Old Testament in a Year: 1 Kings 17-22

August 16, 2026
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Through the life of Elijah, we see that God’s protection is often found in learning to rest in Him. When exhaustion caused Elijah to lose perspective, God restored him through rest and positioned him to hear the gentle whisper that would guide his next assignment. We must learn to slow down, surrender our striving, and make room to hear God’s voice so that we can walk in His purposes rather than being driven by our own strength.

Go to 1 Kings, chapter 19, 1st Kings, chapter 19. And we're going to begin in verse nine of chapter 19. And if you don't have a Bible or device, the verses are going to be on the screen. But I want to read several verses here out of First Kings, chapter 19. Beginning in verse nine, it says.

But the Lord said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? Elijah replied, I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty, but the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars and killed every one of your prophets. I'm the only one left. And now they're trying to kill me too. Go out.

Stand before me on the mountain, the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by. And a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose.

But the Lord was not in the wind.

After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, there was the sound of. Of a gentle whisper. And when Elijah heard it, when Elijah heard it, when he heard the gentle whisper, he wrapped his face in his cloak and he went out and he stood at the entrance of the cave.

Let's make some declarations together before you're seated this morning. I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for joining us. Come on. Everybody here, everybody watching online, let's declare this together.

You ready? Go. I will hide this word in my heart that I might not sin against God. This word is life to my body and health to my bones. I will be a doer of the Word.

And I'm confident of this. Come on, say that again. I am confident of this. That he who has begun a good work in me. Come on.

Church in Jesus name. Amen. Before you're seated, do me a favor. We have inmates, men and women in prisons all over America that are watching our service. Joining us.

Would you do me a favor? Welcome all of those on the Panda WAP today.

Amen. Praise God. Well, you can be seated. I want to challenge you. I want to encourage you.

This Saturday night, 6:30 on the campus of UNCC. The Charlotte Crusade is happening Saturday night and Sunday night. Refuge family, I want you to turn up. I want you to be there either Saturday night or Sunday night, or both. Also, I want to remind you, next Sunday, we do this every year.

Next Sunday, in both of our services, we're going to be praying over educators, anybody involved in the educational process. As a bus driver, a coach, cafeteria worker, homeschool instructor, teacher, teacher, assistant, principals, vice principals, whatever it might be. I want you to spread the word. I want you to tell them there's a church that recognizes the value they bring to our culture, our community, and that we want to pray over them. And we're going to do that next Sunday.

Help us spread the word about that. Last week, if you were here, we talked about First Kings, chapter 17 and 18 and the story of Elijah. We focused last week on the provision of God. How God provided for a widow in a town called Zarephath. Provided for this widow provided for her son.

We also talked about how God provided fire. When Elijah challenged the false prophets of BAAL to a showdown at Mount Carmel and God showed up, God answered by fire. It was a incredible moment where God provided. But I said last week that this was going to be a two part message as we are journeying through the Old Testament together. Last week we focused on the provision of God.

And I said last week that today we were going to focus on the protection of the Lord. Numerous times in my life it's been clear that the hand of protection from God was on my life. When I was a young boy, maybe six years old, five or six, I don't recall, but my older brother and I shared a bedroom. We had twin beds and hanging above each of our beds was this cast iron holster set. Guns and holsters, kind of the western motif.

Probably not the best idea to hang that over the head of your child's bed. Cause it's super heavy. Weighed a lot. And one night I got up and went to the restroom as a little boy. I came back and that cast iron holster set was laying on my pillow.

And my mother talked for years about how God protected me. How God woke me up in the middle of the night and had me go to the bathroom so that that thing would not fall on my head and do damage or whatever.

When I was about to enter my senior year of high school, it was in August of 1980 and I was driving in the middle part of Georgia on Highway 19. It was about 2 o' clock in the afternoon. I was trying to get back to my hometown of Columbus, Georgia because I had a job. I worked at a sporting goods store. I was supposed to be at work at five o' clock that afternoon.

