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FACING A FINAL BATTLE

If you're a history buff for World War II, and you read all the books and see the vintage films, you might remember a quiet moment or two in the French town of Ramelle. There's a small group of American GIs there . . . and they're just waiting. It's perfectly still; the empty village has been bombed to smithereens already, but all the men know that the Germans are coming in again. A company of elite Axis troops, the Wafen S.S. from the Das Reich Division, are coming down the road with their Tiger and Panzer tanks and Schmeisser submachine guns. In a few minutes there's going to be a horrific showdown over the last bridge spanning the Merderet River, a battle between good and evil, and who's to know how many men will be left standing when it's all over? Maybe none. Captain John Miller had come there to fetch Private James Francis Ryan, but now they have to stay and fight. And the calm, the comforting calm, with an Edith Piaf record playing a love song in the background, is just the prelude, the lull before the storm.

Here in First Kings chapter 17, with a battle-weary officer named Elijah, you almost have to feel the same way. There's been enough adventure already to fill up a decent book. In a palace showdown — just him against the whole fallen, Baal-adoring nation of Israel — he'd managed to tell King Ahab there wouldn't be any rain until further notice from heaven. And he'd also managed to get himself out of there alive and in one piece, and down into the quiet seclusion of the Kerith Ravine, the brook Cherith. You remember the story of how ravens had come to feed this prophet of God, morning and evening, for something like two years.

There was also a great moment of private victory when the Lord moved upon the heart of a Phoenician woman and used her faith to sustain him. But for three years now, despite the famine, despite the horrific heat and the carnage of climate failure all around them, it's been relatively calm for Elijah. King Ahab and his spies have been looking in all the wrong directions for their enemy, and Elijah has been able to rest in the shadow of the Lord's protection.But all along, he's got to know that there's another battle yet to come. A showdown to top all showdowns. Somehow, in the back of his mind, this man who hears the voice of the Lord directly is aware that he's going to be going to the top of Mount Carmel for a last conflict.

And the temptation, of course, is to back away. "Lord, I've done enough for You!" Have you ever felt that way? You point to the battle scars you already have, the good deeds you've already achieved, the sacrifices you've already made. And you say, "God, let me stay here in the Kerith Ravine. Let me stay here in the little add-on guestroom, the upstairs bedroom, the widow of Zarephath has provided for me. Send someone else to take on Queen Jezebel."

But Elijah, faithful servant that he is, knows he can't turn back. By now the famine in Israel has reached epic proportions. The rivers have dried up. Trees are leafless and barren. Crops are nonexistent. Cattle have laid down to die . . .along with their owners.
And the good news is that, all across the nation, people's consciences are beginning to stir. Where is Baal, the marvelous "rain god"? Where's the rain? Where's the power, the life-giving potency of this so-called fertility deity? Many of them have at least heard the story of how a wild-eyed prophet of Jehovah had told the king there wouldn't be rain. Is it possible that old Elijah is right?

One Bible commentary nails down this very point, about the growing disquietude:

"Baal was worshiped as the source of life and blessing, as the great storm god, who supplied the earth with moisture, and gave to the land its increase. Now Israel was to learn that Baal could not provide these blessings."

And there's a second reason why we can hear the rumble of approaching Tiger tanks. We studied last Friday where this widow's son suddenly is taken ill and dies. And the man of God, crying out to heaven, is literally able to raise him from the dead! Even though the hiding place for Elijah is a well-protected secret and Ahab hasn't found him yet, I'm sure the grapevine of Israel had managed to sneak that story out across borders and enemy lines. And people are starting to stir with interest in hearing the rumor. Could Baal raise a person from the dead? Not likely. That same Bible commentary scholar observes:

"News of such a miracle could not be kept quiet. Here was something that Baal could never do. As men learned that, through the power of God, the son of the widow had been raised from the dead, the power of Baal began to be broken."

Moving into chapter 18 of I Kings, God's man now receives a new set of instructions.

"After a long time, in the third year [of the drought], the word of the Lord came to Elijah: ‘Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.'"

Let me remind you that King Ahab had scouts and undercover espionage guys and double agents and paid assassins all over Israel, looking for Elijah the prophet. You can read that in verse 10. God's servant has been in hiding for three years. And now God says to him: "Go right back to the palace, over the moat, across the drawbridge, past the machine-gun towers . . . and march in to see the king who's tried all this time to kill you."
And without hesitation, that's what Elijah does. Actually, it's interesting to read, but the famine is so bad that his royal majesty himself is reduced to hunting out in the fields for a few blades of grass for his horses and mules. He's hunting in one direction, and Obadiah, the man in charge of his palace, on the opposite side of the road. "Governor of [Ahab's] house" is how the King James Version describes Obadiah, and Elijah inadvertently runs into him first. The king's attendant recognizes Elijah, and bows down to the ground.

ecause, ironically, Obadiah is actually a true believer in heaven. In fact, his name, in Hebrew, means "Servant of the Lord." I say ironically, though, because wicked Queen Jezebel has gone out of her way to persecute the people of God, going so far as to kill all the prophets of the Lord — all she could get her hands on, that is. But when Elijah says to his fellow believer, "Take me to your leader," Obadiah says no way. "Ahab's been looking everywhere for you," he tells the prophet. He and his wife are determined to slaughter every prophet of God. In fact, Obadiah lowers his voice to a whisper and tells Elijah, "I hid a hundred of them in a cave, fed them myself, and got away with it." But now, with this big showdown looming, he says no. "If I go and tell Ahab you're here," he protests, "and then suddenly the Spirit of the Lord whisks you away to some far-off place, and you're not here when he comes to meet you . . . I can kiss my own head goodbye." But Elijah tells him not to be afraid.

"As the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today."

This meeting is going to happen, he tells Obadiah. Elijah has a rendezvous with destiny, and nothing's going to stop him from confronting the king in the name of God. "Go get him," he says. "I'll wait right here."

Now, in our last moments today, let me spin for you a little upside-down scenario. Who should be afraid here? Well, you'd think Elijah. Ahab's got the armies and the navies — well, not much of a navy anymore, considering everything has dried up. But he has all the swords and spears, the Secret Service, the National Guard, everything. Elijah has nothing except the Word of the Lord and one pair of pants. But notice this fascinating observation from the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary for chapter 18:

"The king went to the prophet, not the prophet to the king. Ahab realized that Elijah gave his first allegiance and service to One higher than an earthly king, and thus the king was forced to make his way to the man whose life he sought. He knew full well that the prophet had not agreed to this strange meeting to surrender himself into the hands of the king." Now notice this: "King rather than prophet faced the meeting with fear, even though the king was accompanied with a strong bodyguard of soldiers and the prophet had only the defense of God."

Isn't that great? It was the king who went to this tête-à-tête shaking in his boots, not Elijah. Ahab had the armies; Elijah had the power of God. He had the military hardware; Elijah had the power of God. He had the throne; Elijah had the support of the real King on the real throne. So it was Ahab who was scared.
It's kind of like that other great underdog story: David vs. Goliath. Goliath was nine feet tall; David the shepherd boy came in the power of God. The only difference there was that Goliath didn't know enough to be afraid. He might have been, if he'd known anything at all ABOUT the power of God.