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It is written:
First Kings 18:16-18-So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah. 17 Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?” 18 And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and have followed the Baals.
It is often the case that faithful Christians are labeled as the bad guys.
Please don’t misunderstand: we live in a world that is fraught with abuse, much of it perpetrated by Christians. Sadly, many of these cases are from ministers, preachers, and priests. It seems that each day, I see being reported some new scandal involving a church leader. It is heartbreaking, and it should not be.
Nor can this be blamed on the excuse, “Well, those people weren’t really Christians to begin with. They were just never really saved!” That is a cop out, and frankly, not a very good one. Anyone who has ever become a child of God through His plan of salvation (Acts 2:37-47) is well aware that the struggle with temptation and sin does not magically disappear the moment that we are saved. Indeed, the Apostle John reminds Christians that if they ever claim that they have no sin, they are deceiving themselves and the truth is not in them (First John 1:8). We continue needing Jesus as our Advocate and High Priest (Hebrews 4:15-16; First John 2:1-2).
Church hurt happens, because church people are imperfect. Sometimes we sin, sometimes we hurt God, and sometimes we hurt others. Thank God for grace!
With all that being said, there are also times that people will label us as troublemakers when we actually take a stand against sin, as the Word of God teaches. In those cases, it will not matter to some people how often we have helped them: it will not matter to those folks what words of encouragement you have spoken, or what acts of kindness you have displayed.
To some people, if you speak up against evil that they harbor in their lives-no matter how gently, no matter how lovingly, and no matter how rationally-you will be labeled “the troublemaker.”
That is, indeed, what happened with Elijah the Prophet.
Let’s study.
During Elijah’s time, king Ahab reigned in Israel. He was perhaps one of the most wicked kings that the people of Israel had ever known. The writer of First Kings tells us:
First Kings 16:28-32-So Omri rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria. Then Ahab his son reigned in his place. 29 In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel; and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. 30 Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. 31 And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians; and he went and served Baal and worshiped him. 32 Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. 33 And Ahab made a wooden image. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. 34 In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation with Abiram his firstborn, and with his youngest son Segub he set up its gates, according to the word of the LORD, which He had spoken through Joshua the son of Nun.
We are told that Ahab was the son of a wicked king, and sadly he followed in the footsteps of his father. Notice that the Bible says that sin that preceded the time of Ahab was considered “trivial” by this wicked king. He focused himself on the false gods-like Baal-who delighted in such things as child sacrifice and sexual sin as “worship.” He made a “wooden image,” which is a reference to an Asherah pole (a large pole in the shape of the male sexual organ).
Later, Ahab was told by Elijah the Prophet that there was going to be a terrible drought in the land.
First Kings 17:1-And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.”
Elijah brought about the drought as the Lord commanded, and then God told him to do something that must have been very difficult for him to do.
God commanded Elijah to hide (1 Kings 17:2-9). Sometimes, the Lord will cause us to flee, until the time is right for us to stand and be counted again. Jesus Himself teaches us this:
Matthew 10:23-When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
Three years later, the Word of God came to Elijah, instructing him to go and face Ahab again. And here we are also told this interesting piece of information:
First Kings 18:3-4-And Ahab had called Obadiah, who was in charge of his house. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly. 4 For so it was, while Jezebel massacred the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah had taken one hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty to a cave, and had fed them with bread and water.)
Jezebel was instrumental in massacring the Prophets of the Lord during this time. Here are the highest rulers in the land, Ahab the king and Jezebel his wife, launching a full out assault on the Prophets of the Lord. We also see that Ahab had been prosecuting a massive hunt for Elijah, even sending his soldiers to other countries to try and arrest him (First Kings 18:10).
Understand this: when we stand up for the Lord and for His truth, then those who are not followers of the Lord will oppose us. We should not be surprised by this, since Satan is the god of this world (Second Corinthians 4:4). He hates us, as we are the only true obstacle to him. As such, he will do his best to either destroy us (through persecution) or nullify us (through seduction to the world). I am reminded just here of the words of Albert Einstein as reproduced by Erwin Lutzer. In describing the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, Lutzer discusses how the only true obstacle was the church.
“In Nazi Germany, the elites, who professed a love of freedom, betrayed the people. Hear the words of Albert Einstein, exiled from Germany because he was a Jew: Being a lover of freedom, when the (Nazi) revolution came I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities took refuge in silence. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. I then addressed myself to the authors, to those who had passed themselves off as the intellectual guides of Germany, and among whom was frequently discussed the question of freedom and its place in modern life. They are, in turn, very dumb. Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing the truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration for it because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly. 17 We are often critical of the church in the Nazi era, but Einstein knew that the church gave Hitler the only significant opposition he had. The church might not have done all it should have done or could have done, but it did something! In the final analysis, there were heroes in Germany; there were many who took the risk to withstand the moral bankruptcy of a Nazi regime.” (Erwin W. Lutzer, When a Nation Forgets God: 7 Lessons We Must Learn From Nazi Germany, 993-1009 (Kindle Edition): Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers)
The church was the only true obstacle to the Nazi agenda, and some there did stand against the evil that was channeled by Hitler and his party! We honor them and thank them, especially because some of them were tortured and killed for standing against the evil and helping the victims.
Yet sadly, many in the church succumbed to the influence of the Nazi false information machine. The cross was surrendered and the swastika embraced in its’ place. Eventually, the slogans and popular beliefs of the political party of the day were embraced by mainstream Christianity in Germany, and soon the influence of the people of Christ was lost.
Make no mistake: what Satan cannot demolish with persecution, he will destroy with infiltration! He is, after all, the great deceiver (Revelation 12:9), and the father of lies (John 8:44).
Do we not see the same thing happening in our great nation today? To many people, the message of the cross of Jesus has been infused with political dogma.
Don’t believe me?
How often now is “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” interpreted as, “you shall love your legal neighbor as yourself?”
We are exhorted to remember the Bible command to honor and respect the peacekeepers (Romans 13:1-7), and yet somehow for some Christians this doesn’t extend to speaking against a President who has given a blanket pardon to over one hundred terrorists who were convicted in courts of law of literally hundreds of attacks upon hundreds of police officers.
How many Christians will say that they believe the Bible mandate to treat all mankind with respect since all are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27), and yet have no objection when literally millions of people within our borders are stereotyped as murderers and rapists simply because they were born and raised in another country?
We remember the Bible teaching that people who flee from abusive situations are not to be returned there (Exodus 21:10-11; Deuteronomy 23:15-16), yet how many disciples of Christ are silent when those who have fled to our country for sanctuary are being rounded up and returned to regimes and cartels that are intent on trying to kill them?
Why do some Christians strongly affirm that abusing a child is so very wrong (Matthew 18:6), and yet turn around and condone children around America being rounded up and placed in outdoor cages by MAGA led government officials?
My friends, these things ought not to be so.
Nor is this just about MAGA and Republican politicians!
How many Christians will say that they believe the Bible teaching that homosexual activity is sinful (1 Corinthians 6:9-11), yet then remain silent when Democrat politicians speak out in favor of the LGBTQ agenda?
Christians recognize-from science and Scripture-that every person is either male or female (Mark 10:6), and yet many will not oppose transgenderism, hormone therapy, and radical surgery being pushed on children in the public school system in our country.
How can Christians claim to believe that life begins at conception (Psalm 139:14-15), and yet stand shoulder to shoulder with political parties that support the slaughter of millions of unborn babies in the womb through abortion?
When Christians bow their knew to political ideology instead of to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, then we begin to lose our identity as members of the kingdom of Heaven. My friends, Christianity does not change the world by forcing people to bow down to its’ precepts, but by transforming the human heart through the power of the Good News of Jesus.
Stated another way: when the church allows worldly politics to lead her away from the Word of Christ, then she has begun the process of losing her’ distinctiveness. The church is the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16). Yet the light of the world doesn’t bring much illumination when the shade of politics is allowed to dim its’ brilliance.
My friends, when we walk with the Lord and share His Word, there will be some who accuse us of being the troublemakers. It has always been so! Elijah encourages us to remember that in those times, we must simply continue holding to, living according to, and speaking the Word of God, in love.
Remember these words of Jesus:
John 3:19-And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
John 15:18-20-If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
Let them keep talking about you.
Let them name you “the troublemaker.”
You keep speaking the Word of God in love (Ephesians 4:15).
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.