Coordinators Conf 1974 Pt2 — George Verwer

In 1874. Thank you for those words of welcome afresh. I'm pleased to be back again today, a little more on time than yesterday I'm glad to say, and I want to turn with you to One King Chapter 18. I'm reminded of a story of a man who was a very garrulous speaker and realising he'd gone on far too long, he turned rather apologetically to the chairman and said I can't see a clock in the hall.

The chairman was very wide awake and with a touch of humour forgetting about the calendar on the wall. Well I've got two watches in front of me now so I shan't need the calendar after all. I want to talk in terms of continuing in our study of Elijah, Elijah's triumph.

Elijah’s Calling and the Cost of Consecration

You will recall that God trained this man, he learned quite a bit I trust yesterday from on his training. Now we talk something of it and we learn something of his triumph, how God used this man of faith.

We have to remember of course that to be genuinely used by God is not something that's going to come lightly or easily, it involves a path of sacrifice, a path of constant obedience, a path of complete dedication, it's not an easy path to walk.

I'm always encouraged when I read the story of Bunyan's Pilgrim and I feel that we have to recognise that if we really want to use it, it is a glorious thing and yet it is something of a sacrifice. You know it's lost in us, we remind you by way of illustration.

The story, it must have been apocryphal, was told of a pig and a hen that escaped from a local farm and went down to a local village and there outside the restaurant there was a menu on the wall and the hen turned excitedly to the pig and said look we're at the top of the menu today, ham and eggs, what did I see?

And the pig turned to the hen and said, right for you, yours is only an offering, mine's a sacrifice. Now in a sense that's the Christian life isn't it, it's not just giving God what we can spare, it's giving ourselves, it's a sacrifice and in some ways I think that's got such a tremendous truth humour is where it may lead.

Elijah Emerges from Obscurity

So we look at 1 Kings 18, we concluded on the note that Elijah had been hidden away in the back side of the desert as it were, he had been obscure and not in the limelight at all and in chapter 18 verse 1 he is told to show himself, to reveal himself at last.

We read in another place in scripture that it was three years and six months that he had been away from Ahab, that had been the period of the drought and during this time Ahab had been searching for him high and low, it had not been easy, Ahab had sent out messengers, he'd taken an oath of people in the country in case they had seen him or harboured him or in any way sheltered him and he was obviously anxious to find Elijah without success until God's time was right and Elijah was commanded to go and show himself.

In verse 3 we're introduced to this God-fearing man Obadiah, now if you're not familiar with Obadiah do look at verse 3 and a few verses further on and Ahab called Obadiah who was over the household, now Obadiah revered the Lord greatly and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by a cave and fed them with bread and water and Ahab said to Obadiah go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the valleys perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive and not lose some of the animals so they divided the land between them and passed through it.

Ahab went in one direction by himself and Obadiah in another direction by himself so in 1 Kings 18. Obviously Ahab trusted Obadiah, trusted him as though he had eyes of his own and he trusted him as a man of integrity, he wouldn't just quarter his particular horses there but the king's horses and mules.

Interesting actually that Ahab was much more concerned for his animals to alleviate the problem than for the cause of the problem, his own misdoings. The cause of the problem, the drought, was Ahab and his people's sins and rather than find the remedy he wanted to simply alleviate the suffering to the animals and he could have put the matter right but we're introduced to Obadiah because Obadiah had something to teach us.

He feared the Lord greatly and if you look onto verse 12 it was from his youth upward and yet here he was in the top position so it might seem as Lord Chancellor in Ahab's regime, a cabinet minister perhaps drawn at some part but almost a number two for Ahab.

Now this is interesting because he'd had such a senior position in court and he was a man who was God-fearing and Ahab wasn't and yet Ahab recognised the value of the man whose standards he opposed. Ahab allowed the worship of Dale, he allowed Jezebel the practices that people were given over to and yet Ahab admired the standards of Obadiah whom he disobeyed.

