Living Water Community Church

We explored Ahab’s acquisition of the vineyard of Naboth. We looked at how Naboth rejected Ahab’s offer to give him a better vineyard or money for it. He did this in order to remain obedient to God and the command to not permanently transfer any land to anyone. Naboth clearly wanted to honor God. Ahab went home like a little kid and pouted about it. Jezebel comforted him and told him not to worry about it, she would take care of it. She sent letters in Ahab’s name with his seal telling the leaders of Jezreel to declare a fast. This was something usually done when there was sin among the people and they needed to repent. The people gathered in anticipation of this being addressed. They set up Naboth and had false witnesses accuse him of cursing God and the king. Then they took him out and stoned him. Once this was done Jezebel told Ahab to go and take possession of his vineyard. There were a couple of important parallels in the passage. Jezebel foreshadows those who use religion itself to pervert the word of God and draw people away from the gospel. Naboth foreshadows the how Jesus was betrayed, falsely accused, taken outside of the city and killed. Ahab is just pictured as a calloused selfish man who simply wants to have a bigger garden even if it means someone has to die in order for him to have what he wants. 

We explored the last half of chapter 20. This records for us the second battle Ban-hadad had with the children of Israel. This battle was in the spring and it was staged in a valley with the idea that the God of Israel could not help them in the valley because they believed He was a God of the hills. For this very reason God promised to deliver the Syrians and the armies of their allies into the hands of the king of Israel. But it was a victory declared to be given specifically so that Ahab will know that Yahweh is the God of Israel. Ahab wins a great victory over an immense multitude with a very small army by comparison. There is even a Jericho moment when 27,000 soldiers are killed by a wall collapsing on them. This is clearly a victory given to Ahab by God. God had commanded them to destroy the Syrians. But in the end Ahab strikes a deal with Ben-hadad in exchange for some cities and trade, Ahab gives Ben-hadad his life. God’s prophet then goes and gets beat up and stages a Nathan the prophet kind of story where he tells Ahab he was guarding a key man of the enemy and was informed his life would be forfeit if he allowed him to escape. Somehow the man escaped. Ahab then declares his life is forfeit. The prophet then removes his disguise and tells Ahab this declaration he has made will be his judgement. Ahab’s response is to return home sullen and angry. Unrepentant as he always is, no matter how much God has done to reveal Himself to Him. Ahab is a truly amazing profile of the hardness of a man’s heart against God. Yet today we will continue to explore this amazing profile in being unrepentant. This had to be a really shocking profile for the people in captivity to consider. A king who saw the direct intervention of the hand of God again and again. Yet there was never any indication of repentance. Ahab simply saw God as an impediment to doing what he wanted, because of this he had no time for God. This had to be a huge warning to the people in captivity and it still carries that same message for all of us today. 

We worked through the section where Elijah calls Elisha and then moved on to the first part of chapter 20 where we have Ahab and Israel being attacked by Ben-hadad the king of Syria and 32 kings. When Elijah calls Elisha to follow him he is plowing in a field with 12 yolk of oxen. These may have been driven by multiple people working for him. But what we see is Elisha is a wealthy farmer. He sacrifices one of the yoke of oxen to really celebrate the call of God on his life and shares it with all the local people. After this he leaves the farm and goes off to assist Elijah. Meanwhile the story of the attack by the king of Syria and His fellow kings unfolds. It is a dramatic story where a new profit comes to Ahab and tells him God is going to deliver them and they will know it is by the hand of God. The point is this massive army composed of the soldiers from 33 kingdoms is routed by 232 servants who lead an army of less then 10,000. It is a truly dramatic story of deliverance which could only come from the hand of God. Ben-hadad and the kings escape on horseback as the army is driven away. 

We continued our study of prayer by looking at the how people in the Bible focused on God’s actions as a basis for engaging with Him in prayer. We looked at a bunch of passages where we see prayers or praise rooted in things like His love, faithfulness, and judgements which are cast against His creation. His love extends to the heavens. His love is like the mountains of God. His judgements are like the great deep. What we see again and again is the writers of scripture taking the time to think about God and His works and actions in ways that a vivid to our imagination. This kind of thinking can begin to infuse our own prayers with a deeper sense of connection and awe as we engage our imagination in the pursuit of God in prayer. 

