1 Kings 17 – 22:40

Things went from bad to worse. Given every advantage, the people of Israel accepted the blessings of God while rejecting God Himself. Before we allow ourselves to judge too harshly, consider how surprisingly consistent people are. How? We do the same thing today. The abundance of our nation and the things which flow into our lives are truly a blessing from God. Unfortunately, it is often these very things that draw our attention and our affections away from the God who gave us these blessings. When we allow this to happen in our lives, should we be surprised that Almighty God is also quite consistent?

Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. “When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice.

Deuteronomy 4:23-30

Warning after warning flowed from the heart of God to keep His redeemed people from falling into Satan’s baited trap. Forewarned, they fell anyway.

So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And their daughters they took to themselves for wives, and their own daughters they gave to their sons, and they served their gods. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth. Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia. And the people of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years.

Judges 3:5-8

The God of all is consistently consistent. Amazingly, too many people are quite surprised when He speaks and acts exactly as He said He would. When the kingdom of Israel continued to drift away, Yahweh, The I Am, sent another prophet to another king of Israel. Elijah would figure prominently in the life of wicked Ahab and his Sidonian wife, Jezebel. It should not surprise us; since Yahweh was very clear to Hebrew men the danger crouching for them should they marry idolatrous wives from other lands.

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire. “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Deuteronomy 7:1-6

When Elijah arrives on the scene and confronts King Ahab, one of the first actions God takes through him is to stop the rain. This was a direct affront to the false gods of Baal and Ashera and to Jezebel and her prophets. Just as He had told the Hebrews repeatedly and showed them bountifully, the blessings of rain and harvest are a gift from the one true and living Yahweh. Yet, they seemed so surprised.

Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the LORD is giving you.

Deuteronomy 11:16-17

The One who knows all knew the Hebrew people would forsake Him. These words of warning should have stuck in the minds of the people. Instead, family after family, day after day, year after year and generation after generation fulfilled the prophecy. Again, why were they surprised?

And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them. Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’

Deuteronomy 31:16-17

Even though Joshua warned of idolatry and challenged the people to “choose this day whom you shall serve” (JOSHUA 24:15), Elijah found the people “limping between two opinions”. Again, people are quite surprisingly consistent and we are warned in the church not to be “double-minded” (JAMES 4:17). Yahweh Elohim speaks and acts very consistently. There should be no surprise. Unfortunately, people turn deaf ears and act very consistently, too.

So Elijah stages the big showdown. Far away from their temples where they can rig the game, new altars are constructed so the truth can be revealed. Baal was silent. Yahweh showed up big time. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob IS the God of Elijah, Ahab and Jezebel. The I Am never left or forsook His people. His word is always true. His actions are always just. There was never really a contest, for there is only one God.

Nothing has changed, except the faces on the idols. Satan consistently tosses “shiny things” in our path to distract us away from God. People consistently allow these gifts from God to draw us away. There is nothing new under the sun. We shouldn’t be surprised. Neither should we be surprised when the trumpet sounds and the Lord descends with a great shout and the dead are raised. Yahweh has told us consistently that the righteous will receive the promised inheritance and the wicked will be cast into the outer darkness.

Jesus told us that on that day folks will be surprised. At least we are consistent.

Consider His nature.  Consider His ways.  Strive to love Him more!