Elijah Comes First – Part 2

ELIJAH COMES FIRST – PART II

by Leland Earls

By the brook. Elijah suddenly bursts on the scene in the days of Ahab the king and says, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, be­fore whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.” Immediately following God told him to “turn you eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan” (I Kings 17:1-3). Why was Elijah to hide himself? We might surmise just from a practical standpoint that it was to escape the wrath of Jezebel who was destroying the true prophets of the Lord (I Kings 18:4). But if this is all we see, we are “limiting the Holy One of Israel” (Ps. 78:41), and deliberately ignoring His word of truth that He SPEAKS to us in PATTERNS by the ministry of the prophets. To understand the prophetic drama we must understand the meaning of the names involved. “Elijah” means the might or strength of Jehovah. “Cherith” means a gorge or trench. It was during the time of no rain and consequent drought, that Elijah (the strength or might of Jehovah) was hid from the people in the gorge.

Seeing the picture. Natural Israel is a type of spiritual Israel or the church. What happened in the history of natural Israel has been repeated in the history of the church (as far as the basic pattern of fulfillment is concerned). God promised Israel that if they obeyed Him, He would always give them rain at the proper season so that they would never know drought (Deut. 11:14; Lev. 26:4). In God’s symbolic language, rain is a type of the refreshing or outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28-29). Spiritual “rain” or the effusion of God’s Spirit is absolutely necessary for the church to fulfill its divine commission and for fruit acceptable to God to be brought forth (Lk. 24:49; Acts 1:8; Eph.3:16; Gal. 5:22-25; James 5:7). If the church had been faithful and obedient to the Lord, there would have been no lack of the power of God’s Spirit, and God’s perpetual bless­ing from on high would have continued on it. But because the church “fell away” from its first love (Rev. 2:4) and from obedience to the truth (II Thess. 2:3), God withheld the “rain” of spiritual enduement, and the result was spiritual drought and barrenness of fruit. Except for occasional “seasons of refresh­ing from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19), bringing revival, renewal to the church, such “drought” conditions have more or less prevailed throughout church history.

The gorge. As Elijah was to hide himself in the gorge during the time of drought, so has this symbolic picture been fulfilled in the church, as the might and strength of the Lord through the Holy Spirit’s power has been “hid away” from the people of God because of the unbelief and apostasy of the church’s cler­gy and priesthood. Such apostasy is portrayed by Ahab, king of Israel, taking into his bosom through marriage the daughter of a foreign king by the name of Jezebel (I Kings 16:31). This was contrary to God’s law, for the people of God were not to inter­marry with the heathen nations, lest they be drawn into their idolatry (Deut. 7:3-4). Since Ahab was king, he symbolizes the “ruling” spirit which has largely dominated the church down through this age; the spirit of compromise with that which is “foreign” to the Spirit of Christ. Because of this, “Elijah” (the might of God’s power through the Holy Spirit) has been hid away in the “gorge” of ceremonialism, lifeless and powerless forms, sectarianism, lust for power, political expediency, un­belief and modernistic denial of scriptural truth, fundamental­ist self righteousness, and many stupefying “fleshly” vanities, ­so that much of the church world has been guilty of “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” (II Tim. 3:5). This is the negative side of the picture, of course, and shortly we shall take a look at the positive side, as we see Elijah’s ministry to the widow woman; a type of the spiritual remnant.

Eastward. In order to hide himself in the brook Cherith, Elijah went eastward (I Kings 17:3). In God’s symbolic language, east portrays going away from God into the false light of man’s reasoning and ways. Much scriptural evidence could be given to illustrate this truth, but we will mention only the following:

Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden toward the east (Gen. 3:24). After Cain had sinned, he was sent out from the pres­ence of the Lord toward the east (Gen. 4:16). When Jacob fled from his brother Esau, and left the Promised Land behind, he went to the “land of the people of the east” (Gen. 29:1), there to be dealt with by the Lord through many trials. When Jacob returned to the Promised Land in response to the revealed will of the Lord, and found a new place of submission and obedience to Him, he turned his back on the east and traveled west. Later, when the children of Jacob/Israel crossed the Jordan and en­tered the Promised Land, it was from the east in the land of Moab towards the west. Entrance into the sacred tabernacle which God commanded the Israelites to build was through the eastern gate with progression towards the west where the Lord dwelt in the Holy of Holies. Thus west speaks of going toward God.