We looked at the value of living an ordinary life for the glory of an extraordinary God. Don't fight for your best life now. But fight for the glory of God in whatever place God has placed you in. You can have an impact for the glory of God no matter where God has placed you. The bad news is that I am the problem and am at fault., but the good news is that Jesus has rescued me from all the evil that I am and do and has made me into a new creation in Him. 

We looked at how people in the Bible cultivated a fascination with God by looking at the Character of God. We looked at the Character of God and how the character of God draws us into praising Him because of his attributes. We looked at passages like Psalm 18 where we see the Psalmist declaring God to be his rock and fortress. The wording really gives us a sense of the Psalmist's delight in God. This contemplation of God leads us into a more emotionally and mentally engaged time of prayer.

We looked at the last event of the mount Carmel confrontation. It is Elijah telling Ahab to go eat and drink because the famine is about to end. Elijah announces this as the sound of the rushing of rain. It is pretty clear from the text this sound was not something they were hearing at that moment. What is important about this statement is the confidence Elijah has in the promise of God. God had told Elijah to go see Ahab and He would send the rain. Elijah does this and believes what God has said will happen will happen. Elijah goes and prays after this for the rain to come. We see a persistence in Elijah’s prayer. He sends his servant to look to the east for a rain cloud as he prays. He does this seven times. Until the servant returns with the announcement of a cloud in the distance the size of a man’s hand rising from the ocean. This is a points us to the importance of praying for God’s promises even when we know He is going to do something. There is still a need to pray even if we know it is going to come to pass. We see this in Jesus life as He prayed to the Father for things which were intended. We see this Revelation at the end of the book when Jesus promises He will return soon and John responds by praying, “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!” This last mount Carmel event really emphasizes the importance of consistently and earnestly praying for the things God has promised. There are a lot of reasons we can state for the importance of this but probably the most important is prayer is a means by which the glory of God is manifested. When God’s people pray and things happen it is clearly God who is seen as taking action. It is God who is glorified. This should be our heartbeat and our prayer.

We focused our attention on singing songs of Thanksgiving to God and reading different notes of Thanksgiving that the congregation had put together over the course of the last few weeks. As well as spending time in Scripture on examples of Thanksgiving being offered to God. May your heart be drawn to thankfulness towards God as you listen.

We explored the famous confrontation with the prophets of Baal on mount Carmel. It is really easy to get caught up in the details of what went on and miss the way the apex of this event is brought about in response to prayer. This is truly a confrontation between the true God of Israel and the false god Baal. Elijah stacked everything in favor of Baal. He met at their high holy place. He let the prophets of Baal take first pick of the bull to be sacrificed. He gave the prophets of Baal the first opportunity to call on their god. He prepared his own sacrifice and had it completely soaked with water. No worshipper of Baal could say Elijah didn’t give them the opportunity or make it difficult for their god to respond. But no matter what they did or how they called on the name of Baal nothing happened. Elijah appears to have really enjoyed the show because he engaged in a bit of sarcasm, suggesting their god might be on a trip, or maybe he was going to the bathroom, or couldn’t hear them and they should call louder. After all the preparations and many hours of opportunity for Baal to respond Elijah simply prays and God answers with a blast of fire so hot it consumes the sacrifice, the water, the stones of the altar and the dust under the altar. The description leaves us with the impression of a small crater as all which is left. God’s response to Elijah’s prayer was to display His power and turn the hearts of the people back to Him. This is exactly what Elijah prayed for. The people responded by declaring Yahweh is God. The penalty for those who lead the people of Israel in false worship is death according to Deuteronomy 13. Elijah called on the people to seize the prophets of Baal. They took them to the brook in the valley and slaughtered them all there. 

