It had been a grim three years in Israel’s northern region. Ahab was one of the bad kings. In fact, it was said that he ‘
did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him’ 2 Kings 16:32-33.
One of his vices was his foreign wife Jezebel who had a special fondness for the sexually explicit Baal cult. ‘Human orgies lead to fertile fields’, she told them, and far and wide, Ahab’s people gave it a try. Her influence was pervasive; Asherah poles, Baal idols and hundreds of Baal priests filled the land.
So God sent the prophet Elijah with a message to Ahab.
"As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word" 1 Kings 17:1.
This was not good news. In northern Israel rain is usually plentiful and agriculture flourishes. No rain or dew was a death sentence for thousands of people. It was a serious ultimatum - abandon Baal worship or face the consequences.
This intervention by Yahweh was a direct assault against the claims of Baal as the god of storm, rain and vegetation; it was designed to expose the barrenness of Baal-worship, to demonstrate Baal’s impotence, to allow people to experience the consequences of abandoning the God who truly supplies rain and dew. Deserting God will lead to desert-like conditions.
But Ahab refused to face reality. He stubbornly stood his ground – and before long that ground was bone dry.
Elijah must have found it hard to step aside and leave the prophets of Baal to continue seducing the hearts of Israel away from Yahweh. But the nation was in God’s hands and Elijah went into hiding in a ravine east of the Jordan where he was fed by ravens and drank from a brook flowing from the eastern hills.
Soon, even that trickle dried up and Elijah had to move. God sent him west to the coast, to Zarephath in Jezabel's home province, the heartland of Baal-worship, where he was public enemy number one.
At Elijah’s request, a woman in Zarephath gave him hospitality even though she was both a foreigner and virtually destitute. But God supplied her needs – even resuscitating her son when he got sick and died. Elijah experienced the truth of
Psalm 23:5 – God prepared a table before him in the presence of his enemies.
We'll follow Elijah's exploits in the next couple of posts. Until then ...
In your June 15, 2011 blog it was not Ahab but the prophet Elijah that was fed by the Ravens by the brook Kerith. After reading your goals about the wonder of water it occurred to me that we humans are made up of 97% of water. We, in essence are "bodies of water". And just like any other body of water in the world, be it a cup of water or an ocean, people are shaped by the container or environment in which they find themselves. A cold environment causes water to become hard and brittle, just as that type of a social environment usually affect people. The stimuli placed upon water results in distinct outcomes. Thus the actions of water is a very good example for the many desirable and undesirable patterns and traits of lives many people are living today.
ReplyDeleteJust thought I'd comment,
peace
Agreed - It was Elijah who was fed by the ravens. I suspect Ahab continued to dine sumptuously at the palace.
ReplyDeleteYou make a greaat point that, like water, we are shapoed by our social environment. However, unlike water, we are able to discern what's going on and choose to defy the adverse pressure uoon us. I think this is what Elijah shows us so well. Thanks for commenting.