And please take your Bibles and turn with me to the letter of James for our New Testament reading, James chapter 5. And we’ll read verses 9 through 20. James 5, verses 9 through 20. And let’s give careful attention to this reading because this is the very word of God.
Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah. was a man with a nature like ours. And he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.”
And then for our Old Testament reading and the text for the sermon tonight, we turn to 1 Kings 18. 1 Kings 18, and our reading will be verses 1 through 19. 1 Kings 18, beginning with verse one.
After many days, the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth. So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. And Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. And when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.
Ahab said to Obadiah, go through the land to all the springs of water into all the valleys. Perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive and not lose some of the animals. So they divided the land between them to pass through it. Ahab went in one direction by himself, and Obadiah went in another direction by himself. And as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him. And Obadiah recognized him and fell on his face and said, is it you, my lord, Elijah? And he answered him, it is I. Go, tell your lord. Behold, Elijah is here.
And he said, how have I sinned that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab to kill me? As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my Lord has not sent to seek you. And when they would say he is not here, he would take an oath of the kingdom or nation that they had not found you. And now you say, go tell your Lord, behold, Elijah is here. As soon as I have gone from you, the spirit of the Lord will carry you. I do not know where. And so when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me. Although I, your servant, have feared the Lord from my youth. Has it not been told my Lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord? How I hid a hundred men of the Lord’s prophets by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water. And now you say, go tell your Lord, behold, Elijah is here and he will kill me.
And Elijah said, as the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him. And Ahab went to meet Elijah. When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, is it you, you troubler of Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you have and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. Now, therefore, send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel’s table.
Thus far, the reading of God’s word. Let’s ask his blessing upon it. Father in heaven, as we come to the scriptures tonight and consider this passage, we pray, Lord, that it would be profitable for us. We pray that it would instruct us. And Lord, that we would receive correction from it as needed, that you would build us up in our faith and train us in righteousness through the Holy Scriptures. And we pray above all that the Lord Jesus Christ will be lifted up. And we pray this in his name. Amen.
Gradually, over many generations, The supposedly Christian West has been casting off biblical principles, casting off Christian morality. And the results have been disastrous. Yet the world looks with scorn upon faithful Christians and faults Christianity for society’s ills. And that’s sort of the cosmic version of a scenario that plays out in countless contexts, great and small. The wicked create havoc through their wickedness, and then they pin the blame on the righteous.
So it was with Ahab. From our reading in the New Testament, we see it specified, and that’s not the only place in the New Testament where the timeline is specified. It’s a little bit vague in 1 Kings, but we’re told clearly in the New Testament there were three and a half years of drought in the days of Elijah, resulting in this severe famine. It was very severe, particularly in Samaria. And yet there’s no softening or repentance on the part of Ahab. He shows no sign of turning from his wickedness or repentance. Rather, Ahab blames God’s prophet, calls him the troubler of Israel.
Elijah makes a pretty convenient scapegoat because Jezebel had killed all the other prophets, or so she and Ahab thought. And they can’t find Elijah. So it’s very convenient for Ahab to blame him for all their ills, for all their woes, for the lack of rain and for the famine. Elijah’s nowhere to be found. But in God’s timing, God’s timing, Elijah appears again. And he appears because the Lord God Almighty was preparing to send rain. And he was going to send rain in his own timing and no one else’s. In advance of sending rain, he sends forth his word. He sends forth his prophet. And what we see from this passage is that the Lord alone brings life and restoration in the midst of spiritual drought. The Lord alone brings life and restoration in the midst of spiritual drought.
And I want us to consider this passage under three headings. The first is, God often has a faithful remnant even in the darkest times and places. God often has a faithful remnant even in the darkest times and places. Secondly, and I’ll repeat these for you as we come to them in time, but secondly, God works out his own purposes in his own time. And third, those who reject God are the troublemakers.
But first of all, God often has a faithful remnant even in the darkest times and places. This should be great encouragement for us. The text introduces us to one such example. It introduces us to Obadiah. Look with me at verse three again. Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. In other words, over the king’s household. And we’re told in verse three, now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. He was a fearer of God and not just not just any fear of God, he feared the Lord greatly. The text tells us.
Now, if you’ve ever done any reading on this, any study on this chapter in First Kings and looked into some commentaries, you may have come across people who find fault with Obadiah, who criticize him, thinking that because this man who feared God was part of Ahab’s staff, worked in his household and in fact was the head of his household, that Obadiah was compromised. He was waffling and he was compromising his faith by serving in Ahab’s household.
But we must not look at it that way. We must not look at Elbediah that way. Because if we do, we could miss some potentially important application. You know, there are fewer higher commendations that a person can receive in the Bible than for the Bible to say that a person feared the Lord. And that’s what it says about this man. And so this should prompt our admiration. It should prompt respect for Obadiah, not criticism.
It tells us in this text that Obadiah was Ahab’s palace administrator. We can think of it that way. He was over the household. That means he was the one in charge. In modern terms, we could say he was Ahab’s chief of staff, perhaps is a way of thinking of it. And We’re told something extremely important about Obadiah and about his faith even before this foraging mission is described to us. Because before we get to the text telling us why Ahab and Obadiah were out wandering the land, it tells us of this bold act of faith that Obadiah performed. He harbored 100 prophets of the Lord. He protected them, hid them in a cave, and he provided for them.
