1 Kings 17:1-24

Summary: Starting this Sunday we’ll begin a three week series on the ministry of Elijah (subsequent weeks will cover chapters 18 and 19). At the heart of Elijah’s ministry is a conflict between God and Baal. Compromise with Baal worship ran rampant among Israel in the days of Elijah. Baal was the god of fertility, vegetation, and rain. Thus Elijah’s drought is a direct assault on Baal’s power. Each of the three miracles in this chapter demonstrates that the end of Baal worship is death and that God alone has the power to give life. Thus it is a call to Israel, and to all of us, to devote our lives to the worship of the one true God and a call away from compromise with the ‘gods’ of this world (e.g. materialism, sex, fame, comfort, independence, etc.) God’s power over death and life is manifest most clearly and definitively in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.