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Episode 601: In this episode, we introduce Elijah, a major prophet who emerges during a time of great wickedness under King Ahab's rule. We explore the significance of Elijah's confrontation with Ahab, emphasizing the boldness it took to declare a drought in a land that worshipped Baal, the supposed god of rain. This sets the stage for a dramatic showdown that we know is coming. We highlight the miraculous events that follow Elijah's proclamation. God instructs Elijah to hide by the Kareth brook, where he is fed by ravens—an unexpected and unclean source of sustenance. We discuss the irony of God using ravens and a foreign widow to provide for Elijah, illustrating how God often meets our needs in ways we least expect.
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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to Monday. Monday. Monday. Wow, yeah, very exciting. Yeah, Monday is a big day. You know. I was listening to that Rolling. Today and I don't know if I feel fun or practical. Maybe maybe it's going to be well, you know, boring and impractical to day. Jeff, with that, I am more fun and more practical. No, let me let me resay it. Okay, I'll be as fun and practical for the both of us today. Okay, okay, how about that. You're going up your fun practical. I was trying to say, okay, great, well this is episode six oh one, so it's about time today. It's about timed up your game. You're good. Yeah, Hey, guess what. We're both wearing vests? We are. If you're watching and you're not listening, I. Bet we both wear vests the whole week. Oh that's so true. That's so true. Have you ever watched a voice where they where they stay in the same outfit and people are like, oh, that's multiple days. It's like, no, not. Really, they shout it all in one. It's it's one. Shoot. So the funny thing is we did talk about should we bring in a change of clothes, and we're like, why even do that? Yeah, because we're lazy? Well no, because we're not that important. We're not that important. Answer, that's why. That's right. So today is a really big one. Yes, it's one of our favorite segments, huge, one of our what is it called mail bags? That's right, it is mail bags, it is. And this comes from Jake p Hi Jake. First, I would like to say how much I enjoy starting my mornings listening to you both. Thanks, Jake, that's really awesome. That's nice. Second, I have a question that would like for both of you to answer. Here's the question. What's one hobby you've always wanted to try but haven't yet. Like yet yet? We haven't yet? Right, you're only fifties. I don't know one one that we have I haven't tried yet. Yeah that's right. Yeah, so a hobby we haven't We haven't even thought about that. Are you a hobby guy? I don't think so, Like, like like it is playing pool a hobby? Yeah? I think so? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah, Well then I would say, my son and I probably play well. I just joined the league, but before the league, I would say we probably played pool three times a month, twice a month, okay, for the last twenty years together. So that's kind of your thing. Yeah, that's one of the things. Okay. So you are a little bit of a hobby guy. You like you like board games and tables. Oh yeah, I love that. I love that those are sort of hobbies, right, yeah. Yeah. So it's something that you've never done yet but you want to. Yeah, yeah, yeah yet. So here's what I would say, And I would say, for me, it'd be working with wood of some kind. Oh really, yeah, woodworking? So I you like wood working with wood. I like construction in general. Wow, And I've always thought that I would be good at it. But and so I piddle paddle around, and you know, when something needs to be done, I'll watch a YouTube video and I'll attempt it, you know, and sometimes I have to call in somebody who. Fix my nesday. I always have to or you know, I would say the majority of the time, and I'm talking like eighty five percent of the time, I usually do it myself. Yeah, So I'd like, I bet you I'd like to pick up more of that. Honestly, I think I'd like to start taking naps in the middle of the day. There you go, I've at that age now I have a hobby. Is ninety minute nap in the middle of the day. I'm getting older. Can that be qualified as a hobby? Jeff, Yeah, no. So I think one thing I've always wanted to do and I just haven't done it. And the older I get now, the more I'm not sure I'm the kind of person to do it, because I'm not very. Detailed. Yeah. Is sailing? Oh well, I love I love the idea of. Sailing, and every time I've ever been on a sailboat, I loved it, loved every minute of it. But they have you work yeah, yeah, yeah, Hey, pull this, fix that tie this. No, not like that most of the time, right yeah, and now you can kill us, right And then I like to go fast and so then you know, just another couple of degrees on the angle of the sail and suddenly we're going, you know, beyond the speed that the boat's built for. So I think, I don't know, I don't know if I'm disciplined enough to to do it. But I love every minute. Offensive, Yeah, it's very expensive. And number two, it is it is. You got to dedicate a lot of time to it. It's an all or nothing kind of. Thing, right, and I don't have that kind of