Part 1
Ahab
1. The Seventh King:
And in the thirty and eighth year of Asa king of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over Israel; and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty and two years.
– I Kings 16:29
It was originally my plan to go through each of the kings in order, but I realize that this would take a while and some of the kings are mentioned in passing. There is some good information and lessons to be learned from many of them, but in the interests of time, I have decided to press forward toward the more notable ones. I will likely include “bonus” lessons on the website featuring kings like Abijam, Baasha, and so forth, which you can read at your leisure, but for our official class time we will press ahead a few kings, continuing our tradition of alternating between Israel and Judah. We already discussed Jeroboam, the first king of the Northern Kingdom (or Israel), and we discussed Rehoboam, the first king of Judah. So today, we’re going to skip ahead a bit and talk about Ahab.
Ahab is the 7th king of the northern Kingdom. The five men before him, those following Jeroboam, happen in relatively quick succession. As we know from chapter 15:25, Jeroboam’s son Nadab takes the throne, and is only king for two years before he is killed by his general, Baasha, who then usurps the throne from him. Baasha is able to retain the throne for twenty-four years, which is long for Israel. This 24 years gives him time to prove himself to be just as wicked as Jeroboam. Similarly to Jeroboam, God prophesies against Baasha and his house. His son, Elah, takes the throne, and reigns only two years before he is killed by Zimri, ironically his general also. So the same way that his father Baasha came to power, Elah loses the throne in the same fashion, also only after two years of being king. Zimri, while a murderer and usurper like Baasha, manages to only retain his rule for seven days. We are told that when the people of Israel understood that Zimri had killed Elah, that they don’t like it (not sure where these same people were with Baasha, since he did the same thing), and that they take a different general, Omri, and make him king. I Kings 16:18 records that Zimri, seeing that no one was on his side and he was soon to be overthrown just as he had done, goes into the king’s house in the city of Tirzah and burns it down on top of himself. All of these men, obviously, were very wicked men. We have yet to see a good or even moderate king in Israel, and we are 5 men in.
Omri then discovers that the whole nation isn’t for him. Part of the people want to make him king, and part want to make a different man named Tibni king. We are not told explicitly what happens with this, but chapter 16:22 tells that Omri and his supporters “prevailed,” and that as a result, Tibni died. The way this passage is worded is somewhat ambiguous, but it seems pretty clear from the context of these men and the way things were going in Israel that there was likely a battle and that Tibni was killed in the battle, though likely not by Omri himself or it would have stated it. So Omri asserts his power, and because Zimri had destroyed the king’s palace in Tirzah, he moves his capitol to Samaria.
This act alone is worth mentioning, because it has far-reaching effects. Omri purchases and builds Samaria as his capitol, and though it is later destroyed when Israel is conquered, it remains the capitol of Israel until that time, and after that time the people who survive in the land after the captivity come to be called Samaritans, and feature prominently in the New Testament, and historically, until the Romans pretty much wipe out the Jews in the region much later.
Chapter 16 verse 25 tells us that, hard as it is to believe, Omri was more evil than all the kings who came before him, and that he also continued to propagate the sins of Jeroboam, which we know refers to the false worship of the golden calves, making priests of non-Levites, and . Omri reigns for only six years, but dies naturally, which leads me to guess that he was likely not a young man when he became king. As a general in Elah’s army, he was most likely not a young man, as he is said to have won many battles and to be an expert in war. So Omri passes away and the kingdom is given to his son, Ahab.
