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So far, it seems that the story of God’s people has been a true “us vs. them” story. Again and again it has been the people of Israel against their enemies. There have been a few exceptions to this, from Saul and David to Jeroboam and Rehaboam, but with Elijah and the dawn of the prophets, the enemies are more often than not God’s own people. And so we find Elijah doing battle with Ahab and Jezebel, who we think of as God’s enemies, but are in fact the King of Israel and his wife.
And as the New Testament says, the prophets were seldom treated with honor, and were in fact regularly beaten, jailed, and even killed for bringing God’s message. We see that with Elijah, whose life was threatened again and again, and today with Michaiah, who is thrown in jail for being the only true prophet to bring God’s message of destruction.
When we begin to think that doing God’s will, speaking God’s truth, shouldn’t bring us this pain, fear, and shunning, lets remember the prophets. And Jesus Himself. And all of His disciples. They were almost all killed for their obedience to God’s mission. Why are we confused when it is any different for us? How can we possibly believe that if we are truly following God’s will, we will be wealthy, beloved, and popular? And yet the most well-versed of us still does.
“Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you. For that is the way their ancestors treated the false prophets.”
Elijah is such an intriguing character because he is one with whom we can identify. Yesterday, Elijah (whose name means literally “God is the Lord”) saw one of the greatest victories he would ever have. Calling down fire from the sky, his victory was not this control of power, for when it comes to God (or most anything else in life for that matter), “control” is an illusion we use to feel significant. His victory was instead his faith, his trust in Yahweh to do what He had promised. Even with a voice from God telling us what to do, how many of us would be willing to stand before the army of the current culture and not only show them to be helpless (“keep shouting! Maybe baal is asleep, or on vacation!) but then put yourself in a situation where you are literally going to die unless God comes through?
But after this victory, when his nemesis finds out and threatens him, he flees to the mountains, hides in terror, and pleads for death. And we in our self-righteousness say, “how could such a man of God, after a victory like that, be praying for death at a simple threat?” But when was the last time you saw God at work, only to doubt Him the next day? I know for me it sometimes doesn’t even take a day, but in the next hour I doubt and tremble.
The good news of this passage is that even in our weakness, terror, and doubt, God meets us where we are with a display of His character. For God is not in the tornado, or the earthquake, or the forest fire, but in the still small voice. “Elijah, what are you doing here?”
Today, we meet one of the most interesting characters in the bible, Elijah. As the representative prophet of scripture, Elijah plays a huge role throughout the bible, from here through Revelation.
In today’s reading alone, Elijah confronts one of Israel’s most evil kings, raises a young man from the dead, and calls down fire from God. Moving forward, Elijah becomes the forerunner of the coming Messiah and takes his place in the Seder celebration that Israel has been celebrating since the Exodus. Not only does he have a Cup of his own (the other four are drunk in celebration of the events of the Exodus – only his cup remains undrunk throughout the meal), and not only does he have his own recitation, “Elijah the Prophet, Elijah the Tishbite, Elijah the Gileadite, come speedily…”, but he is prophecied to arrive at the Seder to herald the Messiah’s arrival.
In fact, Jesus even calls John the Baptist “Elijah, if you can understand it” not to say that Elijah was reincarnated – that doesn’t exist – but to say that as Elijah represented the forerunner of the Messiah, so John the Baptist was filling that role.
Later, when Peter, James, and John join Jesus on what has become known as the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus meets with those representing the entire Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets, and these are Moses and Elijah.
So prophet of the Messiah, representative of all the Prophets, Elijah is a deeply important figure. But even one as important as Elijah is only a forerunner, a follower, a servant of Jesus. We do not worship Moses, the law of the Old Testament. We do not worship Elijah, the prophecy of the Old Testament. We worship Jesus, the Son of God, the prophecied Messiah who came to fulfill the law.
After the kingdom divided, king after king ruled in Israel and Judah, and there was one common denominator among them: their success was directly dependent on their obedience to God.
It is a tricky thing, reading this one-to-one correlation between obedience and success. We often try to read into this text a rule for our own lives: if I’m obedient to God, He’ll make me successful. Thankfully, today’s reading in the Old Testament is tempered by our reading in the New. When we see Jesus’ last day through the eyes of Peter, we are reminded that obedience is not always rewarded with success and disobedience is not always punished with failure. This rankles our spirit of justice, yet is more familiar to our own experience.
Peter proclaims his worship of Jesus, claiming his willingness to die in obedience to Jesus. Yet Jesus assures him that not only will he refuse to die, he will refuse to even know Jesus within the day. And not only will he not pray fervently for Jesus in his suffering, he will fall asleep, one of the greatest ways to shun a loved one. Yet Peter is not punished by Jesus, but is rather forgiven and restored to leadership not long after. Isn’t it interesting how our flinching away from injustice is only present when we are not rewarded for obedience, not when we are not punished for disobedience.
So the age-old question applies: How then shall we live? Will we seek to mete out justice in the name of God, assuring our own hypocrisy, or will be live out the grace of Jesus Christ, assuring our own ridicule? Will we love those who are obedient or at least repentant, or will we love everyone regardless of their standing before God?