We explored the famous confrontation with the prophets of Baal on mount Carmel. It is really easy to get caught up in the details of what went on and miss the way the apex of this event is brought about in response to prayer. This is truly a confrontation between the true God of Israel and the false god Baal. Elijah stacked everything in favor of Baal. He met at their high holy place. He let the prophets of Baal take first pick of the bull to be sacrificed. He gave the prophets of Baal the first opportunity to call on their god. He prepared his own sacrifice and had it completely soaked with water. No worshipper of Baal could say Elijah didn’t give them the opportunity or make it difficult for their god to respond. But no matter what they did or how they called on the name of Baal nothing happened. Elijah appears to have really enjoyed the show because he engaged in a bit of sarcasm, suggesting their god might be on a trip, or maybe he was going to the bathroom, or couldn’t hear them and they should call louder. After all the preparations and many hours of opportunity for Baal to respond Elijah simply prays and God answers with a blast of fire so hot it consumes the sacrifice, the water, the stones of the altar and the dust under the altar. The description leaves us with the impression of a small crater as all which is left. God’s response to Elijah’s prayer was to display His power and turn the hearts of the people back to Him. This is exactly what Elijah prayed for. The people responded by declaring Yahweh is God. The penalty for those who lead the people of Israel in false worship is death according to Deuteronomy 13. Elijah called on the people to seize the prophets of Baal. They took them to the brook in the valley and slaughtered them all there. 

We worked through the section where Ahab met Elijah before going to Mount Carmel. In this meeting Ahab clearly lays the blame for Israel’s drought at Elijah’s feet. He calls him the troubler of Israel. Elijah doesn’t just take it but points out how Ahab is the one who has troubled Israel. He lays the problem of the drought clearly at the feet of Ahab. He points out how it was Ahab’s abandoning of the commandments of God and the following of the Baals which has caused all their problems. He then tells Ahab to gather the prophets of Baal and Asherah at Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel is a historical high place referenced by Egyptians and Assyrian documents. The Assyrians called it the Mountain of Baal of the Promontory. Dale Davis suggest it would have the been similar to calling it Baal’s Bluff. Elijah may have been setting the location at a central point of prime Baal worship. Ahab was probably thinking the goal in this meeting was to take care of the rain problem but God’s goal in this meeting was to take care of the worship problem

We explored the section which begins the famous confrontation with the prophets of Baal. There are two things really emphasized in the passage. First the importance of patience to the whole process. Elijah had really only been in two places over the course of three years. He waited on God. He rested by the brook being fed by ravens for the first part of the three years, and he rested at the widow in Zeraphath’s home for the rest of the three years. We grow easily impatient but God is always working and we see a snapshot of this as we see how He was revealing Himself to the widow and her son during this time. The Lord tells Elijah in the third year to go to Ahab and He would send rain on the earth. Elijah goes but as he is heading there Ahab calls Obadiah the head over his household to go with him to help look for water to save the horses and mules. They divide up to cover more area and start to search. Elijah meets Obadiah as he searches. This brings us to the second big point, what happens in these verses really emphasizes the way in which God works through ordinary means. Elijah tells Obadiah to go tell Ahab, “Elijah is here”. Obadiah’s response reveals how he will potentially be killed if he goes to get Ahab and Elijah is not here when he returns. Obadiah fully expects Elijah to be carried away by God because they have been looking for him for 3 years with zero success. He also reveals here how her fears God and twice how he hid 100 prophets in a cave and took care of them when Jezebel was trying to find and kill them. Obadiah has used his position as the head of Ahab’s household to serve God. He was aware of the work queen Jezebel was doing to find and kill the prophets. He used this inside knowledge to take action and move them to caves before the queen could get to them and kill them. But he not only hid them he brought them bread and water to keep them alive. God used this God fearing man in a powerful position in the house of Ahab to save His prophets. He did not use ravens or miracle jars of flour and oil. He used an ordinary God fearing man in a powerful position in the kingdom of Israel to save and provide for 100 prophets. This passage is a contrast to the miraculous provision for Elijah. In the contrast we see how God saved lives and provided for 100 out of 101 prophets through ordinary means. This emphasizes the normal way God is at work in the world. He orchestrates things and provides for His people through ordinary means. There is also a great foreshadowing of the way Jesus brings people to Himself. He uses us His bride to call people to come to Him. We see this foreshadowed in Elijah coming to Obadiah a God fearing man. Obadiah foreshadows the bride of Christ and Elijah again is a type of Christ. Here he sends the symbolic bride to go and call the symbolic pagan Ahab to come to him. All these verses really set up this picture. God could have had Elijah meet Ahab directly in the wilderness but we would not have been left with the picture which reminds us of how God works through the bride of Christ to call the world to come to Him. This does not mean they always repent but they are given the opportunity and are left without excuse.

We explored the section where the woman who is providing food and shelter for Elijah during the famine suffers the loss of her son. This is a time of real trial for her. Yet in this trial we see God working to bring greater understanding of the God of Elijah and by this a greater hope in Him. Her immediate response to the death of her son is to connect it to her own sin. Perhaps she is even connecting it to her former life as an idol worshipper. One of the gods of the Sidonians was the god Mot. Mot was the god of death. Perhaps she had worshipped this god in the past. Elijah here responds to the woman’s distress and self-condemnation by asking her to give him her son. He carries the boy into his upper chamber and cries out to the Lord. He asks God to bring the child back to life. This is a great act of faith because as far as the Biblical record is concerned we have never seen anyone brought back to life prior to this in scripture. But Elijah asks for what must have seemed impossible. Yet God hears the prayer of Elijah and gives life back to the child. Just like Yahweh has shown himself as greater then Baal by stopping the rain and dew, He shows Himself greater then Mot by bringing the boy back to life. This double confirmation brings sure knowledge of the God of Israel to this widow of Zeraphath. 

We worked through the part of Elijah’s story where the brook the Lord sent him to dried up. Elijah is recorded here as being obedient to God and staying by the dried up brook until the word of the Lord came to him and directed him to move on. When the word of the Lord did come to him the Lord sent him to Zeraphath. This was a town which belonged to Sidon and Sidon is where Jezebel’s father was king. This means Zeraphath was part of the center of Baal worship. God told Elijah He had commanded a widow there to feed him. As he approached the city he saw a woman gathering sticks and asked her to bring him a drink of water. She went to go get it and as she went Elijah asked her to bring him a piece of bread. She responded to him stating first that Yahweh his God lives. And just as He lives she has no bread baked and only a little flour and water which she intended to use for one last meal with her son before they died. It is amazing a woman in a town committed to Baal worship would acknowledge that Yahweh the God of the Jews was the living God. This really points out how the rain and dew being withheld really showed the power of the God of Israel over the power of Baal. In this woman’s eyes at least the God of the Jews had won. Elijah tells her to not fear and do as he said and Yahweh has said the flour she has will not be used up and the oil she has will not run out until Yahweh sends rain on the earth. Elijah was asking the woman to trust God and act on faith in Yahweh. The woman did exactly as Elijah asked and demonstrated her faith in the God of Israel. And God did as he spoke through Elijah and provided flour and oil for the woman, her son, and Elijah

The time of gathering to pray with your brothers and sisters in Christ is precious in the sight of God. Corporate prayer is a means by which glory is brought to God in our dependence on him and in the answers to prayer that God brings (which glorifies God in the hearts of the body of the believers who prayed together). Prayer is an awesome gift from God. May the people of God wield this gift and seek their God in prayer. God, the believer, and communication are the three core elements of prayer and the primary focus here.

We looked at the lives of three kings which are recorded for us in the book of kings but are not mentioned in the book of chronicles. This raises the question of why does the writer of kings see fit to recount these rulers to the people in exile he is writing to? The first king of the trio was named Elah. He was the son of Baasha and he ruled for 2 years and not only continued to promote idol worship but he did not lead his troops to battle but instead stayed in the capital and got drunk. He was an idol worshipping drunkard who shirked his duty to lead. His short reign and murder at the hands of Zimri shows God’s hand of judgment on him, and would have been a warning to the people. Zimri wipes out the descendants and friends of Baasha fulfilling the prophecy made about him. But Zimri faces a siege against the capital of Tirzah and burns down the palace around him and dies in the fire. His short reign of 7 days is a warning. The writer of kings tells us his reign was cut short partly because he caused Israel to sin in her idolatry. Zimri only reigned for 7 days but the worship of God is so important to God that Zimri is held responsible for not calling on the people to repent and return to the Lord. This is a real warning to readers of this book during any period of time. God will hold the leadership of people responsible for pointing their people to God. Zimri only reigned 7 days but God holds him accountable for not calling the people to return to Him. Omri laid siege to Tirzah and took over the rulership of Israel after Zimri. He was a really successful king by human standards. He established a new capital city of Samaria. He made peace with the surrounding countries including Judah. There is even an Assyrian document which refers to the northern kingdom as the land of Omri. But this king continued to worship idols and lead the people in this sinful practice. His worldly success is a total failure in the eyes of God because he failed at the most important thing; repenting and returning to the Lord. We wrapped up lost time with the death of Omri recorded for us in verse 28. While all this is happening in Israel Asa is ruling over Judah and Asa was a God fearing king in stark contrast to the idolatry which was being practiced in Israel.

We began to explore the section where Elijah is introduced to us. He just suddenly appears on the scene. In the same way that Melchizedek foreshadows the priestly ministry of Jesus Elijah foreshadows the prophetic ministry of Jesus. He suddenly comes on the scene. He calls the people to repentance and does miraculous works. He ascends into heaven at the end of his ministry. We learn from the book of James that Elijah’s prayers were basis on which the rain was withheld from the land. Elijah prayed in accordance with God’s stated judgement on those who were part of Israel who turned their back on Him. We saw this in Deuteronomy 11. Elijah went to Ahab and informed him this judgement of drought was a supernatural event brought about by God. Then after giving the message he followed the word of the Lord and lived by the brook Cherith which is east of the Jordan. During his time there the Lord had ravens bring him food and he drank from the brook. This judgement by famine is happening after many years of Israel becoming essentially a pagan nation. Elijah is sent to the people to call them to return to the Lord. His message is confirmed by the miracles he performs. 

We examined the passage dealing with the two kings of Israel in the northern kingdom which followed Jeroboam. Jeroboam’s son Nadab only reigned for 2 years and then Baasha assassinated him while he was attacking the Philistines. Baasha then went on to totally wipe out all the descendants of Jeroboam fulfilling the prophecy given by God. This prophecy had been because Jeroboam turned the people away from God leading them into idolatry. Baasha became king and continued to lead the people into idolatry. Jehu the prophet prophesied against the house of Baasha because he had continued to lead the people astray and also because he had destroyed the house of Jeroboam. What we explored in this passage is how God’s prophecy against Jeroboam had been fulfilled by Baasha but at the same time Baasha was judged for the wickedness of what he did to the house of Jeroboam. There is a tension here as God is actively  bringing judgement on sinful men even using sinful men to carry it out, but at the same time not giving sinful men a pass simply because they were the tool of His judgment. There are two things about God which really stand out in the passage. One, God is present even when it seems everything is evil or being done with evil intent. Second, God is just and will judge everyone for the evil they do, even if that evil brings about God’s decreed plan. To the people in exile this was a needed message. They were a people living among idol worshipping pagan nations. This was a reminder of the need to remain true to God and be faithful no matter what is happening around you. 

We will be dealing with a variety of questions related to heaven as we take one last journey into what scripture says about it. Because of this there is no single key passage but a variety of passages which touch on issues related to God’s revealed view on things. We will begin by exploring the question, “Will animals be in eternity?” Then move on to other questions. Will Life Become Boring in heaven? Will there be Craftsmanship and Technology in heaven? All of these things should be a means of prompting us in the here and now to think about God in eternity. 

We explored the opening section of 1 Kings 15. In the first 24 verses there is a remarkable comparison between the two kings which followed Rehoboam as rulers over Judah. Abijam Rehoboam’s son followed his father. He reigned for 3 years and continued to plunge the people into idolatry. Asa his son followed him as ruler and he reigned for 41 years and is recorded by the writer as having a heart which was wholly true to God. The reason this comparison is so important is how it points the readers to a need to be true to God from the heart. Here Asa is clearly one of the kings of Israel who drew people back to God and was blessed with a long reign. By contrast Abijam’s reign was remarkably short and he drew people away from God. When we look at these kings as recorded in Chronicles we see how Abijam appears to depend on God when going to battle against Jeroboam and Asa appears to stop depending on God as much as he became older. This does not negate the way they are laid out for us in 1 Kings. The writer of kings is focused on the heart of the kings and how the heart is what determined the direction of their reign. The writer really wants the people in exile living among a pagan people to not lose hope but to remain wholly true to God from the heart.