Days of Elijah?

Elijah was a man chosen by God to bring change to the people of Israel. It was a time of religious ceremony, but corruption at every level.  During his life he confronted one of the most powerful men of the region, spent some time alone in the desert and then experienced the challenge of home life with a poor, destitute widow. After a remarkable demonstration of courage and tenacity he faced down the false prophets of his day only to fall into depression and in fear for his life into the wilderness. Alone in a cave he had an encounter with God which started with self-justification and ended with restoration.

Sometime later Elijah returned to confront the king because of his complicity in an act of murder. That confrontation ended with the changed attitude of the king but no lasting benefits. At the beginning of Jesus’ own ministry he referred to those tumultuous times as the ‘days of Elijah’.

In 1994 Robin Mark wrote a song, that has become well known to many, which he called ‘Days of Elijah’. He wrote this as a song of hope against the backdrop of the Rwandan civilian war in which one million people lost their lives. In explaining his song he wrote:

   How do you express the sense that these might be days, not of failure and submission, but of the sort of resilient, declaring, even arrogant trust and hope that Elijah had in his God? That these are not days of God stepping back and allowing the world and the church to roll uncontrolled towards eternity, but rather days when he is calling on his body to make a stand, to offer right praises and to declare that He is totally in control. Well, I reckon you may write the words “These are the days of Elijah”.

We live in a time that once again cries out for hope. There is conflict on every side and injustice carried out in the name of good government. The nation of which I am apart has justified its own actions of sending people seeking refuge to the poorest nations of the world rather than offer them a safe haven, even in the light of condemnation at home and abroad. Daily the media carries threats of terrorist attack and atrocities that have been committed, and there is barely a week that goes by without the report of some natural or man-made disaster that has taken the lives of many.

Against this backdrop, there is faith and confidence that God is in control. Whatever the crisis or the calamity, the indescribable God contains the universe in the palm of his hand. He brought the world into being with a word, he sustains it with a word and will bring it to conclusion with a word. His plans and purposes are beyond our understanding or even imagining and even in the midst of the most atrocious acts of barbarism he remains immovable and steadfast. Tersteegen once wrote that a God that can be comprehended is no God. Or to put it another way, when God becomes small enough for us to understand, he ceases to be big enough to be the God we need him to be.

These are the days of Elijah, God is in control, though the mountains rage, and thunders roar, he is still God. Where there seems to be no hope, there is hope. Together we must make a stand to declare our trust and hope in our eternal God and help to bring about the transformation we desire in our land and beyond by confronting injustice wherever it exists. Let us make a stand for righteousness and refuse to back down in the face of evil

When leaders fail

The historian that wrote the account of Ahab believed that he was the most evil of all the kings that had served Israel. He had done all that his predecessors had done and more. While he had introduced idol worship at the incitement of his wife, Jezebel, he was responsible and God was going to hold him accountable. But once Ahab had heard the judgment that had been pronounced against him it seems that he finally grasped the enormity of his actions. His response was to at least adopt the outward signs of repentance.

While there was no evidence of the changed behaviour that should accompany genuine repentance, it seems that he was sincere. God drew Elijah’s attention to the fact that Ahab had humbled himself and because of this had given him a short stay of execution. Whether or not we feel that Ahab was genuine doesn’t really matter. God accepted Ahab’s outward signs of repentance and extended mercy toward him, He did not take away the penalty completely however, just put it off until the next generation of Ahab’s family came to power.

This account reveals that God is ever willing to extend mercy but sin has consequences. Ahab had led the people away from God and while they had willingly gone along with him, the responsibility rested with him. God accepted Ahab’s repentance and withheld the penalty that he was to receive, but the judgment would come nevertheless. Sometimes when the things we do go unpunished or seemingly unnoticed we assume that we have got away with it, but God does not forget and he will bring to light the consequences of our actions. However he always allows us the opportunity to acknowledge our failure and genuinely repent. The apostle Peter writes ‘God is not slow about his promise…but is patient toward you not wishing any to perish but for all to come to repentance’. The promise he is speaking of here is the promise of judgment. The fact is that God is much more willing to forgive than we are to ask it of him. He wants to extend mercy but there is a condition. The apostle John writes that if we confess our sin, God is faithful and just and he will forgive us. But he requires us to acknowledge our failure and to genuinely commit to making the changes that are necessary to walk in fellowship with Him.

