Bible Recap Week 26

This week we walk through the life and ministry of Elijah in 1 Kings, where we see God’s power displayed through three powerful miracles that remind us nothing is beyond His reach.

We begin with the resurrection of the widow’s son—a moment that reveals God’s compassion and authority over even death itself. Then we move to Mount Carmel, where Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal and God answers by fire, proving once again that He alone is the true God. After the drought ends and rain finally comes, it becomes clear that the whole nation is witnessing God’s unmistakable hand at work.

But the story doesn’t stop at victory. Elijah, after such a spiritual high, finds himself exhausted, overwhelmed, and emotionally depleted; so much so that he asks God to take his life. His struggle reminds us that even after powerful seasons of faith, we are still vulnerable to discouragement and burnout.

God meets Elijah in his lowest moment and leads him to Mount Horeb, where wind, earthquake, and fire pass by; but God is not in them. Instead, He comes in a gentle whisper. A still, small voice. An intimate presence.

It’s a profound reminder: God doesn’t only speak in the dramatic moments. Often, He draws near in quietness. Elijah needed restoration not just through power, but through presence.

As you reflect on this week, consider this: in what way are you longing to experience God’s voice today?

Transcript

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Everyone's thinking about this week. So you can live like Jesus. Love you like Jesus. I I love spending time in the world with you like this. So let's get started. So before I get started, I uh first of all want to just say welcome to podcast number 26. That means we are halfway through, friends, and uh I don't know, it's it there's a whole lot to go, but we have covered so much of I think some of the most difficult uh passages uh that to trudge through, and I just want to say uh that I'm I'm proud of you for sticking with it. Whether you're up to date or listening to the podcast or whatever, uh 26 weeks in a row for uh Bible reading is pretty exciting. This week we're looking at the remarkable moments in the life of Elijah. I chose uh just a section of the scriptures, uh, 1 Kings 17, 18, and 19, and uh learning so much around all of the other chapters, but I wanted to focus in on these three chapters and looking at the miracles, but every single one of them is a very different kind of miracle. The first miracle is the raising of a dead boy. The second is the return of rain after a devastating drought. And the third is not often talked about as a miracle, but I think it is. It's the moment that Elijah encounters God, not in the wind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire, but in the gentle whisper. And uh I think, for me, it's the last miracle that um I long for the very most in my own life. In 1 Kings 17, Elijah is staying with a widow, and God has already miraculously provided flour and oil during the famine to this widow. And while Elijah is there, tragedy strikes, and the widow's son becomes sick and dies. And Elijah takes the boy, carries him upstairs, cries out to God, and the Lord restores the child's life. We have the resurrection story, and it's a stunning moment. For the widow, everything had seemed lost at that time. Um, for a widow, the sun represented her future, her hope, her security, who was going to take care of her. Yet God demonstrates his power over the greatest enemy humanity faces, which is not an evil king of the northern kingdom, but death itself. And the miracle reminds us, and one of my God moments was that God, that nothing is beyond God's reach. He can restore what seems gone, he can breathe life into situations that we have already buried, he can do what no human being can do. Um, it's a this is a dramatic display of God's power. And uh we love stories like that. We pray for those stories, we long for those stories. Then we move into chapter 18, and Israel has been suffering through years of drought, and Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Baal was supposedly the storm god, the god of fertility, the God who controlled the rain. But yet, when the prophets of Baal cry out all day long, nothing happens. There's no voice, there's no answer, there's no fire. Then Elijah prays this simple prayer, and God sends fire from heaven. And soon afterwards, Elijah prays again and rain begins to fall. This miracle is larger than just um a family like the widow. This miracle affects the entire nation. That and God demonstrate that, demonstrates in that that He not only cares about an individual widow, but He cares about an entire nation. Not idols didn't do that, governments can't do that, economies won't do that. The Lord alone is God. Again, it's it's a spectacular moment, right? Just like raising uh the boy from the dead. Rain comes, the drought ends, the people cry out, the Lord, He is our God. It's the kind of event that would would uh dominate Facebook or social media. Everyone notices it, everyone's talking about it, everyone remembers the drought, and everyone remembers what um the rain when it came and why it came, and Elijah was a household name. But what what happens next is surprising. And even knowing this story, and know that I knew that it was coming as I was reading, it still is surprising because after this incredible victory with the widow and and with uh defeating uh the drought and the prophets of Baal, Elijah collapses emotionally and spiritually. And and the wife of the king, Queen