I'm willing to bet, you answered one of those questions with a yes.
So, where is this headed today? Well, no doubt if you've been in church for a day, you've heard the story of Elijah.
Elijah was a prophet of God during a turbulent time. The King of Israel, Ahab was a sinful king who, who along with many other things, married a woman named Jezebel and began to worship her god, Baal. Ahab built a temple to Baal in Samaria and according to 1 Kings 16, "did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than any of the Kings of Israel before him." Ahab was not a good dude, and neither was his wife.
Anyway, Elijah prophesies that there will be a great drought over the land, no doubt because of the terrible way that Ahab is ruling Israel. Elijah then goes to a brook where he is fed by ravens. He then moves on, when the brook dries up, as the Lord commanded him, to a widow who's son eventually dies and Elijah prays and God heals him.
God then tells Elijah to go before the king, Ahab. Meanwhile, Ahab's wife is killing off the prophets of God. Obadiah, who was the palace administrator, and a believer, had hidden away one hundred of the Lord's prophets in caves this whole time.
Obadiah then meets up with Elijah and soon informs Ahab that Elijah was back. So he does, then Ahab meets up with Elijah.
At this point, Elijah basically puts Ahab on blast for all the wrongs he's committed and what his family has done on not following the commands of God.
Then Elijah issues a challenge to the prophets of Baal. A bout between Yahweh, the God of Israel and Baal. Live from Mount Carmel.
Long story short, the prophets of Baal do everything short of killing themselves, to get Baal to rain down fire on their sacrifice. Elijah soaks his sacrifice in water and makes a water trench around it, then prays to God to rain down fire from Heaven. God does and Elijah then kills the over 500 prophets of Baal.
Ahab went home and told Jezebel all that had happened. Jezebel then essentially places a bounty on Elijah's head.
Elijah then runs away and begs for the Lord to take his life. He was then fed by the Lord and traveled to a mountain called Horeb, which was the mountain of God. Elijah then retreated into a cave for the night.
Elijah then has a miniature pity party for himself after God asked what he was doing. He thinks he's the only one left, the only one who has been zealous for the Lord. I can tell you, I've been there! You feel like it's just you and God, sometimes you feel completely alone.
But right here, God shows Elijah something.
A mighty wind blew, but God was not in the wind. Then there was an earthquake, God wasn't in that. Then a fire, but God wasn't there. Then a gentle whisper came and God was in the whisper and gave Elijah another chance to tell what is going on. Yet again, Elijah has another pity party.
God then instructs Elijah on some men who are to be anointed as king, then who will be his successor as prophet. God then makes a huge point to Elijah.
"Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him." 1 Kings 19:18
I feel like God is showing two things here.
1) Even when we feel like everything is stacked against us, God has a plan. There is nothing that surprises Him and He always cares for His children.
2) No matter how bad it gets, no matter who walks away, God doesn't leave us! He also has so many more like us as a part of His plan.
There's not a need for us to sulk and have our own pity parties. God has everything under control. We may never see everything that's going to happen come to fruition, but we have to have faith that God will fulfill the promises He made to us.
Just like He did for Abraham, who followed in faith. He didn't see his descendants number the stars in the sky or the sands on the seashore, but he still had faith.
When we win, but turn the corner to another disaster and we wonder where God went...
He's standing right there waiting.
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