Ahab did those things which publicly demonstrated that he was aware of his failure. In that way he humbled himself before the people that he had previously oppressed. Even if his repentance wasn’t as thorough as it could have been it would still have cost Ahab dearly to humble himself in the sight of his people. There is no indication about how Jezebel responded to his apparent repentance but Ahab repented and God extended mercy. Perhaps if Ahab’s repentance had been more thorough or accompanied by acts in keeping with a change of life, such as the removal of the false gods or restoration of Naboth’s land to some remaining members of his family or tribe, then God would have relented from the judgment completely. As it was he secured a temporary reprieve.

God expects that his people act in a manner that is in keeping with righteousness. But knowing that we are weak and prone to failure he makes provision for the times when we fall short of his expectations. Even though we may feel we have let him down badly, or that we have acted in such a way that we have lost our position and privilege God is ever ready to offer mercy. Failure, even moral failure is not terminal. God delights in restoring the broken.

The tragedy of Ahab was that his moral failure had caused not only personal cost to him, but had drawn the people under his influence into this same web of deceit and loss. Those that are leaders have the God given responsibility to lead with integrity and righteousness, otherwise they too may cause the failure of those under their influence. There is only one way back from this precipice; that is to acknowledge the weakness, turn from it and seek God’s mercy. He is more willing to give it than we are to receive.

To whom much is given...

While Ahab rushed to take possession of the land he had had stolen from Naboth, Elijah was having an encounter with God. Ahab may have thought that he could get away with this crime, perhaps if he had stayed at arm’s length others would bear the guilt and he would be spared. Maybe God didn’t even know. If he thought this he was severely deluded. Nothing escapes God’s notice; he understands our motivations as well as our finished acts. He knows exactly what is going on in our hearts and minds and he will ensure justice is done.

The last time Elijah was in Jezreel  Jezebel told him that she intended to kill him and he ran for his life. Since then he had been in the wilderness of Damascus waiting on God’s latest instructions. Now, God spoke to him and told him to go to back. Elijah obeyed, there was no fear this time, no disobedience he had rediscovered the confidence that came from knowing he was in the centre of God’s will. He went to Jezreel and he met Ahab in the vineyard that he had taken from Naboth.

The message that Elijah gave Ahab left no room for debate. God placed the responsibility for Naboth’s murder clearly on Ahab and he was going to be judged because of it. Jezebel would not escape and neither would any of his descendants. When Elijah arrived Ahab addressed him as his enemy, in a sense he seemed to say ‘not you again Elijah, what do you want this time?’ Elijah responded by saying his appearance was due solely to the evil that Ahab had committed.

Not long before Ahab may well have been congratulating himself on his latest acquisition but before he had even had a chance to plant his first row of beans everything was being taken from him. His ill-gotten gains were of no use to him now, not only would he lose the vineyard but he was to lose his life, his reputation and his inheritance in the land. Elijah declared that Ahab had sold himself to do evil. This was no momentary lapse; it was a calculated plan to do what he knew to be contrary to the will of God and what would result in the death of a righteous man and his family. Ahab had become a slave to sin. Ahab had sold himself to his sinful desires and now could no longer resist the impulses to do those things he knew to be wrong. He may have thought that he could act as if God did not exist, he may have believed his own skill and craftiness would protect him from eternal threat and he may have believed that he would be spared the judgment he deserved, but he was wrong. God had sought him out and sent Elijah to deliver the message. His sins and his past had caught up with him. What he had sowed he was about to reap.