2. Ahab and Jezebel:
And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD above all that were before him.30 And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.31 And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.32 And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.33
– I Kings 16:30-33
Ahab is the first king of Israel since Jeroboam that God talks about in any significant detail. Apart from Baasha, none of the others reigned for any real length of time. Zimri has the distinction, in fact, of being the king with the shortest reign, so he gets the prize for that, for whatever that’s worth. Even Omri only reigns six years, as we have seen. Back up in verse 29, we are told that Ahab comes to power in the thirty-eighth year of the reign of Asa, King of Judah. Asa is only the 3rd king of Judah. Now Asa did reign longer than most other kings, being in fact the 3rd longest rule in Judah’s history, but I still find it telling that Israel is on its 7th king while Judah is on its 3rd. The rottenness that Israel had been prone to since the time of the Exodus and into the Judges only continued to fester, with each king only getting worse and worse. Ahab, however, is hard to beat, according to Scripture. In addition to the high places and golden calves, Ahab goes headlong into pagan idolatry. Forget the golden calves of Jeroboam, Ahab goes to the king of Zidon and marries his daughter, adopts his god, and constructs a full temple, with a special altar in his capitol of Samaria. He also is said to make a grove, presumably one in Samaria that coincided with his temple to Baal, as we’ve seen that altars to Baal typically also brought a grove with them as part of their worship.
And, we see something usual with Ahab. God is extremely patient with him. Ahab rules for 22 years according to our passage, which is as long as Jeroboam reigned. God endured Jeroboam’s corrupted worship of golden calves, in the full tradition of Aaron and the Exodus, and now he endures Ahab’s increased corruption. He endures a man, similar to Solomon before him, marrying the daughter of a pagan king and adopting her religion as his own.
Zidon was a Phoenician city-state on the coast of what is now modern-day Lebanon. It is often mentioned in the Bible connected to Tyre, a nearby rival city-state. Both cities were Canaanite, both obtained their wealth through trade, particularly purple dye, which was said to be valued at three times the price of gold, and cedar, which of course we know from the building of Solomon’s temple. Tyre was an ally of Solomon and David, but both nations were pagan nations and worshipped all of the Canaanite gods of the people of the land. E Unlike many other Canaanite people groups, Zidon was large and influential enough to be ruled by a king, and had its own system of pagan worship. They predominately worshipped Baal, as the Bible records. Jezebel’s father, Ethbaal, has the name of their god in his name, which means “close to Baal,” or “next to Baal.” Jezebel’s name is somewhat ambiguous but it roughly it translates “where is the exalted one,” possibly hinting at a challenge to God, if He is the “exalted one,” or pointing to her devotion to Baal, if Baal is the “exalted one.” Jezebel is well known in the Biblical text as one of the most prominent evil female individuals, if not the most evil. And Ahab associates himself and Israel with this very closely. Ahab had other wives, as we will see later on, but none of them are named, and their existence is only known from passing lines in a few verses. Thus, Jezebel was in a class of her own, and exercised her power to make Israel as much like Zidon as she could.
But do not give Jezebel any credit she doesn’t deserve. The Bible does not record that Ahab built the temple for Baal for Jezebel or even at her suggestion, but that he did these things on his own. Ahab fully rejected God on his own. Verse 32 tells us that he built a temple for Baal and an altar to worship him, and that around it he made a grove of trees to worship Baal’s consort, Asherah. Ahab seems to followed the philosophy if you’re going to do something wrong, go all in, and he did. And yet, God is patient with him.
Perhaps God is patient with him because the kings before him had set him up for failure with their idolatry and compromise. Or perhaps God is believes it is time for Him to push to turn Israel away from its evil ways. But either way, God takes a long time to punish Ahab, and gives him every opportunity to repent.
And when you talk to people you will often get hit by the question of the God of the Old Testament being far harsher and crueler than He is “portrayed” in the new testament. Sometimes you’ll get someone, and you start talking to them about God, and they might say something provocative, like, “Yeah, I can’t believe in a god who kills innocent babies and pregnant women.” And when you try to back up and understand what they’re getting at, they will point to passages in the Old Testament where God told the Israelites to destroy an entire group of people down to the children, and even the animals. And understandably, this can be hard to deal with, because the answer isn’t straightforward. Some Christians try to counter it with the idea that it is a different time, different rules. Or, some might say that when God told the Israelites to destroy the children and pregnant women that He was just using hyperbole. He was just using the “language of the time,” and obviously none of that happened because those peoples still existed later on. But I think they are doing a disservice to God when they answer this question with an answer like God was just “exaggerating.” I don’t think God exaggerates. I think when He told the Israelites to destroy these people completely, that is what He intended. How can we reconcile the God of love in the New Testament with this seemingly much different “God of the Old Testament” who is commanding the slaughter of innocent children?
