The Indiana Thunderstorm: A Peek at Elijah Part 2

     "Ask rain from the LORD in the season of the spring rain, from the LORD who makes the storm clouds, and He will give them showers of rain, to everyone the vegetation in the field." -Zechariah 10:1

     At the end of June, my grandparents marked their 50th wedding anniversary, so the whole family gathered in Indiana (24 people under 1 roof!) to celebrate.  It was a blast.  The whole stay had been meticulously planned out in advance, and everything went off without a hitch.  One of the most memorable events of that weekend, however, was one we had absolutely no control over. 

     Around 3pm on the second [extremely hot] day, a few of us made a move to go to a waterpark.  However, as soon as we got onto the main road, rolled down the car windows, and switched on the radio, we heard the National Weather Service issue a severe thunderstorm warning.  The broadcaster described the storm's potentially alarming power and urged residents to seek shelter.  Immediately, sirens began wailing outside (in Indiana, sirens go off for severe thunderstorms as well as tornadoes).  We stopped at a gas station and gazed at the sky, puzzled.  The sun was shining, and the sky was bright blue and flecked with fluffy white clouds.  However, we aired on the side of caution and returned to the house, grumbling that the storm surely wouldn't come now that we'd decided to return.  At home, the adults went online to find a local radar map of the "storm," but the internet began cutting in and out.  When we looked out the windows, the sky had grown dark grey, and most of the family had already gathered on the covered front porch to watch. 

     There was no rain, no lightning, and no thunder.  Just wind.  An unbelievable display of the power of God!  Trees were swaying wildly under the force, branches were being stripped of healthy leaves, and the gravel driveway looked like a mini-version of the Dust Bowl.  Some panicked and sent the little ones down to the basement (I wholeheartedly joined them), but when nothing seemed to happen, we came back up.  The temperature was 20 degrees cooler now, and the wind was dying down.  I must say I was disappointed.  The wind had wreaked havoc on the trees, the lawn, the temperature, and my eyes (had to flush dust and debris out of them -- smart, Jordan, just stand on the porch and watch!).  You'd think we'd at least get a little rain, or at least some thunder and lightning.  

     Silence.  The leaves were still, the air was still, the birds were still. 

     Then it happened.  The clouds unfurled their fury -- it began to pour.  All the cousins dashed out into it, despite thunder and lightning that had come with the rain.  We carried the little ones and ran around, jumped, spun, danced, laughed, and soaked it all in.  The adults filmed us from the safety of the porch.  The rain had come, and it was wonderful.

     The storm got me thinking.  Many times, God will allow things into our lives that wreak havoc and debris, things that shake our world.  It feels like an assault.  It feels cruel.  All we can see is destruction.  You know what I'm talking about; you fill in the blank.  

     Then, silence.  An awful period of nothing . . . a desert.  No end in sight.  No water in sight.  It feels devastating, discouraging, dry.  Maybe we see some small good thing come from it -- after all, the air was 20 degrees cooler after the wind.  But the silence isn't the end.  God is in the silence.  

     1 Kings 19 finds us in a cave on Mount Horeb with a very depressed Elijah.  If you'll recall, this was the guy who had just seen God defeat 450 prophets of Baal with a fiery display of power.  I could go on and on about the significance of Elijah's hasty retreat, but that's not the point of today's blog.  So Elijah's hiding in God's mountain, and God gently asks Elijah what he's doing there.  A very bitter Elijah spouts off an account of how badly he's been treated, how thinks he's the only godly one left, and how his life is in danger.  Sounds like a desert to me!  Elijah seems to be saying, "Hey God, I've been faithful to You -- why haven't You come through for me?"

     "And [the LORD] said, 'Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.'  And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind.  After the wind an earthquake, but he LORD was not in the earthquake.  And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire.  And after the fire the sound of a low whisper." -1 Kings 19:11-12

    

     You may be familiar with the last few words as translated: "a still, small voice" or "a gentle, quiet whisper."  Some translations like the NRSV Bible interpret it as "the sound of sheer silence."  This is the definition that impacts me most.  Silence doesn't have any sound, you say?  Have you ever stood in an utterly silent room?  It's crazy.  Silence is deafening.  In our noise-oriented society, silence can be deeply disturbing.  Perhaps for you it is deeply healing.  God is in the silence. 

     My favorite part in the Christian movie Facing the Giants is when Mr. Bridges, a mostly overlooked man who prays for the students at Shiloh Christian High School, visits Grant Taylor, a depressed football coach with a losing season.  

          Mr. Bridges.  "Now Grant, I heard a story about two farmers who desperately needed rain, and both of them prayed for it.  But only one of them went out and prepared his fields to receive it.  Which one trusted God to send the rain?"
          Grant Taylor. "Well, the one who prepared his fields for it."
          Mr. Bridges.  "Which one are you?  God will send the rain when He's ready.  You need to prepare your field to receive it."

      The silence won't last forever.  This desert season is the time we've been given to prepare our fields for rain.  "Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that He may come and rain righteousness upon you." -Hosea 10:12

     The best part is . . . God will send the rain.  It's coming!  It might almost be here!  What you have worked for and longed for, that which you have prepared your fields to receive . . . it's coming.  In God's time and in God's way.  It might be a completely different kind of rain than the kind you had in mind.  Why worry?  His ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9), so we can bank on the fact that His "rain" will always be best, no matter in what form it comes.  

