So we're in 1 Kings chapter 18,
and we're going to read from verse one. This is the word of
the Lord. And it came to pass after many
days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year
saying, go show thyself unto Ahab and I will send rain upon
the earth. So there hadn't been rain in
Israel for three and a half years. And this is the Lord saying that
he's about to break that drought. And he sends Elijah to go and
speak to Ahab. And Elijah went to show himself
unto Ahab, and there was a sore famine in Samaria. And Ahab called
Obadiah, which was the governor of his house. Now Obadiah feared
the Lord greatly, for it was so when Jezebel cut off the prophets
of the Lord, that Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them
by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water. And Ahab
said unto Obadiah, Go into the land, unto all fountains of water,
and unto all brooks. Peradventure we may find grass
to save the horses and mules alive, that we lose not all the
beasts. So they divided the land between
them to pass throughout it. Ahab went one way by himself,
and Obadiah went another way by himself. And as Obadiah was
in the way, behold, Elijah met him, and he knew him, and fell
on his face and said, Art thou that my lord Elijah? And he answered
him, I am. Go tell thy lord, behold, Elijah
is here. And he said, what have I sinned
that thou wouldst deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab
to slay me? As the Lord thy God liveth, there
is no nation or kingdom whither my Lord hath not sent to seek
thee. And when they said, he is not
there, he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they
found thee not. And now thou sayest, Go, tell
thy Lord, behold, Elijah is here. And it shall come to pass, as
soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the Lord shall
carry thee whither I know not. And so when I come and tell Ahab,
and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me, but I thy servant fear
the Lord from my youth. Was it not told, my Lord, what
I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred
men of the Lord's prophets by fifty in a cave and fed them
with bread and water? And now thou sayest, Go tell
thy Lord, Behold, Elijah is here, and he shall slay me. And Elijah
said, As the Lord of hosts liveth before whom I stand, I will surely
show myself unto him today. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab,
and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. And it came to pass,
when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that
troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled
Israel, but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken
the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Balaam.
Now therefore send and gather to me all Israel unto Mount Carmel
and the prophets of Baal 450 and the prophets of the groves
400 which eat at Jezebel's table. So Ahab sent unto all the children
of Israel and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. For three and a half years, Israel
suffered drought and famine. And for all that time, Ahab,
the king of Israel, had sought Elijah's life. He inquired of
all the neighboring countries to discover Elijah's whereabouts
and whether he had sought asylum amongst them. the king and the
people, and certainly the prophets of Baal and Jezebel blamed Elijah
for their national calamity and all their suffering. And they
were determined to make him suffer in turn. I think it's interesting
to note how often the Lord's prophets and indeed the Lord's
people, are blamed and criticised for matters beyond their power,
and concerning which they are but messengers and witnesses. And here's an example. If you trust in the Lord and
if you stand up for the gospel in your life, the gospel of sovereign
grace, you will find that many religious people will get annoyed
because we deny their cherished free will and we undermine their
religious goodness. People don't like it when we
say that all our own self-righteousness is offensive to God. Nevertheless,
all we can say is what we believe to be true according to the gospel
of God. And we believe that all our acceptance
with God is by our Saviour's blood and righteousness. People
don't like them when we tell them that salvation and righteousness
is God's work alone and God's gift to us. Elijah pronounced the judgment
of God, but it was God's hand that brought it to pass. Elijah
was God's messenger. Even the Lord Jesus was attacked
for declaring the Word of God. So we should not be surprised
if we are criticised and opposed for our faith as well. Ahab hated
Elijah because Elijah honoured the Lord and served him. Really,
it was the Lord that Ahab hated and he projected his hatred of
God onto God's servant. The Lord Jesus tells us to remember
something that will be our portion as well. Remember, he says, the
word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his
Lord. If they have persecuted me, they
will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying,
they will keep yours also. Elijah was bold, and we should
be bold too. Elijah was bold. When the Lord
told him to go and face Ahab, he went. He'd been several years
now in the home of the widow of Sarepta, sustained by the
crews of oil and the pot of meal. Now he has to leave that behind. The Lord was going to bring rain
and he was going to bless the land again with fertility. But Elijah's return and his re-emergence
on the scene would leave no doubt in people's minds that this was
God's doing, that this was God's judgment. As Elijah made his
way towards Samaria, he encountered a man on the road. This man was
called Obadiah. He was a governor or a chief
steward in Ahab's palace. And he was a man that Ahab trusted. He was also a worshipper of God. We may say that he was a secret
follower of the Lord. Obadiah, likely because of his
position in the court, had been able to warn a hundred of the
Lord's prophets, who still remained in Israel, of Jezebel's plan
to have them slain. And he hid these men in two large
caves, caverns, during the drought, and he supplied them with bread
and water. Obadiah, when he saw Elijah coming
to meet him, he recognized him at once. He'd probably seen him
before at Ahab's court and he knew that Ahab wanted to kill
Elijah. He wanted him dead. When Elijah
who of course is a believer in the Lord, speaks to Obadiah,
who is also a believer in the Lord. Elijah tells Obadiah to
go and tell his master that Elijah was ready to meet him. But Obadiah
was reluctant. He feared that the Lord would
take Elijah away again and that Because Obadiah had said, Elijah's
here, and then he wasn't, that Ahab would be angry with him
and that he would lose his life for not detaining Elijah when
he had the opportunity. Alternatively, if Elijah stayed,
then he would lose his life when Ahab arrived. Either way, Obadiah
