Elijah Hides on Mt. Horeb

1st Kings chapter 19. 1st Kings chapter 19. Elijah is on the mountain of God. Elijah is in Mount Horeb. That's called the mountain of God. The question is why is he here? Why is he 300 miles from Jezreel? Why is he hiding on Mount Horeb? What happened to Elijah? How is it this great man who was absolutely convinced of the reality of God, his name even says so, and how is it that this man was commissioned to be a representative of God, and how is it that this man who is commended for his reliance upon God, all of a sudden now is running away 300 miles away in fear?

What happened to Elijah? He had lived his whole life looking for this great opportunity that God had placed before him on Mount Carmel. The great opportunity where he would be able to be a living demonstration as to the power and the glory of God. It happened just as God prescribed it to happen, and great things took place. He prayed and it rained. It came down in buckets. But what is it about this man Elijah that moved him out of fear? A man who could stand before Ahab with no fear. A man who could stand before 450 prophets of Baal with no fear, but could not stand before the wife of Ahab, Jezebel.

What was it about this man? And we told you last week there was a lot of physical turmoil upon the man, a lot of emotional turmoil upon the man. We even said that there was a little tinge of pride when he said, I guess I'm not like my fathers, thinking that maybe he was better than his fathers. But the truth of the matter is he had lost perspective, a misdirected vision. He looked at the woman. He did not look at the word.

And whenever you get your eyes off of the Lord, who knows what's going to happen. And Elijah lost perspective. He lost perspective on the things that God had for him. And he became fearful. And the Bible says in the book of Proverbs 29th chapter that the fear of man is a snare.

It's a trap. And he feared man more than he feared God at this time. And it caused him to run. And what happened to Elijah after this is that he was no longer going to be used by God the way he was used before. He will still be used by God. We will see that tonight. But not like he was before he began to fear man over God. You know, when I think about this story, I think of Moses, remember Moses, great leader of Israel. God had called him from a Bernie Bush and God had used him in a mighty way to lead 2 million Jews out of Egyptian bondage.

God used him to lead Israel. He's considered Israel's greatest leader. I believe Nehemiah probably is Israel's greatest leader. But the Jews look at Moses as their greatest leader.

And he was the man that God chose to lead his people out of Egyptian bondage. And one day in the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 20, God told Moses, he said, take the rod and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, gather Israel around. And I want you to speak to the rock before their eyes that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beast drink. So Moses took the rod from before the Lord, just as he commanded him.

And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock, just like God said. And he said to them, listen, now you rebels, shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock? Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod and water came forth abundantly and the congregation and their beast drank. But, but the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you have not believed me to treat me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land, which I have given them.

Here was Moses who had given his life to lead this nation, was used by God in absolutely marvelous ways. And one day he decides not to do what God says.

Just one day, one time, one opportunity, he decides to strike the rock instead of speak to the rock. And God says, that's it.

You cannot go into the promised land. Seems a little harsh, doesn't it? Seems a little out of whack. I mean, after all he had done so much for Israel, he had interceded for Israel. He had done so much for the nation. He had risked his life. And one day he decides not to do what God says.

Instead of speaking to the rock, he strikes the rock in front of the assembly. And God says, you have not treated my name as holy, therefore you will not lead this nation into the land of Canaan.

One day, one act, one act of disobedience to the word of God, he can't go into the promised land. And then there's King Saul, remember him? First king of Israel.

And Samuel told him to wait for him, that they may offer the sacrifice together. And yet he decided not to wait. That's recorded over in the book of 1 Samuel chapter 13. He waited seven days according to the appointed time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal. And the people were scattering from him. He was losing control. He was the king of Israel. So Saul said, bring to me the burnt offering and the beast's offering. And he offered the burnt offering. And as soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him and greet him.

But Samuel said, what have you done? Saul said, because I saw that the people were scattering from me and that you did not come within the appointed days and the Philistines were assembling at Micmash. Therefore I said, now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal. And I have not asked the favor of the Lord. So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering. Samuel said to Saul, you have acted foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord, your God, which he commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for himself a man after his own heart. And the Lord has appointed him as ruler over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. So here's King Saul, gets a little anxious, decides to go ahead of what Samuel had ordered by the word of the Lord. And he loses the kingdom. One act, one simple act of just not doing what God said, he loses the kingdom. Moses loses the opportunity to take the children of Israel into the land of Canaan and Elijah.

Elijah, one act of fear caused him never to be the same man he was before that time. It goes to show you how serious our disobedience to God truly is. And then there's a guy like Peter, he denies the Lord and yet the Lord restores him and the Lord uses him in a greater way than he did when he was alive, when the Lord was alive. And Peter's the exception to the rule. Moses and Elijah and Saul are more the rule. And we don't like to hear those things, but in reality, we have to realize that God takes his word seriously.

You have to do what I tell you to do. You have to be obedient to my word. And I think it's a good warning for all of us to take heed. What does God say in his word? And am I obeying what he says in his word? Because I never know what it's going to cost me. We don't know how great the cost was for Elijah. We do know this, God will tell him what's going to happen, but it won't take place until 20 years later, 20 years later. And Israel never turns back to God. Is that Elijah's fault? No. But what if Elijah would have stayed in Jezreel?

What if he would have relied upon the Lord and feared God, not Jezebel? What would have happened to the nation then? Maybe the dispersion would have never happened. Maybe they would have never gone into captivity. Maybe none of that would have ever happened, but we'll never know, will we? Because that wasn't the plan of the Lord. But what we do know is that Elijah fled. He had seen the woman and feared her and not listened to the word of the Lord and feared the Lord. So he ran to Beersheba, a hundred miles away.

He leaves his servant there. He goes off into the wilderness. He falls asleep under a juniper tree and the angel of the Lord comes, the pre-incarnate Christ, and gives him something to eat. He says, get up, eat. Why? Because the journey before you was long. It would be a 40-day journey from where he was to Mount Horeb. He would leave Canaan and go to the wilderness. Israel left the wilderness and went to Canaan. They traveled for 40 years and were fed miraculously by God every day. Elijah, he was fed miraculously by God on just one day because the food he ate, whatever it was he ate, lasted for 40 days.

He didn't have to eat again. But here he was on Mount Horeb. And what happens here is really, really good for us to understand because God's going to speak to him and God's going to move him back to where he needs to be. But God's going to ask him a question, not because he needs information. God doesn't need information. God knows everything. God never learned anything. He knows everything. So when he asks a question, it's not for his information. It's for your illumination. It's for you to realize what you're doing and where you're at.

So let me read to you the narrative. It begins in verse 8 of 1 Kings chapter 19. It says, so he rose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. Oh, by the way, that's where Moses was spoken to by God from the burning bush. That's where Moses would cause water to come forth from the rock. And that's where Moses received the covenant of God, the law of God. It's a very specific place. It's a very sacred place. It's a very solemn place.

It's God's place. It's called the mountain of God. And then he came there to a cave and lodged there. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. And he said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? He said, I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the sons of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left and see, and they seek my life to take it away. So he said, go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.

And behold, the Lord was passing by and a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind and earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a sound of a gentle blowing, when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Behold, a voice came to him and said, what are you doing here, Elijah?

Then he said, I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts for the sons of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your authors and killed your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left and they seek my life to take it away. By the way, that's the same thing he said before. Does he think God's deaf or what? And the Lord said to him, go return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram and Jehu, the son of Nimishi. You shall anoint king over Israel and Elisha, the son of Shafat of Abel Meloala.

You shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall come about the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death. And the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death. Yet I leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him. Let's begin by looking at the question. Here is Elijah. He's in this cave. He's on the mountain of God. He's at Horeb. He's in the wilderness. He's 300 miles from Jezreel. He's in the middle of nowhere.