Actually, you only see this if you take passages like I Samuel 15:3, and view them completely out of context. If you read that passage on its own, you will seemingly find a very violent and cruel God:
Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
– I Samuel 15:3
Now, if you read this about anyone besides God, you would normally think this was horrible. Here God is, just suddenly declaring “genocide” against the Amalekites, instructing the Jews to wipe out even the innocent children.
But like with all of the rest of these stories from the Old Testament, those quoting the “gotcha” passage doesn’t read any of the context for any of this, because context is King. It’s like the news reporting, “Man Runs Over 3 Innocent Children Playing in the Street,” only for you to check a few unbiased sources and find that the 3 “children” were 17-year-old gangbangers and trying to hijack the man’s car. It’s easy to take a verse out of context, which is why a good motto to have as an apologist is, “Never read just one verse if you can help it.” The truth about I Samuel 15:3 is that there is a very good reason for God’s judgment to fall upon Amalek and it was only fitting that His judgment should come from the Israelites. Verse 2 tells us:
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
– I Samuel 15:2
Now, all of a sudden we have some context. This isn’t just a mean God telling the Israelites to go slaughter the innocent children of these people. But, there’s more. Notice that God mentions that Amalek laid wait for the Israelites during the Exodus. There is a parallel passage that gives even more context in Exodus.
Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.9 And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.10 So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.11 And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.12 But Moses hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.13 And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.14 And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.15 And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi:16 For he said, Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
– Exodus 17:8-16
Here we see some more detail, that the Amalekites deliberately attacked Israel as they were journeying through the land, trying to wipe them out after they had only just escaped from Egypt, and unprovoked. But there is even more.
Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt;18 How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God.19 Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.
– Deuteronomy 25:17-19
So there we have the full context of I Samuel 15:3. God told Saul and Israel to destroy the Amalekites because when the Israelites, who had only just escaped from Egypt and were weary, traveled through the wilderness, the Amalekites came and attacked all of the weak and faint, and those who were slow or vulnerable. This despicable act caused God to pronounce harsh judgement upon them, for they were wicked, cruel, and violent people. What about the children though? We know from other passages in Scripture, like Sodom and Gomorrah, that God commanded complete destruction against certain people groups because their beliefs were completely contrary not just to God, but to human decency. Some of these nations descended into horrible debauchery, perverting even their own children and even animals, or even slaughtering their own children. In such cases, God’s judgment may have also been a mercy to them, as such children would go to heaven, as we believe, and not experience the ruin of their people or their people’s corruption, just as we saw with Jeroboam’s son. Furthermore, the cowardly attack of the Amalekites on Israel’s weak and sick was even more abhorrent, because they were related. The Amalekites are descendants of Esau, making this also a familial betrayal.
And not this only, but how long did God wait to have His judgment carried out against the Amalekites? It’s estimated that the time between the Exodus and Saul’s reign was some 400 years. In that time, the Amalekites could have repented, and if you don’t think that’s possible, read the book of Jonah. God was even merciful to the Canaanites. I know we’re a ways off from Ahab right now, but I want you to see how God is misrepresented using the Old Testament, and how God’s compassion and patients (and yes, even His love) is even evidenced by the pages of the Old Testament.