Elijah didn’t hold back when he pronounced God’s judgment on Ahab. He was going to be swept away, not only him but his entire family, every descendant. Jezebel too would feel God’s wrath and she was going to suffer the further indignity of being eaten by the scavenging dogs that roamed the city. Elijah told Ahab that he had been guilty of not only provoking God’s anger by the sins he had committed and the evil practices he had introduced to Israel, but he had caused the nation to sin as well. By his marriage to Jezebel he had introduced idol worship and even if this was not a new thing to the people of Israel he, by his support of his wife had sanctioned the practice, in a sense giving the people a license to that which was contrary to God’s will. But these crimes were not new and it was only now, after the murder and dispossession of Naboth that God declared his judgment. The question that Elijah asked Ahab went straight to the heart of the matter: ‘have you murdered and taken possession?’ Naboth was stoned outside the city walls and left there to die, the roaming dogs would have licked up the blood that was spilt and now God is telling Ahab that the same fate will befall him.

God is always the champion of the weak and powerless and expects his people to act in the same way. But Ahab murdered the weak and took from him something that was entrusted by God himself. God’s righteous indignation had been stirred and now he told Ahab what the consequences of his evil were to be.Instead of protecting the citizens of the country and safeguarding their rights Ahab allowed his desires to so affect his judgment that he conspired in an act of murder. When God places men or women in places of privilege and power he expects great things from them, to whom much is given, much is expected. The fact that a person has been used in the past or enjoys status or position does not protect them from the consequences of their sin. God is ever ready to forgive our failure and sin but when we will not willingly turn from it he will hold us accountable. It is true that Ahab’s sin was at the extreme end of the scale but in his day a king had almost an unfettered right to do as he pleased the people and resources of his country. At least pagan kings did. God demanded a much different standard from those that represented him. Jezebel’s actions were almost understandable given the times and the circumstances in which she lived but Ahab had no such excuse. Whether the kings of the surrounding nations acted that way or not was irrelevant, Ahab was appointed by God to shepherd the nation of Israel in the ways of God. He had failed in his task absolutely and this failure was shown up by the way that he had treated Naboth, a loyal and righteous citizen who was powerless in the face of the King.

God often entrusts his people with privilege and power and he expects that they will use it in the defence of the poor and the broken hearted. He assumes that his people will assist the poor and bring relief to the needy. He is provoked when those who are called by his name do those things that add burdens to the struggling or oppress those who are powerless. God will hold to account those that bring his name into disrepute by their behaviour toward those in need of justice.

The Set Up

King Ahab of Israel had set his heart on a particular piece of land on which to grow vegetables. Unfortunately for him the owner, Naboth refused to sell, and having his hopes frustrated Ahab went to his room and sulked. When Jezebel his wife heard what was troubling the king she immediately decided to take matters into her own hands. She was confident that this was a problem she could solve. Whether she had determined how she was going to do it at that stage is not clear, but she was in doubt that she could secure the vineyard that Ahab had set his heart on. Jezebel may have taken some time to come up with the right plan but eventually decided on a course of action that not only resulted in the death of a righteous man but also drew the elders and leaders of the city into her guilt.

Jezebel wrote letters to the city leaders under the seal of King Ahab. The leaders may even have believed that the letters came from Ahab himself but in any event they simply went along with what was asked of them. Jezebel instructed these leaders to proclaim a fast and place Naboth in front of the people. They were to act as if they were conducting a judicial proceeding with Naboth, the accused, on trial before them. Then they were to produce to accusers who would declare that Naboth had been guilty of blaspheming God and the King. As the King of Israel was the representative of God, any blasphemy directed at him was considered to be blasphemy of God himself, so the alleged offences could have been one and the same. That the allegations were false would have been clear to both the leaders of Jezreel and to Naboth, but before this group he had no chance of a fair trial. Any pretence of justice was removed with the instructions of Jezebel to take Naboth out and stone him to death without seeking a defence or entertaining any argument on his behalf.