Cherith and Jordan. We have already seen that Elijah hid himself in the gorge of the brook Cherith, but the record says that this was “before Jordan” (I Kings 17:3). The brook flowed into the Jordan River. Jordan means “descender,” and symbolizes death. Thus Elijah’s place of hiding also pictures the spiritual deadness which comes on the people of God when they turn from the light and truth of God’s ways to the ways of man. And how often in the history of the church has Paul’s admoni­tion been needed: “Awake [sleeper], and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light” (Eph. 5:14). Elijah was also fed in the gorge by ravens (I Kings 17:4). The raven was an unclean bird according to God’s law, therefore it speaks of the uncleanness that has come into sacred things as a result of the church’s apostasy. Ravens are black, and they pick out the eyes of their victims, speaking further of the darkness; or the lack of spiritual understanding (blindness) which has per­vaded the church through much of its history.

The widow woman. After hiding in the brook Cherith, God ordained that Elijah should continue to portray by the living dra­ma of his ministry a further aspect of God’s plan. God told him to “Arise, get [ ] to Zarephath, which belongs to Zidon, and there dwell: behold, I have commanded a widow woman to sustain you.” (I Kings 17:9). This widow woman was a gentile, and the part she played in God’s prophetic drama was so important that Jesus made personal reference to her in Luke 4:24-26, in His first message in His home town of Nazareth. It was in connection with His divinely revealed awareness that His own people and nation would reject Him, with the resultant casting off of natural Israel and the opening of the door to the Gentiles to become a part of God’s covenant people (Rom. 11:7-11, 25; I Pet. 2:9-10). This widow woman, then, is a type of the Gentile church of this age; that is, the spiritual and faithful remnant which has always existed in the midst of nomi­nal “churchianity” down through this age. As the widow woman sustained and kept alive Elijah, so has this faithful remnant “kept alive” the true, vital, living evidence and witness of Christ, and the might and power of His Spirit, in the lands of Christendom. God has moved many times through such faithful remnants to bring revival and restoration, with mighty movings of His Spirit, both within and outside of organized churches.

Why a widow? In the scriptures, the church is pictured as be­ing united to Christ in a marriage covenant relationship (Eph. 5:25-32). But since the Bridegroom (Christ) has been taken away (Mt. 9:15) and the church, which is the Bride, is not now personally living with her Husband, the church is symbolically pictured as a “widow,” waiting for her Bridegroom to return and take her to dwell with Him in His own house or Kingdom (John 14:1-3). In the meantime, the Bride (covenant wife) is making herself ready (Rev. 19:7-8), that she might be presented to Him as a “chaste” and faithful “virgin” (II Cor. 11:1-3; Rev. 17:14). What a glorious destiny is hers!

Jezebel. In contrast to the widow woman who was sustaining Elijah, another woman, Jezebel, was on the throne, seeking to destroy Elijah (I Kings 16:31; 18:4; 19:1-2). Jezebel symbolic­ally represents the seducing, compromising, “flesh spirit” that comes into the church and always “wars” against the Spirit (Eli­jah). The unfaithful “Jezebel spirit” began to grow in the his­tory of the church after the church had “lost its first love” (Rev. 2:4). By the time the historical period was reached which is represented by Thyatira (the 4th of the 7 churches of Asia—600 A.D. and. after), the spirit was so strong that Christ commanded the church to repent, saying, “I have a few things against you, because you [allow] that woman Jezebel, which calls her­self a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication (unfaithfulness to Christ—see Rev. 17:1-2), and to eat things sacrificed to idols (partake of that which is un­holy—see I Cor. 10:20-21, II Cor. 6:14-18). Since the church failed to repent (Rev. 2:21), the Jezebel spirit continued to grow [and] there came into being the mother harlot and her daughters of compromising, unfaithful “churchianity” (Rev. 17:5). In contrast to the “widow” of the faithful remnant, the Jezebel harlot spirit boasts, “I sit a queen, and am no widow (Rev. 18:7), because she is “kept” by many worldly “lovers” (Rev. 17:2).

