Ezekiel 27
Message continues for Tyre verse 1- 2
The word of the LORD came again unto me saying
Now – you son of man – take up a lamentation for Tyre
Second funeral song for nation:
Former perfect beauty verse 3- 9
And say to Tyre
O you that art situate at the entry of the sea
which art a merchant of the people
for many isles
Thus says the Lord GOD
O Tyre you have said
I am of perfect beauty
Your borders are in the midst of the seas
your builders have perfected your beauty
They have made all your ship boards of fir trees of Senir
they have taken cedars from Lebanon
to make masts for you of the oaks of Bashan
have they made thine oars
The company of the Ashurites
have made your benches of ivory
brought out of the isles of Chittim
Fine linen with embroidered work from Egypt was
that which you spread forth to be your sail
Blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that
which covered you
The inhabitant of Sidon and Arvad were your mariners
your wise men – O Tyre
that were in you – were your pilots
The ancients of Gebal
and the wise men thereof were in you your calkers
all the ships of the sea with their mariners
were in you
to occupy your merchandise
Tyre hired other nations for their army verse 10- 11
They of Persia and of Lud and of Phut
were in your army your men of war
they hanged the shield and helmet in you
they set forth your comeliness
The men of Arvad with your army
were upon your walls round about
and the Gammadims were in your towers
they hanged their shields upon your walls round about
they have made your beauty perfect
Tarshish was Tyre’s merchant verse 12- 13
Tarshish was your merchant
by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches
with silver- iron- tin – lead
they traded in your fairs
Javan- Tubal- Meshech – they were your merchants
they traded the persons of men
and vessels of brass in your market
List of nations that traded with Tyre verse 14- 25
They of the house of Togarmah traded in your fairs
with horses – horsemen – mules
The men of Dedan were your merchants
many isles were the merchandise of your hand
they brought you
for a present horns of ivory and ebony
Syria was your merchant
by reason of the multitude of the wares of your making
they occupied in your fairs
with emeralds – purple – embroidered work
fine linen – coral – agate
Judah – and the land of Israel – they were your merchants
they traded in your market
wheat of Minnith – pannag – honey – oil – balm
Damascus was
your merchant in the multitude
of the wares of your making
for the multitude of all riches
in the wine of Helbon – and white wool
Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in your fairs
bright iron – cassia – calamus – were in your market
Dedan was your merchant in precious clothes for chariots
Arabia – and all the princes of Kedar
they occupied with you in lambs – rams
goats – in these were they your merchants
The merchants of Sheba and Raamah – they were your merchants
they occupied in your fairs with chief of
all spices – precious stones – gold
Haran –Channeh – Eden
the merchants of Sheba – Asshur and Chilmad
were your merchants
these were your merchants in all sorts of things
in blue clothes – embroidered work
chests of rich apparel
bound with cords and made of cedar
among your merchandise
The ships of Tarshish did sing of you in your market
and you were replenished
and made very glorious
in the midst of the seas
Singers of the funeral song verse 26- 31
Thy rowers have brought you into great waters
the east wind has broken you in the midst of the seas
Your riches – and your fairs – and your merchandise
and your mariners and your pilots – and your calkers
and the occupiers of your merchandise
and all your men of war – that are in you
and in all your company which is in the midst of you
shall fall into the midst of the seas
in the day of your ruin
Your suburbs shall shake
at the sound of the cry of your pilots
All that handle the oar – the mariners – all the pilots of the seas
shall come down from their ships
they shall stand upon the land
and shall cause their voice to be heard against you
and shall cry bitterly
and shall cast up dust upon their heads
they shall wallow themselves in the ashes
they shall make themselves utterly bald for you
and gird them with sackcloth
and they shall weep for you
with bitterness of heart
and bitter wailing
Funeral song they will sing verse 32- 36
And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for you
and lament over you
saying
What city is like Tyre
like the destroyed in the midst of the sea?
When your wares went forth out of the seas
you filled many people
You did enrich the kings of the earth
with the multitude of your riches
and of your merchandise
In the time when you shall be broken by the seas
in the depths of the waters your merchandise
and all your company
in the midst of you shall fall
All the inhabitants of the isles shall be astonished at you
and their kings shall be sore afraid
they shall be troubled in their countenance
The merchants among the people shall hiss at you
you shall be a terror – and never shall be any more
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 4 Your borders are in the midst of the seas, your builders have perfected your beauty. (3308 “beauty” [yophiy] means desirability, or attractive appearance)
DEVOTION: The word is used three times in relationship to this nation. The nation of Tyre thought they had everything. They had wealth. They had buildings that others only wished they had. They had a market where everyone traded their merchandise. They had it made.
Ezekiel was told by the LORD to sing a funeral song for the nation. It was so wrapped up in all its wealth and attractive appearance that it forgot about the LORD.
Everything the LORD did was to show the nations that HE was in control. So often they thought they were in control of their own destiny. They acted independent of the LORD. The nation of Israel was to be a witness to the world for the LORD. They were to worship only HIM. There were many religions but they were all false. The LORD wanted the world to know that HE was exclusive. HE would accept no blending of false religion with the TRUE revelation of HIM.
Tyre was going to be judged for their treatment of Israel. They thought they were on top of the world and could never be defeated. They were going to be judged and their appearance to the world would be forgotten. They would become a place where their entire merchant would cry over in the future. First their merchants would cry but then they would move on to other places.
We can observe this in our world. There are nations who seem to have everything. They have the wealth. They have beautiful houses, cars and possessions. But then something happens and they lose it all. Their so-called friends from other nations move on to other people. Allies only last for a short time. All nations are still just looking out for themselves.
This is true of individuals as well. If we are counting on people staying with us when things get rough, we need to think again. Only those who are true friends stick around during the hard times. Many of us have those kinds of friends. Some don’t!!
The LORD is always faithful to HIS children. We need to be faithful to our friends. However, we need to be faithful to the LORD first and foremost. Do each of us trusting in the LORD or are we trusting in others? Let us not fall into the trap of the people of Tyre.
CHALLENGE: We shouldn’t trust in our exterior but check out our interior. This applied to a nation and to an individual. Our beauty should be internal first.
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were your merchants; they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in your market. (5414 “traded” [nathan] means give, deliver, to transfer possession of something concrete or abstract to somebody, to hand down, to surrender, sell, or yield produce.)
DEVOTION: Here we find in Tyrus that they had a place where they set up a fair or market place for the purpose of trading with people from other countries. This was the place to go to find whatever you wanted from whomever you wanted for a price.
There were even people for sale for a price. They were called slaves or merchandise. Human trafficking is not something new to our day and age it has been going on since the beginning of time.
Joseph was traded by his brothers for a price and then sold in Egypt for another price. Today we have people who are sold for other purposes around the world. There are men and women who are sold for sexual purposes at most large events in every country of the world.
We need to realize that this is wrong and that the LORD was going to judge this nation for its sins. We are going to be judged for our sins as well. One of our sins is the abortion of babies for profit by organizations that claim they are just giving women a choice.
I had a young lady in one of my churches that had three abortions and really never got over the guilt that it caused in her. She would call me and talk about how it bothered her. Some women feel no guilt at all but others do.
The LORD is going to have judge each nation for their sins. One of ours is shedding innocent blood. There should be no trading of innocent blood whether it is babies or older human beings. God created us to help one another not to use one another for our personal profit.
We need to value all human life. All lives matter to the LORD. HE is going to hold each of us accountable for how we treat our fellow human beings. One of the sins is to not share the truth of the GOSPEL with those that we love.
CHALLENGE: We need to realize that we are accountable to the LORD for our contacts with other human beings.
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
: 27 Your riches, and your fairs, your merchandise, your mariners, and your pilots, your calkers, and the occupiers of your merchandise, and all your men of war, that are in you, and in all your company which is in the midst of you, shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of your ruin. (4658 “ruin” [mappeleth] means overthrown, carcass, what falls down, collapse, fall, downfall, or shipwreck)
DEVOTION: The pilots of the nation were those who were wise. Some people are very smart in the book sense but not in the life sense.
The people of Tyre were depending on what the wise scholars of the nation had to say regarding their future and beliefs. They were basing their wisdom on false religion and wealth. They instructed the people that everything was good because they had businesses that were growing and religion that could help them live their life.
This was a wrong basis for living. They advised their leaders to mistreat the children of Israel. They knew that the LORD was judging them for their sins but they were not afraid of the LORD.
Today we can find people who are religious who trust in their wealth to get them through life. They are not thinking about the future just the present.
Christians should not fall into this trap. We should not settle into a lifestyle with our possessions and occupation that leaves out the LORD. Both of these things can be taken from us and then what will we do? Will be blame God for being unfair to us? Or will we realize that the LORD is using those occasions to get our attention.
Our responsibility is to praise the LORD for all that is happening in our life. We should not depend on our own talent or possessions but be totally dependent on the LORD for our future and hope.
Any nation or people who leave the LORD out of the equation there will be judgment coming. Our nation needs to realize this truth but it is dependent on believers to lead those around them in the right direction regarding proper thinking.
CHALLENGE: Watch who you are listening to in your daily life. Meet with the LORD for your daily wisdom that comes from above.
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: 36 The merchants among the people shall his at you; you shall be a terror, and never shall be any more. (1091 “terror” [ballahah} means horror, an entity that causes terror or pain, dreadful event, calamity, destruction, or an emotion or attitude that causes great distress or fear, possibly with some implication of a startling or suddenness of terror)
DEVOTION: Here we have something happening to a nation that others have traded with for many years. The LORD judged the nation and everyone was stunned. They didn’t know what to think of a nation all of a sudden no longer being in existence.
They didn’t realize how powerful God was and when HE worked it surprised them that HE was that powerful. They had hurt the children of Israel and the LORD was dealing with them.
God used the nation of Babylonians to judge Tyre for their actions against Israel. We have to remember that the LORD can use anyone and anything to judge those who are disobedient to HIS commands. HE will judge those who have mistreated believers in the end times with a final judgment into Hell for eternity.
When Christ comes back in the end times HE will defeat any and all nations that have been disobedient to the LORD to set up HIS reign on earth.
Judgement is coming to any nation that is disobedient to the commands of the LORD. HE will even judge our nation for their treatment of believers.
CHALLENGE: We need to trust in the LORD to judge those who mistreat us and allow HIM to do it in HIS time and in HIS way. Our prayers should always be for the salvation of our enemies.
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DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:
BODY
Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)
SOUL
Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)
SPIRIT
Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
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DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
Word of the LORD verse 1
Lamentation verse 2
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
LORD – Jehovah (Covenant keeping, Personal) verse 1
Lord – Adonai (Owner, Master) verse 3
GOD – Jehovah verse 3
Lord GOD verse 3
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead –God/man, Messiah)
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
Tyrus verse 2- 36
Merchants of the people for many isles
Said I am of perfect beauty
Borders are in the midst of the seas
Builders have perfected your beauty
Made all ship boards of fir trees of Senirz
Made masts of cedars from Lebanon
Oars of Bashan
Benches of ivory from Ashurites
Fine linen with broidered work
from Egypt
Persia and Lud and Phut were their
army
Mariners
Cry bitterly, cast up dust on their heads
Wallow themselves in the ashes
Make themselves utterly bald
Gird them with sackcloth
Weep for thee with bitterness of heart
and bitter wailing
destroyed in the midst of the sea
All the inhabitants of the isles shall be
astonished at you- their kings
shall be sore afraid
Never shall be any more
Senir verse 5
Lebanon verse 5
Bashan verse 6
Ashurites verse 6
Isles of Chittim verse 6
Egypt verse 7
Isles of Elishah verse 7
Zidon (mariners) verse 8
Arvad (mariners) verse 8, 11
were walls for Tyrus
Wise men of Tyrus (pilots) verse 8
Ancients of Gebal verse 9
wise men were in your calkers
mariners
Persia (army) verse 10
Lud (army) verse 10
Phut (army) verse 10
Gammadims – in towers of Tyrus verse 11
they made your beauty perfect
Tarshish (merchants) verse 12, 25
Traded in their fairs
Javan – traded persons verse 13, 19
Tubal – traded persons verse 13
Meshech – traded persons verse 13
House of Togarmah verse 14
Traded in their fairs with horses
And horsemen and mules
Dedan verse 15, 20
brought horns of ivory and ebony
precious clothes for chariots
Syria verse 16
brought emeralds, purple, broidered
work and fine linen, coral and
agate
Minnith verse 17
Pannag verse 17
Damascus verse 18
wine of Helbon and white wool
Javan – occupied in fairs, bright iron, cassia
calamus verse 19
Arabia verse 21
Princes of Kedar verse 21
lambs, rams and goats
Sheba verse 22, 23
occupied fairs with chief of all spices,
and with all precious stones,
and gold
Raamah verse 22
Haran verse 23
Canneh verse 23
Eden verse 23
Asshur verse 23
blue clothes, broidered work , chests
of rice apparel, bound with cords,
and made of cedar
Chilmad verse 23
Kings of the earth verse 33
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Pride verse 3
Trade the persons of men verse 13
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
Son of man = Ezekiel verse 2
Lamentation for Tyrus
Judah verse 17
Brought wheat of Minnith and
Pannag – honey, oil and balm
Land of Israel verse 17
Dan verse 19
Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events)
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QUOTES regarding passage
13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy ǁmarket.
