Elijah is told to go and show himself to the king, Ahab,
that the drought might end. Ahab is
desperate to save some of the pack animals as the army depended on these and so
sends Obadiah, who we are told feared the Lord greatly and had hidden one
hundred prophets and provided for them, out to search for grass and water for
the animals. Obadiah’s greeting of
Elijah and his speech to him in response to Elijah’s command to go and tell
“your lord”, referring to Ahab, reinforce Obadiah’s love and fear of the
Lord. His concern is that Ahab is bent
on Elijah’s death and that Elijah will not be here upon the return of the
king. His fear is that this will cause
the king to kill him instead. When Ahab
sees the prophet his reaction is to refer to him as the troubler of
Israel. Elijah points to the king as the
troubler of Israel, that this trouble is due to his sin of apostasy and calls
for a meeting with 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah at Mount Carmel. Sounds like unfair odds.
Herod had a penchant for killing. He had three of his own children killed
because he felt threatened by them. His
nature was to be insecure and his solution to his insecurity was to destroy
that which “caused” him to feel insecure.
Surprisingly, he was also a Jew, which should have precluded his
murderous actions. There is great irony
in the fact that a Jewish ruler ordered Jewish children killed while the
deliverer, the one for whom he was looking, was safely in, of all places,
Egypt. This is a reverse exodus. We should see the parallels between Moses’
story and Jesus’ story. Who, in the
Moses story, is taking all the action?
The answer is the mother. Who, in
this lesson, takes action? The father,
Joseph, who received three dreams from the Lord telling him what to do. We tend to overlook Joseph after he receives
the angelic visitation concerning his wife’s pregnancy but here the Lord
specifically speaks three times to this man who obeys all he hears. Truly, this man was extraordinary, not just a
man who happened to be Jesus’ earthly father.
The people to whom Paul delivered the Gospel mattered deeply
to him. He wanted always for them to
persevere in the faith he preached. What
a powerful image he uses here: “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink
offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice
with you all.” He is willing to die and be poured out and not begrudgingly but
in gladness and rejoicing. Paul’s
theology of suffering is something we need in the church today. We need to understand that suffering in our
life can be a cause for the release of joy in us and through us to the church
and the world. We live in a fallen world
where suffering is a reality and should be expected and yet we are ill-prepared
to believe that suffering can be a way in which He can receive glory. Paul remains, however, convinced that it is
possible he will not die here but may come to Philippi and see these brothers
and sisters himself. He, like Elijah at
this moment in history, like Joseph, remains hopeful and prepared for whatever
lies ahead in faith.
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