     "So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD.  His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth." -Hosea 6:3

     Drifting in a season of silence?  Prepare your fields for rain, and look up!  It's coming.

 

Fire, Water, and 450 Guys: A Peek at Elijah Part 1

     When I crawled into bed after midnight recently, the house was quiet, and all the lights in the house were turned off except mine.  I had several ideas I was "chewing" on and praying about, hoping that God would shed more light on them.  In the midnight stillness, I felt led to grab my Bible and open to 1 Kings, where I stayed into the wee morning hours as God showed an example of unbelievable -- almost ridiculous -- faith.  

     Elijah's finest hour comes in 1 Kings 18, after three years of drought.  God told Elijah to show himself to King Ahab, and then God would send the rain.  

     Elijah does as he's told . . . and then challenges Ahab to a face-off -- my God vs. your god.  However, the text doesn't indicate that God specifically told Elijah to do this!  But 450 prophets of Baal assemble at Mount Carmel, along with a huge crowd of people.  Elijah rebukes the people for sitting on the fence and tells them they must jump off one way or another -- would they serve God or serve Baal?  

     Elijah then faces the 450 prophets of Baal and tells them to sacrifice a bull and lay it on an altar, but to not set it on fire.  He would do the same.  "'And you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the LORD, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.'  And all the people answered, 'It is well spoken.'" (vs. 24) 

     The prophets of Baal sacrificed a bull, laid it on their altar, and then spend hours crying out to Baal, begging him to answer.  No answer.  They begged him to send fire.  No answer.  More pleading.  No answer.  "And at noon Elijah mocked then, saying, 'Cry aloud, for he is a god.  Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.'  And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them.  And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation [evening worship], but there was no voice.  No one answered; no one paid attention." (vs.27-29)

     Finally, Elijah said, my turn.  At Mount Carmel, there was an altar to the Lord that had been torn down.  Elijah began to rebuild it in a very special way.  "Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD came, saying, 'Israel shall be your name,' and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD." (vs. 31-32a)  

     Let's stop right there, because this is worth noting.  Elijah built that altar with stones that symbolized GOD'S PROMISE to Israel.  That altar's very foundation was a promise.  Elijah knew that God had promised to come through for Israel and that He would make good on that.  Elijah knew that God is good, and God is faithful.  Elijah was banking on history repeating itself. 

     Since this blog came from the idea of Gideon, let's go back there for a second.  Food for thought: when Gideon and his 300 men faced Midian, the odds were 450 to 1.  What were the odds for Elijah and the prophets of Baal?  Yep.  450 to 1.  I'm indebted to Pastor Cliff Johnson for pointing this out.

     "And [Elijah] made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two seahs of seed.  And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood.  And he said, 'Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.'"

This is insane.  Water aside, Elijah just said, "the burnt offering."  It's not burnt! . . . Yet.  Elijah spoke in faith, but the prophets of Baal must've been snickering, if they hadn't already passed out from all that blood loss. >:)

     But pour water over the offering?  Good grief, why?!  Yet he commands that it be done again!  And again!  Twelve large jars of water were dumped over this altar.  It's like Elijah intentionally made it twelve times harder for God to come through -- twelve times more impossible! Or did he?

     You see, although God may not have commanded Elijah to organize this "showdown of the Gods," I believe He was delighted in Elijah's faith.  If I were Elijah, my heart would have been banging against my chest as I prayed desperately for God to come through, all the time fearing that He would not . . . . Perhaps God wanted to move and act in an entirely different way than I wanted.  I'd be afraid of bringing shame upon God's name by pushing my own agenda on the possibility that God wouldn't come through.  Wouldn't I be giving God a bad rep?  

     Honestly, this is how we think.  But understand this: God can take care of His own reputation.  You do your part, make sure you're in line with His will, and step out in faith -- don't worry about embarrassing yourself or embarrassing God.  You can't. 

     "At the time of the offering of the oblation [evening worship], Elijah the prophet came near and said, 'O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel, and that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word.  Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that You, O LORD, are God, and that You have turned their hearts back.'  Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.  And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, 'The LORD, He is God; the LORD, He is God.'" (vs. 36-39)

     And just like that, God did it.  So, why am I writing about this?  It's in the Bible after all; technically you could've read it for yourself.  I want you to see something, something I never saw until two nights ago.  Elijah was so confident in his God that he made the circumstances seem impossible to give God a GREATER platform, a way for God to get even more glory, WHEN (not IF) He came through.  Elijah was sure of it, so why not make it big? 

     And God loved it.  He loved that Elijah wasn't chewing his fingernails, afraid that the Lord might not come through and send the fire.  No, Elijah showed God this almost disgusting display of overwhelming faith and radical trust!  Elijah personified Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."  I think God's heart thrilled with love for Elijah and He was delighted to come through -- a grand show, apocalyptic fire!

     "We have a God who loves to show off on behalf of those who trust Him." -Pastor Jim Johnson, JustAPreacher Ministries

     God came through.  And it was INCREDIBLE.  But what's interesting is what happened immediately after.  God sent the rain.  

     But we'll talk about that in Part 2.  :)