Message Series – Elijah
Elijah the Tishbite…that’s how he’s referred to in 1st & 2nd Kings. Elijah served the people of Israel during a time of serious soul-searching as the people of God wrestled with their identity. The people had been delivered from slavery in Egypt, been through the wilderness experience in the desert and entered the promised land – led by Moses and all under the mighty hand of God. After those experiences, they were led by a series of prophets. But the Israelites were tempted to want what the nations around them had – kings & kingdoms.
So, they asked and asked for God to give them a king (to which, God responded, “You already have one! Me!”). Finally, God relented and let them have their king. First Saul, then David, Solomon…and then a string of unpredictable leaders who went back and forth from being faithful servants of God to complete trainwrecks.
The people were subject to the back and forth nature of kings and kingdoms – always looking for power and security in the ways of the world.
But alongside the seemingly never-ending progression of these kings – good and bad – there were prophets of God. And the work of these prophets was largely to give voice to the alternative Kingdom of God, which was a constant through the transition…and which was (and is) more genuinely real and lasting than any political power, king or kingdom on the planet.
Elijah happens to serve in a time when Israel is led by one of the trainwrecks…perhaps the worst one yet (and maybe of all time): Ahab. Ahab is married to Jezebel and together they lead the people of God into all kinds of trouble.
And in the middle of the trouble, there is the man of God, ready to give witness to a deeper, truer and better reality – the reality of the Kingdom of God.
Join us for worship on Sundays this summer at 9:30 or 11am as we travel through the story of Elijah!