Now that's interesting because it means that even right at the top you will find people who admire integrity and honesty, a sense of God's presence within the person, a recognition of their worth and might even elevate from the top of it without necessarily following it.

Part of the story of Potiphar and Joseph rising prominent in Potiphar's house and it's interesting also in verse 4 to notice that God raised up Obadiah earlier on as a friend to his persecuted people, the prophets.

Just when they apparently had nobody in a senior position, God introduced the man he'd been declaring and whose party he'd been keeping, Obadiah, and he managed to rescue a hundred of them and hide them by fifty in caves and fed them.

God provided his friend for his persecuted people. If God ever wants to, you know, God has it many times in scripture and still today. Then we're introduced to Elijah's challenge. I think we can assume this was really rather a magnificent confrontation.

Elijah Confronts Ahab

Elijah said to Obadiah, go and tell the king that I'm here and Obadiah said but he's been looking everywhere for you and when I go and tell him why you will disappear I'm sure because we've been looking everywhere for you and then the king will, well he'll kill me though I'm the Lord Chancellor.

My life is not worth it. He's so furious. Please don't allow this to happen. Look I've revered the Lord from my youth upwards and Elijah said don't do I, I will today show myself to the king. So off Obadiah went and when Ahab heard he came to meet him.

Now picture the scene in verse 17 onwards. Ahab was hot, there'd been a drought, he was obviously covered with dust, there was a lot of dust in that part of the world, he was probably frustrated, hardly believing his own eyes, he could hardly give credibility to what he was confronted with.

Here was he looking for the man, another man had appeared and said I want to see you. He was rebellious I noticed, he was still accused of it, he was unrepentant, he was years of difficulty, had not taught himself.

God's visitation, far from making his heart malleable, he was still accused of it and he put the blame on Elijah, he was unrepentant and this was a false accusation. Are you the troubler of Israel, he said to Elijah, you're the man who's caused all this calamity to us.

It's true that God's people do get blamed when they're innocent and sometimes blamed for when they do the right thing. Blame is a very easy thing to attach, it usually means that the person for whom it should be attached has dodged it in the process and I think that Christians will always find themselves being blamed by those who disobey them, by those who reject their standards, blamed for all sorts of things which they may not have done and therefore not given credit.

But why should we imagine that credit is due to us? I copied out of the Illustrated Times of India, I hope to get that right, it's published by the Times of India but it's called the Hindustan Times, the following quotation about the father of Christian achievement, no credit, probably we should get blamed, we're getting the door closed to our faces from this new interview as we know it.

So this is what an Indian paper wrote, Christian Endeavour has given India over 150 colleges, 2 ,177 high schools, 214 technical schools and 153 teachers training schools, 620 hospitals, 670 dispensaries, 86 leprosy centres, 713 orphanages, 87 homes for the aged, 44 agricultural settlements, 27 industrial centres and several institutes for the blind, the deaf and the handicapped.

The article concludes, what community has done as much for our country? Why should we? We also get the blame often for things that don't happen or go wrong, not necessarily on a national scene but on a local situation, the Christians are blamed and we must accept it.

But Elijah, far from allowing Ahab to get away with his false accusation, makes it rebound upon him and aflame with righteous indignation, he said it's not I who's troubled Israel but you, you're the troubler of Israel, you with your double standards and your false worship and your insincerity, you with your responsible position have led others astray, you are the culpable one because you were the responsible one and as a leader you carry that responsibility Ahab.

Now this is dangerous talk because our thoughts, if Ahab had been prepared to kill his Lord Chancellor because Elijah had vanished as a will of the wisp, surely Elijah said the wrong thing, he was quite prepared to kill Elijah.

But such courage met with a remarkable return, having thrown down the gauntlet and the piece of opposition and the divine inspiration, he ordered Ahab to produce the prophets of Baal and the other prophets who'd eaten at Jezebel's table.

Now note Elijah's authority, after all he was only a wandering prophet, he probably looked pretty dishevelled, I don't know how he managed to cut his hair all these years in the desert and whether his clothes were a bit taffy and I don't know what he looked like but Ahab the king recognised authority when he met him, he recognised that Elijah had authority given to him, vested in coming out of them.

