MY GOD IS JEHOVAH
Text: 1 Kings 16:29-17:1
The naming of children can be most interesting. In western culture many children are named after their parents, grandparents, a favourite relative or even a famous person; often there is not a lot of significance attached to the meaning of their names.
However, in other cultures it is quite different. This especially holds true in Bible times when the names of people and places carried great significance. The meaning of names is extremely important in the Scriptures. The first human named by another was Eve. Her name means ‘life’ and includes the idea of being the ‘source of life’. One thing we know is that she was not named after Adam’s mother or favourite relative! There were none. No, we read that “Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20). The meaning of her name was supremely important in the unfolding of God’s redemptive plan first foretold in Genesis 3:15.
So the name ‘Elijah’ is also significant. It means, “my God is Jehovah”. What a testimony for him to carry all his life! Think about it. Every time he introduced himself, he gave his testimony. When he said, “Hi, I’m Elijah” he was really saying, “Hi, my God is Jehovah”. In effect, he was saying, “I belong to Jehovah, I follow Him and worship Him”.
In this regard, Elijah stands as an example and a ‘type’ of all believers in every age. We all should bear that witness wherever we go. When we say we are Christians we are saying we are one of Christ’s, we belong to Christ and we follow Him and worship Him.
Background
A little background and context of Elijah’s life and ministry will help. It was barely sixty years since the death of king Solomon. Some people think it takes a long time for a nation to change from godly practices to outright heathendom. It doesn’t. Israel went from the heights of Solomon’s reign to the depths of apostasy and almost total societal collapse in under six decades.
After Solomon’s death the kingdom was divided between Rehoboam, Solomon’s son and Jeroboam. The ten tribes in Israel had a total of seven kings during that short period, and all of them were very wicked men. The worst of the lot was king Ahab.
To see how wicked this man was, consider what it says of those who went before him. In 1 Kings 16:25 we read that “Omri (who was the fourth to sit on the throne after Jeroboam and came to power about twenty-five years after Jeroboam’s death) “wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord, and did worse than all that were before him”.
Then we have Ahab his son. And if things were not bad enough under Omri’s reign, we read of Ahab, that he “did evil in the sight of the LORD above all that were before him. And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him” (1 Kings 16:30,31).
So this king Ahab was a very wicked and idolatrous man. He married wicked queen Jezebel who was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians. Ahab’s household was totally given up to Baal-worship. Now the name Ethbaal is another interesting name. It means ‘with Baal’. Historians tell us that under Ahab’s reign it was a common saying in the land that, “Baal lives and Jehovah ceases to be”.
But God is not mocked. He is the great I AM (Jehovah). He is the only true and living God. Society may not accept that fact, politicians and educators may outright reject it, but that does not change the reality.
Facts do not cease to be facts simply because people ignore them or choose to reject them. And the same is true about our God. The fact people choose to ignore God’s existence or willfully reject Him altogether, does not change the fact that God is, and that He is the only true God, the Creator and Sustainer of all His vast creation.
God had a man for the hour, and He was preparing him in the mountains of Gilead. No doubt he was divinely named by his parents being moved of the Lord to name their son as they did. I believe his very name must have struck fear in the heart of Ahab. The son-in-law of a heathen king who was ‘with Baal’ is suddenly confronted by a rugged prophet who introduces himself as “My God is Jehovah!”
Elijah’s name summed up the man’s life and his whole testimony. What a blessing it is when Christians live up to the Name we bear! It ought to be our great purpose and aim in life to do that above all else.
Paul says we are to “walk worthy of our vocation” (Ephesians 4:1). And how are we to do that? The next 2 verses instruct us on that matter.
With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (4:2,3)
If we belong to God, then nothing must be more important than bearing witness to that fact by our conduct. Of the many proofs that an unbelieving world can be given that God lives, the greatest evidence of all must be the changed lives of His people!
All Christians have the testimony of Elijah’s name. Every Christian is to bear witness that “my God is Jehovah”. And this testimony is borne out in three ways.
1. It is a Testimony of our SALVATION
The Bible says, “Salvation is of the Lord” (Psalm 3:8; Jonah 2:9). But men are relying on many other things for their salvation. They are trusting in false gods, money, good works, church, and so on. But all their gods are dead. Just as dead as Baal was.
Dear Christian, never let the fervency of the followers of idols deter us from standing up and declaring that all their gods are dead, their hopes are false and only the God of the Bible can save a soul.
Our trust is in the once-for-all, never-to-be-repeated, final sacrifice and finished work of JESUS. As Christians we must constantly bear witness that the Lord alone is our Salvation and that there is “none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
2. It is a Testimony of our SEPARATION
Living for Jesus means you must live separately from the world. The Lord reminds us in His high priestly prayer that as believers we are “in the world” (John 17:11), but not “of the world” (17:14-16)
The Christian life has been likened to sailing in a ship on a vast sea. The ship is meant to be in the sea, but woe to that sailor when the sea is in the ship! Yes, we are in the world, but woe to us when the world is in us!
Living the Christian life is more than just a negative. It is not enough to just refuse to participate in the world’s ways. There is the positive aspect as well; we must actively repudiate the world.
Ephesians 5:11 says we are to, “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” (that’s negative), “but rather reprove them” (that’s positive!).
This is not easy. It will often involve saying things to our own families, our friends and co-workers. It will sometimes involve speaking out at the risk of great personal cost. But it is the life to which the faithful Christian is called to live.
Elijah didn’t just keep himself apart from the wickedness of his day, living out in the rural mountains of Gilead, minding his own business. That was not enough! He must walk into the very center of wickedness, right up to Ahab’s palace, and reprove the king who had brought the nation into such a state.
Still later, he must call the false prophets to a national confrontation on Mount Carmel and face them down in a public challenge. For Elijah to have Jehovah as his God meant that for him, there was no such thing as finding common ground with the enemies of the Lord. God has never called His people to respect the false religions around them. We are to reprove them as well as those who leave the true worship of the true God to follow the false gods of this world
That’s what a red hot Christian is like. He or she is a person for whom nothing is of greater importance than the honour of God and the glory of His Gospel.
3. It is a Testimony of our SERVICE
If Jehovah is our God, then the whole world needs to know it. There were seven thousand true worshippers in Elijah’s day. Though known to God, no man knows who they were. Why is that? The answer is quite simple. They kept quiet. Whether out of fear or some other reason, they never spoke up. Though they did not bow their knees to Baal, there is no record of any of them making a protest against those in power who were making Baal-worship the new religion, nor do we read of any efforts made to convince the people to turn back to worship the true God.
If Jehovah is really our God, it will cause us to wake up and then walk up to take our place on the front lines of battle. It will mean we are willing to put our names, our reputations, and possibly even our possessions on the line. Everything must be brought to the fight against the mighty forces of evil that are facing us today.
One man won a battle that delivered not just seven thousand like-minded believers, but an entire nation. A nation was turned back from darkness to light because one man was neither afraid nor ashamed to serve God – even if it meant standing all alone.
The Spirit of God does not fill movements and machinery. He fills men. When God is about to do a work He uses spiritual men and gives them His power to pray with concern, to protest with courage and to proclaim His gospel with conviction. Spirit-filled men are the great need of our day. Let us pray for grace and mercy for our land. Let us pray that the same Spirit that moved Elijah will move us to stand for the “crown rights of King Jesus and the crown jewels of His glorious gospel” and help us in our day as He did in the days of Elijah.