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.
Wed 5th August – 1 Kings 19:14-18:
Categories: Don’s Daily Devotions
Wed 5th August – Read 1 Kings 19:14-18:
V14: Out pours the same complaint, word for word. Isn’t this Elijah ” digging his heels in”, as we say. How often we do that, when we don’t want to accept what God is saying to us from His Word – yet to me the repeated complaint is surely with less conviction, though still in stubbornness.
V15: God’s response is, in effect ” Snap out of it, Elijah. I still have work for you to do. You are to anoint a new king of Syria – a remarkable instance of God’s sovereignty over the nations, in which Elijah will be His instrument.
V16: Then, to anoint a new king of Israel ( Ahab’s days are numbered, and he will not escape God’s judgement.) And then, to anoint a new prophet, who will in due time succeed Elijah himself as God’s appointed “voice to the nation”, the young man Elisha. God’s work does not depend on any one man, however greatly used by God, He will raise up the servants of His choice to continue His work – the power is His, and His work is in His own Sovereign hand. ( So, compare His word to Joshua, in Joshua 1:1-2, 5.)
V17: These men, each in his own context, will be instruments of God’s judgement. Perhaps only Elisha will be conscious of this, but compare Isaiah 10:5-7; 45:1-3.
V18: But Elijah is told his view of himself as ” the only servant of God left in Israel” is very skewed. He does not see the whole picture, but God does. How often we need this lesson too. God has 7000 in Israel who have never truly compromised with Baal worship. Elijah has looked too much at himself ( v 10/14.) – we too can be tempted to do this, especially when we are feeling “down”.