Obadiah and Elijah are us!

1.Have you ever been down in your service and think, Lord I have done enough, I just can't do anymore, the cost is too great. I have done enough?

Let's take a particular interaction between Obadiah and Elijah.

Elijah has prayed and God has shut up water so that there is a drought. Ahab is now searching for Elisha, he wants to hold him accountable for the trouble Elijah has caused.

Obadiah, of the service of Ahab, a man who feared God, and hid prophets of the Lord by 2 sets of 50 in caves to keep Ahab and Jezebel from killing them. So he is a Godly man in the service of an ungodly man.

Obadiah and Ahab split up to search for Elijah, and lo and behold Elijah appears to Obadiah.

1Ki 18:7  And as Obadiah was in the way, behold, Elijah met him: and he knew him, and fell on his face, and said, Art thou that my lord Elijah? 

1Ki 18:8  And he answered him, I am: go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here. 

1Ki 18:9  And he said, What have I sinned, that thou wouldest deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab, to slay me? 

Obadiah meets Elijah, knew it was him by description but then has it confirmed that it is he, Elijah. Then when told to go to Ahab Obadiah questions why, He knows the wrath of Ahab towards Elijah and what would probably happen after he leaves Elijah's presence.

1Ki 18:10  As the LORD thy God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom, whither my lord hath not sent to seek thee: and when they said, He is not there; he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they found thee not. 

1Ki 18:11  And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here. 

1Ki 18:12  And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the LORD shall carry thee whither I know not; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me: but I thy servant fear the LORD from my youth. 

Obadiah recounts to Elijah the actions and intensity of the search Ahab has put on for Elijah. Then he makes sure Elijah knows exactly the position that Elijah's words are putting him in. Obadiah, while a devout God fearing man also happened to like his own life. I don't say this to the detriment of Obadiah, I say it to those who have questioned in light of their own selves and their positions. Are we not all human with all the same questions and fears?

1Ki 18:13  Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the LORD, how I hid an hundred men of the LORD'S prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water? 

1Ki 18:14  And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here: and he shall slay me. 

1Ki 18:15  And Elijah said, As the LORD of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely shew myself unto him to day. 

1Ki 18:16  So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him: and Ahab went to meet Elijah. 

Obadiah then goes into his own faith and service to God already at his own expense, and the possibility of being found out and killed. Basically he tells Elijah have not I done enough to risk my own life, now you send me to certain death?

Obadiah had done a lot, in his opinion, for God, yet doesn't count it as a favor when Elijah appears unto him. No, he counts it as a death sentence and not only that he asks why must he do more to risk his own neck.

If you can say you would do any different, then you are a better person than most. Obadiah reacts not with blind faith as many of us hope we might, Obadiah reacts as many of us actually would.

It just makes me so much more certain that I am not alone when I read these things, to know that the people in the Bible did, said, and doubted just as we do. One of the most despairing things we can do is to ever think we are  alone in our fight, that no one has ever done or been through what we are going through.

Here we have actual proof that they were not all perfect, blind followers, but they too had their quirks, doubts and fears.

Obadiah, a God fearing man. A man who had a position of trust used that position to help God's men at the risk of his own neck. Yet he still feared and doubted when the man of God told him to do something. He had seen the working of God, knew God, yet he didn't instantly obey. He considered himself and his position first.

2. You are not alone in your thinking, you are not the only one to ever go through what you are facing,

Many times I have said and thought this is a big rime issue.

Case in point, on wednesday night Pat was talking of a problem, a stupid irrelevant problem, but a problem nonetheless. I had faced the same issue a year or two earlier and had not talked about it because I felt like an idiot. I didn't say a thing about it because I didn't want anyone to know how dumb I truly am.

He had a chirping fire alarm, now when one chirps they all chirp and you get an echo effect and it makes it tough to run it down, You can spend a week trying to figure out which one is chirping and it can drive you absolutely batty. So I didn't say anything to anyone, but then the other night when talking to Pat I determined I wasn't the only one, and while we were talking Gary Fairman walked by and guess what? He had faced the same issue! It wasn't just me or Pat, it is a common problem, yet we had felt stupid individually, cause we were just more inept than most because we couldn't figure out a small insignificant issue.

Do you know what I did while talking to Pat? I started laughing, at me, at Pat and our stupidity. No not over the alarms, but over our insecurity in talking to others about it. Because it just wasn't important and we (Well I ) didn't want to appear so very inadequate.

You ask why do I bring this up?

If you look at the previous verses you see Obadiah tell Elijah he had just hid 100 prophets of the Lord in caves, yet in just a few verses down what does Elijah say?

1Ki 19:10  And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. 

You are not alone, You are not the only one with this question, that doubt, or that fear.

Elijah, the great man of God, was alone, yet he had just witnessed a major victory. So if it can happen to him, even though he was just told he wasnt alone, then how much more can it happen to us?

Communication and talk is our biggest ally, yet we fail to use it, why? We gather once a week and then leave out into the isolation of the world, and wonder why we have no victory. We gather, we dont talk we dont shout, we dont share because our time together is limited, so we save it for the "important"  things.

We the people of God need encouragement, we need fellowship, we need affirmation in our struggle that we the people of God are not as dumb or as stupid as we think we are.

You say "no I am good, I do not need the fellowship, I do not need affirmation that I m not alone" then you are lying to yourself. and others. No man is an island, no man is a rock.

Stop it, stop. This is pride, this is the surest way to a downfall. You need the fellowship, the affirmation, the sharing of the stupid things you do and think, the questions, doubts and fears.

This is why we need more than one service a week, this is why we need bible studies, prayer breakfasts, 3 services a week, this is why. This is why you do not forsake the assembling of yourselves.

If ever you have listened to me on any point, this is the one I want more than any to stress. You are not alone. Share. Someone can identify with you, testify with you, exhort you, commiserate with you, weep with you. But only if they know what you are going through.

God may have had you go through trials that you might stand and be a voice for someone else to identify with.

They, You will not know if you do not share, and not always just the big deep trials, but the stupid things that we blow up in our minds, the little things we hide, the doubts and fears, that we all have but few speak of. Talk about them. Someone needs to hear it.