It's been a long time since I've written out what the Lord is showing me; the Lord's prompting is here this morning, though, and so I write.
Are you familiar with the old saying, "I've been through the wringer?" An online definition of that phrase is "experiencing something very difficult or unpleasant." The etymology behind the word "wringer" is "based on the literal meaning of wringer (a device that presses water from clothing that has been washed)."
Well, on several fronts, our family has "been through the wringer" the last several years. You know that experience! It's common to man, is it not? Most of us have no problem identifying with Scripture when It says in Job 5:7, "Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward."
In God's providential, perfect timing, as I'm reading through His Word once again, I believe it is no coincidence that I came this morning to 1 Kings 18. God's still small voice seemed to be whispering "Selah" all through my reading today, from the very first verse. I'm simply going to share where God caught my attention this morning, where I heard "Selah," and where He carried my thoughts. Selah is a wonderful Hebrew word that I've come to love. The compilation of the studies of many Hebrew scholars seems to arrive at this definition - “pause and calmly think about that.”
So for a few moments, I hope you'll "Selah" with me.
For many years of my life, I was immensely blessed to lead studies of God's Word with groups of fellow pilgrims - with groups of adult women, mixed groups of people much younger than I, and with my own children. I was the one who always benefited the most from those studies! God has not placed that "on my plate" for a long time, but I do miss them. Today, I hope you'll just come on into my family room and have a seat; let's take a look at this chapter together. I pray God will whisper "Selah" to your heart, and that as you follow, you'll be encouraged as I am.
My wonderful husband has done what he's done nearly every winter morning for the past 18 years. He has the glow of a radiant fire coming from both wood stoves, as well as warm air rising from the wood-burning basement furnace. This well-worn log home is warm and toasty and Jimmie's even serving coffee or hot tea. So, today I'm hosting a Bible study, like in days gone by, but of the cyber variety; so come on over, the fire's fine!
A few Selahs from 1 Kings 18
18:1 "Now it happened after many days that the Word of the Lord came..."
Looking at this 1 Kings account, Elijah had been "in the wringer" before this chapter; he'd been there "many days." The brook had dried up and there was no water in the land! (17:7) That reminds me of Psalm 63:1 - "O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water." Many days spent in that land leaves us desperately thirsty! Do you know about that thirst? I know you do, as I most certainly do, too. In addition to Elijah's former "wringer" experiences, he was going right back into the wringer in the very next chapter. But in chapter 18, the Word of the Lord came; and oh, how it came!
18:2 "Now the famine was severe in Samaria."
Does that ring your bell? You might say, "Now the famine is severe here where I live!" If that's the case, read on!
18:21 "How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him. But the people did not answer him a word."
The first thought I had here was that this sure was a good verse for anyone who claimed to be a born again Believer, a Christ-follower, and yet their life didn't match their claim. And it IS a good verse for that person. But as I "selah-ed" a bit here, the Lord opened my eyes a bit further. This is a pointed question that demands an answer from all of us - whenever we claim to trust the Lord, to believe wholeheartedly that "God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God,"and to say with certainty, "My God will supply all (my) needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus" - and yet, our actions and private thoughts are not falling in line with what we say we believe. Often I cry out to the Lord, along with the father who brought his son to Jesus for healing - “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24) My personal paraphrase of this 1 King's verse, of God speaking to me, would be something like this,
"How long will you hesitate between two opinions, daughter of Mine? If I, the Lord, am indeed your God, then follow Me, believe Me, get your actions/thinking under the authority of My Word. But if this world's belief system is really what counts, if there are some things I simply can't do, if My Word isn't really 100% reliable, if these are simply "little stories" and not relevant to life in 2014 - then follow the world's system, and go live your life without Me. Be consistent, daughter, not wishy-washy, blowing hot then cold! One way or another, take a stand. Do I cause all things in your life to work for good? Then act like it! Will I supply all your needs according to My riches in glory? Then act like it! You are a child, an heir, of the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Almighty Creator God of the universe! ACT LIKE IT!"