Meal and oil. Not only did the widow sustain Elijah, but Eli­jah ministered to the widow and provided the means for her to continue to live. But only because she PUT HIM FIRST. This is a type of how the Spirit of Christ has ministered to and kept alive the witness of His faithful ones down through this age, and especially how He is ministering to those who are diligently seeking to do His will in this end time. Because the widow was willing to obey Elijah’s command to “make me thereof a little cake first,” Elijah promised her that “the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth” (l Kings 17:13-14). The meal speaks to us of the WORD of God, and the oil of His SPIRIT. Truly the Lord is being faithful in this day to visit His hungry saints with “living bread” (see Ruth 1:6), and the oil of His Spirit is flowing freely to those whose hearts are set on Him. This is in anticipation of and preparation for the “latter rain” which the Lord is going to send on the earth.

After many days. I Kings 17:15 tells us that the widow was sus­tained “many days” by the meal and oil. Then in I Kings 18:1, we read that “after many days, the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying. Go show yourself to Ahab; and I will send rain on the earth.” In the account following, we see pictured in symbolic drama another phase of God’s plan to prepare for the coming of the “latter rain.” Elijah was not only used to minister to and sustain the widow woman, but he also came out of hiding and began to be used of God to mani­fest His might and power to the people. In the midst of the religious apostasy of his day, he gave a demonstration of the reality of his God. Surely this is also a pattern for our day, as an Elijah ministry comes forth in the power of the Spirit to make known the coming of the Lord and prepare a people with a man­ifestation of that which is vital, real and mighty through God.

On Mount Carmel. Elijah called for all the people to gather on Mount Carmel, along with the false prophets of Baal and of Asherah who ate at Jezebel’s table. There he challenged them with these words: “How long [do] you halt between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” But though I’m sure Elijah put all of the sincerity of his heart, and the “unction” of the Spirit which was on him, into this message, the record says that “the people answered him not a word” (1 Kings 18:19-21). How characteristic this is of people; and how prophetic of the day in which we live. The masses of people have heard so many sermons, and have been preached to so much, and yet by and large they remain unmoved to action. It was only after God sent fire from heaven in answer to the prayer of Elijah, that the people fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God” (I Kings 18:38-39). FIRE is a type of the Holy Spirit moving with supernat­ural power to baptize, deliver, and empower the people of God for a witness to the reality of a living Christ. Beloved, it is going to take more than just preaching in this day to a “gospel hardened” generation; it is going to take the FIRE of God’s Holy Spirit moving with “signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will” (Heb. 2:4), in order to move vast numbers out of indifference into the “valley of decision” (Joel 3:14).

The altar. Before the fire fell, Elijah had to do a preparatory work. We read in I Kings 18:30 that “he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down.” An altar was not only God’s appointed place for blood to be shed as an atonement for sins, but the altar also symbolized the consecration and dedication of the one offering the sacrifice. As Christians, our bodies are a “living sacrifice” which we offer to God on His “altar” (Rom. 12:1). The fact that the altar was broken down in Elijah’s day speaks symbolically of the lack of the heart-consecration of God’s people to do His will. Where there is no altar, there is no power of God’s Spirit (fire). Fire can only fall on that which is on the altar; where nothing is on the altar, there will be no fire. What a lesson this is for us today. Before God can move in a greater way in our midst, the “altar” of consecration must be repaired (restored) among the saints. For this very rea­son an “Elijah” ministry is going forth in this day to “stir up” the hearts of those who are willing to make the necessary sacrifice for God to fulfill that which is pictured in the story of Elijah for our day, for IT MUST COME TO PASS!

