Scottish Baptist Lay Preachers Association

When thinking of Elijah his life and ministry I am reminded of our Lord first if we look at his name it means “the Lord He is God” he was the first in a long line of important prophets God sent to Israel and Judah and his single minded commitment to God should encourage us all.
Forbes recent article on Elijah means like Elisha we are getting a double portion God has something to say to us through His prophet. He appeared suddenly in scripture appearing before Ahab declaring God’s word and at the end of his ministry is carried to heaven in a fiery chariot.
Do we see in him the shadow of Jesus coming forth suddenly from the seclusion of Nazareth and preaching the Gospel that was to change the world forever. Even today when many Jews celebrate Passover a cup is placed upon the table with the door being left open so that Elijah may take his place. Elijah appears and disappears at different places recalls our Lord’s sudden appearance on certain occasions to His disciples.
Again Elijah reminds of Jesus in the character of his mission there was the loneliness of it, again and again he declares that he alone remains a prophet of the Lord. A solitary man from a lonely life performing miracles and warning the people of his time regarding the way they lived.
It is necessary for God’s servants who would do the right and correct the wrong to pass through some wilderness training, we all require some quiet time with God.
Then there was the object of Elijah’s mission like that of Jesus it was to turn people back to the true God the Jews who professed to worship Jehovah had wandered away from Him, when Jesus appeared the Jews appeared to honour God but inwardly their heart was far from Him, in Elijah’s day there was no rain for years, when Jesus came He offered the water of life freely and showed them a fountain opened for the cleansing of sin.
This great and lonely prophet who was to revolutionise Israel and restore the worship of God finds a home not in a palace but in the home of a widow who was starving God works with the most unlikely materials, in Jesus to whom the world was opposed, choosing as friends and disciples the poor, the humble and the needy those who gave received His blessing, Mary and Martha received His blessing when he raised Lazarus to life, just as the widow of Zarephath received her dead son alive again from the hands of Elijah.
And more than this in that first miracle of Elijah by which he fed the widow and her son miraculously in return for their kindness, we see Jesus as the bread of life. Spiritual famine is all around us today men are spending their money their life for that which is not bread, millions are starving without the bread of life, but to those who love Him Jesus provides a miraculous store which never fails.
Jesus came to a dead world as the resurrection and the life, Elijah came to serve God and the people, speaking the truth, no matter how unpopular that was. The question we have to ask ourselves is this. Do we want to be trailblazers for God?
Let us focus then on developing our relationship with God and as we do God will use us more and more.