They confessed that Jesus is Christ, meaning that they believed Jesus was the Messiah, but like all Jews, they also knew that Malachi said that before Messiah appeared with healing in His wings, Elijah would come first. So, they asked, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” They did not yet understand that John had come in the spirit and power of Elijah.
Elisha, the next generation, picked up the mantle, and He knew who to call on. He called on the Lord God. He moved by faith, struck the waters, and the waters rolled back, left and right. This was his time now. The mantle was his; he would be anointed as the lead prophet of God to speak truth to power.
Elijah was sitting on the top of a hill. He probably saw the soldiers coming from miles away, but he did not run or hide because he was not afraid. It’s true that Elijah had gone through a valley depression, but it is also true that he came out the other side of that valley and now he’s back on the mountain.
Sometimes, it seems like evil prevails, and there is nothing we can do to stop it. We feel powerless to confront the people who are persecuting the innocent. However, God knows what is happening, and He can and will hold the wicked accountable for their deeds. It may sometimes seem like corrupt people are getting away with their evil acts, but God knows, and if not in this life, then in the next, they will answer for their evil deeds.
If we are not all in, we will not stay the course when the going gets tough and hard times come. Anyone can fake it in the good times, but who we really are is exposed when the trials and troubles of life come at us in wave after wave of adversity. When those times come (and they always do), Apostle Peter said an uncommitted person will be like a dog returning to his own vomit and a pig going back to wallowing in the mire (1Pt 2:22).
Sometimes, when we are discouraged and depressed, we begin to feel like the whole world is against us. If we let him, the devil will whisper in our ear telling us that no one likes us, no one cares about us, and that God Himself has abandoned us. That is the downward spiral of fear, futility, doubt, and discouragement. If you surrender to those emotions, they will suck you down into a bottomless debilitating pit of despair and self-pity.
Any of us can reach the point of exhaustion. We push ourselves to do all that we can do for as long as we can do it, but like a marathon runner, even great men and women of faith can hit the wall. “The wall,” is a term used in distance running. It is a place in the race where a runner feels completely emotionally and physically spent. Some runners quit right there. They say, “That’s it. I’ve got nothing left in the tank.” But other runners, experienced runners, know that it is possible to press on, to get through the wall to find what’s called their “second wind.”
He didn’t see black clouds on the horizon. He didn’t see a storm brewing over the sea. He didn’t see rain or clouds forming on the mountain. He saw one small cloud, and back to Elijah singing, “I see a small cloud rising,” and that’s all Elijah needed to hear. He said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.’”
Elijah, however, placed blame where blame belonged, saying, “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” (v. 18). The world is trying to blame the church for the world’s problems, but the world has allowed corrupt leaders to propagate corrupt policies that are inviting God’s judgment upon our nation and our world.
Satan is like a magician, using misdirection to distract us from what is really going on. He creates false narratives to get our attention over here when the real problem is right in front of our faces. There is a crisis in the world right now, and the entire drama of the campaign insanity between a president and a former president is just a sideshow. The real problem is the spiritual and demonic battle that is going on in high places. The clarion call to you today is not to be distracted by things on the periphery. As Elijah so powerfully put it, the real trouble in the kingdom was not him or even the lack of rain, the real problem was a corrupt king, and God was about to deal with that problem.
