In the gospel we read in John 12:26 “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour”. As we celebrate the feast of St Lawrence who served God with his whole life, we are going to learn about another powerful prophet who served God. Through Elijah’s life in the bible we are going to learn about something very essential for our own daily lives about how we should serve our God and how our God honours us and takes care of us and how he interacts with us in our daily lives. Elijah is a powerful prophet who knew well about serving God and was well acquainted with the manner in which God works and speaks. Hence, I have taken this story from the scriptures to teach us the same.

Why was Elijah so powerful?

Elijah is first introduced in the book of 1 Kings 17, during the reign of King Ahab of Samaria. King Ahab ruled with his cruel queen Jezebel. She wanted all of Samaria to worship the pagan God Baal. There was a royal decree in the kingdom to worship only Baal. King Ahab did not believe in the God of Israel Yahweh, so worshipped Baal, a God of the sky and the weather, and wanted his people to worship him too. Now the name of Elijah means ‘Yahweh is my God’. The name of the prophet itself was against the royal decree of Ahab. Now we read in 1 Kings 17 “Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word”. Now in this verse we read two very important declarations by Elijah and it is the reason why Elijah was very powerful.

1. As the Lord the God of Israel lives 2) Before whom I stand

Elijah believed and declared fearlessly that Yahweh was a living God. Ahab thought the God of Israel was dead. Even after the death of Jesus the apostles boldly proclaimed the risen Christ because they believed in the power of resurrection in Jesus. Even we will be powerful when we believe ‘Jesus is alive’. Secondly when he said ‘Before whom I stand’ Elijah was very acutely aware of the presence of God in his everyday life. Even when standing before the king of the land, he was absolutely confident that he was in the presence of Yahweh undermining the presence of the king himself. This confidence is what we too need. No matter where we are, in what situation we are in and what is going on around us, we are in the mighty presence of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This confidence is what makes us powerful like Elijah. If we have these two attitudes that Elijah possessed, we too will be powerful and effective like him i.e. we believe that Jesus is alive and no matter who or what we are facing, we are in the mighty presence of our God and nothing can destroy us.

Then Elijah commanded “there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word”. When Elijah proclaimed that there will be neither dew nor rain it was a direct challenge to Baal who was proclaimed as the God of the skies and the one who controlled the weather. A mere servant of the God of Israel was challenging the pagan God that except by the word of this mere human (Elijah) there would be no rain. It was a direct challenge to this God to show his power if at all he had any. No witchcraft, no Blackmagic, no power of darkness can stand in front of a true servant of God.

But of course, though Elijah was brave enough to challenge the King, it came with a price. Challenging authority, especially in those days came with such a huge cost, sometimes even death. However, in Elijah’s case, as he honoured God in front of Ahab, God took care of him. God gives us this same promise in John 12:26 “Whoever serves me, the Father will honour him”. If we risk our lives for God, serve Him faithfully and value Him, God will do the same for us. Again, the Lord says in 1 Samuel 2:30, “For those who honour me I will honour and those who despise me shall be treated with contempt”.  No power of this world will be able to stand in front of a person who honours God. God knew that Ahab and his people would be searching for Elijah and so God told him to go and hide in Wadi Cherith. “Go from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Wadi Cherith, (1King 17:3). Meaning of Wadi Cherith is to ‘cut it away’. So, the Lord is now pruning prophet Elijah. The Lord is asking him to withdraw from the world around him by asking him to cut off from everything. Everyone knew that prophet Elijah had commanded the skies not to rain. At this point in his life when Elijah was the most popular the Lord commanded him to ‘cut off’ hide from the world. Now for how long was Elijah supposed to stay in this Wadi Cherith. God doesn’t mention it. This is how the Lord works. He doesn’t let you know everything. He wants to teach you to depend on Him every step of the way he asks you to take. Also, we learn from here that the Lord sometimes allows us to isolate from others or go through some small hardships for a greater good to protect you from serious crisis. Here Ahab, Jezebel and all the Baal worshippers were searching for Elijah to attack him if possible, even to kill him, so the Lord protects him in this Wadi. So also, the Lord allows us to go through a time of pruning our souls to protect us from eternal damnation.

God uses the bad to bring good

Before identifying how God speaks, we must first recognise the biggest misconception- that God uses good people or good things to bring us good news or to speak to us. God, being the powerful God He is, can use just about anyone or anything. In Elijah’s case, this was a raven, a bird that was known to be unclean by the Jewish law. God used an unclean bird to serve the prophet while he was hiding in Wadi Cherith – 1Kings 17:4 “You shall drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there”. This means that God not only uses good people, but He can also use bad people to bring us good news. By feeding Elijah through ravens, God shows us how we should focus on the Spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law. Most times, us humans are very legalistic rather than spiritual; we are too concerned about laws and regulations that we miss out on the spirit of the law. We are too focused on the means that we forget the ends. Yes, laws are important and are given to us for our welfare, but we must remember that laws are for human beings, human beings are not for laws.

