Morning Service, 28 June 2009
Have you ever seen drought-affected lands? We read about it, are very conscious that areas of our state are still gripped by drought. But have you ever seen it? Driven for mile after mile and all you see is drought stricken lands void of any crops? Many years ago I remember flying from Melbourne to Brisbane flying over parts of central NSW after years of sustained drought, and even from that height saw the devastation of the landscape – everything looked brown in a time when things should’ve looked green. So stark was it that the Pilot drew our attention to it, indicating how it must’ve distressed him the many times he flew over the sunburn country. He wanted us to be fully aware of the extent of the sustained suffering being endured by farmers at that time.
It has been 3 years since the drought began in Israel, and now Elijah returns and will be confronted by the severity of the impact of this drought. He is going to return to Ahab, which would involve a walk of some100kms through a barren, stricken land. Everywhere he looks – emptiness. Every person he passed would be marked by extreme poverty and despair – tragedy, sorrow, death everywhere he looked.
Why is he returning? As we saw last time it was because God had called him to do so, and indeed to not only return to the land but to go to the king who had placed a death warrant upon his head. It was to risk his very life, to enter into the very den of a wild raging lion determined to tear him apart. Yet his response bore the mark of godly character which is submission, a willing surrender to God’s will. Submission is dying to one’s own independence – and is what every believer has to repeatedly go through in this life. It is to love God and God’s will and ways, more than we love our own desires. It invovles self-denial.
The emphasis of the opening words so far as it depicts the character of the prophet was of a man who eagerly looked forward to and responded with joyful submission to the Word of God. But so far as it depicts the character of the people the opening words of this chapter declare it was one of “the famine was severe in Samaria”.
So we begin the walk with Elijah as he resumes his public prophetic ministry. It is not merely the evidence of drought and famine we see, but that the context of ministry has not changed. There is still widespread, unrepentant and defiant sin. Throughout the time of his removal from the nation, the silence of the Word of God through the removal of his ministry in Israel during this time, had not resulted in the people let alone their king turning to God in repentance. Instead of a humbling over sin there was a hardening in sin, as it will when sin is given its freedom, when all divine restraints are both removed by God and cast off by people.
How things have gone during his absence can be summed up under the heading: the impact of unrestrained sin. It sets before us the exceeding sinfulness of sin.
1. It brings down the full wrath of God
We are presented with a humbling picture of God’s people and king. Even though God was going to end the famine, yet we are not allowed to miss the reality of its severity in v.2 – such that now the king scours the nation for water and grass (v.6).
What a contrast to the glory and abundance of Solomon’s day! Indeed, even to that simple enjoyment by Elijah, the widow and her son in Zarephath.
How do we account for the difference? Was it just a matter of the seasons being disrupted for some known reason? Though there is a cycle of natural events that include times of drought, no one in Israel could legitimately comfort themselves with that thought. It had been made very clear by the Word of God before the drought had any effect on people’s lives as to why the drought had come. That drought was an act of judgment upon unrelenting and unrepentant sin against God. God had been dishonoured, His truth rejected (as we saw in 1 Kings 16:31-34). Because they had sinned so grievously against God, they were made to feel the full weight of the rod of His righteous anger. ‘That’s why no one in Israel should separate the heat of the sun’s burning rays from the heat of Yahweh’s wrath.’ (Van’t Veer)
Do you see the lesson for us that we need to learn? Do we see the warning? Sin is not and ought not ever to be seen as a little or light thing. It is true that God does not always deal immediately and with such resolve against sin, yet it is true that He is never indifferent to it – and that those who treat sin lightly are storing up wrath to themselves for the day of judgement. Indeed even now we should see according to Paul that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against sin (Rom 1:18). Though it is not the day of judgement, and though we may not be under specific judgement as was Israel and ought not consider every tragedy as a direct expression of wrath against a person or people, yet we cannot account for life in this world apart from reality of the wrath of God against sin. It is a fallen world, yet God does not remove His concern for justice and righteousness.
As Christians we know and can see this. Will we then be so silly as to ignore or play down the danger of sin? How foolish it is to tamper with temptation! We should see the holy anger that burns from God’s heart even against the ‘smallest’ sin. If this event doesn’t fill us with the desire to turn from sin, then look again at the cross! If we would but seriously think about and meditate on what it cost Christ to redeem us from sin then surely we would ask ourselves how we can so glibly enter sin again and yet again. When temptation comes we ought to look for the way of escape from it which God has provided for us according to 1 Cor 10:31.
2. It leads to the hardening of the heart against God
It is clear that God uses circumstances to chastise and correct His children (see Heb 12), and no doubt Elijah looked for this drought to work its effect on the heats and consciences of the king and people. But it didn’t work that way for Ahab, and here we see a further evidence of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, for it leads to a hardening of the heart unless God intervenes with grace.
Here we are told that Ahab went around the countryside. That in itself is a statement of how severe things had become. Here is the King and his ‘Prime Minister’ out and about looking for grass. The famine was affecting the king – his property, his glory, his security. And he saw it also severely affected the people.
Yet there is no breaking of the man by seeing the impact of his sin. There was no note of repentance, only a stubborn refusal to fulfil the one condition for rain. In his command to Obadiah there is a marked absence of any reference to God or to the sin of the people, let alone to his own sin. There is clear refusal to recognise sin or God. It is as if he looked upon the whole thing as a freak of nature, something which must be endured as best as one can, refusing to see the hand of God in it. His seeking grass was a demonstration of an unshaken determination not to give in to God.
Not only did Ahab refuse to turn to God in repentance to have this problem removed, he also refused to turn to God merely for relief apart from forgiveness. Even Pharaoh cried out to God for relief! But not Ahab. Instead he turned to his own ingenuity, he tried by himself to find a way around the problem. Instead of seeking God he seeks grass and water! It was an exaltation of his self-reliance. Why was he so concerned about horses? The answer lies in that they were the backbone of his military power on which he relied. If they die he would lose his place of honour in the halls of power filled with other kings and in time the independence of his kingdom. This is where he was putting his faith – in horses. Rather than receive the kingdom as a gift of grace from God’s hand, he wished to protect and preserve it through his own might!
Bear in mind, that King Ahab was not ignorant of the cause of this drought (Deut 28:1-4,12), nor then of its ending if he would just humble himself before God (Deut 28:15-16, 18, 22-24). He did not want the blessing of rain at that price! So each day he increased his guilt because he continued his self-assertion, laughing at the very idea of humbling himself before God.
But even worse the hardening of his heart against God is seen in his permitting Jezebel to kill the prophets of God – v.4. Earlier Ahab’s attitude had been one of disinterest in God, now the attitude was turned into active opposition and hatred. As the drought continued day after day a deep resentment built. Notice how Obadiah in v.10 reports to Elijah that Ahab had sent out agents to track him down among the nations. Instead of humbling him before God, sin had further antagonised him against God.
Sin blinds more and more the heart of man to God! It is like a cataract growing over the eyes, clouding out view. We begin to seek for grass instead of for God, and destroy the very instruments that might lead us to God and to relief for sin and its judgement.
3. It hardens the heart against others
As king, Ahab’s chief concern, next to God, should have been for his people. As their shepherd it was his role to protect and provide for them, to be concerned about promoting and maintaining their welfare.
But what do we see? Ahab’s concern was not for his people but for his stud animals. As much as we don’t like to animals suffer the priority must lie with human life! Ahab went out to find grass whilst he left his people to take their chances! It was nothing for Ahab to have killed some of God’s prophets, nor to see his people dying slowly around him – but what a tragedy it was to him if some of his animals were killed.
As King he was a shepherd who no longer cared for his sheep, risking their lives instead by leading them down the dangerous paths that looked exciting to him, the path of self-reliance, idolatry and spiritual adultery. His flock were now paying the price, but he was hardened against their need.
In other words where sin is given unchallenged hold over a person’s heart an increasing selfishness will be manifested in relation to others. We see it in the world today. But does it not disturb us to see its degree in Christian church today? What about our lives? How are we hampering the cause of God because we tolerate and even nurse secret sins? Do we think we can do so without its impact felt in other areas of our lives? Ahab reminds us that to think that is to think a fallacy, it is to think dangerously.
If this was exercised by the Spirit of Christ then churches, missionary societies, charitable institutions wouldn’t be hampered by lack of funds or lack of workers. There was once a time in the church when people would do without what we today would call necessities for the cause of the gospel. It is still so among some believers, but ought it not to be uniformly so? Where is our love for others if we allow such to continue to happen. Let us remember that love is not merely exhibited in words but action.
Therefore we see the exceeding sinfulness of sin is such that the judgements of God are insufficient in themselves to restore the spiritual dead to life. In Prov 27:22 we read: “Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his foolishness will not depart from him.” Man’s heart is not softened by even the severest of judgements unless God performs a work of grace within them. As we read in Rev 16:10-11, “they gnawed their tongues because of the pain. They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds”. But when attendant with grace the situation is totally different as the widow of Zarephath powerfully illustrates. What hope there is in the power of God’s grace in spite of the sinfulness of sin!
And that is the encouragement, the encouragement of grace, that with Elijah we are given as we walk through the evidence of unbridled and unrepentant sin
The answer is to be found in the gracious purpose and intervention of God. Notice how God encourages Elijah on the way: “rain” is mentioned. The details haven’t been explained yet; but what is clear is that God is going to have mercy, the result of which desire will be the alteration of circumstances. Later on in the chapter we will see that it focuses on the display of His glory at Mt Carmel resulting in a public repentance and owning of God not only for the forgiveness needed but also for service renewed.
God is going to do something so that the curse will be removed – that is always and the only answer. It is not and never can be what we do, but looking to God and trusting in what God does.
Are you a Christian? Then rejoice that God has softened your heart. Praise Him for His sovereign grace and distinguishing mercy! See how the same events that caused you to turn have left others in their sin and often hardened even more against God and embittered against others. Pray that God will display the same grace today, looking in compassion on this present evil generation and send His Holy Spirit in revival power. Let us also beware of the deceitfulness of sin. Learn the lesson of what sin did to you and what it necessitated of God for Him to restore you. Remember that the smallest sin magnifies quickly if unrepented of.
But let the sinner beware! If the divine restraint was removed from you as with Ahab and many others in our day then you too would soon learn that the madness which posses your heart will soon burst forth like a broken dam and overwhelm your cultured facade. Do not think that your lot will be any different from Ahab if you ignore God’s warnings and listen to the deceitfulness of sin instead of the warnings of judgement. If you are determined by sin to have your own way at all costs, then you will suffer all costs. God is not mocked. There is only one answer for the sinner: a sovereign God in the abundance of His amazing grace. The urgent need is to seek God’s distinguishing love through the Lord Jesus Christ: “Seek and you will find…”