The earliest Olympic Games date back to 776 years before the time of Christ. Why are we so fascinated with the Olympics? Why has this tradition endured the test of time? NBC has already generated overonebillion dollars in ad revenues.
Several years back Laraannd I visited the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs. They had videos and displays highlighting the accomplishments of our nation’s athletes. You could walk down through various training areas. Through large windows you could watch various teams practicing.
Through one window we could see the women’s volleyball team. But next to the window was a sign telling visitors to not stare at the girls as they practiced. There was a warning that if you stared at them through the window they would wiz a volleyball at your face at a hundred miles an hour or something. "Thou shall not lift your eyes to the women’s volleyball team."
A part of us wants to test the limits of human nature. How fast can we run? How quick and synchronized can we swim?How high can we jump? How farcan we throw, how sharp can we shoot, howperfectly can we dive, or how muchweight can we lift? What’s possible? What’s not possible? We love our Olympic heroes. They inspire us.
God wants us to be heroes for him.
You may not realize this, but God wants us to become just as extraordinary as our Olympic heroes. Maybe not in an Olympic 2008 sort of way.Maybe not in some feat of jaw-dropping human greatness,but most certainly in the unique way that God intends and created each of us to become extraordinary.
Let me just say thatthe greatest heroes aren’t born in the arena or stadium. The greatest heroes are born in obscurity. They areborn in virtual anonymity and born of adversity. In fact, the more grueling their circumstances, the more tested and tempted and beaten down they get, the higher they seem to rise.
This is certainly true in the life of Elijah, one of the greatest prophets in history. In our worship services we often sing about how these are the days of the Elijah. The days of Elijah were days of evil, corruption, and violence at every level of society. In Elijah’s day the word of the Lord was being suppressed by those in power. The Ten Commandments were being trivialized, just as they are today. No onewas taking a stand in his world by crying out, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord!"
These are the days of Elijah.
If you want to know just how evil our days have become, I have a challenge for you. Do any of the following ten things for a week and report back to me how hard they were to practice in your daily life.
•Insist with your friends that there is only one true God, and that Jesus Christ isthe only way to heaven, to truth, and to life eternal.
•Worship Jesus Christ with undivided devotion and devote yourself to his will totally as a first course of action.
•Absolutely refuse to say anything, do anything, participate in anything, or go anywhere that would dishonor God’s holy name.
•Tell your employer, coach, league, school, family, or friends that from now on your family won’t be joining them on Sundays because it is a day you keep as holy unto the Lord.
•Honor the character, values, and faith of your mother and father instead of deriding or rebelling against them.
•Be a peacemaker affirming the dignity of all human life, even that of your enemies.
•Stop sinning sexually and destroy every piece of hard or soft pornography in your home or workplace. Turn off the trash.
•Get off the couch and do something usefulwith your hands so that you can provide for those in need. Stop being greedy and stop being asponge.
•Tell the truth no matter what it costs you personally, no matter how politically incorrect, and no matter who it applies to.
•Refuse to lift your eyes to unholy things. Refuse to participate in thematerialization, sexualization, and idolization of God’s world.
You’ve been swimming downstream. Try standing against the current for a while. Try walking upstream. These are the days of Elijah. The tide of our culture is aligned against life in God.
You’ll never feel so isolated as when you stand with God, stand for the things of God, stand for righteousness, and stand against unrighteousness. You will never feel so isolatedas when you stand against false gods, false worship, blasphemy, idolatry, consumerism, materialism, greed, exploitation, sexual immorality, sloth, laziness, political correctness, lies and deceit, racism, and hate.
Instead of standing, many of us succumb to our culture. We capitulate andwe give in. Better to be loved by the world, we surmise, than be marginalized or branded a Christ-follower.
The culture in 1 Kings is much like our culture today.
I’ve grown fascinated with 1 Kings. The opening chapters of 1 Kings chronicles the lives of two extraordinary men.First there the lifeof King David, a man after God’s own heart, anointed by God to rule over all Israel. Secondly there is the life ofKing Solomon, the wisest man in the world, the son of David, and successor to David’s throne. He built, furnished, and dedicated the temple of the living God. Like David, Solomon had the opportunity to honor God.
In 1 Kings 9:4-7 (NIV) God tells Solomon,"As for you, if you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws,I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’ But if you or your sons turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them,then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples."
The tragedy of 1 Kings and the tragedy for Christians today is that Solomon turned away from God. In 1 Kings 11:1-6 (NIV) we read, "King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which theLORD had told the Israelites, 'You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.' "
"Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to theLORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molecha the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow theLORD completely, as David his father had done."
After Solomon died, God ordained that his kingdom be torn into a Northern Kingdom (called Israel) and a Southern Kingdom (called Judah). 1 Kings and 2 Kings chronicles the various kings who rose to power, some in Israel andsome in Judah. With only two exceptions, every king who succeeded King Solomon followed in his footsteps. Every king only escalated evil to a whole new level.
