MAN OF VALUE
Elijah the Tishbite was a powerful prophet in the Old Testament. His name means, “Jehovah is God” or “The Lord is God.” Suddenly he appeared on the national scene of Israel, and with fiery zeal and confident displays of power, he set out to test the sovereignty of the Lord God over all other gods. He ministered the truth to Israel, commanding them to serve God with all their hearts. The theme of his ministry was contained in these words: “How long will you doubt between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if he is Baal, follow him.” Under his prophetic ministry, Israel began to be purified of its evil ways. Those false prophets, who sought to mislead the people, were put to shame and then sentenced to death. Through Elijah’s bold proclamations of justice, Israel began to bow under the sovereignty of Jehovah God.
CLAY MAN
Elijah was an obedient servant of the Most High. He was a man of power, a man of action, a man of unshakable courage. He was a man of faith. Yes, Elijah was all of these things … most of the time. Elijah was still a man of clay. It is very important that we realize this. Sometimes it manifested the weakness of the human creature.
The most familiar verse in the New Testament about Elijah is found in James 5:17. Usually we focus on the last part of this verse, which praises his fervent prayer life. However, the first part of the verse is also very important. It says, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours …” He experienced many of the same sufferings and weaknesses that the rest of the human race experiences. Let’s examine one of Elijah’s failures, because through him we will find an example that God has put into His Word to give us encouragement and hope.
I Kings 18-19 are two of the fastest and most action-packed chapters in the entire Old Testament. The only true constant in any of them is the great and awesome character of God. In these two chapters, the character of Elijah appears powerful, but also periodically flawed and wavering. First, in chapter 18, there was a confrontation with the prophets of Satan. God’s fire had fallen and consumed the burnt offering Elijah had prepared, while the god of false prophets did nothing (because he couldn’t!). All the Israelites fell on their faces shouting, “The Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God!” Their hearts turned to the God of their fathers. Then Elijah had all of Satan’s false prophets killed. After this, he went to pray and God again poured rain on the earth. Then, under the hand of God, Elijah girded up his loins and rode horse-drawn carts to the city of Jezreel to prepare for future ministry. Whoo! What a work day! What a testimony to the powerful and wonderful effect that the Spirit of God can have on a submissive person!
What happened next, in chapter 19? Well, the devilish Jezebel, the evil queen, threatened to kill Elijah for the blow he had inflicted on her kingdom of darkness. This shouldn’t have been a big deal for Elijah, right? There is no need to worry about a demon possessed queen when you have the power of God on your side, right? All he had to do was go out in righteous fury and hit his hitmen with blindness or something like that, right? He could, at least, have peacefully given in to the indomitable spirit of martyrdom, right? But poor Elijah didn’t do any of these spiritual things. Instead, “he was afraid, and he got up and ran for his life.” He temporarily gave in to the spirit of fear and fled. Elijah left Jezreel and went first to Beersheba. Even in Beersheba he did not feel safe, so he left his servant there and went on another day’s journey through the desert, near Mount Sinai. There, under a broom, he asked God to take his life. I had had enough.
In this chapter, we see the great prophet full of fear and very depressed. The man who had enough faith in God to invoke His fire from heaven, the man who faced a multitude of representatives of the powers of darkness and prevailed, this great believer gave up due to the empty threat of an idolatrous wench. What caused this man of God to temporarily lose faith in the Almighty? What was God trying to show him? What can we learn from Elijah’s experience?
TREASURE IN EARTH VESSELS
II Corinthians 4: 7 says: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the immense greatness of power may be from God, and not from us.” The beginnings of this verse shed much light on Elijah’s sudden manifestation of weakness. Let’s take a closer look at this. The treasure, of course, is Christ Jesus, in whom dwells the fullness of the Godhead in all power, wisdom, and knowledge. We are the basically selfish, weak and fearful clay vessels who possess all the ignoble traits associated with humanity. Even after we are born again, God requires us to remain in this rotten shell, which is subject to many of the same weaknesses and is susceptible to making many of the same mistakes as other people. He has wisely decided not to hone our Christian experience right away, but to allow us to gain a deeper understanding of Him and become more like Him over time. Among other agents that make us grow are tribulation, trial and error. This is simply the truth. Even you and I keep making mistakes periodically! (Surprise!) Certain elements of our humanity remain (temporarily at least) so that we can all better understand that He is the Power, His is the glory.
