God's promises

 

1 Kings 18:1

After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”

We find the vivid account of the spiritual showdown between 850 pagan priests and one true prophet of God, Elijah, in 1 Kings 18. The background to this event is that God was punishing Israel with a very severe drought brought upon them because of their idolatry. By the time these dramatic events unfolded, the country had been without rain for three years, and every brook and river had run completely dry.

The reigning king Ahab, who can be described as the most wicked king in all of Israel’s history, then summoned the governor of his house Obadiah, and commanded that he go through the land to search for any remaining source of water and seize it for the king’s use. Unbeknown to Ahab, Obadiah feared the Lord and had hidden a hundred prophets in a cave, feeding them secretly. On his travels Obadiah met Elijah, who then told him that he needed to see Ahab immediately and would Obadiah go and inform the king of his intent - an instruction that Obadiah quite understandably did not appreciate, fearing that king Ahab would certainly have him killed for delivering this unwanted message!

This brings us to the quoted verse above. Mostly, when we think about this part of Scripture, we immediately remember that Elijah prayed to God to bring down fire from heaven to supernaturally burn up his (soaking wet) altar and bull offering. Certainly God had instructed him to do so (1 King 18:36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.)

But what we easily overlook is that God promised rain if Elijah obeyed his command. This is why Elijah, immediately after dealing with the pagan prophets by killing them at the brook Kishon, instructed Ahab to go back up the mountain to eat and drink, as he already was hearing the rain fall in the spirit. He then sent his servant seven times to look for clouds bringing rain. Even when the servant reported only a cloud the size of a man’s hand in the sky, Elijah reacted by sending a warning to Ahab on top of the mountain to come down immediately before the rain made it impossible for him to do so.

Pearls to ponder:

Elijah spoke God’s promise of rain out loud nine times in total. With not a cloud in sight, he spoke the promise from God repeatedly, until the rain manifested. He had no natural indications that rain would come, only God’s word to him that it would indeed be so. Every time he spoke rain, he was enabling the Holy Spirit to start creating this miracle! What are you doing with the personal promises God made to you? Are you idly waiting for God to bring it about, or are you actively proclaiming it until it manifests? Make very sure, however, that it is a promise from God, and not your own fleshly desires that you call for!

God will make a way

Fifty

Acts 1:3

After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

In the wider church community, we have just celebrated Ascension Day, commemorating the day that Jesus ascended into heaven. He had been crucified and buried forty-three days earlier, and upon His resurrection visited His disciples over a period of forty days before ascending to heaven before their very eyes.

They then withdrew into the upper room to wait another ten days before the Holy Spirit came upon them, making the length of time between His resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, fifty days. Why is this significant?

It is important because it shows that Jesus fulfilled the Feast of Pentecost down to the very last detail! Just as He had fulfilled the previous three Feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits) in their entirety and in all details.

The word ‘Pentecost’ means fifty - the Lord instructed the Israelites to count seven weeks after the Feast of First Fruits and then celebrate this Feast on the next day, and this adds up to fifty days (Lev 23:16). The Jews also call this Feast Shavuot, which means weeks. The seven sevens referred to here (seven weeks of seven days) is a picture of the pattern given in the Bible of seven sevens of years with the year thereafter being a Jubilee year – an indication of God’s ultimate period of rest and restitution. This is why Holy Spirit was poured out on that fiftieth day. It marked a reset of creation, proclaimed rest in the Lord and restitution of the relationship between us and Him, and between us as human beings. The leavened bread baked for this Feast shows that the Holy Spirit is now inside the followers of Jesus, making the Bride of Christ holy (Rom 11:16 If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.)

This brings us back to the book of Acts, and to Acts 2:1 On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. They were celebrating the Jewish Feast of Pentecost when God poured the Holy Spirit out upon them, as He had promised He would. The very event we as Christians also celebrate when we gather for Pentecost, even though on a different date from their celebrations.

And I am wondering: is it not time for us as Christians to unite with our Jewish brothers and sisters by celebrating our common heritage on the historically real dates, i.e. as given on the Jewish calendar? Not according to Jewish religious and cultural customs, but in a uniquely Christian way?

Pearls to ponder:

Jesus fulfilled the first four Feasts of God, showing us that they really are all about commemorating Him. (He will also fulfil the next three!) Meditate on this – what is referred to as the Jewish Feasts actually are Jesus Messiah pointers – why do we hesitate to celebrate them alongside our fellow Jewish believers in Christ? Why do we criticize those who do take part and label them as being under the Law? Rather think about what these celebrations could look like, how we can remove Jewish cultural elements from them and celebrate Jesus only. And then quietly start observing them in our own homes, without fanfare or finger-pointing.

Pentecost