The Lord tells Elijah that after this long famine and
drought it is time for a showdown. If
Elijah will go and meet Ahab the Lord will bring rain to the land. We also learn about a man in the court of the
king, Obadiah, who fears the Lord and keeps faithful to Yahweh by hiding and
providing for one hundred "prophets" of the Lord. He has somehow managed during this time to
scrounge enough bread and water to keep them alive. Ahab now is desperate and willing to seek
high and low for food and water for the animals and in the midst of this search
Obadiah runs across Elijah who tells him to go and fetch his master Ahab for a
meeting. Obadiah knows about Elijah and
while he respects him for his ministry he also fears his master and that if he
does this thing, it is quite possible that Elijah won't be there when they get
back. Elijah assures him the time has
come. Ahab confronts Elijah with the
words, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” blame for the drought rests on
Elijah's shoulders. There is something
truly laughable in that idea in that it implies Ahab believes that Elijah's God
is responsible and therefore has the power to stop the rain. Elijah's proposal is simple, 850 prophets of
Ahab and Jezebel's gods against him in a showdown. (Also, remember later that Elijah knows there
are at least 100 other prophets of Yahweh, Obadiah told him so.)
Joseph had become a big believer in dreams after his first
encounter with God in a dream, telling him that Mary's story about her
pregnancy was indeed genuine. Now, the
Lord tells him in a dream to take the family and flee to Egypt to avoid Herod's
wrath. This passage mirrors Revelation
12 where the woman gives birth to a child while the dragon awaits the birth to
destroy the child but the child is secreted away for a season to be kept
safe. Herod's fury matches that of
Pharaoh in the Exodus and makes a similar order regarding Hebrew children but
fails to accomplish his aims. The Lord
tells Joseph in yet two other dreams to return to the land but also to locate
not in Judea, the region around Jerusalem, but in the hinterlands as it were of
the nation, out in Galilee, for safety from Herod's son who now rules, but also
because it fulfills prophecy.
The working out of salvation in fear and trembling is linked
with obedience. It is walking apart from
the world but is that a matter of legalism?
As we saw in both the first two lessons, it has nothing to do with
legalism. You couldn't discern what to
do in the situations of Elijah and Joseph simply by reading and knowing the
Word, you need to hear from God specifically.
If we are to navigate life well we need to know both the general will of
God and the specific will of God. His
will and ways for all mankind are revealed in Scripture but His specific will
for our individual lives is discerned and made known in relationship, listening
as well as talking to Him. Salvation
includes godly living but it also includes life lived according to His plan for
us. We are each individually chosen for
a specific purpose. Elijah served God by
being a troubler not of Israel but its ungodly ruler. Obadiah served by providing for the
prophets. Joseph by being Jesus' earthly
father. What is God saying to you?
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