Elijah Taken to Heaven
2:1 Now when the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. 2 And Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me as far as Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. 3 And the sons of the prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that today the LORD will take away your master from over you?” And he said, “Yes, I know it; keep quiet.”
4 Elijah said to him, “Elisha, please stay here, for the LORD has sent me to Jericho.” But he said, “As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they came to Jericho. 5 The sons of the prophets who were at Jericho drew near to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that today the LORD will take away your master from over you?” And he answered, “Yes, I know it; keep quiet.”
6 Then Elijah said to him, “Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me to the Jordan.” But he said, “As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them went on. 7 Fifty men of the sons of the prophets also went and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. 8 Then Elijah took his cloak and rolled it up and struck the water, and the water was parted to the one side and to the other, till the two of them could go over on dry ground.
9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me.” 10 And he said, “You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you, but if you do not see me, it shall not be so.” 11 And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 12 And Elisha saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more.
Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces. 13 And he took up the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. 14 Then he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water, saying, “Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” And when he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over.
(ESV)
Category: Scripture
Elijah Flees Jezebel
19:1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3 Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” 5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” 8 And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.
The Lord Speaks to Elijah
9 There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 11 And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.1 13 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 15 And the LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. 16 And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. 17 And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. 18 Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
Footnotes
[1] 19:12
Or a sound, a thin silence (ESV)
The Prophets of Baal Defeated
20 So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. 21 And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. 22 Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the LORD, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men. 23 Let two bulls be given to us, and let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it. 24 And you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the LORD, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.” And all the people answered, “It is well spoken.” 25 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many, and call upon the name of your god, but put no fire to it.” 26 And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. 27 And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” 28 And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. 29 And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.
30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that had been thrown down. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD came, saying, “Israel shall be your name,” 32 and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD. And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two seahs1 of seed. 33 And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” 34 And he said, “Do it a second time.” And they did it a second time. And he said, “Do it a third time.” And they did it a third time. 35 And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water.
36 And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. 37 Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” 38 Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God.” 40 And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there.
Footnotes
[1] 18:32
A seah was about 7 quarts or 7.3 liters (ESV)
Elijah Predicts a Drought
17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe1 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.” 2 And the word of the LORD came to him: 3 “Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 4 You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” 5 So he went and did according to the word of the LORD. He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan. 6 And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. 7 And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
The Widow of Zarephath
8 Then the word of the LORD came to him, 9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” 11 And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” 12 And she said, “As the LORD your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” 13 And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain upon the earth.’” 15 And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. 16 The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah.
Elijah Raises the Widow’s Son
17 After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18 And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” 19 And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. 20 And he cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this child’s life2 come into him again.” 22 And the LORD listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” 24 And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.”
(ESV)
Categories
Going Deeper
Solomon 4.13.24
As we look at the life of Solomon, we see a man that started out well and ended badly. You have read about the beginning of Solomon this week. This beginning was challenging, but it is important for us to understand the significance of a few of these events. Today, we will look at Solomon’s beginnings, God’s blessing of Solomon, the judgment of God on Solomon, and the consequences of Solomon’s action. We will then close with some reflection for us.
First, David honors a promise made to put Solomon on the throne (1 Chronicles 22:9, 2 Samuel 7:12). David acknowledges His promise to put Solomon on the throne. Not only does David say this, but puts his plan in motion to bring about the kingship of Solomon.
1 Kings 1:29-30 And the king swore saying, “As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my soul out of every adversity, as I swore to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, saying, ‘Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place,’ even so will I do this day.”
There are a couple of things we should take note of here. First, notice David’s declaration about who God is and what He has done. Is there any doubt that David is trusting in God? David acknowledges God as his redeemer. David trusts God so much that he would not harm the person that was God’s anointed king. David waits until God has removed all obstacles. This is what real faith looks like.
In 1 Kings 3, we see these words about Solomon: “Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father …” It should be noted here that, two verses before this, it is stated that Solomon made a marriage alliance with the Pharaoh. This is an important note to remember. If you remember, in the Old Testament, Israel was not to make any alliances, but they were to trust in the Lord. Whenever we break God’s commands, bad things happen. I do not think Solomon realized that this was a slippery slope. Still, God blesses Solomon because he obeyed His statutes like David his father.
Solomon is significant in that God asked him what He (God) might grant him (Solomon). How would you answer that question from God? Solomon asks for wisdom to guide the people of Israel. God is pleased with this decision and grants even more abundantly than what Solomon has asked for.
