1 Kings 17
McGeeCHAPTER 17THEME: Three years of drought as announced by ElijahGod had to have His man present at the time when Ahab and Jezebel sat on the throne of Israel. It would have to be someone who would have the courage to stand up against them. God had that man ready. He was Elijah the prophet, one of the greatest men who ever walked across the pages of Scripture. Also he is probably the man who will return to the earth to witness in the last daysit is predicted that he will return.
1 Kings 17:1
ELIJAH ANNOUNCES THE DROUGHTElijah is introduced to us in a most dramatic way. He strides into the court of Ahab and Jezebel and makes a very brave announcement. Elijah walked into the court of Ahab and Jezebel and gave them the latest weather report. He said it was not going to rain except by his word and he was leaving townhe had no intention of saying the word. Then he walked out of the court just as dramatically as he had walked in. I think Ahab and Jezebel were taken aback because they never dreamed anyone could speak out so boldly. They will find out that Elijah has a habit of speaking out. You get the impression that Elijah was a rugged individual, and he was.
But there’s something else that should be said here about himGod had to train this man. God has always had a method of training the men He uses by taking them to the desert. You will recall that that is where He trained Moses. God took Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees and placed him in a land with rugged terrain. God did the same for John the Baptist, and the apostle Paul spent at least two full years out in the Arabian desert. This is God’s method of training His men.
Now He is going to take out this man Elijah and teach him several things he needs to learn.
1 Kings 17:2
GOD FEEDS ELIJAH AT CHERITH AND ZAREPHATHGod was telling Elijah to get as far out in the country as he could. So he went out into the desert and came to a little stream.
1 Kings 17:4
God used two methods of caring for Elijah out in the desert. One was the brook which was a natural means. He was to drink the water. The other was a supernatural meansthe ravens were to come and feed him. Well, Elijah stayed there for awhile, and then the brook began to dry up.
1 Kings 17:7
Here is this man out in the wilderness, and he goes to the brook every morning and notices that it is going down a little bit more each day. All he had to do was put a peg in the water to note how much it went down each day. Then he could figure out how many days it would be before he starved to death or died of thirst. Having the mathematical measurement, anyone with common sense would know that on a certain day the end would come. This is the sin of statistics. Today the condition of a church is often determined by statistics. If you go to a church meeting and observe that the offering has been good, new members have been received, and there is increased attendance, the church is considered a howling successand that may not be the true picture at all. I once heard the story of a preacher who got up at a church business meeting and said, “We are going to call on the treasurer to give a report so that we can know the status quo of our church.” One of the members got up and said, “Mr. Preacher, we don’t know what the status quo means.” The preacher replied, “The ‘status quo’ means the mess we are in.” Interestingly enough, the true status quo of many churches and other organizations often reveals the mess they are in, although the statistics may look healthy. Now Elijah could have figured very closely the time he was going to diehe could have done it mathematically. But, you see, the cold figures of mathematics do not take into account the spiritual fire that is there. You cannot put the condition of the church in the form of a bank statement. You cannot measure it on a computer. Even a revival is not determined by numbers. When Elijah looked at that little brook which was getting smaller and smaller, he learned a spiritual lesson.
He saw that his life was a dried-up brook. He was nothinghe was just a brook, a channel, through which living water could flow. The Lord Jesus Christ says, “…Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (Joh_4:13-14). Sometimes we sing the song, “Make Me A Blessing,” and I think that half of the folk don’t know the meaning of the words. Why, it means that you are an empty brook and that you do not have any water of life. It is only as the water of life, the Word of God, flows through you that you can be a channel of blessing.
Elijah had to learn that “…God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty” (1Co_1:27). God was telling Elijah, “You are not a big, strong, rugged individual. You are no stronger or better than that dried-up brook. You will have no strength until the water of life flows through you.” It is said of Hudson Taylor that when he prepared young missionaries for service in his mission, he insisted, “Remember that when you come out here you are nothing. It is only what God can and will do through you that will be worth anything.” One young missionary replied, “It is hard for me to believe that I am just nothing.” And Hudson Taylor said to him, “Take it by faith because it is trueyou are nothing.” You and I are just dried-up brooks unless the Word of God is flowing through us. And then God transferred Elijah:
1 Kings 17:8
After the widow told her story, Elijah told her to go into her house and make the cake. He assured her that she was not going to die.
1 Kings 17:13
You know, Elijah and that widow stuck their heads down in that empty flour barrel every day and sang the doxologyand God sustained them out of an empty flour barrel. That barrel was as fertile as the plains of Canada or the corn fields of Iowa. Here is another lesson Elijah needed to learn. It is a lesson you and I need to learn: we are nothing but empty flour barrels. I hear so much today about consecrationwe are to “give our talents to the Lord.” My friend, you and I have nothing to offer God. There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee: what was the most important thing at that wedding? Was it the bride’s dress? No! It was that there were some empty water crocks there.
The Lord filled them with water, and He was able to serve the guests a delicious refreshment. That was the important thing at the wedding. My friend, we are nothing but empty flour barrels and empty water crocks. We are nothing until the water of life and the bread of life have been put into us. And since we do not recognize this, we are having spiritual floor shows in many of our churches today. They have become religious nightclubs, and there is no more spiritual life in them than there is in a Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, California.
There is more enthusiasm and a larger crowd at many activities outside the church than there is at most church meetings. In fact, many church meetings are pretty sad and silly, if you ask me. We need to remember that we are empty flour barrels.
1 Kings 17:17
THE WIDOW’S SON IS RAISED BY ELIJAHThe widow’s son died. And what did Elijah do?
1 Kings 17:19
Elijah made contact with the boy’s body three times. This is the great principle of resurrectionit involves contact with life. Today Christianity needs to be in contact with Jesus Christ. When it is not, it is as dead as a dodo bird. We need to recognize that this is one of the great miracles of Scripture: “and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.” You and I are dead bodies. We are lost sinnersdead in trespasses and sins.
If we have trusted Christ, then we can say that we were crucified with Him nineteen hundred years ago; He died, and we died with Him. He was raised, and we were raised with Him. We are joined to the living Christ todayif we are not joined to Him, we are nothing. The apostle Paul expressed it this way: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal_2:20). Elijah had to learn that he was a dried-up brook, an empty flour barrel, a dead body. When Elijah recognized this, then God could use him. Martin Luther once said that God creates out of nothing. Until a man recognizes that he is nothing, God can do nothing with him. That is the problem with many of us today: we are too strong, we have too much ability, and God cannot use us.