Read: 1 Kings 18:1-46; Acts 11:1-30; Psalm 135:1-21; Proverbs 17:12-13
God strategically planted Obadiah, a devout follower of God in charge of Ahab’s palace. He had the inside scoop and knew that Jezebel was killing God’s prophets so he was able to save 100 of them. God had his last say in that. He killed all of her prophets in the end.
The tell-tale sign of where the people stood is verse 21B. It says: “but the people said nothing”. Elijah had asked them whether they were going to serve God or Baal. They were in the presence of 950 false priests and one prophet of God. I guess the peer pressure was too much.
God did prove he was God in a very demonstrative way. In the midst of a severe famine and drought, Elijah poured about 39 quarts of water on his sacrifice. Elijah knew that the way to receive what he needed was to give what he lacked. He gave sacrificially and God answered abundantly. The rain that fell was a torrent.
Elijah ran before Ahab back to Jezreel which was about 10 miles. It was customary to have runners that ran before the king. God had kept Elijah fit and able so he did this to show his honor to God and his country, even though Ahab was an evil king. Elijah was hopeful for the nation to have revival but was about to be greatly disappointed.
In Acts, the church was going through a major shift. When Peter returned to Jerusalem, word had already reached the people that he had eaten with a Gentile and prayed for him. He had to defend his actions and try to get them to see what God had shown him about the Gentiles. God had filled these people with the Holy Spirit so they would have to blame God for breaking his own laws. Sounds crazy, but that is about how crazy many of the splits in churches are.
The blessing of persecution is that it dispersed the believers who were running for their lives and sought refuge in Gentile cities. Soon they were telling their story and the Gentiles were believing them and getting saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. This happened in Antioch so when the believers in Jerusalem heard, they sent Barnabas to help start a church there. He arrived to find a large vibrant group of believers hungry for teaching so Barnabas sent for Saul to come and help him. It was here that they coined the word “Christian” to describe the believers.
We are in the midst of a shift just like the early church went through and it is going to take some change in our thinking and prior teaching to be able to put the new wine into new wineskins. God is doing a new thing.
Lord, shake us out of our tradition and help us to see what you are doing and move with your Spirit.
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