And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
– Genesis 15:13-16
Notice what God was telling Abraham. He was telling him that his people couldn’t go into Canaan and claim the land, because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. You know what that is? That is God giving grace, God giving the Amorites every opportunity to turn around. That is God telling Abraham to wait, because their evil hasn’t reached the point where He will be forced to judge them and destroy them. He made Abraham and his descendants wait three generations, for the sake of the pagan, idol-worshipping Amorites (not to be confused with the Amalekites, God is here using the term “Amorites” to refer to all the peoples of Canaan, collectively). Do we not see that this is consistent with God in the New Testament? He has always been a God of love, but because the New Testament does not contain many accounts of His judgment, people who read the New Testament think He doesn’t have any. They just read past Jesus’ talking about Hell, and just read the cozy passages about His love. But there is God’s love in the Old Testament, if you’re an honest student of the Word, and likewise, there is God’s judgement in the New Testament as well.
And there is God’s love and patience in I Kings 16 as well. God gives Ahab a long rule, and not only this, just in case Ahab would have claimed ignorance, He gives Ahab a teacher.
3. Elijah, the First Major Prophet
And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.2 And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying,3 Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.4 And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
– I Kings 17:1-4
Here we are introduced to Elijah, who is a counterpart of sorts to Ahab. We’ve seen other prophets, but this one is different. Not only does the Bible tells us many more interactions with Elijah than other prior prophets, like Ahijah, I Kings also tells us many more things about his personal life and walk with God. He name menas “God is my strength,” or “God is almighty.” In the New Testament, he is referred to many times by the Greek version of his name, “Elias.” The meaning in Greek is, unsurprisingly, the same, as it is essentially just a Greek form of the word. He is described as a “Tishbite,” and an “inhabitant of Gilead.” Tishbe is believed to be a town in Gilead, located on a hill. Gilead itself was a mountainous region east of the Jordan river, in what is now modern-day Jordan. The region was divided in the time of Joshua between the three tribes that remained east of the Jordan during the Exodus (Gad, Reuben, half of Manasseh), because the land was very suited to their cattle. Elijah’s tribe is never explicitly stated, although it is safe to say it is one of these three, probably Gad or possibly Manasseh, since these two are more northern, and Elijah’s ministry seems to be entirely to Northern Israel.
Unlike some other prophets, Elijah is not introduced or explained. Apart from what we just discussed, and the stories the Bible records during his ministry, nothing is known about him. He arrives on the scene just as we saw in verse 1, coming before Ahab at the height of his idolatry and corruption, and telling him that there will be no rain for several years. Interestingly, the Bible does not record God telling Elijah to do this. Nor is the duration of the famine exactly stated. Chapter 18 verse 1 mentions “the third year.” But, oddly enough, more context is provided by the book of James.
– James 5:17-18
Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
James is accurate to the month, though this is not stated in the Old Testament. It could be that this information was handed down orally and is not a part of the text of the Hebrew Scriptures. It is backed up by a parallel passage in Luke, where Jesus Himself also gives the exact timing:
But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
– Luke 4:25
We are told in James that Elijah prayed for there to be no rain, and that he prayed for it to not rain for exactly 3 years and six months. I Kings 18:1 does tells us that the return of the rain was from God, so it is reasonable to assume that God also was behind the rain to begin with, though it is curious, in my view, that James records Elijah praying specifically for the drought and the period of time, and that I Kings does not record God telling Elijah or Elijah telling Ahab that God told him, or even what the drought was about. But, Ahab was the king of Israel, and since Elijah comes on the scene so abruptly in the Scripture, it is likely that he had been bringing messages to Ahab for some time and the reason for the drought was no secret. Nor was Ahab’s reaction a secret. After telling Ahab about the drought, God in our passage tells Elijah to “hide,” as they both understood that Ahab and Jezebel would not the threat of a drought lightly. In Bible times, most societies were subsistence farmers, meaning that what food they had was dependent on farming and that if crops failed even for a year, there would be significant problems. Storing food was difficult due to the lack of refrigeration, and there were no preservatives or pesticides to artificially control bacteria, mold, or insects. In Genesis, the Bible records the famine during the time of Joseph as one of the worst, lasting 7 years, and the only reason that there wasn’t mass extinction in the region was due to Joseph preparing food that could be preserved using Egypt’s more advanced farming techniques, and he prepared for 7 years.
