Elijah and the Brook Kerith Pastor Rich Laskowski
Elijah was called to confront the wicked king Ahab and his wife Jezebel. After confronting Ahab God led him to a brook to be cared for by ravens and refreshed by the water of the brook. This passage of scripture teaches us two things. First, God is slow to judge, but He does judge when rebellion and sin persists. Secondly, even if the whole world is going through difficult economic time the believer can be sustained by His hand. We look to God for His provision. Our hope is that as you listen to this message your faith will be strengthened and your hope for the future increased as God reveals His ability to care for His childen in difficult times.
1Kings chapters 16 & 17
We are in difficult financial times in America.
This teaching is going to help us understand why we are in trouble
And will help us to see that even in the midst of difficult times God can take care of those who belong to Him.
Historical Setting:
- Ahab is the king of Israel
- Marries wicked Jezebel from the Sidonians
- Together they lead Israel into worship of the Baals and Asherah
1Ki 16:29 In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years.
30 Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. 31 He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. 32 He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. 33 Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.
Baals = (Male) a title meaning, Lord (owner of the land) fertility, prosperity
- Symbolized by the bull - reproduction.
- Drawing found depicting him having power over wind and rain (productive crops)
Asherah = (Female) symbolized by groves of idols that symbolized fertility
Sexuality and prostitution was central to this religion to encourage gods to cause fertility.
Child sacrifice was practiced to gain fertility and prosperity.
- God had waited 14 years for repentance
- Sends the prophet Elijah to bring warning and pronouncement of coming judgment
I. Elijah Confronts Ahab
1Ki 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word." 2 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: 3 "Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 4 You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there." 5 So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. 7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.
- Appropriate judgment - they worship prosperity gods of agriculture
- God touched what was most precious to them
- God touched what took His place in there lives
- Drought made it difficult to be successful in agriculture.
A. This passage teaches us two important points:
#1. God Is Not Quick to Punish, But He Does Punish.
- He waited 14 years for Ahab to repent
- Elijah's declaration was also a warning (If Ahab would have humbled himself God would have relented)
- God has told us that drought is a way He would get a people attention.
De 11:16 Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. 17 Then the LORD's anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you.
- We also know that God has used disease, other nations, and natural disasters to call nations to repentance. Deut 27:27,28
- The Bible also says He will use financial hardship to open the eyes of a nation.
Re 6:5 When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6 Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!"
This refers to hyper inflation - It is a judgment that God has used and will use in the future.
- Many experts are saying that we are heading towards big financial problems in America.
Government is taking control of business
Why would God Judge us through leadership and finance?
1. He is tired of hearing how great we are
- We are great compared to other nations.
- But God will not judge this nation compared to other nations.
- He will judge us by His word & His standard
2. We have embraced Christ-less religions
Ro 1:20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-- his eternal power and divine nature-- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
3. We have embraced abortion as a woman's right
The religion of Ahab and Jezebel saw killing children as a virtue that brought about blessing from the gods.
We see abortion as necessary to our ease, prosperity, and comfort as well.
Le 18:20 "'Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife and defile yourself with her. 21 "'Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. 22 "'Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. 23 "'Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion. 24 "'Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. 25 Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26 But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, 27 for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. 28 And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.
4. Ahab and Jezebel embraced sexual worship as good and resulting in happiness and prosperity.
- We have become a nation that worship self through sexual sin of all kinds.
Ro 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-- who is forever praised. Amen. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (NIV)
- It is not enough to just have the freedom to do it, but we are being forced to accept it as good and normal.
- Just as Ahab flaunted sin for years until Elijah showed up
- We have flaunted our sin before God for years
- Now God is calling us to account as a nation.
4. Ahab and Jezebel promoted a smorgasbord of beliefs and religious practiced.
We do the same in this country - all gods go -everybody is equal.
Except for Christianity - control is tightening Christians are often made to look evil.
Commandment #1:
Ex 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before me.
- GOD IS SLOW TO JUDGMENT
- BUT AHAB AND JEZEBEL WERE JUDGED
- GOD HAS BEEN PATIENT WITH AMERICA BUT WE ARE AT THE TRESHOLD OF JUDGMENT
#2. Story of Elijah and the Brook Kerith also teaches us:
God Is Able To Bless His people In The Midst of Judgment - in the midst of hard times.
1 Kings 17: 4 You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there." 5 So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
The key to Elijah's provision during the drought was:
5 So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there.
WE SOMETIMES ASK:
WHERE DID GOD'S BLESSING GO?
QUESTION WE HAVE TO ASK OURSELVES IS:
WHEN DID I STOP SEEKING HIS VOICE AND OBEYING HIM?
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IMPORTANT PONTS - closing thoughts:
Point 1) God is slow to judgment, but He does judge
2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. 11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives
This speaks of the necessity of a regular personal inventory of where you are with the Lord
Point 2)When God moves, so must we
This story was not about Elijah's provision
It was about God using Elijah to carry out His plan on earth. (Confront Ahab - call the people to God)
We make the water and the meat the main point of the story - it is not.
It is God's provision and man's obedience working together to carry out the plan of God.
Sometimes God speaks to us by dried up blessings
- Elijah's brook and bird dinners stopped when God wanted him somewhere else.
HAS YOUR BROOK DRIED UP?
- Maybe we stopped listening
- Maybe He is giving directions through it
GOD'S TALKING, ARE WE LISTENING