The Lord never wants us to forget who He is and how much we need Him. When we stop needing Him, then for us He is no longer God! We come to understand more fully how holy and wonderful He is when we truly see how sinful and helpless we are in ourselves. Therefore, He allows us to carry the glorious power of His presence in mortal flesh. Sometimes we stumble and must look up and say, “Oh God, I still need you!” This cry, uttered with our lips and sincerely believed in our hearts, is the fulfillment of our vocation as human beings. It is perfectly natural, and as vital as breathing, that we say, “God, I need you. I am weak.”
God has given us many examples of the “clay pot” principle, for which I am very grateful. In the Gospels, Peter boldly proclaimed, “Lord, even if everyone else abandons you, I am willing to go with you both to jail and to death.” Jesus. The irony was that Peter didn’t really know Jesus, at least not as he thought. Peter had to go through that ugly night when he abandoned Christ. He needed to see who he really was without the strength of Jesus. Once the simple fact of his sinful pride was revealed, he was much better able to minister the gospel effectively.
With the sole exception of Jesus, all of God’s biblical men had their moments of sinful weakness and spiritual insecurity. Most of them emerged from their dilemma as better men of God. Abraham, the father of faith, who personally received God’s promises, lied about the identity of his wife, Sarah, because he feared for her life.2 David, the apple of God’s eye, became an adulterer and a murderer close to the height of his ministry.
Elijah, whose story I’ve been using as a prime example, showed that he was certainly not above error either. How strange that he who boldly shouted: “How long will you hesitate?” – I doubt. He whose name means “The Lord is God” would periodically ask, “Is the Lord God?” We all move in fear sometimes. Great is this mystery: Christ Jesus, the hope of glory, in whom dwells the fullness of God, and uses weak earthenware vessels, that is, WE!
All this does not mean that God tempts us with evil, oh no! 5 In other words, He uses our weaknesses to reveal His glory. Furthermore, this does not mean that Christians are useless people without power or privilege. We have great authority and privilege as believers in Jesus. We have been declared righteous. We are sanctified, justified and strong, but only because of Who Christ is.6 It is absolutely vital for us to understand this: without Him we are nothing, NOTHING.7 If you don’t believe this, God will reveal it to you. … as he had to do with Peter!
KEEP FOLLOWING IN THE GRACE OF GOD
The truths that I most intend to express to all of you through this teaching are these: The Lord is very compassionate and merciful. Know our body, that we are nothing but dust. Therefore, he is very patient with his children. Just as a loving father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. He has not treated us according to our sins.8 As we keep coming to Him humbly and sincerely, in the name of Jesus Christ, He will continue to sustain and use us in ministry, even though we periodically stumble. Of course, this is no excuse for blatant, constant, and unrepentant sin being given a place in our lives! We must move towards spiritual excellence! We must move toward experiential victory in every area of our life and ministry. His amazing commandments cry out to us and they will not be silent; “Be you perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfection, and” … be holy in all your behavior “11.
Absolute obedience is our standard, our goal. But thank God that repentance and forgiveness are at the heart of the gospel message and available to us.12 Thank God David was no less the apple of God’s eye after sincerely repenting of his heinous acts. Thank God Elijah not only found forgiveness and healing, but also gained a lot of wisdom in that 19th chapter of I Kings. Read it and you will see how your faith was restored and your great vision for ministry was corrected by the Lord Himself. The main thing he lost was a lot of pride!
Thank God that even though we stumble and fall, we can get up with God’s strength and be used again as His hands and feet in these last days. Thank God, we can rise from the bed of temporary defeat, we can reverse our backsliding state and turn away from wicked attitudes and ways.13 We can recover from losing an assault with fear, lust, or pride, and take up the fight again. against evil! We can be forgiven and show again the glory of the One who calls men out of darkness and into His marvelous light. 14 So get up, go to God, go to your brothers, do whatever you have to do to be okay. Let’s get on with our Father’s business! Let us not allow anything in this world to prevent us from seeing God’s purposes fulfilled in us and through us. Oh, seek the face of God! We are clay vessels, without a doubt. Yet within us dwells the power of the Holy Spirit!
Elijah recovered, you and I can too, because of Who He is. Hallelujah! Brothers and sisters, Jesus really loves you …
FINAL NOTES
1. Luke 22: 31-34; Mark 14: 27-31 2. Genesis 20 3.1 Samuel 11 4. Colossians 1: 25-27; 2: 9
5. James 1: 13-15 6. I Corinthians 1: 30-31 7. John 15: 4-6 8. Psalm 103: 10-14 9. Philippians 3: 13-16 10. Matthew 5:48 11.1 Peter 1 : 15-16 12. Romans 2: 4; Acts 5:31; Psalm 13: 1-6
13. Luke 15: 11-32; Isaiah 55: 1-2; 6-9 14. 1 Peter 2: 9-12
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