I have no idea what it might have been like to live in the days of Elijah, and I certainly don’t have any idea what it would have been like to live in the days of Elijah under the conditions of a famine. But somehow Obadiah managed to provide food and water for 100 prophets of God while protecting them in concealment of a cave. People who hid Jews from the Nazis in World War II Germany, if they were discovered, they were in danger of suffering beatings, imprisonments, being sent out to detainment camps, even the death sentence for harboring Jews in Nazi Germany. Obadiah no doubt risked similar danger. If he’d been caught, if he’d been discovered harboring prophets of Yahweh, Jezebel wouldn’t have stood for that. He faced danger and he knew it, but he feared the Lord. He feared the Lord more than he feared Ahab. He feared the Lord more than he feared Jezebel.
I think we see playing out and being made good to Obadiah the words of Psalm 31, where, beginning in verse 19, it says, oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, and which you have worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind. In the cover of your presence, you hide them from the plots of men. So Obadiah knew that, he experienced that. So that’s Obadiah. He is an example of a faithful remnant, even in the darkest times, even in the wicked regime of Ahab, even while God’s prophets are being slaughtered by Jezebel. Here you have Obadiah, a faithful remnant.
And God has done many such things in places where you would not expect God, in fact, once raised up a faithful servant in the land of Egypt. A pagan nation serving an array of false gods and the Lord God placed a young man who feared him in the very household of Pharaoh and elevated him to the point that he became second in the whole land, second only to Pharaoh himself. God can do that.
God once raised up a faithful servant in the nation of Babylon. And in those days, Babylon was the mightiest empire on earth. And the Babylonians served an array of false gods. God elevated a Hebrew lad in the very court of Nebuchadnezzar. And that man went on to serve other Babylonian kings and even Persian emperors. God can do that.
Do you think the God who raised up Obadiah and who raised up Joseph and who raised up Daniel and who raised up Mordecai can raise up people who fear him in the government of this state? Do you think he can raise up people who fear him in the government of our nation? Our country has this Christian veneer We have these vestiges of a somewhat Christian past, but in reality, our culture serves an array of false gods. But God is able to raise up faithful servants in the halls of power in any nation, including ours. And he works out a variety of purposes through them. He can do it. And he has lots of different reasons for doing it. Sometimes he’ll use such people, such a faithful remnant to, to bring about reform, maybe even to bring revival, but not always.
Obadiah is a reminder to us that God often has a faithful remnant, even in the darkest times and places. But then secondly, this passage teaches us that God works out his own purposes in his own time. his purposes and according to his timetable.
Ahab had been on an international manhunt for Elijah. Look for me again at verse 10. This is by the testimony of Obadiah. He says, there’s not a nation or kingdom where my Lord is not sent to seek you. Elijah was a wanted man. He’s on the 10 most wanted list in Israel. But Elijah was under the protection and the shelter of the Most High.” Our God is the God who shuts and no one can open. That’s the way Jesus describes himself, doesn’t he? In Revelation, even. He’s the one who shuts and no one can open. He’s the one who opens and no one can shut. And our Lord is also a God who, if he hides someone, there’s no finding them. And he was able to protect Elijah, even when a mighty king was seeking him out.
It’s ironic that Elijah wasn’t some far off land. He was right there in the kingdom, directly to the north. He was in Sidon. And Ahab was searching for him, couldn’t find him, because God had hidden him. It was, to borrow the words, or to massage the words of the Proverbs a little bit, it was God’s glory to hide Elijah. But now, God is going to reveal Elijah. Back in chapter 17, verse 3, remember God said, go hide yourself. Now in chapter 1 of verse 18, God says to Elijah, go show yourself. Present yourself to Ahab. God’s earlier word to Ahab and to the rebellious nation of Israel was that there would be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word. And now we see in today’s text, after many days, a new word comes. And that word is, I will send rain upon the earth. Now was God sending rain because Ahab repented? No. Is he sending rain because Israel deserved it? No. Rain was coming, and it was coming as an act of God’s sheer mercy and goodness. Ahab never really learned this lesson, but the lesson is clear. Baal doesn’t send rain. Mot, the God of death, doesn’t send famine. He’s not the one that withholds rain. It is the Lord God who sends rain. It is the Lord God who withholds rain as he pleases.
Israel had suffered for three years with no rain, no crops, and a severe famine resulting from it. Baal and Asherah had failed these worshipers, and yet they did not return. They did not repent. I’m reminded of. A sequence of statements from the 4th chapter of the prophecy of Amos. Maybe before you go to bed tonight, open up the prophecy of Amos, read Chapter 4. God testifies through his prophet Amos to the people saying I did this and I did this and I did this and they were there. Acts of discipline of chastisement. against the rebellious people. And God points out, makes this convicting statement, and yet you did not return. Yet you did not return. Over and over he uses that phrase. And that’s what we see with Ahab. They try to hunker down under the famine, yet they did not return. What God was trying to teach them was that He has the power to send rain and to withhold it.
