse 13. And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandment, which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you rain of your land, the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn and thy wine and thy oil, and I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.

Take heed to yourself, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside and serve other gods and worship them. And then the Lord's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heavens, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not for fruit, unless ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you.

Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul. Don't forget it. Now, I think Elijah had this portion in mind. Elijah knew that Ahab and Jezebel were leading the children of Israel down the wrong road.

Now, he says, Lord, I know how you can get to them. Just cut off the rain. And he prayed about it. And James tells us he prayed earnestly about it. And he's the example that we have of effective prayer, the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availed of much.

Specific Prayer and God's Provision

So he goes into the presence of Ahab after he'd prayed about it. He says, God, if this is the only way you can get the ear of your people, if this is the only way you can wake them up, stop the rain, stop it.

Now, I'm telling you, this would be effective, wouldn't it? I've prayed for rain. Have you ever prayed for rain? I've prayed for rain. Also prayed for it to stop. But God still controls the elements. I've prayed for rain.

Do you know what happened? It rained. It rained. I could tell you a story, but you'd say, oh, he's boasting. Time to take his place along with Elijah. I didn't pray that it'd stop for three years and six months, believe me.

But I prayed for rain and got it. And I know I got it. I think I'll tell you. I may have told you before, but if I have, don't stop me. I want to tell it again. It was dry in Colorado. And I told the Lord one day, I said, Lord, we need a half-inch of rain.

Will you send us a half-inch of rain? Now, at this time, there wasn't any rain in the forecast. And the weather regime was such that there was no rain in prospect. The Great Basin High, oh, let's not go into the meteorological aspects of the fact that there was no rain.

At that time, they just didn't have any prospects. And I said, Lord, we need at least a half-inch of rain. Well, a couple nights later, I woke up in the night to the music of rain on the roof. I said, thank you, Lord.

Remember my prayer. I went out in the morning after the rain had passed on, and I looked at my rain gauge. And I have a very accurate rain gauge. I looked at my rain gauge. And how much rain do you suppose I had in my gauge?

Well, I didn't have 4 ,900. And I didn't have 5 ,100. I had exactly 5 ,100 of an inch of rain. Now, the official rain gauge for the city of Boulder registered 2 ,300. But the Lord saw to it that there was a half-inch of rain.

Well, I told that to some of my friends. And they said, why didn't you pray for more? I'm going to tell you another specific... This comes so naturally here. I'm going to tell you another story. I had a daily vacation Bible school once.

And the people prayed definitely that at least four little children would be saved. I didn't know this, but at the end of the daily vacation Bible school, two little boys and two little girls had professed to come to Christ and accept Him as their Savior.

They told me the story then. I said to them, why didn't you ask for more? Are you definite in your prayers? You know, I think God likes to be challenged. I think God likes to be challenged. Now, I don't mean...

Now, listen, I've never prayed for half an inch of rain yet. And I've batted 1 ,000 and I'm going to keep the record that way. I'm never going to be specific again about the rain that shall fall. I'm not...

I prayed in faith the first time. I think I would be tempting God the second time. Now, I may pray for rain again. But I'm not going to... I'm not going to specify the amount. God just gave me a nice little surprise.

So I'm going to keep batting 1 ,000. But, you know, I think God wants us to be specific in our prayers. Elijah prayed that it would rain. Or that it wouldn't rain. And then he had to pray seven times that it would rain.

Sometimes you have to pray a lot harder getting out of a situation than you do to pray to get into it. I don't know whether you remember that. But he sent his servant, and I hope I'm not borrowing from somebody else.

In the future, he sent his servant seven times to go and see if the rain was coming. So it's very evident that he prayed seven times. But the rain did come later. Now, he goes into the presence of Ahab after his prayer session, very apparently.

Elijah's Bold Word and Moses' Failure at Meribah

When he told the Lord, Now, Lord, if this is the only way you can get their ear cut off. I mean the rain, of course. Peter cuts off the ears. Just stop that rain. Stop it. So I went into Ahab's presence.

And he told it. As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand. And you know, Ahab didn't amount to much. Before whom I stand. Ahab, I stand before God. Was he afraid of Ahab? No, he wasn't afraid of Ahab.

Before whom I stand. He was later afraid of Jezebel. Be careful of a woman who's angry. But he wasn't afraid of Ahab. And so he says to Ahab, No rain. No rain. I stand before the Lord. And there's not going to be any rain.

But he made a mistake. As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand. There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. There is where he made his mistake. According to my word.

Now you know, that was very, very, that was very, very unwise on the part of Elijah to put it that way. Really he was a prophet. God had told him to go to Ahab. Now he had no right to say, but according to my word.

I should think that he would have remembered Moses' experience. When the second time that they were at Meribah. And Moses was told to speak to the rock. That it would give forth his water. That Moses stood up and he called the children of Israel, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock?

You know what that mistake cost him? It cost him the entrance into the promised land. God says, now because you didn't sanctify me in the presence of these people, you are not going into the promised land.

Must we fetch you water out of this rock? No. They weren't going to fetch the water out of the rock. The Lord was going to do it. Now the reason that I feel, now you could just say in the case of Elijah, when he's in the presence of Ahab on this occasion.

You could just say, well, that was inferred that God had told him to say it. Well, it isn't recorded that way. But according to my word. Now the reason I think that he was off base, is because of what the Lord told him immediately afterwards.

Verse 2,. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn eastward, and hide thyself. By the brook Tila. That is to say before Jordan. Get out of sight, Elijah. Hide yourself.

Somebody would say, well, certainly he's to hide himself. He's to hide himself because Ahab would find him out, seek him out, for the purpose of slaying him. And Ahab really was looking for him at the end of the three and a half years.

But he didn't get the opportunity of slaying him. Now, I think that God said, now I'm going to tame you down a little bit. Why didn't you say that according to the word of the Lord? Instead of saying, according to my word.

You know, we need to be broken, don't we? We need to be a heap of ruins. We need to count on the Lord. We need to say, the Lord said this. And the Lord said that. Now, he not only went and hid himself by the brook, got out of sight.

God's Provision for Elijah by the Brook Cherith

Now, I don't know how that affected his professional reputation, but he became a hermit. By the direction of God. Now, God says in verse four, and it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.

Now, the raven was an unclean bird. And anything that an unclean bird touched was unclean. But these ravens were specially chosen. And God says, now I'm going to feed you, Elijah, by the means of ravens.

I don't know how that set with Elijah, but I think when supper time came around, he was ready to eat. And the Lord fed him with bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening. And he drank of the brook, Kera.

Now, I think you've probably seen the crows along the road, feeding on dead rabbits that have been run over by automobiles. And they vacate the premises while you're driving by, but they don't go very far away, because you look in your rear-view mirror, and they've settled right back on the pavement again by the dead carcass.

Where did the raven get this flesh? It's not a very savory prospect, is it? But it was God's provision. It was God's provision. And he provided for his servant. Now, some commentaries have felt that he was there for about a year at the brook, Kera.

But you know, the brook dried up. Well, why wouldn't it? There was no rain. The brook dried up. You know, we do have a natural order of things that responds to obedient laws of nature. Now, God didn't just make a spring come right out of the ground, and he could have done it, couldn't he?

He could have done it. Now, this was Elijah's idea, to call for this drought. Elijah was quite a character, if I may say so. He was pretty severe. He called fire down out of heaven on two occasions, and consumed 50 men on each occasion.

Which was not gentle treatment. I wonder if Elijah began to think about the fact that he might have been a little bit hard on the children of Israel, to have God stop the rain. The brook dried up. Yeah.

There was no water for him. It was natural. It was the natural order of things. God's laws were just taking effect, that's all. But God was not stymied, if I may use that expression. God was not defeated by the fact that the brook dried up.

Then he sent him to a widow. Verse 8. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. For behold, I have commanded a widow woman there, to sustain thee.

Now, that must have had something to do with his day's statement, according to my word. He didn't get enough humbling by the fact that he ate the food that ravens had brought. That he drank straight out of the brook.

