And please take your Bibles and turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 2. And our reading from the New Testament this evening will be 1 Peter 2, 9 through 17. 1 Peter 2, 9 through 17. Listen to this. This is the very word of God. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Be subject, for the Lord’s sake, to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
You might not immediately see a clear tie into our Old Testament reading, but I’ll try to bring that out. In our Old Testament reading, and the text for this evening’s sermon is 1 Kings chapter 18. We come to the end of that chapter. So 1 Kings 18, verses 41 through 46.
And Elijah said to Ahab, Go up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of the rushing of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. And he bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up and looked and said, there is nothing. And he said, go again seven times. And at the seventh time, he said, behold, a little cloud, like a man’s hand, is rising from the sea.
And he said, go up, say to Ahab, prepare your chariot, and go down, lest the rain stop you. And in a little while, the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
That’s the reading of God’s word. Let’s ask for his blessing upon it now. Father in heaven, this is a familiar event to us that you’ve given us an account of in your holy word. As we visit it together tonight, we pray that You would instruct us. We pray confident that all Scripture is written for our instruction. So we pray that you’d use even this passage from Holy Scripture to build us up in our faith and also to exalt Christ before the eyes of our faith. For we pray it in his name, amen.
During those years that I was a teacher in a Christian school, We experienced a transition from one campus to an entirely different and new one. When I first started at that school, we were meeting in the facility that the school had been using for I don’t remember how many years, but they had bought it from another school. But over time, our school was able to acquire property. And then after a capital campaign, we were able to acquire the funds to build a brand new campus on that property. And we did. And so it was about halfway through our time there, roughly speaking, that we moved. When construction was going to begin on the new campus, as is often the case, we had a big celebration and a groundbreaking ceremony.
And on the day of the groundbreaking, we were getting ready to go through the formalities and all the the ceremonial aspect of it, and it started to rain. It just started to pour rain. Now, thankfully, there’s a little canopy out there, and most of us were able to get underneath the portable tent.
But I remember a comment made by one of our teachers, one of our elementary school teachers. He was very popular at the school. He taught fifth grade. And he was a dear friend of mine, and also we went to church together. And I remember standing with him under the tent while we watched it rain on our parade, so to speak.
And we had to delay the festivities, or at least the formalities of the groundbreaking. And this gentleman said, you know, if drought is a sign of God’s curse, then what could rain be? And it really positively impacted our perspective. And then, thankfully, the rain cleared up. We were able to proceed with all of our plans.
But that is a biblical theme, that God, in his wrath and in his judgment and his chastisement of his people, will often send drought. And then in contrast to that, rain is God’s blessing. It’s his provision. So what happened immediately before this passage that we just read is God had gloriously answered the prayers of his prophet, and he sent fire from heaven and consumed his sacrifice. And that was the answer to the big question. Who is the Lord? Who is God? Is it Baal or is it Yahweh? And after Baal’s prophets cried out to their false god for hours and hours and hours, And there was nothing. There was no answer. No one heard. There was no response. Then Elijah prayed a simple prayer, and God answered. And then, of course, Elijah commanded the people to take those idolatrous priests into custody. And they took them down to the brook, and Elijah slaughtered them.
And right on the heels of that comes what we see in tonight’s text. And this passage shows us that God faithfully works out his purposes as he responds to his people’s persistent prayers. God faithfully works out his purposes as he responds to his people’s persistent prayers. Just a two-point outline tonight. First, the purposes of God, and second, the prayer of faith. So to start with, the purposes of God.
God had been chastising Israel, the northern kingdom. They had broken off from Judah, and right from the start, they were engaged in false worship. And then they had, by the days of Ahab, they had lapsed into full-on idol worship. They were worshipping Baal. Baal worship had been institutionalized in Israel. amongst the covenant people of God.
And as a result, this chastisement of three and a half years of drought had ensued. Three and a half years, think of it, without rain. And of course, three and a half years without rain is going to lead to famine, and famine is going to be accompanied by numerous other sorts of hardships.
And all of this, all of this was to show God’s power. that Yahweh, not Baal, is the one who has control over the heavens and over the clouds and over the rain. And whether rain comes or whether rain is withheld, it’s at the will of the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel. And so back in chapter 17 of 1 Kings, the first verse That’s when Elijah comes on the scene.
And through Elijah, God says, there’s not going to be rain. There’s not even going to be dew for years, except by my word. And then after God delivered that message to the covenant people, he went silent. There won’t be rain except by my word, he said, and then there was no word. year after year after year. He withdrew his prophet so the people didn’t even have recourse to call upon the Lord or to inquire of him because he sent Elijah into hiding. So for those three and a half years, Baal’s powerlessness was on full and painful display.
In all of that, every last bit of it, was according to God’s holy purposes. But by the time we get to our text this evening, time had come for a new manifestation of God’s purposes. At the Lord God’s bidding, Elijah returned to Israel, and he presents himself to Ahab, and then, just as in the first verse of chapter 17, God said there would be no rain, not even any dew, in the first verse of chapter 18, God says, I am going to send rain upon the earth. And that was another display of God’s power.
All that time, throughout that drought, We can be sure that the prophets of Baal were crying out to Baal, praying to him for rain. And they were unable to deliver, because Baal was unable to deliver, because he’s no god. They were unable, these false prophets, to conjure up rain. And then Yahweh’s prophet appears. And when he does, then the rain comes, showing that it is the Lord God of Israel who gives rain. and not Baal.
And so as we come to our passage tonight, before the rain comes, in fact, before a cloud even appears in the sky, Elijah tells Ahab to eat and drink. That might seem a little bit out of place, but there are a couple of things at work here. First of all, in a way, it’s a kindness to Ahab. He’d been there at Mount Carmel all day long. And while these prophets have their duel, the 450 prophets of Baal and the one prophet of the Lord, and all that time Ahab hadn’t had anything to eat. Elijah encourages him to eat.
And also, sacrifices usually involved eating. There are certain kinds of sacrifices where the entire animal was burned up and offered up to God, but in most, when people offered their sacrifices to God, there was a portion of the offering that the person who brought the offering would get to eat. And it was sort of a sacramental meal in a way. That eating of that portion of the sacrifice was part of the event.
And so after the prophets of Baal are slaughtered, Elijah says, they were down in the brook. And Elijah sends Ahab back up and says, eat and drink. And he says, as surely as the Lord God, the true and living God sent fire from heaven, he’s going to send rain. And Elijah was so sure of it. And he said, it’s as if he could hear the sound of rushing rain. Elijah was sure of things that were not yet seen. See in verse 41, go up, eat, and drink, for there is a sound of the rushing rain. And of course, no one could really literally hear anything by that time with their ears of flesh. But this was spoken in faith, this was spoken in confidence.
And the Lord did indeed send rain, and not just a little bit of rain. Growing up in Texas, when we’d go through spells where there wasn’t any rain, and then we’d see some clouds finally, and God would send a little bit of rain. It’s always sort of, you’re thankful for any rain you can get, right? But when you go outside and you’re watching the raindrops fall from the sky and they’re hitting the sidewalk and the rain isn’t even falling enough for the sidewalk to get wet, the droplets evaporate the moment they hit the pavement. But that’s not the kind of rain that the Lord sent in response to the prayers of Elijah. He sent decisive, overwhelming rain In a little while, the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And that was according to the purpose of God. So it was God’s sovereign will to send the rain. It was God’s sovereign will to end the drought. But in doing those things, he made use of his servants’ prayers. And that’s our second point, the prayer of faith.
The New Testament informs us that not only the rain but the drought was brought on in response to the prayers of Elijah. James writes of this in chapter 5 of his letter. James 5, starting in verse 17, it says, 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. 1 Kings doesn’t give us any account of Elijah’s prayer to the Lord God to shut up the heavens. But it does describe his prayer for rain. And we see that in verse 42.
Ahab went up to eat and drink. Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel, and he bowed himself down on the earth. He put his face between his knees. In that posture that’s described for us, it might sound a little bit odd, but you can imagine him in this position of great contrition and deep fervor in his prayers, praying now that the Lord would indeed do what he had said he would do, that he would send that rain.
And his interaction with his servant is also instructive for us. Look with me again at verse 43. He said to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea. Elijah’s still prostrate. He’s still kneeling, head between his knees, praying. He doesn’t even get up from his praying, but he sends his servant. Go up, look toward the sea. And he went, and he looked, and he said, there is nothing. He said, go again.
And he does this seven times. After the first time, you notice Elijah doesn’t fret. What? No rain? He doesn’t despair. He doesn’t doubt. What does he do? He keeps praying. He keeps sending the boy back to watch. And this is a lesson for us in persistent, persevering prayer. Think of Elijah. Think of him praying and sending the boy back to look one time, another time, a third time, a fourth time.
You know, when it comes to persistent prayer, Jesus himself told a parable, didn’t he? For that very purpose. In Luke chapter 18, it says Jesus told them a parable to the end that they would be persistent in prayer and not lose heart. And so he tells that parable of the persistent widow.
And that’s what Elijah’s prayers there on Mount Carmel teach us as well, to persevere in prayer. One author makes this remark in terms of Elijah and his bowing down up there on the mountain and sending the servant and continuing to pray. He says, Elijah did all this, although he knew for certain that God would send rain. Elijah did this because he knew that it was God’s will that he should earnestly seek him so that the rain fell, not by natural means, but by God’s power so that he would be manifested as the only true God. From this, we are to learn that we are to seek all the good things we need. by prayer. The fact that it was after the seventh time of sending the servant back that God sent rain, that number is significant. I think the fact that it wasn’t six times or 10 times, seven times, it’s a reminder to us that God’s timing is perfect. He always acts, and his timing when he acts is always perfect.
