1. Text summary
2. How is Christ in the text?3. Application
Elijah on the Scene - 1 Kings 17
1. Text summary
Prophet Elijah pronounces to Ahab a drought, then God tells Elijah to hide.
God sends him to a widow in Sidon, where Jezebel is from, when his water runs out.
Elijah asks for food for himself before she and her son, as an act of faith, promising they will miraculously have flour and oil to spare.
The son falls deathly ill, not breathing, and Elijah prays and God restores his life.
2. Jesus
Jesus is the prophet who condemns wicked rulers, and restores life to those who believe.
3. Application
a. Don't revile a whole country, just because wicked rulers come from there (Jezebel and Sidon.) See Jesus' reference to this in Luke 4, and Nazareth's horrendous response!
b. Give God your first fruits, even if you're not sure how you'll live on the rest.
c. Jesus can and will restore your life, even when it appears past hope of saving.
The Showdown on Mt Carmel - 1 Kings 18
1. Text summary
God sends Elijah to Ahab. Ahab commissions another prophet of Yahweh, Obadiah, to help him find grass and water. (Obadiah had hidden 100 prophets of God to save them from Jezebel's purge.) Elijah meets Obadiah and sends him to meet Ahab. Elijah asks Ahab to call Baal's prophets to a showdown at Mt Carmel.
Elijah appeals to the people to be loyal to God, but they don't answer.
He proposes a contest - a sacrifice, and the god to answer by fire is the true God.
They agree, and Elijah lets Baal's followers go first. They cut themselves and tear down Elijah's altar for hours, but nothing happens.
Elijah's turn. He asks for 12 jars of water (4, 3 times) to soak the altar. A precious commodity!
He prays. Fire falls. Israel professes "El Yah!" Yahweh is God. (Elijah!)
Elijah calls for the killing of Baal's prophets.
He warns Ahab to head home, because rain is coming, then runs and beats him home.
2. Jesus
Jesus is the prophet who can get God to answer, and expose false wickedness for what it is. He gets people to realize that Yahweh is the true and only God.
3. Application
a. Trust God's prophet and mission, even when it endangers you. (Obadiah)
b. God's enemies will attack your altar - a little ridicule of their fruitless religion is not out of place.
c. Invest your most precious commodity into the worship of God. For Israel it was water in a drought. For us, it is probably time.
d. The end of idolatry is death.
The Still, Small Voice - 1 Kings 19
1. Text summary
Jezebel threatens to kill Elijah. He flees south into the desert, cries out to God. God gives him food and water, and he goes 40 days to Mt. Horeb (Sinai). Elijah complains of Israel and his hard state twice. God comes in the still, small voice, and sends him to anoint new kings in Syria and Israel (replacing Ahab and Jezebel!), and Elisha to replace himself. He calls Elisha, who becomes his protege.
2. Jesus
a. Jesus is in the desert 40 days, helped by angels, too. A new Moses. Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, and glorify Him.
b. Jesus calls disciples, who want to say goodbye to their parents, but he says no. Not because he doesn't care about family - He is making the point that his call is greater than Elijah's.
3. Application
a. Spiritual successes (like defeating Baal at Carmel) are often followed by more attacks and temptations (Jezebel).
b. When things go badly, watch your posture toward God ("What are you doing here, Elijah?")
c. God often makes Himself known quietly. It's hard for us to hear Him when He shouts (Israel at Sinai).
d. Sometimes God gives us tough love. His response to our complaint is "Get to work." But that work will resolve our problems over time (Jehu and Elisha).
Fighting Wickedness - 1 Kings 20
1. Text summary
God helps Ahab win two battles against Syria, making the point that it isn't because of Ahab each time. The second time he makes an advantageous treaty with Syria, but a prophet dooms him for not killing the Syrian king.
2. Jesus
a. Jesus is a faithful ruler, so God gives Him the position to win the crucial victory.
b. Jesus will not make peace with the wicked in the end, but destroy them.
3. Application
a. There are times God will spare and prosper us, though we don't deserve it.
b. Too often, we are willing to live with wickedness, when we should expunge it from our lives instead.
The Vineyard of Naboth - 1 Kings 21
1. Text summary
Ahab sulks when Naboth won't sell him his land. Jezebel gets him killed, and Ahab steals it. Elijah denounces him, and Ahab actually repents of it. So God defers punishment to his children instead of coming on Ahab.
2. Jesus
a. Jesus never takes what He wants, violating our rights in the process.
b. Jesus often exposed and condemned the exploitation and injustice of rulers in Israel.
3. Application
a. When you can't have what you want, don't sulk. Learn from it.
b. Never treat someone wrongly to take something from them.
Ahab's Foolishness and Death - 1 Kings 22
1. Text summary
Ahab wants to fight Syria, and recruits Judah. False prophets encourage them. Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, asks for a word from Yahweh. Ahab doesn't want to listen, knowing it'll be bad. It is. They go anyway, and Jehoshaphat complies with Ahab's scheme of dressing up as Ahab, while Ahab enters combat as a normal soldier. His scheme doesn't work. God spares Jehoshaphat and Ahab is "randomly" shot. He dies.
2. Jesus
a. Jesus never fights against people outside of God's will.
b. Jesus speaks God's words to the powerful, even when it gets Him in trouble.
3. Application
a. 1 Kings ends as Genesis and 1 Samuel does, with the death of a bad leader of Israel. It's the pattern of Christ dying, then rising. At the point of the death (your suffering or apparent dead end), it looks like the end of the story. But God will open a new chapter in your life.
b. Don't ally with foolish and wicked people like Jehoshaphat did, ignoring God's clear instruction not to do it.
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