[ELIJAH COMES FIRST - PART
II]
By the
brook. Elijah suddenly bursts on the scene in the
days of Ahab the king and says, "As the Lord God of
Israel lives, before
whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these
years, but according to my word." Immediately following
God told him to "turn you
eastward, and hide yourself
by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan" (I Kings
17:1-3). Why was Elijah to hide himself? We might
surmise just from a practical standpoint that it was to
escape the wrath of Jezebel who was destroying the true
prophets of the Lord (I Kings 18:4). But if this is all
we see, we are "limiting the Holy One of Israel" (Ps.
78:41), and deliberately ignoring His word of truth that
He SPEAKS to us in PATTERNS by the ministry of the
prophets. To understand the prophetic drama we must
understand the meaning of the names involved. "Elijah"
means the might or strength of
Jehovah. "Cherith" means a
gorge or trench. It was during the time of no rain
and consequent drought, that Elijah (the strength or
might of Jehovah) was hid from the people in the
gorge.
Seeing the
picture. Natural Israel is a type of spiritual
Israel or the church. What happened in the history of
natural Israel has been repeated in the history of the
church (as far as the basic pattern of fulfillment is
concerned). God promised Israel that if they obeyed Him,
He would always give them rain at the proper season so
that they would never know drought (Deut. 11:14; Lev.
26:4). In God's symbolic language, rain is a type of the
refreshing or outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Joel
2:28-29). Spiritual "rain" or the effusion of God's
Spirit is absolutely necessary for the church to fulfill
its divine commission and for fruit acceptable to God to
be brought forth (Lk. 24:49; Acts 1:8; Eph.3:16; Gal.
5:22-25; James 5:7). If the church had been faithful and
obedient to the Lord, there would have been no lack of
the power of God's Spirit, and God's perpetual
blessing from on high would have continued on it.
But because the church "fell away" from its first
love (Rev. 2:4) and from obedience to the truth (II
Thess. 2:3), God withheld the "rain" of spiritual
enduement, and the result was spiritual drought and
barrenness of fruit. Except for occasional "seasons of
refreshing from the presence of the Lord" (Acts
3:19), bringing revival, renewal to the church, such
"drought" conditions have more or less prevailed
throughout church history.
The
gorge. As Elijah was to hide himself in the gorge
during the time of drought, so has this symbolic picture
been fulfilled in the church, as the might and strength
of the Lord through the Holy Spirit's power has been
"hid away" from the people of God because of the
unbelief and apostasy of the church's clergy and
priesthood. Such apostasy is portrayed by Ahab, king of
Israel, taking into his bosom through marriage the
daughter of a foreign king by the name of Jezebel (I
Kings 16:31). This was contrary to
God's law, for the people of God were not to
intermarry with the heathen nations, lest they be
drawn into their idolatry (Deut. 7:3-4). Since Ahab was
king, he symbolizes the "ruling" spirit which has
largely dominated the church down through this age; the
spirit of compromise with that which is "foreign" to the
Spirit of Christ. Because of this, "Elijah" (the might
of God's power through the Holy Spirit) has been hid
away in the "gorge" of ceremonialism, lifeless and
powerless forms, sectarianism, lust for power, political
expediency, unbelief and modernistic denial of
scriptural truth, fundamentalist self
righteousness, and many stupefying "fleshly" vanities,
so that much of the church world has been guilty of
"having a form of godliness, but denying the power
thereof" (II Tim. 3:5). This is the negative side of the
picture, of course, and shortly we shall take a look at
the positive side, as we see Elijah's ministry to the
widow woman; a type of the spiritual
remnant.
Eastward. In order to
hide himself in the brook Cherith, Elijah went eastward
(I Kings 17:3). In God's symbolic language, east
portrays going away from God into the false light of
man's reasoning and ways. Much scriptural evidence could
be given to illustrate this truth, but we will mention
only the following:
Adam and Eve were cast out of the
garden toward the east (Gen. 3:24). After Cain had
sinned, he was sent out from the presence of the
Lord toward the east (Gen. 4:16). When Jacob fled from
his brother Esau, and left the Promised Land behind, he
went to the "land of the people of the east" (Gen.
29:1), there to be dealt with by the Lord through many
trials. When Jacob returned to the Promised Land in
response to the revealed will of the Lord, and found a
new place of submission and obedience to Him, he turned
his back on the east and traveled west. Later, when the
children of Jacob/Israel crossed the Jordan and
entered the Promised Land, it was from the east in
the land of Moab towards the west. Entrance into the
sacred tabernacle which God commanded the Israelites to
build was through the eastern gate with progression
towards the west where the Lord dwelt in the Holy of
Holies. Thus west speaks of going toward God.
Cherith and
Jordan. We have already seen that Elijah hid himself
in the gorge of the brook Cherith, but the record says
that this was "before Jordan" (I Kings 17:3). The brook
flowed into the Jordan River. Jordan means "descender,"
and symbolizes death. Thus Elijah's place of hiding also
pictures the spiritual deadness which comes on the people of God when they
turn from the light and truth of God's ways to the ways of man. And how
often in the history of the church has Paul's
admonition been needed: "Awake [sleeper], and arise from the
dead, and Christ shall give you light" (Eph. 5:14). Elijah
was also fed in the gorge by ravens (I Kings 17:4). The
raven was an unclean bird according to God's law,
therefore it speaks of the uncleanness that has come
into sacred things as a result of the church's apostasy.
Ravens are black, and they pick out the eyes of their
victims, speaking further of the darkness; or the lack
of spiritual understanding (blindness) which has
pervaded the church through much of its
history.
The widow
woman. After hiding in the brook Cherith, God
ordained that Elijah should continue to portray by the
living drama of his ministry a further aspect of
God's plan. God told him to "Arise, get [ ] to
Zarephath, which belongs to
Zidon, and there dwell: behold, I have commanded a widow
woman to sustain you." (I
Kings 17:9). This widow woman was a gentile, and the
part she played in God's prophetic drama was so
important that Jesus made personal reference to her in
Luke 4:24-26, in His first message in His home town of
Nazareth. It was in connection with His divinely
revealed awareness that His own people and nation would
reject Him, with the resultant casting off of natural
Israel and the opening of the door to the Gentiles to
become a part of God's covenant people (Rom. 11:7-11,
25; I Pet. 2:9-10). This widow woman, then, is a type of the Gentile
church of this age; that is, the spiritual and faithful
remnant which has always existed in the midst of
nominal "churchianity" down through this age. As
the widow woman sustained and kept alive Elijah, so has
this faithful remnant "kept alive" the true, vital,
living evidence and witness of Christ, and the might and
power of His Spirit, in the lands of Christendom. God
has moved many times through such faithful remnants to
bring revival and restoration, with mighty movings of
His Spirit, both within and outside of organized
churches.
Why a
widow? In the scriptures, the church is pictured as
being united to Christ in a marriage covenant
relationship (Eph. 5:25-32). But since the Bridegroom
(Christ) has been taken away (Mt. 9:15) and the church,
which is the Bride, is not now personally living with
her Husband, the church is symbolically pictured as a
"widow,” waiting for her Bridegroom to return and take
her to dwell with Him in His own house or Kingdom (John
14:1-3). In the meantime, the Bride (covenant wife) is
making herself ready (Rev. 19:7-8), that she might be
presented to Him as a
"chaste" and faithful "virgin" (II Cor. 11:1-3; Rev.
17:14). What a glorious destiny is
hers!
Jezebel.
In contrast to the widow woman who was sustaining
Elijah, another woman, Jezebel, was on the throne,
seeking to destroy Elijah (I Kings 16:31; 18:4; 19:1-2).
Jezebel symbolically represents the seducing,
compromising, "flesh spirit" that comes into the church
and always "wars" against the Spirit (Elijah). The
unfaithful "Jezebel spirit" began to grow in the
history of the church after the church had "lost
its first love" (Rev. 2:4). By the time the historical
period was reached which is represented by Thyatira (the
4th of the 7 churches of Asia—600 A.D. and. after), the
spirit was so strong that Christ commanded the church to
repent, saying, "I have a few things against you, because you [allow] that woman Jezebel,
which calls herself a
prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit
fornication (unfaithfulness to Christ—see Rev. 17:1-2),
and to eat things sacrificed to idols (partake of that which
is unholy—see I Cor. 10:20-21, II Cor. 6:14-18).
Since the church failed to repent (Rev. 2:21), the
Jezebel spirit continued to grow [and] there came into
being the mother harlot and her daughters of
compromising, unfaithful "churchianity" (Rev. 17:5). In
contrast to the "widow" of the faithful remnant, the
Jezebel harlot spirit boasts, "I sit a queen, and am no
widow (Rev. 18:7), because she is "kept" by many worldly
"lovers" (Rev. 17:2).
