Elijah

1 Kings chapter 17

Outside of the fact that Jesus Christ controls history the whole impact of history from the divine viewpoint is what the believer in the client nation does with Bible doctrine. This is no time to retreat, no time to run out to the farm, no time to run away from society. Society needs us, not in the sense of social action but in the obscure, quiet sense of the influence and impact we have as those who are advancing to maturity or those who have attained maturity adjustment to the justice of God.

Of all of the doctrines that we need to understand, of all of the doctrines which orient us to the plan of God, logistical grace is by far the most important. It is one of the few doctrines where sins, failures, are not an issue; it is one of the categories of pure grace doctrine.

Race

Race is not an issue in the USA; it is merely a system of demagoguery. The colour of skin, the origin of race, means absolutely nothing. A person is either understanding of our system of life or he is not. The fact of being called a minority is ridiculous; there is no such thing as a minority. When you hear someone shouting racist you are listening to a false issue. It has been a system of conquest to divide people and used by people who have discovered that they can make issues out of colours of skin. Technically there is no such thing as black or white, and therefore when some group says, “We are not getting enough time on television; we are not getting enough things here; we are not being taken seriously", they have created a false issue. We have no right to be bitter or to be arrogant because of the colour of our skin, or any other factor that has been used viciously as propaganda to divide us.

Self-righteousness, self-pity, instability and oscillation fuse to form guilt complex. That plus scar tissue gives us that believing the lie, so that right now in this country, certain people are patronised. They are citizens; they have the same rights and opportunities with the right to go as far as they want to or to fail. Yet they are patronised and given special places because of the colour of their skin. People have special places because they excel, because they are faithful, because they have good norms and standards, because they are honourable — not because of the colour of their skin. But it has been so infused into thinking that it has become a major false issue.

Concept of the passage

1. Perception of logistical is necessary for spiritual advance to maturity and resultant glorification of Christ.

2. Application of logistical grace is necessary for production and service.

3. The Exodus generation of Israel was tested for one year in the sphere of logistical grace. The question immediately arose: After 400 years of slavery are the Jews able in one generation to utilise their freedom to follow the will of God, or are they mentally still slaves so that they cannot fulfil client nation function? Testing is never punishment for sin; divine discipline is punishment for sin.

4. That same generation was supported by logistical grace for 38 more years before they died out. The great issue was logistical grace.

5. The second generation of the client nation also failed the logistical grace test at Meribah-Kadesh.

6. Add to that, even Moses failed to apply doctrine with the result that he did not enter the land. Moses made an issue out of sin and the failure of the Jews rather than an issue out of the integrity and grace of God.

7. Therefore, failure to learn and apply the doctrine of logistical grace continues to be the believer’s number one cause of failure in the spiritual life.

8. Logistical grace malfunction is also the number one failure of the mature believer.

9. Elijah was a mature believer when he entered the scene in 1 Kings 17:1. He moved out of obscurity; he was an obscure person. Forget your public relations approach; your image to people. God uses obscure people. Publicity is not the name of the game.

10. The testing of logistical grace is one of the most important functions of the spiritual life. It is not only a challenge to the faith-rest technique but it is a means of turning cowards into people of courage, and turning evil Christians into royal family with honour.

Outline of 1 Kings 17

The first test of logistical grace — the dried up brook, vv1-7.

The second test of logistical grace — the widow of Zarephath, vv8-16.

The third test of logistical grace — the death of the widow’s son, vv17-24.

General summary

1. Each one of these tests can be classified as a dried up brook, a hopeless situation. Each test demands that the mature Elijah used the rationale of reverse concentration and applied the doctrine logistical grace to the situation.

2. In each case Elijah will pass the test so that, in effect, he becomes what he was not when he first faced Ahab. He was not prepared for the crisis. He will become the man of the hour in historical crisis.

3. Elijah, in the next chapter, will be the leader of a great revival. It will change the history of his nation.

Mount Carmel added 150 more years to the history of northern Israel.

4. The greatness of Elijah is obvious. There are many Biblical references after his death — Malachi 4:5; Matthew 11:14; Luke 9:30-33; Matthew 17:10; Mark 9:11; Luke 4:25; Romans 11:2; James 5:17.

5. Elijah appears as a mature believer; serves God as a mature believer; succeeds in saving his country as a mature believer; fails as a mature believer; receives divine discipline as a mature believer; is used by God in many projects after that as a mature believer; dies in a most unusual way as a mature believer; he is coming back in the Tribulation as a mature believer.

A panorama view of this special study, Elijah and pivot politics

1. This special includes three chapters dealing with the historical crisis in client nation northern Israel during the reign of Ahab and Jezebel.

2. Northern Israel was a client nation to God in a similar condition to the USA in 1979! It was about to go under the administration of the 5th cycle of discipline.

3. Because of reversionism and apostasy the USA today faces identical problems with northern Israel in the time of Elijah. In the year 871 BC it was almost over for the kingdom of Israel. Nevertheless, from the most desperate historical situation one hundred and fifty more years were given to that nation.

4. Each chapter we are studying emphasises a contributing factor to meeting the challenge to disaster and solving the crisis.

5. The overriding principle is the fact that Jesus Christ controls history.

6. However, the emphasis in 1 Kings 17 is the importance of logistical grace in facing historical catastrophe, the place of logistical grace in historical disaster, and the panacea of logistical grace in giving breathing room to form a pivot.

7. In 1 Kings 18 Elijah, God’s man for the crisis in the midst of failure, presents a new picture — the man for the crisis. There is always some special person who can be used of God because he is prepared. God uses prepared people.

Chapter 18 doesn’t tell us much about Elijah’s preparation but in a series of paragraphs it sets up a contrast between Elijah, God’s man for the crisis, and the people who were contemporaries and not prepared. For example, in the first 16 verses we have the failure of the immature believer — he can never handle the crisis and cannot be used. In verses 17-20 the failure of temporal government to meet the disaster. Government causes the disaster and therefore what causes the disaster cannot cure the disaster. Verses 21-24 — the failure of public opinion. In verses 25-40 we have the failure of religion — the parallels are many. In verses 41-46 we have the failure of the politician.

In chapter 19 we are going to see the preservation and deliverance of a client nation through a pivot of mature believers.

The first logistical test — 1 Kings 17:1-7

In verse one we are introduced to the mature believer, the man for the crisis. The mature believer is prepared for life; he is prepared for prosperity; he is prepared for disaster and catastrophe; he is prepared for rapidly changing circumstances; he is oriented to the plan of God, the grace of God; he is the possessor of maximum doctrine in the soul and he resides in Z radical of the plan of God.

We will see in these three chapters two categories of mature believer: the one who is famous and those who are living in obscurity. And in order to perpetuate the nation one man will be the leader in the crisis, Elijah, but he will fail at a critical moment. However, there were still 7000 who were in the pivot.

Verse 1 — “Now Elijah of Thisbe, who settled in Gilead, said to Ahab … “ Out of the group of 7000, why was Elijah selected? There are many reasons:

1. Mature believer = maximum doctrine in his soul. The condition of his soul was the primary reason. He was conditioned mentally to face a greater variety of adversities without distraction from the plan of God or the Word of God.

2. He had maximum reverse concentration or recovery of the doctrine in his soul for application.

3. Elijah was selected because he was alone. He didn’t have a wife; he didn’t have children, a mother or father or someone he had to take care of. He was ready to move at an instant’s notice. He had no entangling responsibilities. The crisis is NOW.

4. He lived in Gilead but he wasn’t originally from Gilead. He had the ability to get up from one place and move to another as a stable person — not as a rolling stone. He was a person therefore who could make decisions. He went from Thisbe in Galilee to Gilead, from the low country to the mountainous regions. He moved in the opposite direction to the stream of humanity.

5. He has correctly interpreted history.

6. He is occupied with Christ.

7. He has grace motivation.

8. He was the most effective prayer warrior.

Elijah went into Ahab’s palace and made a pronouncement dealing with the second and third cycles of discipline. In Leviticus 26:18-20 the second cycle of discipline is described. Ahab had “pride of power,” he received the courtesies of a king and that was acceptable to him. “… sky like iron and your earth like bronze” — in our language this means economic disaster; “and your strength shall be spent uselessly” — you can plow all day and sow seed but you’re not going to have a crop. In our language, you can invest money but there will be no return.

The eighth reason why Elijah was selected: out of the 7000 in the pivot of mature believers he was the most effective prayer warrior. He is going to pray now that the sky be like iron and the land be like bronze. He announced formerly the depression. As long as he prayed that prayer the depression would continue, and only when he prayed for rain would the depression be over.

Prayer means the use of authority. When you use prayer properly you are going to get answers. And when you have the right to approach the throne of grace and say, Father, and make a petition that is going to be answered, that means that you have authority and with that authority you must have responsibility. And only the mature believer has the responsibility to use prayer properly. Elijah was prepared for the crisis because he knew how to pray.

Now, economic depression is caused by either rejection of Bible doctrine (which is reversionism or apostasy) or failure to follow the law of supply and demand in the free enterprise system, which is rejection of the laws of divine establishment. Socialism and the welfare state cause depression, they result in irresponsibility in government.

We learn something about the leadership in the northern kingdom of Israel at the time in which our passage occurs. It can be described in terms of principle and historical fact.

1. Ahab ruled the northern kingdom from 871 to 852 BC. His father Omri was a famous general as well as a king. He himself was also a great military man but a failure as a ruler and as a human being.

2. Ahab was the 8th king of Israel, the northern kingdom. He was a believer in reversionism.

3. His father Omri was so great and so famous that archaeology has uncovered his name in the Assyrian tablets of Shalmaneser III. Both Omri and Ahab were respected by the Assyrians as the greatest generals of their age.

4. Ahab married one of the most beautiful women of his day. This woman was his nemesis not because of her beauty but because of her brains. She was smart, apparently demon possessed, and probably one of the most evil women who ever lived. She was a princes, the daughter of a king of Phoenicia, the only nation in history to survive one thousand years of greatness without ever having a central government.

5. Ahab, under the influence of his wife, built a temple to the storm god, Baal, and another temple to the love goddess, Ashtarti. Here the phallic cult was practised.

6. Ahab eventually died the sin unto death in the battle against the Syrians — 1 Kings 22.

7. Jezebel has been described as a merciless dictator, a wily intrigue, a shameless trollop, and a whore. If you were to meet her you might be enchanted by her because none of these things showed.

8. She brought in to the land 450 special priests of Baal and supported these with the taxpayer’s money. They converted much of the population to the apostasy of evil and the phallic cult.

9. Jezebel came from palace of King Hiram of Tyre, her grandfather, so she came from a line of very brilliant rulers. (With the Phoenicians there was no central government, you ruled by your wits, by intrigue.)

10. Ahab’s father was a great warrior king who had stabilised the northern kingdom through victory in battle. The northern kingdom as a client nation owed its freedom to military victory. He also saw the stabilisation of his own country through uniting with Phoenicia so that …

11. Jezebel changed her nationality when she married Ahab but not her religion. She became a Jewess but she introduced into Israel the cult of Baal.

12. That is why a temple of prostitution and the public offering of virginity became the apostasy of the northern kingdom and which brought Elijah out of the mountains of Gilead. Human sacrifice was also a part of the modus operandi.

So during the so-called golden age of the Phoenicians, Ahab’s marriage to Jezebel occurred as a means of destroying the client nation. And this therefore is a historical crisis which is related to the evil in government. When Elijah spoke to Ahab, Ahab was in the reversionism of the phallic cult. He was breaking all records in the function of evil — 1 Kings 16:30-33.

Verse 30 “did evil” asah — manufactured out of something. The evil which came to the land was manufactured out of religion. The word for “evil” — hara. “And Ahab the son of Omri produced the evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him” .

Verse 31 “And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat … “

The sins of Jeroboam are very simply defined. Jeroboam rejected doctrine, built scar tissue, and at the same time there was the intensification of arrogance, causing him to believe the lie. He was a brilliant administrator under Solomon and when Solomon finally saw his arrogance and scar tissue and banished him from the country he went to Egypt. When Solomon died he came back and then became a revolutionist and led in the revolution against Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. Ahab followed in the sins of Jeroboam; he was against any system of the laws of establishment.

“ … he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Phoenicians, and went and served Baal, and bowed down to him.” He is a believer but is led astray, distracted.

Verse 32 “So he erected an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he built in Samaria.”

Verse 33 “And Ahab also constructed the ashera (the Lady of the Sea, the wife of Baal. It refers to the focal point of the phallic cult); therefore Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all of the kings of Israel who preceded him.”

Evil

Evil has two sources, both are found in the sin nature. One source of evil is obviously sin. The most predominant sin as a source of evil is arrogance or pride. The other source is good. Both sin and good are the source of evil.

When good combines with self-righteousness it forms evil. If Satan is not capable of ruling the world which he controls, then no man of genius can do it either. When man tries to solve the problems of life by his own ability, by setting up and devising a system of self-righteousness, then there is no solution because all solutions to the problems of life depend upon the imputation of +R, one half of divine integrity. Self-righteous plus human good is a guarantee of saturating the country with evil.

Romans 12:21 — “Stop being conquered by evil, but conquer evil by means of the good.” The good in Romans is X+Y+Z. You cannot stop evil by any kind of social action or reform; it merely intensifies evil, never stops it. The only way evil can be stopped, conquered, overcome, is to advance in the plan of God through the daily function of GAP. There is no other way.

Principles

1. Evil is factor the believer must face which was not judged on the cross. (Neither good nor evil were judged on the cross because good and evil continue as an issue in the angelic conflict, human race phase).

2. The balance of residency in the believer’s soul avoids thinking evil, 1 Corinthians 13:5. (Impersonal love defeats evil). Evil cannot coexist with impersonal love which is produced by the filling of the Spirit.

3. False doctrine is both evil and insanity, Ecclesiastes 9:3. If you take the attitude that there is one faith for all men under the sun, you have accepted a principle of evil.

4. Sincere do-gooders practice evil, Romans 7:19, 21.

5. The believer is warned to beware of evil practicers, Phil. 3:2. “Beware of dogs.” A dog does not have human norms and standards. Therefore, you cannot superimpose human thinking on a dog and come up with the answer. “Beware of evil practicers” — people who practice evil do not have human standards, they have standards equivalent to the dog. That is why they are unstable. “Beware of mutilation (concision).” A dog can only mutilate an extremity, etc. but the mutilation of evil is the mutilation of your norms and standards. Ahab was a believer but he mutilated the norms and standards of the Word of God.

6. Those under the influence of evil always have a price, 1 Timothy 6:10. “The love of money is the root of all evil.”

7. Believers are specifically warned not to be influenced by evil but to be influenced by doctrine.

The State Of The Nation — 1 Kings 16:30

1. The nation was in a terrible state of apostasy when Elijah came to the palace to announce him.

2. Elijah announced the second cycle of discipline which according to James 5:17 meant three and a half years of economic depression.

3. Things were as bad in northern Israel then as in the USA now. Therefore we will see excellent analogies.

4. But there was hope for the northern kingdom which cam to pass, and there is hope for us which is a potential. The hope, three factors: a. Jesus Christ controls history; b. Spiritual leadership free from arrogance (God saves the nation, not the people); c. A pivot of 7000 mature believers.

5. Ahab manufactured evil out of his own reversionism.

6. Ahab was a great soldier but he became weak because of whom he loved. Jezebel was evil.

Threefold solution

1. Jesus Christ controls history; 2. There must be a man for the crisis — God’s man for the crisis; 3. The function of the pivot of mature believers. These are

the three great factors that are going to save the nation.

Bible doctrine is the mind of Christ; Bible doctrine is the thinking of Christ; Bible doctrine is the Word of God the Father; Bible doctrine is the voice of God the Holy Spirit; and the answer to the entire problem lies within the framework of your personal attitude toward Bible doctrine. God’s plan does not depend on one individual; God’s plan depends upon those believers, obscure, unknown, not mentioned in history books, who are the pivot of mature believers that changes things.

Logistical grace testing falls into three categories: 1st logistical grace testing, 1 Kings 17:1-7, the dried up brook; 2nd logistical grace testing, 1 Kings 17:8-16, the widow of Zarephath; 3rd logistical grace testing, 1 Kings 17:17-24, the death of the widow’s son. The purpose of testing is blessing and the issue of testing is grace. The purpose of divine discipline is cursing and the issue of divine discipline is to bring us back under divine authority by making us hurt, like a DI in boot camp. The issue in logistical support is always grace. No-one is God’s man for the crisis until he understands the issues of logistical grace.

So we are now facing the first test, and the test is not divine discipline, it is to prepare Elijah for the crisis to come. He is to be God’s man for the crisis.

17:1— “as the Lord God of Israel lives” is not quite the correct translation. “Lives” in the Hebrew is chajah and it has been translated in this passage like the verb. But in the original it is not the verb, it is the noun chaj, and it should be translated “by the life of the Lord God of Israel.” And these are the first words of Elijah as he confronts the king. It is a reference to the attributes of God. He was speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ in His deity. He understood a principle: that in the Lord Jesus Christ controlling history there is a rationale of the plan of God. Elijah was using the second and third stages of the faith-rest drill.

The first stage: faith reaches out and clams a promise. Why? Because there is often fear in the soul. Fear is lack of thought under pressure. Courage is the ability to think under pressure.

The second stage: faith reaches into the right lobe of the soul and then takes pertinent doctrine and applies it to the situation through reverse concentration. Reverse concentration is the application of doctrine to a specific situation in which a rationale is formed.

The third stage: faith reaches out and comes to doctrinal conclusions from that rationale of reverse concentration so that the individual believer is in control of the situation.

When Elijah stood before Ahab he was in control of the situation. He was not embarrassed; he did not have stage fright; he wasn’t afraid to enter the court and challenge Ahab with the Word of God. He was able to use the plan of God rationale as it relates to the integrity of God. He knew that the point of reference for anyone who is a believer is the justice of God and that at the other end of the integrity of God is the righteousness of God.

The qal perfect of the verb amad is correctly translated “I stand.” It means that Elijah is a believer in Christ and therefore possesses God’s righteousness or imputation of both logistical and super grace blessings. The message that Elijah is going to bring has to do with the economic collapse of the nation. There will be a depression for three and a half years as a warning system of discipline that unless there is a change there will be no northern Israel as a nation. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it is written and drought under agricultural economy is tantamount to an economic depression. The principle is very simple: logistical grace still functions in economic depression for Elijah is going to survive all of this depression.

Not only did Elijah announce this judgement to Ahab but he also perpetuated the judgement through his own dynamics in prayer, for he said at the end of verse one: “There will be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word” .Elijah’s power in prayer is related to his spiritual status quo. He came out of obscurity as God’s man for the crisis to challenge evil, to state the very purpose of a client nation, to present the divine viewpoint, and then just as suddenly as he came in to the limelight to vanish into obscurity again. After three and a half years of obscurity and training in logistical grace Elijah will then emerge as God’s man for the historical crisis and he will provide the leadership for the great revival that will begin to turn everything around. Elijah’s communication of divine judgement on the client nation of Israel is confirmed by Deuteronomy chapter 11:16,17; 28:23,24. Elijah was on Biblical ground all the way; he didn’t have a thought apart from Bible doctrine.

Verses 2-7, Natural & Supernatural Support.

Principle: The will of God is revealed by the Word of God.

Verse 2 — the qal imperfect from the word hajah indicates communication from God to Elijah. Today our communication from the Lord is not verbal; it comes only through the written Word. But the principle remains the same because the voice of God is authority and the Word of God is authority, and God has delegated authority to communicate the Word of God through the communication gifts. Since the canon of Scripture has been completed God guides through His Word. Therefore the believer must be saturated with Bible doctrine in order to have confidence with regard to the will of God.

It is imperative now, that having thrown down the gauntlet, Elijah must be moved back into obscurity. He has done a very courageous thing but he did it at God’s command. He has fulfilled the first test in his function of leadership in time of crisis, for he is going to be a great leader for disaster situation. Therefore the will of God is never declared apart from the will of God and Elijah now has communication so that he can move out and move into obscurity. What you are when you are alone is what you really are.

God’s man for the crisis is prepared by obscurity. In obscurity the distractions of arrogance are generally removed, the PR approach to life, the human viewpoint, the principle of relying on someone else who might be able to help you — all of that is removed so that Elijah, for three and a half years, is going to concentrate on that doctrine which will bring him through the crisis. The doctrine is logistical grace. The will of God is never divorced from the Word of God and before he Elijah can go back to school he must be isolated from the mainstream of life.

Verse three: the statement of the will of God.

“Go away from here, now turn eastward, hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.”

“Go” qal imperative of the verb jalak — to walk, to go, sometimes it means “went,” it also means to march. The principle is simple. Having delivered God’s message he isn’t going to stand around and wait for compliments, etc. He has to make an instant decision to move, and to move fast. The believer who is God’s man for the crisis must be very flexible about the will of God. He has to make instant decisions which do not always agree with his instincts. Flexibility comes from spirituality.

Elijah’s life is now in danger. Security in times of historical disaster or divine punishment is a part of divine grace or logistical grace provision for the mature believer. He is in a place of security and in the rough terrain Elijah is going to receive the first of three logistical grace tests which will provide the basis for becoming God’s man for the crisis. Elijah must pass this test before he is ready for the confrontation on Mount Carmel and there is no advance for the believer apart from passing logistical grace testing. Furthermore, in the logistical grace testing he will have to pass the faith-rest drill every time.

Verse four: the statement of logistical support.

Notice how desperate times had become in the apostate northern kingdom when no man could be trusted. Elijah must be alone. He is not to have contact with any human being. In three and a half years he will have a great price on his head and when someone has a price on his head in a depression it means that every hungry person is a bounty hunter. Therefore, there will be no persons on this test.

The Hebrew word for “ravens” is oreb. It also refers to crows. A crow is a well-organised bird; it is an unclean bird under the Mosaic law. (No matter how hungry Elijah gets he will not eat the waiters!) It is very important that in preparing for crisis that you learn to be flexible — strength in flexibility. To take food from an unclean bird requires flexibility. The use of the raven or the crow then emphasises the fact that Elijah would sooner or later be betrayed by people. Therefore, no people are to be involved in this logistical grace support. The use of birds which can fly away reminds Elijah of his total dependence upon God.

Principle

1. This makes Elijah obligated to God alone and not to people.

2. People can become very unstable in time of disaster. To use people would require the consistency of their volition; it would further demand grace orientation, but to use ravens or crows would involve only God’s sovereignty, God’s volition. So God simplifies the whole logistical support system by using only the birds.

3. The supply line then is simplified and there is a principle behind that: whenever you can simplify administrative procedures, do so.

4. Note the categories of supply in this logistical grace support. Water will come from the brook; food will come from the ravens. In verse 6 the ravens are consistent in bringing food but the brook will dry up because of the economic situation and the drought.

It is the natural phenomenon of water which will eventually dry up, not the miracle of food. Principle: Miracles are so easy for God that it is almost incredible that people think a miracle is incredible. What is really incredible and difficult is the fact that when God operates through natural laws then natural laws keep right on moving and the water dries up.

Verse 5, the obedience of faith.

“he went” jalak — in the sense of marching. His thought pattern is organised, he knows exactly what he is doing as he moves out.

“did” asah — to manufacture something out of something. He manufactured his action out of Bible doctrine or the Word of the Lord as it came to him. The principle again: the will of God is revealed by the Word of God and when Elijah understood the will of God he responded with implicit obedience. God is preparing Elijah for some thing big and, therefore, the obedience of faith is absolutely necessary for future crisis. The moment we stop obeying the Word we stop recognising the authority of God.

The misery and suffering of the land is related to their rejection of the plan of God and Bible doctrine. And those in the plan of God, of course, lacked nothing, logistical grace support is renewed every morning and they can say on a day by day basis, “Great is thy faithfulness.”

Note the power of God: the ravens do not care for their own young. They are one of the birds which do not take good care of their young and yet they cared for Elijah at the command of God. Again we see the great power of the sovereignty of God; the ravens who will not care for their own in the nest take care of Elijah by the brook Cherith. So even irrational creatures cannot make a move apart from the will of God. The most insignificant of creatures contribute to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and God uses ravens rather than apostate and reversionistic people to supply Elijah’s needs.

The obedience of faith brings the believer to the place of blessing. Logistical grace blessing in time of historical disaster further demonstrates the faithfulness of God to the believer and the fact that Jesus Christ who controls the ravens also controls history. In other words every category of supply comes to Elijah in a different way to test every aspect of logistical grace. Without logistical grace there is a definite road block in your spiritual advance. The ravens appear with food, water flows in the brook, the ravens keep coming and the water in the brook keeps diminishing. Each system of supply demands reverse concentration, capacity for life, and occupation with Christ. And Elijah realises one day he is dealing with two separate and different systems: he is dealing with natural phenomenon and he is dealing with spiritual phenomenon. The spiritual phenomenon produces a miracle and therefore he has a right to expect miracles in the future, and he will expect one at Mount Carmel.

Verse 6: the blessings of logistical grace.

The ravens were under divine command, so they manifest the faithfulness of God. Water is necessary to sustain his life so water flows down the brook Cherith which means separation or isolation. Cherith is the Hebrew word meaning isolation, separation, aloneness. The lowering of the water level is a challenge to keep on believing the promises of God.

Elijah was safe by the brook Cherith, he was provided food by the ravens under divine command and spiritual refreshment from doctrine resident in his soul. He had occupation with Christ and capacity for life (which does not depend upon having people around).

Verse 7: the test of logistical grace.

He has perfect contentment and he also passes the aloneness test but the question arises, What about the test of logistical grace?

Elijah watched the change in the brook day by day but the drying up of the brook did not move him into panic palace. He still had complete and total confidence in the integrity of God. Each day became a test in the field of logistical grace.

“dried up” jabesh — to cut off or to dry up. Each day as the water diminished the demand for the function of the faith-rest drill increased. This what we call a build-up. He could see it coming; he knew it was going to happen. That is the kind of a crisis that puts people in great panic. Every day Elijah faced the same test and he put “muscle” on his faith. He was in charge of the situation because doctrinal conclusions put him in charge. The decrease of water demands the increase of faith-rest. The decrease of supply demands increase on the part of his faith-rest function. All he had to remember was “the battle is the Lord’s.”

Principle

1. Each day the water level in the brook lowered and the water supply diminished. In this way Elijah was tested daily, not only with regard to the faith-rest drill, but another lesson was being taught at the same time.

2. Under divine faithfulness and integrity in supplying the needs of the believer it is possible to begin concentration on the provision rather than the Source.

3. Elijah has been isolated from the society of mankind at Cherith. Isolation is a part of the test.

4. God often removes the believer from the place of prominence and isolates him from normal social intercourse in an environment of aloneness. It is that environment of aloneness that determines what you really are.

5. Your Cherith may be illness, loss of wealth, prominence, popularity, power, or loved ones, or anything else on which you depend instead of the Source. When you get your eyes off the Source and on to what God has provided, you are in trouble. The provision must remind us of the origin (Source).

6. We never quite appreciate the Source until we have faced the dried-up brook.

7. Therefore there are times in life when we must sit down in isolation and watch the things that we count most important in life slip away from us. Sooner or later all of us face this kind of a test. God help the believer who faces that test without doctrine.

8. One of the greatest lessons in the faith-rest drill then is to wait on the Lord and trust His judgement. Waiting on the Lord means to trust His judgement.

9. Perhaps in the routine of logistical grace provision Elijah had come to depend on the water in the brook Cherith rather than to depend on the Source of the water — the Lord Jesus Christ. He had a good thing going. Under such circumstances it is very easy to misdirect the focus and get eyes on the thing rather than the Source.

Often we must come to the end of our own resources before we can learn to depend upon the Source of all resources.

Principle

1. Humility plus helplessness promotes grace orientation. Elijah has the humility and God provides the helplessness.

2. Human resources may be exhausted but Bible doctrine is always there. The unchanging Word for the changing world.

3. The brook dried up but the Word of God never dries up.

4. Therefore, human extremity is God’s opportunity.

5. No water in the land was the result of the justice of God administering the cycles of discipline to northern Israel.

6. Note that the justice of God is the source of both cursing and blessing.

7. The justice of God imputed logistical blessing and support to divine righteousness resident in the soul of Elijah while at the same time the justice of God administered discipline and judgement to the apostate nation.

8. Therefore the justice of God was the source of Elijah’s logistical support and at the same time the justice of God was the source of Israel’s depression and historical disaster.

9. The food from the ravens was supernatural; the water from the brook was natural. It was inevitable that the brook would dry up thus cutting off Elijah’s water supply. Following supernatural laws of doctrine regarding logistical grace it was inevitable that the Word of God would lead Elijah to a new source of supply. The integrity of God may use varied means to supply needs but the Source is always the same.

The Doctrine Of Logistical Grace

1. Definition and description: In military science logistics is a technical word. Along with strategy and tactics it is one of the three most basic technical words in the field of military science. Logistics is the concept of supply, provision, the planning of troop movement. It has the concept of sustaining any form of military manoeuvre. It is the science of supporting troops in every military situation.

From the military nomenclature comes a spiritual analogy and the formation of a doctrine. Logistical grace is defined as the divine provision and support of the believer in Y and Z radicals — the support of the immature believer between salvation and maturity, the support of the mature believer in maturity, the support of all believers in failure. In other words, from the time that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, which is phase one of the plan of God, until you depart from this life, God supports logistically all believers. 2 Corinthians 9:8, “God is able.”

Summary

a. Divine support for mankind in X radical is related to the laws of divine establishment.

b. Divine support for the believer in Y and Z radical is logistical grace; and it includes the positive believer in his spiritual growth and it includes the born again negative believer in his retrogression.

c. Divine support for the believer in Z radical uses, not only logistical grace but adds to it, special grace blessings. It is the imputation of super grace blessings that glorifies God in time.

d. The basis for logistical grace blessing is the imputation of divine righteousness at salvation.

e. All logistical grace support in all categories is imputed from the justice of God to the resident righteousness of God in the believer.

f. In other words logistical grace flows through the grace pipeline established by the integrity of God.

g. All logistical support originates then from the justice of God and is imputed to the resident righteousness of God.

There are two categories of logistical grace blessing: a. Direct blessing from the justice of God for the immature believer in Y radical; b. Direct blessing from the justice of God for the mature believer in Z radical.

2. Logistical grace is based upon, not only the integrity of God but, the faithfulness of God. Lamentations 3:20-25.

Divine faithfulness is the expression of the integrity of God to the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is based on the fact that every believer receives the judicial imputation of divine righteousness at salvation establishing the grace pipeline for blessing.

The Faithfulness of God

a. God’s faithfulness in rebound, a part of logistical grace.

b. God’s faithfulness in logistical support, Lamentations 3:22,23.

c. God’s faithfulness is based on election to privilege, 1 Corinthians 1:9.

d. God’s faithfulness in testing, 1 Corinthians 10:13. Testing emphasises logistical grace. God will not allow you to be tested beyond your capacity.

e. God’s faithfulness to the royal family of God, Hebrews 10:23.

f. God’s faithfulness to the reversionistic believer, 2 Timothy 2:13.

g. God’s faithfulness in the angelic conflict — the wall of fire, 2 Thessalonians 3:3.

h. God’s faithfulness to the mature believer, Hebrews 11:11.

i. God’s faithfulness to true Israel, Deuteronomy 7:9.

1 Kings 17:8

If a test is going to be legitimate there are two things that are necessary: the situation must be hopeless and you must be helpless. Testing is going to be painful from time to time but out of the pain comes extremely great blessing. Elijah is being prepared for something great because that dried up brook put him immediately in a hopeless situation. He was completely helpless, there was no way he could bring water out of the dry river bed.

When “Cherith” comes to you one of the major issues in your life is going to be pivot politics versus power politics. You will make the choice one way or the other. If you go the way of power politics you are going to lose out; if you go the way of pivot politics you have read your way into the plan of God and the Lord will be glorified and there will be the imputation of divine blessing from His justice.

The Issue: Pivot Politics Versus Power Politics

1. Unless the situation is hopeless (No human solution to the problem) there is no crisis.

2. The crisis finds power politics unable to cope with the situation.

3. Pivot politics emphasises man’s helplessness and simultaneously looks to the grace of God for solution. Pivot politics relates to divine solutions.

4. There is a continuous running battle in history between pivot politics and power politics. It is a major part of the angelic conflict.

5. Power politics emphasises change while pivot politics emphasises grace for the status quo.

6. Pivot politics de-emphasises change as a panacea for life. Change is not God’s answer so if you had the power to make changes it would not be compatible with God’s plan. Power politics is man trying to play God; pivot politics is God solving man’s problems.

7. Things are bad, says power politics, therefore let us change them.

8. But change upsets establishment and replaces it with something worse — anarchy, loss of freedom.

9. Freedom is essential in the function of the angelic conflict. You cannot remove freedom from the devil’s world and have the angelic conflict. It is God’s intention that freedom always exists somewhere and that freedom is a prerequisite to any nation being a client nation to God. Therefore, freedom is more valuable than any other system of value. With freedom the whole system of divine solution is operational at all times.

10. In view of bringing up an issue like pivot politics versus power politics it is time to ask a question. What is the responsibility of the believer, pivot politics or power politics?

11. Bible doctrine says pivot politics, which offers an individual solution without tampering with human freedom. Pivot politics must be your attitude in life — pivot politics where all improvements are personal without destroying freedom. Exception: prevention or control of crime.

12. The devil says power politics which, through violence, exchanges one set of evils for another. Historically demonstrated by the French Revolution where the evils of the Bourbon dynasty were replaced by the evils of the Jacobins which were far greater evils providing the most monstrous violence. “Change” is what the revolution said. Pivot politics always solves the problems judicially; power politics solves them by violence. Change means whitewashing the devil’s world.

13. Power politics tries to change the leopard’s spots but pivot politics does not tamper with the leopard’s spots at all; it merely changes the direction that the leopard is going.

14. Power politics is social action, muckraking, crusades.

15. Power politics is revolution exchanging established evil for non-established evil.

16. Power politics means change, the slaughter of the innocents, tyranny, self-righteousness, disruption of normal life. But above all it is the destruction of freedom.

17. Pivot politics rejects social action, social reform, crusades, as unnecessary radical surgery.

18. Pivot politics emphasises individual and personal solutions to historical problems based on the believer’s advance to spiritual maturity. In other words pivot politics says, How the nation goes and whether it is perpetuated or not depends on the pivot of mature believers.

19. The believer must decide then whether to get involved in the devil’s world through social action or to become involved in the plan of God (pivot action).

20. Pivot politics represents the plan of God in contrast to power politics which represents Satan’s radical surgery to improve his own world system. The only way Satan can improve his own domain is radical surgery.

21. Since Jesus Christ controls history pivot politics advocates maximum doctrine resident in the soul of the believer forming a pivot in the client nation.

22. Under election to privilege individual believers in Christ advance to maturity in the plan of God without disrupting society. Power politics disrupts society; pivot politics maintains the status quo in society — evil though it may be and though it will be (Every one has an old sin nature).

23. A pivot of mature believers breaks no laws, sponsors no violence, confiscates no property, destroys no free enterprise business, tampers with no freedom or privacy; but, turns the world upside down through the invisible force and power of Bible doctrine — unchanging doctrine for a changing world.

24. The leopard may changes his direction but the leopard will never change his spots. Evil is still evil; this is the devil’s world. Don’t join the devil’s party — power politics. God’s party is pivot politics and you’re only going to get one square deal and that is from the Lord.

25. Reform in power politics attempts to change evil without changing evil. Evil cannot be changed. Evil can be frustrated by God for Jesus Christ controls history, but you and I cannot change evil. We are not even called to change evil but to pivot politics — the doctrine of election, election to privilege.

26. Pivot politics restrains evil and brings divine blessing to society; and it does this without tampering with freedom.

27. Now training for pivot politics demands logistical grace testing which involves hopeless situations combined with helpless believers. We are never quite with it until we face our brook of Cherith and realise just how helpless we really are.