time, right, that's my problem. I'm probably more built for like wave runners, yeah right, right, right to drop them in the water, go but put them back. That's probably what I'm built for. It. But every time I've ever been on a sail boat, I loved every minute of it, So I'd like the sail But you're right, it takes up time. I don't know that it's much more expensive than golfing quite honestly. Well, just owning the boat is what I was saying. Oh yeah, unless you ran. And then then if I had a guy that gave me a boat, sail boat, yeah, but I couldn't keep it. Well yeah, okay, the uh. I'm only saying that because everybody who I know who owns boats says it's incredibly expensive. Oh yeah, yeah, especially motor boats. Yeah yeah, yeah. And then I have I have a bonus one. Oh wow, good pickleball? Pickleball? You want to start playing pickleball? I think there will be a time once I get introduced to it, and once I find the margin, I think you. Have to be You're required. It's required fifty five. Yeah, you have to be fifty five years old. Oh yeah yeah, otherwise all those pickleball people beat you up just walking on things. Punk you young, punk, get off our court young to play pickleball. That's right. Yeah, even though there's no required age. I don't know. It's fun? Is it fun? Well, I've never done. I used to play tennis, not like in a league or anything, but uh, as a kid, often I would play tennis. All the time, just to send out snappy vibes. No, not the opposite of all. We were like super poor and uh, but there was a public park that was up, you know, and tennis was free because my brother Tommy would have tennis. Rackets, a bunch of tennis balls, and so. We were looking for stuff to do, and so we would grab all of his stuff and just go and just mess around. And it turns out that I liked it, and I was decent at so we did that for years and years, and then I would say, I like that, it's it's some exercise. Were you an infielder in baseball? I was third base. Yeah, I found a lot of. Infielders in baseball wind up being pretty good at tennis. You know, it's the hand eye coordination in the lateral movements. Lateral movements, yea, yeah, yeah. I was third base from the time I started in T ball all the way through high school. There was I was a relief pitcher for a seat just one season, and then then they moved me to center field and I was centerfield for the last two years in high school. That's great, so shortstop my whole life. Yeah, I played all the positions, but I always was usually a starter as. A shorts cup. And by the way, that's that's the position. Well for the lateral movements, Yeah, yeah, well I don't have that anymore. It's it's it's the position for the infield. Two years ago, we had a church softball team and then I was on and it was when I started realizing I was like forty six, I think the last time I played with the heritage, and I started feeling like I'm growing roots out of the bottom of my feet. Right, my brain goes, there goes the ball, You've got it, and then I'd be a foot away from it and go what happened, you know, and I go there goes well, because they moved me over to second base. I got demoted on my own team. Yeah, because I played baseball for years. I told Dave Wilson, a good friend of ours, I said, I said, yeah, I could play baseball, and so we I was just hired. I just moved to Michigan and he brought us all out to a field and played fast pitch, hardball baseball. Yeah. And so he put me in center field because I'm like, yeah, I was center field. He put me infield, and the first ball that came to me hopped over my head. Dave Wilson has been a guest host on the show. Yes, he has twice, which is cool. Well good. Speaking of being guest hosts and baseball flying over ahead, Elijah was fed by ravens that also flew over his head. I got there. I got there, yeah, no kidding. Yeah. So we're introducing a new guy at the last second too. You got there at the last secon. Yeah, I didn't know where I was going with it. So we're introducing a new guy today that is a profit, very significant. He is the first. Prophet that has come along in a long while he's the first and a long line of very important profits that would come after him, very very important. And you know what, he's not a minor prophet, Jeff, what is he? He's a major prophet. So major, major, major. That's funny. Okay. So we are in First King's Chapter seventeen is where you pick up with Elijah, and it says, now Elijah, who was from Tishba in Gilead, told King Ahab as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, the God I serve, there will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word. Then the Lord said to Elijah, go to the east and hide by Keareth Brook, near where it enters the Jordan River. Drink from the brook, and eat what the ravens bring you, for I have commanded them to bring you food. So Elijah did as the Lord told him, and camp beside Kereth Brook, east of Jordan. Ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he drank from the brook. But after a while the brook dried up, for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land. Well, that's the result of him make an announcement it's not going to rain. Right then, the Lord said to Elijah, go and live in the village of Zaraphath, near the city of Saidon. I've instructed a widow there to feed you. So he went to Zaraphath, and as he arrived at the gates of the village, he saw widow gathering sticks, and he asked her, would you please bring me a little water in a cup. As she was going to get it, he called to her, bring me a bite of bread too. Oops. Uh, oh, did he just ask her for a sandwich? Hey, would you get me a sandwich? But she said, I swear by the Lord your God, that I don't have a single piece of bread in the house, and I have only a handful of flour left in a jar and a little cooking oil on the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die. But Elijah said to her, don't be afraid. Go ahead and do just what you said, but make a little bread for me first, and then use what's left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again, so she said to Elijah. So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her family continued to eat for many days. There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah. Sometime later, the woman's son became sick. He grew worse and worse, and finally he died. Then she said to Elijah, Oh, man, God, what have you done to me? Have you come here to point out my sins and kill my son? But Elijah replied, give me your son, and he took the child's body from her arms, carried him up the stairs to the room where he was staying, and laid the boy on his bed. Then Elijah cried out to the Lord, Oh Lord, my God, why have you brought tragedy to this widow who has opened her home to me, causing her son to die? And he stretched himself out over the child three times and cried out to the Lord, Oh Lord, my God, please let this child's life return to him. Lord heard Elijah's prayer, and the life of the child returned and he revived. Then Elijah brought him down from the upper room and gave him to his mother. Look, he said, your son is alive. Then the woman told Elijah, now I know for sure that you are a man of God and that the Lord truly speaks through you. Well, there's just a couple quick little miracles. You know. There's sort of like three things that happened right bank bank. There's a confrontation with King Ahab, which is a pretty big one. And then there stops the ring. Well there's really four things, yeah, because then it's like, hey, go hide by a brook and get fed by birds. And then there's a third thing, which is go to this woman's house and we're going to do this miracle of flour and water and oil. And then the fourth thing is, oh, by the way, I'm going to raise your son from the dead. I raise your son from the dead. So really there's four big things here. Okay, well we covered it, surely. Did Did you notice I put on my glasses? I did see. You're reading your glass? Try even dawn on me. I'm trying reading glasses. Yeah, and is it working? Oh my word, are you kidding? Me. You can see there's there's actual letters. I would say, it's wonderful. Yeah, now again, can I get away without it? Yeah, I'm right on that border, right right, but but yeah it's pretty great. Well then you maybe maybe maybe you do qualify for pickleball. Put these on. I know you've probably tried it one before it but look. Ye see I got to get like here before it makes sense for me. Okay, well then your sight is better than mine. So okay, well, well, hey, so let's talk about weird. But it was a little weird. But I was sharing glasses for a minute. What I don't know, you. Don't we're tried on anybody else's glasses. I don't know what. Yeah, you never tried anybody else's glass. I don't know if I have. That was that was a moment for us. It's it's not an intimate thing yet, there's no intimacy. Okay, hey, so let's talk about this. The fact that Elijah confronted a hab and told him that he has control over rain. Now, why would that? Why would rain be significant? Because the note here in the Life Application Study Bible says that bail Yes was thought to be the god of rain, yes, I didn't know that. By the way, you didn't, I didn't. Yeah, So, which is so cool because for those of us who know the Bible, we know that there's going to be a big challenge, which Elijah is most famous for, where he calls down fire from the sky and he wets the offering and anyone else. Oh, come on, you're ruining it for the listener. That's true, that's true, but it's going to be epice well you know what he forget, forget what he said. It's like seeing the previews of a movie where you've seen all the good parts. Y you tu in anyway? Okay, crocodile de right right, yeah, anyway. So anyway, the point is is that Bail is the god of rain, and so Elijah decides to walk into Ahab, who is worshiping this false god of Bail under the influence of Jezebel is king, and Elijah, by the way, don't forget or excuse me. Ahab, by the way, don't forget, is the most wicked king of the Northern Kingdom that there is. It was more wicked than all of the other kings. Yes, and I read that almost to be saying, then all of them combined. That's what it seems like. But yes, yeah, and uh. And so Elijah walks in and says, hey, you want to know who has control over the rain. It's the Lord God. And so I'm going to whom I serve, And my prediction is it's not going to reign until I say so. And and turns out that it's years. And what he's really doing is he's setting up this big confrontation, right, that's right, which in years in advance. So