"A Man of God" -- 1 Kings 17:1-24

An Introduction to the Minor Prophets (4)

He appears on the scene unexpectedly, possessing the miraculous ability to close or open the heavens so as to bring drought or abundant rain.  We know very little about his background and origins, but he is best known for his confrontation with prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.  He comes as a new Moses who raises the dead.  He confronts the apostate king of Israel, Ahab, and his Baal worshiping wife, Jezebel.  He is taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire, and the last two verses in the Old Testament (Malachi 4:5-6) speak of his re-appearance as the sign of the dawn of the messianic age and the coming of Jesus.  He appears with Moses and Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and is mentioned frequently in the New Testament as the forerunner of the Messiah.  He is truly a remarkable man.  I am speaking, of course, of the prophet Elijah.

We will continue to establish background for our series on the Minor Prophets, as we take up the account of Elijah, one of the so-called “non-writing” prophets sent to Israel (the Northern Kingdom).  Elijah’s ministry is recounted in 1 Kings 17-2 Kings 2.  He appears during the reign of Israel’s sixth king (Omri), who took the throne about 885 B.C., approximately 50 years (a full generation) after Israel’s civil war with Judah (our subject last time).  His name means “YHWH is my God,” which is fitting since his ministry to Israel centers around his prophetic call for the people of Israel to renounce the Canaanite fertility and weather god, Baal, and return to the proper worship of YHWH the Creator of all things and the Redeemer of his people.  Along with Enoch–the man who walked with God (Genesis 5:21-24)–Elijah was taken up into heaven without dying, pointing ahead to the ascension of Jesus and the catching up of believers on the day of Christ’s second advent.

Before we survey the life and ministry of Elijah, it would helpful to briefly survey the three points of background we have established so far in our series on the Minor Prophets.  First, what roles do God’s prophets play in redemptive history?  Recall that Moses is the preeminent Old Testament prophet and is the model for all those prophets who follow him, except that YHWH speaks to all other prophets in dreams and visions, but he speaks to Moses as a man to a friend.  God’s prophets are preachers of God’s words given them by YHWH.  They are not primarily predictors of the future–although they do address things about to happen in Israel while at the same time predicting a messianic age far off in the distant future.  These prophets function as God’s process-servers, announcing to Israel that the verdict of the heavenly court is in–the curses threatened in God’s covenant with Israel established through the giving of the law at Mount Sinai (Exodus 20) and renewed with Israel before the people entered the promised land (Deuteronomy 28-34)–are about fall on God’s disobedient people.  These prophets have the difficult task of declaring that God’s long-suffering patience with his disobedient people has come to an end.
 
Second, the words YHWH gives to his prophets echo the words of blessing and curse Moses spoke to Israel on the plains of Moab nearly seven hundred years earlier.  The Sinai covenant is administered as part of God’s gracious covenant (promised to Adam and established with Abraham).  But the ten commandments reflect the blessing/curse principle of God’s covenant of works originally made with Adam in Eden.  If YHWH’s people obey the terms of God’s covenant, he will bless them above all other nations.  Should they forsake the true and living God, ignore his commandments, and serve the gods of the Canaanites (Baal), then the threatened covenant curses will be dispensed from the heavenly court.

Third, those prophets whom God sent to Israel appear after the civil war which divided the united kingdom of David and Solomon into a Northern Kingdom (Israel), and a Southern Kingdom (Judah).  From the time of Israel’s split from Judah, Israel and the northern tribes are in a spiritual free-fall.  The founding king of the northern kingdom (Jeroboam I) was a man of self-interest who had no concern for either YHWH or his covenant.  As we saw last time, Jeroboam’s legacy of forsaking YHWH was the norm in Israel.  We read in 2 Kings 17:22-23, after separating from Judah, “the people of Israel walked in all the sins that Jeroboam did.  They did not depart from them, until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets.  So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day.”  God’s prophets are sent to announce that God’s people have broken his covenant and will face its curses–drought, famine, disease, defeat at the hands of their enemies (the Assyrians in 722 B.C.), and then finally, exile from the promised land.

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