In Isaiah 45 verse 7, He says, I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and create calamity. I am Yahweh who does all these things. By faith, we understand. that God forms light or creates darkness. He makes well-being or creates calamity. And he does all these things in his own wise and perfect timing, because God works out his purposes, his own purposes, in his own time. What we see so clearly then, finally, when Elijah and Ahab come face to face is that it’s those who reject God who are the true troublemakers. Those who reject God and turn from him are the troublemakers. Ahab pins all his woes on the servant of God. Verse 17, when Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, is it you, you troubler of Israel? Elijah tells the truth. Verse 18, I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house. Ahab was the troubler of Israel.
Now as we read that, might almost take on the sound of a playground argument. You’re the trouble of Israel. Uh-uh, you are. But what Elijah said was true. Ahab’s house had abandoned the commandments of the Lord, and they’d followed the Baals. Noteworthy that it says there, not that they followed Baal, but they followed the Baals. Israel, under the wicked influence of Ahab and his wife Jezebel, they had descended into full-blown polytheistic paganism. But Elijah tells the truth, and the truth is that the road to misery is to reject God’s word and to do what’s right in one’s own eyes. Yet graciously, God is going to send rain. He’s going to send rain soon, but first he’s going to teach Israel a lesson.
So we have, where we ended our reading tonight, sermon text ended tonight, we have the stage set for a showdown between Yahweh and the idols. Where Elijah makes this, gives this instruction. Send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel. They’re gonna be the audience. They’re gonna watch the showdown. They’re gonna be the witnesses. and gathered to me the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel’s table.” That meant that Jezebel provided food for all these pagan prophets, the prophets of Baal and the prophets of Asherah. She was feeding them. You know, in the United States, The first ladies over the years have picked some cause to champion, some social cause to take leadership on and to try to bring about positive change. Michelle Obama, I think, was fighting childhood obesity. Remember, Nancy Reagan was fighting drugs and the Say No to Drugs campaign. Jezebel, the first lady of Israel, the wife of Ahab, She championed Baal worship. She was the anti Obadiah. She was doing for the prophets of Baal everything Obadiah was doing for the prophets of Yahweh. Feeding them, providing for them.
So we have Elijah coming on the scene again. And as God’s emissary, he’s the one who in God’s behalf throws down the gauntlet. Because those who reject God are the troublemakers for themselves and for everyone around them.
Before long, we’ll get to it maybe next week, before long in sovereign mercy, God would send rain. But first, he sent his word. Because there’s a more devastating famine in Israel than the one that the people were experiencing bodily, the one that the people were seeing with their eyes as they looked up, and they see no sign of rain for three and a half years. There’s a much more serious famine taking place in the land. It wasn’t a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.
Our Lord Jesus showed that he had authority on earth to forgive sins by putting on display his authority to heal that paralytic. You remember that? And through Elijah, God shows that he shows the authority of his truth, the authority and truth of his word by putting on display his authority over the clouds, his authority over the rain. Because the Lord alone brings life and restoration in the midst of spiritual drought.
In the days of Ahab, it must have been very discouraging. Those must have been very discouraging times for anyone who feared the Lord. Obadiah certainly wasn’t the only one. But for anyone who did fear the Lord, who wanted to serve and worship the Lord, God’s true followers must have been tempted to despair, just as perhaps sometimes some of we are. They must have been tempted to despair as the famine endured for a year and another year and another year. But we can be confident, brothers and sisters, that Christ is on His throne and that He is working in spite of the outward circumstances. And knowing that, knowing that Christ is on this throne and that He is working should encourage us in our service to the Lord.
One writer commenting on this extended passage with Elijah being sent into the wilderness, and God’s word withdrawing from the people, and then Elijah being sent up to Zarephath, and God’s word still being withheld, God being silent to this people who are in rebellion against them, withholding the rain, withholding crops, but withholding his word especially, this writer said, We must never make the mistake of thinking that God is not at work simply because not much appears to be happening. In any kind of Christian ministry, there will be moments when we say to ourselves, this is a waste of time. God is clearly not working. No one is listening. This is not growing. It’s just more of the same. Such times are when we need to remember that God often works in apparent silence. And the Lord works on his own timetable. You may feel alone or you may feel outnumbered. But God has a faithful remnant, even in the dark times, and you’re proof of it. The events that we’ve read about tonight happened according to the word of the Lord. according to the word of the Lord. Jesus said, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. During the famine in Elijah’s days, the grass withered, the flowers faded, but God’s word stood firm, and it still does.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you. that your word endures forever. Lord, we put our trust in that word. We put our trust in you. Lord, put your fear in our hearts, put the fear of you in our hearts and may it grow. May we be like Obadiah, who feared you greatly. May we put our trust in you, Lord, and even in dark times that we may go through, even perhaps dark times that we’re going through today. We pray, Lord, that we be confident in you. We thank you that you are the God who opens and no one can shut. Open the doors for the gospel, Lord, that it would go forth powerfully among us and in all the earth. And may Christ Jesus be glorified for it. We pray in his name. Amen.