It also came to me that, somehow, we think by just not answering that pointed question - by putting our virtual fingers into our ears, plugging them up often with lots of activity and noise, and refusing to deal with that question - that we manage to "get off the hook," so to speak. In reality, as we "answer not a word," we are shouting our answer loud and clear. Selah. "Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!"
18:34-35 "Fill four pitchers with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood ... Do it a second time ... Do it a third time ... and they did... The water flowed around the altar and he also filled the trench with water."
When I came to these verses, they just lit up, nearly jumping off the page. The word "Selah" didn't whisper here; it shouted!
How probable is it that you could burn wood that had been soaked with four pitchers of water? Even just one soaking with that much water would make it humanly impossible to light that fire! You may not have had much experience with building fires, but when you live in a home with wood fires as the only source of heat, you learn a lot. Many times, I've scouted around outside for kindling after a heavy rain - finding only soaked wood. It is impossible to get the fire started without also using dry wood or paper along with it. The selah I heard here caused me to realize these four pitchers of water represented all the circumstances that render some situation in my life seemingly IMPOSSIBLE to fix - four pitchers full of "impossible-ness" all over that piece of life. "Is it something that God's Word has an opinion about? Something that the principles of God's Word speak to? Yes, it is. But don't even go there; it's impossible!" That's where those four pitchers of water lead my thinking.
But read on. "And he said, 'Do it a second time,' and they did..." Get the picture here. The wood is already soaked; it's dripping with water - and now four more pitchers are poured all over it. Life circumstances and events have already rendered some life situation impossible to "fix." Then along come four more pitchers of "impossible-ness." It seems as if God is just kicking a man when he's already down! The handle of the wringer is turned once again, and "Why, God?!" is wrung from our downtrodden, broken, and shattered hearts. Often still reeling from that second devastating turn of the wringer, that handle once again grinds into action and pulls us into it's crushing wheels again ... a third time! It is now beyond impossible.
The dictionary definition of impossible reads, "not able to occur, exist, or be done." Now that prayer-plea from your crushed heart is BEYOND being unable to even exist! That heartbreak in your life now has 12 pitchers of impossible-ness soaking it; impossible-ness is dripping from it. And as if that were not enough, the water has now flowed into the surrounding areas of your life, not just the specific one you've been praying for. There's now a trench encircling your heartbroken plea to the Father that is also full of fire-quenching water ... flowing with a myriad of reasons why it couldn't possibly be God's will to answer your cry, because, obviously, any reasonable person could clearly see that it is now impossible for this situation to be changed. Indeed, too much water has flowed under that proverbial bridge!
Notice the dictionary definition of "impossible" uses the word "exist." Impossible means not being able to even exist. I immediately thought of Genesis. In the beginning, God simply spoke, and it was so. God created, out of nothing, whatever He chose to create, by simply speaking the word. I also thought of the many instances we read about in Scripture where Jesus brought someone who was dead back to life. He was the authority over death when He cried, "Lazarus, come forth!" He conquered death once and for all when He walked out of His own tomb. "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is still the authority over death! Conclusion: Something that is absolutely DEAD is absolutely NO problem for our death-defying God! Nothing will be impossible with God; no word from Him will ever fail. (Luke 1:37) And on that promise, we can stand.
18:36-38
These verses have the power to put us "on shouting ground," as my daddy used to say! Elijah, looking at his water-soaked wood - three times soaked - with the surrounding trench also being filled with water, began to pray:
"O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and I have done all these things at Your Word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that You, O Lord, are God...!"
And THEN, the fire of the Lord fell! What a sight that must have been! "Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench." God seemed to whisper to my heart this morning:
"Nothing is impossible for Me, daughter of Mine. Anything in line with My will, in line with the principles of My Word, I am pleased to do when you cry out to me with your whole heart, believing that I will, indeed, do what I say I'll do ... that I am, indeed, Who I say I am. And when I, the great I AM, choose to act, there will be no mistaking that it is I Who has done it! My action will not only affect your soaked 'wood,' but also the surrounding areas of your life - even areas that you haven't even prayed about! Behold, all will become new!"
Look at these verses again. The issue highlighted by the pouring of all those pitchers of water was that the wood - once a flammable substance - was now being utterly soaked...being rendered inflammable by the flowing water. Then it was rendered even more inflammable as more pitchers were poured, and then yet a third time. But here in verse 38, when God moved His mighty Hand, even naturally inflammable substances were consumed by His fire - stones and dust! When the fire of God falls, nothing is left unchanged.
The last Selah of my morning came from the final scene in Chapter 18. Elijah has heard the "sound of the roar of a heavy shower," here in this land that has experienced a long, severe famine, where no rain fell. My heart cries, "O God, give me ears to hear that roar!"
Then verse 43 begins a scenario that really speaks to my soul. Elijah tells his servant, "Go up now, look toward the sea." He's looking for some small indication that rain is coming ... some sure hope that his prayer is to be answered - the prayer for rain. The servant goes to look, but brings back the discouraged report, "There is nothing." I can so identify with that; can you? I look, I search, I frantically grab up the virtual binoculars as I search high and low for SOME sign that God is about to answer my long-standing plea. But I come back with the obvious report, "There is nothing." Then Elijah says, "Go back." The report comes once again, "There is nothing." Six times, the seemingly hopeless report comes back, "There is NOTHING." In my mind's eye, I can hear that faithful servant, in his frustration and despair, screaming out those words, "THERE IS NOTHING!" And I cry out to God, "Oh, Father, please God, don't let me stop at six times!"
Now here comes that shouting ground we talked about! "It came about at the seventh time, that he said, 'Behold, a cloud as small as a man's hand is coming up from the sea." What a verse! Can't you just see that servant guy, gasping when he first thinks he sees it, squinting his eyes and taking a second look, then sprinting back to Elijah, so excited he can barely speak, but then gushes out his report, "Behold, a...a....a.......a CLOUD!" It was nothing big, just a small cloud - as small as a man's hand. Nothing that we might think of as God-sized. Perhaps tiny clouds like that had been seen before (like we read about in the Dust Bowl days of our own nation), getting everyone's hopes up that it would finally rain, only to soon disappear, evaporating into the heat of the sun, without one drop falling from the leaden sky. But this time, THIS time ... Elijah KNEW!
"And (Elijah) said, "Go up, say to Ahab (the unbeliever), 'Prepare your chariot and go down, so that the heavy shower does not stop you!' In a little while, the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy shower. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. Then the Hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and outran Ahab to Jezreel."
That had to have been a run like never before - a run that Elijah never forgot! I think he must have had an Eric Liddel moment - centuries before that great Olympian said, "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure." Elijah must, indeed, have felt God's pleasure as he made that run!
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My prayer: God help me, help each one that You bring to these pages, to: 1) refuse to hesitate any longer between two opinions, and 2) recognize the water, the pitchers filled with "impossible-ness," for what it is - simply circumstances that God is purposefully allowing in order that His glory and power might shine forth all the more brilliantly in this dark world ... that when He moves His Hand, ALL will see, and know that He is God! God, give your seeking children both eyes to see and ears to hear. Allow our hard-of-hearing ears to pick up on the "roar" before we ever see the cloud. And Father, help us...enable us...strengthen us - that we might refuse to stop making those often arduous trips up to the viewpoint, watching for that small cloud on the distant horizon. The verse uses the word "up." It reads, "Go up!" It's a climb! Lord God, Shepherd of our souls, keep us climbing until You answer ... in Your own time, in Your own way. Teach us endurance Lord, to run the race you set before us ... climbing the mountain with our hand in Yours. Amen and Amen..."
