06 September 2020
#1Kings #열왕기상19:1-18 #Hymn찬송가408

[False War] 믿는 자의 영적전쟁이란

The spiritual warfare in born again Christians is well pictured as the political one in the Old Testaments. Many people seem to confuse our real war with the social or political issues that so many false preachers apply to the populism influenced by hypocritical morals, notfrom God’s word.

Personally speaking, I really like German theologian, Pastor Dietrich Bonheoffer who was accused of trying to assassinate AdolfHitler and hanged on 9 April 1945 in Nazi prison just before the end of the Second World War. 1
Many liberal theologians have excused him for participating in political warfare, but I do not agree with them, because I believe that Bonheoffer actually did the spiritual warfare as a kind of symbolic action that Jesus did for his death on the cross.

In my expository I would like to verify that Elijah really struggled against anti God’s word movement that Israel King Ahab and his wife Jezebel led their people of Israel to worship Baal, not Jehovah’s word. In addition, these verses are so misunderstood that Elijah had a spiritual problem with excessive self pity and the coward of unbelief or psychological problem like a severe depression.

Elijah’s war was to keep the God’s word and not to Ahab and Jezebel.
Ahab was not Elijah’s foe, but was told of God’s word from Elijah whenever they met. (18:16-19, 41-46) After Elijah killed 450 Baal prophets, Jezebel had only threatened because if she had actually intended to arrest Elijah she would have sent her bailiffs and not her messenger, giving him a day’s head start,v.2. 2
In addition, verse 3 of ‘when he saw that’ was interpreted from‘when he was afraid that’ in some Hebrew manuscripts, but ‘see’ is more likely the true text and ‘he rose and went for his life,’ Elijah left the kingdom, but not because he was afraid of dying, rather, he did not wish to die at Jezebel’s hand, for that would be judged as her victory over God’s word so he begged God to take his life in verse4. 3

Elijah really looked for God’s presence because of confirmation that God’s word would win against Baal worship that had no God’s word.
Bidding for his life, Elijah sought that God’s word was right and confirmed by God himself. On the journey to mount Horeb with 40days’ fasting, Elijah did exactly the same as Moses who had received God’s word. (Exodus 19:16-22; 24:12-18; 32:31-32; 33:16-23 4 ; 5" class="scriptRef">Numbers 11:15 5 ) Verse 11-12 says that there wasn’t God’s presence in the powerful wind, an earthquake, a fire even in a gentle whisper. Verse 13, now, has a voice with God’s presence because Elijah pulled his cloak over his face 6 because whoever saw God’s face directly would be dead. Moses exactly did the same as Elijah when confirming God’s word in Exodus 33:16-23.
Real Christian always fights for God’s word and not any other issues and is strongly willing to have God’s confirmation, ‘you did good job!’

Elijah now knew God always won for his word and his people.
After Elijah had been confirmed the right place to find God’s presence, God says, ‘what are you doing here’ in Horeb as Moses had in 13 and that God’s war always won even though he might lose his life in 14. With God’s presence God confirmed his war for protecting his word because of the saved believers, saying in 16, 17, as Judgments on discarding God’s word and in 18, saving believers of 7000 remnants who kept the God’s word as Elijah did, not Baal which is nothing but mammon.

Of course, Jesus was shadowed by Elijah and won this symbolic believer’s
numbers 7,000. 7 And God gives us the belief that Jesus is the presence of God and confirms our belief on the right warfare, which leads us not to political or moral issues in Ephesians 5:12; ‘For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual force of evil in the heavenly realms.’
Rev. Guy Woo
------------
1 Wikipedia, Dietrich Bonheoffer
2 Simon J. DeVries, Word Biblical Commentary, 1 Kings (Waco: Word Books, Publisher, 1985), p. 235.
3 Dale Ralph Davis, The Wisdom and the Folly (Ross-shire: Christian Focus Publications, 2002), pp. 261-262.
4 Exodus 33:16-23, God’s grace of word was confirmed by God’s presence.
5 Numbers 11:15, Moses begged God to take his life as Elijah did.
6 Donald J. Wiseman, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, 1 and 2 Kings (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1998), p. 174.