Elijah..1 Kings 17 -

We started our new Bible study early this afternoon.   Very nice.  And i already learned some subtle things so I'm gonna be posting it here. I don't think people realize just how awesome the bible is.

1 Kings 17




Elijah Announces a Great Drought


17 Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe[a] in Gilead, said 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.”



2 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah:

3 “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan.

4 You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.”

5 So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there.

6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

Elijah and the Widow at Zarephath


7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.
8 Then the word of the Lord came to him:

9 “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.”

10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?”

11 As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”

12 “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son.

14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’”

15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.

16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing.

18 She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”

19 “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed.

20 Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?”

21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”

22 The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived.

23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”

24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”

The political aspect and the social aspect of Israel was much like it is for us now.  Corruption.  A wicked king with a very very wicked wife.  That would be Ahab, son of Omri and his wife Jezebel...daughter of the Sidonian king.

At the death of Solomon, Rehoboam was to become king but he promised the nation of Israel and even heavier hand over them than his father Solomon.    As a result 10 tribes pledged their allegiance to a man Jeroboam who had been a constant pain in the side of Solomon. He returned to Israel when he heard of Solomon's death.   The tribe of Judah (David's tribe) and tribe of Benjamin remained loyal to Rehoboam, no doubt because of his father, David.  The Northern Kingdom of Israel remained in strife with the Southern Kingdom of Judah for most of the time until their falls.  While Israel had NO good kings, Judah had very wicked and then some very good kings who obeyed the laws of God.  

So there was Jeroboam,  he had two sons Abijah and Nadab.   Abijah died while he was young.

Nadab becomes king,  He's killed by Baasha, Abihah's son,  

Baasha dies and Elah, his son becomes king,  

Elah is killed by Zimri, zimri becomes king  Elah was drunk, Zimri was commander of half the chariots in Israel.  

Zimri commits suicide and there is a brief civil war between the houses of Tibni  and Omri. The army hears of Zimri assassinating Elah and the army appoints Omri king.  When Zimri sees the city is taken..he locks himself in the citadel of the palace and burns it down around him.    Tibni is killed in battle, Omri becomes king.

Omri dies and his son Ahab becomes king.

Ahab marries Jezebel, daughter of King of Sidon, of Phoenicia.  She is the epitome of wickedness,  she rules the land through her weak husband.  She introduces some serious Ba'al worship in Israel.

These kings got steadily worse and followed in the footsteps of Jeroboam leading Israel deeper into sin and degradation and idolatry. Jeroboam had set up 2 gold calves, one in bethel one in dan to keep his people from going to Jerusalem to worship at the temple.    He sacrificed to God himself rather than having the priest do it and he makes priests out of the common people who are not of the tribe of Levi. That was against God's laws.

So now we're at Ahab and enters Elijah.  

Elijah speaks to Ahab and he is bold in his speech.   Elijah says there will be a long drought because God is furious with the worship of foreign gods and that Ahab and former kings did not keep their promises or honor God's laws and His person.

WHY a drought??  Why THAT punishment.   For that you have to look at the myth of Ba'al and who he was.  Ba'al and his wife/consort, Asherah were fertility gods. But Ba'al was the god of thunder/lightning..he brought the rain that nurtured the crops and provided food and plenty for the Israelites.    This drought was intended to show just how  weak and inconsequential was this false god that the israelites honored above their one true God. THAT is why Drought was called down as a punishment and a lesson. God has reasons for the means he uses.

Tisbe is in Gilead in the tribal land of Gad. One of the 12 sons of Jacob/Israel. That's where Elijah comes from.  See how close it is to Samaria..that is the new capitol of the Northern Kingdom of Israel because Jerusalem is in the Southern Kingdom, Judah.   The Davidic Dynasty continues in Judah, Not Israel.

Note Cherith Brook.  And see Sidon up top of the map?   and right below it is Zeraphath

Before Omri made Samaria the capital of Israel, the northern kingdom, the capitals were 1. Shechem and then 2. Tirzah. Samaria became the official capital but Ahab had his winter palace in Jezreel.

After Elijah delivers his message of drought to Ahab, God tells him to go hide at the brook of Cherith, drink the water from the brook and eat what the ravens bring to him by God's order.

