<< 1 Kings 17 >>
New American Standard Bible
Elijah Predicts Drought
1Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” 2The word of the LORD came to him, saying, 3“Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 4“It shall be that you will drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.” 5So he went and did according to the word of the LORD, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 6The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook. 7It happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
This is a great chapter in the scripture giving us some insight into the life of Elijah. As you read the surrounding chapters what you will discover is that Elijah had been seeking God about the spiritual condition of Israel. He heard God speak this word to him about a drought, that was intended to serve as a shaking, that would humble Israel, so that she would experience revival, and turn back to Jehovah. It appeared that Elijah exercised a lot of courage and faith to go before the evil king Ahab, and give him this prophetic word about a drought. Verse one gives us some simple insght into living a life of faith. Elijah said, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand.” So simple, Elijah believed God was alive. He believed He was real and that he was directly accountable to Him and was His representative.. You might be saying “Duh?”. Of course he believed God was alive. Listen to Heb. 11:6, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, but he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” Hear what is said in this verse. Faith starts with simply believing that God IS, (is real, is present, is available, is sufficient) and that He blesses us. The way most of us act as Christians is we aren’t really sure He is really alive, or that we stand before Him. If we really believed he was alive why would we ever face life without faith. It’s easy to have courage and confidence when the Biggest, Baddest, Richest guy in town is our Dad. If all of his power, authority, and wealth were available to us at all times it would affect our behavior at all times. When we know that we know that He lives, and that we represent Him then God can really bless us, anduse us in our Generation. We want be afraid to speak His word, because He alone will be the one we fear. Faith will be action based on the most obvious reality there is. Our God lives, and we stand before Home. Maybe some of us need to ask ourselves the question, do we really, really believe that He lives. If we do, then maybe we need to ask Him to forgive us for acting like He isn’t, instead of IS. Have a great day.