We turn again to 1 Kings chapter 18, as we consider together verses 41 through the end of the chapter, verse 46, we'll begin reading again at verse 36, verses 41 through 46. 1 Kings 18 Hear now God's holy word. At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed, O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and have done all these things at Your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that You, O Lord, are God, and that You are turning their hearts back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, The Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is God. Then Elijah commanded them, Seize the prophets of Baal. Don't let anyone get away. They seized them. And Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there. And Elijah said to Ahab, Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain. So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground, and put his face between his knees. Go and look toward the sea, he told his servant. And he went up and looked. There is nothing there, he said. Seven times, Elijah said, go back. The seventh time, the servant reported, a cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea. So Elijah said, go and tell Ahab, hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you. Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds. The wind rose, a heavy rain came on, and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the Lord came upon Elijah and tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel. There ends the reading of God's Word. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, no doubt the place where the Lord's altar and sacrifice had been, which was now nothing but a burned hole, Showing a vivid reminder of the power of God. No doubt that burned hole was still smoldering. As all around, there was still evidence of God's judgment against idolatry. There was the bright sun shining still in the sky. There were the clear blue skies. There was the pulsing heat, even as you sometimes see the heat waves on the horizon. There was the parched ground. All the evidence of God's judgment was still there. Yes, God's people had rejected the true fountain of living water only to find out, only to experience that their covenant God is indeed a God of His Word. He withheld the rain exactly as He said He would as we consider long ago from Deuteronomy. Sadly though, we know the people hadn't recognized yet that they hadn't recognized the drought and the famine as God's judgment for their rejection. But on Mount Carmel, they were brought face to face with both their wavering, their rejection of God, and at the same time, with God's judgment, Elijah would not allow them to miss the connection between their apostasy and the drought because of it. The cause, their covenant breaking, and the effect, God's covenant wrath, were both dealt with on Carmel. Because the cause had to be removed before the effect could be undone. And that's a picture of the cross, isn't it? Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sin. He paid the penalty for the cause. He conquered Satan, thereby removing the curse of hell that was against us, the effect, and restoring His people to God, restoring His people to life eternal. And on Carmel, the Lord began to restore that covenant relationship through His fiery answer to which the people acknowledged, the Lord, He is the God. He is the One and Only. and therefore preparing them for the curse to be undone through the restoration of life. And notice, first of all, it's longed-for announcement. The people desired to hear what Elijah was about to say. A longed-for announcement flowing from the ear of faith. We often speak of the eye of faith, believing that which we cannot see, believing by faith. But notice here the ear of faith. Verse 41, And Elijah said to Ahab, Go eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain. Elijah hears the sound of a heavy rain. Now boys and girls, that's interesting because there were no clouds. There was no thunder. There wasn't even a little bit of sprinkling. There was not yet even any wind. And as well, it's clear that Elijah was the only one who hears it. He was hearing things. Today, he would probably be medicated for that. However, it was based on God's promise and faith in God's promise. You remember in chapter 18, verse 1, we read, after a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah, that's when he's still with the widow in Zarephath, go and present yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the land. Of course, from all that had taken place since that time at God's command, including the gathering of the people on the mountaintop, and including the contests, and including putting Baal's prophets to death, from all that had taken place since that time, it's clear that Elijah knew that before the rain would come, there needed to be restoration with God. So far, it was being accomplished. The people had been restored to acknowledge God, Preparing for the judgment of the drought to be removed with the announcement of the sound of rain. Music to their ears, but not just a sprinkle, not just a steady shower, the sound of heavy rain. There would be a complete reversal of the circumstances they had been suffering. The sound of heavy rain pointing to covenant blessing, pointing to life itself. We know that water represents life. There is no physical life without it. In the same way, without the living water of Jesus Christ, There is no spiritual life. There is only eternal drought and death. And the psalmist teaches us clearly that water was considered to be a blessing from the Lord. We read in Psalm 65, beginning of verse 9, You care for the land and water it. You enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water. Why? To provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it. You drench its furrows and level its ridges. You soften it with showers and bless its crops. You crown the year with your bounty and your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the desert overflow. The hills are clothed with gladness. The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain. They shout for joy and sing. All of that. The blessing because of God's blessing of rain. Elijah was so confident in God's promise that he announces that there will be restored life and he gives that announcement with instructions to celebrate. Even before there was one cloud in the sky, he tells Ahab to celebrate by eating and drinking. Go eat and drink! Now we know that when one is sad, when one is discouraged or troubled or when something is terribly wrong, often that one cannot eat. Eating and drinking is a sign of calm. It's a sign of everything being well. It's a sign of celebration. It was a sign of blessing to Ahab. It was a sign that restoration was coming to the land through the end of the drought, even as the psalmist points out. Grain. The field's covered once again. This was an announcement to the king that God's wrath had passed, That judgment is over. It was an announcement that the provision of God that Elijah had always continued to enjoy, remember, first by the ravens and then also from the hand of the widow, that the provision of God would come to the land. It would come to the people once again. The land would once again be a land flowing with milk and honey. To eat and drink is also a symbol of happiness. And I believe here it's a call to Ahab. It's a call to Ahab to rejoice. It's a call to him to give thanks to God, to know and to acknowledge that he alone is God. That he alone is the great provider. Beloved, as believers, we look forward to the eternal heavenly banquet because of God's greatest provision, Jesus Christ, the living water, the bread of life who gives life and sustains life. He has delivered His people from a spiritual wasteland and from the barren desert of sin and misery. And He has given the abundant provision of His blood and His righteousness that we by faith might be restored to and reconciled with God. A complete reversal from death to life. From God's wrath to God's never-ending favor. And for those who are in Christ Jesus by faith, We enjoy the bounty of the love and the blessing of God even today. Whether we have little in this life or whether we have much, we enjoy the bounty of the love and the blessing of God. And we have been given a small foretaste of the heavenly banquet, especially as we gather together in worship to feast upon His Word, remembering that for Jesus' sake our sins are completely atoned for and that the eternal blessing of God is ours, for which we are called to give thanks to God and to celebrate His covenant blessings for body and soul, in life and in death. Beloved, Jesus Christ is proof that we are able to have confidence in all of God's promises as Jesus is God's greatest promise ever kept for our salvation. And therefore, our confidence is that as those who are in Him by God's grace. He will keep us. He will keep us always in the palm of His hands. He will keep us safe and secure both now and forever. Ahab was called to celebrate and give thanks because of the provision of God that was coming. But we are called to always rejoice and to celebrate and give thanks to God because in Christ Jesus, it has come. And by the grace of God, those who eat and drink of Him by faith will never hunger and thirst for God's presence and God's favor again. Yet what's interesting here is that Elijah's announcement of restoration is followed secondly by his fervent prayer. By his fervent prayer for the accomplishment of this restoration. It's a paradox. It's a seeming contradiction here. Elijah, on the one hand, speaks with authority and confidence to Ahab that the rain is coming. Make no mistake about it. The rain is coming. Yet, what does he do? He goes off to pray. For what? He announced. If he was so confident, then why did he need to pray? And for what? Did Elijah ask? Well, of course, we know, but it's not necessarily specific here in the text. But James tells us in James 5, verses 17 and 18, Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again, he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. James tells us that Elijah prayed for rain. And indeed, this is what we see with the actions of the servant. The servant going off seven times. To look for what? To look for rain. Now, Elijah's prayer and his posture of prayer have many things to teach us about the doctrine of true prayer, including the humility with which we are to approach God, bowing down before Him, recognizing Him as the Supreme One, as the Sovereign God, before whom we are not worthy to stand or come into His presence. and including removing distractions. Elijah goes off by himself. Ahab goes to tend to his own personal needs. Elijah goes off to tend to the needs of the people. Removing all distractions, so that all of his focus and all of his attention might be on God. That is how we ought to come to God in prayer. Putting behind us all distractions, so that all focus and attention is on God. But also, fervency. He asks specifically for rain, And he kept on asking. We are not to grow weary, beloved, in asking of our God. Yet here, we want to consider its necessity. Again, why did he need to pray? Why did he need to ask for what God had promised? The people had already acknowledged God, so why couldn't the rain just come? Well, we are reminded here, beloved, that prayer is a necessary ingredient in that relationship between God and His people by which we ask for His will to be done. Not that we might earn or merit anything, but prayer is the means that God has given to His people by which He has determined to give us that which He has determined to give. God desires us to ask and to ask boldly. Jesus said, Ask and it will be given unto you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened. And then He went on and said, Whoever asks shall receive. Whoever seeks will find. To whoever knocks, the door will be opened. He promised rain, but that wasn't the end of the matter. He promised rain, but that didn't mean that they were just to sit back and wait for it to fall on them. His promise of rain and all of His promises to us, beloved, are meant to instruct us what to ask for. How much better could it be than to ask for what God has promised to give? As His promises are also meant to encourage us to ask believingly because all of His promises are yes and amen in Christ Jesus. And again, prayer is that means by which we demonstrate our complete and utter dependence on God. But we also see here, I believe, that prayer is a necessary part of confession and repentance which must be communicated to God. God has given us the gift of prayer by which we communicate with Him and we are called to communicate our confession and repentance to Him. It's a necessary part of confession, repentance, and restoration as the Lord Himself makes clear in 2 Chronicles 7 at Solomon's dedication of the temple. We read in verses 13 and 14, the Lord says, when I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Prayer is a necessary component of the pathway to complete restoration. However, with Ahab and Israel, we see its neglect. If we take time to rehearse the events, again, indeed, the Lord had brought the people to confess His identity. We see that the people had turned their back on Baal. We notice that Baal's prophets had been put to death according to the Word of the Lord. yet the restoration was not complete. What's missing? We don't read anything about being humbled because of or sorry for the sin that had brought them to the mountain. There was no evidence of humble prayer, no evidence of dependence upon God from Ahab or Israel. Yet the beauty here, beloved, is that we see its accomplishment through Elijah. Elijah steps in as intercessor. He throws himself at the mercy seat of God with fervent prayer on behalf of the people still totally undeserving. But on behalf of the people, he demonstrates humility before God. He demonstrates total and complete dependence upon God. Yet, Elijah prays with unshakable confidence on the firm ground that God's promises are for those who turn back to Him. As the Lord said to Solomon, I will hear. I will forgive. I will heal. That's the unshakable confidence that Paul speaks of in Romans 10 when he says, Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's our unshakable confidence. And from His fervency again too, seven times an example of waiting upon the Lord and being content with His timing. Our God promises to hear a faithful prayer of His people for Jesus' sake, calling us to be content with His answer when He answers. Six times the servant saw nothing. But the seventh time there was evidence in the third place of the refreshing blessing of the Lord's restoration of life. That refreshing blessing was evidenced indeed through that seven-fold prayer. With a fire, remember, there was no delay. No sooner did Elijah finish praying and the Lord sent his fire down as the Lord was standing guard for His own honor and his own reputation. But praying for rain, Elijah was praying for covenant blessing. He was praying for the benefits that flow from reconciliation with God. As we know, the number seven is what we call a biblical number. It represents completeness and fullness. As someone has said, it is the number of the covenant. It represents the fullness of the union of God and His people in that covenantal relationship. And therefore, this seven-fold prayer, beloved, points to complete dependence upon God. It points to blessings that can only be found in a completely restored relationship. It points to the fact that by God's grace through the intercession of Elijah, the relationship had been restored. And Elijah as intercessor for Israel, we know, points to the great intercessor, to the great prophet Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us while we were still sinners. While we were even God's enemies. Jesus Christ, our intercessor, can and does, did appear before His Father with His completed work on our behalf to present it to His Father to intercede for us. And He brings full restoration with God to His people. Oh, Elijah was used by God to restore temporary blessings of the land. But Jesus Christ restored eternal blessings. Our advocate, as John says in 1 John 2, verse 1. Our defense attorney. The one who defends us before the throne of God. Our mediator. Our go-between with God. Who speaks to the Father on our behalf. And on the basis of His perfect work, on the basis of His saving work, He brings full reconciliation between God and man. He completely and perfectly forgives our sin and He regains in full the eternal blessing for those who believe. And His work is ongoing. He always lives to intercede for us as His work is sufficient to cover all of our sins. You see, our assurance, even as we continue in this life and as we continue, as we know full well, to struggle with sin. Our assurance is that His blood never runs dry, as it were. Its power will never die. It is effective and remains effective for all of our sins. Never will we be separated from the love of God. The seventh time, verse 44, the servant reported, a cloud as small as a man's hand is rising from the sea. So Elijah said, Go and tell Ahab, Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you. Elijah knew the meaning of that small cloud. It wasn't just going to quickly evaporate. He knew that rain was not just a possibility, but that the cloud was an answer to prayer. He knew that just like in the handful of flour, That there was two years of bread, as it were. In the same way, he knew that in this small cloud was packed black clouds and wind and a heavy shower. This cloud was proof that the band had been lifted. That the curse was removed. And he also knew, no doubt, that storms can come up quickly on the Mediterranean Sea and come upon, in a surprising way, sailors who were experienced yet were unsuspecting. And without rain for three and a half years, the plant life and the vegetation life was scarce, and that rain mixed with the dust and the clay would produce a concrete-like mud in which the chariots and the horses would get stuck. Flash floods would come quickly and suddenly. Ahab had to get going. Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on, and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. indeed, the refreshing blessing of restored life. But that refreshing blessing, beloved, is not seen only just in the physical rain. It's evident in another way. It's evident by the trip to Jezreel. Verse 46, The power of the Lord came upon Elijah, and tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel. This verse has been given a variety of interesting meanings by a number of commentators, many of which seem to stretch the imagination probably where it's unhelpful to go. But I agree with those and believe with those who say that it points to the fact that God does not here completely abandon Ahab yet. He is long-suffering. He is indeed merciful to this wicked king. We know, of course, as chapter 19 will say, that Elijah still runs for his life once Ahab tells Jezebel all that had taken place. But here, at the end of chapter 18, the Lord, through his word-bearer Elijah, had not yet abandoned the king of his people. And there is a message for Ahab. On the one hand, indeed, another display of God's power as Elijah runs it as believed for approximately 14 miles, maybe give or take. But even more than that, the message is that the blessing of the Word of the Lord and the favor of the Lord of the Word could again be Ahab's to the blessing of the nation. Ahab was being called to bind himself to the Word of the Lord. As Elijah runs before Ahab, it was a reminder to Ahab that the Reformation must continue which can only be done by being in the service of the Lord and by being a servant of His Word. And notice, Elijah runs not alongside of the chariot as if to show equality. He does not run behind the chariot, but in front of the chariot. The Word of the Lord was not Ahab's servant, but Ahab was called to be a servant of the Word. Because only God through His Word leads one along the proper path. Ahab had been led to the mountain in drought by the false word of Baal's prophets, but he leaves the mountain in abundant rain led by the truth of the Word of God. Beloved Jesus Christ, the perfect suffering servant, faithfully fulfilled God's Word perfectly. And He is the righteous King who unlike Ahab who led God's people astray, Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, the one and only path to the Father. And to those who believe in Him by the grace of God, He removed the cause of our estrangement from God. He removed our eternal penalty that was from God. He restored His people to favor with God and life everlasting. And again, He always lives to intercede. He is the one who lives and reigns today. He is the one to whom we are called to submit. and we can with confidence of His best for us and of His eternal love and care over us. And He has given us His Word which announces the restoration with God through Jesus Christ. It announces clearly the Gospel, the good news of salvation guaranteed to those who prayerfully humble themselves and seek His face. He has given His Word through which the Holy Spirit continues to nourish and refresh believers with God's blessing. He has given His Word which is a lamp unto our feet and a light upon our path to guide us in our grateful living in response to His wondrous work of salvation for us. Indeed, there are many things, many teachings grasping for our attention today. And at times it seems that some are getting it. Causing us to compromise our Christian distinctiveness. Seeking to draw God's people away from the things of God toward worldly practices. But we are called to remember always that only His kingdom is forever. Anything other than the Word of God lighting one's path only leads to darkness. It only leads to eternal drought and famine and destruction. Yet today, just like with Ahab, God is long-suffering. It is still the day of salvation. Oh, it will end suddenly one day. But today is still the day of mercy. As God's call, God's promise is dependable. It is trustworthy. It is sure. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. You shall be restored to life eternal. That's our confidence in Christ Jesus. That is the message we are called to announce to the world without end. without getting tired, yet with unshakable confidence in Christ alone. Because in Jesus Christ alone, beloved, we have showers of blessing for eternity. Amen. Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, with joy and gladness in our hearts, we bow before Your throne of grace to praise Your holy name and to thank You for all that You have done for Your people in Christ Jesus for us. And Father, we thank You, Lord, that we may know these things by faith and not with any sort of doubt, but that we may have an unshakable confidence in Christ alone. We confess that sometimes we do doubt. We pray that in those times You would quickly drive away those shadows of doubt far from us. Continue to lift our eyes to the Lord Jesus Christ, God and Savior Himself and all that He has done for us. Give us strength, O Lord, as we walk from day to day. Give us encouragement. Lead us and guide us, rebuking us when necessary, admonishing us, O Lord, encouraging us, doing for us whatever it is we need through the blessing of Your Word. Father, strengthen us in that most holy faith and continue to equip us more and more as Your servants to represent You in this world. Hear our prayer, O Lord, for Jesus' sake. And in His name we pray. Amen. Thank you.