Background: In the Northern
Kingdom of Israel, roughly forty years after the death of Jeroboam and during
the reign of Asa in Judah and Ahab in Israel, a prophet named Elijah the
Tishbite came to minister to the Northern Kingdom.
Ahab is married to Jezebel, daughter of the Phoenician king (possibly done for alliance purposes to protect Israel from Syria). Ahab transitioned Israel from worshipping an apostate version of Jehovah (Jeroboam’s religion), to the worship of Baal and Ashteroth.
READ 1 Kings 16:30-33
What does it mean to “walk in the sins of Jeroboam”?
Idolatry - it doesn’t matter
if it was worshipping Jeroboam or Baal.
In response to all of this, the Lord sends Elijah, a prophet from east of the Jordan River in the land of Gilead.
Elijah and the Drought
READ 1 Kings 17:1
What does this pronouncement imply?
Elijah has the fullness of the
Priesthood, with sealing power over the elements (see Helaman 10:5-7 and
D&C 84:17-22 and D&C 84:39-40).
Why does Elijah choose drought instead of war?
Moses had prophesied that if
Israel would ever turn to worship other gods, the Lord would cause a drought
(see Deuteronomy 28:23-24).
In a war, you can blame an
enemy, but who can you blame for a drought?
Losing food and water removes
our strength and energy and refocuses our thoughts from the pleasures of the
world to the necessities of life.
A drought, with its
accompanying famine, is like a heavenly imposed fast. And if people are humbled by that “fast” and choose
to pray, then all the better.
READ 1 Kings 17:2-6
What does the fact that Elijah lives by a brook and is fed by ravens
despite his possession of the sealing power (where he could do all of the
miracles of Jesus, presumably) teach us?
Those who possess this power
ONLY use it as the Lord directs (see Helaman 10:4-5) - no “freelancing” is
allowed.
This power is not meant to
make life easy for the possessor but to guide people back to Christ.
The Widow of Zarephath
READ 1 Kings 17:7-9
Where is the Lord sending Elijah next?
Zarephath is near Tyre, in
Phoenicia; it is Queen Jezabel’s country.
He is crossing Israel from
east to west.
READ 1 Kings 17:10-16
What is this widow’s backstory?
Converted to the Lord God of
Israel despite living in the land of Baal worshipers - which no doubt required
her to repent and turn wholly to the living God.
Sought the Lord diligently,
which would require the sacrifice of all earthly things.
Had some means at one time -
they have a house with an upper chamber where Elijah would eventually stay (v
23).
She lost her husband but still
retains her young child.
Her land got caught up in the effects
of the drought (although they themselves had some water left).
She eats through all of her
food – implied is that at one time she had a storage or enough money to go and
buy regularly.
Either she has no family or
they are in similar straits - she is left to herself, a person of little
consequence (female, widow) in this society.
She still is charitable and
faithful enough that when a person asks for water, she stops what she is doing
(preparing a last meal) to help a foul looking stranger - a weather-worn
wayfarer.
What is really happening to the widow at this moment?
It is the beginning of her
Abrahamic test - to see if she will sacrifice all earthly things (LoF 6:7).
The Lord is using Elijah to
prove her – he is administering the Abrahamic test at the command of the Lord,
who has been monitoring and enabling her progression for a long time prior (see
Abraham 3:25).
What is the opposite or antithesis of fear?
Love (see 1 John 4:16-19)
“casteth out fear”.
Her test is not just to
sacrifice all earthly things but to do it with love. “He that feareth is not made perfect in love”.
How could she have faith such as this?
She had progressed from grace
to grace - this is the beginning of a capstone test not an initial one.
She has faith in the Lord - if
He makes a promise, it will be fulfilled (see D&C 1:38).
She has already gone through
her Shadrach, Meshack and Abed-nego moment in preparing the final meal for herself
and her son… (see Daniel 3:16-18)… she would be faithful even if in her slow death
by starvation.
And now we move to her
ultimate Abrahamic test, which will also provide one for Elijah…
READ 1 Kings 17:17-24
Why is this trial the widow’s ultimate Abrahamic
sacrifice?
Losing her son while she still
lives is a worse sacrifice than her own death or their deaths together - it
constitutes her “all in sacrifice” (LoF 6:8).
It seems so arbitrary - they
have been saved from the famine, only to have the son die from a random disease.
It truly does try her faith:
“What have I to do with thee… art thou come unto me to … slay my son?”
How is this a greater test for Elijah than the drought?
He is asking the Lord to allow
him to raise the dead (“there was no breath left in him” v17).
He is not receiving the
command of the Lord but asking to use the sealing power.
It took Elijah three times to
enable the healing… three times, hmmm…!
READ Lectures on Faith 6:11-12
What did the widow REALLY learn from this experience?
Not that Elijah was a prophet
- she knew that.