28. Power politics uses human good to produce evil; pivot politics uses doctrine to produce divine good.

The Widow Of Zarephath

The woman was honourable and Elijah was honourable. They lived together for three years privately in a large home. They had their privacy and lived their lives as unto the Lord.

Verse 8 — divine guidance through the Word of the Lord.

This was the second divine communication to Elijah. The brook is dried up but not the Source — always the issue in logistical grace. Even though the brook dries up Elijah is not going to lack for the necessities of life.

“saying” — verbal communication. However, since the completion of the canon of Scripture God speaks through His Word, not verbalising a voice from heaven. This means that all divine guidance comes through the written Word of God, the canon of Scripture. The will of God is never declared apart from the Word of God; if you don’t know the Word of God you will never know the will of God. It is impossible to know the will of God while ignorant of the Word of God. It is very important in pivot politics to be cognisant of the Word. The will of God is never divorced from the Word of God and when the brook dries up the believer must look to the everlasting water of the Word for refreshment and solution.

Principle: Power politics always makes an issue out of someone who is going to save the country; pivot politics makes an issue out of Jesus Christ who alone can save the country. Jesus Christ was real to Elijah because of the Word of God just as Jesus Christ is real to us because of the Word of God.

One step at a time is the agenda for the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. God only leads one step at a time. This passage does not begin with the victory on Mount Carmel but with the preparation for such victory; and preparation demands one step at a time. Having taken the step at Cherith God now orders the next step in preparation for the great revival on Mount Carmel. This requires the influence of a woman. Behind Ahab is the beautiful woman, Jezebel; behind Elijah is a magnificent woman, the widow of Zarephath. Two men were marvellously influenced in their lifetime by these women, Ahab for the production of evil and Elijah for the production of divine good.

With the dried up brook and with the test of logistical grace it now becomes necessary to move on.

Principle

1. One step of preparation leads to advancing to the next step of preparation. Elijah passed the test, now he moves on to the next step. God only leads one step at a time.

2. Elijah had been separated now from normal human intercourse for the believer must learn from privacy. What we really are is what we are when we are alone. Here then is the value of the obscure life, the hidden life before God.

3. The believer who is arrogant takes exalted and high places among people who take the low place before God.

4. Elijah’s act of courage was unique as he stood before Ahab. And often uniqueness is associated with arrogance to cause us to assume that we are indispensable.

5. God isolated Elijah from the rest of society to inculcate the principles of grace orientation and their by-product of humility. True humility, not the facade of arrogance called “being humble.”

None of us are necessary for the plan of God. The plan of God therefore on the attributes of God, not the ability of man. We must never assume that our ability is more than the Source. Cherith was a place of isolation. It was a place to learn the important lessons regarding service and what you are alone is what you really are. If you succeed in the aloneness test then you will succeed before the entire nation. This is the preparation principle that Elijah learned. God does not use publicity and publicity therefore is no substitute divine power; it merely becomes a distraction leading into the various arrogance factors. The training program for leadership in the crisis demands isolation.

There are only three solutions to historical disaster or historical crisis: 1. Jesus Christ controls history; 2. Spiritual leadership for disaster (Elijah); 3. The pivot of mature believers. As goes the believer so goes the nation. God does not use, therefore, any system of publicity or any human viewpoint system of any kind. Isolation is one of the great training grounds for God’s man for the crisis. There can be no victory at Mount Carmel without preparation in the isolation of the brook Cherith. Elijah had to go to Cherith for security as well as sustaining and learning. How easy it would have been for Elijah to assume that the dried up brook meant that God had forgotten him. It would have been very easy for him to start making plans for himself. Elijah learned at the brook Cherith not to trust God’s supply but to trust God’s Word. (The supply dried up but the Word was still there). He still had doctrine even though he didn’t have water. No water didn’t mean it was over but he still had doctrine. The issue is doctrine in the soul, not water in the body. Unbelief sees circumstances; faith sees God.

Verse 9, the three-paragraph field order. Paragraph one: “Get up” — after so much preparation it is time for action. After you have studied in the privacy of your “Brook Cherith” it is time to get out and get cracking with a message. It is time to put thought into action. The link between thought and action is motivation. “go to,” jalak, a forced march. Zarephath is Elijah’s destination and he is to keep moving until he gets there. (No wonder he had to go to Phoenicia when its big business and little government was the safest and most stable place to be. Stability doesn’t come from big government but from big business). Paragraph two: responsibility — “dwell there” jashab, stay there, live there, remain there. It is Elijah’s responsibility to stay there, to stay put. All great men of action have to learn to stand fast. It is the school for the man of action. Elijah was going from the obscurity of Cherith to the obscurity of Zarephath. This was God’s way of promoting because until you pass the test of being alone and of thinking under aloneness you are not going to be God’s man for the crisis. God can promote but Elijah is going to have to pass the Zarephath test first. Paragraph two therefore requires obedience, the recognition of God’s authority and the recognition of God’s wisdom. Often God puts us under a test where we must learn His authority and His wisdom — the sum total of His attributes. Paragraph three: support — “commanded” tsawah, decreed. It was an order that came from eternity past and this should give Elijah great confidence because God knows all the facts. The third paragraph sets up the rationale for the second stage of the faith-rest drill. God knew all about this woman who was living in an area saturated with apostasy, who is also a Phoenician and a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, cf. Luke 4:25-26 — of all of the widows there was only one who was qualified to help Elijah and she wasn’t even Jewish.

How does support come out of this?

1. God knows the thoughts and the character of all the others around us. We do not and are therefore quite easily deceived. The thoughts of the woman of Zarephath were right. 2. We as human beings, no matter how smart we are, always have our blind side. Therefore we can be deceived. 3. There was only one person in the world who had the character and integrity to sustain Elijah without betraying him. 4. God put two people together according to His wisdom; He matched integrity with integrity, honour with honour. 5. Both would face logistical testing together. 6. The widow would face total helplessness and therefore God uses helplessness to sustain helplessness. Elijah and the widow would be occupied with the Source and not be distracted by the gifts of logistical grace.

The believer should be ready for any crisis when it comes because he is under doctrinal principles such as logistical grace. His preparation is the perception of Bible doctrine. (Lack of preparation neutralises courage).

Elijah has done a very courageous thing by standing before Ahab and announcing divine judgement. But Elijah, having done one courageous thing, is still not the man for the crisis. He is still being prepared. He is still only the potential man for the crisis.

Principles

1. There are two distractions to believers of an antithetical nature; two different distractions for crisis situations. The first is preoccupation with disaster and the second is preoccupation with divine provision.

2. The believer can be so preoccupied with disaster that he fails to remember that Jesus Christ controls history.

3. The believer can be so preoccupied with disaster that he is distracted from doctrine.

4. The believer can be so preoccupied with disaster that he forgets the Source — who and what Christ is.

5. The believer can be so preoccupied with disaster that he becomes involved in social action, crusades, human solutions — whitewashing the devil’s world.

6. The believer can be so preoccupied with the accoutrements of logistical grace that he forgets the Source of logistical grace.

7. The believer can be so preoccupied with the material things of logistical grace that having become distracted from the Source he is weakened rather than strengthened by the support.

8. Both obsessions with impending disaster and obsession with the material things provided by God can in a very subtle way destroy the focus on the Source of the blessing.

Principle

a. Both Elijah and the woman will face the logistical test to see if they lose their focus regarding the Source.

b. This anticipates the third logistical test in which Elijah passes with good marks when the woman fails.

c. The woman is helpless and Elijah is helpless; but the Source is not helpless.

d. Two helpless people plus a hopeless situation provides humility and grace orientation. Mutually they must turn to the Source for help. They are placed in this position because both of them are going to have a mutual test coming up in the death of the widow’s son. Elijah will pass the test because he is occupied with the Source; the woman will fail the test because she is not occupied with the Source.

e. Occupation with the Source avoids obsession with things or people.

f. God uses weak things. The policy of grace demands our helplessness and His helpfulness.

g. Grace orientation produces humility while occupation with things and occupation with disaster produces arrogance; and in disaster arrogance produces fear.

h. The power of God is revealed in the helplessness of men.

i. Neither publicity nor public relations nor prominence is necessary for the function of God’s plan.

j. The ravens, the prophet, the widow; they were all isolated, far from public view or prominence.

k. What people think of you is of no consequence but what God thinks of you is the only thing that counts. You have to live your life as unto the Lord. When you do you will never be disturbed by the disapprobation or the approbation of people. Once you start becoming occupied with the Source and living your life as unto the Lord you are going to have a new phase of happiness which most people cannot have and do not have — tranquillity. Tranquillity means happiness in any circumstance. There can be no tranquillity when the believer is preoccupied with things.

Principle

a. You will note that God uses people in His plan.

b. But people be used on the basis of God’s policy and not their own.

c. God’s policy is not for the believer to be involved in social action; God’s policy is for the believer to avoid power politics. God’s policy is pivot politics, and pivot politics means spiritual growth.

d. God cannot use social action; He can only use spiritual growth.

e. To become involved in social action is not only contrary to God’s plan and policy but it involves the believer in a lie.

f. Resistance and rejection of doctrine results in scar tissue of the soul, intensification of arrogance, and accepting a lie. Once you accept the lie it phases the truth of doctrine right out of your conscious mind.

g. The church should never be involved in social action — power politics.

h. Therefore, the believer can only deliver his nation by advancing to maturity and forming that pivot wherewith God delivers the client nation.

i. Social action intensifies the problem. Only the pivot of mature believers solves the problem. In other words there are no solutions in power politics; that is merely whitewashing the devil’s world at best.

j. Crusading and social action is a distraction form doctrine and a distraction from occupation with the Lord Jesus Christ.

k. Divine policy emphasises the individual and his relationship with the Lord and the Lord’s perfect plan.

l. Human solutions to the problems of life produces arrogance while divine solution produces humility, happiness, tranquillity.

m. This anticipates the blessing and reward of the widow. Matthew 10:41 is pertinent.

Verse 10, the action is always found in the verbs. Obedience to God’s Word is manifest in the qal imperfect qum. The qal imperfect from the verb jalak — forced march. “So he arose and marched to Zarephath.” Zarephath means “smelting furnace.” This obedience and the forced march over 100 miles was obeyed to the letter. The principle: When God commands He provides the necessary security for deliverance; the wall of fire is a part of logistical grace. This is another aspect of logistical support. He was spotted by none of the patrols; he was apprehended by no villagers; he was protected all of the way.

The wall of fire then is a part of logistical grace provision for the believer and the fact that Elijah arrived after a hazardous march is the manifestation of the faithfulness of God in logistical support to the believer — Lamentations 3:22-23.

“ … a woman was there gathering sticks.” The Hebrew says she gathered two sticks. The gathering of sticks indicates poverty. If the brook had not dried up the prophet would never have met the widow; if the widow’s food had not run out she would not have met the prophet. Both widow and prophet were people in need in a hopeless, helpless situation; and God in His grace uses each to supply the need of the other as He supplies for both. Two hopeless situations are combined to form the imputation of logistical blessing — imputed by the justice of God to the righteousness of God resident in both of these people (both are believers).

The request of the prophet indicates his thirst. And since water was available in the well there she could answer his polite request. Principle: In time of extremity Elijah continues to have good manners. The word “please” is important here because it demonstrates his good manners. This means that he is still thinking, he still has poise.

So the Jewish prophet and the Gentile widow, both believers, both helpless, are both facing the disastrous results of the great depression. Each has something the other needs. The woman needs doctrine; Elijah is the greatest Bible teacher of his time. Elijah needs a hiding place to stay and complete his preparation for the man of the crisis.

Verses 11-12, the desperate state of the woman.

It is a sign of weakness to have to gain attention or friendship through making people feel sorry for you. The woman responds to the good manners of the stranger. This tells us something about her. She respects good manners, poise and the protocol of life; and she respects the fact that she respects her. Elijah was a gentleman who respected womanhood and he approaches with the expletive of good manners: please. Poor manners are a sign of arrogance, self-centredness. Good manners often indicate humility, thoughtfulness of others and recognition of the fact that you do not have to share your burdens with everyone else that you meet.

The woman was also carrying a jar to the well. When Elijah made his second request, “please give me some water in the jar.” She was carrying the jar to the well. She responds to his request, there was plenty of water in the well. Each has a problem and neither knows that the other has a problem.

Then he said to her, “Please bring me a mouthful of food.” Just one mouthful. This last request reveals the woman’s status quo. She breaks down at this point. The prophets design was not to intrude upon her privacy but an indication of his own hunger and need was all that was conveyed by his request.

Principle

1. While the request of Elijah appears totally innocuous it is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. (Remember that Elijah is an ultra-supergrace believer; the woman is an immature believer.)

2. The woman and her son are in abject poverty, down to their last meal. The woman does not complain or tell her sad story to the prophet until provoked by his innocent request for a bite or a mouthful of food. Above all she did not want to intrude upon the prophet’s tranquillity with her problems.

The woman is a believer and she is facing the exact same test which Elijah has just passed at the brook Cherith. Elijah has won out and has passed the test; and she is behind him now. This is actually her “brook Cherith.” So the principle: Elijah can be of assistance to her and he is going to take a very courageous at this point based on the concept: Yesterday’s personal victories are tomorrow’s blessings to others. The woman will be blessed by her association with Elijah for Elijah will use the faith-rest drill and be in control of the situation, as per verses 13-15.

Verse 12, the hopeless situation.

“But she said, By the life of Jehovah your God.” She is a believer all right, but because she is minus doctrine she is bitter. She looks at Elijah, recognises a fellow believer, and says: “Jehovah your God.” Also, she has no knowledge of logistical grace, and you cannot advance in the spiritual life until you understand the doctrine of logistical grace.

So here is the second dried up brook in our passage. Every believer has to face the dried up brook in order to apply reverse concentration, the rationale of the integrity of God and the principle of logistical grace. The first thing you have to do is to reach out and claim a promise to stabilise the mentality. The faith-rest technique has three stages to the drill, not one stage. The first stage merely clears the mentality for thinking under pressure.

The second stage of the faith-rest drill is reverse concentration which takes doctrine and applies it to a specific situation, e.g. the plan of God rationale that takes you back to eternity past and the second is the logistical grace rationale. (It is the second stage that counts).

The third stage is faith reaches out with the doctrinal conclusion and controls the situation completely.

Elijah is in control of the situation; he has gone through all three stages and therefore he can help the woman doctrinally. He can’t do her thinking for her but he can provide her new thoughts that she does not have. She is ignorant of doctrine.

Principle: You have to do your own thinking and the thinking has to be divine viewpoint. That is where doctrine comes in.

For the second time Elijah is the man for the crisis. When God promotes someone He gives them some little crises on which to sharpen up. You practice for the big crisis on the little crisis. And if you can’t pass the test on the little crisis you are not going to pass any big crisis test.

So we have the dried up brook passage and the answer is in the second stage of the faith-rest drill in which we find the reverse concentration with regard to logistical grace rationale. The logistical grace rationale always emphasises the integrity of God. Logistical support from the justice of God emphasises grace and not the believer’s sins or failures. We also notice that the woman has failed. Her malfunction of the faith-rest drill is seen in the last statement she made: “I am gathering two sticks so that I may go in prepare for me and my son, in order that we may die.”

The problem lies in the fact that she is not only perfectly healthy but she is going to enjoy that meal. She and her son are going to celebrate. They are going to have their last wonderful meal. And so she has already assumed what God never intended. She has condemned herself to death and she is second-guessing God. The plan of God doesn’t call for her to die.

Under logistical grace man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. Logistical support always comes from the justice of God to the indwelling righteousness of God. And logistical grace inevitably focuses our attention on the integrity of God and the failure and the weakness of the believer.

1. The gathering of two sticks reveals the fact that the woman had given up.

2. Two pieces of firewood are necessary for cooking one meal. Therefore, she did not gather any more wood for there was nothing else to cook.

3. Her attitude: after one meal comes death.

4. The woman had fallen into the trap of arrogance producing self-pity under pressure. Her arrogance was the result of lack of wisdom, i.e. lack of knowledge of the Word of God. Wisdom demands application, but you must have knowledge for application. Wisdom is a combination of knowledge plus the application of that knowledge. The woman was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. She had all the answers. She looked at one system of reality but ignored the other. She looked at the reality of the situation that she could see but did not look at the reality of the situation that God sees. Therefore, she failed.

5. The woman obviously lacked doctrinal cognisance in many areas but the Lord would not give her this testing unless she knew the pertinent doctrine of logistical grace in part — at least sufficient to meet the test.

6. Therefore, the woman at some time has rejected the grace principle of logistical support from the integrity of God to resident divine righteousness. Her rejection of the doctrine resulted in scar tissue of the soul plus the intensification of arrogance. And therefore arrogance under pressure produced self-pity. And self-pity therefore gathers only two sticks, just enough firewood for one meal. Therefore, the malfunction of the faith-rest technique has placed the woman in the status quo of cowardice. Her fear-panic ploy in the phrase in verse 13 which starts, “Do not fear.”

Elijah received courage from reverse concentration on doctrine at the dried-up brook but the woman has a scar tissue problem, plus arrogance which always accompanies scar tissue of the soul. And this resulted in no thought, no accurate wisdom, no application of doctrine, no ability to reason.

Self-pity has its own irrationality. The woman has surrendered to death but she intends to eat one more meal. Irrationality is simply part of the fear-panic ploy. And since the woman’s problem is the fear-panic ploy and irrationality, she must have a promise to claim at the first stage of the faith-rest drill. And not only does Elijah give her a promise (v14) but he states the rationale of his own reverse concentration which he developed at the dried-up brook of Cherith. In this manner the prophet’s faith-rest dynamics will carry the day resulting in blessing by association for both the widow and her son. Elijah’s victory at Cherith will become blessing by association for the woman. Even though the woman has failed the logistical grace test she will become the beneficiary of logistical support from the integrity of God.

Principle

1. In this crisis Elijah will become the man of the hour by the dynamics of the faith-rest drill.

2. Elijah, then, is prepared for the crisis by the faith-rest function which he developed at the brook Cherith.

3. The believer’s personal victory of today will become someone else’s blessing tomorrow.

4. Elijah won a victory at Cherith so that the Phoenician woman was blessed at Zarephath (Note: She was blessed in her failure).

5. It should be added that God’s timing is perfect. God has a schedule and we have schedule; God’s schedule is perfect and ours is imperfect. The brook of Cherith did not dry up until the widow of Zarephath was down to her last meal. God’s timing is perfect and is necessary for the dynamic contacts and the great blessings associated with people in this life.

6. Elijah, then, arrived at exactly the right time. There are no accidents in the plan of God.

7. The woman had exhausted her human resources in this order: first her food and then her thought. Note: When you use food it diminishes but when you use doctrine (thought) it increases. Therefore, even though she was down to her last meal she should not have been down to her last thought.

8. She did not, therefore, have the doctrine to cope with the hopeless situation.

9. But by running out of food she discovered her spiritual failure. She had previously run out of doctrine. The cupboard was bare except for one meal but the cupboard of her soul was bare, full stop!

10. Spiritual food is far more important than physical food. It is spiritual food — Bible doctrine — which sustains in a crisis, not physical food. If the woman had stored doctrine in her soul such spiritual food would have sustained her in the crisis.

Notice that Elijah did not reprimand the woman. He wasn’t self-righteous. What good is a reprimand? Can a reprimand suddenly put doctrine in her soul? No. All it can do is to add to her discouraging situation. A logistical grace test does not call for a reprimand.

What do we find here? A person who understands logistical grace and knows a logistical grace test when he sees one.

Verses 13-14: the dynamics of Elijah’s faith-rest drill.

Verse 13. The woman has to start thinking and until she does there can be no benefit to her from the test. How do you start her thinking? By stopping fear. Fear and thought cannot coexist. “Do not fear” — the qal imperfect of jare al. Stage 1 of the faith-rest drill is eliminating fear from the soul. Fear freezes up the thought process. Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong [soul strength] and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble because of them: for the Lord your God is the one who goes before you; he will not fail, or forsake you.”

Cowardice versus Courage

1. Cowardice must be converted to courage through the first stage of the faith-rest drill. Faith must reach out and claim a promise. This clears the soul of fear.

2. Before you can apply doctrine under pressure you must stabilise your mentality.

3. Fear and panic destroy concentration on doctrine.

4. Fear and panic produce irrationality, lack of lucid thought.

5. Fear or cowardice is inability to think under pressure.

6. Courage is the ability to think under pressure.

7. The woman is a believer but a coward for she cannot think under pressure.

8. Therefore the woman has no rationale of logistical grace applied under reverse concentration. And if she had such a rationale she couldn’t use it because she is frightened.

9. Such a rationale demands the clearing up of the mental process, the elimination of fear and panic.

10. The fear-panic ploy has reduced this woman to the point of cowardice and irrationality.

11. The same concentration by which doctrine is perceived must be used to apply doctrine to this disaster.

12. Elijah from reverse concentration is courageous while the woman of Zarephath is cowardly, irrational. And all is a malfunction of the faith-rest drill.

The real dynamics of the faith-rest technique is found not in claiming promises of God — which is merely the stabilising factor — but in the actual rationale which follows in the second stage of the drill. The second stage of the drill depends upon your perception of Bible doctrine. So the perception of doctrine is not only a means of spiritual growth and of advance to maturity but it is also the basis for the dynamics of divine viewpoint thinking in life. Everything depends upon the ability of reverse concentration.

The faith-rest rationale deals strictly with divine viewpoint and relates to the integrity of God.

1 Kings 17:13 — “Do not fear.” The principle: faith-rest and the stabilised mentality. You must think from a stabilised mentality. If you think from an unstabilised mentality the result will be instability of thinking.

Principle

1. No believer can apply doctrine while under the fear, panic ploy.

2. The mentality must be stabilised before the function of reverse concentration turns the cowardice of fear into the courage of faith.

3. The first stage of the faith-rest drill stabilises the mentality so that concentration can begin.

4. Concentration in this case means application of doctrine previously learned through the function of GAP.

5. Disaster is a time when the believer can do nothing to solve the problem. He is helpless and the situation is hopeless. There are no pat answers, no principle of answer, no function of answer.

6. Therefore, the matter is placed in the Lord’s hands through the faith-rest drill.

7. The faith-rest drill demands total dependence on the Lord’s ability. There is no human solution, therefore there must be the application of divine attributes.

8. Faith-rest depends not only on the attributes of the Lord but the policy which He has revealed in Scripture, a policy which comes from those attributes and which is described under the word “grace.” (And generally speaking nine times out of ten requires the rationale from some facet of logistical grace).

9. Faith-rest demands an understanding that we do not deserve logistical support. Not only do we not deserve it but the believer who fails the most receives logistical support just as we do, not because he fails, even as we do not receive logistical support because we succeed. Neither success nor failure is an issue in logistical grace. Logistical grace finds as its beneficiary the righteousness of God which is imputed to every believer.

10. Therefore, grace not sin is the issue — Philippians 4:19.

11. Therefore, Philippians 4:19 applies to the worst as well as to the best of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

12. Instead of using the faith-rest technique the widow of Zarephath has been guilty of arrogance, self-centredness, fear, panic and self-pity. She will still receive logistical grace.

13. In the first stage of the faith-rest drill Elijah has given a very simple command which is absolutely necessary for any believer to become spiritually self-sustaining. You cannot become spiritually self-sustaining without the removal of fear. The command, “Do not fear,” is the first stage of the faith-rest drill. It is a prerequisite for the second stage which is reverse concentration.

14. Fear cannot cope with any situation in life.

15. Fear can only increase weakness and cowardice, resulting in irrationality.

16. Consequently fear opens the way to mental attitude sins in every category — arrogance, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, and guilt reaction.

Stage two: reverse concentration. “Go and do as you have said.” This is obviously a case of where Elijah knows that having exhausted completely the supply of food from the barrel of flour and from the jar of oil there will be nothing left to make a meal for herself and her son. But he also knows that the integrity of God will impute the necessary food through her +R (Imputed righteousness). So the last half of verse 13 gives us her second stage of the drill and in verse 14 we will come to the third stage.

The second stage of the faith-rest drill often demands action, but action based on faith or action based on authority. Many times believers have no faith-rest, no faith, so minus faith means that the action must be based on the authority of someone else — someone who is stronger in the spiritual life. And then, of course, there is the case of where there is faith and then the action is based upon the first stage of the faith-rest technique. To link doctrine with the proper action the believer must know doctrine. He must be able to apply the doctrine he knows. In this case the woman is an exception; she is applying the doctrine which Elijah knows. Reverse concentration always sets up the proper rationale under pressure.

Logistical grace categories

a. A life-sustaining support as a part of logistical grace. God sustains the life of every believer on earth regardless of his status quo. And this means whether he is healthy or whether he is sick or is in difficulty. No believer will depart from this life apart from God’s will — Psalm 48:14.

b. Temporal supply means that whether there is a catastrophe or not food, shelter, clothing, environment, time and transportation have to be included. Life sustaining may have the wall of fire from unseen enemies, or other things to sustain in very difficult circumstances.

c. Security provision: the assignment of guardian angels, the operation of the wall of fire, the establishment function of freedom which includes authority, privacy, property — 1 Peter 1:5.

d. Spiritual provision. The divine provision of an evangelist or a missionary or a personal witness for positive volition at God consciousness. The doctrinal teaching by a pastor after we believe in Christ.

Worry is fear. Worry and fear are antagonistic to the use of the logistical grace rationale. Logistical grace is there even if you do worry but if you are going to think and if you are going to use the rationale you have to stop worrying.

The issues of logistical grace are very simple

a. Logistical grace is the basis for stability in time. There is no stability in your life until you can think in terms of logistical grace.

b. Logistical grace continues in reversionism. But it is not used there to sustain spiritual advance, it is used to sustain spiritual retreat. That is why in 2 Corinthians 6:1 Paul said: “We also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” In vain means retreat.

The local church: the divine authorisation says in effect, God will always provide enough local churches for those who are truly positive toward doctrine. Now you have to understand what a local church is, however. A local church is not even having a pastor and a face-to-face teaching situation. A local church is having doctrine. And in effect the local church is a classroom for learning doctrine. It is a place where believers assemble — two or three at least — under divine authority and by learning doctrine they advance to maturity. The local church can be housed in a public building or a private building or any place where doctrine might be taught. Mechanically, the teaching may be face-to-face, tape recorder, radio, television, but there must be consistency, academic discipline and motivation.

Verse 13 — The qal imperative of the verb bo — go. “Go and do as you have said.” Then he said something else: he ordered the woman. No woman is ever feminine without the function of male authority in her life. The male authority for this woman in the next three years is going to make her as magnificent and as feminine as Jezebel during the same three years will decline. When Ahab said to Jezebel, “Go,” Jezebel said in effect, “Drop dead.” When Elijah said to the widow “Go and do,” she went and did.

“Afterward make for thee and for thy son” — that is three cakes and there is only enough meal for one! Therefore, the woman as a believer is challenged, not only in the first stage of the drill (Fear thou not), but then to action based on Elijah’s logistical grace rationale. In other words the woman in certain circumstances, without losing her individuality, was designed for some man to do the thinking for her. Elijah does the thinking; he knows the integrity of God, he has just passed that test. The magnificent thing about his order is that she is going to do it.

Elijah reverses the sequence for a reason. There is only one meal, not three, and by preparing that one meal for Elijah rather than for herself and her son the widow’s pattern of arrogance and self-pity under pressure will be broken. Since there is no afterward, when Elijah has been served that one meal, this statement is the ignition designed to start the motor of reverse concentration in the mentality of this woman. The woman must begin to think in terms of logistical grace and reach a doctrinal conclusion for herself. Elijah’s request, even his demand, forces reverse concentration.

Principle: Arrogance, self-centredness and self-pity, must be cancelled out of her thinking. Giving precedence to the prophet, serving him her last meal, brings her to the place of total helplessness, total humility — the two prerequisites for grace orientation. By serving Elijah first the widow believer is immediately out of food. This does not mean that she and her son will starve but that she and her son will receive the imputation of logistical support from the justice of God and understand it. This will bring her to the place of understanding. Elijah’s request demands the function of reverse concentration.

The principle of priorities

1. Elijah, from his application of doctrine, establishes the priorities on which the helpless widow must function. He established all the priorities necessary because he is in complete control of a disastrous situation.

2. This is not a case of ladies first or even a case of women and children first into the lifeboats. The prophet demands to be first. Why? Because there must be a test and application of the test into the soul of the widow. This is a case where manners would hinder her thought pattern and he demands that her thought pattern be clarified.

3. Since there was one meal left faith-rest does not function regarding that meal. There is no faith-rest issue if she goes ahead and eats her meal and then sits down to die.

4. But by giving that meal to the prophet first the faith-rest technique immediately becomes the issue since after preparing that meal the cupboard is bare. This means two things: a. She will pass the first stage of the faith-rest drill which is the removal of the fear, panic ploy by claiming the promise given from the mouth of the prophet; b. The dynamic stage of the faith-rest technique — reverse concentration, logistical grace rationale.

5. The widow is not totally helpless until she has served her last meal to Elijah — then she faces her own dried up brook.

6. Only the dried up brook or the empty cupboard challenges the believer to perpetuate the final two stages of the faith-rest drill.

7. The woman cannot comply with Elijah’s request as long as she entertains fear in her soul.

8. To comply with Elijah’s request there must be the removal of the fear, panic ploy through stage one of the faith-rest drill.

9. Consequently Elijah uses a promise from God which to remove that fear which paralyses the action of faith.

10. Since the woman cannot think as yet Elijah must therefore establish for her the priorities of grace. He is qualified to do so under two principles: he has the spiritual authority as a prophet and he has the doctrine in his soul and the two rationales necessary to be in control of the situation.

11. The principle: those who operate on the basis of grace never lose control of the situation. And by feeding Elijah first, which is a grace function, there will be food for the woman and her son for the next three years.

Verse 14: the rest of the faith-rest drill.

1. Elijah’s instructions would be selfish, thoughtless and cruel unless there was a purpose behind it.

2. The woman must have something to believe before she goes into action. Otherwise her actions are going to be disastrous. She is not prepared for any crisis because thought must precede action in order to exist in action.

3. RHIP (Rank has its privileges). Elijah is going to be the authority in that home. You have to have authority to teach the Word because if you teach without authority, no matter how good the content may be, no one will accept it. He had to establish authority in that home in order to teach that woman day by day.

4. The purpose of life must be related to thought, to doctrinal motivation under pressure. Her despondency and self-pity must be replaced by doctrine and the faith-rest determination.

5. What she does must be meaningful in the light of the Word of God.

6. She must claim the promise of this verse as the first stage of the faith-rest drill. At this point she has no ability for the second stage; she has no doctrine, no reverse concentration, and therefore this is as far as she can go. She is not in control. But Elijah has taken charge and she will follow his instructions in lieu of having the second stage — reverse concentration. She has no doctrine but she gives implicit obedience and therefore in this case Elijah’s reverse concentration and control of the situation carries her.

7. This promise will eliminate the fear, panic ploy so that she can go into the kitchen and cook.

8. Once her mind is stabilised the promise contains a cue for the second stage of the faith-rest drill.

9. The third stage of the faith-rest drill is the doctrinal conclusion. Elijah has reached that conclusion and is in control of the situation. The third stage of the drill then establishes the reality of God’s power, the reality of God’s grace, rather than the reality of the disaster. When two realities meet in conflict the reality that wins determines the outcome of the disaster.

10. Instead of being preoccupied with the disaster the woman will be preoccupied with the promise given to her. She will therefore be the beneficiary of logistical grace blessing.

The conclusion of this verse indicates the dynamic faith of Elijah that states that rain will come in the future — “until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the ground. In other words, there will be a prolonged economic disaster, a prolonged depression, but the time will come when it is over. In the meantime God intends for the believer to have logistical grace blessing in the midst of that depression.

“For so Jehovah, the God of Israel has spoken … “ In other words the promise is not Elijah’s original promise, it is God who guarantees the fulfilment of the promise.

1. No matter what the circumstances the Word of God must be the great reality to the believer in a time of two conflicting realities.

2. This reality is accomplished through the faith-rest drill. If you are minus Bible doctrine look for the nearest believer who has it.

3. Ultimately everything depends on the attributes of God — His integrity, omnipotence, omniscience, as they related to the situation in eternity past. In other words, the plan of God rationale.

4. Jehovah the God of Israel is the Lord Jesus Christ, the only source of salvation and, once you possess +R at salvation, the only source of logistical grace. Logistical grace is for those who fail as well as those who succeed.

5. What God says by way of promise in time is what God thought billions of years before this situation existed.

6. What God knew in the area of reality is fed into the computer of divine decrees. God’s person and God’s plan are not only perfect but pre-exist all human creatures and all human disasters. God has already solved the problem — billions of years ago. He solved the problem of the two missing meals in eternity past. God’s solution: logistical grace.

Unless a situation is hopeless there is no crisis. The crisis always finds power politics unable to cope with the situation. Pivot politics emphasises man’s

helplessness and God’s gracious solution.

There is a continuous running battle in history between pivot politics and power politics. Power politics emphasises change; pivot politics emphasises grace for the status quo. Pivot politics de-emphasises change as the panacea of life — things are bad, says power politics, therefore let us change them. But change upsets establishment and always replaces it with something worse — anarchy and, above all, the loss of freedom. Freedom is essential to the function of the client nation to God or any part of the world during the angelic conflict. And the question always arises in time of national crisis: what is the responsibility of the individual believer? Bible doctrine says pivot politics which offers the individual solution without tampering with your human freedom. The devil says power politics which violently exchanges one set of evils for another set.

Power politics, then, tries to change the leopard’s spots, but pivot politics does not tamper with the leopard’s spots, it merely changes his direction. Power politics is social action, crusading, muck raking. It is therefore revolution exchanging established evil for non-established evil and the only thing that is lost in the shuffle is not a change of circumstance — for you go from evil to evil — but human freedom. Pivot politics rejects social action, reforms, crusades, as unnecessary radical surgery. Pivot politics, which is God’s answer, always uses medication under three principles: a. Jesus Christ controls history; b. Spiritual leadership in time of disaster; c. The formation of a pivot.

So pivot politics emphasises the individual; it emphasises personal solution to historical problems based on the believer’s advance to spiritual maturity, and always upholds the principles of authority and freedom. The believer must decide, then, whether to get involved in the devil’s world in order to whitewash it or to become involved in the plan of God. Pivot politics represents the plan of God in contrast to power politics which represents Satan’s radical surgery to improve his own world system. Since Jesus Christ controls history, obviously pivot politics advocates maximum doctrine in the soul of the believer as the formation of the pivot around which the Lord preserves the national entity.

Under the election to privilege the individual believer advances to maturity in the plan of God without disruption of society and especially the principles establishment authority which are the basis for the function of human freedom. A pivot of mature believers breaks no laws, sponsors no violence, confiscates no property, tampers with no freedom or privacy, but turns the world upside down through the invisible forces of Bible doctrine, the Word of God.

So the leopard may change his direction but the leopard will never change his spots. Evil is still evil and always will be evil. Reform of power politics attempts to change evil without changing evil. All it does is to intensify evil and to disrupt human life. Pivot politics restrains evil and brings divine blessing to society from freedom without tampering with that freedom. So training for pivot politics demands logistical grace testing.

There are three major logistical grace tests found in 1 Kings 17. As a result of Elijah passing these three tests he will be the leadership for the function of pivot politics and the preservation of the northern kingdom. Power politics always uses human good to produce evil whereas pivot politics uses doctrine to produce divine good under the function of X+Y+Z in the plan of God.

No believer can survive the difficulties and the pressures and disasters of life which are inevitable in cosmos diabolicus unless he can use the logistical grace rationale. Now in order to do this it is necessary to give the woman [verse 13] a promise she can claim. And then she can rely upon the system that Elijah has developed from his own doctrine — reverse concentration developing a rationale. The purpose of this rationale leads to the third stage of the faith-rest drill which is doctrinal conclusion. Elijah has reached doctrinal conclusions and therefore is in complete control of the situation. At the beginning of verse 14 he gives the woman a promise so that she can rely on his faith-rest rationale, the reverse concentration system that puts him in charge of the situation.

Principle: “the barrel of flour shall not be ended and the jar of oil shall not diminish”

1. Fear anticipates starvation and death, but faith and courage focus on logistical support from the plan of God. (The real key to the faith-rest technique is not claiming promises. The real key to the faith-rest technique is to be able to take doctrine resident in your own soul and apply it under a logical system, a rationale, to circumstances. This requires much more muscle on the faith than it takes to simply reach into the Word and claim a promise).

2. Someone has quipped: “When the need is the greatest, God is the nearest” .This expresses the grace principle in the logistical concept.

3. Elijah, after a long journey, was helpless. The widow was helpless and her son was helpless by association with her.

There are two kinds of difficulty that come to us, testing and divine discipline. We must learn to distinguish between them because each one has an entirely different issue. Obviously the issue in divine discipline is some sin or some failure on the believer’s part; something that needs the rebound technique in order to resolve the situation. The issue in testing is the grace of God. And if, when you are tested you bring sin in, especially the amalgamation of self-righteousness and self-pity from your arrogance, this results in a guilt complex. If you bring in guilt complex, if you bring sin into testing then you are never going to pass a test.

In the widow’s case the issue was not her sin, the issue was logistical grace. We cannot survive in the devil’s world, and especially in time of historical catastrophe, unless we understand logistical grace. You see, discipline is to call attention to ourselves in carnality but testing is to call attention to the grace of God and the blessing of logistical grace.

So we must come to the place where we are helpless; we must face hopeless situations that cannot be solved by going to someone for advice, by getting some money to pay for it, by begging someone’s forgiveness. None of these things can solve the problem. It has to be a problem that can only be solved by the grace of God to be a legitimate test.

4. Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. There are two kinds of helpless persons: the helpless person who has learned doctrine over the years and there is the person who has no doctrine. So we have the helpless smart person and the helpless stupid person. And the helpless smart person always has to take charge of the helpless stupid person. God uses each helpless person to supply what is lacking in another helpless person so that in our combined helplessness God is the source of supply, the means of blessing, the very basis for our perpetuation in time.

5. Logistical support from God is a grace issue, not a matter of merit or demerit. The issue of one’s personal life is never the issue in logistical grace.

6. The believer remains on this earth after salvation as the Lord’s representative and ambassador for Jesus Christ. Therefore, whatever it takes to sustain life is the Lord’s business.

7. The Lord’s provision is for the believer and this provision is called logistical grace. It is provision for the believer who succeeds; it is provision for the believer who fails.

The promise of 1 Kings 17:14 challenges the woman to establish a priority in her realities. The woman at this point has no priorities and she must establish her own priorities on the basis of her use of the first stage of the faith-rest drill. And the question is: is the reality of God’s essence greater than the reality of her disaster? The promise challenges the woman to give up visible reality and exchange it for invisible reality and that is another reason why Elijah is there.

Verse 15, the obedience of faith.

The principle that comes out of verse 15 is that reality is not what we see but what is invisible to the eye, that is the reality which is associated with our blessing and our success as believers. It is not the disasters of life though they are reality, but reality is not what we see, reality is invisible to the eye. It is the power and the grace of God. Faith-rest makes reality out of invisible God and therefore the widow obeyed implicitly. The faithfulness of God is visible evidence of the integrity of God. Grace is the policy of the justice of God in providing blessing to the righteousness (imputed) of God.

Note the order of this passage: God provides for the physical needs of the body before He provides the spiritual needs of the soul. This order of logistical grace is important in order to establish the sequence of grace. The sequence of grace may be established for modus operandi among believers. The sequence of grace demands provision to sustain the soul but not to coerce the soul. The needs of the body must never be offered as a bribe but as a grace gift, leaving the volitional option open to the individual.

Verse 16: the issue is, God keeps His word.

“The barrel of flour was not empty, the jar of oil did not diminish, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke through Elijah.”

All of us as believers, if we are going to advance, if Bible doctrine is going to be real and eventually then the Lord be real to us; if we are going to come to the place of occupation with Christ, then we must face logistical testing. It is not an issue as to your sins, the issue is the integrity of God.

Principle

1. Whether Elijah and the widow were spiritual or carnal, mature or reversionistic, the supply of food never diminished.

2. Logistical grace sustained a household during the economic depression both in northern Israel and in Phoenicia.

3. The great depression does cancel the promises of God nor abrogate the integrity of God.

4. Note that God uses human beings to communicate doctrine. This establishes the principle of authority which is necessary for perception.

5. Using gifted believers to communicate doctrine not only establishes the issue of authority and perception but concentration under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

6. There is no such thing, then, as a self-made believer — especially a self-made believer through personal Bible study, through memorising of scripture. It all comes through teaching and accepting the authority of the one who teaches.

7. Personal Bible study is legitimate for the communication gifts and that is the only place where there is any advance in Bible study.

Now we are ready for that third and final test that prepared Elijah for leadership in time of great disaster. Verse 17, crisis: the death of the widow’s son.

The phrase “now it came to pass after these things” includes several years of tranquillity and happiness prior to this third test. This did not flow immediately after the last testing; there was an elapse of some time.

Elijah lived in the home of the widow for several years during which time God’s justice imputed logistical grace to resident righteousness. The woman and the prophet were both believers and the implications are that the son also became a believer. It was during this time that Elijah himself learned the importance of the source of logistical grace, and he also passed it on to the widow. It was during this time that Elijah equated tranquillity with happiness. So Elijah’s security did not originate from the abundance of provision but from the Lord Jesus Christ who was the source. He had tranquillity, he had happiness, he had security, he had everything he needed for his preparation. This was a time of study, of spiritual growth, a time in which God was preparing Elijah for the great confrontation on Mount Carmel. Maximum doctrine resident in Elijah’s soul made a reality out of the source rather than the security from abundance. Elijah did not have to see the provision accumulated in vast storehouses but the principle presented in the Word of God. Therefore the integrity of God was much more real to Elijah than anything else in life.

Principle

1. God’s resources are unlimited and God’s person functions on unchangeable integrity or holiness.

2. The believer must avoid being distracted by the provision. It is possible to get your eyes on the things that God has given in logistical grace so that you forget the source.

3. But by learning doctrine on a daily basis the perception of doctrine focuses on the person so that logistical provision never becomes a distraction. Doctrine not only is the means of advancing spiritually but doctrine is the way in which we focus our attention on the source of logistical blessing so that we are never distracted by the provision.

4. Elijah went from the obscurity of Cherith to the obscurity of Zarephath to learn grace orientation and necessary humility for the task ahead. (God prepares His men in obscurity).

5. Elijah on Mount Carmel would be impossible without Elijah at Cherith and Zarephath. God cannot promote Elijah until he learns the lessons of Zarephath. Principle: If God doesn’t promote you, you are not promoted.

6. Furthermore, God uses prepared persons and Zarephath was the place of preparation. It was a place of tranquillity and happiness.

7. One day at a time provision is the issue in logistical grace and one day at a time provision prepared Elijah’s thinking for the great confrontation on Mount Carmel.

8. Elijah then learns that contentment and tranquillity are just as much a part of human happiness as stimulation, if not more so. He came to the place of Hebrews 13:5,6.

The death of the widow’s son is a crisis, and it is testing. The woman is going to have a guilt reaction but her guilt reaction is wrong. She fails to rightly divide the Word of truth and distinguish between divine discipline and divine testing. She is under testing for blessing and the issue is grace and the issue is grace for testing, not discipline for sin. So we should look at a few things that prepared Elijah for the death of the widow’s son.

1. There was logistical grace on a daily basis. “They are renewed every day, great is thy faithfulness” .He saw the provision of logistical grace every day.

2. Then there was doctrine resident in his soul. He learned something new about doctrine every day.

3. There was obscurity which is very important in preparation for disaster. He was in an obscure place where every day it was humility which was the issue in his soul.

4. What we really are then is what we are when we are alone. Elijah was in a place of obscurity where God prepares His own man for the crisis.

5. During this time Elijah learned the importance of the source. He had many blessings but he never took his eyes away from the source.

6. When God guarantees our support it doesn’t matter whether we can see the source or not. But it does matter that we know that it is God who is the ultimate source.

7. The food and provision that came day by day was not accumulated so that Elijah could be occupied with the provision instead of the provider. In other words there was just enough for this day and just enough for the next day.

“And it came to pass after these things that the son of the woman … became sick.” This phrase reminds us also that a tranquil and happy set of circumstances never perpetuate themselves. No matter how much happiness you have in some given set of circumstances it is going to change. Elijah had tranquillity and happiness but suddenly the roof fell in, as it were. If life were simply the perpetuation of tranquil and happy circumstances the problem would be that you would begin to depend on your circumstances. There is only one way to handle the problems that inevitably come along and that is to be occupied with the source. There is only one way to be occupied with the source and that is Bible doctrine.

The believer must never depend upon circumstances but on the Lord Jesus Christ who controls history. Therefore, ultimately we must be occupied with Christ because that will give us the capacity to enjoy the tranquil moments of life and the ability to face the disastrous moments of life.

Verse 17 — several years of tranquillity are suddenly shattered by the young son becoming ill. No matter how pleasant our circumstances, no set of circumstances can be perpetuated in the pleasant frame of reference in the devil’s world. Some believers never have the ability to adjust to the changing circumstances of life because of the malfunction of the second stage of the faith-rest drill. Without logistical grace rationale and without the plan of God rationale there is no way anyone of us can adjust. The failure to adjust is not only malfunction of the faith-rest technique but it guarantees depression and great misery. The malfunction occurs because the believer begins to depend on what God has provided rather than looking to the source. It was the grace of God which had provided these tranquil circumstances that Elijah enjoyed with the woman. But the present circumstances and the environment of happiness cannot be perpetuated and rather than depend on these things he has to go back to the source, the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul states the problem and the solution magnificently in Philippians 4:10-13: “Now I have received very much inner happiness by means of the Lord, because now at last you have revived your thinking concerning me; indeed you were also concerned, but you had no opportunity. Not because I am speaking with reference to lack or poverty: for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. In fact I have come to know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in great prosperity: in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through him who keeps on pouring the power into me”.

The “doing all things” here isn’t running around doing great deeds, it is the ability to handle the varying circumstances of life.

Principle

1. Elijah in Zarephath learned to enjoy his circumstances without depending on his circumstances. He learned the meaning of true happiness without depending on that happiness.

2. Elijah was a slave to doctrine but not to his environment.

3. Elijah was a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ but he was not a slave to circumstances.

4. After several years of tranquillity and happiness it was inevitable that some test would come, and it has.

5. The peaceful environment of the home was suddenly shattered by the death of the widow’s son.

6. When least expected personal disaster marred the tranquillity of the home.

The subject is the son of the woman. “ … there was no breath left in him.” The word for “breath” is neshamah which means “spark of life” — what God imputes at the moment of birth. The spark of life was imputed to the soul after birth and it exists in the soul; it does not exist in the body. The soul is in the body, that is why the body has life, but the actual neshamah exists forever in the soul. When the soul is withdrawn from the body in death the neshamah is still in the soul as the spark of life and is withdrawn, therefore physical death. But there s no end to neshamah or the spark of life in the soul. And if a person goes to hell that neshamah or spark of life is still in the soul, the person is alive in hell. There is always life in the soul and this life lives forever either in heaven or in hell. When we are born again we are given another type of life called eternal life and it is imputed, not to the soul where one life already exists, but to the human spirit. To be born again simply means God the Holy Spirit creating, at the moment we believe in Christ, a human spirit as the home or the target or the system of affinity for eternal life.

“left in him” jathar plus the negative means “it did not remain.” The electrical spark in the soul is neshamah which is imputed in every case from the justice of God to the soul of the individual at birth. There is no life until after birth when this is imputed.

This is the third “dried up brook,” the last crisis in the chapter. Just as Elijah watched the water go down in the brook, so he watched the son become feeble until he finally died. And the fact that he died physically is found in the word neshamah — spark of life.

Principle

1. The removal of the spark of life in the soul is the definite sign of physical death.

2. It should be noted that he did not die suddenly; he died gradually.

3. As a day by day decline, that in itself was a significant warning. As the boy became weaker and weaker the logistical provision of food continued at a steady pace. There is the answer. Logistical grace is still operating.

4. The dying of the child did not stop the faithfulness of the Lord in logistical support.

6. The continuation of logistical grace was the reminder of the faithfulness of the Lord and that God has a purpose for every testing in life.

7. Each day as the child became weaker and closer to death it was like the brook drying up.

8. It should be noted that Elijah loved the child dearly and he had to watch the critical illness. And each day he had to use reverse concentration, the second stage of the faith-rest drill — and he had to reach conclusions every day.

9. Elijah was in control of the situation because he reached the same doctrinal conclusion every day — the Lord’s faithfulness.

But each day closer to death the mother had an increasing problem — bitterness. Bitterness came from the re-establishment of arrogance — arrogance, self-pity, bitterness, plus the fact that she had the classical illustration of what happens when arrogance returns. Arrogance produced bitterness because she saw no improvement in her son. No improvement in the situation introduces bitterness. Arrogance also produced with bitterness self-pity. But she had been operating for a couple of years on self-righteousness, so self-pity amalgamated with self-righteousness to produce guilt complex.

Each day Elijah used the rationale of logistical grace and the rationale of the plan of God, and each day he continued to have tranquillity. Each day the widow, however, became more and more irrational. Finally she completely surrendered to the mental attitude sins that bring us to intensification of the difficulty in verse 18.

Verse 18, irrationality or reaction in a crisis.

“What do I have to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to call to remembrance my iniquity, and to cause the death of my son?”

She blames Elijah and it never occurs to her that he loves the son dearly. He has not come to harm him or her. These are the things that never occur to a woman who reacts this way in a crisis. Every day she becomes more and more irrational. Every day she becomes farther and farther from the reality of the source — the Lord Jesus Christ.

In a test, no one is to blame. The purpose of a test is to get everyone cracking with the faith-rest drill. What is behind the testing? The grace of God. What is to come out of the testing? Grace producing blessing, from the justice of God to the righteousness of God.

If this had been divine discipline then someone had to be at fault, someone had to have sinned. The issue in divine discipline is sin, not grace. The purpose is to restore to fellowship rather than blessing from grace.

The woman immediately assumes that someone has to be blamed because God is punishing. She assumes that God is punishing her for some sin she has committed in the past, and since she assumes that she then decides that God’s whip is Elijah. Once she decides that she forgets all about her guilt for a moment in the irrationality of blaming him. This is typical of anyone who is not up on the function of the faith-rest drill.

“What have I to do with you, O man of God?” Said in derision. More literally it means: “What do we have in common, O man of God?” — me a sinful woman and you a man of God. The woman relates the death of her son to a sinful past. Some sin stuck in her mind. But this is not punishment for sin. Both of them have a test. For the woman, she has to learn to distinguish between testing for blessing and discipline for recovery. Elijah has been teaching doctrine in the home. Now the woman has the chance to apply it. All she has to do is to use the three stages of the faith-rest drill and she fails miserably.

The principles of arrogance and rejection of Bible doctrine are not always clear cut but they are always involved in a crisis situation. Rejection of Bible doctrine: no to doctrine = scar tissue of the soul. As the build-up of scar tissue of the soul continues the arrogance factor intensifies so that as each layer of scar tissue goes in there is more and more arrogance in the soul. This results in, first of all, believing the lie, and secondly, in the various reactions to life as they occur in circumstances. In prosperity, arrogance produces self-righteousness; in time of disaster, arrogance produces self-pity.

But occasionally self-pity and self-righteousness amalgamate to form the guilt complex under certain pressures of life. This is exactly what we have. The woman is going to fail in the third test; the man is going to succeed, and the difference between them is not only doctrine but Elijah’s fantastic humility and the reassertion of the woman’s arrogance. One of the best ways to know your status spiritually is to have some pressure come along and the first thing you discover is that you are carrying a guilt complex. If that is true then there is something very wrong with your spiritual life.

You must, of course, be able to distinguish between divine discipline and testing. The testing emphasises grace and is designed to give opportunity to flex spiritual muscles in the three stages of the faith-rest drill. Divine discipline emphasises sin and requires rebound. But ordinarily when there is some absence of something in the test, something that is necessary to continue life or to continue taking in doctrine, it is a test and the purpose is blessing from grace.

This is a test (1 Kings 17:18) but the woman failed because she moved into the wrong area with it. She thought it was divine discipline and she will state it. And this is merely the manifestation of her guilt complex. The principle: the woman is saying: “Is this the result of my association with you? Have you been brought here by God to expose my past sins and my failures?” Immediately the woman thinks in terms of herself and past failure of some kind. In fact, this was a test to give the man and the woman the opportunity to use the faith-rest drill, and especially to use reverse concentration and the logistical grace rationale.

Principle

1. The death of her son, through a process of arrogance, triggers a guilt complex.

2. She had been involved in some form of sinning which seems to be related to depravity because the Hebrew word here more often than not doesn’t mean just sin or iniquity, it means depravity.

The reason for confusing testing and divine discipline

1. After salvation the woman reacted to her former life with a strict system of self-righteousness.

2. It is inevitable that self-righteousness comes to be regarded as spirituality by the person who has it — which it is not. (Remember to distinguish between self-righteousness and morality.)

3. This woman had resisted all attempts to get her back into the temple of Baal. Therefore she was a very strong woman. The problem is that a woman a woman with great strength is very feminine until arrogance converts her strength into self-righteousness. Behind her self-righteousness was one of the greatest of all sin complexes — the arrogance complex.

4. The same arrogance which collapsed under pressure of only one small meal left when she first met Elijah — and produced self-pity then — is now producing self-righteousness. She has mixed her self-pity this time with her self-righteousness.

5. The shock of disaster, the death of her son, combines with her self-righteousness of the moment and her self-pity to produce this terrible guilt complex. From the guilt complex the woman speaks bitterly to the prophet.

The sins and depravity related to the worship of Baal are legion and it would be very easy for the woman to remember her past under this kind of pressure, even though the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, has cleansed her from all sin. Sin is simply not the issue in testing. Therefore, the only issue is the integrity of God. Testing is undeserved suffering; divine discipline is deserved suffering. If you are going to make an issue out of grace then it has to be something you cannot and do not deserve.

The guilt complex is composed of the following factors

a. Rejection and resistance of certain doctrines, not all.

b. The resultant formation of scar tissue and blackout of the soul in those areas that are important.

c. The failure to understand and orient to grace in rebound.

d. The build-up of arrogance in the soul from the rejection of that specific doctrine.

e. The believing of a lie such as spirituality by self-righteousness follows next.

f. The oscillation to self-pity under pressure and disaster inevitably follows.

g. There is the combination of self-righteousness and self-pity to form the guilt complex.

h. The relief of pressure on the guilt complex is transferring the blame to someone else.

i. The complete disorientation to reality follows, resulting in sociopathic dialogue. That contribute demoralisation and confusion to the disaster.

So unchecked, the guilt complex destroys the believer who has it and everyone associated with that believer. (But Elijah is too strong in doctrine to be destroyed).

Principle

1. Arrogant and self-righteous people are also hypersensitive. Fat head, thin skin! They make an issue out of themselves every time they turn around.

2. Self-centredness makes them preoccupied with their own self-importance.

3. Disaster strikes and immediately this sweet woman becomes a raging monster impugning the motivation of the prophet.

4. The widow assumes in her irrationality that Elijah made that 100-mile march just to remind her of her sin and to kill her son.

5. You will note, then, that as long as everything was going well — logistical grace provision — the woman did not malign or display hostility toward Elijah.

6. As soon as the disaster enters the picture the woman goes from arrogance to guilt complex through the fusion of self-pity and self-righteousness resulting in the guilt reaction and irrationality of false accusation.

7. This woman needs help because she is so self-centred that she is locked in with arrogance. She sees the solution and relief from her guilt complex by her false accusation which is totally irrational.

(What is the worst thing Elijah can do? Use beautiful, concise and clear language to show her that she is wrong. That would have thrown kerosene on the fire!)

8. The woman must go outside of herself for help. (Actually she is trying to destroy the only one who can help her — the prophet, the man of doctrine.)

9. For the solution to her problem is related to doctrine, the mind of Christ. The loss of her son calls for objectivity and doctrine, not subjectivity, irrationality and approaching hysteria.

10. Insinuation never solves problems.

11. The irrationality of unfairness, injustice and lack of integrity in the woman does not even ruffle the poise, the honour and the integrity of the prophet. He does not even bother to deny her false accusation. He doesn’t even bother to defend his actions in coming to Zarephath. You cannot reason with irrationality.

Verse 19, “And he replied to her.” Elijah is thinking under pressure and ignoring the implications and innuendoes concerning his purpose for being there. The principle is that cowardice is lack of thought under pressure whereas thought courage is thought under pressure. While the woman’s accusations were unjust, unkind, irrational and hysterical, the prophet did not answer her in the same vein. There was no thought of retaliation. In a crisis there are many distractions and reverse concentration is difficult at best. Obviously Elijah has passed through the three stages of the faith-rest drill in this case. He simply says to her, instead of any kind of antagonism, Give me your son. This is in the imperative mood; he gives her an order. She obeys it.

Principle: In a time of crisis the one with authority must make an issue out of his authority in order to hold the situation together. Elijah had established his authority through the teaching of doctrine in the home and obviously the woman resisted some of the doctrine and had scar tissue in certain areas. But this did not in any way hinder his proper use of his authority at this time. His authority was accepted and even though the woman was full of bitterness in her soul and has just given way to hysteria, she obeys the prophet who has given her the command. Until the body of the woman’s dead son is transferred to Elijah’s jurisdiction nothing can be done.

The word “took” is a qal imperfect of laqach, which means to use whatever force is necessary to change the boy from one to the other. The word “bosom” is not correctly translated. The noun is chejq, pronounced like “cake,” which can be used for several portions of the female anatomy but generally it refers to her lap, and that is the way it should be translated. She was holding her son in her lap while she went through all of the hysterics. “chamber” or “loft” — upper room. “carried him up” — hiphil imperfect from alah and it does not mean to climb a ladder into a loft. It means to walk up a set of stairs. The we have the word alijah, a beautiful master bedroom in a large home. This was Elijah’s study where he learned doctrine, where he spent his time in meditation and prayer; it was his place of privacy where he was alone.

Principle: What we really are is determined by what we are when alone and away from the stimuli of society

The manner in which Elijah takes charge indicates that he has profited from being in the master bedroom all of this time. He is in complete control.

Verse 20 — Elijah’s prayer. Prayer indicates several things: for example, a hopeless, helpless situation. The action begins with all helpless people have to do inevitably — the qal imperfect of qara, used here for prayer. Prayer is the only way he can face the situation, he cannot do anything himself. But prayer gives him the opportunity of referring the situation to headquarters. In the last resort the decision to resolve this amicably depends entirely upon the Lord. He can resuscitate those who are dead. The miracle which follows is not the act of stretching himself out over the body of the dead boy. The miracle is the power of God. It was the prayer of Elijah which the sovereignty of God responded. The fact that Elijah was a great prayer warrior is demonstrated in various parts of the Word. James (5:17,18) is very impressed with Elijah’s prayers. The power of prayer can never be divorced from knowledge of doctrine, and the power in prayer is not the language you use to address God, but the doctrine in the soul and its application. For basically, prayer is the function of the second stage of the faith-rest drill. The power of prayer is in the rationale used in reverse concentration, the application of doctrine to the situation. So the great prayer warriors are always believers who have fulfilled the second and third stages of the faith-rest drill. The power of prayer cannot be divorced from the filling of the Spirit, and knowledge of pertinent doctrine plus the filling of the Spirit are the essentials of intercession. The actual mechanics of linking doctrine you have in your soul to an effective prayer life is based upon the second stage of the faith-rest drill. “sojourn” — gur means to be staying as a guest in contrast to the word in the previous verse. While Elijah is living in his study upstairs he is still a guest in the home so two different words are used to describe him. The master bedroom is his home and has been for the past two years.

He “called to the Lord, and said, O my Lord God, even on the widow with whom I am staying have you brought disaster — hiphil perfect of raa which means to cause evil (Elijah is saying straight out: Why have you caused this disaster?) — by causing the death of her son?” This is a bold prayer. Elijah understands that God has taken the life of this boy; he understands there is a purpose for it. He is not in any way blaming God but he definitely knows that the reason must be brought out. Now, Elijah’s prayer is an exact and correct summary of the situation. The basis for making such a statement is the boldness, the courage, the coolness that Elijah possesses. He does not blame the Lord but very coolly states the facts. The facts must be clear in his mind if he is to offer the right prayer, that is the principle. Ignorance of the facts would destroy the effectiveness of the prayer.

Principle

1. God does not act without cause.

2. The actions of God are based on His perfect integrity. Therefore, the death of this son has a reasonable explanation.

3. The woman must see her son die before she could understand the difference between the origin of logistical grace and the blessings of logistical grace. The son is a blessing. But the woman has become of late so preoccupied with her son that her son has now become to her an obsession. An obsession means distraction from recognising the Source. The woman was receiving great doctrinal teaching but distraction, her son, was keeping her from advancing to maturity. The blessing can come and the blessing can go but the believer always has the Source. Therefore, he has the greatest security that anyone could have in this life.

4. The woman has become preoccupied with the gift of her son and has been distracted from the Source of that gift, who is the Lord Jesus Christ.

5. Therefore, by taking her son the Lord will, through this disaster, bring her to the place of love and appreciation for the Giver.

6. It is an occupational hazard with all believers at some time to become preoccupied with the gift so that we are distracted from love, thanksgiving for the Giver. The origin of both logistical and super grace blessing is the justice of God.

7. There are two ways of learning this lesson: a. through knowledge of doctrine which gives capacity to love Jesus Christ; b. the hard way, through disaster in which something we love must be taken from us so that we can again see the One who gave it.

The Woman

1. She was a believer who was preoccupied with the things of life. Because of that she became disoriented to the plan of God, the purpose of God, and the person of God.

2. there are no accidents in the Christian life. The loss of a son would be the gain of the Son.

3. Loss can only be gained through occupation with the person of Christ.

4. The woman failed every day as her son’s critical illness changed to terminal disease.

5. Every day her son lost ground and became weaker and weaker. This was her dried up brook.

6. The fear, panic ploy immobilised her thinking so that she failed to apply doctrine in the second stage of the faith-rest drill.

7. The malfunction of the faith-rest modus operandi was complete in all three stages.

8. By the time her son died she was in a complete state of irrationality and bitterness.

9. The death of her son was also a test for Elijah who loved the young boy like a father. His grief was not mentioned because it was controlled by doctrine resident in his soul, his occupation with the person of Christ, and the fact that he had time for grief in the crisis and at the same time concentrate on the second stage of the faith-rest drill. (By the time he will have time for grief the boy will be restored to him). Grief in Elijah would have been a distraction as one who was in charge of the situation.

Note: There will be a time in life when grief is the one thing you will want to surrender to but you cannot do it because there are more important considerations. You cannot do such a legitimate thing in the middle of a crisis. Elijah knew that the boy could not die unless the integrity of God permitted it. Every action of God is related to His perfect essence; it is impossible for God to do wrong. Elijah used the plan of God rationale in the second stage of the faith-rest drill. Reverse concentration applied the plan of God to the situation. The woman should have joined Elijah in the function of the faith-rest technique.

To Elijah the widow’s son is a supergrace blessing — category two. (Category 1, spiritual blessings; category 2, material blessings; category 3, blessing by association; category 4, historical impact; category 5, undeserved suffering; category 6, dying grace.) Because of this he would be as grieved as the woman over his death. For the woman, however, it is not a supergrace blessing because she is not a mature believer. Instead it is a logistical grace blessing.

No matter how well prepared you are for anything in life timing is still everything. God’s timing for us is perfect. We often have ideas about timing that are wrong; only God’s timing is perfect. God hasn’t promoted you yet. God’s timing is perfect, He will promote you at the right time. There are certain things, therefore, that are completely out of our control in life no matter how well prepared we are.

If Elijah had his wish it is probable that the last place he would have picked is Zarephath but he had no control over where he was sent. It was a matter of God’s timing. Zarephath was the shortest route to leadership in a revival in the northern kingdom. Right now Elijah is undergoing this test, this pressure, in order that he might be transferred under God’s timing to the place of spiritual leadership.

God’s timing is not our timing because God is in command. Headquarters is in heaven. Wherever we go and whatever we do in this life we must be placed in situations where we are totally helpless. Being helpless personally means the situation, the circumstances, are hopeless. Therefore helpless and hopeless is a part of the training. All of us have to go through this school because it is the only way we maintain grace orientation and realise that no matter what our talents, abilities, and what we have achieved, we are still totally dependant upon God’s logistical grace provision, as well as everything else when we crack the maturity barrier.

All of this adds up to a very important principle: timing is everything; God’s timing is perfect. Even when we feel we are marking time but we are never marking time if we are positive toward doctrine. We must take one day at a time and live it as unto the Lord.

In logistical grace God had preserved the woman’s son. The son was a gift of logistical grace and God is the giver. And so by the death of the son the purpose was to focus the woman’s eyes on the Source so that she can say, “The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Take the son out and there is nothing but God to see. But the woman failed the test.

Verse 21 — “stretch out” the hithpael imperfect of the verb madad, to stretch out, just as translated. Why three times? The procedure can best be described as identification: something living identified with something dead.

When we first found Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour we were spiritually dead. The moment we believed in Him we became identified with the living. We entered into union with Him through the baptism of the Spirit. However, the baptism of the Spirit didn’t occur until the Day of Pentecost so how does it have application to the Old Testament — 1 Kings 17:21?

When we find ourselves hopeless and helpless we have a living God who knows all the facts, who says there are no accidents in our life, who says there is only one way to keep arrogance out of the picture, and that is to put you under a helpless situation. The we need to be identified with something that is living and the only thing we have is God Himself. He has given us the Word which is alive and powerful. And just as the spirit and the soul and the spark of life will come back into that young lad so that he will be alive again, so in time of complete hopelessness it is what is alive and powerful that comes through for us — Bible doctrine in the soul.

Elijah understood that because he did it three times, once for Cherith, once for the meeting with the widow of Zarephath, and once at this moment. By stretching himself out over the lad he is portraying the principle that life can only come by identification with the source of life. After we are saved we still have the old sin nature which is death to God. So God has to give us something to counter it all, something living — Bible doctrine which is alive and powerful. Elijah related the three times to hopeless situations but we can relate it to life too. The first time Elijah stretched himself out over the boy — life is imputed from the justice of God to its home or target at birth; the second time — for eternal life which is imputed at regeneration; the third — both human and eternal life are given a permanent residence in a resurrection body (illustrative but not interpretative).

The second part of Elijah’s prayer: “he cried” qara — called out. tsahab nah (return please) — please return. Lit. “please let the soul of this boy return within him.”

The spark of life — neshamah — resides in the soul forever but the problem here is to bring the soul back into the body which it left. This is not resurrection but resuscitation. The prayer is an appeal to the sovereignty of God.

Verse 22 — “hearkened” shama. The Lord was listening. “And the soul of the boy returned within him and he lived” — corrected translation. The dynamics of Elijah’s prayer can be seen from many passages of scripture. He was not only God’s man for the crisis with the spiritual leadership factor in historical catastrophe in the same way that Elisha would be after him, in the same way the Isaiah was in the Sennacherib invasion, in the same way that Jeremiah was in the Chaldean episode of history — all these men were God’s men for the crisis. Being an ultra supergrace believer with maximum doctrine resident in the soul almost demands that you have an effective prayer life, that you know how to pray, that you put the facts together, that you never panic under a situation where prayer can be used in order to change the tide.

The dynamics of Elijah’s prayer impressed James — 5:17,18: “Elijah was a human being similar in feelings and pressures to us … “ James tells us under the ministry of the Spirit that Elijah loved that boy, was just as grieved as the mother. The mother went into panic palace; he started thinking. Elijah was similar in feelings, he has an old sin nature, he fails like everyone else, but it also means his failures did not hinder his effectiveness in prayer or in his life in general. “ … by means of prayer he began to pray not to send rain; therefore it did not rain in the land for three and a half years.”

Verse 18 — “And then he offered prayer again and the heaven gave rain, and the land produced its production.” Any time there was pressure, any time there was a situation where it would be easy to freeze up, to panic and to fall apart, this man had courage. Prayer is thinking doctrine and directing it toward the Lord. The power of prayer is in God’s answer; the ability to bring forth a divine answer is based upon knowledge of doctrine, knowledge of the facts, and putting doctrine together with the situation. The real secret to prayer is in the faith-rest drill, second stage. First stage: “All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing, ye shall receive.” The second stage demands a doctrinal rationale; the third stage is a doctrinal conclusion which puts you in charge of the situation. You not only have to know doctrine but you have to be able to use reverse concentration. Your prayer effectiveness is related to your reverse concentration.

Believers in the pivot have great power with God in prayer. Most people, when they think of power, always think of power related to people — how to control people, how to get people to do something they really don’t want to do but you want them to do it, how to impress people, etc. But Elijah obviously never thinks of power in relationship to people because he hasn’t seen any! Power over people is not the issue. Power must be related to God, not to people. So the first secret to power is thought, and not only thought but the ability to use that thought under pressure.

Now, believers in the pivot all have power with God because doctrine is the secret. And they can think in terms of God’s essence, God’s character, God’s ability, what God does under this and that condition, the grace policy and how it functions and relates to the integrity of God.

The primary purpose of the miracle was to focus attention on the importance of doctrine and that is always the purpose of a miracle. It is never to impress people. And during our Lord’s ministry upon this earth it was to focus attention upon who and what Christ is. Alleviation of suffering is secondary, it is never the reason for the miracle. With man and his human viewpoint of course it is a primary consideration.

Verse 23 — the restoration of the son. When it says Elijah “brought him down” it is the hiphil imperfect of the verb jarad which means he caused the boy to go down stairs. The Hebrew indicates the boy walked down stairs rather than being carried from the master bedroom. We have four verbs that give us the action: nathan followed by the qal imperfect of amar. So first of all the two of them walked in together and when they do he simply walks the boy along to his mother. And then he speaks (amar). Then the qal imperfect of raah because she is now looking at him in amazement. And what he spoke as she was looking was the qal imperfect of chajah — “See, your son lives.”

Now the power of prayer leads to the power of the miracle, but there is a greater power than the miracle and there is a greater power than prayer, and that is the power behind prayer, from our viewpoint. The power behind prayer is God’s power — Bible doctrine received through the function of GAP. The purpose of the miracle was accomplished to focus attention upon Bible doctrine.

Verse 24 — “Then the woman said to Elijah, Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is doctrine.” That is the important thing, the last thing that she said.

“Now I know” is not quite correct. We have the qal perfect of jada, but there is a waw conversive which changes it to an imperfect tense which would say, then, “I am in the process of learning.” That is smart. She is going to profit from the experience. She is not going to let her failure stop her. This emphasises the fact that the authority of the teacher of doctrine must precede effective communication of doctrine.

“the word of the Lord in your mouth” — he has been teaching her all of this time — “is doctrine” [or truth].

“man of God” ish elohim — correctly translated but it means a teacher of doctrine.” The woman had been hearing doctrine from the lips of Elijah but she had either been distracted or she had rejected doctrine. Principle: Often testing and disaster in the life of the believer is designed to remind each one of us that the most important thing in life is doctrine. And we have to come to the place where we are helpless and the circumstances in which we are helpless are hopeless; and helplessness and hopelessness then brings us around to the right attitude.

Chapter 18: God’s man for the crisis

Outline

We have five paragraphs and in each paragraph Elijah comes face to face with a group or an individual and we see man’s failures brought out.

1. Elijah and Obadiah: the failure of the reversionistic believer — vv1-16.

2. Elijah and Ahab: the failure of temporal government —vv17-20.

3. Elijah and the people: the failure of public opinion — vv21-24.

4. Elijah and the prophets of Baal: the failure of religion — vv25-40.

5. Elijah and Ahab: the failure of the politician — vv41-46.

In each one of these failures we see the plan of God moving on — the power of the plan of God, the dynamics of the plan of God, the greatness of the plan of God, the deliverance of the plan of God, the changes wrought by the plan of God. God’s plan moves on in spite of failure.

We should notice also that apostasy and reversionism in a client nation creates liability for destruction. There is always the possibility of a population being destroyed because of their apostasy and reversionism. But there is always a solution to historical disaster. It is in three areas or categories. The greatest of all solutions and the overriding factor is the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. The second category is that there is generally in a crisis there is spiritual leadership. God uses prepared people. Elijah was prepared through occupation with the person of Christ, freedom from arrogance, maximum effectiveness in the three stages of the faith-rest drill, maximum doctrine resident in the soul, and maximum reverse concentration using the various rationales of reverse concentration, and the application of the gift of communication, of phenomenal prayer life and courage based upon the ability to think. In other words, he is in control of the situation. The third category is the pivot of mature believers.

Verse 1 — We have another faith-rest drill and we have the principle of guidance through the Word as we begin verse one. The qal perfect from hajah indicates Elijah and God are in daily communication. It is correctly translated: “And it came to pass after many days … “ All of these days Elijah is learning doctrine. He is also in constant communication with the Lord by his daily walk, by the function of the various rationales which we will see him use in this chapter.

Elijah receives orders then for his permanent change of station. He knew it was coming and it came. The more you know about the Word of God, the more you know about Bible doctrine, the more you will know about the will of God. Elijah could sense that this wonderful period of his life, three years living with this widow and her son, was about to come to an end. By perception of doctrine, by learning doctrine on a daily basis, we not only have the dynamics in certain productions like prayer, but we also become sensitive to the will of God. To be sensitive to the will of God requires maximum knowledge of doctrine.

For three years the northern kingdom has been suffering from economic depression but the historical disaster has had no effect on King Ahab, a believer, or his wife Jezebel, an unbeliever, nor the majority of the people in the client nation. Whether believer or unbeliever all were suffering from the same scar tissue of the soul, blackout of the soul, and reverse process reversionism.

So we have the command: “Go shew yourself to Ahab; and I will send rain upon the face of the ground.” The command is for action and Elijah is prepared. God uses prepared people and the action always comes after the preparation. He learned how to think in certain situations and now he is going to use those thoughts in reverse concentration and be in control of the situation throughout the chapter.

So we have the qal imperative of the verb jalak, to walk, to go. He is going to go from Phoenicia back into the land. He is also commanded to confront the king and also we have the purpose for all of this: he is going to remove the depression and bring rain again to the land. The withholding of rain (or a drought) is always a picture of economic disaster or, as we call it today, depression.

There has been depression for three and a half years. So why is God going to remove the economic disaster or the depression? Not because Elijah is going back, that is a result, not the means. The real means is found in 1 Kings 19:18 — 700 believers in the pivot, that’s why. They are the basis by which the Lord Jesus Christ makes the sovereign decision to perpetuate the history of the northern kingdom for 150 more years. The spiritual leader is not the reason why the country is delivered.

Elijah is going to be God’s person for the crisis. There are seven thousand in maturity, only one of them is going to have any publicity. All of them are responsible for the deliverance of the nation. It isn’t the one who gets the publicity or is well known, it is the one who is faithful to the Lord, the one who is faithful in the perception of doctrine, it is the one who accepts the role of obscurity gladly, it is the one who uses and exploits logistical grace, parlaying it into ultra supergrace. Behind any spiritual leadership that is manifest there are always the thousands who have advanced to maturity.

Principle

1. A new command with a purpose behind that command. God doesn’t give orders without a reason. In the control of history God uses leadership; Elijah is to be the leadership involved in the preservation of the client nation. But behind Elijah there are 7000 mature believers and that is the reason for perpetuation. The great heroes of history are not found as a rule in history books, they remain anonymous. The great heroes of history are the mature believers in any generation.

2. But for Elijah the period of obscurity is over. God’s man for the crisis is commanded to reveal himself to Ahab. That means confrontation.

3. From the fact that we have three years telescoped into a verse or two and from the references to three years in this verse it is assumed that Elijah spent six months at Cherith and three years with the widow of Zarephath. We know this also by comparing it with James 5:17,18.

4. Scar tissue of the soul plus the intensification of arrogance, not only leaves Ahab to believe the lie of the human viewpoint solution — the prophets of Baal — but arrogance has resisted both doctrine and the divine viewpoint of life so that no solution exists at this point to Ahab.

But there is a solution and it will be revealed by God’s prepared man. The solution will be found in rain but rain will not be given by God until that rain is related to the fact that Jesus Christ controls history. Jesus Christ, the God of Israel, not only controls history but people must understand this and that there are certain principles on which He operates. One of those principles is spiritual leadership.

Leadership in relation to the deliverance of a client nation — it is not political leadership. It is spiritual leadership that represents the Lord Jesus Christ and that speaks for the pivot. The pivot will not be revealed, their names are not recorded in history but they are the basis for the perpetuation of the client nation in the northern kingdom.

1. Elijah is selected as the leader. He is a prophet who will communicate to northern Israel that doctrine which is related to economic blessing. And it will be very clear that the economic blessing comes from God — Jesus Christ controls history.

2. Neither Ahab Jezebel nor the prophets of Baal can cause rain, and rain means prosperity under an agricultural economy in Israel.

3. God’s leadership and God’s man for the crisis must relate national blessing to the grace policy of God.

4. National survival, then, depends on the character of God, not the governmental policy of Ahab or the Baal cult introduced by Jezebel.

5. If the people are going to understand the true issue that only God can preserve the client nation and only God can bless a client nation, then God must have a spokesman. God’s man is Elijah, his job is to communicate the divine viewpoint, therefore this man must be free from arrogance so that there will never be any temptation to take any credit for what is about to occur. He must also be completely prepared, and he is the most prepared for communication of all the mature believers in the pivot.

6. To represent God Elijah must be totally free from arrogance and totally cognisant of doctrine. He must be a man of courage and we will see the sources of his courage. Elijah has two categories of courage: moral courage — his thinking; physical courage — his action. Moral courage is always related to thought; his physical courage has to do with his actions, his deeds. The source of his moral courage is the plan of God rationale, the second stage of the faith-rest technique — which means that moral courage can belong to any believer who understands the faith-rest drill and has content for the second stage of the drill. His physical courage — the source is the logistical grace rationale. Principle: Thought is always greater than action.

7. If God doesn’t promote you, you are not promoted.

8. God cannot promote unprepared people. And the preparation is mental, in your soul. You must equip your soul with doctrine, divine viewpoint. Spiritual

maturity is a prerequisite for being the man for the crisis.

9. Spiritual maturity connotes capacity for loving Christ, capacity for promotion and the assumption of great responsibility, capacity for prosperity, moral courage in the function of the faith-rest technique resulting in physical courage in action.

10. Northern Israel as a client nation is under tremendous divine discipline and therefore the nation is helpless to solve the problem.

11. There is no human power or ability by which a nation can be delivered.

12. There is no political candidate, no organisation, no plan, no scheme, to solve the problem — Jesus Christ controls history and He uses the pivot. Elected to privilege means the opportunity to advance to maturity, to be a member of the pivot and deliver the nation. Elijah is the man for the crisis because he does his own thinking. He has confidence and assurance in what he is doing because he has a rationale, reverse concentration.

“Go, show yourself to Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.” Notice the promise. Whatever happens in the confrontation he knows one thing — the promise. He can reach out with his faith and claim the promise, God is going to break the economic depression. Note: Anytime that human beings are controlling an economy it is going to fail. When the laws of divine establishment control an economy it will succeed because under God’s law the motivation is profit. Under socialism profit is a bad word! Under free enterprise you go by supply and demand, and you will have bad times and good times but it will always adjust itself. But when man with his old sin nature, full of human good, full of self-righteousness and good intentions, comes in and controls the economy it is inevitable that it will fail. God is going to bring prosperity back to the northern kingdom. The Government has tried everything they can to solve the problem and they have failed. God is going to send rain; Baal cannot provide rain. Disaster and crisis are designed to focus attention on the only One who can solve problems and the only One whose laws can adjust any situation in life. If God does not solve the problem there is no solution. Jesus Christ controls history and therefore He uses the prophet to relate the solution, the sending of rain, which is God power rather than creature power or demon power. And a man is no stronger than those who influence him. Elijah is influenced by God, he is influenced by the Word of God, he is influenced by doctrine. Ahab is influenced by Jezebel.

In chapter 18 we see Elijah standing out as spiritual leadership in time of disaster. It is his challenge that will actually turn the nation around. There are five paragraphs in this chapter and in each one we see the failure of some particular system in a client nation, the failure to meet the crisis.

a. Elijah and Obadiah: the failure of the immature and reversionistic believer, vv1-16.

b. Elijah and Ahab: the failure of temporal government, vv17-20.

c. Elijah and the people: the failure of public opinion, vv21-24.

d. Elijah and the prophets of Baal: the failure of religion, vv25-40.

e. Elijah and Ahab: the failure of the politician, vv41-46.

Verse 2 — the obedience of the prophet.

“went” — the qal imperfect of jalak indicates again that Elijah is prepared. He is prepared, now he can move out. He is now told to march back into the country. But the man who is marching back is not the same one who came into Phoenicia. He is now prepared and honed fine by training and discipline from God; he is prepared mentally; he has made his doctrinal conclusions and reached a peak of both moral and physical courage. He is the man of the hour because he has been so prepared in the last three and a half years — it takes the preparation of testing.

The next word of importance is the hiphil infinitive construct of raah, to cause to show one’s self. This is the infinitive of purpose indicating Elijah’s motivation to obey implicitly the divine command. He is now exposing himself to great danger; he is one of the most wanted men in the land.

“And the economic depression was severe in Samaria” — the concept is one of great disaster and he is the man for the disaster.

Principle

1. Economic depression has devastated the client nation of northern Israel, called Samaria after its capital city. Samaria has been constructed by Omri, the father of Ahab, and is one of the most fortified cities of the ancient world.

2. The people were dying from hunger. Others succumbed to the evils of the OSN and had become criminals. Therefore there was anarchy in the land.

3. But for the pivot of mature believers historical disaster did not change the provision of logistical grace.

4. As a matter of fact from the attendance on Mount Carmel it was obvious that God was keeping alive a reversionistic population, both believer and unbeliever. And as far as reversionistic believers are concerned, they were being kept alive by logistical grace.

5. Only the mature believer, however, has the supergrace blessings in time of disaster. And SG blessing is not only the ultimate of blessing from God to man but it is also the means of glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ in time.

6. All believers are supported by logistical grace in time of famine or depression. But only mature believers have the imputation of supergrace or special blessing.

Principle: Historical circumstances do not change the imputation of supergrace blessing of logistical support to believers. No system of adversity or catastrophe can change the plan of God or frustrate the imputation of blessing. No matter how the believer fails or succeeds the plan of God moves on. God never permits adverse circumstances to hinder His own plan or the administration of blessing. And this is because blessing is administered from the integrity of God.

In verse three we meet Obadiah, an immature believer who fails in the crisis. Ahab was in one of his fortified palaces and he calls Obadiah: “called” qal active perfect of qara and it means not only to shout out an order but it also means to shout out a prayer. It generally means to raise your voice and to use your authority. Here it is “had called” actually. (This is not Obadiah the prophet). Obadiah is a believer and he is the second in command in the nation.

Now there are two sets of orders being issued simultaneously one hundred miles apart which would result in the meeting between Elijah and Obadiah. Elijah is a mature believer; Obadiah is a Bible school type! — an immature believer. This meeting and this dialogue would indicate that the mature believer is capable of handling the situation and the immature believer is totally incapable of handling anything in the crisis. It is fascinating to note that once we have a meeting between Obadiah [reversionistic believer] and Elijah [believer in maturity in the pivot] you never hear about Obadiah ever again; he just fades into the woodwork. So no matter how much potential the reversionistic or immature believer has he is not the man for the crisis. Crisis leadership demands Bible doctrine resident in the soul. The reversionistic believer makes no contribution in delivering his country in time of historical crisis. The reversionistic believer is distracted from God’s plan for his life, including the preservation of the client nation. Crisis won’t wait while you get prepared. Our ammunition is Bible doctrine and if we do not have it resident in the soul we are not prepared. Once we have it there it has to be tested — faith-rest drill. In a crisis the ones who count are the ones with doctrine.

“who was over the household” — asher l havbajith, the title was a title of nobility which was first found by the Romans who left it in England. In England it reached its peak under the title “Master of the Horse.” The title was given to the one with great authority in the Roman empire. “Over the household” is simply the Hebrew way of saying Master of the Horse.

Obadiah and his rank

1. A believer having all that rank in a nation would certainly arouse the optimism of fellow believers in the land.

2. An immature believer or a reversionist has no impact for Christ even though having a position of high authority.

3. The immature believer may perform certain good deeds and may demonstrate certain compassion but the immature believer has absolutely no influence on policy of government.

Now there is always a conflict between government policy and the laws of divine establishment. As long as the laws of divine establishment prevail there is freedom for the function of a client nation — for evangelism, for spiritual advance, for the protection and the function of missionary activity, for the protection of Israel during the time of their fifth cycle.

4. While Obadiah was a believer in Christ he was part of a system of evil, and therefore his high rank and his delegated authority made no impact in delivering the nation in the time of historical disaster.

5. Obadiah could carry out the policy of the king but he could not function as God’s man for the crisis. God’s man for the crisis must be outside of the system, free from the taint of evil.

“Now Obadiah feared [respected] the Lord greatly,” which indicates the fact that not only was he a believer but he was a “sincere” believer. Sincerity is not a virtue and sincerity is not a substitute for Bible doctrine resident in the soul. Because of his immaturity he is not prepared to assume any leadership in the crisis and is not trained as God’s man for the crisis.

We have a qal perfect of hajah — he had become one who feared the Lord, or who revered the Lord — a predicate adjective jaree, to be frightened in the sense that “he must behave or God will spank him.” Or it can be respect which comes from Bible doctrine. Because he is minus Bible doctrine we have to note that he is frightened by the Lord.

Principles

1. There is nothing wrong with a believer being promoted to the highest rank or second highest rank in the land. There is nothing wrong with a believer holding a position of influence as long as he does not compromise the principle of GAP.

2. If God doesn’t promote you, you are not promoted. God only uses those whom He promotes. Promotion demands perception of doctrine and advance to maturity.

3. Obadiah was not promoted by God to the rank of Master of the Horse or mayor of the palace. This was his own scrounging arrogance.

4. Arrogance and ambition were substituted for the persistence in the perception of doctrine.

5. Obadiah compromised principle for promotion. His promotion resulted from patronising in serving Ahab, not persisting in the perception of doctrine and advancing to spiritual maturity.

6. Obadiah relied on the public relations image rather than the perception of doctrine.

7. Inordinate ambition, therefore, distracted Obadiah from the true source of blessing and divine promotion.

8. Obadiah respected the Lord but he also respected Ahab — he respected power.

9. Obadiah respected Ahab because Ahab had the power to promote him.

There are only three ways in which a nation can be delivered from historical crisis: 1. Jesus Christ controls history; 2. The spiritual leadership prepared under the principles of the faith-rest drill; 3. The pivot of mature believers.

Obadiah. There is nothing wrong with occupying a place of high authority in a national government. The only problem in this particular case is that in so doing he compromised with evil; he did not advance to maturity, and therefore he was not promoted by God. Obadiah had gone in for a system of using his own ability to promote himself at the expense of learning doctrine. Obadiah “had respect for the Lord from his youth (verse 12),” meaning that he was converted from an early age. Elijah succeeded, however, where Obadiah failed. Elijah had his authority from the Lord, he had been trained by the Lord. Obadiah was trained in a system of evil. Elijah was a man of doctrine; Obadiah was a man of opportunity. Both were brilliant and had great potentiality; both were sustained by logistical grace. But Elijah exploited his logistical support while Obadiah barely survived with his logistical blessings. Elijah used logistical grace properly and advanced to maturity, whereas Obadiah used logistical grace to fail. One succeeded, one failed. Why? One is a man of doctrine, one is a man of opportunity.

Principle

1. Elijah used logistical grace to advance to maturity. Obadiah used logistical grace to mark time in reversionism.

2. Elijah used logistical grace to learn doctrine; Obadiah used logistical support to neglect doctrine and parlay his talent into self-promotion and advance in an evil system.

3. Elijah was God’s man for the crisis because he exploited logistical grace but Obadiah failed because he ignored the significance of logistical grace. Obadiah was alive because the justice of God supported him and sustained him. But he ignored the implications. All of us are kept alive for a reason — to advance in the plan of God, not to advance in cosmos diabolicus.

4. Elijah had an edification complex; Obadiah has a guilt complex.

5. Elijah discovered the secret to born-again living in his spiritual advance (X+Y+Z) through doctrine. Obadiah ignored the secret in his arrogance, in his resistance to doctrine, and in the fact that he came to believe the lie.

6. Elijah exploited the indwelling divine righteousness imputed at salvation; Obadiah exploited self-righteousness acquired after salvation.

7. Self-righteousness can perform good deeds such as saving a hundred prophets of God, but cannot compete with the indwelling presence of God’s righteousness which is the basis of justification at salvation and the basis of divine blessing after salvation.

8. The book of Romans clearly defines for the twentieth century believer in Christ the role of imputed divine righteousness, so that there is no excuse for being distracted into a system of self-righteousness which competes with the plan of God.

9. Here then are two believers in contrast. Elijah, God’s man for the crisis and Obadiah, a believer with great human authority and a propensity for human good production.

10. Elijah is the product of personal growth through doctrine; Obadiah is the product of social action, reform, and crusading — in other words a believer distracted by the function of human good.

Principle: Believers involved in social action are never prepared for the crisis. Only believers who persist in the perception of doctrine are prepared for historical disaster. Whitewashing the devil’s world does not make a believer God’s man for the crisis.

Verse 4 — We have the qal imperfect of hajah which introduces the basis by which Obadiah justifies his existence and his right to trying to solve the problems of life. The villainess is called Jezebel — Izebel in the Hebrew — and it means unexalted or unhusbanded. It means a woman who isn’t normal!

Isabel was fanatically devoted to the Baal Melkarth of Tyre. He was called in the Greek, Heroclese, which for some reason they translated into the English, Hercules. This woman did not admire men although she used them. It was not the muscles of Hercules that she admired, it was the power of Hercules. And so she worshipped power all of her life. She was a woman, by the way, of fanatical courage in this field. She brought 400 prophets of the Ashera into the land as an evangelistic system. These prophets were slightly different than the prophets of Baal Melkarth. The prophets of Ashera were the prophets that brought in the phallic cult. Baal Melkarth followed — they were 450. Therefore, 850 false prophets were supported by the taxpayers’ money in the northern kingdom. Isabel brought these people in for two reasons: to convert the people and to arouse them against the truth.

“And it came to pass when Jezebel was cutting of the prophets … “ Part of her great evangelistic push was to get rid of any opposition. We have a preposition b plus the infinitive of karath — “by means of cutting off the prophets of the Lord … “ Part of her policy was to use violence and tyranny to persuade the Jews to come over to Baal Melkarth. She was actually the prophetess of Baal Melkarth.

The great thrust that was attractive to the Jews was intellectualism. If there is anything that has become attractive to Christianity it is so-called intellectualism, the attempt to reconcile the philosophical systems that are currently popular with Christianity. This is the rejection, in effect, of Bible doctrine as the Word of God. The attempt to amalgamate these things with Satanic thought so that, in effect, using Bible doctrine or justifying the function of cosmos diabolicus within the area of Christianity. It is an attack which we face today. No system of phallic activity, no system of lust, no system can succeed on the basis of emotion; it must be carried by intellect, and intellect that appeals to the arrogance of those who accept the system. The Phoenicians were not simply a holy-roller group with a lot of pornographic material thrown in. They were in fact the smartest people, the greatest intellectuals, for nearly a thousand years. They conquered by the ability to persuade, by the ability to cause enthusiasm for systems of thought and systems of philosophy. Jezebel would not have been able to massacre the prophets of the Lord unless first of all there was an intellectual justification.

Persecution, intimidation, violence and tyranny were the weapons used to suppress Bible doctrine in the client nation of northern Israel. When Jezebel had the genius, not only to bring in the system of the Baal cult, but she also had the ability to influence the people of that land to kill their own people in an attempt to suppress Bible doctrine.

The qal imperfect of laqach [took] indicates that this was an action that had been thought out. He “caused them to be hidden” — the hiphil imperfect of chaba which means he did not do the entire job himself. He had contacts who did the job for him. He provided the food and the protection and this indicates an underground operating in the northern kingdom against the Baal cult. The third person masculine plural suffix which goes with the hiphil imperfect refers to true prophets of Israel.

“caused them to be hidden by fifties in a cave” — the pilpal imperfect of the verb kul, to sustain, to protect, to care for them, to guarantee their security.

Note this obvious good deed: 100 people have been saved and each one of these people have their own personal +R the moment he believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, which means he was under logistical grace imputed from the justice of God to the righteousness of God. It is obviously God’s will for these 100 people to be alive. If Obadiah had not done this good deed these people would still be alive at that moment. God would have kept these people alive under logistical grace. But Obadiah is the means of doing so, indicating that Obadiah is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the second highest ranking man in the kingdom and he has done this in order to assuage a guilt complex. The people who are believers say that Obadiah is a good man because he has done this. In fact Obadiah so emphasises his good deed that one would hardly think that logistical grace was involved. Obadiah did it! God was not in it! It would seem that they owed their lives to Obadiah rather than owing their lives to logistical grace and to the Lord. And as a matter of fact Obadiah uses this as his PR relationship with believers who have survived in the land. But in the three and a half years his deliverance of those 100 prophets has not made one change in the status quo of the northern kingdom.

One of the most deceptive people in the world is a born-again believer who is inordinately ambitious and arrogant in the extreme but hides it well behind a facade of self-righteousness. That is our man Obadiah. The high point in the life of Obadiah was when he rescued 100 prophets who would have been rescued anyway except perhaps they were being disciplined. The fact that God used Obadiah to provide logistical grace for the 100 prophets of the Lord indicates that Obadiah had attained in the past some spiritual growth. He started out well. The fact that he is a failure in this passage and not the man that God uses to deliver the nation does not mean that he has always been a failure. The real issue is the question as to whether this action was human good or divine good. And in asking that question we must also look at God’s will. Obviously it is God’s will that these 100 men survive. They are going to be used of God in the future. They are surviving then under the principle of logistical grace in which the justice of God imputes logistical blessings to their individual +Rs. So we must recognise that God had a plan for their lives. Otherwise they too would have died the sin unto death with their compatriots when Jezebel was “cleaning house.” So the issue does not lie with the group of 100 who survive. They were intended by the will of God to survive.

Question: Was Obadiah’s good deed legitimate production or illegitimate production? Legitimate production is the result of spiritual growth and is provided in logistical grace just as food, shelter, clothing, doctrine, testing, the wall of fire, is all provided in logistical grace. Doctrine must be communicated so that it is learned and then in reverse concentration the believer must make his own application from his reservoir of doctrine stored in his soul. That way he is spiritually self-sustaining.

Analysis

1. Extrapolating from the context which follows it appears as though Obadiah is counting on this action for blessing from God. It appears to be altruism rather than grace function.

2. We must also notice that in the dialogue between Elijah and Obadiah it is Elijah who leaves Obadiah to deliver the nation as spiritual leadership. It is not Obadiah who leaves Elijah to deliver the nation. He is not God’s man for the crisis.

3. Why not? Obadiah took a chance that if he stuck his neck out a little bit God would bless him. It was a gamble and when it comes to a real historical crisis gambler’s courage is no courage. Gambler’s courage cannot be sustained over the long haul, it is inspirational. God’s man for the crisis must have courage moment by moment — sustained courage.

Contrast: Elijah whose faith-rest technique reached out and claimed promises that cleared his mind of the fear, panic ploy consistently. But a promise requires no thinking. God provides the thinking in the promise and it is packaged thinking in the form of a guarantee. In the first stage of the faith-rest technique there is no thinking. The second stage requires that doctrine has already been learned and that is still being learned, so that the concentration can be reversed and applied to the situation.

There are two rationales we have studied: the plan of God rationale and the logistical grace rationale. The plan of God rationale in reverse concentration produces moment by moment moral courage which always does the right thing. Then there is the logistical grace rationale which produces physical courage which results in action. Elijah is the man for the crisis because he has moment by moment courage no matter what happens on Mount Carmel, what Ahab says, what the crowd says, what the prophets of Baal do.

There are two categories of courage: inspirational which relates a man to one or two actions in his lifetime; moment by moment courage which is a way of life in thought and in action.

4. Obadiah therefore had a gambler’s courage, inspirational courage. (Crusaders have inspirational courage!) But God’s man for the crisis is not a social action type. He is above all a man of thought, for it is thought that is going to win the victory on Mount Carmel because in the third stage of the faith-rest drill doctrine applied — reverse concentration in the form of a rationale — results in doctrinal conclusions. Doctrinal conclusion means control of the situation.

5. Obadiah performed his act as a crusader, a do-gooder, a corrector of evils, a reformer. He did it under the motivation that God would bless him for his deed. He didn’t do it as unto the Lord, he did it to be rewarded by the Lord.

If there is anything that has to be made clear on Mount Carmel it is the power of the Lord and the grace of the Lord, not the ability of a human being. In principle Obadiah’s deliverance of the prophets is an act of human good.

Principle: Human virtue is not the basis for blessing from God. God blesses on the basis of God’s character and God’s virtue, not ours.

Sooner or later we must come to the place of true humility and the point of true humility is when we realise that no matter how much talent, ability, strength, money, influence, power we have, you and I are completely and totally helpless. It takes the Lord no time at all to put us in a situation where our talents, etc. becoming nothing but a liability. It is one thing to make the statement academically that we are helpless, but to realise it is the important thing. Until we realise how helpless we are we never realise how hopeless life is, and the only thing that makes any difference is God’s grace policy. Those who exploit the grace of God, who exploit the grace of God in this life, those who glorify the Lord, those who make it as believers, must have as a basis for doing so a complete and total realisation of helplessness. As long as in the back of our mind we have an ace up our sleeve, we have some way we can get out of a deal, we have a little nest egg put away, we have some influence with someone, we have some authority or power; as long as we have anything by which we say “we can handle it,” we are not going to make. There is only one way we are ever going to make it in the Christian life and that is to realise how weak we are. We cannot have any illusions about ourselves. All it takes for arrogance to flare up in a moment is for us to be impressed with our ability.

1 Kings 18:5 — Samaria is down toward the end of three and a half years of economic depression, famine, drought. Ahab the king is not worried about the starving condition of his people. Having all that authority as a king means that he has a responsibility toward his people. Obviously he is not worried about his people but he is concerned about his horses and his mules.

One of the most important functions of authority is sensitivity. Those who have rank, authority, responsibility, must be extremely sensitive to the needs of those under their command. Arrogance and scar tissue of the soul have made Ahab insensitive to the needs of others. The distortion of Ahab’s authority overflows to born-again Obadiah and, therefore, in order to do his job he, too, must be insensitive and arrogant, and he must ignore the great principle of the proper use of authority.

This is not a case like Daniel who was the number two man in the empire. Daniel’s was a case where the Lord promoted him and where he used his authority properly, where he always took a stand in front of his superiors against their erroneous policies. Daniel was a man of doctrine, consistent courage, and was a great man in authority.

Ahab is more concerned about his horses and mules than the people of Israel and obviously he fulfils the principle of 1 Kings 16:30 — “And Ahab the son of Omri manufactured evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who had gone before him.”

The principle behind 1 Kings 18:5

1. In a time when people are starving and dying of hunger there is no nobility or honour in seeking fodder for animals. Nobility and honour: people first, animals second.

2. Any king that is more concerned about his horses and mules than his people is not only arrogant and self-centred but becomes involved in evil.

3. Any person who helps the king in this project without even protesting is obviously going to share in the responsibility and the failure of this government.

4. So we have a case of cursing by association. Obadiah, a reversionistic believer, is associated with King Ahab, another reversionistic believer.

5. To operate under the authority of evil conflicts while operating under the authority of the plan of God is an impossible situation. You must go one way or the other.

6. Obadiah respects the Lord and he fears Ahab the king, which means that Obadiah has a foot in both camps. You can’t be a fence straddler and ever be a man for the crisis.

7. Obadiah was destroyed by his association. (Are your associations destroying you? Do they distract you from doctrine?) He lives in the royal court and is daily exposed to human viewpoint, he is surrounded by reversionistic and apostate people, he is constantly tempted and distracted by the frivolity and the licentiousness of the court of Jezebel.

8. Obadiah was distracted from doctrine in the name of expediency. He was no promoted to his exalted position by the Lord and the principle remains, If the Lord doesn’t promote you, you are not promoted. He occupies this position by human talent, human ability, a combination of human factors. While Obadiah had wealth and influence and luxury he was also miserable (You can’t be happy straddling a fence). By throwing in an occasional good deed as a sop Obadiah tried to assuage his growing guilt complex. His good deed is throwing God aside.

In the compromise of operating under the authority of evil and at the same time the authority of God it is always the authority of evil that wins out. Why? Because of a principle of evil called “distraction.” When you believe a lie and you suffer from a guilt complex you always will throw God a sop. And by throwing God a sop of a good deed, some good work, it temporarily assuages a guilt complex and intensifies rationalisation — you’re doing the right thing! You’re using you’re high office to glorify God! After all, haven’t you used your high office to deliver 100 prophets of the Lord?

To avoid the principle of distraction there is another principle called separation. But the trouble with separation is that you can be challenged to separate, and do so, and not be any better off than you were before. Separation demands understanding of doctrine. If you separate and learn doctrine, that is a different story. Separation becomes self-righteousness unless doctrine becomes involved. There were seven thousand mature believers who were in the pivot of northern Israel and who did not compromise with government policy. They survived without being involved in this evil. They survived in separation, not in going along and compromising. The only way to get rid of evil is to separate and learn — daily function of GAP. Evil conquers any believer who is not learning doctrine, who is not growing, whose momentum in the plan of God has somehow been halted.

Principle

1. Outside of Daniel, who is an entirely different case, no believer in history has ever changed his times or generation by functioning within a failing or evil system. The system takes whatever talent or ability one has and destroys it.

2. So the believer to be the man of the hour must operate and function outside of the evil system.

3. Satan himself is the super genius of all creatures but as the ruler of this world he is totally incompetent. He is the ruler of this world but he can’t control it.

4. In the cosmos system there is no solution to the problems of our nation or the world. If you are in the cosmos system you can’t be a problem-solver. (While Daniel was in a governmental system he was not in a system of evil).

5. The solution is always outside the system. That is why it is so important to recognise our helplessness. The solution in principle: Jesus Christ controls history, spiritual leadership outside the cosmos, and a pivot of mature believers.

6. Compromise with the cosmos disqualifies the believer from being God’s man for the crisis.

7. Both Ahab and Obadiah are potentials. Obadiah had the potential as a believer but he lacked doctrinal motivation for separation and for taking a stand on the basis of logistical grace.

8. If promotion is not based on merit it always fails in time of disaster.

Verse 6 — the piel imperfect of the verb chalaq, to divide. They divided the land up into two spheres and each took a reconnaissance team and went looking for fodder. The qal infinitive construct of purpose of abar, to pass through. It connotes making a reconnaissance of the land for animal fodder.

The principle behind the statement in verse 6

1. Preoccupation with nonsensical projects is the basic characteristic of bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is a synonym for mediocrity at best.

2. It is gilding the lily or whitewashing cosmos diabolicus, the devil’s world.

3. Preoccupation with bureaucratic projects is not only a distraction to doctrine and a hindrance to advancing in the plan of God, but is a total waste of time, energy, and thought.

4. Human viewpoint in the involvement in social action, reform, crusades, is always rationalised and justified as a part of the Christian life and action. It is not. It is always a personal distraction from momentum the plan of God to become involved in social action.

5. The absence of divine viewpoint and doctrinal rationale in Obadiah’s conversation reveals his total failure to be the man for the crisis.

6. Crisis leadership demands maximum doctrine in the soul, especially in time of disaster. It also demands maximum function of the faith-rest drill.

7. To function under the policy of evil and the authority of evil produces a series of, not only unworthy, but also

irresponsible projects.

8. These projects can be compared to seeking fodder for the horses and mules while people are starving to death.

Rejection of doctrine sponsors not only scar tissue of the soul, the intensification of arrogance, but it also results in inordinate ambition about life in general. Crisis leadership always depends on the one who can cut it with Bible doctrine. But with that doctrine there must be a total sense of helplessness, a total dependence on what God has provided, and as a result there must be inevitably total humility. God does not use arrogant people. Arrogance will neutralise the doctrine learned.

Verse 7 — the meeting of the two potential candidates. The arrogant man is on his face calling the humble man lord. You can’t go by posture. The real humility is standing, straight as a ram rod, looking at the idiot! Principle: Two believers have exactly the same potential. They are recipients of the same salvation; both are in heaven today. With the imputation of +R they both have the same opportunity for promotion and blessing under logistical support. One fails — Obadiah; one succeeds — Elijah; the difference between them is not so much what we see at the moment, but everything that has happened up to this point. Up to this point we have one person who is arrogant, who has learned some doctrine, who is proud of his production. We have one person who has taken his doctrine and has ground it very fine in the mill of divine testing. Both of them started out being interested in doctrine. One distorted and abused doctrine — Obadiah; one used doctrine — Elijah. The difference between them was a daily attitude, not only positive volition toward doctrine but recognition of helplessness.

Elijah was one of the most unusual people because he utilised his time alone, out of the public eye, in a perfect way so that he met the most obvious attack and he met the historical crisis with the ability to apply.

“Obadiah was in the road and, behold, Elijah met him … “ We have the prepositional phrase, the qal infinitive construct with qara and the suffix referring to Elijah. Each one faces the other and does something different. Each is a candidate for leadership in the crisis. One has great power and authority as he stands there. Actually he grovels. Obadiah became number two man in the kingdom because he was a groveller, a flatterer. And what does he do immediately? He flatters Elijah. He calls him lord.

Principle: The immature and reversionistic believer is inconsistent, irrational, disloyal and dishonest.

There are two kinds of dishonesty: criminal dishonesty and sincere dishonesty. Obadiah is sincerely dishonest. As long as he feels sincere while he is cutting someone’s throat it is all right. It is possible to develop a feeling of sincerity that will justify a lot of wrong deeds.

Principle

1. As a reversionist Obadiah must have bowed the knee to Baal. Otherwise Jezebel would not have permitted him to occupy the second highest office in the nation.

2. Once the believer in reversionism begins to bow the knee or to genuflect to get ahead, he is not too particular to whom he genuflects.

3. So far Obadiah has bowed the knee to Baal to obtain his high rank; he has bowed the knee to Jezebel; he has bowed the knee to Ahab to keep his rank; now he falls on his face to Elijah to curry favour with a spiritual giant. He patronises Elijah from an evil facade of hypocrisy. Everyone must have an Obadiah test, even if you have to go to Bible school to get it! People who patronise you will never love you.

While seven thousand believers did not bow the knee to Baal, here is an immature believer, a reversionist, who is finally trapped by his own compromised. As an immature and reversionistic believer he did not use his election to privilege to deliver the client nation. He is not in the part or a part of God’s deliverance of the nation. On the contrary he is in the process of spending the rest of his life under divine discipline until he dies the sin unto death.

Note: The believer with the great authority (Obadiah), the believer with the arrogance, the believer in reversionism, fears Elijah. He fears Ahab and Jezebel, he is also afraid of Elijah. People who have their eyes on people cultivate the art of fear. If you get your eyes on people you are going to become frightened by people.

If Obadiah had his eyes on the Source, then only Jesus is Lord. Jesus Christ is the source of logistical grace; He is the source of national as well as personal deliverance; He controls history. No believer can receive fair treatment from the devil’s world. The only way you can get a fair shake from the world is to be a part of the system. But sooner or later the system will be unfair; it will destroy you. The believer can only receive a fair shake from the justice of God.

Unfair treatment from cosmos diabolicus is a test, and failure to pass that test is bitterness and other mental attitude sins such as self-pity. This, of course, ignores the fact that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. Principle: Divine authority overrules human authority as a part of logistical support. (If that were not true we could not live in the devil’s world).

Man by man’s efforts cannot solve the problems that man creates, and neither can the genius of Satan.

Pivot versus power politics

1. Unless the situation is hopeless there is no crisis. Crisis means that no apparent solution is available.

2. The crisis always finds power politics unable to cope with, the situation. Therefore a crisis produces a rash of irrationality and confusion.

3. There are two approaches to historical crisis: pivot politics and power politics. Needless to say the two systems are antithetical, locked in opposition throughout all history.

4. Pivot politics represents the divine approach and solution, while power politics is Satan’s policy in seeking to control the world which he rules.

5. Obadiah represents power politics as a panacea, while Elijah is a part of the pivot of mature believers whose pivot politics is the basis for divine deliverance in historical crisis, as well as blessing for the client nation.

6. Pivot politics is personal, therefore it has a personal solution to disaster. Power politics is collective and therefore has a collective approach, such as social action, public opinion polls, reform, the welfare state, socialism, communism.

7. In pivot politics the means justifies the end, but in power politics the end justifies the means.

8. Pivot politics is related to personal advance of the believer in the plan of God. Pivot politics is the plan of God in operation while power politics is related to collective action in which violence, revolution, terrorism is the order of the day to achieve what is called the ideal society, i.e. the society that I’m running instead of you!

9. Pivot politics emphasises grace; power politics emphasises change. The key words are grace versus change.

10. Grace glorifies God; change glorifies man. That is why we need unchanging doctrine for a changing world.

Contrast: the change between them

1. There is a continuous running battle in history, the battle between pivot and power politics. It is a battle which is personified in the meeting of Elijah and Obadiah.

2. Every believer sooner or later must decide which solution to adopt, the Lord’s or Satan’s, pivot politics or power politics.

3. Doctrine demands that the believer enters pivot politics which is advance to spiritual maturity through the momentum of perception of doctrine.

4. The larger the pivot of mature believers in the client nation the greater the blessing to that client nation, as well as the perpetuation of its function.

5. Power politics emphasise change; pivot politics emphasises grace, each one offers a solution based upon that word.

6. But you must remember: change upsets establishment and destroys freedom in the name of common good. Where you have a spiritual solution in the change in the people you maintain establishment, and therefore you maintain freedom. But where you seek to destroy the established order by use of violence, revolution etc., then you have power politics.

7. Freedom, then, is essential for the function of the angelic conflict. It is defined in terms of the client nation to God.

8. Power politics is designed to destroy freedom.

9. Pivot politics offers solutions to national crisis without tampering with your freedom. Always pivot politics says: Let’s solve the problem without destroying freedom.

10. Power politics exchanges establishment evil for non-establishment evil of tyranny.

11. Power politics tries to change the leopard’s spots but pivot politics never tampers with the leopard’s spots. Instead it changes the leopard’s direction.

12. Power politics is social action, crusades, muckraking, self-righteousness, arrogance, and the worst kind of self-righteousness — using violence.

13. Power politics is violence and revolution and it always changes freedom into tyranny, responsible government into irresponsible anarchy.

14. Power politics means disruption of normal life in the name of human good, self-righteousness, self-sacrifice.

15. On the other hand, pivot politics rejects social action, reforms, crusades, as unnecessary radical surgery and demands unchanging doctrine for a changing world. It demands it on the basis of the fact that: a. Jesus Christ controls history; b. God raises up spiritual leadership; c. A large pivot of mature believers makes the change without destroying the establishment and the freedom.

16. The contrast between Lot and Abraham, Obadiah and Elijah, is the contrast between power and pivot politics.

The Issue

1. The issue might be described again under the analogy to radical surgery — radical surgery versus medication.

2. Pivot politics medicates; power politics uses radical surgery.

3. Pivot politics emphasises the individual and personal solutions to historical problems and relates it to the believer’s advance in the plan of God.

4. Power politics, on the other hand, finds the believer involved in distractions to perception of doctrine —the social action, social gospel routine.

5. The believer, therefore, must choose between involvement (improving the devil’s world) or momentum —advance in the plan of God.

6. Pivot politics represents the plan of God in contrast to power politics. Power politics represents Satan’s radical surgery to improve his own world system. Remember, Satan’s objective is always to produce a pseudo Millennium, a perfect environment before the second advent.

7. Radical surgery removes freedom which is necessary for the perpetuation of the angelic conflict. Without freedom you cannot make a decision to believe in Christ; you cannot make a decision for or against Bible doctrine; you cannot send out missionaries.

8. Since Jesus Christ controls history, pivot politics demands that the believer forsake not the assembling himself together for the purpose of learning doctrine and providing motivation and momentum in the plan of God.

9. Pivot politics chooses doctrine rather than social action.

10. Individual believers in Christ advance to maturity in the plan of God without disrupting society or establishment function.

11. The pivot which preserves the nation is composed of mature believers.

12. A pivot of mature believers breaks no laws, sponsors no violence [either assassination or revolution], confiscates no property, tampers with no freedom or privacy. But it turns the world upside down through the invisible force of Bible doctrine.

13. Evil is always evil. The leopard may change his direction but the leopard will never change his spots. 14. Power politics uses human good to produce evil; pivot politics uses doctrine to produce divine good — X+Y+Z.

15. In this meeting and in the dialogue Elijah represents pivot politics; Obadiah represents power politics.

The Obadiah compromise

1. The Obadiah compromise is the malfunction of the faith-rest technique. The malfunction of the F/R technique involves two factors: a. Neglect or rejection of doctrine; b. Failure to understand mechanics.

2. The Obadiah compromise never gets past the first stage of the faith-rest drill, which is claiming the promise of God by means of faith. That is the superficial stage; you can’t stop there.

3. The critical issue is the second stage of the faith-rest drill. Reverse concentration applies doctrine resident in the soul to the historical disaster or crisis.

4. There bare two very excellent categories of reason used in reverse concentration: the plan of God rationale and the logistical grace rationale.

5. In the third stage the doctrinal conclusions from such a rationale result in having control of a bad situation.

6. The Obadiah compromise results in malfunction of the second stage of the faith-rest drill, and a failure to use either logistical grace rationale or the plan of God rationale.

7. Obadiah ranked second to King Ahab in authority.

8. In order to maintain his great rank and his authority Obadiah had to compromise in two ways: overt acceptance of the state religion and working within the system (seeking for fodder for horses and mules). Both categories of compromise hindered and frustrated his perception of doctrine. Because he gave overt acceptance to the state religion he couldn’t take in doctrine.

9. Only perception of Bible doctrine advances the believer in the plan of God.

10. Lip service to the religion of Baal plus executing the policies of power politics constitutes a distraction of Bible doctrine. And of course it resulted in spiritual malnutrition.

11. Without the support of Bible doctrine in his soul Obadiah became one of the leading exponents of power politics. Compromise and expediency became his modus vivendi.

12. However, doctrine cannot be compromised with impunity.

13. As a believer Obadiah was sustained in life by logistical grace even though he was a failure as far as the plan of God was concerned.

14. Obadiah used logistical support from God to serve evil — the evil cause of Ahab and Jezebel.

15. As a believer Obadiah must have been aware of the very source of his life. He was a beneficiary of logistical grace as are all believers — those who succeed and those who fail.

16. In other words Obadiah enjoyed the support from the integrity of God but forgot the source.

17. When the believer forgets the source — the Lord Jesus Christ — he becomes involved in the compromise of power politics.

18. The very air that Obadiah breathed came from the Lord. But Obadiah used his breath to flatter Ahab, calling Ahab “Lord” and to flatter Elijah, calling Elijah “Lord.”

The abuse of logistical grace

1. Obadiah used the air provided by the integrity of God to give lip service to Baal. He also gave lip service to Ahab and catered to Jezebel.

2. Obadiah could not have maintained his high rank without pretending to be converted to Baal. Jezebel would not tolerate anyone in the palace who rejected Baal.

3. Logistical grace provided health and strength to the body of Obadiah but he was using his health and strength to serve an evil cause.

4. Compromise, inconsistency, irrationality, expediency, are the by-products of neglecting Bible doctrine.

5. When a believer fails to remember the source logistical grace becomes a trap. You are caught by your own compromise and therefore suffer from man; you are caught in the compromise and receive discipline from God.

6. The believer’s scale of values is distorted so that the emphasis is placed on support rather than on the source of that support.

7. The gift is nothing without the giver; the support is nothing without the source.

8. It is the giver who is important and Obadiah’s very existence depends on the Lord Jesus Christ who controls history.

9. Logistical grace is nothing without the source — the integrity of God.

10 Power politics destroyed Obadiah’s focus on the Lord Jesus Christ, so now he is calling Elijah “Lord.”

11. Pivot politics emphasises Christ as the source of blessing, justification as the mechanics, and doctrine as the means of appreciating the blessing. Pivot politics also emphasises national deliverance from catastrophe through the momentum of perception of doctrine.

12. Pivot politics emphasises the fact that we need unchanging doctrine for a changing world.

13. Pivot politics emphasises doctrine; power politics emphasises change. The change results in evil, violence, disruption.

14. The believer who becomes in social action falls into the trap of the Obadiah compromise. The Obadiah compromise therefore is deviation from the plan of God.

Verse 8 — “And he answered him, I … “ the first person singular personal pronoun ani, I am. The we have a qal imperative from jalak in which Elijah is in complete control of the situation — go. Anyone who rides high in power politics is one of life’s biggest flunkies. Next is a qal imperative of amar — to speak or to say to l adon — your lord. Elijah is saying “King Ahab is your real lord.” Elijah saw that Obadiah had the rank of the second highest person in the land and therefore shouldn’t be down grovelling to him but should be recognising the authority of the man for whom he works, Ahab. Elijah will not permit him, therefore, even this one little instability of being two-faced. You see, Obadiah is calling Elijah adon but the real adon to this man is King Ahab. Obviously Obadiah does not have any loyalty in him. He calls Elijah adon, Ahab is his real adon, and if he was straight spiritually as a believer there would only be one adonai — Jesus is Lord.

So there had to be a clarification of the issue. Elijah replies “I” just as we would say “right.” The he keeps right on talking: “Go, tell your lord … “ he ignores the fact that he has been called lord. Why? He is not going to be party of the second part in the instability of disloyalty. He refuses to allow Obadiah, even for a second, to transfer his loyalties from one person to another.

So Elijah give him a message, a very simple one: hineh — means behold and it also means here, but it can’t mean both. elijahu — Elijah. So all he said was: hineh elijahu — “Elijah here.” Elijah identifies himself to a fellow believer, Obadiah, but he also recognises that they are believers divided. They are divided by their attitude toward doctrine, by their love of the Lord Jesus Christ, they have a quite different philosophy of life.

Now Elijah clarifies the issue when he called Ahab adon. Ahab is adon in the sense that he is the king of the country, therefore he does have legitimate authority even though he has abused that authority and even though he is even more of a reversionistic believer than Obadiah. Obadiah is a sweet reversionistic believer; Ahab is a selfish, egocentric reversionistic believer. When Obadiah called Elijah lord, Elijah is very blunt in his reply — King Ahab is lord to Obadiah.

Principle

1. The client nation to God, northern Israel, is preserved by the pivot of mature believers, 7000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal, not the zealous, self-righteous reformers, the social action crowd like Obadiah.

2. In the time in which we live many Christians are socialists, communists, welfare staters, environmentalists, or liberal do-gooders. Therefore in our study we are going to see a direct analogy. The Obadiah’s of the 20th century are the liberal do-gooders, etc.

3. Believers who belong to power politics emphasise change instead of grace and doctrine.

4. Furthermore, these believers are not squeamish about the manner in which change occurs. Classical illustration: the National Council of Churches sends money to terrorists. Their justification for this is: “Change will give everyone the same chance we have.”

5. Power politics contends that the end or the objective can justify any kind of a means used to attain it. Pivot politics says that the means must be compatible with Bible doctrine.

6. Evil causes an evil end; divine good such as doctrine causes divine good end, compatible with the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Doctrine changes thought; that is the only justified change, the thinking in the souls of men.

7. Power politics cannot avoid violence and revolution or assassination and crime in making their changes. Therefore, power politics disrupts freedom, destroys establishment authority, in the name of some crusade.

8. Therefore Elijah recognised Obadiah as a sincere do-gooder whose very station and rank in life is a compromise to the plan of God. While Obadiah called Elijah lord, Elijah is not Obadiah’s lord. That is hypocrisy and flattery and sincere evil. So Elijah passes the buck back to his true lord — King Ahab is Obadiah’s lord, which verifies the miserable result of becoming involved in power politics. The reversionistic believer so involved becomes the servant of man. (You can be a born-again believer and never be the servant of God).

Principle

1. The liberal is the devil’s flunky. All flunkies are obsequious. When with Ahab, Obadiah calls him lord; when alone with Elijah, Obadiah calls Elijah lord.

2. In his private worship or prayer Obadiah calls Jesus Lord.

3. Everyone cannot be lord. But power politics will compromise with anyone and lie to everyone to accomplish their human good objective.

4. The command of Elijah to Obadiah not only clarifies a few preliminary issues but a the same time places Obadiah in that uncomfortable position of having to make a decision which may jeopardise his career. He is a ticket puncher.

5. It is no accident that Elijah met Obadiah for Obadiah is on the wrong track and this is his opportunity to get back into God’s plan — apparently he did not.

6. The command of Elijah forces Obadiah to face the issue and make a decision for against the plan of God.

7. Someone must make a stand and Obadiah has first option. But even if Obadiah takes a stand for the Lord in this apostasy he is not capable of spiritual leadership — he is a reversionist. He lacks both doctrine and the testing of doctrine in reverse concentration and therefore he has neither logistical grace rationale nor plan of God rationale.

You cannot compromise doctrine and be a spiritual leader. A spiritual leader has an old sin nature, which means that he is not perfect and will commit personal sins, but a spiritual leader also has doctrine which he must not and cannot compromise. It is not an issue as who is the worst sinner, the issue is who has the doctrine. The believer may fail in sinful action but the believer can never compromise the truth and be God’s man for the crisis.

It becomes obvious that Obadiah’s faith in Christ was well hidden from Ahab and Jezebel. (Even Ahab’s faith in the Lord is also hidden.) Therefore such a request from Elijah might compromise him and expose him as a believer, and therefore certain death. He is afraid that if he obeys Elijah he will be exposed as a believer — and perhaps they will assume that he is in collusion with Elijah — and there would be instant execution. All believers were persona non grata in the court of Ahab.

It is obvious that Obadiah fears Ahab, he fears Jezebel, he fears death, he fears Elijah, he fears to fail in finding fodder for the horses and the mules. In other words he is a frightened person. Obadiah, through neglect of doctrine, has become a coward and therefore is dead while he is still living.

Compromise has placed Obadiah in jeopardy on all sides. Ahab will kill him if he discovers that Obadiah is a believer; God will administer the sin unto death if Obadiah doesn’t take a stand; Obadiah assumes that everyone is against him; he has spiritual paranoia. Therefore he takes every remark, every request, every statement, no matter how innocuous or how innocent, and assumes mal intent. Every innocent statement, then, has a sinister meaning to Obadiah. All believers who neglect or reject Bible doctrine have this subjectivity based on their own arrogance and their own vanity. The reversionistic believer misconstrues the motivation of others, he rejects the integrity of anyone else who comes into his periphery, and it is impossible then for such a believer to carry on a normal relationship with anyone else in life. The believer minus doctrine always makes an issue of himself instead of God.

Archimedes said that he could move the world if he had a point of rest given to him outside of it. But there is a fulcrum which isn’t outside of the world which can change the world, there is a fulcrum in this world. The fulcrum is the believer who persists in the perception of doctrine, who keeps growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ, who continues in the privacy of his soul to make those decisions which cause momentum in the plan of God.

Your life can be no better or no worse than what you think. Bible doctrine is the food for thought, it turns the world upside down without the disruption of establishment. It is Elijah with doctrine resident in the soul who goes to Mount Carmel, not Obadiah with human viewpoint, expediency, rationalism, compromise, and distortion of what doctrine he has. The man with power and influence and rank is not God’s man for the crisis, but Elijah who has been in obscurity and has learned all of these wonderful things.

Verse 9: the hypersensitivity of arrogance (or a fat head means a thin skin!).

You cannot be God’s man for the crisis and be hypersensitive about your own feelings. You can’t walk around with a thin skin and every time someone sneezes you are offended. Some people are so arrogant, so self-centred, so full of themselves that they take everything personally, and they take everything as an insult and are constantly vibrating n the confusion of their mind.

The subject of verse nine is Obadiah. “ … he said, the qal imperfect amar — to speak, to say, to command, to reply, to order, it has many meanings. What did he say? the qal perfect from the verb chatah which means to sin. With this we have the interrogative pronoun meh. Meh plus chatah means how, in whatever manner. “How have I sinned?”

One problem that many people have is every time something goes wrong in their lives they are so thin-skinned that all they can think of is “How have I sinned? Is God punishing me for some past sin?” etc. Because of this they can’t advance.

Then we have the causal conjunction ki — “How have I sinned? Because you are giving your servant into the hands of Ahab to cause my death.” This is a stupid statement from the number two man in the nation. The qal active participle of the verb nathan means to give. It is linear acktionsart — “you are permanently jeopardising my career” is what he is saying. More than that, “you are going to ruin me with death” — the hiphil infinitive construct of the verb muth. He is afraid that he is going to be killed after being compromised. The best translation would be: “And he said, What manner have I sinned, because you are giving your servant into the hand of Ahab to cause my death?”

Three times in verses nine, twelve and fourteen, Obadiah will talk about being killed or executed by King Ahab. It is quite obvious that Obadiah is a frightened person and people who have fear in their souls are obviously not helping the client nation. This man is running scared but he is no different from most people in history who reached the top. In almost every area of success those who reached the top without Bible doctrine run frightened. They are frightened they are going to lose what they have gained, they are constantly in a state of insecurity and instability. The Obadiah compromise has resulted in being very insecure. Elijah’s command of the previous verse is regarded by Obadiah as a death sentence and because Obadiah is both arrogant and reversionistic he assumes that some sin has caused this statement of divine punishment to be administered through Elijah. And in his arrogance and self-centredness Obadiah makes an issue out of himself when right now the issue is the status quo of the nation. The greater the arrogance the thinner the skin. Every statement made to Obadiah is immediately misconstrued because of hypersensitivity. Elijah wanted Obadiah to announce his coming, that’s all.

The mechanics of guilt complex

1. Arrogance and self-centredness from reversionism and the scar tissue of the soul sponsors the guilt complex. Arrogance is the source of guilt reaction.

2. Having believed the lie from scar tissue of the soul Obadiah has rationalised his compromise into being justified. He thinks of himself as doing the Lord’s will and therefore with the arrogance he has developed a case of extreme self-righteousness.

3. But the command of Elijah in the previous verse turns arrogance into self-pity.

4. The amalgamation of self-righteousness from scar tissue of the soul and self-pity from arrogance under pressure results in a guilt complex.

5. Guilt complex then is an amalgamation of self-righteousness with self-pity under pressure.

6. The guilt complex associates Elijah’s command of the previous verse with some sin or past failure.

7. Arrogance in self-righteousness plus arrogance in self-pity results in Obadiah being locked in with egocentricity.

8. Subjectivity makes one vulnerable to erroneous and unnecessary pressures. Naturally all arrogant people become subjective. The source of subjectivity is arrogance.

9. The subjective believer is his own worst enemy; he creates pressures and relates them to sins in the past that have been forgiven. He creates pressures which would not exist were it not for his own thinking.

10. Obadiah would never assume that such a request from Elijah would endanger his life unless his status quo of compromise and his reversionism had led to attach a false importance to himself, and above all unless he was living a life of deceit.

11. It becomes obvious that Obadiah’s faith in Christ was well hidden from Ahab and Jezebel. Therefore, such a request from Elijah might compromise him and expose him as a believer, and therefore to certain death.

Verse 10 — the antagonism of power politics.

“By the life of the lord your God … “ By the use of the word “your God” he is merely trying to disguise the fact of his own personal relationship with the Lord.

Like the widow of Zarephath, so now with Obadiah, he makes the statement of neglect of doctrine. In each case the statement is made by a believer who is ignorant of doctrine or who is resisting doctrine. He is completely and totally ignorant of the doctrine of logistical grace. And this does not imply that the Lord is not the God of the widow of Zarephath nor the God of Obadiah, but it does imply that each one recognised Elijah as being a believer closer to God than they were. Therefore this would arouse in them resentment as a part of their subjectivity. Ahab represent power politics seeking to destroy pivot politics in Elijah. Power politics is zealous in its attempt to neutralise pivot politics or to misconstrue the motives of pivot politics. Obadiah also reveals his inconsistency: he has called Ahab lord and Elijah lord, all in the same dialogue.

Principle: The reversionistic cannot distinguish between true and false authority. He has no norms from doctrine by which to make such a distinction.

1. Power politics uses all of its influence to discredit the believer in pivot politics. Any believer who is positive toward doctrine must be discredited, must be neutralised, must be set aside.

2. However, the integrity of God in the function of logistical grace provides a wall of fire to protect the believer from all of the antagonisms of power politics. The greatest antagonisms to the believer are found from other believers. Anyone involved in power politics despises the believer involved in pivot politics, although he may give him overt and superficial deference.

3. If King Ahab had exerted all of his power to capture and destroy Elijah, and Obadiah now lets him slip through his fingers, then Obadiah’s head would be on the chopping block. This is the way he reasons.

4. The implication of this verse is that Obadiah has been sent on many of these searches for Elijah. Here’s a believer whose job it was to apprehend another believer so that the believer who counts can be destroyed by power politics.

5. It appears that Obadiah has been one who demands in the name of Ahab an oath that Elijah could not be found in all of the nations and kingdoms where he was being sought.

6. To demand an oath in itself is an act of hostility but power politics is rabid and irresponsible in its methods.

7. For three years an intensive search has been conducted by Ahab whose implacability motivated him with the most intense zeal. Power politics assumes that assassination of persons involved against them is the solution to the problem.

Verse 11 — the incredibility of power politics.

The action is found in the is verse in the verbs. We have the qal active participle of amar in which we find Elijah being quoted by another believer who doesn’t like him. That is a favourite trick of the believer in reversionism, the believer in power politics — always quote back what has been said but distort it and give it a false implication. “And now you are saying … “ He is going to quote him exactly but the implication is: “You are trying to get me killed.” And that is not the implication of Elijah’s command at all. The qal imperative of jalak and the qal imperative of amar — “Go, tell your lord.”

Principle

1. When told to do something by Elijah which might endanger his life, Obadiah finds it incredible that anyone could be so thoughtless as to endanger the life of a “nice person” like Obadiah. He is arrogant; all believers in power politics are arrogant.

2. Obadiah’s opinion of himself is in keeping with the arrogance in his soul. This statement of Obadiah in this verse indicates also that he is divorced from reality. Most arrogant people are divorced from reality.

3. But Elijah’s command of verse eight has brought Obadiah face to face with reality and Obadiah is incredulous. Reality of life and potential personal danger always come back to shock those who are involved in power politics. Obadiah takes the attitude it can’t happen to him; he is too nice a person! It could never happen to anyone who saved the lives of 100 prophets of the Lord. He erroneously concludes that nothing adverse ever happens to nice people. Furthermore he assumes that God will protect him because he has protected some of God’s people.

Note that Obadiah, in quoting Elijah’s command or request, is ready to distort it as well as to take it as a personal affront. It never occurs to Obadiah that Elijah is the one who is risking his life, that Elijah the one who is exposing himself to King Ahab and the general public who at this point despise him. It never occurs to Obadiah that Elijah is acting under orders from God for the will of God is never an issue to arrogant people, they are so occupied with themselves. In time of crisis the arrogant type believer like Obadiah only thinks of himself and how he is personally endangered by the actions of others.

Verse 12 — the apprehension and intimidation of power politics.

The verse establishes several facts about Obadiah

1. Obadiah is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ who has respected the authority of the Lord in the past.

2. The qal imperfect of the verb jare can be translated respect or fear. This indicates that at some time in his life he was positive toward doctrine. This respect was based on his decision to believe in Christ when Obadiah was a boy. He had learned a great deal of doctrine in the past. He is familiar with ruach adonai, the Holy Spirit. But salvation and perception of doctrine in the past do not sustain the believer in time of pressure. Past doctrine isn’t going to help him now.

When the reversionistic believer is boxed in by adverse circumstances he always goes back to the time when he was in fellowship with the Lord as if there was some virtue in past relationship which has been neglected for years. Past relationship can no more sustain the believer spiritually than a good meal had ten years ago can sustain you today. The believer must feed daily on spiritual food just as he feeds daily on physical food. And when the believer has neglected Bible doctrine he is easily intimidated by potential danger and disaster even though the catastrophe has not yet occurred.

For the second time in the dialogue Obadiah mentions the threat of death to himself in the verb, the qal perfect from harag. He changes it from muth. This time there is even more fear. His imagination is working overtime. As far as we know Ahab never executed Obadiah so his fears were groundless. But the very threat of death intimidates Obadiah. Reversionism rejects both the plan of God and the logistical grace rationale. Scar tissue of the soul has taken over. This man is not only divorced from reality, he has become a total coward.

Principle

1. Those who use violence can also be intimidated by greater violence. So when courage is based upon violence cowardice comes from that courage.

2. This is the basis for the control of crime. Crime can only be controlled by the threat of greater violence.

3. The same is true for the function of power politics. Power politics uses violence or the threat of violence to gain some social action objective.

4. By using violence to gain an objective power politics can also be intimidated by violence.

5. Obadiah has seen many believers and others who were opposed to the state religion of Baal intimidated by violence and eliminated by violence.

6. Therefore, like all reversionistic believers, Obadiah is impressed by violence and at the same time intimidated by violence.

7. The bully and the tyrant use fear to control people. (There is a legitimate use of fear in controlling crime by police action but that is establishment fear and it is a good thing when criminals are frightened.) People who are controlled by fear are destroyed.

8. Obadiah is controlled by fear and intimidated by bullying because he has no doctrine, no faith-rest drill with which to handle tyranny. It never occurred to Obadiah, “Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.”

Principle

1. Obadiah had believed so many lies that he even passes along some of them to others. At this point he’s passing along a lie to Elijah. He calls himself a servant to Elijah. That is not true.

2. Those who lie often enough think they are telling the truth.

3. By calling himself the servant of Elijah, Obadiah is implying that he is the servant of the Lord.

4. While Obadiah is a believer in the Lord he is not the servant of Elijah and he is definitely not the servant of the Lord.

5. Obadiah is a slave. He is in bondage to fear as the servant of King Ahab, even though he holds the second highest rank in the country.

6. Those who highest rank in power politics live in a state of fear. Fear intensifies with the increase of rank and power in power politics.

7. The panic of Obadiah is obvious at the end of the verse when he uses the impersonal word for “your servant,” and then hoe goes from “your servant” to “my youth.” In one breath he indicates he cannot maintain the impersonal with any consistency. This indicates his inability to think with any clarity.

Verse 13 — (social action) the self-righteousness of power politics or the human good of reversionism.

We start out with the interrogative he, the interrogative of arrogance. With this we have the hophal perfect of the verb nagad — (Haven’t you ever heard of me?). “Was it not told my lord … what I did?” — the qal perfect of asah. Believers in reversionism are always trying to do something to impress God. And because they have done something they assume not only was God impressed, but so is everyone else. Obadiah is trying to gain some kind of recognition from God and from Elijah on the basis of what he has done.

Principle

1. The noble deed of Obadiah is related to social action, personal arrogance, self-righteousness in time of prosperity, human good in his reversionism.

2. The context indicates that this noble deed was not accomplished in the power of the Spirit or motivated by Bible doctrine or the result of spiritual growth.

3. All production of the believer is based on who controls the life, how much spiritual growth is involved through doctrine, and what system of thought motivates the action or the deed.

4. The life of the believer in phase two is not what you do but what you think.

5. Divine production is measured in terms of spiritual growth, which means that all divine production or divine good must result from reception of doctrine and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

6. Production, then, is a result, never a means. In this way the believer is protected from his production advancing the cause of Satan under Satan’s policy of good and evil.

7. Human good bleeding-heart do-gooders function within the framework of an evil system, and all such function advances evil, not the cause of the Lord. The Lord advances His cause; Satan uses believers to advance his cause.

8. Social action is a series of good deeds on the part of the believer which are accomplished within the framework of evil. They therefore advance Satan’s cause.

9. God’s plan for the believer calls for personal growth and advance to maturity through the perception of doctrine, not becoming involved in social action which whitewashes the devil’s world.

Principle

1. Since Obadiah has delivered 100 prophets, he expects the Lord to bless him in a system of evil. He expects Elijah to protect him because of his good deeds. The believer who gets his eyes on what he does never advances in the plan of God.

2. Obadiah performed that good deed for the purpose of being blessed by the Lord. Therefore, Obadiah’s good deed rejects the whole principle of the logistical grace blessing imputed from the justice of God to the indwelling righteousness of God — totally apart from human merit, totally apart from human good.

3. Obadiah’s motivation, not the deed itself, is blasphemous in that it rejects the grace policy of God based on the integrity of God.

4. Under God’s plan logistical support is given to the believer who fails as much as the believer who succeeds in the plan of God. That wipes out works!

5. Logistical support is given on the basis of grace, not human merit, good deeds or self-righteousness.

6. The confrontation between Obadiah and Elijah emphasises a principle: Elijah has advanced in the plan of God but Obadiah has failed as a reversionist.

7. Yet both Elijah and Obadiah are recipients of logistical grace blessing.

8. Question: why? Because both possess the righteousness of God at the moment they believed in Christ.

9. Both Elijah and Obadiah are born-again. One has failed and one has succeeded. Both are supported by the same integrity of God and neither Elijah nor Obadiah deserves anything from God.

10. Yet Obadiah is deliberately trying to receive blessing on the basis of a good deed.

Principle

1. This does not imply that the deed itself was wrong.

2. The deed is not at fault but the thinking behind the deed is wrong. If your thinking is wrong the deed is wrong.

3. Under logistical grace God could have and would have delivered those 100 prophets under the wall of fire principle.

4. It is obvious that the will of God for those 100 prophets was to remain alive. Therefore God could have used any number of means of delivering them.

5. Therefore emphasis cannot be placed on the good deed of Obadiah but on the doctrine of logistical grace and the principle of the wall of fire.

6. Obadiah’s motivation was to establish his guaranteed safety when the Lord counterattacks with the great revival.

7. Obviously Obadiah as a reversionist has rejected the wall of fire principle.

8. Obadiah must continue to serve Ahab for his own personal advance and success in life, but at the same time Obadiah must help believers and therefore gain divine approbation. He is truly a confused person.

In verse 13 Obadiah states an historical fact which he cannot understand because he is ignorant of doctrine. The historical fact is in the prepositional phrase be plus the qal infinitive of harag — “when Jezebel was killing.” This is a historical fact but his interpretation of the whole thing is incorrect — “I sustained them with bread and water.” The deed is not at fault; the thought behind the deed must be faulted. It was God’s will for those prophets to continue living, while in contrast it was God’s will for the prophets killed by Jezebel to die. They were preachers without doctrine.

Verse 14 — We start out with the qal active participle of amar which is a verb having many translations. It means to say, to speak, to command, to reply, to imply, etc. “And now you keep saying” — the qal active participle is linear aktionsart and apparently Elijah said it two or three times.

Next we have the qal imperative of jalak, another verb that has many meanings (all related), to go and to come, to march, to make a reconnaissance, to make a forced march. The we have the qal imperative of amar which this time means to make a report — “tell him.” The final verb, “he will kill me,” is the qal perfect from the verb harag which means to kill with a great deal of violence.

This verse expresses once again Obadiah’s fear-panic ploy. All frightened people develop an imagination concerning themselves. Imagination can be a very destructive thing; it can destroy you if you have fear in your soul. Already Obadiah is visualising being slaughtered by King Ahab. He is assuming that Elijah will disappear and that Ahab will hold Obadiah responsible for not bringing him in. Since Obadiah is afraid of Ahab he also assumes that Elijah is afraid of Ahab, and that once he leaves the presence of Elijah to go tell Ahab, that Elijah is frightened and will disappear. Believers in power politics always assume that others have their same motivation and therefore they never see honour. That is why they go from sincere altruism to evil do-goodism.

When you get down to situations like this the issue is thought, doctrine, doctrine. Doctrine is the issue, thought is the issue, grace orientation is the issue. There is one person who never knows what to do in a crisis and that is the person who assumes that he hasn’t committed a sin in a long time, a person who is in a state of self-righteousness.

It is a mistake to superimpose your fears on someone else. This impugns the motives of others; it also eliminates honour in relationships between people. Ahab’s power to kill is more real to Obadiah than God’s power to deliver. The principle of the wall of fire is not real to Obadiah because he is minus doctrine. It is obvious, then, that he has malfunctioned in the faith-rest technique.

Principle

1. As long as God has a purpose for Obadiah’s life neither Ahab nor Satan can kill Obadiah.

2. Obadiah has failed as a reversionistic believer but failure does not cancel the function of God’s logistical grace; it does not cancel the wall of fire.

3. The wall of fire is around the reversionistic believer as well as around the mature believer.

4. Obadiah’s failure does not cancel the grace of God, i.e. logistical grace.

5. It is obvious that Obadiah is not in control of the situation. The purpose of the faith-rest drill is to put you in control of every situation.

6. He has reached no doctrinal conclusions because he has no rationale of logistical grace.

7. He has no rationale of logistical grace because he has no doctrine resident in his soul. He has no thought.

8. Furthermore Obadiah is incapable of rational thought in reverse concentration because his soul is dominated by the fear-panic ploy.

9. Obadiah’s conclusion is based on human viewpoint of life.

10. The reversionistic believer thinks like the unbeliever.

11. There is malfunction in all three stages of the faith-rest drill.

12. Obadiah holds the second highest rank in the land but authority and power have neither security or guarantee against fear.

13. There is no security in human power and there is no protection in the possession of human authority. 14. Life at best is unstable and insecure apart from divine provision of logistical grace including God’s provision of spiritual food.

Verse 15 — the integrity of pivot politics.

Literal translation: “And Elijah said, By the life [the essence, the attributes] of the Lord of the armies, before whom I stand, today I will show myself to him.”

Pivot politics is the modus vivendi of the mature believer. The mature believer functions under the royal family honour code in our day; the mature believer had integrity in the dispensation of Israel. The same may be said, then, for the mature believer in any dispensation. Where do you get honour and integrity? Not from being sinless, but from being full of thought — doctrine.

Three factors are involved in the operation of human integrity in the mature believer. The first is found in the phrase “by the life of Jehovah of the armies.” The word “life” refers to the essence of God, the integrity of God. An army cannot exist without logistics. There is a wall of fire around every believer whether he is spiritual or carnal. Our security is not in power, not in authority, not in money; our security is in the integrity of God. Both the integrity and the wall of fire combine to form perfect security in the devil’s world.

The second factor is found in the next phrase: “before whom I stand.” The verb here is the qal perfect of amad, this emphasises that Elijah is both in fellowship with the Lord and has advanced to Z radical in His plan. This fact emphasises momentum in the plan of God. He is oriented to the plan of God by thought (doctrine) resident in his soul. Doctrine has become his thought. To the mature believer the Lord is much more real than any circumstance of life.

The third factor is found in the final phrase: “I will show myself to him.” This is his integrity. It is expressed in the niphel imperfect of the verb raah. There are people in this life who are totally trustworthy as believers. Whence comes the muscle? Doctrine resident in the soul. This is our hope. Elijah’s word is his bond.

Elijah was trained in obscurity. God prepares His people in obscurity. What you do in obscurity by way of preparation will determine whether you will stand in time of crisis. Your attitude toward doctrine must be related to obscurity; you cannot be motivated in the perception of doctrine by some desire to be successful, to be famous, to make a splash in history. Obscurity is the training ground, the drill ground, the place where God trains those whom He uses. Obscurity is a wonderful place for this training for obscurity not only has its problems and its pressures but it also has its fantastic testing.

Now we have the failure of temporal government, chapter 18:17-20. We begin with false accusation introduces a false issue. Many times you are going to be accused, maligned and judged. Many of the things that are said about you adversely are not true and have nothing whatever to do with the truth. But every time you are accused it is a false issue. When people malign you and judge you and gossip about you and accuse you about all sorts of things, these are false issues in life. They have nothing to do with God’s plan and God’s purpose and if you stop to spend time defending yourself or trying to prove how wrong they are you can never stand in the gap and be God’s man for the crisis. For in preparation for historical disaster accusation, judging, gossiping, maligning is a false issue.

Verse 17 — we start with a qal imperfect of the verb hajah. In other words, contact is finally made with Ahab and he immediately becomes aggressive in the field of accusation, judging and maligning. People who are wrong are generally aggressive in maligning others. Their arrogance forces them to ignore the fact that they are wrong and therefore they must pass the blame to someone else. We know immediately that Ahab is another reversionist like Obadiah.

With this we have a prepositional phrase composed of the preposition k plus the qal infinitive of raah. It means “When it came to pass Ahab saw.” The very minute he identified Elijah was the moment he started speaking. He takes the initiative immediately because he is wrong; he must cover for himself.

“troubler” qal active participle of akar — linear aktionsart. In other words he is saying: “You are responsible for all of the problems we have in the northern kingdom.”

Principle

1. Weak people always blame others for their personal failures.

2. Ahab is a great soldier but he is a weak ruler. One reason for this is that outside of the battlefield he will not take responsibility for his own failures. He is always blaming someone else.

3. Ahab and his wife Jezebel are the troublers of Israel, not Elijah. This is a false issue, not Elijah. To make an issue out of man destroys the true issue of historical disaster. In historical disaster the only solution: Jesus Christ controls history, the pivot of mature believers, spiritual leadership in the sense of the communication of Bible doctrine.

4. Power politics always blames the wrong person for trouble in a client nation. In so doing it introduces a false issue. The issue is the problem and true solution, not what caused it.

5. Power politics is always looking for a patsy to blame for their own failures.

6. Power politics parlays human good into evil but never blames human good or evil for the devastating results — historical disaster.

7. Ahab could have blamed his wife Jezebel or himself or the prophets of Baal as the troublers of Israel, but he definitely could not blame Elijah.

Principle: Self-righteous types are always blind to the repercussions of their self-righteousness. Bleeding heart do-gooders are blind to the results of human good.

“you troubler of Israel” — How could Ahab say that about Elijah? it must be remembered that Elijah predicted the famine, the economic depression. He came and presented the Word of God and said that historical disaster was on the way. Yet the one who was innocent was blamed for everything. Again, the principle: false accusation creates false issues.

Ahab as a reversionist cannot understand the true issue because of scar tissue on his soul plus his intensified arrogance. The reversionist, filled with scar tissue in his soul, is always seduced by the lie. He possess, therefore, false standards of power politics and the rejection of Bible doctrine.

It is easy to rationalise evil that those who teach the truth are responsible for historical disasters. As Ahab utters these lies he is backed by his body guards, his government officials and a portion of his army which has accompanied him. He is well protected. Elijah is accompanied by no one — that is, no visible body guard, he has the wall of fire. He has no source of visible protection, no army at his back but he does not back down. The integrity of God, the principle of logistical grace, the wall of fire, these things he has learned in obscurity are in his soul. It is thought in his soul that makes him the man of the hour. He is not intimidated by Ahab, by his words, by his attempted bullying, by his maligning and judging. All the power of the king cannot intimidate one believer whose function in the faith-rest drill includes reverse concentration in the area of the plan of God and logistical grace.

The accusation is designed to distract Elijah from the true issue. If Elijah had spent time defending himself but if he did he would be distracted from his mission and there is no way Christ would become the issue. It is quite obvious that Jesus Christ who controls history must be the issue.

Verse 18 — Elijah not distracted.

The historical crisis is caused by human good and evil from the old sin nature, never Bible doctrine and never divine judgement. Divine judgement results from that function of power politics in three spheres: the sins of man here include arrogance, the bleeding heart do-gooders, and the resultant entanglement with known evil.

Note from the qal imperfect of the verb amar — to say, to speak, but here it means to reply — that we get the principle: that Elijah is not intimidated by the false accusation and in his reply he does not defend himself. He merely goes to the true issue immediately: put heat on King Ahab and he will force him into a confrontation immediately. Those who are impressed by the power of God cannot be intimidated by the tyrannical abuse of human power and they are not impressed by this type of bullying. Tyranny cannot intimidate the truth. Therefore the accusation is rejected as false; “I have not troubled Israel; but you, and the house of your fathers … “ He is referring to the Omri dynasty; Omri is the father of Ahab.

“ … in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord ...” The qal infinitive construct of azab means to desert, to go AWOL. How do you desert the Lord? Ahab is a believer. Answer: You reject Bible doctrine, develop the arrogance complex, believe the lie, set up a vacuum, accept a false system of religion.

The Doctrine of Idolatry

1. The commandments of the Lord are against idolatry. They are related to the fact that Israel was appointed as a client nation to God and as a priest nation. It also recognises that they were to avoid idolatry, Exodus 19:4.

2. The Jews of the northern kingdom had violated specific commandments about idolatry, commandments which have as a result destruction of client nation function.

3. Idolatry was specifically rejected in the following passages: Exodus 20:3; 20:23; 23:24; Deuteronomy 4:28; 5:7; 6:14; 7:16; 8:19.

4. The first commandment in the decalogue prohibits mental or soulish idolatry; the second commandment prohibits overt idolatry — Exodus 20:1-6; Deuteronomy 5:6-10.

5. Idolatry also is used in connection with an analogy — spiritual adultery. This is not simply because fornication is related to the practice of idolatry but because it is an attack upon the principle of occupation with Christ or category one love. This is the message of Jeremiah and Ezekiel — Jer. 3:8-10; Ezek. 16:23-43; 23:24-30.

6. Idolatry begins in the mind and proceeds to overt practice. Mental idolatry therefore must precede overt idolatry — Judges 2:10-13; Ezekiel 14:7.

7. Scar tissue of the soul precedes the function of idolatry. No one gets into idolatry without scar tissue of the soul. Scar tissue of the soul is also related to demon possession. Idolatry manifests negative volition, then, toward doctrine and idolatry is one of the sign of apostasy.

8. Demonism and demon possession is caused by idolatry — Zech. 10:2 — so that idolatry is called the devil’s communion table in 1 Cor. 10:19-21.

9. Because idolatry is related to both scar tissue of the soul and emotional revolt of the soul it produces psychotic and neurotic conditions including phobias, the fear psychoses — Jer. 50:38.

10. Idolatry motivates the whole realm of sexual sins in the phallic cult — Ezek. 22:3-18; 23:37-49.

11. Therefore, idolatry brings historical crisis and national judgement, the fifth cycle of discipline to a client nation of God — Isaiah 2:8, 18-20; 21;9; 36:18-20; 37:12-19.

12. In Jeremiah 9:14 it says: “But they followed the scar tissue of their hearts and after the Baals in which their fathers had trained them.” The phallic cult originated with the Canaanites. It also came in with the great sea peoples, most of whom were Greeks. Therefore, when the great sea peoples combined with the Canaanites to become the Phoenicians, the Phoenicians were the leading exponents of the phallic cult.

13. The phallic cult includes the following: immorality of all kinds — incest, homosexuality, bestiality. Leviticus 18:23-25. It also includes demonism — Lev. 20:6; human sacrifice — Lev. 20:1-5; rejection of authority — Lev. 20:9. It is rejection, of authority and social degeneracy that starts the crisis — Lev. 20:10-23.

14. The entire religious background of the Phoenician phallic cult is found in the Epic of Ugarit in which there is a whole system which Satan uses to counterfeit the trinity — God the Father is counterfeited by the god El; the counterfeiting of the second Person of the Trinity is Baal (the counterfeit Christ). Baal always has a struggle once a year with Mot, the god of death, and he dies once a year. This is the counterfeit cross. Baal had a wife’s sister Aneth, who finds his body and brings it back to life every year — counterfeit resurrection. Aneth is also the goddess of sex, murder, warfare and love as they knew it.

This explains the commandments which Ahab under the influence of Jezebel had forsaken.

“and you have followed” the qal imperfect of the verb jalak, to go, to march, to follow. Then we have Habalim — the Baals. And not just one but all of the Baals. What does he mean by the Baals? Why is it in the plural? Well, there is Baal Shamen, lord of heaven — the sun god; there is Baal Melkarth — the god of violence; there is Baal Gad — the god of good luck; there is Baal Hanan — the god of wealth; there is Baal Merodok — also the sun god, the one who especially demands human sacrifice; there is Baalzebub — the lord of flies — the god of oracles, closely related to demon possession and the pythoness Adelphi. Baal Melkarth is the special one, the one where the Greeks found Hercules. He is the god of violence, the male god of sex, and he has a counterpart, the lord of heat in Carthage.

Elijah denied the false accusation in order to confront Ahab with the true issue — idolatry, the worship of Baals, all of the demonism, all of the degeneracy, human sacrifice and the most vile of sexual sins. Power politics had come into the land, the use of violence and the great change. Establishment freedom was gone, evangelism was replaced by the state religion of Baal, while doctrinal teaching was squelched with the killing of the prophets and the murdering and sacrifice of the children of the land. The situation was total disaster, it needed challenging from the standpoint of doctrine.

In time of historical crisis the reversionistic believer and even the immature believer are not up to the crisis in any way. They are completely and totally in a state of failure when it comes to historical disaster. People are never going to be satisfied with anything and as a result there is always that one little magic word used by power politics — change: “What we must do is change it.” But change is always an attack upon the laws of divine establishment. Change plans always deal with the same radical principle: remove establishment authority and substitute power politics authority. That means evil, that means the removal of freedom, that means socialism, the welfare state. That means so-called social security, big government and bureaucracy and therefore little people. It means the shrinking of freedoms and gradually the removal of freedoms so that by an easy transition of brainwashing techniques we enter into a state of tyranny in the name of change for the better. The failure of the Jews in the northern kingdom at this time in their history is a very simple one: believers have rejected Bible doctrine. No to doctrine means scar tissue on the soul. They have built up a tremendous amount of scar tissue which has prepared them for the dynasty of Omri and the infiltration of the Baal cult. For as you say no to doctrine or to the truth you build up the arrogance factor. As the scar tissue factor increases so does the arrogance of the soul. The result is that a vacuum is created in which the lie is inserted. In this case the lie is the Baal cult. In our day it is socialism and the welfare state.

Once the lie of the Baal cult was accepted, then of course, arrogance became the order of the day. Arrogance in time of prosperity results in self-righteousness; in time of adversity it results in self-pity and other forms of self-centredness. The great issue in life is thought, not sin — grace thought, and therefore doctrine is the great issue in life. And sin is an issue as it keeps us from doctrine, as it keeps us out of fellowship, as it places us in the status quo of the quenching or the grieving of the Spirit. But sin is a secondary issue; the primary issue in life is thought — as a man thinketh in his right lobe, so he is.

In the faith-rest drill there are three stages: faith reaches out and claims a promise. This is to stabilise the mentality, to remove the fear-panic ploy. Then faith reaches out and utilises doctrine previously learned. God only uses prepared people and prepared people are those who have learned doctrine prior to the crisis and are able to use it in reverse concentration. Reverse concentration leads to doctrinal conclusions, so faith again reaches out and uses those doctrinal conclusions to control the situation. These are the three stages of the faith-rest drill and this is the failure of Obadiah. The Lord will not permit you to be tested above your capacity but will with the testing also provide a way of escape — 1 Corinthians 10:13. The way of escape is the logistical grace rationale or the plan of God rationale which gives you moral and physical courage under pressure and under testing.

Verse 15 — “… before who I stand … “ the qal perfect of the verb amad, to stand. This emphasises the fact that Elijah is both in fellowship with the Lord and has advanced to Z radical in the plan of God. This emphasises his spiritual advance, his capacity for loving God and his ability to handle historical crisis. This is the third stage of the faith-rest drill; he recognises that he is in a position to be in control of the situation. Therefore he has moral courage originating from the plan of God rationale and he has physical courage originating from the logistical grace rationale. He is able to recognise in all of pressure the Lord of hosts “before whom I stand” .He stands in the presence of the Lord. This indicates his preparation for disaster.

Principle

1. Pivot politics emphasises not only professionalism but personal integrity from objective professionalism. Professionalism is maximum doctrine in the soul, the ability to think doctrine. The one thing with which Satan cannot contend is the thought of the mind of Christ — Bible doctrine. It is thought that changes things.

2. Pivot politics is the true function of the believer in the devil’s world.

3. Pivot politics emphasises the daily function of GAP as the only means of spiritual growth and glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ.

4. From spiritual growth from perception of doctrine comes personal integrity totally devoid of expediency and deceit. Personal integrity is a system of thought.

5. Elijah has no fear of Ahab or of what Ahab might do to him, for Elijah functions under the three stages of the faith-rest drill. 6. By referring to the essence or life of Jehovah, Elijah indicates his use of the plan of God rationale.

7. By his use of the word “armies” Elijah indicates his correct doctrinal conclusions from the third stage of the faith-rest drill. If an army has discipline and training, obeys its orders and has great wisdom and staff work, tactically it comes to the point of victory, which is comparable to the third stage of the faith-rest drill. The army that controls the battlefield has the victory.

8. Elijah has concluded that he is protected by that wall of fire, the armies of Jehovah, and Ahab is powerless to harm him.

9. Because of his correct conclusion — third stage of the faith-rest drill — Elijah speaks dogmatically: “Today I will show myself to him.” The dogmatic statement is both obedience to the divine command of verse 1 and a manifestation of Elijah’s own personal integrity — maximum doctrine resident in the soul. Only doctrine in the soul produces honourable personal integrity. Therefore in verse 16 we note the inevitable victory of pivot politics: “Consequently Obadiah went to meet Ahab and reported to him, with the result that Ahab went to meet Elijah.” Elijah just has to stand still and give orders. He has them all running! He is in control of the situation. In time of disaster only pivot politics has the solution. Therefore the nation can only be delivered by following instructions of pivot politics. If a nation is going to be delivered from historical catastrophe pivot politics must triumph. Pivot politics is represented by all believers in a client nation who advance to spiritual maturity through perception of Bible doctrine — just as Elijah is God’s man of the crisis and has control of the situation.

Verse 19 — the challenge to apostasy.

Elijah’s challenge is found in the two orders, the two imperatives which he gave to King Ahab. The first is the qal imperative of the verb shalach. This is the command which is translated “send word” or “send a message.” The second is the qal imperative of the verb qabatz, assemble. Put out the word and then assemble.

There are two categories who were to be assembled. Category one: “all Israel” kal Jisrael. This would include all of the adult males or what is comparable to the voting franchise in our country. The second category is called “prophets of the Baal.” The worship rights of the Phoenician false gods which were introduced into the northern kingdom by Ahab’s queen, Jezebel, include a temple of Baal and an altar of Baal constructed by Ahab. Through the worship of Baal the Omri dynasty attempted to fuse the Phoenicians with the Jews of the northern kingdom into one single people. In other words, this was a power move on the part of Omri. Omri thought that the Phoenicians were the greatest people of his day. He proposed that his daughter, Jezebel, be united with his son Ahab. The result was a combination and a fusion of great wealth which was helpful in many ways such as in industry except that the Lord punished and caused the great economic depression which resulted.

The idea of fusion was to bring the great Phoenician merchant ability together with the great Jewish business ability and to combine the two into a great state. It would also give a greater outreach for Jewish business enterprise. However, the Phoenicians brought into it all the Baal cult.

The prophets of Baal were often demon-possessed; they worked themselves into a state of ecstasy by dancing and shouting in exactly the same way that the holy-rollers do today. The holy-rollers are connected with a system of evil; no-one has spoken legitimately in tongues since A.D. 70. And therefore the holy-rollers and the whole tongues movement is 100 per cent evil. It is Satanic in nature, even though believers involved in cannot be demon-possessed they are under demon influence in the realm of thinking in the soul. And so just exactly like the holy-rollers operate, so we have the prophets of Baal.

Baal Melkarth of Tyre is the Hercules of the Greeks. He encourages arrogance in the male as the god of muscle building as well as the god of illicit sex. Under the principle of illicit sex, of course, you have ritual without reality which breaks down the structure of true love and romance. The Baal cult encouraged this type of operation.

Elijah asked for a third group which did not show up. It was the female part. In time of national decline women lose both their femininity and their good manners. And even though Ahab ordered Jezebel to bring the prophets of the Asherah, they did not show up. Sex, war, murder seemed to be the principle connotations of the goddess Asherah. The 400 so-called prophets of Asherah were the prophets who taught exactly the same principles of violence that the Thugs taught in India. Jezebel had these people eating at her table, meaning they were a part of her court and a part of her social life. It has been thought that in demon possession Jezebel exulted, enjoyed killing half a dozen people an evening, ripping them open with knives and sprinkling blood all over the palace, so that it had to be cleaned daily by a whole army of people. When it says “who ate at the table of Jezebel” this means they were supported by her, they lived in the palace and they were supported by her. The qal active participle from the verb akar is linear aktionsart and it means more than just eating here, it means to be completely supported — everything that was necessary. In effect, this was the major part of the state religion with the false prophets supported by the taxpayer’s money.

(In the same way today the taxpayer’s money is being used to support the false prophets of liberalism and their satanic projects such as the welfare state, socialism and communism.)

The entire system of religion, then, is designed to exploit the common man and make him the slave to the lusts of those who rule him as well as to make him the slave to power politics. The rules were very simple: you had to submit and sacrifice to power in the name of greater good and the name of Baal Melkarth.

The Phoenicians

It must be remembered that the indigenous Canaanites intermarried with the invaders: the Jews, the sea peoples, the Aramaans. But a great factor in the development of the Phoenician maritime empire was the fall of the Hittite empire which terminated any kind of a threat from Anatolea (Turkey) to the growth of Phoenician enterprise. Another factor contributing to the rise of Phoenicia was the rapid spread of iron after the fall of the Hittites and the proper use of iron by the Phoenicians. In the Bible the Phoenicians were called Zidonians.

The demonism of the Phoenician religion kept the zeal moving in their nation. This system now overflowed into northern Israel and it is this system which is the apostasy of the northern kingdom.

Omri, the father of Ahab, built a new capital at Samaria. Eventually the northern kingdom would be called the kingdom of Samaria. Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal the Sidonian priest king of Ashtarte. Both Ethbaal and Omri were contemporaries who seized power the same way. They went in and assassinated the king and took over. So the principle of power politics was well established in the founders of these two dynasties. Add to this the fact that Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel who was as evil as her mother, became Asa’s grandson and became the queen of the southern kingdom of Judah. So that even though Elijah gets Baalism out of the northern kingdom it spread to the southern kingdom in the next generation. And when Athaliah’s husband died she became the queen regent and she murdered everyone but she overlooked one person, Joash, who was taken out and hidden. But Athaliah as a woman came closer than any person in history to completely destroying the line of David down to Jesus Christ. She murdered the entire royal family and only Joash survived by being hidden out in the desert. The came back to be the king so that the line from David to the Lord Jesus Christ was continued through Joash.

The first challenge to Baal, Satan’s counter evangelism, for evil has been given by the prophet Elijah whose great courage is only exceeded by the dynamics of his reverse concentration. It starts with Elijah and is completed with Jehu. Jehu will Ahab’s final son, Jehoram, at Jezreel. He will kill King Ahaziah of Judah and then destroy the Baal cult in Samaria even though it will continue under Athaliah, the mother of Azariah, in the southern kingdom.

Verse 20 — Ahab obeys the orders of Elijah.

We have the qal imperfect of shalach which means to actually send out the message. The prophets refer to the 450 prophets of Baal. Obviously there must be some elapse of time between the message to the people and the convocation on Mount Carmel. Allowing for the dissemination of the message, travel time etc., it was probably two more weeks before the big showdown. During that time Elijah was protected by logistical grace support in the form of the wall of fire. Elijah was as safe in Israel as Daniel in the Lion’s den. Furthermore, the elapse of time did not make Elijah nervous for he had the plan of God rationale in his reverse concentration and he came to the correct doctrinal conclusions.

On the designated day Elijah appeared on Mount Carmel to face the opposition of the Baal cult and power politics. Elijah represents spiritual leadership in times of historical disaster and therefore a contrast between pivot and power politics. God versus Satan, Bible doctrine versus the Baal cult, pivot versus power politics is the order of the day. And it should be noted that the trump card, Jezebel, was absent. Part of her clever, very evil motivation is to be the power behind the throne, the vile influence behind a weak husband who is arrogant and self-centred. By staying out of sight she can continue to manipulate without being blamed for any evil or violence that may occur. She represents, therefore, the quintessence of evil in power politics. As the arch conspirator she use others to do her dirty work and she is counting on the prophets of Baal to defeat Elijah and destroy him. Therefore, she remains behind the scenes and at the proper time she will enter the picture with great cunning.

Verse twenty-one begins the third paragraph of this passage. Verses 21-24 is the paragraph where we will see the difference between the integrity of spiritual leadership and the idiocy and cowardice of public opinion. Elijah and the people of Israel is the third paragraph and this is the failure of public opinion in historical crisis.

Verse 21 — the challenge to the people. Literal translation: “And Elijah came near to all the people and said, How long are you limping on the two divided opinions? if the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him. But the people did not answer him a word.”

We should notice that the courage and integrity of Elijah are related in the qal imperfect of the verb nagash which means to approach. The King James translates it merely: He came near. What it actually means is that he walked as close as he could to the people and still keep the main body of people in the scope of his eye. So he advanced toward them; they did not advance to him. He has a message to these people; he has an issue to present. He represents the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of Israel who has been blasphemed by public opinion. Therefore he must challenge these people and at the same time demonstrate the helplessness, the uselessness of public opinion and those who rely upon it.

There are two factors for evaluating those who are going to be in leadership, whether it is spiritual leadership or temporal leadership. The real issue is integrity, wisdom, doctrinal viewpoint or, in the case of an unbeliever, the principles that are found in the laws of divine establishment. The greatest teachers who ever lived are not necessarily the nicest people, the greatest soldiers who have ever fought are not necessarily the nicest people. You cannot be so stupid as to simply admire nice people because they are nice. Some of the worst people who have ever lived, some of the greatest failures, some of the most evil people are the nice people.

Principle

1. Spiritual leadership for the crisis, therefore, must possess integrity. That means character and content of message. Elijah has been trained for this and “this is his finest hour.”

2. One man stands against the entire nation which is against him. The King who oscillates between fear and hate is there and is against him. Also against him is a core of demon-possessed prophets of Baal. We might say that Elijah had an antagonistic audience.

3. Elijah is about to challenge the accumulated scar tissue and arrogance of an apostate people. He is going to demonstrate the weakness of public opinion in time of historical crisis.

Illustration: Today, everywhere you turn what used to be a vehicle for the triumph of integrity and courage and honour has now become a system of psychological distortings and used, therefore, to condition the mentality of the public to accept tyranny, and to give up bit by bit their freedoms until one day the public will look around and realise that there is no freedom left.

When Elijah approached the people the situation was too far gone for “Dear fellow citizens” or “My dear friends.” He gets right down to it. “How Long?” People know that there is something wrong when they hear these words. It is a prepositional phrase. We have a preposition ad plus matha which means: “How Long?” These first two words are to blend into their thinking. The he makes it very personal, right from the start: the second masculine plural, personal pronoun atem — you (plural). “How long will you?” Immediately he has their attention because he is talking about them.

Next we have the qal active participle of pasach, to limp. This is linear aktionsart, they are limping. They are limping because they are handicapped, because one leg is shorter than the other, is what he is actually saying — on two opinions, a long one and a short one. It says in the Hebrew “two divided opinions.” What it really means is How long will you vacillate between two antithetical opinions?

What he is really saying is that time is running out. You never get the attention of people in a nation until the crisis is so obvious that time is running out. The northern kingdom is a client nation to God, they have been under three and a half years of economic discipline and right now the Syrians are organising their armies for an attack.

Principle: Until the client nation is straightened out from the standpoint of establishment the military is helpless to fulfil its role of freedom through military victory.

If the problem of the northern kingdom is not straightened out they will be overrun and destroyed and that will be the fifth cycle of discipline. It hasn’t happened that way but it could happen. It is obvious then that they cannot vacillate between two opinions and continue to be a client nation. And since they are a client nation to God, either they must be a client nation or be removed from the historical scene. The only termination for a client nation to God is total historical disaster known as the fifth cycle of discipline. Their must be a change in the thinking of the people; thought is what counts.

Most people today assume that vox populi is vox dei (the voice of the people is the voice of God). Nothing could be farther from the truth. That is why we have television polls, political polls, professional polsters and why people are so interested in what the public is thinking.

One of the most meaningless phrases in life is the silly statement that public opinion will change this and that. Public opinion has never once changed anything in history. Public opinion is the self-righteousness and the justification for bureaucrats and this is why they change things without going through law to do so. It is always change in the most evil sense, that is, change that will involve the loss of freedom, change that will involve the ascendancy of the stupid, change which promotes tyranny and dictatorship.

The public was “limping between two opinions” because public opinion because public opinion is totally incapable of doing anything in a crisis. The public always limps because public opinion is one of the most meaningless things and it cannot solve a problem. Mobs are formed as a result of public opinion and they can do property damage and kill a lot of innocent people; but they don’t change anything and they don’t solve anything. Possibly one of the most despicable things in history are the mobs incited for a cause allegedly just but have been used by some power-mad idiot in order to overthrow establishment. We have had such things under the so-called racial problem but there is no racial problem, it is simply the work of evil people who want to seize establishment power. The so-called minorities: there are no minorities. Technically there is no problem, but you can’t tell a lot of people this because they are propagandised; they represent public opinion. A lot of people are sometimes killed and a lot of property destroyed and stolen in the name of a just cause.

Why is public opinion opposed to Bible doctrine?

1. Public opinion hold that there is no absolute or eternal truth. This is the allegation of power politics — that everything changes, hence everything is relative, and to hold convictions becomes narrow-minded and to stand on principle is bigoted. Public opinion demands the teaching of both sides of every question and that both sides should be taught with out indicating which is right and which is wrong or applying any system of morality to it. This results, of course, in the infiltration of all kinds of evil. In the time of Elijah it meant the infiltration of the Baal cult.

2. A second public opinion pattern is that change is progress. This is a basic theory of power politics. While pivot politics emphasises grace, power politics emphasises change. Grace glorifies God; change glorifies man. Change upsets establishment, it destroys freedom in the name of improvement or common good. Freedom is essential to the function of the angelic conflict but power politics through the false gospel of change actually destroys mans freedom or gets man to surrender his freedom. And while he is surrendering his freedom he is also destroying his ability to think because all surrender-your-freedom programs appeal to the emotion. (Give up your freedom for the greater good!)

Public opinion surrenders freedom for the alleged greater good and the shackles which are forged are far greater than any shackles of iron or steel. Power politics exchanges establishment evil with freedom or non-establishment evil with tyranny.

Scientific change is not the same as political change and, therefore, must be distinguished from political change. Public opinion often assumes that material or scientific change is progress, but they have not improved man one bit. They have not solved the basic problems of life related to the old sin nature’s manifestations of good and evil. Scientific change is beneficial but political change is artificial; it is used as a disguise to seize power and to gratify the inordinate ambition and power lust of an oligarchy.

3. The third theory of power politics and public opinion is that physical survival is the highest goal. This is the attitude of public opinion which resulted in the ascendancy of the Baal cult. It also has resulted in the ascendancy of communism in the USA. The opinion that physical survival is all that counts is a quick way to destroy human freedom. It also destroys self-determination and it exchanges freedom for a system of slavery and evil. Public opinion says there is nothing worth dying for.

4. The majority determines what is right. This delusion of public opinion implies that the majority is right when in reality majority rule is a technique for making a decision. Often majority rule is rule by force rather than by law and therefore becomes a weapon of propaganda in the advance of power politics.

5. Another factor: crime can be controlled by gun legislation. This is one of the favourites and the reason for this is because power politics must use violence to gain its ends. There is always someone with enough common sense or enough doctrine to resist. Therefore the end must be gained by the use of force and violence and to do this they must disarm the public to use or take over the public or intimidate the public.

When a national government passes laws to prohibit ownership and use of firearms by law-abiding citizens, the law has been distorted into a system of tyranny. The ownership of firearms is a part of the protection against power politics and against mob rule. Satan is constantly attacking the laws of divine establishment as well as every category of Bible doctrine. There are probably over 50 million people in the USA who own firearms and only a very small fraction have ever used them for a crime. When you start making policy on the one percent side of the record, that is when you begin to destroy your country. You do not take guns away from private citizens because one per cent abuse the privilege. This is the stupidity of public opinion. Gun control laws never remove guns from criminals, it simply disarms law-abiding citizens and makes them more vulnerable to crime. Killing is a matter of the volition of the soul, not the weapon you happen to have. You can’t stop crime and violence by passing laws against the means employed; if you get rid of one means they will find another.

Antigun legislation illustrates the principle that people are really idiots when they get together with other people for other than social reason. Proverbs 6:9-11 has a statement about it. It describes the public apathy which permits and condones evil, apostate vindictiveness, and antigun politicians: “How long will you lie down, O sluggard [Public opinion]? When will you rise up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest: and your poverty will come in like a criminal, And your need will be like for an armed man [your need will finally need weapons because violence will be the order of the day].”

Luke 11:21 — “Whenever a strong person [person with integrity, common sense, doctrine] has been completely armed [knowing how to use the weapon] he guards his own home; therefore his possessions and his loved ones remain undisturbed” .This illustration of preparedness was given by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and it speaks of the importance of the private citizen being armed to protect life, property, but above all, loved ones. This is a principle of doctrine. The laws of divine establishment demand that individuals have such weapons for this purpose.

6. Another view of public opinion: warfare can be outlawed by disarmament.

7. Internationalism can solve man’s problems. Internationalism is the sum total of human stupidity and power lust in any given sphere of political activity.

8. Change or improved environment solves man’s problems.

Principle

1. The citizens of the northern kingdom of Israel have been wavering between two antithetical systems — “limping between two opinions.” One system represents Satan’s efforts to control the world which he rules and the other system represents God’s grace policy regarding the human race.

2. It is obvious that many of the crowd facing Elijah are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, because they waver or vacillate between their former opinions based on doctrine and related to regeneration and their present opinion based upon the tyranny and the intimidation of the Baal cult.

3. Obviously the solution to the national problem resides with the individual and personal opinion rather than the collective confusion of public opinion.

4. Therefore, the importance of pivot politics in which the individual believer’s attitude toward doctrine is motivation and momentum in the plan of God — X+Y+Z — and the attainment of spiritual maturity, the basis for perpetuation of both freedom and the client nation status.

5. The pivot is the nucleus of mature believers in the national entity in any given generation.

6. The spin off is composed of those believers who are negative toward doctrine, living in one of the eight stages of reversionism, and therefore under the influence of evil. If the spin off is too large then the fifth cycle of discipline destroys the client nation. The pivot is preserved. If the pivot is large enough and the spin off is relatively small then the nation is preserved and in the cycles of discipline (not the fifth) the nation is usually purged of the believers in reversionism, they die the sin unto death.

The spiritual pivot as the issue in preserving the northern kingdom

1. Again, the pivot is the nucleus of mature believers. Mature believers fall into three categories: 1. Supergrace A the believer in his R and R stage; 2. Supergrace B — no man’s land; 3. Ultra Supergrace. All three categories are mature believers.

2. If the pivot is large enough the nation is blessed and prospered by association. If the pivot is too small then the nation suffers divine discipline. As goes the pivot so goes the client nation.

3. Both the pivot of mature believers and the spin off of reversionistic believers are kept alive by logistical grace.

4. During the administration of any of the five cycles of discipline the spin off of reversionistic believers — at least part of it — is generally destroyed. It is destroyed through the sin unto death while the pivot of mature believers, no matter how small, is generally delivered.

5. Principle: Historical disaster destroys the spin off of reversionists while delivering the pivot of mature believers. In this way pivot politics makes a fresh start in the perpetuation of a client nation.

6. In our passage the pivot of the northern kingdom is seven thousand mature believers plus Elijah.

7. The northern kingdom is going to be extended one hundred and fifty more years as a client nation to God before that pivot of Isaiah 28:5,6 fights its way out of Samaria in BC 721 — the Assyrian crisis.

8. In the southern kingdom of Judah, Jeremiah and the pivot survive the fall of Jerusalem in BC 586. This [and point seven] indicates that the pivot of mature believers generally survive.

9. Again, if the pivot is large enough the client nation is delivered either through or from historical crisis. The option resides with the sovereignty of God.

10. Because of the seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal, mentioned in 1 Kings 19:18, the northern kingdom will be delivered.

11. Because of Isaiah’s pivot in BC 701 Judah will be delivered from the catastrophe of the Sennacherib invasion.

12. The pivot is the more important group of the citizens of any client nation.

13. Historical catastrophe is often designed to destroy the spin off of reversionism and inevitably the pivot is preserved, spiritual growth through the perception of doctrine advances the believer to the pivot.

14. The believers in Z radical form the pivot, therefore pivot politics advocates unchanging doctrine for a changing world. In addition pivot politics emphasises the integrity of God and the fact that Jesus Christ controls history.

The postulates of the integrity of God

— these form into two categories: a. Personal; b. Collective or national.

Personal

1. There are no advantages to the advantages without the integrity of God, known as the advantage. The advantage is the integrity of God. The integrity of God can provide logistical grace support for all believers, those who fail and those who succeed. But the logistical grace for the believers who succeed in cracking the maturity barrier is then parlayed into great spiritual blessing which glorifies God forever.

2. If you have the advantage [+R in the integrity of God] you have the advantages — logistical support from the integrity of God.

3. Without the advantage, God’s resident righteousness, there are no advantages in life. That is where we have ritual without reality.

National:

4. No nation can have the advantages [blessing from God] without the advantage — divine integrity which includes the fact that Jesus Christ controls history and God’s grace policy, imputed blessing to resident +R. 5. A nation without the advantage loses the advantages — the blessings are replaced by cycles of discipline.

6. No nation can recover its advantages without the advantage — which means national recovery depends on spiritual revival, not political change.

7. Loss of both the advantage [integrity of God] and the advantages [blessings imputed] removes that nation from history. The justice of God administers the fifth cycle of discipline which is tantamount to removing the client nation status and subjecting the population to total disaster.

Pivot politics relates all historical and personal solutions of life to the Lord Jesus Christ, the living Word, and to the perception of Bible doctrine, the written Word. Public opinion cannot solve the problems of life, either through its collective voice or by the personal genius and talent of any of its individuals. In fact public opinion is one of the greatest hindrances to the expression of genius.

Verse 21 — “How long are you limping between two opposite opinions?” The two opposite or divided opinions are now stated: “If Jehovah is the God, follow him,” the qal imperative of jalak basically means to march. This is a command and Elijah is speaking with great force. “If Jehovah is the God, march! Move out after Him.” The command to march implies authority, orientation to a table of organisation, it implies logistical support outside of yourself and outside of your ability, goodness or badness. You must recognise authority and the first place you must recognise it is in the spiritual realm. The authority you must recognise is the Word of God and until you recognise the authority of the Word of God you cannot recognise the authority of the Son of God.

“but if the Baal” in the singular ha Baal — it means the Baal cult — “follow it.”

Principle

1. To have controversy you must have two antithetical opinions. In this case they are truly antithetical. You do not have controversy unless you have two opinions that clash. (There is nothing wrong with controversy. People can often make up their minds by hearing two opinions stated lucidly).

2. Being controversial is not wrong. Elijah was controversial. (One of the debaters techniques of today is to say: We can’t have anything to do with him, he’s controversial.) If you are not controversial there is no issue. You have to be controversial for an issue to exist.

3. God’s man for the crisis must take a stand for God. This is impossible without becoming controversial. The reason is because it is the devil’s world.

4. Only the Madison Avenue modus operandi of power politics frowns on being controversial. If no one was controversial then there would never be a stand for the truth. A stand for the truth even implies that truth is eternal and absolute and that truth in itself is unchangeable. Only people’s attitudes toward truth change.

5. Unchanging doctrine for a changing world demands a communicator of divine viewpoint. And it is impossible to communicate God’s Word with opposition from Satan, therefore the communicator like Elijah becomes controversial.

“And the people answered him not a word.” For once public opinion has no opinion. That is the greatest thing that can happen to public opinion! Once it has no opinion there is then a chance of getting the truth to them.

Why did they not answer him?

1. Because apostasy and reversionism is stunned and shocked by a lucid statement of the issue.

2. It is obvious that most of the citizens of Israel had justified their compromise with the Baal cult by rationalising that Baal is just another name for Jehovah Elohim. the God of Israel. The rationalisation is based upon the fact that Baal meant “lord” and is so translated in the Septuagint where kurioj is used for Baal.

3. The truth of the matter is that Baal is a front for Satan, while Jehovah Elohim is the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of Israel.

4. The people had been intimidated by Jezebel’s assassination of the prophets of the Lord, by the judicial murder of Nabod and other acts of violence, rather than alerted to the evils of Baal.

5. Rejection of doctrine results in cowardice and intimidation while positive volition toward doctrine results in alertness and discernment.

6. The fact is that people did not answer because the people had no answer. When faced with a true issue public opinion doesn’t have an answer. When they do not have an answer there is a reason for it: instead of thinking they have been operating on their emotions and when they are finally faced with a true issue their emotion won’t work, so they have nothing.

Principle

1. Elijah does not become side-tracked to sin. He stays on the track with the true issue — doctrine or truth versus religion, not sin. Everyone involved was a sinner but sin wasn’t the issue.

2. Religion is represented by the Baal cult while truth is represented by Bible doctrine.

3. The true issue is what citizens think. Do they think in terms of satanic propaganda or false doctrine? Or do they think in terms of divine viewpoint and truth?

4. Religion destroys a nation. It is the devil’s ace trump, it is his propaganda machine for feeding lies to the public.

5. The believer cannot be neutral in the devil’s world without casting a vote for Satan and his system — power politics.

6. When the Lord says in Luke 11:23: “He who is not with me is against me,” He was perfectly describing the situation on Mount Carmel. Most of the believers were against the Lord in this situation. Now, while there is a reconciliation between man and God on the basis of salvation — the work of Christ on the cross — you must remember there is no reconciliation between God’s truth and the devil’s lie.

Elijah’s challenge emphasises the fact that the victory of Satan’s lie in the frontal lobes of the people has resulted in historical crisis. Because the two systems are mutually exclusive one must dominate the other. There is no compromise. The compromise is only in the state of confusion but sooner or later you start to use thinking to make decisions and once decisions are made the compromise is over. You either decide for the devil’s system — power politics — or you decide for the Lord’s system — pivot politics. Compromise intensifies the problem and guarantees the dominance of evil, the dominance of power politics. If the compromise exists then it must be challenged, not by change but by thought. That thought must be the mind of Christ, Bible doctrine resident in the soul. Bible doctrine must be presented in such a way that decision can be made, positive or negative.

In the thinking of public opinion Jehovah has been so identified with Baal that Jehovah is no longer Jehovah. So Elijah is going to challenge that. Jehovah and Baal cannot both be God in the thinking of the people. One is God and the question is: Which one? This is the challenge of Elijah. You cannot glorify God and improve the devil’s world at the same time. The reason why public opinion is absolutely useless is because it is the sum total of satanic policy, whatever the policy may be at the moment. So many believers become involved in the function of human good, social action, trying to improve man’s lot, and they forget a basic system of doctrine in reverse concentration — Satan is the ruler of this world; he does not control it but he rules it. He only controls it to the extent that he can capture the thinking of those in the human race who are living at any given time in history. Therefore the only real guideline we have to avoid getting into those crusades, those functions which whitewash the devil’s world are the laws of divine establishment. This means that basically anything related to freedom and the authorities set up by the laws of establishment are the legitimate functions for our support.

We can live in the devil’s world and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore in time of difficulty and approaching disaster we must be able to discern what functions we are involved in that improve the devil’s world and what functions glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of this is very simple. Doing your job as unto the Lord is glorifying the Lord. But getting involved in political organisations and so many altruistic organisations which are whitewashing the devil’s world, is obviously something which becomes a distraction. We can glorify the Lord in so many activities in life and even have legitimate production of divine good in things that we do for other people and for society in general. But there is a place where we have to draw the line.

That was the problem with the people in the northern kingdom in Elijah’s day — they did not draw the line. And because the believers in the land were caught up in this great compromise of trying to improve the devil’s world and at the same time fulfil the plan of God they were caught and trapped. Public opinion therefore became hopeless, helpless, useless in time of historical disaster.

Satan’s policy

We must remember that Satan is not a part of mythology, he is an historical, invisible creature. The devil is the highest of all angelic creatures and the ruler of many angelic creatures. He is the ruler of this world since the fall of man. He is the great antagonist to the Lord Jesus Christ and being a super genius he has great organisation and administration.

Along with all of this he is a liar, a murderer, the opponent of truth and the greatest enemy that we have. The fact that Satan is the ruler of this world is well documented — Luke 4:5-7; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2.

Because he is the ruler of the world he has a policy for controlling the nations of the world. The objective of that policy is to establish perfect environment on the earth prior to the second advent of Christ. (When Christ returns He will establish perfect environment on the earth — 1000 years of it — in order to demonstrate to mankind that perfect environment is not the solution to man’s problems, but the solution begins with regeneration and is perpetuated through understanding Bible doctrine or truth). The fact that he has a policy is established by Revelation chapter 12 where his policy is very clearly declared in connection with his last attempt to establish perfect environment on the earth. And in so doing he merely intensifies violence and change, for Satan’s policy is power politics.

Satan, the greatest genius of all creatures cannot execute his own policy through a thought system or propaganda. He is the living demonstration that no matter how great a creature is in intellect and genius he cannot control all that he rules. This is why God set up for human government the laws of divine establishment. It is our job to advance to maturity in the perception of doctrine as a guarantee that he will not control what he rules. And at the time that Elijah is about to make his speech in 1 Kings 18:22 Elijah, along with 7000 unknown believers in the pivot, is keeping Satan from control. Outside of those 7001 people, Satan rules and controls.

One of Satan’s favourite tricks is to get the believer thinking he is doing something good, to assuage a guilt complex, or to even think he is helping God and to get him involved in the improvement of Satan’s world. The humanistic activities, becoming occupied with temporal solutions to man’s problems, advocating systems to improve man’s environment, is all a part of his system. If that doesn’t work the inculcation of fear regarding physical death is a good trump to play.

Satan promotes idolatry as a part of the devil’s communion table, as per Habakkuk 2:18,19. And it is this idolatry which is being challenged as Elijah now steps up and makes the second stage of his speech. In verse 22 the truth is outnumbered but not outgunned! The odds are in favour of public opinion.

“Then Elijah said to the people, I remain Jehovah’s only prophet; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.”

When Elijah spoke — the qal imperfect of amar indicates his ability to think under pressure and not be intimidated — he is not intimidated by the King, he is not intimidated by the prophets of Baal, he is not intimidated by public opinion. And he says, “I remain a prophet to Jehovah” — the niphel perfect of the verb jathar which means that he is standing fast. He is standing alone and he ignores the one hundred prophets hidden in the cave; they are unprepared for spiritual crisis. They are alive and well but unprepared mentally and spiritually. They had not faced the dried up brook at Cherith, they had not faced the hopeless situation of the widow’s last meal, they had not faced the death of the widow’s son at Zarephath. The one hundred prophets are not qualified spiritually because they lack doctrine in the soul and their function of the faith-rest drill is limited at best. Spiritual leadership in a crisis always must be tested and inculcated prior to the crisis.

Principle

1. Elijah is outnumbered 450 to 1.

2. Elijah is outnumbered but not out gunned. Here is where he reaches the conclusion of Romans 8:31 and he is in complete control of the situation.

3. He is also using “greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world” — 1 John 4:4. He has seen this tested time and time again.

4. Here is a clear cut case where the majority is wrong. One person is right, everyone else is wrong.

5. In the great freedom heritage of Israel one person could have the biblical viewpoint and maintain his stand against thousands who are against him, without being destroyed.

6. Furthermore, because of doctrine resident in his soul the out numbered prophet does not panic because his viewpoint is outnumbered.

7. Because of doctrinal viewpoint Elijah has the courage to hold his conviction against the opinion of thousands, including the king and the false theologians of Baal.

8. Elijah’s statement emphasises the third stage of the faith-rest drill. He draws his doctrinal conclusions from the plan of God rationale, he is in complete control of the situation, although at this moment he is the only one who realises it.

9. Not for one moment does Elijah even suggest or imply that the majority is right. This is historical crisis and they don’t have an argument, they are through! They are not right about anything.

10. Elijah has perfect confidence from doctrine that he is right. He does not back down before the power of the king or public opinion, or the evil conspiracy of the prophets of Baal.

The challenge to power politics follows in verses 23 and 24. In verse 23 Elijah proposes a contest. Essentially, Baal is the worship of the sun god and therefore it includes fire worship. This is why the sacrifices were not slaughtered first; they were thrown into the fire and burned alive. The noise made by the person being burned to death was a part of stirring up the “tongues” function among the converts of Baal. By using fire as the test Elijah calls their bluff on their own ground. After all, Baal is a god of fire, let Baal start a fire!

In anticipation of verse 24, neither Ahab nor the prophets agreed to the contest; it was the people who agreed. The only thing that public opinion can do is to force to the position of a solution. They cannot provide a solution, solutions are provided by God; Jesus Christ controls history. But they can force to the position of a contest, and they agreed.

So, in verse 24: the challenge. “ … and all the people answered and said: tob ha dabar — “good the word.” Which means: “Good idea!”

The qal imperfect of the verb qara indicates a prayer spoken verbally. The Phoenician prophets of Baal were to call on the name of their god, but Elijah will call on the name of Jehovah.

The best translation for verse 24 sounds like this: “Now you call on the name of your god but I will call on the name of the Lord: consequently he is the God who answers by fire, he is the true God. And all the people answered and said, Good idea.”

Since Baal is the sun god, therefore the god of fire, the contest seems to be fair to the people of the northern kingdom. In fact it seems to give Baal the inside chance. The people have wavered so long between two opinions that the idea of settling the matter by contest seems to be good to them. Elijah’s challenge also implies that the people vacillating between two opinions are incapable of making a decision, a solution decision. Public opinion can put pressure on politicians but it can never make decisions that solve problems. When public opinion makes a decision violence results, you have mob action.

Elijah’s challenge takes the pressure off the wavering people. It lets God Himself decide. The offering which is burned by fire is the offering of the true God. Jesus Christ, or Jehovah Elohim, will graciously reveal Himself by putting fire under Elijah’s offering. Elijah’s challenge is found on a concept found in Leviticus 9:24 — he borrowed the idea from Moses. Jesus Christ had manifested Himself as the God of Israel by causing fire to fall from heaven on the first sacrifice presented in front of the first Tabernacle. Elijah’s challenge is tantamount to a request for a repeat performance to save the client nation.

Vacillating people never make decisions unless forced to by outside pressures. Elijah’s challenge takes the pressure off the wavering people and lets God make the decision.

Principles

1. Notice that the prophets cannot back down without losing face. They cannot back down because this is a public challenge which appears to be in their favour. Not only do they outnumber Elijah but the issue centres around fire and fire is a part of the function of their god, as they have so declared. They burn human sacrifices in fire.

2. To back down would be defeat and therefore the prophets of Baal are trapped into accepting the challenge.

3. Elijah’s proposal has the unanimous approval of the crowd.

4. It must be remembered that the people of the northern kingdom have been wavering between two opinions for some time. Vacillating people always like someone else to make the decision.

5. Public opinion has not and cannot solve the problem of the client nation under historical disaster. So public opinion must always sit back and wait for their cue.

6. It should be obvious that two opinions that are completely antithetical cannot both be right. Public opinion always permits two opinions to run simultaneously as if both were right.

7. The people have been crippled by their vacillation.

8. Elijah has doctrine in his soul, understands the doctrine of divine essence, and therefore has total confidence in the integrity of God and operates under the three stages of the faith-rest drill. The mind must control the body.

What is it that gives you the ability to have your mind in control? Well, you can’t afford to get angry. You have to be professional and use your mind.

Verses 25-40 — the failure of religion.

Religion doesn’t solve problems, it creates them. It creates problems by trying to solve problems, e.g. the National Council of Churches. And when it tries to solve the problems it intensifies them.

In verses 25-29 we note the frustration and the failure of the Baal cult. In verse 25 we have two orders to the people: two qal imperatives — bachar, which means “choose.” He says “You do the choosing, there will be no unfairness here.” At each point he anticipates how tricky religion is! He starts out thinking exactly what they are: Satan’s ace trump. He knew that if he selected an ox and they selected an ox, they would say.” The fire went with that ox, that was their ox.” In the second qal imperative he says, “Prepare it first” — the qal imperative of asah. He had to use this word because how they do it is not how he does it. To him an ox is an animal sacrifice to be executed — the shedding of blood. But the only blood that the Baal cult sheds is human blood, and so he uses asah which means to manufacture something out of something and that is why it is legitimately translated “prepare” here. It means to do, to make, to manufacture something from something. In other words, “You do it your way. Take the ox and present it to your god in the way you do it” — which means tie the ox to the altar and burn the ox alive. There is no shedding of blood with these people.

Then Elijah says: “for you are many.” What difference does that make? Whether 450 prophets of Baal or 4 million 500 thousand, what can they do against God? Nothing! No matter how much Elijah is outnumbered he is not outgunned. Numbers never mean anything; they only impress the stupid.

While the prophets of Baal outnumber Elijah by 450 to 1, one plus God is always the majority.

“call” qara — they are going to do a lot of shouting. Then he uses the imperfect of sum — do not put a fire, [Baal will have to do that!].

Principle

1. Since Baal was the prevailing religious party in Israel — the state religion in fact — Elijah’s good manners gave precedence to the majority influence. Note: Being in command of the situation Elijah does not get horsy or filled with bravado. He has good manners.

2. Under pressure good manners are a sign of poise; without pressure good manners are a sign of thoughtfulness of others. The fantastic poise of Elijah demonstrates both moral and physical courage.

3. The moral courage came from the plan of God rationale while the physical courage came from the logistical grace rationale.

4. Both rationales are a basic part of the second stage of the faith-rest drill which is reverse concentration.

5. Because of reverse concentration from these systems of rationale Elijah has reached those doctrinal conclusions which put him in charge of the situation.

6. The assurance and confidence of Elijah is obvious. He is in complete control of his faculties and the situation, which means that God has found a man that He can use to communicate the issue.

Principle

1. Maximum doctrine resident in the soul is far superior to 450 ideas from 450 mentalities.

2. It is like comparing the genius of one commanding general to the opinions of 450 corporals.

3. It is like comparing the business of the president of a corporation with the opinions of 450 office boys.

4. The power resides in Bible doctrine — unchanging doctrine for the changing world.

5. The 450 prophets of Baal combined their thoughts to produce no answers and lots of emotion.

6. Emotion has no dynamics. It cannot reason, it cannot think, it cannot interpret or apply anything to the situation.

7. By assigning precedence to the majority Elijah makes a point of doctrine: numbers or majorities have no influence with God.

8. Heaven is not impressed with the majority. Public opinion is incredibly incompetent, incredibly cowardly to the point of perniciousness in times of historical crisis.

9. Only weak and stupid people are impressed with majority opinions and popularity polls. What the Word of God says is right, not majority public opinion.

10. Only Bible doctrine has the solution to historical crisis: Jesus Christ controls history, spiritual leadership from the ranks of mature believers, and a pivot of mature believers both preserving and continuing the client nation to God.

Since time immemorial God has used training aids in order to clarify issues of doctrine. One of the oldest and most important of the training aids in the

communication of doctrine is the blood of the animal sacrifice. The “blood of Christ” is always related to salvation. While Elijah told the people that they could cut their animal in pieces and shed its blood they did not do so according to verse 26. The blood of the animal was not shed because it was the custom of the Baal cult to take their sacrifices and burn them alive. So there was no shedding of blood of the sacrifice. They did seize the animal; they did bring him under control. We find that from the qal imperfect of the verb laqach which sometimes means to seize violently and sometimes just to seize.

The qal imperfect from asah is the key word, it means to prepare an offering here. Asah has a number of meanings in the scripture: to manufacture something out of material, to do, to make, and here it means to prepare an offering. This is important. All of the offerings of the Baal cult, whether human or animal, were offered alive, they were cast into a fire. But there is no fire, only an ox tied to an altar to be burned alive. They did not cut the animal in pieces as Elijah will do later on. They did not shed the blood of the animal, blood sacrifice was rejected because religion always rejects the blood of Christ in its salvation connotation. (Christianity and religion are antithetical.) Before the people did any calling they did prepare their animal sacrifice but they did not prepare it in exactly the same manner in which Elijah did. The reason for this is because on Mount Carmel we have the great contrast between religion and relationship with God.

In the use of the animal sacrifice in Leviticus 17:10-14 blood was the seat of the animal life. The person who ate blood would be judged by the justice of God. The reason for that is because animal blood had been set aside as having a connotation in the training aid. In 17:11: “For the soul which gives life to the flesh is in the blood: … “ This is the blood of animals, not humans. The animal’s life is resident in the blood, not in the soul. The animal does not have a soul as the human being does. Whatever the animal’s soul is it is not the source of his life; the life of all animals is found in the blood rather than in the human life resident in the soul.

The soul gives life to the flesh and it is in the blood. That is referring to animals — animal sacrifices for example. “And I have given it to you on the altar.” So the altar was designed by God as a training aid. The altar usually had horns by which the animal sacrifice was tied down. The animal would die by the loss of his blood, therefore the life of animals is in the blood. Therefore God used this as the greatest of all training aids regarding our so great salvation. He used the blood to portray propitiation, one of the greatest of doctrines of salvation. Propitiation is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross satisfying divine integrity.

The work of Christ in bearing our sins is the basis for our salvation. There was no blood involved in the actual saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore we have a right to ask what the “blood of Christ” means. What does it mean when it says throughout the scripture, “without the shedding of blood there is no remission”? That was a major issue on Mount Carmel for one sacrifice was presented with the shedding of blood but the sacrifice of the Baal cult was attached to the altar without the shedding of blood.

What meaning and significance does the blood of Christ have? First, in Leviticus 17:12 where it was stated that no person among Israel should eat blood. The reason for this again is the fact that animal blood does not expiate the soul but it is blood by virtue of the soul which makes the propitiatory offering. By connecting this statement with the principle of the representative analogy the animal blood must be related to the altar in front of the Tabernacle and the mercy seat in the holy of holies.

In other words, the Jews had a regular system for this. The animal was taken to the altar and his blood was caught in a pan. The animal dies because the life of the animal is in his blood. (By contrast, our life as a member of the human race is in the soul and the soul must leave the body before we are dead.)

Now the priest then takes this, for example on the Day of Atonement, and goes through the holy place into the holy of holies. This is the only time the high priest is permitted in the holy of holies. And there is a box called the Ark of the Covenant made out of acacia wood and gold. The acacia wood represents the humanity of Christ; the gold represents the deity of Christ; the box represents Jesus Christ in hypostatic union. Inside of the box are items which speak of man’s depravity: the law represents man’s failure to use freedom and also sin as a violation of divine standards. There is also a pot of manna which is rejection of logistical grace, and there is Aaron’s rod that budded which is the rejection of God’s authority.

Over the top of this box is a throne of solid gold and on each end of the throne is a cherub made out of gold. One cherub represents the righteousness of God; the other cherub the justice of God; and the two together represent the integrity of God.

Now when the blood is sprinkled over the top of the mercy seat the righteousness of God no longer sees the signs of man’s depravity, the justice of God no longer condemns them, and in this way we have what is called propitiation or God is satisfied with the work of Christ on the cross. It is represented by this animal sacrifice. Human sacrifice is not used; it is murder, and anything which smacks of sin is not a part of worship. So an animal is used instead of a human being. And animals die when their blood is removed, not when their soul is removed from the body. So the blood was sprinkled over the top of the mercy seat indicating that God the Father is satisfied with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Therefore, God is ready to impute His very own righteousness to us the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So the blood of the animal sacrifice which was used as a training aid for salvation in the Old Testament is now related to the reality. Therefore we bring together two words: “blood” and “Christ.” “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin.”

Therefore there was no true worship of God the Father and there was no true worship of the Lord Jesus Christ in Israel apart from the Levitical sacrifices. Blood was not to be used for food, it was to be reserved for something very specific, the presentation of salvation. The physical death of the animal was to represent the spiritual death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

In the Baal cult the blood was omitted altogether. They did not attach any significance to the blood as in the Levitical offerings.

Verse 26: First of all, their offering was like Cain’s in that there was no shedding of blood; they rejected from the very outset the very basis for eternal salvation as taught in every generation of Israel. The training aid of seeing the animal lose his blood and die on the altar was a picture to them of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in bearing our sins on the cross.

Then they went on to offer their prayer. The qal imperfect of the verb qara which means to offer intensive prayer according to their cultist system. They say, “O Baal” and then they use the qal imperative of the verb anah which means to answer: Answer us. No voice and no answer was the response!

This, then, intensified their efforts. “Consequently they danced around the altar which had been constructed.” We have the qal perfect from asah which is impersonal, that is, they made a ceremonial dance. The ceremonial dance emphasises the emotion of demon possession, the frenzy, the lack of control, very much like the tongues movement.

Religion

1. Religion emphasises donation. It begs and pleads for money. It implies that such sacrifice brings blessing to the giver from God. But Christianity must never ask for money; Christianity emphasises your mental attitude in worship.

2. Ahab donated the ox and the donation was emphasised. Ahab was a big giver in the Baal cult and therefore glorified. This gives the impression that God blesses these “special” donors. Untrue!

3. We have noted that religion rejects the blood of Jesus Christ, rejects the work of Christ on the cross, rejects His efficacious sacrifice, and above all rejects the principle of salvation by grace through faith.

4. In verse 28 we find the priests of Baal are going to cut themselves. They are going to scream and slash themselves, they are going to go in for the shedding of their own blood but not the shedding of the animal blood. Self-sacrifice is the emphasis of religion it is not the emphasis of Christianity.

5. In the Baal cult all sacrifices were offered alive to the fire. This is the worship to the sun god.

6. Religion worships with powerless and meaningless prayer. Only Satan or demons can answer the prayers of the religious.

7. Religion offers repetition of prayer which is supposed to be meaningful. But not so Christianity. It is not the repetition of prayer that impresses God, it is the relationship of the individual and the correlation with his grace orientation.

8. Religion has ceremony and ritual. The ritual is without the reality of doctrine and the ceremony may be beautiful and appeal to aesthetic sense but it has no meaning as far as God is concerned.

9. Religion has its worship symbols.

The frenzied dance of the prophets of Baal emphasised the emotional revolt of this cult. There was no doctrine, no rationality, just screaming to Baal in repetitious monotony and the insane ritual dance of demon-possessed people.

Verse 28 — The fact that the prophets of Baal have no real thought in their souls results in entering into what is a combination of the tongues movement and the flagellation function. They intensified the use of their vocal cords as if somehow noise is impressive. They shouted louder and they began to go into systems of self-effacement related to emotional asceticism — the hithpael imperfect of the verb gadad. The hithpael stem is reflexive, they gashed or slashed themselves.

When it says “according to their custom” it refers to the fact that on certain special occasions in their worship there was a tremendous amount of destroying themselves in one way or another. Frenzy is a good way to describe it. Demon possession produces various categories of frenzy — sex frenzy, killer lust, self-destruction. They would not shed the blood of animal sacrifices but they shed their own blood by self-inflicted wounds. This was to demonstrate their sincerity. (Sincerity is not a virtue as far as Christianity is concerned) Sincerity at best is a sign of weakness and at worst is a system of irrationality. Self-sacrifice is tantamount to salvation or spirituality by works but it is not the key to God’s plan. Most people who involve themselves in self-sacrifice have a serious arrogance problem and this arrogance problem will manifest itself in time of pressure in self-pity; in time of prosperity in self-righteousness.

Principle

1. Neither the repetition nor their self-sacrifice had any results. God is not impressed with real or alleged human virtues. Sincerity, for example, is an alleged human virtue.

2. Self-torment or self-torture may impress your stupid friends but it does not impress God. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is so that you might be impressed by the truth of God’s Word, not the things that humanly impress you and appeal to your ego.

3. The frenzied screams and gesticulations in the demon dance can only impress the people who are already impressed by penance or auto-flagellation, or fasting or any system of self-inflicted torture.

4. It is arrogance and ignorance of doctrine which assumes that man’s works and man’s actions can please God and therefore bring divine blessing.

5. Arrogance in prosperity manifests itself in self-righteousness; arrogance under pressure manifests itself in self-sacrifice, self-inflicted torment.

6. In principle, these frenzied, demon-possessed impostors of Baal are no different from the 20th century individual who believes in salvation by works, rebound by works, spirituality by self-righteousness. Therefore we have to constantly remind ourselves that what impresses us does not impress God. We must learn to be impressed with what impresses God and this is another reason for learning Bible doctrine, so that our norms and standards will be the norms and standards of divine viewpoint.

7. Arrogance substitutes human ability for divine blessing from the integrity of God. In the process grace is obscured.

8. The mentality impressed by the performance of the Baal priests can neither understand nor appreciate the attributes of God as they relate to the plan of God.

The modern counterpart, the tongues movement, is equally involved. The same things are accomplished under the tongues movement that are accomplished under demon obsession. The demon-possessed priest of Baal lacerates himself with his sword; the demon-obsessed believer in the Lord Jesus Christ screams in a frenzy and goes in for ascetic self-righteousness. One of the greatest evils of our time is the tongues movement.

Principle

1. There were many believers in that audience who were impressed with the sincerity and the self-inflicted torture of the prophets of Baal. Only the seven thousand believers in the pivot can see through the farce and are not impressed.

2. The 7000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal — the pivot — have enough discernment to realise that the whole thing is fake; that the demons do not have the power to overcome divine power and, therefore, will be defeated.

3. The 7000 reached their pivot status by means of doctrine, doctrine perceived under grace systems, and they have enough discernment to reject the Baal cult that has become so popular with the people. Principle: Doctrine not only gives discernment but it makes the difference between being a sucker and being a mature believer.

4. It is therefore the unchanging doctrine in a changing world which protects the believer from being deluded and deceived by the Baal type influence. The same delusion exists today with the tongues movement.

5. The cultic blasphemies of religiosity today are perhaps a little more subtle than the phallic cult of Elijah’s time. But we have the perfect illustration in the tongues movement.

6. But for the grace of God in providing doctrinal teaching, a part of logistical support, believers today would be deceived by the same satanic principles expressed in a different way, more compatible with the sophistication of the 20th century.

7. Only doctrine resident in the soul can guarantee freedom from arrogance and at the same time protection against the anthropocentric idealism of Satan’s genius.

Verse 29 — The hithpael imperfect of naba means to pour out words in abundance. Here it means to scream like a madman. “ … when noon had passed, they continued to scream and rave until the time of the evening sacrifice.” In other words, for the rest of the day the dancing, the raving, the screaming, the self-inflicted gashes continued until the blood of the prophets was mingled with their saliva and sweat in a magnificent panorama of demonism — very much like a real going tongues meeting!

The crowd had a demonstration of the total lack of power when the chips are down. The only power of the Baal cult demonstrated was demonism frustrated, — “greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world” — the power to influence public opinion in their favour, and at the same time through tyranny to intimidate through violence those who resisted the Baal cult.

The impotence of the Baal cult was observed by the crowd for the demons were unable to start a fire under the altar. Satan himself had no power to start a fire. So the power of God was manifest in the restraint of every evil artifice and the frenzied demonic dance of the false prophets. After eight hours it became ludicrous entertainment instead of magical manipulation. For once the crowd was not intimidated by demon activity and no voice came from heaven bringing fire. The crowd, strangely enough, became bored with the spectacle and it was obvious to them the Baal was a myth and that the power of Baal at best was demonism.

Verses 30-35 — Elijah is permitted his “day in court.” He will only need a very short time. The preparation of Elijah is given in verses 30 to 35.

Verse 30 — As soon as Elijah came in he started to repair the altar of the Lord which had been destroyed. He brought all the crowd in close to see what he was doing and to hear what he had to say. He starts out with the qal imperative of the verb amar which is the first time he has had anything to say since noon. Next comes the qal imperative command from nagash — come near, or gather around. Then the action is in the piel imperfect of rapha — to repair.

Now for everyone to hear the message that he will give and to see the power of the Lord, Elijah first of all issues an invitation to the crowd. He wanted to start them expressing their own volition. One thing that doctrine does is to give you the opportunity to use your free will. By saying to the people, “Gather around me", Elijah is giving them the opportunity of coming under his ministry of their own volition. In effect he has issued an invitation that involves only one thing — freedom. And it must have been refreshing for the people to have an opportunity to express their freedom for they had been living in the Ahab regime where there was only tyranny.

“First he repaired the altar of the Lord which had been destroyed.”

The significance behind the altar

1. The altar speaks of the unique work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. The One who hung on the cross was the God-Man. He received the imputation of personal sins for judgement. It is the imputation of Adam’s sin that is the basis of our condemnation. We are not condemned on the basis of the sins we personally commit but on the original sin that Adam committed. Therefore all of our personal sins are saved for the cross and are imputed to Christ on the cross because He alone is worthy to bear our sins. The altar represented the cross long before the cross existed historically.

2. This emphasises that all the problems of life have no solution apart from individual faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. Regeneration must precede national or personal panaceas.

4. There is no solution to life’s problems and there can be no solution to life’s problems until the individual has believed in Christ and received the imputation of both eternal life and the righteousness of God.

5. The altar had been first neglected and then destroyed without opposition by the Baal priests. The people had neglected the altar (they had neglected doctrine) and when the Baal priests came along they had no problem in destroying the altar, no one complained.

6. The repairing of the altar emphasises the issue of restoration of a client nation to God. That is the significance, apart from the saving work of Christ.

Verse 30 — The altar represents the covenants to Israel. Among other things it speaks of God’s contract with the first and last client nation of history. We call that, in the Bible, a covenant.

The doctrine of the covenants to Israel

1. Definition and classification.

The covenants to Israel are defined in terms of favourable disposition. There are two parties in a contract: party of the first part, party of the second part. God is party of the first part. He makes a favourable disposition to party of the second part, the client nation Israel. The covenants to Israel cover two separate dispensations: when Israel is a client nation to God, which we call the dispensation of Israel, that is a past dispensation except for seven years; and the second dispensation is the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ. This contract applies to both periods.

The first client nation in history began with the Exodus and went all the way to A.D. 70. Then we have Israel as the client nation again in the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ. Israel is the first client nation to God; Israel is the last client nation to God. Therefore, these covenants or contracts apply to the dispensation of Israel and the dispensation of the Millennium.

A covenant to Israel must not be confused with a will or a testament. In our Bibles it should say: Old Covenant and New Covenant. It is not Old Testament and New Testament. A testament is a will after someone dies. The covenant is party of the first part [God] making a favourable disposition to party of the second part [client nation Israel].

The five covenants to Israel are generally classified under two categories which are erroneous — conditional and unconditional. Conditional covenant — the Mosaic Law. Unconditional covenants — Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New Covenant to Israel. The Law says: If you do this you will be blessed, if you don’t you will be disciplined. The others are not conditional; there are no strings attached. By very definition this classification is eliminated for a covenant is a contract, a favourable disposition by party of the first part to party of the second part — client nation Israel. When God makes a favourable disposition He makes it, not to Israel but, client nation Israel.

Client nation Israel falls into the following categories: 1. United Israel from Moses to the end of Solomon’s reign; 2. Divided Israel- Samaria and Judah; 3. The Kingdom of Judea to 70 A.D.; 4. Restored Israel the Millennium. That is party of the second part which is a client nation.

The primary issue is grace or favour. Therefore, conditional or unconditional is secondary consideration. All of the covenants are favourable disposition from party of the first part, God, to party of the second part, client nation Israel. The key to the covenants to Israel is the Jewish client nation status, which again eliminates such categories as conditional and unconditional covenants. Once understood under the client nation connotation neither conditional nor unconditional are a proper issue regarding the subject.

For the proper understanding of the covenants to Israel the reclassification and a new interpretation is necessary. All five covenants to Israel are properly related to the client nation. Therefore we are eliminating what we formerly called conditional and unconditional.

2. The client nation interpretation of the covenants to Israel is as follows: 1. The Abrahamic covenant is the race of the client nation; 2. The Palestinian covenant — the land to be occupied by the client nation; 3. The Mosaic Law — the policy (both spiritual and temporal) for the client nation; 4. The Davidic covenant — the dynasty for the client nation; 5. The New covenant to Israel — the restoration of the client nation at the second advent and its Millennial modus operandi.

3. The covenants of the messianic line. In order to understand the covenants to Israel or the contracts we must understand that other contracts are “out” in old covenant times. The covenants of the messianic line is a good illustration. Long before the Jews existed there were still covenants or contracts.

a. For example: the Adamic covenant of Genesis 2:15, 3:15 — the seed of the woman covenant. The humanity of Christ and the hypostatic union will originate from Adam’s seed.

b. There is also a second covenant with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union called the Noahic covenant — Genesis 6:18; 8:21-9:17. The seed of the woman or the humanity of Christ will descend through Seth, the son of Noah.

c. The Abrahamic covenant — the line of the Lord Jesus Christ goes down through Abraham.

d. The Davidic covenant — the line of the Lord Jesus Christ goes through David. Jacob has twelve sons but out of that only one line, specifically the family of David.

e. The New covenant to Israel — the seed of the woman, the humanity of Christ will return to the earth at the second advent to restore Israel from the fifth cycle of discipline. Until then there will be no Jewish client nation.

4. A dispensational review of the covenants is a simple one. In the age of the gentiles there was one contract — the Noahic covenant. In the age of Israel there is the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Mosaic and Davidic covenants. In the Church Age there is a new covenant to the Church as the royal family of God made up of Jew and Gentile — it includes both Jew and Gentile but it is primarily a Gentile covenant. Finally in the Millennium there is the New covenant to Israel for the restored client nation and its significance.

5. The covenant to Abraham — a grace covenant in which God, party of the first part, started Abraham out at age 99 as a new race. From Abraham are two categories of race: Arab and the line of the Jew through Isaac. The basis for the Jewish race is regeneration and like all the covenants related to the client nation Abraham and his spiritual seed are the beneficiaries of blessing and logistical support from the justice of God.

