Elijah and Elisha: Hope in an Uncertain Future
Preacher: Phil Swain Reading: 1 Kings 17:1-16
We are continuing to explore and bring together various threads of Biblical Text and the threads of our stories to see the picture that God is revealing. One of the threads this week is the Old Testament narrative of Elijah and Elisha – two of the major prophets who spoke for God in some difficult times. Both Elijah and Elisha had moments when they struggled to see a way forward when the future seemed so uncertain, but God taught them how to lean into the providence of God and the importance of mentoring and supporting the next generation.
We will also be sharing our second story of Thanksgiving – celebrating how God is moving amongst our children, youth and particularly our young adults here at TUC and just like Elijah and Elisha, how we can continue to support and encourage the next generation here at TUC.
We pray that as we continue to weave these different narratives together we can also be encouraged and inspired that God is indeed at work and that we too can find hope in an uncertain future.
We continue to move through the Old Testament in our Narrative lectionary. Last week we had Solomon building the temple and giving thanks for all God had done. This week we jump forward about 90 years in the story and are introduced to the prophet Elijah.
Just before we dive into Elijah, it might be helpful to give some context of what happened during those 90 years that lead up to this reading. King Solomon building the temple was really the highpoint of his reign. Afterwards he sort of got a bit lost and instead of trusting in God, he embraced the secular blessings of kingship … especially when it came to wives and concubines. As a results, the Hebrew people also got a bit lost and this lead to a surge in idolatry and corruption and suffering. When Solomon died, there was division of who should be the next king and David’s kingdom that was supposed to last forever splits in two.
Over the next 60 years there were 10 kings. Judah (or the Southern Kingdom) had 3 kings (all David’s descendants), and Isreal (Northern Kingdom) has 7 kings.
These years were NOT good for the people of God. They got lost in their faith, became self-centred in the way they lived their life and there was a lot of division – especially politically and culturally. Does all this sound familiar? Watching what is happening in the US in the lead up to the election this week, I can see similar things … lostness, self-centeredness, division. Actually, I can probably see this in Australia too. It was a problem back in Biblical times and still in a problem now.
In our reading from 1 Kings 17, verse 1 we find that Ahab is king of Isreal and Ahab was a terrible king. He and the people had lost hope and turned from God, instead worshipping Baal – the Canaanite-Phoenician god of fertility and rain.
Also in verse 1, we are introduced to Elijah. This is the first time Elijah is mentioned in the bible and for such a major Old Testament character, this introduction is rather plain. No back story, no genealogy but rather just a name, Elijah the Tishbite. Tishbe is a rural outback area of Isreal on the other side of the Jordan River. Elijah is a non-important person from a non-important town and yet he goes to the king and says,
“As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”
Just a side note on prophets. There are three types of Old Testament prophets.
- You have the court prophets, those who are close to the king or people in power and advise them of God’s will … part of their cabinet. People like Samuel or Nathan
- You have the peripheral prophets … those who stand on the edge of society and declare God message – often in a confronting way. People like John the Baptist
- And you have written prophets – not people in the narrative of the Bible but rather have had their words recorded in the bible. People like Isaiah or Malachi.
Which do you think Elijah is? Definitely a peripheral prophet. Elijah, literally came from the edges of the kingdom and as we will go onto see, had a difficult relationship with the king and with people in power.
Elijah steps up and says to King Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”
I am a little uncomfortable with these words. While Elijah does acknowledge he serves God … it seems to be more about Elijah than God. It seems to be Elijah deciding there should be a drought rather than God. And the drought will last until … Elijah says so. Whether it is driven by Elijah or God … the end result is that there is a drought, and a lot of people are suffering.
In verse 2, God speaks and commands Elijah to do to a brook east of the Jordan (which is the middle of nowhere) and ravens will come and feed him. When the brook dries up (because there is no rain), God sends him into Sidon (which is not part of Isreal) to a widow who has given up hope and is ready to die.
Let’s just reflect on this turn of events for Elijah. His first outing as a prophet was to stand before the king and declare a nation wide drought until he says so. And then immediately God sends Elijah into two remote places where he is totally dependent on either birds (who are not known for sharing food) or a widow (who are not known to have much) to provide for him. It is almost like God is saying to Elijah, if you are going to be a great prophet for me you first need to learn to depend … on me. To trust … in me. That you are a mouthpiece … for me.
This idea is all through our reading today. The widow is on a similar journey. She was suffering and had lost hope – preparing to make her and her sons last meal and then accepting that they were going to die.
And Elijah turns up and awkwardly asks for her to make him a meal first … and to trust that there would be enough for her and her son after that. There is more that I could dig down into this reading and explore but rather I want to take us on a journey forward through the story of Elijah and see how this lesson about trusting God played out and what other threads of wisdom we can find that we can weave into our stories here at TUC.
