Dangerous Times. Sermon by Arlene Lanting, August 24, 2024.
1 Kings 17 to 21 we see two very different kinds of dangerous times in Israel history. The first story is of dangerous times that come from within Israel. Persecution of the worshipers of the God as Baal and Asherah worship are enforced in the northern kingdom forcing prophets to hide and God fearing people to worship in silence, in secret. Fear reigns among God’s people where open worship of God has become almost extinct. This is the story of a lesser known Bible hero who shudders and serves at the same time. The 2nd story is dangerous times for Israel that come from outside Israel.
In the first story, fear reigns among God’s people where open worship of God has become almost extinct. This is the environment Elijah is called to serve.
Elijah warns King Ahab of a drought, which becomes a reality. The drought was consequences to King Ahab’s actions, but it does not just impact Ahab. It impacts everyone, faithful or not. People feared death due to the drought. It was this severe. They also feared death displaying an outward healthy fear of God. Fear of punishment was real from King Ahab and/or Queen Jezebel, who was every bit as evil as her husband was. So Godly people trembled with good reason. Take for example the man Obadiah.
This is not the prophet Obadiah but a servant of King Ahab who secretly feared the Lord, but dare not advertise this. Obadiah is in charge of Ahab’s household. You might say he lived a kind of double life. Obadiah was an obedient, faithful servant to King Ahab, but there was another side of Obadiah.
What does it mean to fear the Lord?
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
Yea, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Psalm 19:7-10
“The fear of God is an attitude of respect, a response of reverence and wonder. It is the only appropriate response to our Creator and Redeemer” (Nelson’s NKJV Study Bible, 1997, note on Psalm 128:1).
Obadiah feared the Lord. He lived in dangerous times. He lived in dangerous ways. Jezebel was murdering prophets of the Lord. Obadiah hid 100 prophets of the Lord in caves. He fed them and brought them water. These were dangerous times and dangerous ways results in dangerous life.
Ahab and Obadiah go together on an errand to look for grass for Ahab’s animals. They split up. Instead of finding grass, Obadiah finds Elijah. Elijah recognized him, and fell on his face, and said, “Is that you, my lord Elijah?”
“It is I. Go, tell your master, ‘Elijah is here.’ ”
“How have I sinned, that you are delivering your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me? As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to hunt for you; and when they said, ‘He is not here,’ he took an oath from the kingdom or nation that they could not find you. And now you say, ‘Go, tell your master, “Elijah is here” He will kill me!" Obadiah reacts in visceral fear.
Elijah said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely present myself to him today.” So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah. When it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?”
Elijah answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals. Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
Obadiah feared he would suffer the fate of others who were messengers. But there is no evidence he did. In actuality the Bible does not tell us the rest of the story of Obadiah. Yet Obadiah becomes part of a story immortalized in the Bible about one of the most dangerous times in the Old Testament for God fearing people.
What can we learn from Obadiah?
Obadiah had faith over fear:
- He was a follower of the Lord in dangerous times
- He hid prophets from Ahab and Jezebel
- He fed prophets despite a severe famine
He did have fears:
- He was afraid to announce Elijah
- He was afraid to die
In faith he:
- Acknowledges his fear to Elijah
- In doing this, he finds comfort, reassurance
- He steps forward to announce Elijah
- God delivers hope
Faith is not always getting it right. There is strength in acknowledgement of weakness that opens a door to comfort , hope and power beyond ourselves. This all leads to Leads to the show down at Mount Carmel between the Lord and Baal & Asherah gods.
The priests of Baal and Asherah were confident they would show superiority over the invisible God of Israel. Elijah sets up a seemingly impossible situation for the Lord to be shown as superior and yet that is exactly what happened. In Carmel the Lord demonstrated clear superiority over Baal and Asherah. This leads to a measure of tolerance for worship of the Lord once again.
In our second story the situation in Israel was much improved but dangerous times were still present. Worshippers of the true God were once again permitted to worship openly and prophets started to come out of hiding. Ahab agrees to terms with Syria to prevent war.
King Ben-Hadad is the king of Syria. Ben-Hadad simply means ‘the son of Hadad’. He is the heir of Tabrimmon, the founder of Damascus who instilled Syria with a culture of aggression. During the rule of Ben-Hadad, Syria was the most dominant region in the Western part of Asia. Ben-Hadad seized every opportunity to conquer lands and increase his control over other properties and people. He had an alliance with 32 other kings. King Ben-Hadad coveted King Ahab’s wives, children, silver, gold and possessions. Benhadad clearly saw himself the rightful, most powerful leader in the region and demanded to be recognized as such. Benhadad saw Israel as his land, and he ordered his men to search Ahab’s house for wealth and take it. He did not stop there. They were to search Ahab’s families homes, the homes of the wealthy of Israel and all the people. Benhadad in other words gave orders to pillage Israel of its wealth, with special focus on Ahab’s capitol. Ahab agrees to some terms but not the search of personal property. Ahab draws a line.