I'm driving down Highway 19. The rain started falling. My 1971 Dodge Duster.

Anybody remember those cars? Thank God they were built like a tank. My car began hydroplaning and at 60 miles an hour. I had a head on collision on Highway 19, completely destroyed my car. And I walked away from that head on collision with 12 stitches in my forehead and busted kneecaps.

And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt the protective hand of God was on me in that moment where the enemy could have taken me out, but God protected me. February of 1994, I was invited to go to Nigeria, West Africa and preach in various settings in Nigeria. Myself and another guy and a missionary had invited us. And as we are leaving the Atlanta airport, we're on the international concourse. There's a sign there.

I'll never forget this, I probably have a picture of it somewhere that said the following airports had been deemed unsafe by the faa. And at the top of the list was the airport in Lagos, Nigeria, where we were headed, where we were boarding a plane. We got on that plane, we flew to Lagos, Nigeria. We landed at about 11pm at night. The mission was supposed to be there to meet us and to drive us to his home or wherever we were staying.

And we began walking around the airport. There are armed guards everywhere with AK47s and there is no sign of the missionary. We try calling him. It was before the days of everybody having a cell phone in their pocket. We call him, we cannot get a hold of him.

We try over and over. It's now midnight and the only thing that we could figure out to do other than spending the night in one of the most unsafe airports in the world was to take a taxicab. And we found in the phone book or somewhere, I don't even remember how we knew about this, a hostel in the middle of Lagos, Nigeria. So we catch a cab. It's after midnight.

We jump in the back seat of that cab and the cab driver starts driving us away from the airport. And we get out on this deserted road. There's no lights anywhere, pitch black, nobody knows we're there. The missionary, we found out later, thought we were coming the next day, got his days mixed up so he wasn't there to meet us. And we're going along this road and I'll never forget the.

There are armed guerrillas standing in the middle of the road and stopped our cab. They start having a very heated discussion with the taxicab driver. And before we know it, at gunpoint, they order all of us out of the cab. Now, we had a lot of money, cash money that we were bringing to the missionary. We had that in our bags.

They order us out of the car, they order us to the back of the car, they start going through all of our stuff. There's only been a few times in my life that I really thought I was going to die. And that was one of them, because I just knew in my heart of hearts they're going to rob us, they're going to shoot us, and they're going to throw our bodies in the ditch over on the side of the road, and nobody's going to know that we're here. And I just knew. I'm about to go to heaven.

I'm about to meet the Lord. But thank God the protective hand of the Lord was over us. That cab driver, after a very heated discussion, bribed them, offered them money or whatever, they let us get back in the car and let us go on our way. And there's so many other times that I've recognized the protective hand of God. And the hand of God that's been all my life was on Elijah, because Elijah was faced with a situation where his life was in great danger.

We know what happened after fire came from heaven and burned up the sacrifice. The Bible tells us in the beginning of chapter 19, verses 1 and 2, that Elijah had all of the false prophets of Baal put to death. First Kings, chapter 19, verse 1 and 2. When Ahab got home, Ahab, who's the king of Israel, when he got home, he told Jezebel, Many of you have heard that name. We know how wicked and how evil Jezebel was.

He told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including the way he had killed all of the false prophets of baal. So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah. May the God strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you as you killed.

I want to talk to you for a moment about the protection of rest. The protection of rest. Some months ago, we talked About Exodus, chapter 20, when God gave the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai to Moses, gave those commandments the first three commandments that deal with our vertical relationship with God. The last six commandments deal with our horizontal relationships with everybody here on earth. And sandwiched in between those two categories is commandment number four, which talks about the Sabbath.

Now, that word Sabbath in the Hebrew comes from a word, Shabbat. It means to rest, to cease, to stop. And what God intended for us to do was to learn to find our rest in him. Now, the Mosaic law was categorized in three ways. Number one, civil law, number two, moral law, and number three, ceremonial law.

And that commandment number four, the commandment about Sabbath is in ceremonial law. Now, what you need to understand about ceremonial law is that it was all meant to be a teaching tool. It was all meant to point to the coming Messiah, to the work and the person, the man, Jesus. And guess what? All of the ceremonial law was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, which is why Jesus says In Matthew, chapter 11, verse 28, hey, all of you that are worn out, you're weary, you're weighed down, Jesus said, come to me and I will give you what rest for your souls.

Why? Because he fulfilled commandment number four. In other words, you could run to Jesus and you could find rest in him. You could Shabbat in him. You could stop in him.

It's interesting because the apostle Paul says we are seated with him in heavenly places. Paul's talking about being at a place of rest with the Messiah. It's interesting because high priest never sat down until the work was finished. And the work was never finished. Therefore, while a high priest was on duty, he would never sit down.

But the writer of Hebrews makes the point of saying to you and I that Jesus, as our high priest, sat down at the right hand of the Father. Why? Because Jesus uttered three words on the cross. Say it with me. It is, Jesus finished the work, and there's nothing that anybody could do to add to what he did.

Why? Because he fulfilled everything in himself as the final sacrifice. That's why Jesus could say, if you're weary, come to me and I will give you rest. Listen. God intentionally put commandment number four right in between the commandments that deal with our vertical relationship with God and the commandments that deal with our horizontal relationships with others.

God put it there on purpose as commandment number four to show us the importance of learning to rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Cross. Why? Because. Listen to me.

Everything flows out of that. Our identity, our authority, and our position comes out of our posture of resting with him. Come on. I'm going to say that again. Our identity, our authority, our position comes out of our posture of resting in him.

And listen to me. When you striving or operating out of your own strength, order turns to disorder. That's why it's so vitally important that we understand and learn the protection of rest. I was always taught as a young minister that after some great victory or after some big monumental event or moment, that it was so important that you keep your guard up because it was then that the enemy was likely to attack. It was then that you were most vulnerable.

And that's exactly what we see with Elijah. Anybody ever notice that when we're tired. Things are easily blown out of proportion. Elijah just had this epic victory. But now, just moments later, he's tired, he's worn out, and Jezebel has threatened him.

First Kings, chapter 19, verse 3. Elijah was afraid, and he fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there. And then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die.

I've had enough, Lord, he said, take my life, for I'm no better than my ancestors who have already died. Elijah has experienced the supernatural power of God. But all it took was one threat from Jezebel to send him over the edge and cause him to beg. God, take my life. Blown out of proportion.

And notice this. Elijah makes the mistake that many, many people. I see it all the time that many people make. It's when you're weary, when you're vulnerable to attack, that our tendency is to isolate ourselves from others. Notice what we just read.

It says, Elijah leaves his servant, and then he goes alone into the wilderness and gets under a broom tree. Let me tell you something, church. Listen to me. When you're tired, when you're weary, when you are under attack from the enemy, the worst thing you can do is to isolate yourself from the body of Christ.

And that's what the enemy wants you to do. Ah. You don't need to go to church today. You're too tired. You don't need to be around all those people.

And then one Sunday turns into two, and then two turns into five, and then five turns into ten, and before you know it, months go by and you have not been in fellowship with other believers. Hey, listen, I'm grateful for the technology we have. I'm thankful people all over the world watch the refuge. We have inmates watching the Refuge. I'm grateful for that.

But all of us know. Don't try to tell me we're just watching online. Don't you dare try to tell me that it's the same, because every one of you knows it is not the same as this right here. It's a great alternative if you're sick. It's a great alternative if you're on vacation.

But it is not the same. And the enemy wants to convince you. I don't really need this. It's too much trouble. There's too much opportunity for me to be heard.

I'll just sit out for a while. And that's the mistake Elijah made. Isolated himself from those that he needed the most.

But here, I want you to watch what happens. Verse 5 says, Then he lay down and he slept under the broom tree. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him. I remember it was years ago. It was when I, after 30 years of full time ministry, I took my first sabbatical ever.

