God Writes the Screenplay
Read: 1 Kings 18:40-46
The hand of the Lord was on Elijah. (v. 46)
Many a famous movie has some memorable sequence that once seen will never be forgotten. This short passage pre-sents not one but three such scenes from our biopic of Elijah. He has 450 heathen prophets massacred, sees a tiny rain-cloud spread across the entire sky to break the three-year drought, and then outruns King Ahab's chariot to his palace at Jezreel.
God is both writer and director of this movie, and here as always he has messages to get across. Way back in the past he had said that false prophets must be silenced. Everyone now saw that word come true. Then God had foretold the future, first the coming of the drought and then the ending of it. Those words came true as well.
And what was God telling Ahab then and there, as the prophet ran ahead of him to Jezreel? Was Elijah offering to be Ahab's servant, if only Ahab would repent? Or his leader, if only Ahab would follow? Or was he running with supernatural speed to frighten the king out of any last vestiges of complacency?
One day we shall know! Meanwhile there are plenty of words from God whose meaning is not in doubt. Let's live by them.
Prayer: Thank you for all your words, Lord, the ones we don't understand yet as well as the ones we do.
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