Ahab had his capitol in Samaria, where his father, King Omri had built a palace. It became known as the ivory castle, bit hilani. Ahab adorned the castle with carved ivorys. Ahab listened to the elders advice that King Ben-Hadad should not be allowed to do the things he wanted to do with their city. Archeologists have discovered the remains of the castle and some of the carved ivories. It later became the residence of governor of Assyria, Neo-Babylonia, Persia and the Hellenistic province of Samaria. The castle was perhaps one of the few places spared by the Assyrians and when they overtook Samaria. The word bit means “house,” and the word hilani means “window” (in Hebrew).
King Ben-Hadad asked his messengers to tell King Ahab that there would not be enough room in the dust where his soldiers would stand when they go into the city. King Ahab was understandably enraged and sent a reply through his messengers to tell the other king that a soldier should not brag of his victories until after the war. To give an idea of the difference between Syria and Israel’s resources in war, in the battle of Qarqar. It is recorded that Syria had 1200 chariots, 20000 infantry and 1200 cavalry. Israel had 200 chariots, 10000 infanty, no cavalry is recorded.
God tells King Ahab through God’s prophets that King Ahab should start a war against the forces of King Ben-Hadad. Ahab’s army headed towards King Ben Hadad’s forces. Eventually the Israelites, despite being outnumbered, were able to overpower their enemies, forcing them to flee, including their king. A prophet came to Ahab shortly after their victory to foretell that the Syrians would attack next spring.
As it was prophesized, the ruler of Syria led his army, fought the Israelites on the plains and lost again. The Aramean foot soldiers were wounded by hundreds of thousands by the Israelites in a day. Some of them escaped to Aphek where 27,000 of them collapsed by a wall. King Ben-Hadad went to hide in his inner room after fleeing from the city. God gave the victory to the Israelites to show that their God is not only the god of hills and mountains but also the god of all the lands, contrary to what King Ben Hadad was told.
These were dangerous times. King Ahab, recorded as a harsh ruler who did not tolerate worship of the Israelite God, yet was used by God to prevent it’s destruction at this time.
We cannot help but marvel at how our Lord works. It is why we need to be so careful not to put ourselves in His shoes and judge. Ahab goes down in history as a mighty king of Israel, but not in a positive way. Yet he was used by God to preserve the northern kingdom. He mercilessly, along with his wife, had and will continue to persecute worshipers of God.
These were dangerous times. Danger ebbed and waned. There was military and spiritual warfare in the northern kingdom of Israel. Ahab’ reign was a dark time in Israelite history. Persecution was at an all time high, that was partially abated with a showdown between gods, where it was clear there was only one God with strength.
Obadiah was an ordinary man living in a very dangerous time who did remarkable things while living in fear. We see his faith and outer fearlessness that hides what he is really feeling internally. We see this kind of fearless heroism repeated throughout the centuries by God’s people. Yet there is no doubt Obadiah did not see himself in this way. If God can work through an evil king, what more can he do with faithful people like Obadiah who serve him continually and feel called to do what is right, even if it scares them.
Faith is not always getting it right. There is strength in acknowledgement of weakness that opens a door to comfort, hope and power beyond ourselves. We live in a time of growing godlessness.
We live in a time when people worship for comfort not transformation. We live in a time that values are shifting from collective wellbeing to individual me-ism.
"I should be able to do whatever I want to do".
"I don’t care what other people think".
Despite people claiming to do whatever they deem fit, there is a rampant mental health crises, rampant loss of a sense of self, rampant and growing hatred. This is the battle of our time that largely excludes God. If it persists it will grow into something bigger.
The Bible tells us that a time of trouble repeats. Faith is not always getting it right. Remember faith over fear. Lets take comfort in the story of Obadiah. Faith is not always getting it right. There is strength in acknowledgement of weakness that opens a door to comfort , hope and power beyond ourselves. When it feels the barriers are greater than we can face, when we are afraid, let God’s strength hold us up. A strength that will prevent us from getting stuck in discouragement or fear. Let’s remember the obscure little story of Obadiah. God may just take an impossible situation and turn the tables. Ultimately God will see a different end.
Do you want power in your life? How can we be strong enough to do what scares us? How can we be brave enough to work for God? God did a miracle at Mount Carmel. Do we believe he can do a miracle today? Faith is doing what is right even if we are afraid. Strength is acknowledgment of our weaknesses. God can work with weak people. He demonstrated this over and over again.
Yet we continue to feel we are not good enough. It is this that often holds us back! That is not God speaking.
Psalms 19: 9 -14
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
Yea, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Moreover by them Your servant is warned,
And in keeping them there is great reward.
Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse us from secret faults.
Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins;
Let them not have dominion over us.
Then we shall be blameless,
And we shall be innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts
Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer.