Join us as we read the scriptures and a daily devotion written by Don Crisp. We pray these messages will bless us all at this time.
Sat 25th July – 1 Kings 18:30-35
Categories: Don’s Daily Devotions
Sat 25th July – Read 1 Kings 18:30-35
V30: Elijah calls the people around him, and first builds up an altar of the Lord that had been knocked down. One man has commented ” how sad to see that broken and disused altar in the midst of Israel.”
V31: He takes 12 stones, symbolic of the 12 tribes, bearing the names of the sons of Jacob, whose name, we are reminded, was changed to Israel. The reference to the 12 tribes in the context of the divided kingdom perhaps reminds us that God’s true people are always one people in His sight.
V32-33: With them, he builds up the altar, has a trench dug around it, prepares the bull and the wood for the offering to the Lord – and commands 4 jars of water to be poured over it all. The people must be clear that there is no trickery in what is about to happen, only a mighty work of God. How complete is Elijah’s confidence in the Lord. He has no doubt what God can do and will do to vindicate His Name. Is this our assurance still today?
V34-35: The same thing is done a second, and then a third time, until the trench around the altar is filled with water. This water must have been a precious hoarded resource in this long drought, but Elijah is confident that God is about to act, and then will send water upon the earth again. May we look to God in these days in which we live with a similar confidence that He will act in His own time to bring the situation to an end.