Okay. And God asks a question. God simply says to him, what are you doing here? Elijah, the word of the Lord comes to him. That's a phrase that's been used throughout our story of Elijah. It moved him from his hometown to, to confront Ahab about there being no rain. And then the word of the Lord would come to him again and move him to Kareth. And there you'd camp for over a year. And then the word of the Lord would come back to him and move him to Zarephath. He'd be there for over two years. And then the word of the Lord would come to him again and move him to say, listen, you're going to confront Ahab.

It's going to rain. He did what the word of the Lord said. And now the word of the Lord comes to him again. That's the question. Let's break it up into two parts. First of all, his occupation.

And second of all, his location. What are you doing, Elijah? What are you doing? In other words, what are you supposed to be doing? Aren't you a prophet of God? Aren't you the spokesperson for God? Aren't you the ambassador for God? What are you doing? You're in the wilderness. Who are you going to talk to out here? What are you doing, Elijah? What are you doing? A lot of us can be asked the same question. What are you doing? You are an ambassador for Christ. You are a priest in the kingdom of God.

You are a holy nation. You are a chosen generation. Ask yourself this question. What are you doing? What are you doing? Because Elijah had a commission. Yeah, he wasn't fulfilling the commission. I mean, he's a prophet of the living God. And the decree comes from Jezebel. You will die in 24 hours. As the prophet of the living God, he should have stood for God and said, you know what, Elijah, Jezebel, you can't do anything to me unless it's been granted to you from above. But he didn't. He ran because he was afraid.

So the Lord asked him, what are you doing? And he says, what are you doing here? Not just what are you doing, because your occupation as a prophet of God is to speak forth the words of God. But what are you doing here, Elijah, in this place? And again, you know what, we can ask that question to many people today. Sometimes I want to ask that question on Sunday morning and say, what are you doing here? Or when you're asleep in bed, I want to say, what are you doing here when you should be there? Or when you're when you're hanging out with the wrong group of people, what are you doing here when you should be over there?

We never ask the right questions. God always asks the right question. He wants Elijah to reevaluate his occupation. He wants him to reevaluate his location. You see, God gives you an occupation and puts you in a location so that you will be the proclamation of his kingdom to those you come in contact with. God just doesn't aimlessly put you someplace and hope that things work out for you. I'm going to put you over here and I sure hope that things are going to go well for you. I don't know, but maybe they will.

Maybe they won't. Who knows? No, God puts you in a specific arena, a sphere of influence where you will be used by him for his glory and for his honor. God doesn't put any of his servants in a place by accident, always by a divine appointment. So I ask you, what are you doing? Because whatever you're doing, I would trust it's in line with the call of God upon your life. What are you doing here? Are you representing your king the way he needs to be represented? Elijah wasn't. He wasn't. God never moved him to the mountain of God.

He went there on his own. God never moved him from Jezreel. He left on his own. But the word of the Lord comes to him because the word of the Lord is going to speak to him. And Elijah gives an answer. He gives an answer. And you will note his answer is a lot like Obadiah's answer was to Elijah when he found Elijah three and a half years later and he talked about everything he had done in the past. But Elijah does. As if somehow what I did in the past is going to suffice God in the present. He says these words.

He says, I have been very zealous for the Lord. Well, whoopie doo. Good for you, Elijah. I've been very zealous. Lord, you know I've been zealous. I've been doing my prophet thing. I've been doing my thing for you. But it was it was in the past. I'm not doing that now because I'm in the middle of the wilderness. But I had been very zealous for the Lord. And the reason I was zealous for the Lord, he says, is because the sons of Israel have forsaken your covenant. They've torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword.

I alone am left. And now they're seeking to kill me. Wow. As if God didn't know that. He knows all that stuff. You ever notice that we like to inform God of all that's happening in our lives as if he has no idea?

