God's Fire and Gentleness

Do you know much about Elijah – God’s prophet?  He was the one who would show Israel God’s displeasure about their idol worship.  Elijah told the king of Israel at that time, Ahab, that there would be a drought until God decided to end it.  Elijah ran away from Ahab then and God provided for him. 

After three years God called Elijah to go to Ahab and show him God’s power.  He planned to help the Children of Israel return to the worship of the one true God.

God’s instructions were that Ahab was to bring the prophets of Baal and Ashtheroth to Mount Carmel. This is where it gets exciting.  Elijah had the Israelites get two bulls and let Baal’s prophets choose the one they wanted, cut it into pieces and put it on an alter with wood, ready for a sacrifice.  But he said not to set fire to it. Elijah would do the same to the other bull.

He told the prophets of Baal to call upon their god to produce the fire. Elijah said he would call upon his God to do the same thing.  And the god that answered would prove he was the true God.

The prophets of Baal called out to him. But there was no response.  This went on all day.  They cut themselves, danced and cried out – but no response.

Then Elijah repaired the altar of the Lord, and dug a trench around it, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he had the people fill four large jars with water and pour it on the bull and on the wood three different times. 

Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.   Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”

Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.  Can you just picture that? 

The true God had spoken. 

Elijah climbed to the top of the mountain and prayed.  When Elijah’s servant saw a cloud as small as a man’s hand rising from the sea, Elijah sent him to tell Ahab to hitch up his chariot and go down before the rain stopped him. 

The Bible says, “Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling and Ahab rode off to Jezreel.  The power of the Lord came on Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.” 

Quite a guy huh? 

Well, he was good at running - and when Jezebel found that Elijah had had all her prophets killed, she threatened to kill him.  He was afraid and ran for his life again.

Do you wonder how many times God had to prove His strength and power and His care before Elijah stopped running?

God told Elijah that he would provide, and He did.  God told Elijah that He would cause a drought, and He did.  God told Elijah that He would send the rain, and He did - but Elijah still ran away from Jezebel.

Are we any different from this man?   Elijah was afraid of Ahab and spent a good deal of time worrying about whether Ahab and Jezebel would hunt him down and kill him even after God showed His care for Elijah and his power. 

How many times have we basked in God’s care and provision and still worried about tomorrow?  Is that any different?

 

When we think about God’s power and His care for His people, don’t you think we should give up worrying? 

Matthew 6:25-34
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?...

1 Peter 5: 6-7 

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for He careth for you.

I love that last part – ”casting all your care upon him; for He careth for you.”

I know that it’s not always easy to give Him all of our cares, but when we look back on our lives and see the times He has provided for us, the times that His power has conquered the evil in our lives, and the times He has carried us, we will be able to stop worrying about what is around the corner of this day because He cares for you!

His arms are strong enough.

They can hold you up when you weaken.

They will carry you when your strength is gone.

But He’s so gentle that you may not even know when it’s His strength that takes over.  You’ll just feel the burden less as life goes on.

You’ll be able to smile a little when you greet tomorrow’s dawn.   

As we go along this path of life, we may learn to recognize His strength in our trials.  We may learn to recognize His touch and see His footprints as He carries us.  Sometimes it’s just an “I wonder if that was God?” moment, or sometimes we know with all of our heart that it was His touch.

He carried Elijah; He proved His strength and power.

He’ll carry us.