This time, there was no warning, no preparation, and no storehouse of preserved grain. People starved, and people died. We don’t understand the level of desperation that starving produces, because we in this country have such an abundance of food. A three year famine with no preparation would be devastating to the entire region. And it was. Now, I think there is a reason that God chose a famine as the punishment for Ahab’s wickedness. Firstly, it allowed time to repent, and secondly it would be felt by the whole nation, showing the people also that their compliance with Ahab and Jezebel’s wickedness was also being judged. But I think there is a third reason a famine was chosen. Note the language used by Elijah. He does not tell Ahab that there would be a famine. God has used that language before when issuing judgments, but this time he specifically states that “there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.” So more than just a famine, God tells Ahab that there will be no rain or dew, and that it is directly controlled by him. He is turning it off, and He will turn it back on when He is ready to do so. Why is this significant? Because Ahab and Jezebel had chosen to serve Baal, and Baal was the chief Canaanite god and a god of storms, wind, and rain. Yes, just as in Exodus, where God specifically targeted His plagues towards the myriad Egyptian gods, proving his mastery of everything, and especially of those things they attributed to their pagan deities, so God instructs Elijah to target the one thing that Baal was supposed to be the complete master of: rain. By literally turning the rain off, he is showing Ahab, Jezebel, and the Israelites (and even the Zidonians who first worshipped the false god) that God is the only real God, the only one truly able to control the natural world, the only God who answers prayer, the only God who provides, and the only God who forgives. In short, the only God. This is a theme of Elijah’s ministry, as we have and will see. By targeting the rain, God is discrediting Baal long before Elijah performs his display at Mt. Carmel. But even control of the rain is not enough, as God through Elijah specifically mentions also that there will be no dew. Dew, scientifically, is formed from the condensation of water that is in the atmosphere, meaning that God was not only in full control of the clouds, wind, and rain, but of the very atmosphere itself, down to its latent water content. God was going to show all of Israel, and Ahab in particular, who is truly in full control of nature.
Through this terrible drought, God sustains Elijah miraculously, allowing him to hide in the wilderness by a tiny tributary of the Jordan river. There he drinks water from the stream and there the Lord gives him meat via Raven Uber Eats. The Bible does not say where the ravens obtained the meat, of what kind it was, or if it was already cooked or if Elijah had to cook it himself, but it sustains him until the Jordan begins to shrink from lack of rainfall, and the brook dries up.
And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying,9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.11 And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.12 And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.14 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.15 And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah.17 And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him.18 And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?19 And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed.20 And he cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?21 And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again.22 And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.23 And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.24 And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.
– I Kings 17:8-24
This story, even more than the prayer to bring the famine, and even more than God’s ability to feed Elijah, one man, with some ravens and a brook, shows the power and spirit of the man that God had chosen to bring God’s Word to Ahab. Elijah was close to God, and in almost every case is recorded believing God without question. He doesn’t balk at God telling him that he will be fed by ravens, and he doesn’t balk when he is told to go to Zidon, Jezebel’s home nation, and there to be sustained by a widow woman. Remember, widow women were extremely poor and often couldn’t even sustain themselves, but this widow was going to feed him through the famine. And Elijah doesn’t complain to God even when he arrives and it becomes clear that the widow woman cannot sustain even herself. This story is somewhat similar to the story of the Shunamite woman that we will read about later, with Elisha.
Now, we don’t know exactly how long it has been, but it’s been long enough for Jordan to shrink notably, so the famine is likely taking hold even now, and people are starting to go hungry. We also realize that for a widow woman, she would feel the affects sooner than most and more severely than most, as she would not have a husband to provide for her or protect her, or stores of food or money saved up against such an occasion. And so, she gathers what she can find, which is very little. Now this is not Israel, this is Zidon, meaning that there is no tradition of the Mosaic Law, which tells the Jews to leave food for the poor and destitute (such a cruel God, right?). So this gentile, Canaanite woman likely does not have long to live at this point. Her situation was already likely tenuous, and the famine would be all but a death sentence for such a woman. She also makes an interesting statement after her son dies, where she asks Elijah if his death is related to “her sin.” She does not state what this is, but it could be that her son was illegitimate or that she had resorted to prostitution, and her son was a product of that.
This story is also notable for being one of the earliest times (if you do not count the mana in Exodus) that God creates food from nothing, which is one of the signature miracles of Jesus. Jesus’ miracles are not random, but they all point to His Godhead, as He asserts that He is in direct, personal control over the things that people think they can control, but can’t, such as when He heals people of things that even modern medicine could not cure, or when He creates abundance of food from very little, or when He exercises control over nature, or life and death. In these stories with Elijah and the miracles that he does, there is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ ministry, and that did not go without notice. After all, who did the people in Jesus’ day, seeing and hearing about His miracles, think that He was, according to the disciples?
13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
– Matthew 16:13-14
The people related Jesus with Elijah because Jesus did very similar miracles. We will see many more parallels between the ministries of Elijah and Jesus, that to my mind make it very clear that Elijah was a picture of things to come. Not this only, but remember who appears on the mount of Transfiguration with Moses? That’s right, Elijah. I believe personally that the reason Moses and Elijah appeared on the Mount with Jesus is that Moses represented the Word of God, His Law, and Elijah represented the Spirit of God, His presence. The Spirit of God is very closely related to Elijah, as we will see going forward.
A casual reader might say that Elijah did his miracles by some power of his own. But a man’s spirit is not what caused the miracles. Elijah’s spirit, his power, is not his own, but the Lord’s. The power comes not from himself, but from his closeness with God. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was still present, but not like today. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit indwells, but this was not the case in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is said to “come upon” an individual, resting upon that man, but usually not permanently. For instance, the Bible records the Spirit both descending upon Saul and leaving him, and upon Samson earlier again coming and leaving.
On a few, however, the spirit does not leave. Elijah is a picture of this more permanent residence of the Spirit of God. This is similar the New Testament with Jesus Himself and then the Believers. Elisha will later appreciate this, by asking for the Spirit to come upon him even more mightily than with Elijah. Elijah does not do the miracles, however. He does not command the famine, but James tells us that he prays and God sends the famine. And even now, when he revives the widow’s son, is he the one with the power? No, he prays to God and he is so connected with God through the Spirit that God does a miracle. Even in the miracle of the oil and meal, where it appears at first as though Elijah does the miracle, notice what is recorded in verse 17. The word of the Lord is what allows the miracle, and that word is spoken by Elijah. Notably, Jesus never performs a miracle by prayer, even though He does talk to God often. Instead, He commands, and the world itself obeys. Elijah, on the other hand, is just a vessel, not the one with the power. As mighty as he appears to Ahab and to the widow and even to us, the Bible is clear that he is simply not the source of the power. The God of creation, the same God who used Moses to do miracles, and used Joshua to bring the walls down, used Sampson to defeat the Philistines, He is the source of provision and He is the source of every wonder, and when Jesus does a miracle, He is that same source, as He is God.
A dear pastor friend of mine used to say that when you were trusting completely in the Lord, with your sins confessed and your focus upon Christ, that there was, as it were, a kind of circle around you that he called “miracle ground.” I like that, because when you are that connected with God, as Elijah was, you will see God’s power, and you can be His instrument to work directly in the world. Elijah, James says, was a man of like passions as we are. That means he stumbled, he fell, he got angry, he got afraid, he doubted, but he always obeyed God and he always came back to God. And we also can experience the Spirit of God. We can see miracles being done, but staying in that Miracle Gound takes effort. We are forgetful, fearful, proud, and sometimes distracted, especially over time. We have to constantly put our eyes upon Jesus, when they go astray from Him. Elijah’s job was to be close to Gim, and let God work, to live and walk in that “miracle ground.” And we can see the same thing. James is clear that Elijah was a man no better than us. He was not a man of surpassing greatness. He was not chosen by God because of his innate power, or good looks, or his own powerful spirit. He was a humble man from across the Jordan, that God chose to bring both judgment upon Ahab and Jezebel, and relief to a widow that was clearly aware of her sin and sorry for it. Elijah had to depend upon God as much as she did, and God was able to work through him to do impossible things.