If only we could end the story of Solomon there, but we cannot. Solomon builds the temple of God that David had wanted to build, but God had said, “No.” (2 Samuel 7:11, 1 Chronicles 22). We see that Solomon amasses slaves, land, gold, and women.
1 Kings 11:1-9 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh … He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth … So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord … And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel who had appeared to him twice
I hope you feel the weight of these verses. There is a reason God told the Israelites not to collect foreign wives—they lead your heart astray. We see this multiple times in Scripture. This is one of the reasons why God tells us, in Corinthians, not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath light with darkness, or God with idols. If we link ourselves to those who have a different worldview and are not surrendered to the Lordship of Christ, they will lead us astray. There are few things potent enough, or powerful enough, to pull someone way from the Lord than a love relationship with another who does not press them into Christ.
The Lord then promises to take the kingdom away from, and raise up adversaries against, Solomon. God tears the kingdom in half under Rehoboam, and from there the downward spiral of Israel progresses. Finally, we read that Solomon laid down with his fathers and slept.
During his life, Solomon wrote Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, and most of Proverbs. It is amazing that someone who knew so much could still slide down the slope of sin so late in life. Solomon was old, the text says, when he was corrupted by his wives.
Now that we have looked briefly at the life of Solomon, there are some lessons we can glean from it. I hope these are a blessing to you as you meditate on this text.
- God is merciful and gracious; His steadfast love endures. All through this story, we see God’s promises being fulfilled. We also see God’s mercy and grace, by letting David live and giving him a second son with Bathsheba. We see God blessing in spite of the sin of polygamy. This was culturally accepted but was not God’s design for marriage—one man and one woman. God had every right to destroy David and Solomon, but He didn’t. He mercifully walked with them and blessed them. Even in the end, He was merciful to Solomon. God had every right to take the kingdom immediately from Solomon, but He did not. He left it, because His servant David walked in His statues. God is gracious to us in sending His son in our place to pay for our sins.
- Slippery are the slopes of sin. The small foxes spoil the vineyard. Solomon started making small concessions; then his pleasure ran away with him, and he compromised his beliefs. The saying going goes, “Sin will take us further than we want to go, keep us longer than we want to stay, and cost us more than we want to pay.” I don’t think, if Solomon had known the consequences of his sins, he would have been willing to take the same course of action. In what ways are you allowing small sin to take you down a path you do not want to go? Sin’s pleasures are fleeting.
- Guard your life until the end. 1 Kings 11:4 tells us that when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away from God. We need to finish the race strong. The law of inertia states that an object will stay in motion unless acted upon; this acting upon will create friction. Friction in an engine will wear down its parts so they need to be replaced, or the engine stops moving. When we continually surround ourselves with the world’s thoughts and actions, they will wear us down. This was the case with Solomon. His pagan wives and their constant influences on him, slowly wore him down over time. Please heed the warning in this text to guard your heart. We are to go into the world and glorify God, but we are not of the world. We need to make sure that we are spending time with God and fellow believers who will not let us hold to, nor be molded by, the world, and they will help catch us when we slip. Ways in which to guard our heart are to pray, study of the word, being in biblical friendships/accountability, and not spending all our time in the world. We need go out into the world and actively seek to proclaim Christ.
- We must keep Solomon’s point of view in mind. In Ecclesiastes 1:14 he says, “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” Without God, human wisdom (2:14-16), labor (2:18-23), amassing things (2:26), life itself (3:18-22), competition (4:4), selfish overwork (4:7-8), power and authority (4:16), greed (5:10), wealth and accolades (6:1-2), and perfunctory religion (8:10-14) are meaningless. When Solomon says, “Everything is meaningless,” he does not mean that everything in the world has no value. Rather, his point is that all human efforts apart from God’s will are meaningless. Solomon had it all, and he had tried everything, but when he left God out of the equation, nothing satisfied him. That’s why Solomon ends his book this way: “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
I hope you have grown from this brief look at Solomon. The Lord used him greatly, and it is sad to read those lines in chapter 11 that say Solomon’s heart was turned away from God. But, we can see that little missteps along the way lead to bigger missteps. Spend some time with the Lord and ask Him to show you how you are misstepping. Confess them and repent (change your practices). Seek His commands in Scripture, and diligently obey them so you can remain steadfast in your fighting this battle for your King.
By His grace and for His glory
Joshua “Shepherd” Kirstine
Soldiers For Jesus MC
Chaplain Council
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