02 August 2020
#열왕기상 #1Kings 17:1-16 #Hymn찬송가200

왕상 17:14 이스라엘의 하나님 여호와의 말씀이 나 여호와가 비를 지면에 내리는 날까지 그 통의 가루가 떨어지지 아니하고 그 병의 기름이 없어지지 아니하리라 하셨느니라.
1 Kings 17:14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land.’”(NIV)


[Cursed Church]

There was God’s anger terribly shown in the northern kingdom of Israel around 874BC to 852BC under the reign of Ahab who married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians who made the kingdom corrupt with Baal worship.
Elijah, the bearer of God’s word, was hated by King Ahab because of God’s cursed word with the famine caused by a drought to Ahab and the Israel state church. He hid himself at the brook Kerith and served by the ravens that brought him, in my view, some luxurious foods, meat and bread, every morning and evening. After that, he was also served by a poor widow at Zarephath with humble food every day in the Israelite famine.

I would like to verify from these verses why people in the church easily failed to believe God’s word and caused God much anger.

Our God is always alive not dead.
In verse 1 Elijah tells Ahab of God’s anger with Israel and that there will be a drought with no rain and dew. I would like to call your attention to Elijah saying, ‘As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives.’ He is saying ‘God is always alive but Baal that you serve is dead.’
Baal could be served whenever Israel needed rain to make the crops grow. People thought Baal was actually dead and connected with the god of death, Mot 1, but in hopes of rainy seasons with their fanatic and sexual rituals Baal could be revived to rain on Israel. In the worship of Baal, Israelites could solve their appetites of both ritual and instinct.
People in church seem to find God whenever they have got the problems for a living with the thinking that ‘this is the time of the living God I believe.’ But in the time of addiction and absorption in this world they believe God is needless.
We believe God is alive and seeing our doing, even our thinking, and taking care of us anytime, anywhere. Failing to believe the living God leads to God’s anger.

The silence of the Lord is one of His angers 2.
God commanded Elijah to hide at the brook of Kerith in verse 3.
Elijah was the bearer of God’s word in that time of Israel. His disappearing meant that God was withdrawing his word from his people 3.
There are at least more than 70 different study Bibles in the Christian world. But suspiciously almost all have not the trustworthiness of God’s written word and the historical evangelical Jesus.
Many people in church are attracted to populism of the modern trendy churches and Bible studies, because, I think, people want to hear what they want not God’s will to them.

Believing God’s word is a miracle that God gives us to keep us from God’s anger and lead us to His love.
Theophany, appearance of God, ‘the Lord, God of Israel’ 4 in verse 1 by God’s anger when Elijah spoke on a drought to Ahab and in verse 14 by God’s love when the widow was promised daily living food, can be read to us. It also adds ‘Don’t be afraid’ when Elijah with God’s word said to the widow who had not enough food to serve her family and Elijah. God promised her for a living. God who can direct ravens to bring food in a desolate brook can surely create faith in this widow’s heart because of Theophany that nobody can resist it once God’s word is shown to believers. 5
Every born again Christian has surely experienced knowing the living God in their lives and know the fear of God’s anger for their sins, but after his word of promise in Jesus on a secure living in this world and the coming world, they can enjoy God’s love.
Rev. Guy Woo

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1 Iain W. Provan, New International Biblical Commentary, 1 and 2 Kings (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1995), p. 132.
2 Dale Ralph Davis, The Wisdom and the Folly (Ross-shire: Christian Focus Publications, 2002), p. 209.
3 I owe the insight of ‘withdrawing God’s word’ to Dick Lucas’ sermon on these verses.
4 Simon J. DeVries, Word Biblical Commentary, 1Kings (Dallas: Word Books, 1985). P. 213.
5 Ibid., p. 217-8.