Javan; the Grecians, particularly the Ionians. Tubal; the Asiatic Iberians, &c.; the Albanians toward the Caspian Sea. Meshech; the Cappadocians, with the Moschi, who dwelt about Cholcis, the country now called Mingrelia. Traded the persons of men; brought men to sell for slaves, so the Greeks did; the (Mancipia Ionica) Ionian slaves were known and valued in the East, especially the handsome girls to wait on great ladies. The too great desire hereof in Atossa, Darius’s queen, is said to be the chief cause of his war on Greece. And as to the other, beside their servile inclinations, they were so barbarous and inhuman, and had opportunities to seize men, women, and children to sell them, that no doubt the market of Tyre was full of them. Brass; of which metal there was great store, they say, in Cappadocia and Iberia, which they brought with them. (Poole, M. (1853). Annotations upon the Holy Bible (Vol. 2, p. 745). New York: Robert Carter and Brothers.)
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Ver. 13. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants, &c.] Javan designs Greece, as the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions render it; especially that part of it called Ionia, from Javan the son of Japhet, Gen. 10:2 and Tubal, and Meshech, were also sons of Japhet; the former are the Iberi and Albanians, as Jerom and others, among whom were a city called Thabilaca, by Ptolemy; and the latter the Cappadocians, with whom is a city called Mazacax. They traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy markets; or, the souls of men; they bought up men and women in the several countries to which they belonged, or where they traded, and brought them to Tyre, and sold them for slaves; and the Ionian and Grecian slaves were had in great esteem: and the best brass, of which vessels were made, was had from Corinth, Delus, and Æginetus; according to Plinyz, Cappadocia was famous for it also: in the first of these merchandises Tyrus was remarkably a type of antichrist, who is said to deal in such wares, the souls of men, Rev. 18:13. The word here rendered markets, Gussetius also observes, does not design the place of commerce, but the act of negotiation or trade; and so it is rendered by manyb. (Gill, J. (1810). An Exposition of the Old Testament (Vol. 6, pp. 139–140). London: Mathews and Leigh.)
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27:13 The names Javan, Tubal, and Meshech are first found as sons of Japheth in Gen. 10:2 (repeated in 1 Chron. 1:5). But in Ezekiel’s time the names signified geographical regions, perhaps peopled by descendants of those men. The primary import of the names here is to signify the far-off places with which Tyre did business. More specifically, “Javan” (Hb. Yawan) was a collective OT name for Greece or the Greeks (the same Hb. term is translated “Greece” in Dan. 8:21; 10:20; 11:2; Zech. 9:13). “Tubal” refers to ancient Tabal, in what is now central Turkey (the province of Cappadocia in NT times). “Meshech” refers to a people known in Greek literature as the Moschoi, who settled in an area on the southeast edge of the Black Sea (the northeastern part of modern Turkey). (Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (pp. 1540–1541). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.)
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Ver. 13. “Traded in the persons of men.” They were addicted to the slave-trade. To this day the Turkish harems are supplied with female slaves from Circassia and Georgia, such being remarkable for their beauty. Compare Joel. 3:6. (Watt, D. G., Leale, T. H., & Barlow, G. (1892). Ezekiel (p. 309). New York; London; Toronto: Funk & Wagnalls Company.)
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Sailing the ship (Ezek. 27:12–25). The beautiful and impressive ship of state was made for the waters, not for the wharf, so Ezekiel described how the city of Tyre did business along the Mediterranean coast. The word “merchant,” used thirteen times in the kjv, means “to do business, to trade.” The nations named here bought merchandise from Tyre and sold products to Tyre. It was a business partnership that benefited all that were involved. Silver, iron, tin, and lead came from Tarshish, which was probably in Spain. Slaves and bronze implements came from Greece and Turkey (Tubal). Also from Turkey came horses, chariot teams, and mules. But there were luxury items as well: ivory and ebony from Rhodes; and turquoise, coral, rubies, and fine fabrics from Jordan.
Tyre did business with the Jews and bought various foods from them. They also got wine and wool from Syria, and lambs, rams, and goats from Arabia. Also from Arabia came exotic spices, gold, and precious stones. Other nations supplied barks, perfumes, and manufactured products such as fabrics, wrought iron objects, and rugs. The people of Tyre would take the raw materials and manufacture various useful items and sell them to their agents and their customers. Along with bartering, money and credit were involved in these many transactions, so there were plenty of opportunities for moneylenders and brokers to make profits. Thanks to the business network of Tyre, luxuries and necessities, jobs and income were available to the nations of the known world. (Wiersbe, W. W. (2000). Be reverent (pp. 127–128). Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor/Cook Communications.)