Meal and
oil. Not only did the widow sustain Elijah, but
Elijah ministered to the widow and provided the
means for her to continue to live. But only because she
PUT HIM FIRST. This is a type of how the Spirit of
Christ has ministered to and kept alive the witness of
His faithful ones down through this age, and especially
how He is ministering to those who are diligently
seeking to do His will in this end time. Because the
widow was willing to obey Elijah's command to "make me
thereof a little cake first,” Elijah promised her that
"the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither the cruse
of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth" (l Kings
17:13-14). The meal speaks to us of the WORD of God, and
the oil of His SPIRIT. Truly the Lord is being faithful
in this day to visit His hungry saints with "living
bread" (see Ruth 1:6), and the oil of His Spirit is
flowing freely to those whose hearts are set on Him. This is in anticipation
of and preparation for the "latter rain" which the Lord
is going to send on the
earth.
After many
days. I Kings 17:15 tells us that the widow was
sustained "many days" by the meal and oil. Then in
I Kings 18:1, we read that "after many days, the word of
the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying. Go
show yourself to Ahab; and I will send rain
on the earth." In the
account following, we see pictured in symbolic drama
another phase of God's plan to prepare for the coming of
the "latter rain.” Elijah was not only used to minister
to and sustain the widow woman, but he also came out of
hiding and began to be used of God to manifest His
might and power to the
people. In the midst of the religious apostasy of his
day, he gave a demonstration of the reality of his God.
Surely this is also a pattern for our day, as an Elijah
ministry comes forth in the power of the Spirit to make
known the coming of the Lord and prepare a people with a
manifestation of that which is vital, real and
mighty through God.
On Mount
Carmel. Elijah called for all the people to gather
on Mount Carmel, along with the false prophets of Baal
and of Asherah who ate at Jezebel's table. There he
challenged them with these words: "How long [do] you halt between two
opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal,
then follow him." But though I'm sure Elijah put all of
the sincerity of his heart, and the "unction" of the
Spirit which was on him,
into this message, the record says that "the people
answered him not a word" (1 Kings 18:19-21). How
characteristic this is of people; and how prophetic of
the day in which we live. The masses of people have
heard so many sermons, and have been preached to so
much, and yet by and large they remain unmoved to
action. It was only after God sent fire from heaven in
answer to the prayer of Elijah, that the people fell on
their faces and said, "The Lord, he is the God; the
Lord, he is the God" (I Kings 18:38-39). FIRE is a type
of the Holy Spirit moving with supernatural power
to baptize, deliver, and empower the people of God for a
witness to the reality of a living Christ. Beloved, it
is going to take more than just preaching in this day to
a "gospel hardened" generation; it is going to take the
FIRE of God's Holy Spirit moving with "signs and wonders
and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit
according to His own will" (Heb. 2:4), in order to move
vast numbers out of indifference into the "valley of
decision" (Joel 3:14).
The
altar. Before the fire fell, Elijah had to do a
preparatory work. We read in I Kings 18:30 that "he
repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down." An
altar was not only God's appointed place for blood to be
shed as an atonement for sins, but the altar also
symbolized the consecration and dedication of the one
offering the sacrifice. As Christians, our bodies are a
"living sacrifice" which we offer to God on His "altar"
(Rom. 12:1). The fact that the
altar was broken down in Elijah's day speaks
symbolically of the lack of the heart-consecration of
God's people to do His will. Where there is no altar,
there is no power of God's Spirit (fire).
Fire can only fall on that which is on the altar;
where nothing is on the altar, there will be no fire.
What a lesson this is for us today. Before God can move
in a greater way in our midst, the "altar" of
consecration must be repaired (restored) among the
saints. For this very reason an "Elijah" ministry
is going forth in this day to "stir up" the hearts of
those who are willing to make the necessary sacrifice
for God to fulfill that which is pictured in the story
of Elijah for our day, for IT MUST COME TO
PASS!
For all
Israel. In repairing the altar, we read in I Kings
18:31, that Elijah took twelve stones, according to the
number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob. This has to
be very significant,
when we realize that at the time of Elijah's ministry,
Israel was divided into two factions or nations, and
there was much strife and warfare between them. Elijah
was ministering in the northern kingdom, which
consisted of the ten tribes which had revolted and
broken off from the ruling house of David in
Jerusalem, under the leadership of Jereboam (see I
Kings 11:26-37; 12:19-20). But Elijah was not willing to
"write off" the southern kingdom and the tribes of
Judah, Benjamin and Levi. In other words, he was not
"sectarian" in his thinking.
His altar and sacrifice was for ALL the house of
Israel. Is there not a lesson in this for us? Are not
Christians divided as the people of Israel were? What is
our vision, and the purpose of our sacrifice and
consecration? Is it just for "our group," "our
denomination," "our church," or is it FOR THE WHOLE BODY
OF CHRIST? In our tendency to judge and condemn, we may
think of certain Christians as being so blind or
"unworthy" that we are sure they will never come into
what the Lord is doing. But instead of
thinking "we are it," and proudly "writing off" all the
rest of God's children, we need to pray and consecrate
ourselves to the end that many will yet awaken and arise
to the challenge of this hour, and let the "fire" of
God's Spirit fall on them,
that they might also help "prepare THE WAY of the
Lord.”
Water.
After Elijah had put the sacrifice on the altar, he
saturated it with water, so that the water ran down
around the altar and into the trench he had dug
about it (I Kings 18:32-35). There were four barrels
filled and poured on three times. Three is the number of
the WORD of God, and four is the number of FRUITFULNESS.
In the natural, water cleanses as we use it for washing,
and it refreshes as we drink it (also cleansing the
inner body as it flushes out wastes). It is the
WORD of God that cleanses (John 15:3; Eph. 5:26). It is
the SPIRIT that refreshes the "inner man" of the heart
as we "drink in" of God's provision (John 7:34-38;
1 Cor. 12:13), so that there is not only a deeper
cleansing and purging within, but there is also an
impartation and empowering, that through such
"watering," FRUIT might be brought forth to the praise of God (Eph.
3:16-20; Gal. 5:22-23). Thus Elijah set the pattern for
us, as this type is fulfilled in our day. As an
"acceptable sacrifice" to
the Lord, we must be thoroughly saturated by the Word
and the Spirit.
Evening
Sacrifice. When Elijah finished preparing His burnt
offering, it was the time of the evening sacrifice (I
Kings 18:36). When God gave His law to Israel, He
required that the priests offer two burnt sacrifices
every day, one in the morning and one in the evening on
behalf of all the people (Ex. 29:38-39). Must not this
type also be fulfilled in this "day" (or age) of grace?
The 120 who gathered in the upper room on the day of
Pentecost constituted the "morning sacrifice" of this
"day.” They placed themselves on God's "altar" of
consecration, wholly and completely, and the FIRE
of God's Spirit came on them
(Acts 2:1-4). As we approach the close of this age, it
is now time for a people of God to offer themselves to
God as the "evening sacrifice,” that the FIRE of God's
Spirit might come on us in a
greater way than we have ever known. This MUST be, or
the pattern God has given us is not true. Beloved in
Christ, are YOU willing to be a part of this "evening
sacrifice,” that the world may know that God is real,
alive and powerful? Even now God is
"answering by fire" as more and more hungry and
dedicated ones place themselves on the altar and receive
the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But this is only the
preparatory stages of a greater operation and
manifestation of the "fire” of God's Spirit in and
through those He is making ready through an
"Elijah" ministry.
Abundance
of rain. After God had answered Elijah by fire, the
prophet went to the top of Mount Carmel, where the great
sea to the west could be seen in the distance. There he
cast himself to the earth and began to pray. He told his
servant to go up higher and look toward the sea. This he
did in response to the command of the prophet of God for
six times; each time returning with the report that
he saw nothing. But the seventh time he went and looked,
he brought back the message, "Behold, there arises a little cloud out of the
sea, like a man's hand" (I Kings 18:42-44). In God's
symbolic language, waters in the sea portray "peoples,
and multitudes, and nations, and tongues" (Rev. 17:15).
Clouds can symbolize people (Heb. 12:1). A little cloud
such as Elijah's servant saw would symbolize a small
remnant ARISING TO GOD
out of the nations in the present preparatory move of
the Spirit. This is another way of portraying those
who have placed themselves on God's altar as the
"evening sacrifice." God is drawing them
to Himself, even as clouds
represent waters drawn from the sea, and He is
preparing them for a mighty visitation.
Elijah sent a message to Ahab and said, "There is
a sound of abundance of rain" (I Kings 18:41). What a
"remnant" of God's people are now experiencing, as
God moves by His Spirit, is only a foretaste and
first-fruit of that which is coming, when the Lord shall
"pour out of His Spirit on
all flesh" (Joel 2:28), and there shall be an abundance
of rain.