He’s never late. He’s never early. You know that scene from Lord of the Rings when Gandalf comes to the Shire and he meets up with Frodo. And Frodo says he’s late. And he says, a wizard is never late, nor is he early. He always arrives exactly when he means to. But then the two of them start laughing because they knew it wasn’t true. But with God, it is true. His timing is always perfect. Never late, never early. And that’s difficult for us to believe sometimes when we’re waiting. But it’s true. And these seven times that Elijah sends his servant back is a reminder for us, God’s timing is perfectly, it’s perfect, and it applies to all of his promises. This is what Peter was talking about in his second letter. when he admonishes the people.
It turns me to 2 Peter 3.9. I thought I’d copied it into my notes, but I didn’t.
2 Peter 3.9, talking about the patience of God and God’s timing. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness. but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. And people have debated that verse and argued about what it means in terms of soteriology, what it means in terms of who God wants to be saved. But here’s what it means.
There were people in the 1950s and the 1960s praying, Lord Jesus, please come. Come in your glory with all your holy angels. The thing is, if he had come in 1966, then I would have been lost. That’s what this verse means. God is patient because he’s still bringing in his elect. He’s still gathering his people from the four corners of the earth. And his timing is perfect. And when that very last one of his elect is brought in, then Jesus will come. And not before, because God is patient.
So the cloud appears. Finally, the seventh time the servant goes up. It appears just in time, but even then it’s small. Beginning of verse 44, the servant says, Behold, a little cloud, like a man’s hand, is rising from the sea. So that the servant, as he goes up to the peak, he looks out, and on the horizon, In the Mediterranean, if you used to hold up his hand and look, that’s about how big the cloud was in comparison to the whole vista there.
And as soon as Elijah hears that, he knows that cloud is there. He knows the rain is coming, and it’s coming soon. He knew that, at least for Ahab, it was time to stop eating and drinking and get a move on. So he tells the servant, go say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you. to which the unbelieving heart would have said, what rain? But the rain was coming. The prayer of faith. Elijah was a man of faith. And he prayed in faith, first for drought, then for rain. And God heard his prayers. God answered his prayers according to his purposes.
Now, verse 46 didn’t really fit very neatly into my outline, but I do need to make a comment about it. Verse 46 says, the hand of the Lord is on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. He ran before Ahab, it says.
Now, like some of you, I’ve spent a number of years reading the New American Standard Version, and that was the Pew Bible here for quite some time as well. And if you’ve spent time and read through the NAS, the kind of language that may stick in your mind from this verse is that it says that Elijah outran Ahab. So that, you know, the hand of the Lord is on Elijah and that sort of supernaturally Elijah becomes like the bionic man and he runs on ahead, he outruns the chariot of the king. I don’t mean to disappoint you, but that’s not what this means. And I’m not sure why the word outran was used in the NAS.
But the language here that’s used here in the Hebrew is the exact same language that’s used when David’s son Absalom was mounting his rebellion against his father. And it says that he got a chariot, and he got horses, and he got 50 men to run before him. And then later, Adonijah. One of Absalom’s brothers did the same thing.
This concept of a king or a dignitary of some kind being in a chariot, riding in a chariot, and having people run in front of them, they’re sort of like escorts. They’re like an honor guard. And that’s what those 50 men that Absalom got to run ahead of him, run before him, not outrun him, but to run before him as heralds, sort of. They were there to kind of add grandeur to his entrance.
And that’s the exact same language in the Hebrew that’s used when it says, Elijah ran before Ahab. And even when I read that, still because of my familiarity with the outran language that I’m so used to in the New American Standard, I still sort of tend to think of that. But what’s really going on here is Elijah is with Ahab running in front of his chariot to honor him, to escort him back to Jezreel. That might not seem as spectacular as him doing 60 miles an hour like Steve Austin, the bionic man, did. But he shows honor to the king by accompanying him. on return to the city. It’s still remarkable, though. It’s still, in some respects, supernatural. Because for one thing, it was a long distance.
By some people’s estimates, from Mount Carmel to the gates of Jezreel was about 13 miles. So a prophet here is running like a half marathon. So that’s something. But then the other thing that’s on display here is, Put yourself in the place of a resident of Jezreel. At the beginning of that day, 450 prophets of Baal processed out of the city to go to Mount Carmel for this showdown. And at the end of the day, the only one that comes back is Elijah, the prophet of Yahweh, running before the king. And so to kind of wrap that up.
Let me read to you from the great Old Testament commentators, Kyle and Delitch, speaking of this. They said, this act of Elijah, whom Ahab had hitherto only known as a stern, imperious, and powerful prophet, by which he now showed himself to be his faithful subject and servant. was admirably adapted to touch the heart of the king and to produce the conviction that it was not from any personal dislike to him, but only in the service of the Lord that the prophet was angry at his idolatry and that he was not trying to affect his ruin, but rather his conversion and the salvation of his soul.
And that brings a point of application for us. Our disposition toward and our prayers for our civil authorities. We don’t have to agree with their policies, and oftentimes we don’t. We don’t have to countenance their wickedness, and we certainly shouldn’t. But let us never give our authorities cause to think that we disrespect their office. or that we nurture any personal hatred for them. Rather, let us desire and pray for their highest good.
Let’s pray for their salvation above all and pray that the Lord would bless them unto our good. Another point of application as we bring this to a close This passage teaches us to pray God’s promises. You know that. You know that’s something that we ought to do, something that we can do, and it’s a good thing to do. But Elijah gives us a wonderful example of this. Pray God’s promises. We are to pray those things that God has promised.
I was attending a prayer meeting many years ago, and it was not at a Reformed church, so you’d be glad to know that. in a broadly evangelical church. And this young, zealous brother, I know he meant well, but he’s taking prayer requests. And somebody said, let’s pray for such and such. And this guy just sort of threw out the comment, we’re not going to pray for that.
God’s already promised that. And I thought, now we’re supposed to pray God’s promises. How better to know that we’re praying according to his will, except that we pray his promises back to him. Jesus taught his disciples to pray to the Lord of the harvest that he’d send forth laborers into his harvest. And we’re assured that God is going to do that, but Jesus still told us to pray it. When he was teaching about the abomination of desolation on the Olivet Discourse, he’s talking about the horrible things that were going to happen and what terrible days those were going to be.
He said, pray that it will not happen in winter. And I looked it up. And the Romans descended on Jerusalem in 70 AD in April. If the people did as Jesus said and prayed that it wouldn’t happen in winter, God heard their prayers and answered them and granted that request. The suffering would have been so much worse. And the attempt to flee for those who were going to get out of there would have been much more difficult if it had been in winter.
Jesus told them to pray that. You and I may never fully comprehend how God worked through our prayers to bring about his purposes, but you can be certain that he does use our prayers to bring about his purposes. Let that motivate you to pray. And one more application, and it’s simply to persevere in prayer. Persevere in prayer.
Elijah did. The persistent widow teaches us to do the same. After Elijah had sent his servant back up to the summit to go and look the fourth time, the fifth time, the sixth time, he might have been tempted to give up. But he didn’t. One writer said, We are to persevere in prayer until we prevail, even though we may see no signs of accomplishment at the moment. Prayer can be hard, and it’s especially hard when we pray and pray and pray, and we don’t seem to be getting an answer. Remember Elijah, and keep praying.
Well, can you imagine the joy? Imagine the relief that the people felt when the skies clouded up. Even just those dark clouds would have cooled the earth a bit. And then the rain comes pouring down. And this brought more than just hope for a harvest in the next season.
This was a token from God of his favor. a token of restoration, a promise of his pardon. It was a sign of God’s covenant mercies, of his blessing. It was an answer to prayers that were offered up by the people of Israel in the days of Solomon, at the dedication of the temple, when Solomon was leading the whole nation in prayer.
He prayed this. When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin when you afflict them here in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk and grant rain upon your land. And as a sign of God’s favor and as a sign of his covenant mercies, the rain also foreshadows Christ and his blessings.
Psalm 72, verses 6 and 7. That psalm is about the Lord’s anointed. It’s about the king, and it was written with with the great king, King David’s, great David’s greater son who is to come, this one who is going to be the son of David and sit on the throne forever. And it says this about him. This is a prayer for him.
It’s, may he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth. The gospel blessings of Jesus Christ are described in terms of rain that replenishes the dry land. Christ’s blessings are depicted in those terms, and in the prophet Hosea as well. Hosea 6 verse 3, let us know, the prophet writes, let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going out is sure as the dawn. He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth. So as you consider this passage, when God finally sent rain on the earth after three and a half years of drought.
When you read it, when you hear it, hear it as more than just a happy story about recovery from a natural disaster. Read it and hear it as an illustration of the spiritual blessings that are ours even now in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let’s pray. Father in heaven, we’re so grateful to you for your grace and that you brought us out of the drought and the famine of our souls, brought on by our sins and trespasses, and that you have reigned the refreshing grace of the Lord Jesus Christ upon us. Would you please continue to do that? We pray this humbly. We pray it earnestly. We also pray confidently. because we’re praying it in Jesus’ name, amen.