Trust was a big thing for Elijah because things didn’t get easier. If we read on in the chapter, while the jar of flour and oil didn’t run out, the widows son became ill and died. Elijah goes to God and says, “Look I am trying to trust you but what the deal? Why did her son die?” But Elijah leans into God and prays and the boy comes back to life.
The next chapter – 1 Kings 18 – is the story of Elijah on Mt Carmel where he challenges the prophets of Baal to a prayer competition … to see whose God would send fire first. Whose God do we trust to turn up in power? (Spoiler … it was the one true God who excessively burnt Elijah’s sacrifice and altar).
This turns everyone against Elijah and even though Elijah breaks the drought, Queen Jezebel put a kill order on Elijah – so Elijah flees into the desert where he gives up hope and prepares to die. “I have had enough Lord – take my life” (1 Kings 19:4). After all these experiences of God’s provision and power – Elijah is still struggling to trust God. So God sends him future into the desert to Mt Horeb where we get that amazing story of Elijah experiencing an earthquake, a strong wind and fire but God was not in any of those, but rather speaks to Elijah in a gentle whisper – a quiet voice – saying “What are you doing here Elijah?”
Elijah honestly replies that it is all hopeless – the country is divided, the kings and leaders have lost their way, there is corruption, suffering and the people are worshipping idols and have put to death all the people who trust in you …. I am the only one left. Its hopeless, Elijah says.
Here comes Elijah’s second lesson. First, he needed to learn to trust in God. Now he needs to learn he is not alone. God says, “You’re not the only one left. Not even close. There are thousands and thousands of other people like you in Isreal who are with me, worshipping me, serving me. I am at work in lots of places and through a lot of people. You are not alone.”
This is a lesson that I think we need to learn too. Sometimes it feels that being a person of faith is hard, that the forces of division, and suffering and self-centeredness dominate our society so much that it is all hopeless. I think God wants to say to us as well – “You are not alone. I am at work in so many people and so many place. Open your eyes, see where I am at work and join in”.
Which brings me to the third lesson that I think Elijah learnt … and probably the one that made the biggest impact. In 1 Kings 19, straight after this reading about how Elijah was not alone, in verse 19 we read…
So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was ploughing … Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah.
Elijah realised that he was not alone and part of enlarging his understanding of where God was at work was to see God in the next generation and invest in them.
Elijah saw God at work in Elisha and made the commitment to mentor him, to support him, to journey alongside him. Note that he didn’t walk up to Elisha and say “I’m tired and ready to give up so here is the cloak … over to you now … I’m out of here”. No – it was an invitation to do the work of God together.
Also note that it wasn’t Elijah saying to Elisha – “I need to train you up so that you can do all the things I am doing, exactly the same way as I have been doing”. No – if you keep reading we find that Elisha is his own person with his own passions and ideas and Elijah understood that. Elijah was mentoring and encouraging Elisha to trust in God, to be a prophet of God in the way that God was calling him to do.
If we skip ahead to 2 Kings 6, Elisha goes through the same experience with the following generation of leaders – a group of young adults called “the company of prophets”. They had grown up under Elisha and were key leaders in the community but felt called by God to do ministry elsewhere. Elisha not only released them – but supported them; continued to mentor and encourage them; and also supplied them with resources for their new ministry.
Isn’t that what we were sharing earlier in our Thanksgiving segment about EVOLVE. As a church we have been blessed over our 120 years to have previous generations investing and encouraging the next generations. We celebrated last Tuesday how Marg Irwin was an example of this. What does it mean for us to continue that tradition of journeying alongside those younger than us, encouraging them in their passions and ideas and resourcing and empowering them as we do the work of God together?
It has been one of the absolute joys of the past 2 years to see how this has happened in with our young adults. The way that some of our people have open their homes to the young people. Or invested time to listen to them, or encourage them, or to share their wisdom with our young people. The success of EVOLVE is because we as a church were able to give space for a group of people to try something different and to be there to support and resource them in doing so. As I said, we as a church do this well and I encourage us to keep doing this.
And this encouragement should not be limited to just the church community – but any circle or group we find ourselves in. It is a good thing to be able to help the generations below us to dream and to experiment and excel.
But as we do this, let us not lose sight of the other two important lessons that both Elijah and Elisha learnt. Though sometimes it feels that the difficulties of the world are overwhelming; though sometimes it feels that our ability to make a difference is minimal; through sometimes it feels that everything is lost and we are the only ones who are left … don’t loose hope. We are not alone. God is at work, both in our situation and in many other places that we have no idea of. God is always at work.
Let us not lose hope, let us not become weary of doing good. Let us lean on each other and encourage each other.
And above all, lets lean in God – who will always help, always provide, always be there for us.
Amen.