The kings of the Northern Kingdom.
In the Northern Kingdom, nine different kings rose to power. Let’s see how each of them did. Read about how each of these kings were viewed by God.
King Jeroboam - 1 Kings 14:7-9 (NIV) - "Go, tell Jeroboam that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I raised you up from among the people and made you a leader over my people Israel. I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, but you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes. You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made for yourself other gods, idols made of metal; you have provoked me to anger and thrust me behind your back."
Nadab - 1 Kings 15:25-26 (NIV) - "Nadab son of Jeroboam became king of Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, walking in the ways of his father and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit."
Baasha -1 Kings 15:33-34 (NIV) - "In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah became king of all Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned twenty-four years. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, walking in the ways of Jeroboam and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit."
Elah -1 Kings 16:11-13 (NIV) -"As soon as he began to reign and was seated on the throne, he killed off Baasha's whole family. He did not spare a single male, whether relative or friend. So Zimri destroyed the whole family of Baasha, in accordance with the word of the LORD spoken against Baasha through the prophet Jehu-because of all the sins Baasha and his son Elah had committed and had caused Israel to commit, so that they provoked the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger by their worthless idols."
Zimri -1 Kings 16:17-19 (NIV) - "Then Omri and all the Israelites with him withdrew from Gibbethon and laid siege to Tirzah. When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the citadel of the royal palace and set the palace on fire around him. So he died,because of the sins he had committed, doing evil in the eyes of the LORD and walking in the ways of Jeroboam and in the sin he had committed and had caused Israel to commit."
Omri -1 Kings 16:25-26 (NIV) - "But Omri did evil in the eyes of the LORD and sinned more than all those before him. He walked in all the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit, so that they provoked the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger by their worthless idols."
Ahab -1 Kings 16:29-34 (NIV) - "In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him.He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.In Ahab's time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the LORD spoken by Joshua son of Nun."
Ahazaiah -1 Kings 22:52-53 (NIV) - "He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, because he walked in the ways of his father and mother and in the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. He served and worshiped Baal and provoked the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger, just as his father had done."
Joram -2 Kings 3:1-3 (NIV) - "Joramson of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned twelve years. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, but not as his father and mother had done. He got rid of the sacred stone of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless he clung to the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he did not turn away from them."
The kings of the Southern Kingdom.
Maybe things were better in the Southern Kingdom, Judah. Let’s take a look
King Rehoboam -1 Kings 14:21-24 (NIV) - "Rehoboam son of Solomon was king in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put his Name. His mother's name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite. Judah did evil in the eyes of the LORD. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than their fathers had done. They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites."
Abijah -1 Kings 15:3 (NIV) - "He committed all the sins his father had done before him; his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his forefather had been."
Asa -1 Kings 15:11-12 (NIV) - "Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as his father David had done. He expelled the male shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his fathers had made."
Jehosaphat -1 Kings 22:42-44 (NIV) - "Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-five years. His mother's name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi. In everything he walked in the ways of his father Asa and did not stray from them; he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. The high places, however, were not removed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.Jehoshaphat was also at peace with the king of Israel."
Jehoram -2 Kings 8:16-19 (NIV) - "In the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat began his reign as king of Judah. He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD. Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the LORD was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever."
In the midst of corruption and evil, Elijah emerges as a hero.
All I want to say is that Elijah was a man who heard the call of our Lord in his day and responded. Literally, out of total obscurity, in the midst of this long succession of godless, faithless, corrupt kngs,Elijah emerges and takes a stand against King Ahab, but for the Lord. He’s seen enough. He’s fed up.
1 Kings 17:1 (NIV) says, "Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbea in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As theLORD,the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word."
There is nothing in this verse that suggests God told Elijah to take a stand against King Ahab. It doesn’t appear that God commanded Elijah to say these things. I wonder ifElijah just did? I believe Elijah had seen enough. He was fed up with the evil and corruption, the injustice, the greed, the idolatry, the sexual immorality, the murdering, and the war mongering. Imagine the audacity he had to stand before and confront a sitting king?
Do you think that King Ahab took Elijah seriously? He most certainly did not. He was probably like a Bill Marr. But then it didn’t rain for the next few years! Hmmmm. Imagine that.
Where is our courage today? Where and before whom do you find yourself taking a stand today? How do you find yourself putting faith in the living God?
In 1 Kings 17:2-6 (NIV)the Lord whisks Elijah away."Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah:'Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.' So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook."
This story is just beginning. There is much more to be said about these verses. Let me just say that the greatest heroes don’t stand in stadiums, being celebrated by men.The greatest heroes stand for righteousness in their world, and are celebrated by God himself. The greatest heroes would rather be fed by ravens than feast with kings, if that is what duty demands.
More about the ravens next week. You won’t want to miss it, trust me.