The elders and civic leaders of Jezreel must have been fully aware of the injustice that was being committed; yet they remained silent. In the face of a command from the king they meekly accepted their role and joined in the guilt of Ahab and Jezebel. The politician/philosopher Edmund Burke once wrote ‘all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing’. This was certainly the case in the days of Jezebel, the good men of Jezreel knew that they were in the presence of evil but rather than take a stand for righteousness sake they did nothing and evil triumphed. In fact they did more than nothing; they joined in the conspiracy. Perhaps they were afraid of the consequences if they resisted, maybe they thought that some benefit would come their way if they agreed to the King’s proposal. Or perhaps they just blindly obeyed what they saw as a legitimate command. There is no question that we are called to live in submission to our political and civic leaders, and when we are in the workplace or at school the concept of rightful authority extends to those who are our superiors. And of course this concept extends to the family. But what happens when one of those with legitimate authority asks is to do something that is clearly wrong or even evil? Do we go along and claim that we are only obeying orders? Do we do nothing? Or do we take a stand for righteousness sake, even if it will mean almost certain suffering for us?

The leaders of Jezreel chose to engage in the conspiracy to not only defraud the descendents of Naboth of his land but to commit murder. By their silence and complicity they perpetrated injustice not only on Naboth but on the whole of Israel. The leaders and elders did as they were commanded and conducted their mock trial. These men were probably once the friends of Naboth, men who lived with him in the city. That Naboth knew them is clear. Twice they are referred to as having lived with him in Jezreel. They would have sat in the gate together and talked over the events of the world and probably discussed all the things that were happening: the drought, the amazing events on Mt Carmel and the appearance of that strange prophet Elijah. They might even have shared war stories following the recent triumphs over the Arameans, but now they were being told to set up one of their fellows, a neighbour and land owner who had done nothing wrong except refuse to sell his land to the King. He was a man who had placed his obedience to God above the prospect of material gain and now he was going to be betrayed by his friends.

Once the trial was over Naboth was taken outside and stoned to death. In the account of this tragedy it is revealed that Naboth’s sons were also killed at this time. The result of these acts of murder was that there was no one to claim the land,  a person who was guilty of blasphemy forfeited his property to God but if he was convicted of treason then the land was forfeit to the king. The way was clear for Ahab to come and take it for himself. Until this moment Ahab had remained apart from the conspiracy that was taking place but as soon as he received word from Jezebel that Naboth was dead he went with unseemly haste to take possession of his land.

Why Ahab would be so concerned with a vegetable garden is not at all clear. It is unlikely that he would have been out tilling the land and planting turnips or other crops for his own amusement. And as king he could have the best of land wherever he wanted as long as wasn’t part of the inheritance God had given to his people. But for some reason he had his heart set on this particular piece of property and he was prepared to allow others to scheme, defraud and murder on his behalf just so he could have it. Now Naboth and his family were dead Ahab could have what he wanted. I wonder how he felt when he took possession. Was it all worth it; did he feel satisfied? Or was there an empty feeling inside, a sense of disappointment that what he now had didn’t give him the pleasure that he had expected. All too often the things we set our heart on fail to give the fulfilment we think they will when we get them. This may be true of a new car or house, a career or academic success. More frequently than we would like to admit the gain of these things fails to fill the desires we have deep within. Jesus made it clear that we should seek his Kingdom before anything else and when we do he would satisfy all of our needs. The problem is that when we focus on our wants or what we see as our needs we will be left empty and still grasping for more.

Ahab was God’s representative in Israel. He had money, power and status, he had married into the wealthy nations nearby and secured himself against attack through the treaties he had made and yet he was unsatisfied. With all that he had his inability to secure a vegie garden left him sullen and vexed. Now that he had it, it is unlikely that he was anymore satisfied or fulfilled. If our lives consist of the sum of our possessions, then we like Ahab, are likely to be left disappointed and unfulfilled.