| From the Church on the Hill by D. Eric Williams Pastor, Cottonwood Community Church pastor@CottCommChurch.com Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, "Is that you, O troubler of Israel?" (1 Kings 18:17) The story of Ahab and Elijah is familiar to most Christians. As you recall, Ahab was a King of Israel during the divided monarchy and was the worst of a bad lot who ruled the northern kingdom. Nonetheless, the Bible spends more time detailing the reign of Ahab than any other King of Israel. I believe the reason for this is to provide the people of God a template for dealing with corrupt and sinful civil power. The verse printed above portrays the meeting of Ahab and Elijah at the end of a three-year drought brought about by God as punishment upon godless Israel. Actually, the drought did not end at the point we enter the story; a dramatic confrontation between the prophets of Baal and Elijah was yet to come. In any case, one of the things that strikes me in this initial exchange between Ahab and Elijah is Ahab’s insistence that Elijah, the prophet of Yahweh, was the source of Israel’s problems. The more things change the more things stay the same. We live in a time when the United States of America is crashing down around us. Economically, culturally, spiritually; our nation is in free-fall. To anyone who has eyes to see it is clear the current Leftist leadership at the national level and in many state and local governments, is a primary cause of our national putrefaction. However, those who are actively bringing about the destruction of our nation place the blame on others. Specifically, anyone who believes the family is the fundamental building block of society; anyone who believes parents are the primary authority in the life of their own children; anyone who believes God created humanity as male and female; anyone who believes killing the unborn is murder; anyone who believes God has deposited the authority to govern this nation in the foundational documents; anyone who believes our fundamental rights are given by God and so on - the Left insists they are the people destroying this country. The Left tells us those kind of people are a clear present danger and an elemental threat to our “democracy.” In short, if you are a Bible believing Christian or a non-Christian holding traditional values with their origin in the Bible, then you are a bigot, a racist, a misogynist and a domestic terrorist. Just as Ahab placed blame for Israel’s problems on Elijah, the modern godless Left blames our national malaise on anyone who opposes their perverted agenda. As you recall, the climax of Elijah’s confrontation with Ahab and the prophets of Baal came when, the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench(1 Kings 18:38). In this new covenant age we should not expect God to sway public opinion through miraculous displays. We live in the age of the Son of Man and as followers of the last Adam, we are expected to tend and keep (cultivate and protect) the garden. These days, the garden is the whole earth for all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Jesus the Christ (Matthew 28:18-20). Therefore, we should not pray for fire to fall from heaven but for a show of God’s favor to properly offered worship. That’s one of the principals we find in the 1 Kings chapter 18 record. God honors godly worship. For us, all things must be done as unto the Lord because our whole life must be worship of the Lord (1 Corinthians 10:31, Colossians 3:17). Thus, if we hope to turn things around we must offer godly worship to God by living Holy Spirit empowered lives deeply rooted and grounded in the Bible. |
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