The fact that God shows up when we have given up is proof that He hasn’t given up on us! At Carmel, the prophets of Baal had been exposed for the criminal co-conspirators they were, and were executed beside the Brook Kishon. Seeing the evidence of the crater before them where the altar, wood, sacrifice, […]
Read More… from April 22, 2024 — A Detour Through Discouragement
The one prominence you notice on the Israeli coast is the Carmel range pushing into the sea. From Carmel’s heights on a clear day one can see the whole land. The Hebrew karmel means “vineyard,” and it was time for the Lord to tread out the vintage. Addressing the people, Elijah first makes an appeal […]
One year. Two years. Three years had passed with cloudless skies, barren fields, and empty tables. After three arid years, had Ahab learned the lesson? Later, the Lord would say, “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities…yet you have not returned to Me” (Amos 4:6). Yes, “there was a severe famine in […]
Meet the first one immortalized in the words, “Women received their dead raised to life again” (Heb 11:35). Each morning at the little house in Zarephath, the flour and oil brought fresh cause for thanks to the Lord. But then one day that changed. “It happened after these things that the son of the woman […]
Learning to accept groceries from unclean birds prepared Elijah for his next stop—a Gentile’s home. Yes, it’s more blessed to give than receive, but I think it’s more humbling to receive than to give—as Elijah the mighty prophet was to discover— especially from a Gentile widow in Sidon! Her hometown of Zarephath means “refinery,” and […]
Those who lead others into unbelief “are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest” (2 Pet 2:17). Seemingly out of nowhere, like a whirlwind from the wilds of Gilead, Elijah the Tishbite appears in the palace of Ahab and Jezebel. Dry up, Ahab! Dry up, Israel! Dry up, until you return to God, the […]
People advertise themselves as a “Bible-believing church,” but we need to be “Bible-obeying.” In recounting the sins of Ahab, a solemn footnote is added: “In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation with Abiram his firstborn, and with his youngest son Segub he set up its gates, according to the word […]
Wicked king, wicked king, wicked king—could anything be worse? Oh yes, a wicked king with a wicked wife! In our saga today we come to something even worse than division among God’s people—Omri’s wicked son, Ahab, unifies with the Baal worshipers of Sidon! You can see the deterioration of the nation step by step. “Solomon […]