We want to tell God everything as if he is caught in the dark someplace. Believe me, he knows what you're going to ask him before it ever leaves your lips. He knows. And so here's Elijah. I was I was zealous for I've been zealous. You should have seen me, God. Well, the Lord saw him. The Lord knew all that. In Israel, they have forsaken the word of the Lord. And because they have forsaken the word of the Lord, they forsook the worship of the Lord. And then they would forsake the workers of the Lord, the prophets.

And that's the way it always goes in order, no matter who you are, right? No matter what age you live in. The reason people don't worship the Lord is because they have forsaken the word of the Lord. That's what keeps them from worship. And then they will come against the workers of God. That's what Israel did. Elijah says, this is what's up. But never answer the question. Why are you here, Elijah? That's the question. What are you doing in this location, Elijah? What's going on with you? Why are you here?

He didn't ask the question. He avoids the question as if somehow that he might be able to give the right excuse that God will understand. Like God needs to understand what's happening in your life. He already knows what's happening in your life. God understands everything. He knows everything. So the question comes to Elijah because he wants him to understand, what are you doing? And specifically, what are you doing here, Elijah? And then he gives an answer. Following that, God says, go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.

And God is going to give him a demonstration. He's going to give him a demonstration that will help Elijah understand something that most of us need to understand as well. Let's just say that all of us need to understand it. And what he's going to do, he's going to send the wind, a ferocious wind. He's going to send the earthquake. He's going to send the fire. But God is not in any of those. And some will tell you that those all symbolize the judgment of God that's going to happen upon Israel. If they said that, they would be right because judgment was going to happen.

It was going to come upon Israel. And when God would speak of earthquake and fire and wind, it speaks of God's judgment upon Israel and judgment was going to come. But it goes beyond that even more to show you that God is going to speak to him in the silence. In the silence. Simply because Elijah needed to learn two major lessons. Number one is this, that bigness does not guarantee God's presence.

Bigness does not guarantee God's presence. The bigness of the wind, the ferociousness of the wind, the fire and the earthquake, the bigness does not guarantee God's presence. But you know what? We tend to think as Elijah would think that if it's spectacular, if it's sensational, God must be in it. But that's not necessarily true. Now on Mount Carmel, it was spectacular. On Mount Carmel, it was sensational. And yes, the presence of God was there. But just because it is big, it doesn't guarantee the presence of God.

You see, we love to have the big splash. We like to have the politicians come to our church and speak. We love that the musicians come to our church and play. We love to have the celebrities come to our church and speak because that gathers the crowd thinking that the bigger the crowd, the better it's going to be. Not necessarily true. Because as sensational and as spectacular as Mount Carmel was, when the nation of Israel said, the Lord God, he is the Lord. Guess what? Nothing ever changed. Nothing ever changed.

Oh, it was spectacular. And fire came down and destroyed the altar. And everybody realized that Baal was non-existent. And they would join with Elijah and take the 450 prophets down to the Brook Kishon and they would slay. They would be slain right there. They would lose their lives. And everybody would go home and say, wow, what a magnificent day. It was so spectacular. It was so sensational. But nothing changed. Nothing changed in Israel. Why? Because, you know, remember at the triumphal entry, when the people would praise the King Hosanna to the son of David, they would sing his praises.

And Luke 19 tells you they did it because of the miracles, but they did not do it because of the message. Oh, they loved the miracles. Oh, they loved the spectacular. Oh, they loved the bigness of the sensation when 5,000, literally 25,000 people were fed in one afternoon. When Jesus could walk on water, he healed the blind and caused the deaf to see. Oh, it was sensational. It was magnificent. But very few lives were ever changed. Very, very few. That's why Jesus was asked, are there only a few being saved?

Because there was. And on Mount Carmel, as spectacular as it was, nothing changed in Israel. If Elijah would have stayed in Jezreel, maybe things would have been different. But we don't know, do we? Because he didn't stay. He ran out of fear. If he would have stayed, maybe he would have lost his life. But the martyr for the sake of God's kingdom would have stood forever. It's not that Elijah doesn't stand forever because he's a great prophet, mentioned more so in the New Testament than any other prophet.