He was this king told to summon all the prophets together, now they were scattered in the various temples and groves and also he was told to send out an edict throughout the land and summon all the people.

Well this was a difficult thing for Ahab to do but he obeyed. Now to Henry's commentary, perhaps he hoped that by gathering all the people Elijah would demonstrate a miracle by sending rain in front of everybody and so he was prepared to do it or perhaps he just recognised that Elijah had the whip's hand but either way it was authority and the man of God has got an authority, a vested authority, not his own making of course but something that God has given to him and that should and might well be apparent on the crucial occasions when it's needed.

The Challenge at Mount Carmel

So Ahab under these instructions sent from verse 20 of 1 Kings to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel and Elijah came to all the people and then challenged them, how long will you go limping with two different opinions, if the Lord is God follow him but if fails then follow him.

Picture the scene if you can get your imagination to play upon it. This was going to be a very real spectacle, the French say you can go and spect up, this was the daddy of a show. The whole contours of people were to come together on Mount Carmel, it had the smell of death about it somehow for the side that lost would be killed.

Yes it was an arena of a spectacle but one side had to lose. Picture the scene that was following, the surly priests, very shuffling columns of moving forward, were they eager, were they dull, we don't know.

A huge unconvinced of this we know, sea of unsympathetic humanity coming forward and when challenged they wouldn't answer, nobody would take the lead, they all waited for the next man to speak, they wouldn't answer in a word and we met this often, people not willing to expose their position, rather hiding behind the box, not willing to come into the audience, there may well have been some sincere people there who would have liked to have said something, but after many years of living in an alien society as it were, where Baal was worshipped and the true God was hardly known, they weren't prepared to stick their necks out and so Elijah's challenge got no response.

How long will you live, if the Lord is God, follow him, but if Baal, follow him. Now you would have imagined that was logic, but people don't respond to logic, isn't that the shame of it? You present a wonderful case of the deity of Jesus, the evidence for the resurrection etc and the logic falls on deaf ears, the will is not moved, the heart is not softened, the spirit of God is needed to break down that resistance so that they wish to respond by the will in an act of commitment and these people were not ready for it, the logic of Elijah did not provoke them to respond.

I learned something from that, that we can be very logical, devastating, very disappointed that people had taken notice, and it's apparent what they ought to do. You might say to people that there's only one thing that's certain in this life, only one thing, and that is that it'll end.

What are you going to do after? Are you ready to have one certainty in that? You make all sorts of provisions for things that you think might happen or you hope won't happen and so you protect yourself against them, but the one thing that's bound to happen, have you made any provision for that?

And such devastating logic stops you to bring the response you want and so it is there. And I noted also that all the adversities to which they had gone through had not stopped in them. You know, people do face tragedy, don't they, in their own domestic species.

You need them. You may have had it close to your own life, I speak, sensitively, and you would imagine that people would automatically be something more open and ready to die, and some are, but not all.

And here are these people up against a situation which is beyond them, drought and famine. There has been a revival in Ethiopia down in the south, tens of thousands of people have come forward for baptism, but I don't think it's connected with the drought.

There has been tragedy in Bangladesh of a great order, three million killed in the birth of this country in bloodshed. And those people are much more open because it's now a secular state as opposed to an Islamic state.

They're not turning into rogues in particular terms. Oh yes, up in the north, in Mayan and Sinjar and Cora, amongst the Gares, there are people turning, but these are largely the hill people who are animists and not the Muslims.

Yes, there are groups of Muslims way down in the south, in Chandragona, next to the Christian hospital at the leprosy centre, there are a lot of people who have been genuinely regenerated and baptized, but not thousands, tens of thousands, it's been in all of those countries.

What about the floods they just had? Up to 45 of the country inundated, those which make people realise yet again they're inadequate, and some today are too. They are a religious people. Adversity does prepare the ground, but does not provoke a response.