For all Israel. In repairing the altar, we read in I Kings 18:31, that Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob. This has to be very significant, when we realize that at the time of Elijah’s ministry, Israel was divided into two factions or nations, and there was much strife and warfare between them. Elijah was ministering in the north­ern kingdom, which consisted of the ten tribes which had re­volted and broken off from the ruling house of David in Jerusa­lem, under the leadership of Jereboam (see I Kings 11:26-37; 12:19-20). But Elijah was not willing to “write off” the southern kingdom and the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi. In other words, he was not “sectarian” in his thinking. His altar and sacrifice was for ALL the house of Israel. Is there not a lesson in this for us? Are not Christians divided as the people of Israel were? What is our vision, and the purpose of our sacrifice and consecration? Is it just for “our group,” “our denomination,” “our church,” or is it FOR THE WHOLE BODY OF CHRIST? In our tendency to judge and condemn, we may think of certain Christians as being so blind or “unworthy” that we are sure they will never come into what the Lord is doing. But instead of thinking “we are it,” and proudly “writing off” all the rest of God’s children, we need to pray and consecrate ourselves to the end that many will yet awaken and arise to the challenge of this hour, and let the “fire” of God’s Spirit fall on them, that they might also help “prepare THE WAY of the Lord.”

Water. After Elijah had put the sacrifice on the altar, he sat­urated it with water, so that the water ran down around the al­tar and into the trench he had dug about it (I Kings 18:32-35). There were four barrels filled and poured on three times. Three is the number of the WORD of God, and four is the number of FRUITFULNESS. In the natural, water cleanses as we use it for washing, and it refreshes as we drink it (also cleansing the in­ner body as it flushes out wastes). It is the WORD of God that cleanses (John 15:3; Eph. 5:26). It is the SPIRIT that refreshes the “inner man” of the heart as we “drink in” of God’s provis­ion (John 7:34-38; 1 Cor. 12:13), so that there is not only a deeper cleansing and purging within, but there is also an impartation and empowering, that through such “watering,” FRUIT might be brought forth to the praise of God (Eph. 3:16-20; Gal. 5:22-23). Thus Elijah set the pattern for us, as this type is fulfilled in our day. As an “acceptable sacrifice” to the Lord, we must be thoroughly saturated by the Word and the Spirit.

Evening Sacrifice. When Elijah finished preparing His burnt offering, it was the time of the evening sacrifice (I Kings 18:36). When God gave His law to Israel, He required that the priests offer two burnt sacrifices every day, one in the morning and one in the evening on behalf of all the people (Ex. 29:38-39). Must not this type also be fulfilled in this “day” (or age) of grace? The 120 who gathered in the upper room on the day of Pentecost constituted the “morning sacrifice” of this “day.” They placed themselves on God’s “altar” of consecration, wholly and com­pletely, and the FIRE of God’s Spirit came on them (Acts 2:1-4). As we approach the close of this age, it is now time for a people of God to offer themselves to God as the “evening sacrifice,” that the FIRE of God’s Spirit might come on us in a greater way than we have ever known. This MUST be, or the pattern God has given us is not true. Beloved in Christ, are YOU willing to be a part of this “evening sacrifice,” that the world may know that God is real, alive and powerful? Even now God is “answering by fire” as more and more hungry and dedicated ones place themselves on the altar and receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But this is only the preparatory stages of a greater operation and manifestation of the “fire” of God’s Spirit in and through those He is making ready through an “Eli­jah” ministry.

Abundance of rain. After God had answered Elijah by fire, the prophet went to the top of Mount Carmel, where the great sea to the west could be seen in the distance. There he cast himself to the earth and began to pray. He told his servant to go up higher and look toward the sea. This he did in response to the command of the prophet of God for six times; each time return­ing with the report that he saw nothing. But the seventh time he went and looked, he brought back the message, “Behold, there arises a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand” (I Kings 18:42-44). In God’s symbolic language, waters in the sea portray “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues” (Rev. 17:15). Clouds can symbolize people (Heb. 12:1). A little cloud such as Elijah’s servant saw would symbolize a small rem­nant ARISING TO GOD out of the nations in the present preparatory move of the Spirit. This is another way of portray­ing those who have placed themselves on God’s altar as the “evening sacrifice.” God is drawing them to Himself, even as clouds represent waters drawn from the sea, and He is pre­paring them for a mighty visitation. Elijah sent a message to Ahab and said, “There is a sound of abundance of rain” (I Kings 18:41). What a “remnant” of God’s people are now experienc­ing, as God moves by His Spirit, is only a foretaste and first-fruit of that which is coming, when the Lord shall “pour out of His Spirit on all flesh” (Joel 2:28), and there shall be an abundance of rain.

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