She learned that she was
accepted in the sight of the Lord.
That she had faith
sufficiently strong to lay hold upon the promise of eternal life that Elijah had
already laid hold upon; if she had not exercised faith in the Lord’s ability to
bring her son back from the dead through Elijah, the prophet’s own faith may
not have been sufficient, as this was clearly as much a test for him than for her
(obviously much more of a test for her).
That she can endure as seeing
Him who is invisible - her Lord - and enter His presence in the flesh.
Elijah versus the Priests
of Baal
After some time of drought,
the Lord tells Elijah to meet with King Ahab.
READ 1 Kings 18:17-21
What is Elijah doing?
Setting up a confrontation
between the Gods.
Creating a situation where the
people would be left without excuse – “choose you this day whom you will serve”
(see Joshua 24:15).
Baal is a god of weather, so
the drought already has him looking impotent; Elijah is doubling down on
“Baal”.
READ 1 Kings 18:23-24
What is the challenge that Elijah makes to Ahab and his
priests?
Two sacrifices - but no fire
to consume them.
Which god is the living God
and can create the fire themselves.
READ 1 Kings 18:26-29
What are the priests doing?
Panicking.
Rain dance, “cut a covenant”.
The priests of Baal seemed to have faith in him, so why
did they fail?
Faith in incorrect doctrine
will not save - it leaves doubts in the mind, albeit deep.
Baal isn’t real and unless
Satan or some other dark entity picked up the burden of playing the part of
Baal, nothing was ever going to happen on that mountain top in the name of
Baal.
Why did Elijah mock the priests?
He had a sense of humor
He was a trash talker; despite
knowing God, Elijah is still a human with a personality and traits – some of
which may not be perfect OR not accepted by the sensibilities of the world.
“He that sitteth in the
heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision” (Psalm 2:4); perhaps
the Lord enjoys a bit of trash talking under certain circumstances?
READ 1 Kings 18:30-35
What is Elijah doing?
Ensuring that the people see
that there is no sleight of hand trick (lighter fluid and a match from an
accomplice); they must see that this is clearly a miracle from God.
12 tribes = altar is ready
when the 12 stones are placed and the sacrifice is ready when the 12 water
jars/barrels have been empty on to it (baptizing it, in a way).
READ 1 Kings 18:36-40
What is Elijah doing when he says “I am thy servant”?
Bearing testimony against them.
Sealing them up to a curse -
in this case, to their death.
What does “the Lord, He is the God” mean?
He is the living God (unlike
Baal, who is not real or at best is a dark spiritual entity without the power
to cross over into the physical world).
He is the God of Israel and
the God of the whole earth (see 3 Nephi 11:14).
READ 1 Kings 18:43-45
Why does the Lord end the drought, as Ahab does not
seem to have repented?
Another great show of God’s
power, given to Elijah as the Fullness of the Holy Priesthood.
There are still 7000 people in
Israel who have not given their hearts over to Baal (see 1 Kings 19:18).
READ 1 Kings 19:3
Why does Elijah flee for his life from Jezebel (after
the Baal incident)?
Possessing the High Priesthood
and having power over the elements doesn’t mean the wicked still can’t kill the
righteous.
Mount Horeb
Elijah travels to Holy Mount
Horeb to be taught and the Lord comes to him and asks him what he wants.
READ 1 Kings 19:11-12
What is the Lord teaching Elijah?
How to recognize the voice of
God forever thereafter.
The difference between the
actual voice of God and the signs God sends to teach us.
What is the secret?
Listen for the still, small
voice; block out the “illusion” of this physical world (“maya” in the Indian
tradition) so that you can see/hear/understand the truth about how the Holy
Spirit emanates directly from God to fill the immensity of space and creates
the world in which we now live.
It is not from outside or a
show of power but speaks to the soul – the kingdom of God is within YOU – you
are a being of light that is co-eternal with God – but are now housed within an
avatar in a world that seems very real but is a “matrix”.
Others in the same room may
not hear it (or see a vision or receive a visitation) – God can communicate
with you or even take up a habitation with you without anyone else realizing it.
Elijah’s Accent to Heaven
READ 2 Kings 2:1-2 and 11-12
What is happening to Elijah?
The heavens are opening - a
fiery conduit to heaven with angels (“horsemen”).
Elijah is being translated.
He is ascending “Jacob’s
Ladder” up to be with Enoch and those in Zion.
He
is going home, meaning that he has already spent enough time in heaven that he
feels more comfortable there than he does on earth; his mission has been
finished successfully and he is going home again.
All
those who are translated are transitioned or quickened for a reason or
“mission”; he is taking up his new position as sentinel of the fiery conduit to
heaven - on the heavenly side of that boundary; John the Beloved would later
take up the position to guard the earthly entry to that conduit.