Baal’s Futile Worship and the Search for God

So, Elijah gives them a challenge. His challenge is let's have a visual aid, and we'll prepare two sacrifices, and the sacrifice that's consumed by fire, let that be the demonstration of who the genuine God is.

If Baal will send fire on the sacrifice of the prophet of Baal, then we will believe in Baal. But if the Lord God Jehovah sends fire upon the sacrifice of his prophet Elijah, the prophet of God, then let us believe in him.

And the people at long last responded, and they said it's well said, we'll accept the challenge, we don't mind the odds, even. This seems sensible, the visual aid will convince us. So at last they had been brought to a position where they were prepared to take a risk.

We read from verse 23 onwards about the prophet's useless performance, the fool's willingness of the prophet to do everything possible to enable Baal to respond. The God who answers by fire. Well said, the people said.

Oh, I do believe that the prophet's performance is impressive. They leapt around for hours, they cut themselves, they invoked Baal, they cried unto him, they got terribly wound up. I imagine that they were desperately in earnest.

Don't they, of course, now people who are really in earnest and looking for God. But some of them are genuine, very genuine in their devotion. They weren't all charlatans, know the agony of silence in the deity.

Can't you sometimes, as you've been in other parts of the world, see the devotion of devotees to temples or other forms of divine worship, and see the rivers which they will go through. And it's been hurt by them, that they can be so devout, and yet that it can be so misguided.

Across one of those narrow rope bridges in Nepal, bouncing along, you know, you've got to get your step right or the bridge comes up and hits you on it, and you're not quite ready for it, you know what they say, you're not.

And I was thoroughly enjoying this early morning walk across this bouncing bridge, and I looked down and I saw, what was to me not a familiar sight, but a man standing in the shallow water and offering up a bowl of water to the sun, worshipping the sun in the early morning.

And I thought, I wonder if he comes here every morning. I wonder if this is his daily ritual, when he could be with his family or his farm, and he comes here and for hours, and then sprinkle the water over him in different ways, he went down and invoked the god again, this is his worship.

Earlier this year I was in Kathmandu, and I was with my wife, and we were outside the temple of the living goddess, and I was being good for it, and then I was horrified. Standing there in the blazing sun was a girl, I don't know how old she was, probably about 13.

She didn't have a great deal on except white powder or white ash, and she was holding a begging bowl outside the temple of the living goddess. Her lips were very red and painted up in it, her face was white.

And then I looked, and I saw that her tongue was protruding between her lips and was skewered, so she couldn't put it up in her mouth. It was kept out all day by her master, by somebody who hoped in some way that this was going to please the goddess.

I don't know how genuine it was, but it was somebody's presumed attempt to please the god by suffering the agony of silence in the deity. Grouping for god can be a torment, and we need to be sensitive.

But the god who answered by fire, they said, would be the real god. I'm going to tell you the story of Arjun. Arjun was a young man from central India who had obtained his B .A. pass from Nagpur University.

His B .A. failed, it was something, but B .A. pass was even more important. So feeling very pleased with himself, he hurried back to his village a long way away, and as he drew near, he dusted off the dust from his patient's leather black shoes, imagining a welcome he would get from his family.

But as he crossed the last field, he heard a strange wailing sound coming from his village, and as mountains peered in his path, he heard a cremation that had led his daughter. Pressing through the crowd around his house, he went in to find that the sister of whom he was just a silly child had just died.

What good was his degree, B .A. pass, when his sister had been taken and dead? Where was the god who had taken her? Where had this god taken her to? Mechanically he went through the ritual funeral rites of the Hindu religion, lit the butter lantern at the family shrine, went through the incantations, went through the days of mourning following them.

But resolved to find god, told his parents who agreed that he, the new breadwinner, should suddenly go off. But he said he must look for god, and so he gone and sat on the road for the holy man of Kadi.

And went on pilgrimage to look for god. He travelled up from central India to the north. He visited all the temples and enquired at the priests. Can you tell me where god is? And the almost invariable answer he received was, you can't know.

It would be unknowable. Not that quite. He pressed on. He went to Varanasi, the sacred city on the Ganges, and stood in the waters of the Ganges, up to his neck, and recited a hundred names of deities, but without effect.

He continued in his search, but finally disillusioned. After two years, he started off on his return journey. He hitched a lift in the bullet car. Two miles an hour, they had to take a flight to India.

The farmer said to him, what have you been doing? And Arjun said, I've been looking for god. So the farmer said, where did you find him? And Arjun, who by now knew the passage, said, no, and you can't know the unknowable.

And the farmer said, but I know god. And proceeded to introduce him to the god and father of our lord Jesus Christ. The rest of that story on the god who answers by fire will cost you thirty-five pence.

Forgive me for telling the experts how to sell books. Or even presuming that I was telling you something you didn't know. Then we move on, in Elijah having taunted them with this, to his own part, his bold triumph.

Elijah Repairs the Altar and Trusts God

Verse thirty. Their performance was useless and achieved nothing, apart from exposing the genuineness of some people's agony in not getting through to god. Do not miss that, please. And then comes Elijah's turn.

He enacted a tableau of visual aid, and all his confidence went into this. Verse thirty. Then Elijah said to the people, come near to me. And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the lord that had been thrown down.

Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the lord came, saying, Israel shall be your name. And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the lord.

And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he put the wood in order, and cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. This was to be a visual aid that was a teaching mission.

It was in front of a vast concourse of people. Sheer oratory would not win. This had to have results. Some of us have a very smooth tongue. But on this occasion, Elijah's oratory was of no avail, as in fact nothing happened.

His faith, his confidence, everything went into this. The blood and guts of real religion. It was full of sinew, and muscle, and sweat, and death. Notice, as we know from another part of scripture, that Elijah was a man of like passion as we are.

He was human. He wasn't an angel, or an alabaster carving. Elijah was a real man. And I bet his hands were clammy with sweat, and his heart beat perhaps increased to two hundredths of a minute. His adrenaline was pumping round.

This was a very crucial thing. This great crowd. He repaired the altar. It was no new religion. It was no novelty. This was a teaching occasion of what had been true in the past to tell tribes of Israel.

Was the crowd restless or fascinated? We don't know. But we come to a rather crucial point in the story. Would Elijah obey God? All the way. The crunch was, would he in fact dig a trench and fill it with water?

Wasn't his asking a bit too much? Supposing somehow it didn't come off? God had told him to, but he wasn't exactly making it easier for God. He wasn't helping God. Some of us think you've got to help God.

Because God needed helping. Why this was making it harder for God? Because he was a bit, he was instructed to do what he was doing, and he was prepared to do it. Settled for a little, but convincing, necessary to dig a trench.

Till he wasn't committed. The wood in order and cut the bull. And then he said, fill four jars or barrels of water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood. So captured it's been. It's so human, so real.

I dare to say that the angel armies of the sky were peering into this antecedent on Mount Carmel. This great scene that was set. Would he? Or would he chicken out? Did he settle for a little fire? Or would he have the colossal nerve to believe that God could make up water with fire?

What if he only produced a fiasco? A nail biting fiasco? Isn't that what faith is all about? The thing may not come off. Isn't that what faith is all about? This man, you see, he'd never seen this miracle done by anybody else.

You and I have heard and read of most miracles that were called upon to perform. Being performed by God in the lives of others. We may never have experienced it ourselves, but we've heard that this happened.

That Elijah had never ever heard of this happening before. So ridiculous. He'd never seen a gun before. The angel armies held their breath. Would he? Or would he not? And then the instructions, fill four barrels with water.

Hallelujah, how they must have cheered. He'd done it. He'd put his all on the altar with God. And then he said, do it again. Oh, they hugged their sides with glee, I expect. And then he said, do it again.

What rejoicing. The battle was won. Before the first shot had been fired, the battle was won. Princeton Churchill, it was, who said, after Pearl Harbor, at the moment of apparent tragedy and defeat, they won.

Many a victory can be won before the visible battle is joined. The victory of Calvary was won in death's seminary, but won easy to be. Many of us can win a victory in a day that's full before we ever know what that victory's all about, before the day begins.

It's true in every level. Then notice in verse 36, for some reason, there's a respite. Perhaps the people were allowed to, as it were, just think over this, ponder on it. So far as we read, at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near.

He'd obviously been away for a little while, leading it to God. He couldn't make it work. Please note that. He couldn't make it work. It was God's miracle. The climax had been reached in his obedience to God, in filling the water pot, and pouring along the sacrifice.

Nothing he could do now could make it work. It was up to God. And he had chosen to just withdraw, and let the whole lesson sink in while all the people talked about it. They'd be all the way down the line, and away into the distance, people he could hardly see.

What would he do? What would he do? The tension was mounting. Oh, I think it's God's performance. So we come to the fourth point. God's spectacular vindication. Verses 36 to 41. Notice how Elijah turned to God in very real intercession.

Elijah’s Intercessory Prayer and God’s Vindication

At the time of the offering, Elijah came near and said, O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things that thy will be.

He invoked the Most High, and sought his involvement in accordance with his own obedience. The face of prayer in this. We can never underestimate the role which God requires of us in intercession. I'm always challenged when I read of Abraham in Genesis, when Abraham is in a soliloquy almost with God, but then we find it's a dialogue.

It's not a monologue. God is talking back to him. Will you save the city of Sodom if there are 50 people? Oh God, I'm not worthy that I should talk like this. Who am I but dust and ashes? So then he said, if there are 45, will you do it?

And he waited earnestly, and very hesitantly, because he just had no idea if there were 45 or not. And so Abraham said, well, I'm not worthy, O Lord, far be it from me to even talk to you like this. If there were only 40 of us, would you do it for 40?

God hesitantly encouraged this man to go on praying by responding to him. And then you can almost hear Abraham's breath coming in gulps, because he increases the interval from five to ten. If there are only 30 there, would you do it?

And God said he would. He said, O Lord, might I just ask you again, if there are only 20 there, would you do it? And then with a final summoning of his faith, he said, supposing there are only 10, would you do it for 10?

And God said he would. And you might notice in this that it is an enormous exercise of faith on Abraham's part. He wasn't repeating himself. It wasn't a prayer of repetition, but a prayer of progression.

He was asking for more, a bigger miracle. He came with the utmost reverence and diffidence in the presence of the Most High. He didn't crash in. He was aware of his own unworthiness, the unworthiness of the asker himself and the unworthiness of the people for whom he was asking.

Sometimes we think God almost owes it to us to listen and owes it to these people to respond. But Abraham was acutely aware of the unworthiness of all concerns. And God led him on in this progression of faith.

I find here that Elijah is really in the hot spot at the moment. He's pleading with God to reveal himself. Let it be known that I have done this, O Lord, simply in accordance with your instructions. And then he asks for another thing.

Answer me, O Lord. Answer me, that this people may know that thou, O Lord, art God and that thou hast turned their hearts back. In other words, he was anxious that the people might respond in answer to what they saw.

He didn't just want a victory. He wanted a turning of the people. He didn't want a cheap victory at their expense. He wanted their repentance, if possible sometimes, which is very hard, so long that we should come out right, even if other people were rather exposed to being stupid in the process.

We want to show that we are with God and that we are saying what God is saying and that we are standing with God in his promises. We sometimes forget that it's all really so that other people too may enter into the mercy of God with us.

And I'm sorry, Elijah, he wanted them to return as a result. He wanted God to demonstrate his immanence, his power, his uniqueness, his singular distinctiveness, ability to intervene instantly, his personal involvement with people.

He wanted the God whom he knew to demonstrate who he was, that God might be known. And then in verse 38 it happened. This burnt up the water around it. And then to make the matter complete, actually burnt up the stones on the altar, consumed the light.

What did the people do? They responded on their faces. They were convinced.