Are you an Elijah, or have you ever met anyone like Elijah?

James 5:17-18

Have you ever met anyone like Elijah?  Let me give a brief overview of this prophet of God; first we have no knowledge of his childhood or his parents.  “He is one of the most unique and dramatic characters of Bible history.  Rugged in appearance and dress, he is a prototype of John the Baptist, 2 Kings 1:8; Matthew 3:4.” (Page 1558 Thompson Chain-Reference Bible) 

He was used of God to confront the idolatrous King Ahab and to announce a prolonged drought.  (I Kings 17:1)  In that the king would have killed Elijah, God hid him in the wilderness in the Kerith Ravine and he depended on God’s provisions supplied by ravens, 1 Kings 17:2-6.  It is at this time that God tested Elijah’s faith by drying up his source of water, 1 Kings 17:2-6.  

If a movie were being made, scene three would be at Zarephath, outside the famine-stricken city, and Elijah is moved by the Spirit to ask a widow who is gathering sticks to cook her last meal, to feed him and give him a drink of water.  The widow informs him that she only has a handful of flour and a little oil in a jug, 1 Kings 17:12.  It is at this point that Elijah tells her to not be fearful, that by doing what he has asked, the Lord will give her all she needs in the way of food until the end of the famine, 1 Kings 17:13-14.

It is now scene four and the widow’s son dies and Elijah goes before the Lord asking that the life of the child would return, and the boy comes back to life, 1 Kings 17:17-24.  If the story was made into a movie, all would seem well, life was good for Elijah at the widow’s home, and the Lord was supplying food, water and shelter, but God, sent word to Elijah in the third year of the drought, to go show himself to Ahab. 

Scene five might began with a new character named Obadiah, who feared the Lord and had saved the life of a hundred prophets and hid them in caves when Jezebel was out to destroy all of them.  It is at this point in the story that the King sent Obadiah to search out any source of water and grasslands to save the horses and other animals.  Now, the king went in one direction, and Obadiah went in the other, neither of them knowing that God had orchestrated a meeting with Obadiah that would set up a confrontation with the false prophets, which King Ahab and the nation had turned to.

The next scene would be at Mount Carmel, and it was not between Elijah and the prophet of Baal, yes, they were the parties you saw, but in the background where human eyes could not see, was the forces of good and the forces of evil, and God was going to show Himself as the mighty God, the King of kings, and the Creator that very day.  It was that day that the verdict of the people was that the Lord is the true God, and Elijah killed all of the false prophets that were there.  The king, being a politician, saw the people were on the side of the God of Elijah and he did what politicians do, he changed his stance.  The rain began, the drought ended when Elijah prayed for rain.

Looking at James 5:17-18, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.  Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.”  What is God saying to us, are we more like Elijah than we understand?  Could it be that unlike Elijah, we do not seek the face of God and we do not pray fervently?  Are you an Elijah, or have you ever met anyone like Elijah?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice