3/13/2011 8:36:49 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time
Focus: The angel’s
message of grace
Bible Reading
& Meditation
Reference: 1Kings 19:5-8
Message of the verses: “5 He
lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was an angel
touching him, and he said to him, "Arise, eat." 6 Then he looked and behold, there was at his
head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank
and lay down again. 7 The angel of the
LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, "Arise, eat,
because the journey is too great for you." 8 So he arose and ate and drank, and went in
the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of
God.”
This
is the second message that Elijah receives, the first of course was from the
wicked queen Jezebel, and not this message, according to verse seven is from
the angel of the Lord. In the OT when
the angel of the Lord is mentioned it is most often speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the second person of the Godhead, and I believe that this is whom the
Scriptures are speaking of here. There
are some who would disagree with this statement, but this is surely my belief.
Elijah
was very tired and very depressed and the best thing he could do was to take a
long nap, and he did so under the juniper tree, and it is there that the Lord
awakened him two times and fed him two times.
He had “a table in the wilderness,” prepared for him by the Lord Jesus
Christ. This quote is from Psalm 78:19
which is a Psalm talking about early Israel after they came out of their
bondage in Egypt, and the Lord fed and them and gave them water from the rock.
The
word translated into angel is the word for messenger and is often time
translated as angel. Angels are special
ambassadors, sent from the Lord to minister to His people. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent
out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” This quote is from Hebrews 1:14 where the
writer is speaking to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is better than
angels, but the point I am making here is that the Lord does send angels to
minister to His people.
At
this point in this lesson I want to make a point about fasting, as the text
says that Elijah went out for forty days on the strength of the food that the
Lord prepared for him. In verse eight
the text says that he “went in the strength of that food forty days and forty
nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.”
The text does not say that he did not drink any water, and it is my
belief that Elijah did drink water. I
have mentioned before that fasting is something that I have done from time to
time and is something that I have studied on how to do. There are different types of fasts, but all
fasts have to include water, and when the fast is finished the body will become
hungry again. In the text found in
Matthew chapter four which is about the Lord Jesus Christ fasting it records
that after he fasted for forty days that He became hungry. When speaking of Moses fasting for eighty
days there was not water included and so I believe that this had to be a
miracle of the Lord, for Moses was with the Lord on the Mountain, the same
mountain that Elijah was going to.
There
is one more point that I wish to make and that is from Dr. Wiersbe who writes
this section describing Elijah’s life is fulfilled in Isaiah 40:31, “Yet those
who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings
like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become
weary.” Dr. Wiersbe writes the
following, “When you review God’s ministries to Elijah as recorded in 1Kings 18
& 19, you see a parallel to the promises in Isaiah 40:31. For three years, the prophet had been hidden
by God, during which time ‘he waited on the Lord.’ When the Lord sent him to Mount Carmel, He
enabled Elijah to ‘mount up with wings as eagles; and triumph over the prophets
of Baal. After Elijah prayed and it
began to rain, the Lord strengthened him to ‘run and not be weary’ (18:46), and
now He sustained him for forty days so he could ‘walk and not faint’
(19:8). Elijah wasn’t wholly living in
the will of God, but he was smart enough to know that he had to wait on the
Lord if he expected to have strength for the ministry and for the journey that
lay before him.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am also waiting on the Lord to show me what
my ministry is to be here while on the island of Kauai. I also need strength for the job that I am
working on because I am going to be 64 years old in less than a month and the
work is hard on younger people let along on me, but God will supply me with
strength for the work as I wait upon Him to show me what my purpose is here. I do not want to go ahead of the plans that
the Lord has for me and I do not want have my life become unusable for me by
contaminating it with sinful habits and that is why I am in great need of
staying in the Word each day and why I am in great need of prayer, and in great
need of put on the spiritual armor each day.
I must confess that when I wait upon the Lord He does work in my life;
an example of this was the ministry that He gave to us while in Aruba. This is unnatural for me to wait on the Lord,
but He has put me in a position to wait on Him, and by His grace this is what I
want to do.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Wait on the Lord to see what our ministry is here in
Kauai.
2.
Wait on the Lord to find out what church He desires
us to be in.
3.
Wait on the Lord to see if I am to purchase another
vehicle, and which on it should be.
4.
Give myself to the Lord today for worship and
service.
5.
Because I am in a battle I need the spiritual armor
on.
6.
Continue t o learn contentment.
3/13/2011 9:25:03 AM
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