Finding Jesus in the Era of Elijah and Elisha (1 Kings)

Key Verse: 1 Kings 2:2-3 – “Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man. And keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances, and His testimonies, according to what is written in the law of Moses…”

Explanation: When God encouraged Joshua, He told him three times to be “strong and courageous.” David’s admonition to Solomon, as his time to die drew near, reflected that same sentiment. Yet, perhaps recognizing his own glaring shortcomings, he also implored his son to remain steadfast in obeying God and keeping His commandments.

So much of the heartache David had suffered was a direct result of his failure to adhere to that pattern in his own life. In a moment of self-indulgent voyeurism, he strayed down a path that led to adultery and murder. His warning to Solomon offers wisdom for those with ears to hear today.

Of course, no man or woman can live up to the perfection of the Law; only Christ was able to do that. But, heeding the man after God’s own heart, we can purpose to stay true to the Lord. We can endeavor to persevere—determining to humble ourselves before Him ongoingly even when we stumble and fall. David was called a man after God’s own heart not because he was blameless but because he clung to the Rock of his salvation.

John captured this truth in 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” That is not to say that as believers we are cast aside until we have confessed individual sins, but it points to the kind of contrite heart David wrote about in Psalm 51.

1 Kings 9:4-5 – “…if you will walk before Me as your father David walked…then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever…You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.”

Explanation: God appeared to Solomon the first time shortly after he ascended to the throne and said, “Ask what you wish me to give you” (1 Kings 3:5). Solomon’s request was bold but humble—and focused on the gift he would need to reign over God’s chosen people with wisdom and discernment. God was pleased with his request and gave him a wise and discerning heart—along with riches and honor.

The second time the LORD appeared to Solomon, He offered this lasting covenant. The longevity of the promise was everlasting—that is the meaning of forever. But inherent in the promise was a warning that if Solomon or his sons turned away from the LORD, He would cut off Israel from the Promised Land and the great temple Solomon built would become “a heap of ruins.”

Both promises came true. Solomon and his sons did stray grievously from the LORD, and He judged both Israel and Judah accordingly. The temple was sacked, Jerusalem was made desolate, and the people were carried off into exile. There was a terminus to the lineage of kings descended from Solomon.

But the throne of David and Solomon was established forever. And inherent within that portion of the pledge is the promise that a descendent of Solomon—a true Man after God’s own heart—would reign upon that throne. That promise pointed to Jesus Christ and awaits final fulfillment even today.

1 Kings 18:21 – “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.”

Explanation: This is the eternal question with which each person must grapple. Jacob wrestled with God and was changed. Joshua challenged the nation to choose whom they would serve. Each of us still faces that same question.

Will we hesitate between two opinions? As it’s been written, choosing not to decide still represents a choice. We either serve the true and living God or turn our back on Him and serve a host of false gods. And, like Judah and Israel before us, our own nation has known better. A foundational understanding of Biblical truth was once relatively universal, but today our culture and our national leaders are following after false gods. Clearly, the promises of greater blessing are lies that are wrecking our society at an accelerating pace.

The world does not think in these terms today. Few people prostrate themselves before gods of wood or stone they fashion with their own hands. Instead, they substitute other idols (wealth, fame, honor, position, pleasure, etc.) that inevitably lead to their own destruction. As Peter Marshall preached in his famous “Trial by Fire” sermon, the inescapable destination from a life following after Baal or any other false god is Hell.

Other Important Passage: 1 Kings 19:1-18 – [Elijah complains that only he is left. God speaks not from the strong wind, or the earthquake, or the fire, but from a gentle breath. He assures Elijah that He has preserved a remnant of 7,000 who are faithful to Him.]

Explanation: You would think that immediately after exposing the prophets of Baal and proving God’s awesome power, Elijah would have been on a spiritual high. In a sense, he was. But, just as he had to come down off the literal mountain he was on, the only place Elijah could go from that spiritual high was down.

It is disappointing to consider how quickly Elijah succumbed to fear and self-pity, causing him to flee from Jezebel and her murderous threats. He ran all the way to Beersheba and then journeyed on another day by himself into the wilderness—what we would call the desert. Then he sat down and had a world-class pity party, requesting of the Lord that he might die.

The Lord provided sustenance to propel him on his journey and led him to Horeb, the mountain of God. So, he went down from one mountain, ran into a wasteland lacking food and water, and was sent again to another mountain. Once there, the Lord spoke to him in a gentle voice, asking why he was there. God was not referring merely to Elijah’s physical presence at Horeb, and He was not ignorant of Elijah’s emotional and spiritual despondency. He was sensitive enough to let Elijah pour out the complaint of his heart.

Frankly, Elijah felt all alone. For a moment, it appeared that he was the only person willing to stay faithful to the living God. As he said, “I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”

God gently informed Elijah that there were 7,000 in Israel who had not bowed their knees to Baal and gave him a task to set his mind on. As Elijah went on his way, he immediately encountered Elisha (the young man who would take up his mantle as a prophet to Israel).

Sometimes all of us feel like we are isolated and alone. We wonder if serving the Lord is making a difference to anyone. Simply put, we get discouraged and feel sorry for ourselves. In those moments, we can take comfort in the promise given to Isaiah: “A bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish” (Isaiah 42:3). That is one reason it is imperative that we remain connected with other followers of Jesus Christ. Edward Klink poignantly summed up the blessing we know the Church (the corporate body of Christ) offers: he asserts that “a churchless Christianity has no relation to Christ.”

For those of us longing to be swept up as part of the Bride of Christ, it does beg credulity that separating ourselves from the body of Christ would not lead us to moments of isolation like Elijah experienced.

So, “let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25).

Amen!

Part 1

Tim Moore: I’ve long believed that there is much more to each book, chapter, page, and verse of the Bible than we often realize. Sometimes that’s because we simply haven’t studied enough. And sometimes it is because the Holy Spirit has not yet revealed certain truths to us. Nathan, I’m sure you’ve had the experience yourself.

Nathan Jones: Oh, I mean we have all had that experience where we are reading the Bible and all of a sudden a passage that we’ve overlooked many times just kind of leaps out of the page, and it grabs our hearts and really convicts us. And I felt that as we’ve been going through this series it is opening my eyes, more and more to where Jesus Christ, the pre-incarnate Jesus, either was there physically in person like He was say with Abraham, or Gideon. But then later we see that there are also typologies, where different symbols, the Ark of the Covenant, or different people all point to the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Tim Moore: It’s amazing how many things do point to the Gospel of Christ, and to Jesus Christ Himself. Here is another example of the beauty that eludes us until we dive into the Word of God and dig deeper as our new “Lamplighter” section describes. In Genesis 5, Moses records the genealogy that led from Adam to Noah. The men cited that lived and died thousands of years ago had names that sometimes elude us. Some of them may have even died treading water in the Flood. But if you explore the meaning of their names, you’ll come to realize that God has woven an incredible truth pointing to Himself and His Gospel, in other words His good news for mankind throughout His Word.

And I need to make this point, even as I share this insight. Nathan and I study the Word of God diligently, but we stand on the shoulders of other men and women who have shared insights that God has given to them. Many times, we cannot even remember where some nugget of understanding was gleaned; when we can we will credit the source. At all times we will praise the Lord, for our insights and the understanding ultimately flow from Him. In other words, we honor the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth.

But if you look in Genesis chapter 5 you see ten men listed in a genealogy. There is Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah. Now, these ten names again, just strike us as Hebrew names. But if you look at the meaning, Adam would mean man. Seth would mean the appointed or anointed one. Enosh is mortal or man, who is obviously frail, Nathan, and miserable, as we often experience. Kenan, sadly would mean sorrow. Mahalalel means blessed God. Jared means to descend, or descent, or shall we say, he shall come down. And then Enoch means dedicated or teaching. Methuselah, well we know Methuselah lived virtually up to the day of the Flood, so his death brought in a whole new era in human history. And Lamech means despairing, or to make low, again a very sad name. And Noah, which means to bring relief, or comfort, or rest. So, if you stretch all of these names together its like the Lord is providing a clue to His whole Gospel story revealed throughout the entirety of Scripture.

So, consider the Gospel meaning if you stretch those names and their meanings together it would be: Man is appointed to be mortal, in other words frail and miserable, to have sorrow, but the blessed God shall come down, teaching and dedicated that His death shall bring the despairing relief, comfort and rest.

Now, obviously these names stand on their own. But there is a reason God puts everything into Scripture, and I find great beauty even in that example. I’ve carried this page in my Bible for many years to tell me that there is meaning in every aspect of the Word of God.

Nathan Jones: This is one of the great arguments for the Bible being the very Word of God because there is uniformity of theme, and purpose throughout. The very fact that you can have an entire genealogy and each name works up toward pointing to the Messiah that would come, and what His work would do, just based on names, I mean that blows my mind. Not mentioning getting into the chiastic structures and all this other complicated stuff. Christophanies, and typologies, again, all pointing to Jesus, everything points to Jesus. Its like God has a giant neon sign and He is trying to say, “Mankind look at My Word, you need salvation, you need your sins forgiven, come to my Messiah, my Son Jesus Christ He died for your sins, and be saved.” So, it brings all of history from Genesis where God was with Adam and Eve and they walked, and they talked and they had fellowship with Him and they saw Him, all the way back to the end of Revelation where mankind is again with the Father, and they are walking and talking and having fellowship with Him. The whole Bible is one unified theme.

Tim Moore: It certainly is, and you know that is an important aspect that we need to understand as believers. I often ask a question: Where do you get your information? We could ask our viewers today, where do you get your information? Do you watch CNN or MSNBC or the networks, or Fox News or some other source, well, all of them contain bias, they are presenting a particular worldview. We may have our favorite news stations or the things that we like to watch, but are we really diving into Scripture? In other words, Nathan, I know people that leave their television set on all day long listening to news, and then they wonder why they are discouraged, or sometimes despairing. How much time do each of us spend diving into the Word of God, asking the Lord to illuminate our hearts with truths that He has revealed? We recently talked about Revelation in our streaming conference. How many people read Revelation and take literally its promise that if you read and heed it you will be blessed. But that same truth applies to the entirety of God’s Word, if you read it, you will be blessed.

Nathan Jones: Right God has a plan for mankind, a redemptive plan for man. Does He want to hide it? Does He want to obscure it? Do you have to spiritualize the interpretation of the Bible to get to its conclusion? Not at all. A literal interpretation of the Bible gives you God’s meaning. God wants to redeem a remnant of mankind to dwell with Him forever in perfect love. He didn’t create robots that just have to obey Him and worship Him. Even the angels got to choose the Lord or not. So, the Bible is meant to be a big unifying theme of redemption of Mankind, but all for the purpose, and I think this is what we miss often, is that everything points back to the glorification of God. It’s all about setting that relationship right where we are the creation that worships the Creator.

Tim Moore: So, really even as we study the history that is contained in some of these narrative books, like 1 Kings, really we are talking about His story, God’s story of revelation to mankind that points back to Him, and it brings glory to His Son Jesus Christ. So, Nathan tell us a little bit about 1 Kings which we are going to dive into today.

Nathan Jones: Well, 1 Kings is a wonderful book of the Bible because it gets into the history. It is one of the history books in the Old Testament. And we are seeing a passing from Samuel who was kind of the between the judges and the kings. The people cried out, “Oh, these judges we don’t think they are working. And Samuel your sons are just not good leadership material, and you are old. Hey, we would like a king like all the other nations.” Well, God was already their King; He was their perfect King. But they wanted a human being who was there leading them and going out, not someone who was in a tabernacle. And it really grieved God’s heart, and it grieved Samuel’s heart. Okay, God agreed and said, let’s have a king. So, the people pick a guy who is beautiful, and tall, and mighty, and they judged based on the outside appearance, and that was Saul, but inward Saul was a coward and he was unfaithful. He was replaced by God’s true faithful one, King David. King David then unified the tribes, conquered the enemies like the Philistines around them, and established Israel as one united nation. Now, we get to 1 Kings and we are setting the stage here, is that David is an old man, he is about to die. Certain sons are popping up saying, “Hey, I’m the new king.” And David’s wife Bathsheba is like, “No it was promised to my son Solomon.” And you can read that in 1 Kings chapter 2, how important that story was because it established then Solomon to be king, and then projects the story going forward.

Tim Moore: It certainly does. And so, the narrative arch of 1 Kings takes us from the death of David to Solomon’s expansion of the kingdom, and his building of the Temple. And then to his straying from faithfulness to God, and the subsequent division of the kingdom into two nations, very tragically. And that leads to the rise and the fall of kings in Judah and Israel, leaving off at the end of this particular book with Ahab, and to the role of the great prophet Elijah. So, this book covers about 80 years from 930 to 850 BC. And Nathan you talked about the raising up of a king. Obviously the people clamored for a king in 1 Samuel, and Samuel said that is not a very good idea, but they demanded it anyway.

Nathan Jones: Yeah. You know it’s interesting too what Samuel says to the people, he says, “Hey, if you get a king you get all the baggage that comes with it. You get a failed human government. He is going to take your sons and conscripted them. He is going to take your daughters as wives. He’s going to take a percentage of your crops. There is going to be more organized war. You know you are going to lose all these freedoms.” And that is kind of echoed in today where we hear people say, “Hey, we want security, we want government to take more control of us. We are willing to give up our freedoms for that to happen.” And that is just a repeat of history back at this time period.

Tim Moore: It certainly is. As a matter of fact, Samuel in 1 Samuel 8:10-18 offered that warning to the people and they didn’t heed his warning. They said, “We want a king! We want to be like everyone else.” And so, as you’ve already indicated Saul was not necessarily the king who was after God’s own heart. Saul started strong but then he veered grievously, grieving the Lord, and actually being cast out, and the Holy spirit was taken back from him. Then we got David, I say we, the Israelite people got David who was a king after God’s own heart, but still made grievous errors. Solomon followed, the wisest man who has ever lived and yet he strayed. And then immediately after Solomon’s death you see another son rising up who wants to be king in Israel.

So, in 1 Kings 12:10-11 his son Rehoboam acts foolishly and whereas his father had built the Temple, and obviously expanded the kingdom, you can imagine there was great taxation to do all those things, but it resulted in great expansion. So, Rehoboam has the chance to maybe take a different tact because the elders come and say, “You know we need a little break from the taxation at least.” And Rehoboam didn’t listen to the wise elders, he went after the young guys who were around him clamoring to be the next generation. And they grew up with him and said to him, in verse 10, “Thus you shall say this to the people who spoke to you, saying: ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, now you make it lighter for us!'” That was the appeal of the people. “But you should speak to them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins!” Boy, talk about chutzpah there! “Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.'” And indeed, Rehoboam tried to impose even greater burdens on the people, and that did not turn out very well for him. Samuel was exactly right.

Nathan Jones: It didn’t. You know it is funny back in my college years at Bible college we did the Walk Thru the Bible. And I don’t remember too many of all the hand signs that go with anything but I remember when we started with the three kings. And we did, we pointed to the heart and you say, Saul no heart, David full heart, and Solomon half heart. In other words, Solomon started out with a great love for the Lord, the Lord blessed him with wisdom. But then he fell to the great sin of having, what the Lord said, don’t have too much gold, do not have too many wives, and add too many horses. And so, Solomon made this fantastic, it was the biggest most productive bountiful time in Israel’s history, and so the country was wealthy and it had all the charge.

Tim Moore: How much wealth did he get on a yearly basis, Nathan? Do you remember this from 1 Kings chapter 10?

Nathan Jones: Well, if you want it in shekels and talents I can’t tell you.

Tim Moore: But the number was 666 talents of gold. So, when all this gold came in, and he had a bunch of wives as well, his heart began to stray. That number becomes critical looking forward in Bible prophecy.

Nathan Jones: 666, the Mark of the Beast, the sign of Man. So, when we get to Rehoboam, his son, you know Solomon at least had all that wisdom. For being the wisest man in the world you could pretty much say that his wives brought him down. Men aren’t very wise when it comes to women. But Rehoboam lacked any wisdom whatsoever. And so, we get to the story of Rehoboam and the people already were being taxed to death to finance Solomon’s empire, and Rehoboam is going to come and say, “Hey, I’m going to tax you more.” Well, it is interesting because then even though this is about 120 years later from Samuel, we get to the point where the people are still thinking tribally. The twelve tribes are still thinking tribally. So, ten of the tribes go north and they follow a man name Jeroboam and the other two, both Benjamin and Judah continue to stay with Rehoboam. Now, whether Rehoboam continued that tax plan or not afterwards, probably not because his wealth of people dried up there. But it divided Israel going forward. And that was a curse that God put on Solomon through the prophet. He said, “You have left me so I am going to break up your kingdom.” But the Lord always says this, “Not in your lifetime.” Which is interesting, He said that to a number of kings who when they would repent He would say, “Okay, I’m still going to destroy your kingdom, but its not going to be during your lifetime.”

Tim Moore: The mercy of God. You know if only Solomon, let alone his sons and the kings that followed him had heeded David’s words of counsel. In 1 Kings 2:1-9 that as David’s time to die drew near he realized that he was about to depart the world and he wanted to pass along wisdom to Solomon. So this is what He says beginning in verse 2, “I am going the way of all the earth. Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man.” I love that echo of the admonition made even to Joshua. Be strong and courageous.

Nathan Jones: Gird your loins.

Tim Moore: Gird your loins. “Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man.” But here is the key, “‘Keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances, and His testimonies, according to what is written in the Law of Moses, that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn, so that the Lord may carry out His promise which He spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons are careful of their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.'” Obviously, David’s descendants strayed. And yet, there would be One who would come who would completely fulfill that promise to walk before the Lord God Almighty, the Father, in truth with all His heart and with all His soul. In other words, Jesus Christ became the Man who would fulfill that promise ultimately, and we look forward to Him reigning on the throne of His father David.

Nathan Jones: Right. And that goes back to the Davidic Kingdom promise that was given to David, that there would always be someone sitting on the throne of David. Now, if a particular descendant of David failed, that didn’t negate the kingdom promise, there would always be someone on it. And even during the exile there was still always someone like Zerubbabel who could inherit it. When we get up to Jesus Christ, well, He is the ultimate fulfillment of it, there is no need for him to progeny to fulfill that, He is eternal and forever. So, the Davidic Kingdom–what is amazing that a little country, the size of New Jersey has a promise for not just the entire globe during the Millennial Kingdom, but on into the Eternal State on the New Earth. So, this is just like this little seed, or this little bud of a promise that eventually will fill the whole earth.

Tim Moore: Well, so our series is entitled, “Jesus in the Old Testament” and we see here a Messianic promise already being hinted at to David and he was given that promise. But where did Jesus appear? Where did His Shekinah Glory show up here in 1 Kings?

Nathan Jones: Well, I would go to chapter 8:10-13, and that is where we can see the big project that consumed Solomon’s life was dealing with the Temple, building the Temple. Remember that David wanted to build the Temple, that was his passion, he wanted to get the Ark out of a tent, and he wanted to put it into a temple. But God said, “David your hands are just covered in blood. You are a man of blood. It is not appropriate you do that.” So, David established all the peace of the time, and all the connections so that when it came to Solomon’s time he didn’t have to spend all his time and money worrying about war. He made an agreement with the king up in Tyre for the cedars of Lebanon. They floated them down to Joppa and brought them in to build the Temple. And it can be kind of hard reading getting through some of those chapters where it explains the measurements and all that, but if you want to talk about a typology of the kingdom of God, the throne room of God, the Temple is just a small little model of what the actual Temple of God what it will look like in the Millennial Kingdom even bigger, and then in the Eternal State. But this is where once Solomon is done building this is when the Shekinah Glory of God comes, and you can read about that in 1 Kings 8:10-13, “And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.”