That wasn't enough. He says, I'm going to command a widow woman to sustain you. And she was not even a Jewess. She was a Gentile. Now, the Gentiles and the Jews have no dealings with one another. You see, God is not through with Elijah quite yet.

And so he says, I have commanded a widow woman to sustain him. And she's not going to be a Jewess. She's going to be a Gentile. Now, I wonder if by this time Elijah might be getting the message. Do you suppose he did?

I wonder how long it takes us to get the message. And be broken. Thanks, Bill. I'll never forget that. You don't know what you did for me, Bill. I think Elijah began to do some thinking. Well, he followed the Lord.

He carried out the Lord's suggestion. Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongs to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain me. So he arose and went to Zarephath.

And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow woman was there gathering the sticks. Just as we read in our Sunday School lesson. I want you to notice, please. That he tells her to bring him something to eat.

Verse 11. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said to the Lord, Thy God liveth. I have not a cake, but a handful of meal and a burl, and a little oil and a cruise.

And behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and for my son, and we may eat thereof and die. And Elijah said unto her, Fear not. Go and do as thou hast said. But make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it underneath.

And after, make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel. She's got things straightened out now, hasn't she? For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The burl of meal shall not waste.

Neither shall the cruise of oil fail, Until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah. And she and he and her house did eat many days. And the burl and meal wasted not,.

Neither did the cruise of oil fail, According to the word of the Lord, Which he spake by Elijah. Elijah had apparently learned his lesson. It's wonderful when we can learn lessons, isn't it? He says, that the cruise of oil and that burl of meal shall not waste.

And it's God himself that says it. Not according to my word this time. It was the word of the Lord. Now, in the case of Moses, When Moses smoked that rock the second time when he shouldn't have done it, And I suppose we should have given...

Moses, Elijah, and God's Grace in Human Failure

No, we shouldn't have given more time to it. Remember, please, that after Moses smoked that rock the second time, When he should have only spoken to it, The water came out. The water came out. The water came out of the rock.

And they all drank. Now, Moses was told that he could not go in to the promised land. Because, because, if you please, He had not sanctified the Lord. Must we fetch you, rebels, this water out of this rock?

I transpose some of the words. He did, he made two mistakes. He attributed the fetching the water out of the rock to himself, And he called the people of God rebels. And God can call them that if he wants to, but Moses had no right to do that.

Now, God brought out the water. The Lord said, You're not going in to the land of Israel. Here's another man. And he says, according to my word. But isn't it amazing, Who was with the Lord On the Mount of Transfiguration?

Moses and Elijah. Isn't that marvelous? Moses and Elijah Were with the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration. You know, we can make mistakes, can't we? We can make mistakes. And God can correct them. And isn't it marvelous he doesn't hold it against us?

He doesn't, he didn't hold Peter's mistake, Peter's denial of the Lord against him. He recommissioned him. And he let him go on In his work for God. You know, we've got a gracious God. How wonderful it is To have him For our God.

Elijah's Ministry to the Gentile Widow and the Closing Prayer

Now, our time is up. But Elijah raises this widow's son. He was a blessing to her. Isn't it nice to be a blessing to people? Now, circumstances have forced him To go to this Gentile widow's home And to be sustained.

It was a part of his humbling. And even the Lord himself mentions this In the fourth chapter of Luke. He does, he mentions it in the fourth chapter of Luke. He makes special mention of the fact That Elijah was sustained By a Gentile lady.

A widow. But she was a sinner. And she needed to know the Lord. But thank God, before the chapter closes She really knew the Lord. The last verse says Verse 24. And the woman said to Elijah Now by this I know That thou art a man of God And that the word of the Lord In thy mouth is truth.

He was a blessing to her. He was sent to her. As a part of the humbling process. But nevertheless, he was a blessing. Isn't it wonderful to have a God That can turn our mistakes Into blessings. We thank thee Father In the name of the Lord Jesus For these examples that you've given us.

Elijah, and we pray Father That we might profit by them. Bless this series of studies As it is conducted Lord's day after Lord's day For this fall quarter. This we ask as we give thanks In our Savior's precious name.

Amen.