Expectations vs Reality - A Prophetic Profile of Elijah
God and His Prophets: A verse-by-verse study through the Bible’s major and minor prophetsShow Notes
Are you ever reading your Bible when God suddenly just stops you and says, “look at this”? Well, that happened to me earlier this summer. I was reading through I Kings and I got to chapter 19 where God gives Elijah some instructions. God says to Elijah In verse 15 “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. Verse 16 And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place.” So that’s well and clear. Anoint Hazael and Jehu and Elisha. Cool. But then verse 19 says this: So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, Wait, what? He skipped the first two and went straight to Elisha. In fact, Elijah didn’t anoint Hazael at all. He never anoints Jehu either. He just anointed one of the three, and totally ignored God’s command about the first two guys. And so my question as I read this was: did Elijah sin in this chapter? And if so, why? And what were the ramifications of all this? And if Elijah did sin, then why does God take him on up to heaven in a fiery chariot without dying just a few chapters later? What we’re going to find is that Elijah was supposed to learn a lesson in this chapter, and he failed to get it. He was so busy feeling sorry for himself that it went right over his head. But if you listen all the way to the end, we’ll answer all those questions I laid out, and maybe you and I can receive what Elijah missed. You’ll get all of that today on the God and His Prophets podcast.
More from God and His Prophets: A verse-by-verse study through the Bible’s major and minor prophets
Zechariah is maybe the most Jesus-focused book in the whole Old Testament. There were times while we were studying this book that I even forgot it was Old Testament. That’s how future-focused it is. And today, we’re gonna wrap it all up. So my plan for today is to recap what we’ve studied in this book, with a particular emphasis on Jesus. Let’s highlight all the places that spoke about Jesus’ first AND second comings. I’d like to share what some of my favorite episodes were here. And after that, we’ll take a look at the last six verses of chapter 14. And then: we’ll talk about which book we could study next—and give you a chance to weigh in on whether you’d even like to the podcast to continue at all. That’s what we’ll do today on the God and His Prophets podcast.
You’re probably familiar with this story from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry: Luke 4:16-20
Last week, we covered what needs to happen before Jesus returns. The Jewish people must look on Him whom they pierced and mourn. Once you understand that, you understand this demonic hatred of the Jewish people. Now you understand the spirit behind antisemitism. Now you understand why there was a holocaust. But I have some really unpleasant news to share today from Bible prophecy: Zechariah 13 tells us there will be another. Another holocaust. And … it will be twice as bad as the first one. We will learn about that today on the God and His Prophets podcast.
The first verse of the Bible, we all know it: (Genesis 1:1)
The Bible is not just a book about things that happened a long time ago. It’s a book about things that still happen today. Human nature. Spiritual realities. A God who never changes. The Bible is alive, and if you just read it as being stories about events that happened a long time ago, you’ll miss the relevance it has to your life. The Bible is a book about things that always happen. And prophecy is like that as well. Prophecy is not just about events that are going to happen someday in the future. Prophecy is about things that happen now, because the Bible is a book about things that always happen. You’ll find out what that means today on the God and His Prophets podcast.