1 Kings 16:29-17:5, Elijah the Tishbite

C. M. MacIntosh, a Bible man in the 1800’s, wrote, “The exercise of prophetic ministry in Israel, of old, was always a proof of the nation’s decline.”  Is that true? 

Elijah was from Tishbe, a town east of the Jordan River, in Gilead (1 Ki. 17:1).  He was a desert man, a bit on the rough side we would say (John the Baptist took after him, Lk. 1:17).  Once he out-ran the chariots of Jezebel, over a distance of 70 miles.  He was an amazing man, a more amazing “man of God.” 

Why did he burst on the scene in 1 Ki. 17:1?  And why must he precede the coming of the Messiah?  The answer to those questions is the statement we made in the first paragraph: the times demanded and will again demand such a prophet.  Israel (the Northern Kingdom) was in deep trouble spiritually.

·       The pro-idolatry forces were strong (1 Ki. 16:29-33). 

o   “The sins of Jeroboam” were trivial (v31a).  Not to God but to the nation.  These “sins” had to do with the golden calves that Jeroboam had established in Bethel and Dan (the story is in 1 Ki. 12:25-33) as a replacement for religion in Jerusalem and at the temple.  There were new gods, new shrines, new festivals and so forth.  But why were they trivial?

o   Because Jezebel had introduced and popularized the worship of Baal and Asherah (v31b-33).  These were the gods of the Canaanites, particularly the Phoenicians from north of Israel, Jezebel’s home territory before she was married to Ahab.  It had been said that a deity got the name “Baal” (lord, master) when he and his worshipers had taken possession of and settled in a given locality.  What a disgrace!  Jezebel had claimed Israel for Baal. 

o   As for Asherah, she was a Canaanite goddess, highlighting sex and war.  Merrill Unger (Archaeology and the Old Testament) identified this religion as “sex mainly in its sensuous aspect as lust, and war in its evil aspect of violence and murder.”  The sexual aspect always involved “holy prostitution” of pretty much every deviant type.  In Canaanite religion there was an evil “trinity:” El was the father god, Asherah his consort who bore 70 sons, the chief of which was Baal.

·       The anti-Bible forces were strong (16:34).  500 years earlier, when the walls of Jericho fell, Joshua had pronounced a curse that whoever rebuilt the walls would lose his firstborn at the beginning and lose his youngest upon completion (Josh. 6:26).  It was in these days that those words were fulfilled.

It was at this critical time that God called Elijah.  In that he spoke for God (that’s what a prophet does) he spoke with power.  He called for a drought that would not end “except at my word” (17:1).  Was he being presumptuous?  No!  James 5:17 tells us that the key to this drought was the prayer of Elijah: “he prayed earnestly that it would not rain.”  James also says Elijah was a man like us! Really!!

The aforementioned Macintosh said this about what is needed when we see that the forces of evil are strong:

In such a condition of things, what is the response of the faithful one?  To what should he betake himself?  Prayer, patient, persevering prayer; secret communion with God; deep and real exercise of soul in His presence, where alone we can arrive at a true estimate of ourselves and things around us: and not only so, but also obtain spiritual power to act for God amongst our brethren, or toward the world without.