But what if he would have stayed in Jezreel? Because you see, after Mount Carmel, nothing happened in terms of change in the nation of Israel. And so, bigness doesn't guarantee God's presence. You know, people like the high. You ever notice that?

The retreats, people love retreats. I'm not a big retreat guy because I know that retreats really are not reality for people. Because really, it's the daily grind where the proof is in the pudding. Years ago, we were doing a couple of retreats year after year after year. And there was a couple that every year, they would write my wife and I a letter thanking us for the weekend and thanking us for the change in their marriage and what God was doing. They were so thankful. And then the next year, another letter, come, same time, two weeks after the retreat, come, thank you.

It was so great, so great, so wonderful. But when the retreats were over, their marriage couldn't stand so much so that today, they're not even together anymore. Oh, they love the sensational. They love the spectacular. They love the high of the weekend. But when it came down to the daily grind of every day, they could not function together because that's where reality truly is. See? People in Israel loved Mount Carmel. They speak of it to this day. But it didn't change the nation. And so, bigness does not guarantee God's presence.

Elijah needed to understand that. But on top of that, he needed to understand that smallness does not rule out God's presence. Smallness does not rule out God's presence. And so, God would come and he would speak to him. And he would see this because he saw the earthquake, he saw the fire, he felt the earthquake, he felt the fire, he felt the wind. But when the Lord would speak in a very low voice, he would cover his face with a mantle because of the power of the Word of God, the power of the Word of God.

And Elijah needed to realize that as a prophet of God, he wielded the power of God because he was a spokesperson for God. He would speak the Word of God to people, see? And that's where the power lied. It did not lie in the sensational, in the spectacular. It lied in the scriptures themselves. And that's why Paul says, listen, if a man who is an unbeliever comes into your assembly and everybody is speaking in tongues and everybody is falling down and everybody is speaking in all these various tongues, nothing changes.

But if you begin to prophesy, he will fall on his face. His heart will be exposed. He will repent of his sin. He will be changed because of the power of the Word of God. It is the scripture, not the sensationalism or the spectacular situation in each event. It is the scripture itself. And Elijah was going to learn that. And God would teach it to him through a demonstration on Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. He would make it very clear to him so he would grasp it and he would begin to understand it.

Oh, I love what one author said. He said, once there was a man who dared God to speak, burn the bush like you did for Moses, God, and I will follow. Collapse the walls like you did for Joshua, God, I will fight. Still the waves like you did on Galilee, God, and I will listen.

So the man sat by a bush near a wall close to the sea and waited for God to speak. And God heard the man. So God answered. He sent fire, not for a bush, but for a church. He brought down a wall, not brick, but a sin. He stilled a storm, not of the sea, but of a soul. And God waited for the man to respond. And he waited and he waited and he waited. But because the man was looking at bushes, not hearts, bricks, not lives, seas, and not souls, he decided that God had done nothing. Finally, he looked to God and asked, have you lost your power?

And God looked at him and said, have you lost your hearing? You see, God is speaking, but he speaks to us in the silence of his voice, the quietness of his voice, in the silence of our hearts. That's why he says, be still and know that I am God. He leads you beside the still waters so he can restore your soul. Isaiah 30 verse number 15 says that in quietness and in trust shall be your strength, but you were unwilling. So therefore you had no strength. See, we forget what God wants to do and how God wants to empower us through his word.

And so Elijah learned that it was a still small voice of the Lord that makes all the difference because God is not too concerned about turning people's heads as much as he is about moving people's hearts. That's what God wants to do. And so come the predictions. God is speaking. He has Elijah's attention. And so he asks again, what are you doing here, Elijah? Is it to say, don't you get it? It's not Mount Carmel that I'm interested in. I'm interested in the fact that you are the prophet of the living God whose name, whose own name, Elijah bears my name.

And it's my word that I've given you to speak. And it's my word that has all the power. It's my word that moves. It's my word that changes. And you left Mount Carmel and you left the spectacular and you left the sensational and you never gave the scripture. You never stayed long enough to see the results. You never stayed long enough to make it happen, Elijah. Instead, you ran because you were afraid of a woman. You ran. What are you doing here, Elijah? And so for Elijah, everything would change.

Everything would change. F.B. Meyer says it this way, his commentary on Elijah. He says, as children, he will never cast us away, but as his servants, he may let us beware. One false step, one hurried desertion of our post, one act of disobedience, one outburst of passion. Any one of these may lead our heavenly father to throw us aside as Samson did the jawbone of the ass with which he had slain heaps upon heaps. We shall not forfeit heaven that is guaranteed to us by the precious blood of Christ.

We may even be favored by a glorious and triumphant entrance into the great flame of heaven. But we shall never again ride on the crest of the flowing tide carrying all before us. Others shall finish our uncompleted task. And that's what happens with Elijah. Others finish his uncompleted task. He goes now to anoint the king of Syria, who in all reality won't take place until 20 years later. He goes and he anoints the king of Israel. But again, that won't take place till 20 years later. So the king of Israel, Jehu and Azazel will do what Elijah could have been doing had he stayed at Mount Carmel and not ran.

Instead, he has to anoint others to do what he was designed to do. And then he has to choose an heir, Elisha, the great miracle prophet. And he will be the successor of Elijah, and he will carry the torch of Elisha, and he will lead the way. But Elijah, oh, he will still be used by God, but not nearly like he was before, and not nearly like he could have been used had he stayed put and not ran and distrusted the Lord. See that? This is so important. So he tells him what's going to happen. You're going to anoint the king of Syria, and he's going to return to Wilderness to Damascus.

And when you come there, there is Azazel, and you will anoint him. And that happened 20 years later, but Elijah didn't do it. Elisha did, the successor to Elijah. We know that from 2 Kings 8, 1, where Elisha says, the Lord has shown me that you shall be the king over Syria. So even in that, Elijah did not really actually anoint him. His successor would. And Azazel became such a brutal butcher of Israel because they would pay for not turning back to the Lord from Mount Carmel. They would pay for their continual worship of Baal.

They would pay for their continual rebellion against God. So much so that Elisha says these words in 2 Kings 8, verse number 12, I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel, their strongholds, you will set on fire. Their young men, you will slay with a sword. You will dash their children and rip up their women with child. And he did. He did all under divine justice for a nation that did not turn from their sin. What if Elijah would have stayed? What if Elijah would have been the spokesperson for God, the prophet of God, and continues to lead people into the ways of God by speaking to the truth?

Maybe all that would have been spared, but he didn't. Instead he ran. And the divine justice of God would happen upon the nation. And then he would anoint Jehu. He'd be the king of Israel. And what Azazel did to the nation itself, Jehu would do to Ahab and his family and destroy them. And Jehu would run the sword through Ahab's son's heart. He would demand that Jezebel be thrown down from her palace. He would trample her with his chariot. And he would take the leaders of Samaria and they would take the 70 sons of Ahab and cut off their heads and put them in a basket and send them to Jehu.

Righteous indignation. Righteous judgment. It happened. So the Lord came with fire, earthquake, and wind, strong winds to show that judgment was coming. But he would speak to Elijah in a very small, quiet voice and tell him what was going to happen next. Because they will all be predictions, but they would not happen until 20 years later. In our story, it's real quick. Because he goes and sees Elisha. Verse 19, so he departed from there and found Elisha, the son of Shavuot, threw his mantle upon him.

And by the way, Elisha will be our next study. We'll study Elisha, the miracle prophet and how God used him to perform so many marvelous miracles in all the land of Israel. Elisha would leave and follow Elijah. Only after he goes home, he burns his oxen, he cuts them up. He does that because he's not going back. He goes to destroy the oxen because he's not going back to do what he used to do. He's going to follow Elijah. He will be the successor of Elijah, and he will be the spokesperson for God to a nation who so desperately needs to know the true and living God.

And this really is important because it's not so much about presidents as it is prophets. Yes, there will be kings in Syria. Yes, there will be kings in Israel, but it's the prophets that people need. They need the word of the Lord. The kings will bear the swords. They will. And what Hazael doesn't kill, Jehu will. What Jehu doesn't kill, Elisha will. But Elisha never wielded the sword. He just wielded the word of the Lord. And like God said in Jeremiah chapter 23, it is not my word like a fire. It is not my word like a hammer.

Elisha was that guy who, when he spoke, great things happened. One day he was walking along, and we'll read this story as we go through the life of Elisha, and some boys come out of the woods, and they yell, Baldi, Baldi, Baldi. They make fun of Elisha. So Elisha turns and curses them and calls for the bears to come out of the woods and eats them alive. Those are some powerful words. Didn't need a sword. Need to speak the word of the Lord, and things happened. That was Elisha. You see, the nation needs a prophet.

God's trying to get Elisha to see what they need, Elisha, is not Mount Carmel. They need the message from the Lord. They don't need the sensational. They need the scripture. Elisha, you're the prophet. You're the spokesperson for God, and you ran away. You were to stay. You were to be my man for that time and that place, and you ran. And now you're going to anoint others to do what you could have done or should have done, and they will take your place, and they will do it instead. Elijah obeys. It does happen, but God says you need a successor because they need to know the word of the Lord.

You know, we're right in the middle of a presidential campaign, if you want to call it that. I'm not sure you can really call it that nowadays. That's what it is. It's the biggest dog and pony show I have ever seen. It's ridiculous, but you know, I'm a prophet of the Lord. I speak forth the truth, and in the midst of a presidential campaign, people lose perspective really quick. You ever know that? They get all up in arms about who's going to be this president or that president, who's going to be the representative of this party or that party, and will that person be able to beat that person, and oh, we don't like that guy because he does that, or we don't like that person because they do that, and we get all up in arms about the presidential campaign, and who will be the president of our country?

I got news for you. God elects the president of our country, and my job as a preacher and as a prophet is to help people gain perspective. That's my job. I really don't care who the president of our country is. I really don't care. It makes no difference to me because nothing about what I do is going to change. I'm still going to be a spokesperson for God, no matter what, and on top of that, I know that the king's heart is like channels of water, and God moves it wherever he wants to move it, so whatever law has been decreed, I know that God has moved the king's heart in that direction, and so when our nation applauds homosexual marriage, guess what?

I do too, not because I believe in homosexual marriage because I think that's an abomination to God, but I applaud it because I know what the Bible says, see, and if I know what the Bible says, I can applaud what's happening because I know the Bible says that at the coming of the son of man, it will be like it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah.

That means that the coming of the son of man is closer now than ever before, so I rejoice in what God's doing because God is in complete control. I know you might think I'm kind of but my job is to give people perspective on what's happening in life. I can't let whoever the president is run my emotions or dictate how I live my life. God does that, and so I preach the sovereignty of almighty God. God doesn't make a mistake. He doesn't put the wrong person in office. No matter what you might think, just because your party didn't elect your guy or your gal doesn't mean the wrong person's in office.

God is sovereign. He rules over all, and God puts in office whoever he wants. That's God's job, and my job is to pray for that person. My job is to pray that God saves that person. My job is to pray for the government of our country, our nation, and to pray for them faithfully that God will save their souls, but my job is to preach the truth to give people perspective. That was Elijah's job. That is your job. Your job is no different than mine because you're going to preach to people that will never come to this church, and you can give them perspective.

What are you doing, and what are you doing here or there in your place of influence? Are you preaching the gospel? Are you helping people understand the nature and the beauty of the Christ so they can come to understand the reality of God's sovereign plan overall and that God is in charge? We know that God has a purpose, and God has created the evil man for his purpose. Proverbs 16 verse number four. God does that. Don't ask me why he does that. It's not my position to know why God does what he does.

I just believe what God says. I'm just a very simple, basic person. If God says it, I believe it. That's it, and when you understand the sovereignty of God, when you understand that God's in complete control, then you understand that that will create confidence in you. It will cause comfort in you, and it will cultivate courage in you every single time, and God needs prophets. God needs people who proclaim his truth. Elijah was that prophet, but he was in a cave in the wilderness, and there was nobody to talk to because there was nobody there.

So God says, what are you doing here, Elijah? What are you doing here? This is what you need to do. You got to anoint the next king of Syria. You got to anoint the next king of Israel. You got to anoint your successor, and I want to let you know that evil is coming. Evil's coming. Treachery is coming. Difficulty is coming, but I'm going to punish that evil through Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha. I'm going to use the people that you're going to anoint. In other words, I wanted to use you, but you no longer made yourself available, so I'm going to use somebody else, and God doesn't give him a second chance, but Elijah never says, oh Lord, I was wrong.

I blew it. Would you forgive me? He never says that. He never says, ah man, I am just, I'm a fool. You're right, Lord. Never says that either. Never a true heart felt repentance on Elijah's part, and maybe if he would have, God would have changed. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know the mind of God that way. All I know is what the Bible says, and so he moves on, and it says, it says, yet I believe 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.

Now some would think that 7,000 were already there. I would differ with that. I'm going to differ with that. I'm going to differ with that because it's in the context of predictions about the future, and in the context of anointing the king of Syria, anointing the king of Israel, anointing Elijah in that same context about predicting the evil that's going to come. He says that there's going to be 7,000 that will not bow to Baal, so I'm going to say in the context of 1 Kings 19, there's going to be 7,000 that God will spare as a remnant for himself.

There hasn't already been 7,000 because if there was, where have they been? Where have they been? I don't know, and so God is going to tell Elisha there's going to be a remnant. There's going to be 7,000 that will not bow to Baal, and that should encourage Elisha and give him joy because of what God's going to do. All that to say is that God has a marvelous plan for every one of his people, without exception, you included, and God asks you, like he asked Elijah, what are you doing, and what are you doing here?

What is your occupation? What do you do? What is your vocation? It's a better way of looking at it. What is your calling? It's irrelevant what your job is because that's just a way to put bread on the table and clothes on your back and gas in your car. It's your vocation, your calling in life. He's been called to be a child of the living God. What greater call can that possibly be? Your occupation is where you live out your vocation so that people will know who Jesus Christ is, and God puts you there and nobody else there.

God puts you behind that counter. God puts you in that seat. God puts you in that location, not by accident, but by divine appointment, that he might use you to, in a good way, infect that area with the truth of the gospel. That's the highest calling man can ever have. God wants to use you, like he wanted to use Elijah, and he did, but Elijah made himself unavailable by running from what God had called him to do. Don't put yourself in that situation. Just keep running to God, not from God. Don't fear what man can do to you.

Only fear the God himself, the one who kills body and soul in hell. Just fear him. That's it. Because the fear of man always brings a snare, always is a trap. Elijah fell prey to the trap. God will use him, and we'll see next week what God does with him once again, but never like he could have had he stayed. Let me pray with you.

Father, thank you, Lord, for tonight, a chance to be in your word. Your word is so true. It's so clear. It's so pristine, and our prayer, Father, is that we, as your children, would understand you've called us. You want to use us for the glory of your kingdom. I pray that every one of us would make ourselves available to whatever you want us to do, never running, never fearful, just standing strong for the king. May we never back down from what we know to be true. May we live for the glory and honor of our soon-coming king.

In Jesus' name, amen.