thought, one or other of them is going to die that day. But
Elijah promised that he would not leave, and Obadiah trusted
him as well he might, and he went off to find the king. Ahab,
as we read in the narrative, was searching for water and pasture
for his horses and his mules. And that probably meant that
Queen Jezebel wasn't present. They were out separately looking
for water in the land. But Ahab returned with Obadiah
and when he returned and met Elijah after this long period
of searching for him, he at once accused Elijah of troubling Israel
with this drought. Elijah rejected the accusation
and he turned it back on Ahab. It was not Elijah who troubled
Israel, but Ahab and his family. It was they who had forsaken
the commandments of God and worshipped the idol gods of Baal, leading
Israel with them into idolatry. I think probably more was said
between these two men, Ahab and Elijah, at this meeting than
is recorded here. I think they probably spoke for
some longer time than this. But we're not told what they
said. Elijah requested, or indeed it seems that he demanded, which
is interesting. Elijah demanded that Ahab gather
all Israel and all the prophets of Baal together at Mount Carmel. So it seems likely that Ahab
realized that there was to be some sort of showdown between
Elijah and the prophets with the people of Israel. as witnesses,
spectators or witnesses, and that as a result of that showdown,
there would be a breaking of the drought and an abundance
of rain in the land. And for the sake of that rain,
which he needed, if only to save his own horses and mules, but
he knew the whole country needed. For the sake of that, he was
willing to agree to the request or the demand that Elijah made. He sent messengers throughout
the land. He called the people and the
prophets to gather at Mount Carmel. Now this would have taken some
time to do, no doubt. But when the day came, a large
crowd gathered there on the slopes of Mount Carmel. However, it
appears that neither Jezebel nor her 400 personal prophets
attended, perhaps being wary of what might happen. And what did happen? Well, we're
going to have to wait until next week for that. Meantime, here
are a few lessons for us to take from these verses. First of all,
I want us to notice this. The Lord gave Elijah great faith
and courage to face Ahab. He faced Ahab, he faced Jezebel,
he faced 850 false prophets, and he faced all the idol-worshipping,
compromised people of Israel. As far as Elijah knew he was
the only believer of the Lord in the country. Well, now he
had met Obadiah as well. And he'd also heard about the
hundred prophets that had been secured in the cave. So maybe
his mind was opening a little that he was not the only one.
But God gave Elijah faith and courage. And I want us to apply
that to ourselves as well because we sometimes have to face challenges
in our life and we have to face people who are opposed to the
values that we have, the beliefs that we have and the love that
we have for the Lord. and the Lord will give us faith
too. Faith to stand up for what is
true and right and honouring to the Lord. It can be frightening
to face great odds in order to defend the gospel and in order
to defend what is right, to defend the cause of Christ. Yet even
if we can't see how things are going to turn out, It is right
to be faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ and let outcomes fall
where they may. We may be sure that if we stand
for the Lord, he will defend and deliver us from all our troubles. The Lord has said, them that
honour me, I will honour. It's a great privilege for us,
for you and for me, to be called to trust the Lord and to serve
the Lord and to stand for His truth. It's a great privilege. The world is opposed to that.
Consequently, it will be opposed to you if you have faith. But if the Lord gives faith,
he will give courage as well. Obadiah was a secret follower
and though he was a secret follower in Ahab's palace, he too was
able to save a hundred prophets by his actions. He too had courage. May the Lord make us all useful
to serve his cause and may he give us faith to be bold for
the truth of the gospel in Jesus Christ. And there's something
else here too that I want to leave with you. We've already
mentioned that Elijah didn't know of any other believers in
the whole country of Israel at that time. And yet the Lord had
kept Obadiah faithful and Obadiah had helped preserve a hundred
other prophets. How encouraging that must have
been to Elijah as he faced his own daunting challenge. Actually, the Lord had many others
too who had not bent the knee to Baal. But that's a message
for another day as well. You may think that you are alone
and you may feel yourself to be a lonely believer. Perhaps you're the only one in
your family or your school or amongst your friends or where
you work. Yet the Lord has a people in this world that he is preserving
and keeping for himself. He calls them his elect, his
chosen people. And they are those for whom Christ
died and they will all come to trust in the Lord Jesus as their
saviour. And sometimes the Lord allows
us to meet these people. Sometimes we get to worship with
them and perhaps fellowship with them. But sometimes he calls
us to walk alone for a while. But the truth is we are never
alone. The Lord is always with us. And even in this dark world,
He has a people who are faithful and true to Christ. And that
is all we need to know. And then lastly, let me just
mention this as well, and that's us done. Let us remember that
we each are just little parts in the Lord's bigger picture
and the Lord's grander plan. and yet we have a role to play. From the oldest to the youngest
here today, no matter who we are, we all have a role to play
in the service of the Lord. The Lord arranged that Elijah
would meet Obadiah. The Lord arranged that Ahab would
be away from court, that the king, though wicked and self-serving,
would agree to gather the people and the prophets of Baal together
at Mount Carmel, because the Lord was working all this together
according to the counsel of his will, for the good of his church
and for the glory of his name. Elijah had his job. to do, and
Obadiah had his job to do, as we all have ours in the service
of our King. And how do we know what that
job is? Well, that's easy. Our job is
to trust the Saviour day by day. Trust Him who came into this
world to save sinners like us. Our job is to follow Him and
learn of Him and worship Him and praise Him and thank Him
for His love and His mercy and showing us our need of a Saviour. We thank Him for His grace And
after that, we wait. And in time, everything else
will fall into place. Elijah waited three and a half
years until the Lord said, now it's time to move. If we honour
the Lord, then he will open the door of our service in his good
time. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.