Just in this chapter, look at the things that God did through and in the life of Elijah, simply because He stayed close to the Spirit of God:
- Miraculous provision. While the brook was just a stream of water that anyone could have found, the ravens coming and bringing Elijah meat was anything but ordinary. Wild birds, especially ravens, do not share their food with humans, or anyone else. Ravens, unlike crows, are large, solitary birds, scavengers, and can be dangerous, yet these sustained Elijah by bringing him the food he needed to survive. Also, when the widow woman met Elijah and was told of her dire plight, God told Elijah that her tiny amount of meal and oil would not run out until the famine was over. The woman, Elijah, and her son saw the miraculous, food from nothing, the literal creative power of God, the ability to make substance ex nihilo, from nothing, just as He had at the creation of the world.
- Perfect provision. Contrary to the prosperity gospel claims, God did not give Elijah provision by supplying him with a Marcedes and a mansion. He didn’t give him three private jets and a vacation home in Martha’s Vinyard. God’s perfect provision gave him exactly what He needed, not more, and not less. God could have given him more, as He had with Solomon, but in God’s wisdom, He provided exactly what Elijah, and his hosts needed.
- Miraculous healing. During the course of Elijah’s stay at the woman’s house, her son falls sick. Now if this was a child conceived in adultery or by prostitution, he was not likely to inherit much or be of ground renown, but he was her only home to be sustained, as he would still be able to grow up and work to provide for them. But without the hope of her son, all hope would be gone. She would lose the last thing on the earth that she loved, and with him, her own life as well. And Elijah shows that he is a man subject to the same temptations as we are, because he does inquire of God. He asks God why He has killed the woman’s son. At this point, there is nothing to be done. The dead, after all, do not live again. But Elijah begs the Lord, laying the child on his own bed, and stretching himself out upon him. Elisha, much later, will perform this exact same procedure for the exact same purpose later on. And again, I think this is a picture of Christ did for us. Notice, that he puts himself in the child’s place, stretched out over him, covering him, as Christ covers us with Himself. And notice he does it three times. Three times, perhaps a reference to three days in the tomb. We don’t know for sure, but we can appreciate that God always has some purpose to the things recorded in His Word. And the child revives. The dead is raised, just as Jesus both raised the dead, and Himself from the dead, Elijah sees God raise this child from death. Never before in Scripture has this ever been done, but here it is recorded for us, and for the doubting Jews of the early church. But while Elijah calls for God to raise the child, Jesus does not. Jesus raises the child Himself. He raises the young man outside the city Himself. He raises Lazarus Himself. Staying in that miracle ground, in that close proximity and partnership with the spirit, that is how you will see miracles.
Will you see the dead raised? Maybe not. But you will see other miracles. You will see events work out so perfectly. You will see God bring people into your life and take them out of it, just to meet a need or bring something to pass. You will see jobs go and come, miraculous house sales, healing that just doesn’t make sense, financial help from unexpected places, healing of relationships you thought were beyond hope. Elijah’s spirit is not a powerful spirit of its own, it is a spirit of trust that opens wide a landing pad for the Spirit of God. Jesus was so connected to God that it says in the Gospels that the Spirit descended upon Him visibly, in the shape of a dove, and while you and I may never be that close to the Spirit, we do have Him living within us, waiting to perform miracles that we could never accomplish on our own. “By this,” says the woman, “I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of God in thy mouth is truth.” Not by the miraculous food provided, or even by the healing itself, but by his complete and perfect connection to God, that God will act on his behalf. That God’s will and Elijah’s will are completely in sync. And that is what each of us needs more than anything else.
Word Weld 
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