Tim Moore: Oh, praise the Lord.

Nathan Jones: And we are talking about the Shekinah Glory of God. If you remember when the Israelites went into exodus, and they were led by a pillar of fire at night, which provided light and warmth, and during the day a cloud, which provided direction and shade.

Tim Moore: Yes, I love what Avi Mizrachi told us.

Nathan Jones: Yes, Avi Mizrachi taught us that. So, we talk about past programs, when he said that, that was one of those things that shook my heart when he talked about it.

Tim Moore: Exactly. That was an epiphany to both of us I think.

Nathan Jones: And so, that is where we get this is that the Shekinah Glory of God returns to the Temple. Now, tragically as we get down through Kings and Chronicles we’ll see the Shekinah Glory leave the Temple. But at that time period when the people would say, “Hey, Jerusalem can’t fall because God dwells there.” He literally did, the Holy Spirit lived inside the Holies of Holies.

Tim Moore: I think there is one other clear example that is almost counterintuitive of where Jesus Christ appears and speaks, and this is to Elijah. And so, we always look at Elijah as a great prophet, and he is. We’ll touch on that in just a moment briefly. But at one point Elijah was very discouraged. He went from the mountain top spiritually down into the valley. He fled from Jezebel after the great victory over the prophets of Baal, and he had a pity party. He felt sorry for himself; I’m the only one left. I’ll touch on that again in a moment. But the Lord finally called him to stand out in a cleft of a rock and several cataclysmic things happened. There was an earthquake, a fire, a great whirlwind, but the Lord was not in any of those. He was not in the cacophony and the chaos, instead as you read in chapter 19:11-18, the Lord came and spoke to him in a still small voice. And I think this has great application for us today. Sometimes our lives are so filled with clamor and chaos and just constant noise that we don’t have the ability to hear the still small voice of God. That’s why it is so important that we pull aside and dig into His Word, let His Holy Spirit speak to us. Shut off the TV, and all the other noise and listen to the Lord.

Nathan Jones: It’s interesting when you look at the people who were in the exodus and they went up to Mt. Sinai and Moses is like, “Hey, let’s go up to Mt. Sinai and we’re going to speak.” And they are like, “No, we don’t want to.” Because it was terrifying. The same Shekinah Glory of God had filled over Sinai, there was lightening and they heard this rumbling, they knew it was the voice of God, and it terrified the people. That’s just God’s normal talking voice, probably His normal speaking voice. So, when mankind has to interact with God we see here that is the still small voice that the prophets and the kings would hear at that time. Now, for us in the Church Age we’ve got the Bible, we can hear through the Holy Spirit inside of us. And some people say they’ve heard a still small voice. I’ve had my heart moved when I’ve read Scripture, I can honestly say I’ve never heard the voice of God talk to me. But people have experienced that. Can you imagine if we heard God as He normally talks? I think that is why we haven’t been subject to the Father yet, because you remember Moses when he wanted to see God, and God was like, “You’ll die if you see Me, so you can see My back.” Well, Moses ended up dying anyway. So, I don’t think these earthly bodies are capable of standing before the Father, so He approaches us, the Son, the pre-incarnate Jesus through that still small voice.

Tim Moore: And sometimes He approaches or did in the day and age through prophets who revealed the Word of the Lord, who said, “Thus saith the Lord.” And it is interesting even as you consider Ahab, one of the most evil kings, the most evil king who had lived up to that point in Israel, he actually decried Elijah, he didn’t want to hear from him. And in 1 Kings 22:8 he is talking about another prophet, Micaiah and he says, “Ah, here is Micaiah,” but the king says, “that is a person I do not want to hear from.” And he calls Elijah at another point a troubler of Israel. And so, these prophets were given insight that was to be revealed to the kings, and to the people whether they wanted to hear it or not. And yet, we know that sometimes the prophets themselves felt very isolated and alone.