then you know there's a tremendous amount of danger in confronting a king, especially an evil king. But any king. David was a good king, and when he got bad news, he killed a messenger. Yes all the time, right, six times? Right, So ahabs a bad king and he confronts him, and I can't I can't hardly fathom how scary that would be, right, how. Nervous you would be in that. And then. You know, now you can't go back home. It tells us where he's from. He's from Tishban and Gilead. Well, apparently everybody knew he's from tish Bur and Gilead, right, and and so it's not like it's a secret. So he can't go home now, and so I can imagine an argument he must have been having a God of Well, if I go. He's gonna kill me. All right, now, I'm gonna take care of you. So what are you gonna do? Take care of me? Just just go talk to him. So he goes and confront him. I think God goes, Okay, I got a plan. You're going to camp out by this little brook that flows into the Jordan River. Okay, Well, can I go back to my job? Right? Right? Am I going to pay my bills? Oh? You're not gonna have any bills. I'll just take care of you. How are you gonna do that? I'm gonna send birds. Birds are going to feed to you. Right. What in the world? What if I got myself into? Right? It's just it's such a bizarre So there's a couple. Of sermons in there. Number one is the idea that God told Elijah to confront Ahab years in advance for this big confrontation that we know is coming. Right. So, in other words, Elijah may not have known at this point that a big confrontation was coming, right, right. He might not He might not even even have known. Easy for me, to say. He might not have even known that there was you know, one thing was connected to the other. God just said go do this and he did. And so it's interesting because the sermon is that God knows in advance, you know, all these different things, and he wants us to take a step of obedience. Uh. And God already has a plan, and so we may not know the next step of the plan. We just know step one. Step one is the command and so go confront ahead, right, that's it, right, this might not work out well, right, but he does. And so God little little does he know. Like who would have ever thought, Hey, I bet you that God's going to send me birds? Like who would ever predict that? Nobody's going to predict that? And and uh, and it's it's sort of the same thing that God asks us to do. God asks us to take one step of faith. And sometimes we don't know why. You know, God sometimes would say here's a crazy, uh you know, act of faith. Do this or do that? H Has God ever asked you go approach this person, go pray for this person. Hey, give this person a phone call. And those are little things. But but but you don't realize that God's asking you to do something, and you do it, and you know and then and then later on you find out, Oh, that's what God was up to. Connects, connects the things that God knows in advance. The note here for First King seventeen ten says, in a nation that was required by law to care for its profits, it's ironic that God turned to ravens, which are unclean birds. Yeah, which is interesting, right. They didn't touch they didn't touch pigs, They didn't touch nothing that was unclean. Nothing, didn't touch nothing that's bad. Didn't touch nothing. Poor English. It's a good country boy, though. Hey, ravens, that's right. But they didn't touch anything that was unclean. But God used ravens which were unclean, to bring food. And then he also used a widow who was a foreigner from Jezebel's home territory. Yeah, I'm not crazy, right, that's pretty crazy. And then it says he used both the unclean bird and the foreigner from Jezebel's home territory to care for Elijah. God has help where we least expect it. He provides for us in ways that go beyond our narrow definitions or expectations. No matter how bitter are our trials or how seemingly hopeless our situation, We should look to God for God's caring touch. We may find his providence in some strange places. And that's that's what happened there for him. It's just it's a really interesting, uh, circumstance. I had a friend who had a really bad circumstance in life. He felt like he needed to do what was the right thing, but it cost him so much, and then God provided. I can't get into all the details, but God provided in a really unique way. And one of the things he had lost a car over it. So he got a new car and it was black and he called it the Raven and it was you know, God provided, and then that opened up all the doors he lost. He had lost his job, he'd lost so many things. But then God gave him the Raven and then he was able to get the job back, he was able to get all these other things right. Wow, And it was he and he totally he did the right thing. It cost him everything, and then God gave it all back and it was it was pretty and better, and so he called his car the. Raven for quite some time. That's really cool. Yeah, yeah, it's a neat meat story. So so Jesseba's hometown was was actually on the coast, and it was north of the Sea of Galilee and was also west, so it's right on the coast northwest. And I'm not sure what that would be modern day Lebanon. Maybe, uh, yeah, I'm not I'm not sure. Right, there is there a map in. Here, Yeah, it's somewhere in there. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, right up here is where it is. Yeah. So you're you're still just at Israel, okay, yeah, is there ah Fath is just blowside and you're starting to get up there. Yeah, yeah, you're in You're in Lebanon, Okay. And then and then where he told me to go hide out is just below the Sea of Galilee on the east side, which is where. The Sea of Galilee connections to the Jordan River. So this brook where he's hiding out is uh, you know, it's it's just there. And so, uh, so Elijah hides out there and then God commands the ravens, and the other sermon in there is that God has control over you know, the birds, over nature, over everything. And look at our time, so we we haven't even gotten to the oil, the oil in the flower man. Yeah, so it's all the same basic thing God provides in such unique ways. Yeah, because hey, trust God, this is what God says. I believe you're a prophet. I believe you're from God. Hey, I'm on my last meal. Anyway, what do I have to lose? Right, I'm gonna go ahead and do. If there's a chance that your God is real and that this prophecy is real, then yeah, sure, I'll make you bed first. And then God blesses this woman's faithfulness, her obedience, her trust by continuing to miraculously have her flour and oil never run out. And by the way, it didn't rain for years. Did you know that didn't rain for like two years or three years. So here's this woman who miraculously wakes up every day she has a little bit of oil, she pours it out, and then I'm not sure if it just replenished, like the drink in Thor's hand. Just never empties. It never empties with doctor range or is it or is it that she pours and then the level just stays the same. Who knows? Or maybe she goes to bed. Yeah, and and she wakes up and there's just more so. He did this through the power of God, right, which is and the Bible would talk often about the prophets how the spirit of God would come upon them. And it's interesting to me Elijah did almost all the same kind of miracles Jesus did. Right, he raised a boy from the dead, he was able to keep food going for long. Jesus did it twice in one in specific instances. Elijah did it for months and months and months. Yes, right, the same miracle consistently, NonStop. But it's always funny to me. He's such a gruff character in my mind, Like I think of his manners. Hey, could I get a drink? Yeah, sure, I'll get you drink. Hey, while you're there, could you get me sandwich? Right? And then on this one, he's like, you know what, make me some cakes? Why don't you just make me make me some bread? And she's well, you know, we were getting ready. We don't have any for hardly any flour or oil, but you know, and he goes Okay, God says, you're not going to run out. That's the one from miracle, So could you make mine first? That's what he says, Yes, yes, yes, he has such bad manners to this whole thing. But it's really funny. But I always I always read it. I always read it like that's where the act of faith comes in, because after all, sure, after all, God told Elijah, I've instructed a widow to feed you, right, So I think Elijah's going off of Elijah's going off of the word of God saying like, oh, I see what's happening. So he still was upon this widow. And who would have ever thought that she was so desperate? And think about this, How desperate do you have to be to say, like we were literally looking at each other realizing we're going to make our last meal and die. There's no water, there's a famine, you know, we have no food. You know, I'm assuming they're skinny. I'm assuming they haven't eaten and a very long time. I'm assuming they're my nursed, all these different things. They're probably sick and uh. And so the desperation is through the roof, and Elijah says, here's the act of faith. Make me make me my bread first, and and because that's what God says, and so do what God says, and God will bless you and and so and it's an amazing thing, and that, by the way that we're about to in our serious calendar at our church, we're going to teach a financial series off of this principle. It's this story, which is really cool. And then we have just a minute to talk about how Elijah it almost seems like a by the way, doesn't it Like, oh, and then by the way, the sun gets sick and died and he raised his kid to life. So so it's you know, it's it's like did did just natural things happen? And then and then God just honored Elijah for being there. Did did this happen so that Elijah could perform this miracle? It's hard to know right right, but but it's just an unbelievable thing. So God is continuing to use Elijah for great things. Maybe what God is doing is God is allowing Elijah's confidence to be built up in such a way for this confrontation, because this confrontation that he's about to do, he does it with such confidence like knowing that God, Hey, listen, whatever whatever's going to happen, I know that God's going to show up in a dramatic way because God's done. In the past. How you're tipping her hand for tomorrow. Well again, Hey, that's a big story. It's you may know the you don't want to miss. It's what we're saying. You may know the. Preview, but show up for the movie. So yeah, all. Right, Well hey, that is our time, so hopefully we will see you next time. All the Bible guys,