If we pay close attention to what exactly the raven fed Elijah, we see that Elijah was actually given the Eucharist. 1 Kings 17:6 “The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the wadi”. In exodus 16:8, the people of Israel were given this same bread and meat to eat- manna from heaven. In the new testament, this is seen as the Eucharist during the last supper when Jesus took the bread and declared it as His flesh, meaning bread and flesh was given to the disciples. Therefore, the food that we see Elijah being given by the ravens is indeed a pre-shadow of the Holy Eucharist, meaning God used ravens, an unclean bird, to feed Elijah the holiest of foods.

What does this tell us? We should not be too focused on who brings us the good news or who God chooses to speak to us through but what is brought. Good news can be brought by evil people who still remain evil. It isn’t about the vessel God chooses to use but the content. This is evidential in Matthew 7:21-23 when Jesus denied those who drove out demons and performed many miracles in His name as they were wicked at heart, though God used them. God can speak through the nature around us, He can reach out us through little children through the most inconsequential beings around us. Let not our prejudice (spiritual pride) block us from experiencing Him. Like Nathaniel said “what good can come from Nazareth” but the saviour of the world was a Nazarene. So, let us not ignore or overlook certain people or situation assuming God cannot speak through them. Blessings can therefore come through wrong people too, but our job is to be open- be open to whatever and whoever God chooses to bring news to us. They can come from children, neighbours, the uneducated and even non-believers. God is not limited, though we may be- He can work through anybody, even through ravens. Now Elijah could have said I am the prophet of the Almighty and it is I commanded the skies to shut its doors. Then why should I hide. I will stay where I am and let God protect me. In today’s world the director of retreat centre could also think in this way “My ministry is powerful and effective” “why should I get transferred” “why should I move away from this successful ministry and start from scratch”. This kind of thinking is not from God but from flesh and we should be careful we don’t fall into it. If the Lord has decided to replant you, he has a definite plan for your future. Be humble and accept the will of God in your lives by total dependence and perfect submission.

^“But after a while the wadi dried up, because there was no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying,” 1 Kings 1:7 Now when one door closes wait on the Lord. He will open another door. We need to be patient and wait for the Lord. God sends his Word at the right time. “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” Zarephath is in Sidon which the kingdom of Ahab. So now God is sending Elijah back to his enemies who are trying to kill him. God had commanded the ravens to feed Elijah now He has commanded a widow to feed him. In those time widows were considered to be the poorest people so much so that Lord had to make special commandments in the law to take care of them. So now God is sending Elijah to be taken care of a widow, someone who doesn’t have the financial stability to take care of herself. Elijah could have refused this plan of God, but he submits to the will of God.

God speaking through powerful inspirations

God can also speak to us through powerful inspirations. What does this mean? It is an inspiration, or command of God, that may come to our mind at a single moment that God has already commanded. To understand this better, we can look at the next few verses of this chapter, when God sends Elijah to a widow (1Kings 17:8-16).

After some time at Wadi, God commanded Elijah to go back to the same place he was hiding from and told him that he had commanded a widow to feed him. What was ironic is that though Elijah recognised the widow that God was going to use, the widow was not aware that God had commanded her to feed the prophet. In fact, the widow was in the most extreme circumstance. Why do we say she was an extreme situation? 1 king 17:12 But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing”. She knew that Elijah believed in a living God but she herself had no confidence that this Living God was her God too. It is this lack of belief that leads her to think about suicide. The main characteristic of a person who decides to commit suicide is that they don’t believe that they have a living God who would work for them and because she did not have much as she was going through a financial crisis due to the famine she was prepared to die “I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.” (1Kings 17:12). So, when Elijah asked her for some bread, she was unable to see past her circumstance and certainly was not aware of God’s command through Elijah but as soon as Elijah told her to not be afraid and gave her God’s promise that her “jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth”, the inspiration that came from God through Elijah came to her mind at that exact moment and she chose to obey (1 Kings 17:13-16).  The moment she decided to obey the command of the prophet, she was obeying the command of God and through it she received food every day for her and her son, as well as Elijah. She not only received blessings but also became a blessing to the servant of God. In the same way, when we choose to obey God’s command, not only do we receive blessings, but we become a blessing for other people. All we must do is obey and be open to the word of God.

“Jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth” This also means that God instead of promising her a barnful of what and pots and pots of oil for the future rather chooses to refill her small jar of meal and tiny jug of oil every day. What does this mean? God wants us to trust Him for our daily needs rather than a lottery to provide for a distant future God wants us to trust his providence that will sustain us every single day. When the Prophet said “Do not be afraid” he is saying it to us too, telling us to trust in the promises of the Lord.

Ultimately, God can speak to us through many things and many people, bad and good. Sometimes it can be through our friends and family, other times it can be through strangers or unbelievers, and sometimes it can be through the inspirations we receive at a given moment, pointing to a command that God has already commanded. Our job is to listen to the word of God. Listen to the good inspirations that He speaks to us. More importantly, be open and ready to obey.

To watch the full video, please click: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGXshPLPxjA