Elijah Notes, Thoughts and Quotes:
“…tough at heart … tender of soul …” – reminded me of a description shared with me recently, “you need the skin of a rhinoceros but the heart of a child.”
Tishbite – one of those places that the sands of time have completely hidden; a place of insignificance.
J. Oswald Sanders, “Elijah appeared at zero hour in Israel’s history…like a meteor, he flashed across the inky blackness of Israel’s spiritual night.”
The chasm between God and His people had reached its widest breadth.
Elijah – “My God is Jehovah/The Lord is my God.”
God looks for special people at difficult times. This time he looked for someone with backbone. No matter what role you fill in life, you’re not unimportant when it comes to standing alone for truth.
“I have commanded the ravens to provide for you”
· Elijah lived in a place where his need exceeded his resources.
Cherith: “cut off” – the next place God takes him … from insignificance to a cut off place.
God first prepares the Leader: “God had things for Elijah to do, so He began with the inner life of the prophet.”
First thing God did w/ Elijah is to tell him to hide: being absent on purpose. The hiding w/ God was both for his protection and his training.
It was a time of drought, but God provided for him. God can give water. God can withhold water.
· Water – isn’t that still a part of the work of God? (thinking wells here).
The lesson in this place was complete trust and reliance. Even the dried up brook was a sign of God’s pleasure not disappointment.
Zarephath: “to refine in a crucible” God moves Elijah to a new place.
The work of a furnace brings all the impurities (slag) to the top that they can be skimmed off.
· God’s word for the furnace place “Stay there”.
The woman who was to provide for him (now that the brook had dried up and the Ravens no longer fed him) Elijah meets him w/ the pronouncement that she has nothing and she expects she and her son will just die.
· Once more, Needs Exceeded Resources.
Elijah pronounces the impossible … feed me first, then you and your son, and your flour and oil will NEVER run out. IMPOSSIBLE!!!!
Note: “You cannot encourage someone to believe the improbable if you have never believed the impossible.”
· Made me think of all the impossible miracles I’ve seen God do …
o Stroke
§ Surgery / No Surgery / Surgery!
§ Doctor: “I did the surgery, God healed you”.
o Building Stories at FBCA
§ Closing the street while stranded in St. Louis
§ Fund-raising when Vision exceeded our resources
o Tornado Stories of 1997
§ Water arrived just when needed
§ Diapers arrived just when needed
What Miracle Has God worked in your life? Maybe that’s why impossible odds are hard to accept!
God is in the IMPOSSIBLE business:
Jeremiah 32:17, “nothing is too difficult for You.”
Jeremiah 32:27, “I am the Lord … is anything too difficult for Me?”
Luke 1:37, “nothing will be impossible with God”
Luke 18:27, “…the things impossible with men are possible with God.”
Obedience is the place where God works miracles. Don’t fail to do your part.
Easter Series, 2011 – “All Rise”
· Job was the first to “see” it.
· Enoch was the first to know it.
· An unnamed child was the first to EXPERIENCE IT: (1 Kings 17)
· Elijah escaped it.
· Lazarus experienced it.
· Jesus initiated it.
· 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
The first resurrection in scripture – Elijah and the boy
Ceremonially unclean (three times) … hum … wonder if the three times is to reflect the three days?
Convictions to keep when in the furnace:
- 1. I am here by God’s appointment.
- 2. I am in His keeping.
- 3. I am under His training.
- 4. He will show me His purpose in His time.
Mt. Carmel: The show down.
First God told the prophet to Hide. Then He told him to stay. Now He tells him to “show yourself”.
Elijah demonstrates BOLD confidence in God.
One against 800+. Too bad they were so out-numbered! (800 vs 1 are great odds when God is with the one!)
They were destroyed like a cancer cut from the body of Israel.
When we are in the center of God’s will; we are invincible. It all began with prayer.
“Can you look back over the past seven days of your life and pinpoint times you deliberately set aside for prayer? Even just a solid ten or fifteen minutes of uninterrupted time with God?”
God provided all Elijah needed. But then he always did.
Philippians 4:19, “And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Jesus Christ.”
NOTICE: God provides based upon HIS riches, not ours. Our vision or need may surpass our resources, but it never surpasses HIS resources.
Elijah outruns the chariot …
Elijah in the Wilderness past Beersheba …
He was a man, just like us (James said) … and here he shows it: fear, exhaustion, surrender.
God gave him rest.
God gave him nourishment.
God gave him new focus (stop looking at Jezebel, look at ME!)
God gave him a new friend.
Naboth’s Vineyard:
God is good.
God is just.
We need both.
“I have weighed you on my scales and found you deficient.” (Daniel 5). Same message for Ahab.
Sometimes the enemy we must face is ourselves:
God, harden me against myself,
The coward with pathetic voice
Who craves for ease and rest and joy.
Myself, arch-traitor to myself,
My hollowest friend,
My deadliest foe,
My clog, whatever road I go.
By Amy Carmichael
Elisha caught the BOLDNESS of Elijah – when asked what he wanted, “I’d like a double portion of your spirit.”
His vision surpassed his resources! But God granted it!
He carried Elijah’s cloak. I wonder; whose cloak do you carry?
Amazing when Jesus asked who people were saying he was … the first answer was “Elijah!”