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27:13 Javan, Tubal and Meshech. Javan was Ionia, a large area in Greece. The other two, in Asia Minor, may be the Tibarenoi and Moschoi mentioned by the writer Herodotus, or slave-trading cities called Tabal and Mushku by the Assyrians. (MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Eze 27:13). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.)
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13. These three countries, Javan, Tubal and Meshech are usually named together, Gen. 10:2; Ezek. 32:26, 38:2, 39:1; Is. 66:19. The first is the Ionians, the Greeks of Asia Minor, and the two last have usually been identified with the Moschi and Tibareni, lying to the S. and S.E. of the Black Sea. Copper and “souls of men” i.e. slaves, form the contribution of these countries. That Javan traded in slaves appears from Joel 4:6; cf. Am. 1:6, 9.
they traded … in thy market] they brought as thy wares souls of men, &c. The nations are the servants of Tyre, and what they bring is her wares. (Davidson, A. B. (1893). The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, with Notes and Introduction (p. 195). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.)
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FROM MY READING
(Remember the only author that I totally agree with is the HOLY SPIRIT in the inerrant WORD OF GOD called THE BIBLE! All other I try to gleam what I can to help me grow in the LORD!!)
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Saul breaks the Law of the Lord then offers sacrifices to the Lord.
INSIGHT
Saul’s fall is fast and far. His spiritual leadership is destroyed before he really gets a good start. Such a profound disparity between how he starts and how he ends is difficult to explain.
It stands as a warning, however. None of us is above falling, no matter where we are in our spiritual walk.
Our regular prayers ought to include what Jesus teaches us to pray: “Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:13). Again, Jesus says, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation” (Matthew 26:41).
The price of our spiritual welfare is eternal vigilance. (Quiet Walk)
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THE NATURE OF SELF
If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Matthew 18:9
The modern cult of self-expression fails to realize the true nature of self. It talks much about giving expression to self, and yet we can show very easily that its very ideas concerning that self are false and do violence to man’s true nature. Obviously, before expression must come definition; and our objection is not so much to the idea of self-expression per se as to the utterly false view of that self that is taken by so many today. The gospel answer to this modern cult is not a doctrine of repression, but rather a call to the realization of the true nature of the self. The clash between the biblical view and that of moderns comes out very clearly in the quoted lines above, especially in the emphasis that Christ places on the word thee. “If thine eye offend thee…cast it from thee…it is better for thee….”
The modern view does not differentiate between the self and the various factors that tend to influence the self, the various factors that the self uses in order to express itself. They claim that man in himself is but the result of these and their effects. Our Lord, on the other hand, draws that distinction very clearly and definitely in His emphasis on the word thee. That He does so is perhaps the real cause of all the modern confusion.
According to Christ, man is not a machine, nor is he an animal led and governed by whim. He is bigger than the body, bigger than tradition, history, and all else. For there is within man another element called the soul.
A Thought to Ponder: There is within man another element called the soul. (From Truth Unchanged, Unchanging, pp. 20-21,24, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
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Elijah’s Prayer
“Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.” (James 5:17-18)
“Elias” is the New Testament name for Elijah, the great prophet who lived during the darkest days of Israel’s apostasy, when Ahab and Jezebel ruled the land and had turned it over to the worship of the demonic god Baal. “Elijah” means “Jehovah is God,” a most appropriate name for a prophet of the true God in a nation and time given over to paganism.
Elijah suddenly appeared before King Ahab with the ominous prophecy: “As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word” (1 Kings 17:1). This was not presumptuous. In his commentary, James said Elijah “prayed earnestly” before he spoke, and that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16).
This remarkable prophecy was miraculously fulfilled. There was no rain in all the land of Israel for 3.5 years (as also confirmed by Christ in Luke 4:25) until Elijah defeated all the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:17-45).
Yet, James reminds us that Elijah was “a man of like passions as we” and that both ends of the miracle—the onset and termination of the nationwide drought—were simply answers to Elijah’s two fervent prayers. James has much to say about how we also can receive wonderful answers to prayer. In addition to praying fervently, we must “ask in faith, nothing wavering” (James 1:6). But faith must be expressed by action (as when Elijah confronted Ahab), for “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20). Finally, if we “ask, and receive not,” it may be that we “ask amiss,” wanting the answer only for ourselves (James 4:3). (HMM, The Institute for Creation Research)
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