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