The Days of Elijah

When you examine the stories of Elijah the prophet of Israel, you notice the perilous days in which He lived.

Elijah lived in a day of moral relativism. People could worship Baal or the Lord or they could worship both and think nothing of it.

Baal was the storm god. He provided people with rain for their crops and food for their tables.

Baalism was a fertility religion and the days of Elijah were highly sexualized. The political correctness of the day called for worship of both the Lord and Baal or either Baal alone.

Ahab, the king of Israel, and his Phoenician wife and Baal worshiper Jezebel, lived decadent lives and sought to impose their will on the whole region. Jezebel in particular cared for no one and treated people with barbaric contempt and brutality.

The only thing that could make the days of Elijah worse was to have access to rockets and atomic weapons. These were evil days.

It doesn’t take a deep thinker to realize we live in evil days that sound very much like the days of Elijah.

How can we live in these evil days?

First, we can live and speak the truth. In the worst of times, God raised up Elijah to be faithful to God and to speak God’s message.

In addition to Elijah, Obadiah (not the same man as the prophet in the Book of the Twelve) faithfully served God in the worst of times. At the risk of his position and his life, he hid the prophets of God in caves to keep them from Jezebel.

Second, we can realize we are not alone. In addition to Elijah and Obadiah, God had 7,000 worshipers who He had reserved in Israel “whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:18). Like Elijah, we can get terribly discouraged and think we are the only ones. It’s important to remember that God has reserved a remnant of those who love Him.

Third, we can determine to be faithful in spite of the condition of the world.  In the worst of times, God is still God and reigning on His throne. The day is hastening when “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Let us live the best in the worst of times.

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2 Responses

  1. Thanks, and great sermon yesterday on this! This post reminds me that we are not the only going through troubled times. Thank God He is God!

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