And I was reading this story during that sabbatical and as I was reading, I got to that part. An angel touched and I said, oh, finally, God. Here's the man of God. He needs a word from you. He needs some encouragement, he needs direction because the destiny of Israel is at stake.

God, you gotta give him a word. And so I'm reading, I kind of sit up on the edge of my seat and I'm reading. An angel touched him and told him, get up and eat.

I read that. I said, that's it? That's all you got for the man of God. You wake him up, you tell him, get up and eat. Come on, you got to have more for him than that.

He looked around there beside his head was some bread baked on hot stones, a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. Then the angel of the Lord came again and touched him. I'm like, here we go, here we go. Finally a word from God.

And he said, get up and eat some more. Come on, you've got to be kidding me, he says, or the journey ahead will be too much for you. So he got up and he ate and drank. And the food, supernatural food, gave him enough strength to travel 40 days and 40 nights and to Mount Sinai, the place where the Mosaic law was given, the Ten Commandments were given. It travels to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God.

Proverbs chapter 18, verse 10 says this. The name of the Lord is a fortified tower, and the righteous can run into it and be safe. There's this thing of the protection of rest. We can run into the Lord. And when the enemy is attacking, when we're bombarded by the accusing thoughts of the enemy, we can run into the name of the Lord.

That's what you've done today. Coming into the house of God, we're running into him saying, lord, I need your protection. I need your hand of protection over my life. And not only do we see the protection of God over Elijah, that he protected him from the threat of Jezebel, where Jezebel said, I'm going to kill you. By this time tomorrow, you're a dead man.

And God protected him. But I want you to know this too. There was more than just God protecting Elijah's life. God was also protecting the destiny of the nation of Israel. And we're going to see that.

We're going to see, as Elijah found rest in the Lord, how it positioned him for a word from God.

Elijah runs 40 days into the mountain of God. And then we get to our text that we read a moment ago, beginning in verse nine, where God says, what are you doing here, Elijah? Elijah answers, but he exaggerates a little bit. He says, I zealously serve the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel broken their covenant.

It's true. They've torn down their altars. True. They've killed every one of your prophets. Not true.

I'm the only one left. Not true. And now they're trying to kill me. Yeah, that's true. But we just read in chapter 18 last week about this guy by the name of obadiah who takes 100 true prophets of God, puts 50 of them in one cave, 50 in another cave, gives them breath, gives them food, gives them water, and preserves and protects the true prophetic office of God for the nation of Israel.

So Elijah is exaggerating a bit. Why? Because things are still blown out of proportion a bit for him. And he says, I'm the only prophet left. No.

God's protected others, not just you. It's interesting that in these three dramatic movie type scenarios, a windstorm, an earthquake and a firestorm, we read, and I emphasize, God was not in the windstorm. God was not in the earthquake. God was not in the firestorm. But in verse 12 we find this after the fire, there was the sound of a gentle whisper.

Listen to me, Church. The rest that Elijah got in the wilderness. When the angel of the Lord wakes him up twice and says, get up and eat and rest some more, he wakes him up again, get up and eat some more. The journey is going to be too difficult for you. The rest that God provided for him then is what postured him to hear the whisper that rolled off of the lips of God because God was not in the dramatic rushing wind or the earthquake or the firestorm.

No, no, no, no. But think. Think what might have happened to Israel had Elijah not been in a position where he could hear the whisper of God. How many times have we missed the directive and the voice of God because we have found our identity in activity and we won't slow down enough to hear the whisper. How many times have you missed the direction of God for your business?

How many times have you missed the direction of God for your kids or your marriage or your grandkids? Because you didn't slow down enough to hear the whisper of God. Thank God Elijah heard the whisper. And God tells him, there's a young man by the name of Elisha. You need to anoint him as your successor.

And God also tells him, there's a guy by the name of Jehu. You need to anoint him as the next king of Israel. So God protects and preserves the purpose and the destiny for Israel. We also see the protection of God in chapter 22. And I mentioned last week, there's this disturbing verse there that I said we would talk about.

And it's the verse, verse 23 that talks about a lying spirit going forth from the Lord. First Kings 22. Beginning in verse 19, I'll read these verses, I'll give you some backstory, and then I'll talk about what that actually means. Then Micaiah continued, listen to what the Lord says. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, with all the armies of heaven around him, on his right and on his left.

And the Lord said, who can entice Ahab to go into battle against Ramoth Gilead so he can be killed? Ahab, the wicked king of Israel, married to Jezebel. And God's like, who can entice him to go into battle? There were many suggestions, and finally a spirit approached the Lord and said, I can do it. How will you do this?

The Lord asked. And the spirit replied, I'll go out. I'll inspire all of Ahab's prophets to speak lies.

You'll succeed to the Lord. Go ahead and do it. Verse 23. So you see, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all your prophets, for the Lord has pronounced your doom. I don't know if that bothers you.

Kind of bothers me. What does that mean? How can the God of all truth, how can the God whose scripture says he cannot lie, put a lying spirit in the mouths of the prophets? Let me give you the backstory.

You know that Israel was divided into two kingdoms, Israel being the northern kingdom, ten tribes, Judah being the southern kingdom, two tribes. They each had their own king, the king of Israel, Ahab, the wicked guy. We're talking about the king of Judah, a guy by the name of Jehoshaphat. And in verse 4 and 5 of chapter 22, it says this. Then he being Ahab, turned to Jehoshaphat and asked, will you join me in battle to recover Ramoth Gilead?

Jehoshaphat replied, to the king of Israel, why, of course. You and I are as one. My troops Are your troops? My horses are your horses. And then Jehoshaphat added, but first, let's find out what the Lord says.

I talked to you a few weeks ago about Joshua, chapter 9, verse 24. When these gibeonites came to the people of Israel and said, we pose no threat to you. We come from a far off, distant country. In verse 24 of Joshua, chapter 9 says, they did not inquire of the Lord. They just took things at face value and they signed a peace treaty with the Gibeonites when they never should have done that.

How many of you know that in every decision? I'm going to remind you again, like I did a few weeks ago, in every decision, we should inquire of the Lord. Come on, are y' all with me? Church, are you with me still? That in every decision, we should find out what the Lord says about it.

And that's what Jehoshaphat says. Ahab, the king of Israel, summons all of his prophets, 400 prophets. And he asked them, should we go into battle? And all of his prophets said, go for it, King. You're going to have victory.

You're going to destroy them. It's going to be an easy battle. Go for it, King. You got this. Well, listen, what you need to know is that all of Ahab's prophets were false prophets.

False prophets. And Ahab knew when he summoned them, they would say what he wanted to hear, much like many people do today. Do you understand? And realize there are still false prophets that will say what you want to hear? Come on.

But then all of a sudden, Jehoshaphat says, hey, is there not a prophet of God that's available? And Ahab says, there's this one guy. His name is Micaiah. But listen, that guy never says anything good about me.

I don't really want to hear what he has to say. Josh was like, no, we need to know what the Lord says. And. And they call Micaiah. Micaiah comes in at verse 14.

Micaiah says, I'm only going to say what the Lord tells me to say. And then Micaiah says, if you go into battle, you're going to be killed. He tells Ahab, don't do this, because if you go into battle, you will be killed. Verse 23. So you see, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all of your prophets, for the Lord has pronounced your doom.

God has pronounced your doom. Don't do it. You're going to die. So to fully understand what that means, the Lord has Put a lying spirit in the mouths of all of your prophets. We have to look at scripture in context.

Anytime you're studying scripture, you have to look at it in context. There's two contexts we have to examine. Number one, the historical context. Number two, the theological context. Historically.