More on ravens...page 9, post 9

Calypso Jones wrote:We started our new Bible study early this afternoon.   Very nice.  And i already learned some subtle things so I'm gonna be posting it here. I don't think people realize just how awesome the bible is.  

""I don't think people realize just how awesome the bible is.""


I came across a 1996 penthouse yesterday, that was pretty awesome,,

Get out Heathen. Heath for short.

Cherith means ravine, or cutting away.  And that is what he did to Elijah.  God cut him away from everything else that was going on. He had to depend on God totally for his security and food. God separated him because God was refining Elijah..making Elijah depend on God more and more.

Elijah was there for quite a time...remember there was a drought going on.   Israel was suffering....finally the brook dries up.  And God tells Elijah to get on the road and travel to Zerephath, close to the border of Sidon and there a widow would feed him.   Also remember that Ahab had been scouring the country for Elijah.  He wanted to imprison/kill him. Ahab considered Elijah a 'sneaky snake', blaming Elijah for the drought Israel was experiencing.    But here God tells Elijah to walk that one hundred miles to Zerephath right out in the open...so here again, Elijah has to depend on God to protect him on this long trek.

Interesting that he would send him near Sidon...the home of Jezebel's family.

And why a widow in Zerephath and not a widow in Israel.

http://www.christianstressmanagement.com/2017/06/why-elijah-was-sent-to-widow-in-sidon.html

The question "Why was Elijah sent to a widow in Zarephath which is in Sidon, and not to a widow in Israel?" can be answered with one word - Faith.

Yes, faith is the reason that God chose to send His prophet to a woman who was not an Israelite.

We know this because when Jesus went to the synagogue in Nazareth, where He had been brought up, He read from the Book of Isaiah saying, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind and to set the oppressed free. (Luke 4:18)

After reading, He sat down and all those who were in the synagogue were looking at Him. He then told them "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:21)  
How to Fulfill your Life Purpose

Jesus' audience marveled at the graciousness of His words but then they asked, "Is this not Joseph's son?" (Luke 4:22)

"Is this not Mary's Son and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon?"
"Are His sisters not here?"

As a result, they were offended at Him. (Mark 6:2-3)

By asking these questions the people of Nazareth nullified their faith in Jesus as the Son of God because they had reduced him to just a local carpenter's son.

Jesus responded by telling them, "A prophet is without honor in his own country, among his own relatives and in his own house." (Mark 6:4)

As a result of their perception of Jesus and their not having faith in Him, Jesus could not do any mighty work there, except laying of His hands on a few sick people and healing them. (Mark 6:5) And, He marveled at their unbelief. (Mark 6:6)

Note that after telling them that "No prophet is accepted in his own country", (Luke 4:24) Jesus also said, I tell you there were many widows in Israel during the days of Elijah when it did not rain for 3 1/2 years and there was a great famine in all the land. But Elijah was not sent to a widow in Israel. He was sent to a widow in Zarephath which is in Sidon. (Luke 4:25-26)

This implies that the Israelites did not also accept Elijah as a prophet and they did not have faith and thus God had to send him to a widow in Sidon instead of sending him to a widow in Israel.

The same unbelief that Jesus experienced among His own people which resulted in Him not doing mighty works in His hometown was also operating in Elijah's time and so God sent Elijah to the widow of Zarephath.

This lack of faith by the people in Israel also implies that the widow had faith and that is why she was able to receive Elijah as someone who had been sent by God experience the mighty work that God did through him when she was fed during the famine.

Who is this Widow of Zerephath.

https://www.paultripp.com/articles/posts/the-widows-gift-of-everything

She was on her last legs.   Her husband has died, she has nothing left except her little son.  She is out gathering some wood to make her last meal for herself and her son and then they will lie down and die.

But this man, this dusty, thirsty, hungry man asks her for water and she goes to get it for him.  And then he asks her for bread and she tells him what her plans are.

He tells her. Go and make a little bread for me and bring it to me..then make bread for you and your son for God says that during this drought/famine, your jar of oil and your bowl of flour will not run out.

I wonder if she did exactly as Elijah told her..  Make the cake and bring it to him FIRST in faith and THEN make the bread for her son and herself.   Sometimes it is best to follow directions explicitly. She did.