Maybe it’s because I have marriage and relationships on the brain… maybe it’s because Tracey and I are immersed in The Marriage Course curriculum for our Wednesday Nite Lite teachings… but when I read of Elijah and Ahab I can’t help but think of the covenant of marriage.
I Kings 16 – II Kings 2 is a detailed and tragic account of how covenant was broken by the people of Israel. Yahweh, the one true God, had established His people and called them to follow Him exclusively. Nevertheless, Israel was easily led astray by the gods of the cultures around them. Elijah confronted and called God’s people to turn from their faithless ways. He reminded them that life with God was an exclusive relationship of covenantal love. Nevertheless, Israel would have nothing to do with it.
King Ahab was one of the pinnacle villains in Israel’s Old Testament history. Think up the most infamous movie villains and it’ll just scratch the surface of the kind of deceptive darkness both Ahab and his wife Jezebel imbibed. They were evil to the core and their hearts were cold to the winsome and convicting words of Elijah. Ahab and Jezebel chased after the fertility gods of their day and were a primary reason why the Israelites strayed in their fidelity to the Lord. The king’s actions were selfish and cruel. Although he was successful when it came to outward things (military victories, expansion of the land, builder of vast cities); Ahab was inherently lacking in the way of covenant faithfulness. Simply put, Ahab believed he could live contrary to the commands and expectations of Yahweh and get away with it.
Well… Ahab did get away with it for some time. Although Elijah was willing to confront Ahab and Jezebel, the king would simply chase him away with threats of imprisonment or death. He treated Elijah like you or I might treat a mosquito. Shooing it away or making a good try at stomping it to death. But Ahab’s covenantal faithlessness eventually did him in. He never thought it would be the case but God’s justice and judgment reached even his kingly self. He died as a result of a wayward arrow shot that caught him between the chinks in his armored mail shirt… yet somehow we know that the arrow was anything but an accident. It was the direct aim from the God of all of creation who had had enough of Ahab’s idolatrous and self-promoting ways. At the end of the day Ahab would have done well to have invited Elijah in… given him a good hearing… and then acted on what Elijah had to say. If Ahab’s heart had been soft and open to the conviction of Almighty God, the end of his life might have looked a lot different.
Although we don’t have kings and queens today or fiery prophets and horse drawn chariots… we still have to answer to the call to be faithful in our covenant with the living God. In Matthew 28 Jesus says, “Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.” God still expects faithful obedience. God still longs for our covenantal faithfulness. Will we be exclusive in our love relationship with God? If so, how will our exclusive love for the Lord inform how we live each day? Will this change everything? Take heed from the life of Ahab and Jezebel. Let their tragic lives speak into your life and mine so that the rest of our days will be filled with God’s glorious purpose and not the dead end pursuits of selfish and faithless ways.
Personal and/or small group questions:
Spend some time perusing I Kings 16 – II Kings 2.
Although Elijah, Ahab and Jezebel lived in a different culture and age… how might their lives be similar to ours?
Why is the Lord so intent on His people being exclusive in their relationship with Him? How does this inform our life with God?
In what ways is it difficult to maintain covenant faithfulness to the Lord today?
How could the Church (universal) do a better job being faithful to the Lord in our world? If we were faithful, how would this change the world?
How do you tend to react to God’s conviction in your life? Name a recent experience when the Lord challenged a particular course you were taking in your life. Did you respond positively to the Lord’s conviction? Why or why not?
Scripture Memory Verse: “How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him” (I Kings 18:21, NLT)!