Let's look at it first before the vision is ever given. And God's given this vision as a warning to Ahab, where Ahab could respond and say, okay, I'm going to receive the word of God and I'm not going to go into battle. But you have to understand that King Ahab had spent his entire reign and his entire life rejecting Yahweh and preferring false, flattering prophecies. Listen to me. Ahab did not want the truth, but what he did want was validation.

He wanted somebody to tell him what he wanted to hear. And that's true about so many Christians today. They don't want the truth.

They don't want somebody to say, let me tell you, your lifestyle does not line up with the word of God.

They don't want somebody to say, your relationships are not pleasing to the Lord. They don't want somebody to say, you've given in to all your fleshly desires and doing what you're doing and partying and sleeping around, whatever it might be. That does not please the Lord. So many people don't want to hear that. So what do they do?

They surround themselves with people who will say, you know what? God's a loving God. You're okay, you're going to be fine. God's merciful. God's not going to judge you over that.

You can't help it that you're prone to do these things. No, they surround themselves with people who will only validate their lifestyle because they don't want the truth.

Ahab just wanted validation. So listen to me. The lying spirit was not sent to an innocent man who was seeking God's guidance, but it was sent to a corrupt ruler who actively sought out self serving falsehoods. That's the history of Ahab. Now here's the theological context and we have to consider two things.

Number one, judicial hardening, you say, what does that mean? That means that God's standard of judgment on persistent rebellion is often to hand people over to their own deception or their own deceit. Listen to me. The Bible says God will not always strive with man. There comes a point where if a person continues to reject the word of God over and over and over and over and over and over.

We see in Romans, chapter 12, verse 1, Romans chapter 12, verse 20, 21 and 24, or verse 24 and 28. We see it in 2nd Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 11. There comes a point that God says, hey, I've tried. I've tried over and over. I'm never going to force my will on you.

You're making your own choice. Therefore, I turn you over to your own desires, to your own deception, to your own deceit. That's judicial hardening. The second thing that we have to examine is this idea of permission and sovereignty. Ancient writers often used active language.

Thus the phrase God put a lying spirit. That's active language. It describes what God was permitting or what God was allowing to happen in his sovereign control. So God permits a deceptive spirit from the heavenly council to fulfill a judgment that Ahab had brought upon himself. Listen to me.

Ahab is given a full view of what's going to happen because God was warning him. God was giving him a chance again to respond to the word of the Lord. But he still chose his own desire. He even conjured up a plan and said, no, we're going into battle. But I'm not going to wear my kingly robes.

I'm going to disguise myself. They won't even recognize me. That way I'll be sure that I'm safe. Listen to me, Church. Your human wisdom will never, ever override the sovereign plans of God.

You can be as creative as you want to be. You can be as strategic as you want to be to try to skirt around the sovereignty of God.

But you'll never win.

You can't do it. God is sovereign. His ways will always prevail. Watch. Verse 34.

They go into battle. Jehoshaphat, or pardon me, Ahab has disguised himself. Look at verse 34. An Aramean soldier, however, randomly shot an arrow at the Israelite troops and hit the king of Israel between the joints of his armor. That's the hand of God guiding that arrow.

When a guy's just randomly firing at the troops, doesn't even know it's the king.

But the ways of God will always prevail. Listen. God will go to great lengths to protect us. Unfortunately, there are many people that surround themselves with those who will say what they want to hear. They'll run to preachers, they'll run to conferences.

They'll run to prophets who prophesy prosperity or wealth or influence or other niceties that just tickle our ears just because that's what we want to hear. We don't want to hear the convicting word of the Lord. But I'm just telling you today, God. God wants to protect you. There's some of you today, you've started operating in your own strength, in your own abilities, and you're wearing yourself out.

And God wants to give you rest. There's others of you here today, I believe. Maybe you're watching online. Maybe you're incarcerated. You're watching today.

And you continue to reject the word of the Lord and to do things your own way. Listen to me. It will not go well for you. You will not win until you submit and surrender to the ways of God.