Jezebel, threatens him, and fear overcomes Elijah, and he runs into the wilderness, and the man who stood boldly before kings now is sitting under uh a broom tree asking God to let him die. And that's a reminder to me that uh after great spiritual victories, and I tell I tell pastors this all the time, after great spiritual victories or or uh big Sundays or whatever, we have a tendency to struggle. Even after seeing God's power, uh, we can still become very weary. We can become filled with doubt. Even after the mountaintop experiences um uh the valley is still there. So God leads Elijah to Mount Horeb, and there Elijah has another encounter with God. God tells Elijah to stand on the mountain, and then comes this powerful wind, a wind so strong that um it shatters rocks, and God is not in the wind. And then comes an earthquake, and God is not in the earthquake, and then comes the fire, and God is not in the fire, and after the fire comes what many translations call a still small voice or a gentle whisper, and that's where God is. I want you to think about that. The God who sent fire from heaven, the God who raised the dead, the God who ended a drought, the God who commands winds and waves and the earth chooses to speak to Elijah in a gentle whisper. Why? Because Elijah didn't need another demonstration of God's power and of his strength. He knew God was powerful. He had seen that, but what Elijah needed was the presence of God. He needed intimacy, he needed reassurance, he needed a personal word from the Lord. He needed He needed Almighty God to be his good shepherd. And that's exactly what God did for him. If I'm honest, as I'm thinking through this whole thing, I find most people in churches long for the mountain experience, the Mount Carmel experience. They want fire, dramatic answers, unmistakable miracles. They want they want um everything to be great, and every disease healed, and every sick person made well. Um we want God to move in ways that frankly leaves us speechless. And God can do that. I believe that. God certainly can do those things. Scripture is full of those moments. But as I get older, I find myself longing for not those kind of experiences. I long for the whisper. I long for quiet moments when God meets me in prayer unexpectedly. I long for to be reading a scripture and suddenly it comes alive. When the Holy Spirit gently corrects me, when God reassures me. Last night we were in a men's group, and one of the men shared that he was really struggling and dealing with something, and and he knew that he knew that it was his own pride and his own selfishness, and and he didn't want to give in. And he said, The moment, the moment I admitted it to God that it was my selfishness or my pride, he said, a peace came over my life. That's what I longed for, my friends. When God reminds me that he is near and that he loves me, you know, the truth is man, miracles are impressive. Uh Mount Carmel was impressive. Uh but the whisper at Mount Horeb is what moved Elijah forward. I want you to say I want to say that again. Mount Carmel was impressive, but it was the whisper of God at Mount Horeb that moved Elijah forward. The fire revealed God's power, but the the the whisper revealed his heart for you and for me. And it was the whisper that sent Elijah back into ministry. Most of us think that dramatic experiences uh will create lasting transformation. Sometimes they do, oftentimes they don't. Often it's the quiet work of God that changes us most dramatically. It's the daily prayer time that nobody sees. It's the moments of scripture uh that we spend in in the Word before anyone in the house wakes up or late at night. It's the whispered conviction of the Holy Spirit. It's it's driving along in your car and a song that you've heard a hundred times speaks to you differently, and you know that God is in the car with you. It's the it's the conviction of the Holy Spirit in your life, knowing that this is God's timing. It's the general reminder of God's promises, it's the hidden places that God shows up. Those are the moments that build strength for the day. Those are the moments that create endurance for the journey of walking with God. Those are the moments that give bright hope for tomorrow. Public victories are wonderful. 40-year celebrations are wonderful. But they are not the things that will sustain you. The things that sustain me in my life are the private encounters that I have with God. As you have read these chapters this week, um, I hope you didn't miss the progression of these. God raises a dead boy, God sends rain from heaven, God defeats the prophets of Baal. Those are remarkable miracles, but perhaps the greatest miracle in Elijah's story is that God met a broken, exhausted man of God in a cave and spoke to him in a whisper. The world is full of noise, my friends. Our schedules are full of noise, our phones are full of noise. But God's still speaking. And he often speaks most clearly in the quiet in times that we can hear him. So this week, don't look for the fire, don't look for the rain, don't look for the spectacular. Just listen for the whisper of God. Because it is often in the whisper of God that we find the strength for today and the bright hope for tomorrow tomorrow. Thanks for listening. Talk to you later. Thanks so much for listening to the Water's Edge Bible recap. I look forward every week to walking in the Word with you. You can find more information about Water's Edge Church at www.watersedge.fait. And you can listen to our weekly message on any platform under the Water's Edge website or by downloading the Water's Edge app.