Part 2: How Then Shall We Live? Alone!

Tim Moore: Michael Collins was arguably the loneliest man in the universe in July 1969. As Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to land on the moon and walk on its surface, he orbited by himself. Whenever his Apollo 11 Command Module would pass behind the moon, he was unable to communicate with his fellow astronauts or Mission Control back on earth, for 45 minutes each orbit.

That same year, Three Dog Night hit #5 on the Billboard chart singing, “one is the loneliest number that you’ll ever know.” Their theology is not far off, because God also said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” Throughout time, although some people prefer periods of solitude to crowded clamor, the thought of being truly alone can be overwhelming.

Immediately after his battle with the prophets of Baal, Elijah should have been on a spiritual high to match his location on Mount Carmel. Instead, he allowed fear to overwhelm him—fear of Jezebel’s retaliation and fury, fear of rejection by the same people who had just been awed into recognition of the living God, fear of being alone.

As he fled down the mountain, he descended into a pit of despair—much deeper and more sinister even than the one in Princess Bride. Elijah held his pity party and complained to God, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenants, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”

Aside from the pitiful suddenness of his discouragement on the heels of a great spiritual victory, Elijah’s candor should strike a chord in each of us. We’ve said it many times before here—left to our own devices we are “prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love.” And, even as we encounter mountaintop moments, the reality is that we will eventually pass through other valleys.

The song I just cited appeals to God to take our hearts and seal them for His courts above. He has already done that if we’ve put our trust in Jesus Christ. But He has also commanded us to unite with other believers instead of just going it alone. Just as fighter aircraft always fly in formations of two or more for what they call “mutual support,” we also need the mutual support and encouragement of brothers and sisters in Christ. And, if you assert that you are good right now, I can promise you that someone nearby is hurting and could use your support and encouragement.

God told Elijah that He had preserved 7,000 in Israel who had not bowed to Baal. As the world grows darker around us, He will preserve a remnant who remain faithful to Him. Do not forsake the gathering together with other followers of Christ. For encouragement, accountability, and admonition, we need each other.

Closing

Nathan Jones: And folks, we’d like to leave you with some resources to help you grow in your study of Jesus in the Old Testament. You can start with the key verse commentary it is a pdf document listed under every video in this series, “Jesus in the Old Testament,” on our website at christinprophecy.org. You can put the key verse passages, the key verse passages for 1 Kings Tim and I have are: 1 Kings 19:1-18, 1 Kings 18:21, 9:4-5 and 2:2-3. You can write them in there. And I think if you keep up with these by the time you get to the end of our series you’ll be surprised how it all turns out. And we’d also like to leave you with a resource too called, “Insights from Jerusalem,” it covers the Eastern Gate, the Hebrew Language, and a Walk Thru the Old City. Our founder, Dr. David Reagan produced this wonderful video to help you gain more insight into Israel. You really have to go to Israel; I think to help broaden your understanding of some of these things that we are talking about.

Tim Moore: It really brings to life the things that are revealed in Scripture, you can’t almost understand until you’ve seen and walked where Jesus walked, as we like to say on our Israel pilgrimage. But this reference, and this resource will give you a lot of insights from Jerusalem and from some of the sermons that were presented there. So, Nathan obviously our application moments, our signs of the times moments are meant to heighten people’s understanding of how the references that we’re talking about in all of these books of the Old Testament actually apply to our lives today. And if they will follow along, reading these passages and pulling out your own key verses, we know that you will receive a blessing, just as you would receive from reading and heeding the book of Revelation.

Nathan Jones: It is. It is an outstanding resource. Folks, download your copy of the key verse commentary under each episode of the “Jesus in the Old Testament” series on our website at christinprophecy.org.

Tim Moore: Well, we certainly hope that this episode and this series have been a blessing to you, and that you will keep on reading along with us. Until next week, this is Nathan Jones and Tim Moore saying, “Look up, for the Shekinah Glory of our great God and Savior, the one who defeats false prophets, and still speaks to our hearts in a still small voice is drawing near.”

End of Program