6. The real estate covenant to Israel — the Palestinian covenant. God as party of the first part made a favourable land grant to Israel as His client nation forever. The Palestinian covenant guarantees a Middle East land grant to Israel forever. That land grant will not be fully realised by Israel until the second advent of Christ. The grant was first proclaimed by God to Abraham representing the race of the Jews on that occasion. The land grant was confirmed to Isaac as a second generation of Israel in Genesis 26. It was again confirmed to the third generation, to Jacob in Genesis 35. The land grant was reiterated to Moses as the father of the Jewish nation (Abraham was the father of the Jewish race; Moses the father of the Jewish nation). Therefore, Moses describes the geographical boundaries — Numbers 34:1-12; Deuteronomy 30:1-9. To encourage Joshua in the conquest of Canaan the land grant was confirmed in Joshua 1:2-4. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel confirmed the fact that this land grant has never been entirely given to the Jew in the past, even at the highest point — David and Solomon — but it will be in the Millennium when Jesus Christ rules. This is taught in Jeremiah 32; Ezekiel 11 and 36. The western boundary is the Mediterranean and includes western Turkey because of the phrase “land of the Hittites.” The southern border is the Nile and Saudi Arabia. The eastern border is Trans Jordania and Iraq. The northern border is the Euphrates river.

7. The covenant to Moses. The Mosaic covenant is known as the Law and it is the divine covenant to the client nation Israel. It is addressed to believer and unbeliever alike and denotes a policy in every realm of life including freedom, establishment, including the spiritual realm. The recipients of the Mosaic Law are definitely the client nation Israel only — Exodus 19:3; Leviticus 26:46; Romans 3:19; 9:4. It is specifically stated that is was not given to the Gentiles. Why? Because in the Old Testament no Gentile nation could be a client nation except for seventy years when the Jews caught up on their Sabbatical years, out under the fifth cycle of discipline — Deuteronomy 4:8. It was definitely not given to the Church.

As the policy for the client nation to God the covenant to Moses was divided into three categories: Codex number one — the ten commandments or the freedom code. The decalogue defines freedom in terms of morality, privacy, property, authority; and the basic heritage of the client nation is freedom, the necessity for self-determination, for evangelism, spiritual growth and missionary function.

Codex number two — the spiritual code known as the ordinances in the King James version. It is the function of the client nation under the concept that no client nation can exist without evangelism. There must be believers and, furthermore, there must be believers who advance to maturity. The spiritual heritage of Israel includes a complete Christology and soteriology taught through ritual and oral communication. This includes the structure and furniture of the Tabernacle and later on the Temple, the delineation of the Holy Days, the modus operandi of the Levitical priesthood, the function of the Levitical offerings. Essentially the spiritual heritage of Israel is Jesus Christ, the God of Israel, called Emmanuel, called Messiah, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega.

Codex number three — the establishment code which is known in the King James version as the judgements. Every principle related to the modus operandi of a client nation to God is included — freedom, privacy, health, marriage, military policy (including a universal draft), taxation, diet, sanitation, quarantine, criminal law, law enforcement, the function of free enterprise and profit motivation (no client nation can survive without these), the rejection revolution and the use of violence to gain a point.

The Mosaic Law established both policy and blessing patterns for a client nation to God. That is why it has some conditional clauses in it. It authorises the function of the Levitical priesthood, the Tabernacle and the Temple as sacred buildings for worship and the training aids for teaching doctrine. It authorised Levitical sacrifice to communicate salvation and to make it possible to evangelise. Keeping the Law was neither salvation nor spirituality in itself but the modus operandi of the client nation to God. The Law therefore could not justify, says Romans 3:20, nor give life — Galatians 3:21, nor provide the Holy Spirit — Galatians 3:2, nor solve the problems of the old sin nature — Romans 8:3.

The Mosaic Law was set apart in two ways with the departure of client nation Israel in A.D. 70. First, it was set aside by the incarnation of Christ — Christ fulfilled the Law, Matthew 5:17; Romans 10:4. Secondly, it was set aside as a policy for client nation Israel when the fifth cycle of discipline occurred in A.D. 70. Therefore the Law is not pertinent to Israel during the times of the Gentiles since no Jewish nation can be a client nation to God during these times.

Since the Mosaic Law has no application to Israel during the times of the Gentiles the question arises of what purpose is the Law during the Church Age. The answer can be found under four concepts:

a. A pattern for the Gentile client nation function. For example, how freedom works, the rule of law enforcement, the military, judicial activity, etc.

b. The Law was also written for the believers instructions — Romans 15:4. We derive much of our understanding of redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, and other great doctrines from the Mosaic Law.

c. The Law was written for the believer’s example — 1 Corinthians 10:11,12.

d. The Mosaic Law is a divine standard to establish the reality of universal sinfulness of mankind and man’s need for a saviour. Furthermore, it establishes the existence of the old sin nature and the need for man to submit to human authority in order that the old sin nature does not destroy humanity.

8. The Davidic covenant — party of the first part is God who makes a gracious disposition to party of the second part who is King David. Part of David’s supergrace blessing was the perpetuation of his dynasty forever. And while the Davidic line would continue over 400 years in Judah — BC 1000 to 586 — and would continue for some 72 years in the northern kingdom — BC 998 to 926. This is not the fulfilment of the covenant. The covenant is fulfilled in the line of Christ — virgin birth — in the line of David, plus His resurrection, plus His Millennial and His eternal rule over restored client nation Israel. The Davidic covenant defines the ruling family and the eternal authority of the client nation under the rule of the Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture: 2 Samuel 7 and Psalm 89.

9. The covenant to Jeremiah known as the New covenant to Israel. This covenant defines God’s promises to disciplined and dispersed Israel in terms of restoration. Furthermore, the restored client nation will continue forever and therefore it defines them in terms of regeneration. The old covenant, the Mosaic covenant, is abrogated through the death, resurrection, ascension and session of Christ, causing a new dispensation, the insertion of the Church Age or the royal family of God.

The New covenant, then, emphasises the fact that God has not set aside or cast off Israel because of the formation of the royal family. The royal family, when completed, will be resurrected — the Rapture of the Church. The Age of Israel will then continue. So Jewish failure in the past does not mean that God has abrogated His covenant.

Elijah had in mind, when he was building the altar, all of the covenants except Jeremiah’s New covenant to Israel. In the building of the altar we have the “covenant rationale” being applied. That is why he erected the altar.

1 Kings 18:31 — other rationales also come into view.

Principle from verse 31

1. Israel’s history as a client nation to God is often related to mountain tops. For example, on Mount Sinai the Mosaic Law and establishment modus operandi was given.

2. Here on Mount Carmel Elijah is erecting an altar out of twelve stones, the covenant is restored through the ministry of Elijah. (You see, the northern kingdom was about to be destroyed by the fifth cycle of discipline.)

3. The Mount of transfiguration where both Moses and Elijah were present to verify that Christ is the Jehovah Elohim of Israel.

Mountain number one, Moses received the modus operandi of a client nation. On Mount Carmel, Elijah saved the client nation function. He restored them and brought them back into 150 more years of function before Assyria would wipe them out. On the mount of transfiguration we have Moses plus Elijah — Sinai (Moses), Carmel (Elijah), Transfiguration (Moses and Elijah) — because Moses is the founder of the client nation and Elijah is the greatest restorer of the client nation. The ministry of Elijah was the first great stopgap measure that perpetuated a client nation. Moses and Elijah were on the mount of transfiguration to verify that Christ is the God of Israel [Alpha glory] and the Emmanuel [Messiah] of Israel [Omega glory].

Verse 31 — the twelve stones recognised the client nation status of Israel. The sun was setting in the west over the Mediterranean, it was now moving toward evening and it was time for the evening sacrifice. There has to be an altar and it must represent all that Israel as a client nation is to God. The significance in even constructing an altar is found in Exodus 24:4: “And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning, and he built an altar at the foot of Mount Sinai.” He built it with twelve stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel. That is exactly what Elijah was duplicating on this mountain.

Each mountain must have its altar. The altar for Mount Sinai was built by Moses, the altar for Mount Carmel was built by Elijah, and the altar for the mount of transfiguration was built by the Lord Jesus Christ, it was the cross — the cross must come before the crown.

1 Kings 18:31 — “Israel shall be your name. Israel means “prince of God.” The perpetuation of royalty in the human race is always related to the plan of God. Our daily attitude toward the Word of God determines our function as royalty in this life or not. There have been two systems of royalty: Israel as a client nation to God in the Old Testament and the royal family of God made up of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in this dispensation. Both systems of royalty will meet at the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When the Jews who had been called the sons of Jacob were suddenly called “Israel” it had great significance; it meant that God has His own royalty. Royalty always functions under an honour code. The Jews had a royal code even though they were not royal family. But they were a royal nation; they were a priestly nation.

So Elijah had twelve stones to indicate that even though the client nation of Israel is now divided into two kingdoms it is still one client nation as far as God is concerned. Elijah did not build the altar out of ten stones — representing ten tribes of the northern kingdom — but out of twelve stones. He also was saying something that we need to recognise: there may be differences of opinion about many things in life but where Bible doctrine is concerned there can be no difference of opinion and we must stand together on the Word of God. The covenants to Israel belong, not to the two tribes or to the ten tribes, but to the twelve tribes. The people who gathered around not only understood the significance but they also understood Elijah’s courage in using twelve stones, even though Ahab was present and might take it as an insult that he should not be king at all and should surrender his kingdom to Judah, the southern kingdom.

Verse 32 — “built.” The qal imperfect of banah means that he was doing something physical, it means “to build.” But he was thinking and applying and his construction was based upon his thought. Action that is courageous must be action that is based upon thinking. He is thinking divine viewpoint; he is thinking in terms of client nation; he is using reverse concentration in a special way; he has control of the situation and no matter how many people might have been insulted or taken exception to it, he went right on constructing out of the twelve stones.

But then after he had completed it he dug a trench around the altar, not to defend it, but for an entirely different reason. The trench was described as to how much water it could hold, sixteen quarts. This means that the area of the trench surrounding the altar was as large as you could plant sixteen quarts of seed. Very important is the phrase “in the name of the Lord” in which Elijah makes it perspicuous to the crowd that this altar was erected in the name of Jehovah or Jesus Christ the God of Israel. Elijah is God’s man for the crisis because he has the doctrine, the courage and the humility to make the issue clear. Remember that while we are emphasising the doctrine he is applying and the courage involved, doctrine and courage are meaningless apart from humility, the ability in a crisis not to make an issue out of one’s self. Elijah was completely and totally objective. Humility is the ability to stick with the major issue rather than to make it personal.

This issue is the Lord Jesus Christ who controls history, who is the only saviour, and for the individual the issue is eternal life for many who are there. For the nation the issue is the fact that only the Lord Jesus Christ can deliver that nation. Principle: A solution without Christ is no solution; a solution which ignores Christ is no solution; a solution which makes an issue out of self is no solution. Christ has provided the laws of divine establishment for the nation and logistical grace support for the believers in the nation, plus supergrace blessings for the pivot of seven thousand believers.

Verse 33 — the qal imperfect of the verb arak should be noted here. It means to arrange but the qal imperfect means to fiddle around with it until it is properly and biblically arranged. Elijah is very technical; the Word of God is very technical; doctrine is technical; theology is technical. The fact that Elijah arranges these things in compliance with specifics from the Word means that he is not careless in his thinking, he is technical in his thinking. He knows exactly how it should be done and does it exactly that way. There are two ways to do it: the Bible way or your way!

We also have here the piel imperfect of the verb nathach which means to divide or to cut in pieces, but it means to handle it in a certain way. First, the ox was placed alive on the altar and then it was slain by cutting its throat, the shedding of blood. Once the animal was dead, then in accordance with instructions of Levitical offerings he cut the offering into the proper pieces. Attention to detail. Why? Because it is biblical detail, it is doctrinal detail, and he could think in terms of detail. It indicates that the animal was slaughtered so that the blood of the sacrifice flowed over the altar and over the wood — “without the shedding of blood there is no remission.”

One of the responsibilities of the believer in a client nation is to become familiar with the proper use of prayer. Very few people seem to be prepared to pray properly or correctly or to use the techniques demanded by the Word of God for an effective prayer life. You practice during times of prosperity for times of disaster. The daily function of prayer demands that you know at least a few simple rules before you get started in that direction.

In 1 Kings 18:36 we find the prayer of Elijah stated. We should first notice a few things about prayer since prayer is one of the finest weapons possible in time of disaster. It is also a fantastic thing in time of prosperity; it expresses your capacity for life and your occupation with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It also expresses your effectiveness as a member of the royal family of God in helping other members of the royal family of God. It expresses your ability to understand your role in the plan of God as related to the client nation in which you live. It has many wonderful functions apart from the “Oh God, help” routine.

The doctrine of prayer always starts with, To whom do you direct prayer? There are three categories of prayer received by God the Father, incidentally. God the Son offers prayer on our behalf every day, that is how important prayer is. As God He does not offer prayer, prayer comes from His humanity — Hebrews 7:25. God the Holy Spirit is God and not humanity and He offers intercessory prayer on behalf of royal family of God in Romans 8:26,27.

But the prayer we are interested in is the prayer offered by the royal family of God under the function of his royal priesthood mentioned in Hebrews 4:16. When you approach God in prayer you do it God’s way, not your way! All prayer is addressed to God the Father says Matthew 6:9; Ephesians 3:14; 1 Peter 1:17. The channel of approach is through Jesus Christ — John 14:13,14 — and the power of approach is the power of the Holy Spirit. But you never pray to the Holy Spirit and you never pray to the Lord Jesus Christ, you do it God’s way.

The extrapolation of prayer promises is something you should have done when you first understood the first stage of the faith-rest drill. And of course the faith-rest drill is definitely connected to prayer. The more you understand about the faith-rest life the more you will be in your prayer life because each stage of the faith-rest drill is related to the function of prayer.

For example when it says in Matthew 21:22, “All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive,” that is more than just claiming promises about prayer. First of all your faith reaches out and claims promises, to clear the mind. If you pray when you’re frightened you are not going to be heard. It is one thing to be concerned but too many people pray only when they are frightened. There is one thing you might as well forget and that is any prayer that you offer when you are in a state of any mental attitude sins — these are the ones that knock you out of the box.

Next we note that inasmuch as you are going to direct it to the Father and you are going to use the first stage of the faith-rest technique, you must move into the second stage of the faith-rest technique and this is where faith reaches out and utilises doctrine resident in the soul. There is doctrine about prayer and there is doctrine about many things in the Word of God. The principle is that there are many rationales that must be used for an effective prayer life. Two of the effective prayer rationales we have seen in connection with Elijah is, first of all, the plan of God rationale which produces his moral courage. Then there is the logistical grace rationale that produces physical courage. There is another rationale which is pertinent and that is the essence of God rationale which is used extensively in prayer. You must understand God, at least to the extent that the Word of God has set up a rationale with regard to divine attributes, to be completely effective in prayer.

The third stage of the faith-rest drill is also extremely important and this is why Elijah’s two prayers on Mount Carmel are going to be answered. His faith reaches out and makes doctrinal conclusions so that he is in control of the situation. The three stages of the faith-rest drill are absolutely necessary for an effective prayer life. In time of prosperity and freedom and times when things are not too hot by way of historical adversity or national catastrophe, it is a good idea at those times to “work out” daily in the field of prayer. Your function of prayer in time of prosperity will determine the effectiveness of your prayer when you need it most as a weapon in time of great adversity.

Principles

1. Prayer effectiveness is dependant upon your daily intake of doctrine. (In fact effectiveness in your Christian life generally is dependant upon your perception of doctrine)

2. Prayer is an extension of the faith-rest technique. It is one of the productions of the faith-rest drill — Matthew 21:22.

3. Prayer demands cognisance of the will of God. This goes right back to your knowledge of doctrine. The more you know about doctrine the more you know about the will of God. The more you grow spiritually the more you become effective in your prayer life simply because you know more doctrine and you are applying more doctrine — 1 John 5:14.

4. Generally, prayer must be offered in the spiritual status of the filling of the Spirit — Ephesians 6:18. The exception is the rebound prayer.

5. Mental attitude sins resulting from both carnality and reversionism destroy prayer effectiveness. Mental attitude sins are the greatest enemy of prayer — Psalm 66:18.

6. Efficacious prayer exists to the extent that the believer is grace oriented. Therefore prayer begins to be effective when the believer has constructed the first few floors of his edification complex, which we simply call grace orientation.

7. The eternal decrees must be brought into prayer. For example, the omniscience of God programmed the computer with regard to the believer and out comes foreknowledge, predestination and election. In these eternal decrees God only fed reality into the computer, only those things that would happen. And God fed into the computer in eternity past, knowing every prayer, all of the answers. Elijah knew that fire was going to come out of heaven and burn everything up. Why? The essence of God rationale, he understands something of the attributes of God as revealed in Bible doctrine.

The eternal decrees took cognisance of all effective prayer in time and incorporated the answers before time began — Jeremiah 33:3.

8. Prayer effectiveness reaches its zenith when the believer reaches supergrace status or maturity — Psalm 116:1-2.

The nine reasons why your prayers are not going to be answered

1. Carnality or reversionism. When you are out of fellowship your prayers are not going to be answered.

This is the most basic reason why prayer is not answered.

2. Mental attitude sins. The arrogance complex and the guilt complex are both mental structured sin complexes which forbid effective prayer activity.

3. The lust type selfishness — James 4:2-4. You want to run everything in your periphery! You then bring in prayer as a means of doing this.

4. Any malfunction in the faith-rest technique — Mark 11:24.

5. A general lack of obedience or subordination to the will of God — 1 John 3:22.

6. Insubordination to the known will of God — 1 John 5:14.

7. Malfunction in marriage can cause lack of domestic tranquillity. Where there is a lack of domestic tranquillity the prayers are not heard — 1 Peter 3:7.

8. The reversionistic lack of compassion and grace orientation — Proverbs 21:13.

Verse 36 — “And it came to pass” — the qal imperfect of hajah continues the action.

“at the time of the offering of the evening oblation” — Heb. minchah. The Minchah can be called either the food offering or the gift offering, not the evening oblation. In the Levitical code of five it is the second offering and is called the food offering. Otherwise Minchah is used for any type of a gift offering.

Now the burnt offering is on the altar. It is called olah. This is a dead ox! It is the number one Levitical offering that speaks of propitiation with emphasis on the work of Christ on the cross. The next offering is the one called the Minchah or the food offering which speaks of propitiation with emphasis on the Person of Christ on the cross. He was perfect in His humanity; He was perfect in His deity.

In verse 33 the ox is called olah — the burnt offering. Now in verse 36 we have the minchah. In other words Elijah offered two Levitical offerings before he prayed. And what do you suppose was the form of food that Elijah used? Water!

1. The water which saturated the altar and filled the trench was the minchah.

2. Therefore the emphasis is slightly different than the Levitical offering because it is not made up of food but of water.

3. The ox slaughtered on the altar emphasises the importance of the blood of Christ in the doctrine of propitiation.

4. But the water poured over the altar and now saturating the area, filling the trench, is an additional offering. It is a bloodless offering. It is minchah in contrast to olah.

5. Therefore we conclude with the passage there were two offerings presented by Elijah to Jehovah Elohim or Jesus Christ the God of Israel, two offerings presented before he opened his mouth to pray.

6. The first offering was the burnt offering, emphasising Elijah’s faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal salvation, and that he is approaching through the blood of Christ.

7. This offering is called olah in verse 33.

8. The second offering is the minchah, verse 36. The minchah emphasises the faith-rest function of Elijah which led to his famous prayer. So when Elijah was pouring the water over the offering he was not being a showboat, he was offering the minchah, applying Bible doctrine under the faith-rest technique. He was demonstrating that both the person and the work of Christ are involved.

Elijah had total confidence that God was going to answer the prayer. Elijah didn’t have any food. The closest he could come was water. No food, but water! Furthermore he is going to pray about water they do not have. So he takes water they do have and pours it on the altar as an offering and a demonstration of the third stage of the faith-rest dynamic. Remember that water is short in the land, it is too valuable to throw away. Elijah doesn’t throw it away, he offers it to the Lord. [Like being down to the last dollar and giving it to the Lord — like the widow’s mite]. Elijah is making an offering to precede that prayer and to express the faith-rest drill in that prayer.

The offering of the minchah of the water includes the prophet’s utilisation of all three stages of the faith-rest drill. He claims the promise of 1 Kings 18:1. He reaches the doctrinal conclusion and is in total and complete charge of the situation. He has confidence with regard to the people around him but, more important, regarding the water on the altar — he has confidence with regard to God’s answer.

The prayer of verse 36 was preceded by significant faith-rest application. The dynamics of the faith-rest technique were never greater than what Elijah did prior to and during his famous prayer on Mount Carmel. The minchah (the “evening oblation” of the King James version is incorrect) offering of water indicated the prophet’s utilisation of all three stages of the faith-rest drill. Elijah claimed the promise of 1 Kings 18:1 — the first stage of the drill. He applied doctrine in reverse concentration — three rationales. The doctrine in his right lobe is broken down into three rationales and applied to the situation. For physical courage the logistical grace rationale; for moral courage the plan of God rationale; then the overall picture, the dynamics of the minchah itself, the essence of God rationale. Elijah laid down his faith in a fantastic band of fire under the second stage of the faith-rest drill, the one in which reverse concentration is the major issue in spiritual function. In the third stage he reaches doctrinal conclusions and is in complete charge of the situation.

Principle from verse 36

1. The land is suffering from drought. Not one drop of rain in three and a half years. There are very few places left where there is much water, one of them is the brook Kishon from where they hauled the barrels three times up to the altar to saturate the sacrifice.

2. God is the source of rain.

3. This was divine discipline. Punishment to a client nation in spiritual reversionism — the apostasy of the Baal cult.

4. The Baal cult would never have been accepted by the people unless there was prior rejection of doctrine which produced the scar tissue of the soul. They had received doctrine. They said: No! At the same time the arrogance factor was intensified.

5. Scar tissue of the soul plus intensified and increased arrogance resulted in the Jews believing a lie. The which they believed in the Baal cult.

6. The presence of Bible doctrine in the soul provides the discernment to reject the lie. But the satanic lie is believed by Jewish citizens, whether believers or unbelievers, because of scar tissue in the soul and its accompanying arrogance.

7. So God has punished the client nation with economic depression which in an agricultural society means drought.

8. Water is precious in time of drought. Why would Elijah offer valuable water, pouring it over the altar, pouring it over the slaughtered ox, pouring it over the wood, the ground, and into the trench? Answer: Because Elijah is following the correct procedure for spiritual giving, which is the faith-rest technique. (Emphasis on the second stage, reverse concentration) Principle: We give knowing that the supply is inexhaustible at the Source. True giving is occupation with the Source rather than preoccupation with the gift. Elijah poured water over the sacrifice because he was occupied with the Source of that water. Therefore, for the first and only time in the history of the human race, in the history of Israel’s Levitical offerings, there was an offering of the minchah without food. Water was substituted for food under the principle of occupation with the Person of Christ, motivation and the application of doctrine in worship.

“Elijah the prophet came near [approached the altar].” Now that he has offered the minchah he is going to pray. The basis for Elijah’s prayer is the prior use of the faith-rest modus operandi in all three stages of the drill.

Note: What you ask for you know you are going to receive because of the third stage of the drill which is doctrinal conclusion that puts you in control of the situation.

We have the qal imperfect from nagash in this verse. It emphasises the fact that Elijah went to the altar now saturated with water, a reminder that he was now occupied with the Source of logistical grace rather than the blessings of logistical grace. The key is occupation with the Source, not preoccupation with possessions. This is the first stage in capacity for life. Until you are occupied with the Source you truly can’t enjoy what you have. The blessings always become blessings when we are occupied with the Source, that is when we can really enjoy them.

We also have the qal imperfect of amar which sometimes is correctly translated to speak, sometimes to reply, sometimes even to answer. Here it means to pray. “ … and said: O Lord, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel … “ In this address to Jesus Christ, the God of Israel [this is an Old Testament prayer. It was legitimate to pray to Christ in the Old Testament] Elijah fulfils the principle found in John 14:13,14: “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask me anything in my name, that will I do.”

Remember, John was pre-Church Age. Elijah, as an Old Testament believer, addressed his prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ. We as members of the royal family of God in the Church Age address our prayers to God the Father, as per Matthew 6:9; Ephesians 3:14; 1 Peter 1:17.

Elijah now offers the first of two very effective and dynamic prayers based on the modus operandi of the mature believer, as per 1 John 3:22: “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do the things that are pleasing in his sight.” (Keeping the commandments in 1 John are following the three stages of the faith-rest drill.) Therefore, as Elijah approaches the altar with the confidence that comes from using all three stages of the faith-rest drill, he relates prayer to his own helplessness. All true prayer is related to humility, and humility is related to human helplessness. Elijah’s path to this altar of prayer can be traced in 1 Peter 1:6-8: “In this you greatly rejoice, even though for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various testings. That the testing of your faith [three stages of the faith-rest drill], being more precious than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ: though you have not seen him, yet you love him; and though you do not see him now, but believe [three stages of the faith-rest drill] in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” This is the capacity for life of the mature believer.

There is no such thing as a prayer being answered on the basis of human works. The Father is propitiated with Christ and prayer is answered on the basis of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Elijah’s prayer he said: Ha jom — the day. It is an idiom and it means “today.” Then we have the niphel imperfect of jada which means “let it be known.” The necessity of learning from Elijah’s prayer something about doctrine: truth must challenge the minds of those in apostasy. It isn’t how much they suffer, are hurt, how much they emote. It is, Are they receptive to truth? Right now after the failure of the prophets of Baal they are receptive.

“that you are God in Israel” — the niphel imperfect is used as the jussive. The jussive is the third person singular expressing the will and desire of Elijah. Notice his motivation: he desires that it be known that Jesus Christ is the God of Israel. He is motivated from grace orientation and doctrinal rationales of reverse concentration to glorify God. He is a prophet and his objective is to make known who and what Christ is.

“and by means of doctrine I have done all of these things.” The qal perfect from asah, to manufacture something out of something. Here it means to execute or to accomplish. We can even translate it “prepare.” “I have prepared all of these things.” Elijah’s modus operandi in preparing the burnt and minchah offerings has been the application of doctrine known as reverse concentration.

Corrected translation of verse 36: “And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the minchah, that Elijah the prophet approached the altar and prayed and said, O Jehovah, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that you are the God in Israel, and I am merely your servant, and that by means of your doctrine I have prepared all of these things.”

Note what has been prepared according to the verb, the qal perfect of asah

1. An altar of twelve stones representing the entire nation of Israel as a client nation to God. Its division into ten of the northern kingdom and two tribes of the southern does not in any way diminish the fact that both are client nations and that God recognises their unity even though they are divided by revolution.

2. Both divided kingdoms, therefore, are client nations to God with the same spiritual heritage as stated by the genius of the Apostle Paul in Romans 9:1-6.

3. Elijah understood Bible doctrine. God’s doctrine — “by means of your doctrine.”

4. The animal sacrifice [the ox] is category one of the Levitical offerings. It is called the burnt offering of Leviticus chapter one and it teaches propitiation with emphasis on the work of Christ on the cross.

5. It was a blood sacrifice in the tradition of 1 John 1:7: “The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses from all sin.”

6. He has prepared the minchah, the saturation of the altar, the wood, the ground, the filling the trench with water. The most unusual of all minchahs. A gift offering, a bloodless offering, emphasising the Person of Jesus Christ, the God-Man, the God of Israel, the Source of logistical grace support, the One who controls history, the inevitable and perfect solution to the historical crisis.

Principle

Elijah, like Moses before him, understood and appreciated the essence of God. In the vocative which begins his prayer, Elijah addresses God on the

basis of His revelation to Moses at the burning bush — Exodus 3:14,15 — “I am who I am.” “Therefore he said, You will communicate to the people of Israel, I am hath sent me to you. Also God again said to Moses, Thus you will communicate to the people of Israel, Jehovah, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me to you: this is my name forever, therefore this is my memorial name from generation to generation.”

Note that Elijah used the memorial name in his prayer, but he changed Jacob to Israel. Significance: he is recognising that only Jesus Christ who controls history can bring the client nation of Israel out of its historical catastrophe and back into its true modus operandi as a priest nation. In every generation those believers who advance in the plan of God must understand the qal imperfect of hajah as used at the burning bush — “I am” and then He put in asher — the relative pronoun “who.” “I am who I am” — Jehovah. This is the name for Jesus Christ as the God of Israel and it relates to the covenants of Israel.

Verse 37 — the prayer continues with a rather strange phrase: the qal imperative from ana is repeated with the vocative of the sacred tetragrammaton in between. Following the principle that already Elijah has applied in toto the doctrine of the burning bush to this situation ["I am who I am” — the verb to be is doubled and in between is the relative pronoun] he says: “Answer Adonai Jehovah, answer.” The doubling of the verb is perfection or intensification, and perfect existence is God. When Elijah did that he showed that he was applying the essence of God rationale. He had used reverse concentration and gone all of the way back to the burning bush. He had taken the phraseology of the burning bush and in place of the relative pronoun he had taken asher out and replaced asher with the person to whom it referred, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why did he want an answer? The qal imperfect of the verb jada, again in the jussive expressing prayer motivation and the desire of Elijah in making this petition. We translate it: “that this people may know.” What? “that you, O Jehovah, are the God [of Israel].” Next comes the hiphil perfect of sabab. In the qal stem it means to turn one’s self or to turn on a hinge. In the niphel stem it means to be changed. In the hithpael stem it means to change one’s self. In the puel it means to surround. In the hiphil stem which is used here it means to cause to turn, to cause to change. With it we have an adverb which means “backwards” or “back again” to a client nation function. The word “heart” leb referring to the right lobe. With it we have the third masculine plural suffix referring to the citizens of the northern kingdom.

Translation: “Answer me, O Jehovah, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Jehovah, are Elohim, and you have caused their right lobes to turn backwards.”

Progress is going back! Historical crisis is never resolved by going forward, it is by going back to what is right, the laws of divine establishment and their function.

Principle

1. In contrast to the all-day scream-out, the holy roller “tongues” crowd of the Baal cult, Elijah offers a short prayer.

2. It took Elijah only a short prayer to Jehovah Elohim, the God of Israel, to get the job done.

3. Why? Because Elijah is long on doctrine. When you are long on doctrine it means your public prayers are short. You’ve done your homework, which is the application of doctrine to what you are praying.

4. Long prayers in public are often a manifestation of too little doctrine. People are reaching out for something but they haven’t the doctrine to cover it. Short prayers often reveal much doctrine and accurate prayer.

5. Elijah had learned the lesson that the battle is the Lord’s .It was not Elijah’s ministry but the Lord’s ministry. As Elijah said in the previous verse he is merely His servant.

6. Without humility it is impossible to be the Lord’s servant.

7. The Lord’s servant must have no illusions about himself, no ignorance of divine policy and plan, no preoccupation with the things of this life and ignoring the integrity of God.

8. The motivation of Elijah’s prayer is the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ: “that you, Jehovah, are the Elohim of Israel, and you have changed their right lobes back again.”

9. This prayer, therefore, rejects any personal interest and petitions for the glory of the Lord. Please note that Elijah is occupied with the Source and therefore not obsessed with the disaster.

The categories of people on Mount Carmel at the time of Elijah’s great message and demonstration of the power of God are relatively simple. First of all, the large crowd from all over northern Israel was divided categorically by their attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ, called Jehovah Elohim, the God of Israel. Those who believed in Him had eternal life; those who rejected Him had eternal condemnation. The crowd was, then, divided into believer and unbeliever. However, there was a vast difference between those who were believers. There were some who were in reversionism or apostasy; there were some who had advanced all of the way to maturity under the principle of the plan of God — X+Y+Z. Many of the believers who were on that hill were in a state of apostasy and reversionism but they are still alive and therefore God still has a purpose for their lives. Obviously this would be a great challenge for them.

Verse 37 — “that this people may know.” You cannot make people do something that is contrary to the principle of freedom. Jada means to know, to learn, one of the greatest attributes in Christianity today, the principle of knowing doctrine, understanding the attributes and the plan of God and all that operates within the framework of God’s policy of grace. This is extremely important to understand and appreciate and, therefore, he indicates his objective is not to force them into anything. Freedom is the issue, self -determination. But you can give information on which to make a decision.

The objective of the local church today is to teach doctrine, to give you information so that you can make your decisions. As a believer you can make decisions about many things in life. You know what is right and you know what is wrong from doctrine, the rest is up to you. You have freedom and privacy, and opportunity therefore to make your own decisions. And what Elijah wants the people to do is to understand the issue so that they can make their decisions. Therefore the qal imperfect of jada expresses the prayer motivation and the desire of Elijah in making this petition.

“that you, O Jehovah, are the God of Israel” — we have the personal pronoun referring to the Lord Jesus Christ, atah, which is extremely important; “that you (only you)” a reference to Jesus Christ as the God of Israel. He is the only saviour; He is the One who sponsors the client nation. Without the Lord Jesus Christ we have no hope. As individuals there is no salvation apart from faith in Christ. Jesus Christ controls history and without Him we have no chance of survival.

Next comes a verb, the hiphil perfect of sabab which means to cause to change — “and you have changed their right lobes — leb, the place where Bible doctrine can be used and applied — back again [to client nation status].”

Verse 38 — the answer from God.

The qal imperfect of naphal — to fall. It also means to come suddenly from top or above to the bottom. It means to come out of the sky.

“the fire of Jehovah fell” means that it came from topside. The qal imperfect of akal means to eat. However, we would use it in the sense of to burn. But it means that the fire completely destroyed and therefore we will translate it “and consumed the burnt offering” .And then the piel perfect of the verb lachaq means to lick up or evaporate. The fire actually consumed the stones.

The Fire

1. Fire is the emblem of God’s judgement. It should have fallen on King Ahab, the prophets of Baal, all of the people who were apostate and who were guilty of the national problem at the moment. But the fire did not fall on those who were guilty.

2. Instead, the fire fell on the unoffending bullock. The bullock had not done anything wrong; it was absolutely guiltless. This is a wonderful picture of the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. All of the sins of the human race from Adam down through the Millennium were imputed to Christ on the cross and judged. The perfect God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, was made sin for us. Now that bullock on the altar — the fire struck the bullock, a beautiful picture of our personal sins being imputed to Christ on the cross and judged at that time. The judgement did not come to us for our sins, it came to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was our substitute and He took our place.

3. This is a picture of the judgement of the cross. Judgement on the cross, by the way, should have fallen on the Pharisees, on the Roman soldiers, the mob who mobbed our Lord. But Christ received the judgement from heaven.

4. Our sins were imputed to Christ on the cross and judged. This is the basis of our eternal salvation and this was illustrated in our Lord’s answer on Mount Carmel.

5. Therefore, the fire of the Lord not only consumed the burnt offering, which speaks of propitiation, but obviously the stones of the altar and the wood. It fell upon everything there which had been saturated with water [the minchah].

6. The miracle was, in effect, a double miracle. First, the fire came from God; that was a miracle. Then it consumed what ordinary fire does not destroy — stone, dust, and water. The supernatural fire, then, was a demonstration of the omnipotence of God which was obvious in the miracle.

7. Supernatural fire was a demonstration of the integrity of God as well. Not only was the miracle an answer to Elijah’s prayer but an imputation of blessing to mature Elijah. This was one of his supergrace blessings.

Verse 39 — the response of the people.

They had to see something, they couldn’t learn doctrine. The qal imperfect of raah indicates the fact that they saw it. The imperfect means that different people saw different things and were impressed with different things.

With that we have naphal the fire fell from heaven and the people fell on their faces. The qal imperfect of amar indicates the verbalising of their thoughts — “Jehovah, he is the God.”

Principle

1. Public opinion can acknowledge what is true or what is false, but public opinion cannot solve any historical crisis.

2. Because the people said, “The Lord, he is God” this did not make Jehovah the true God. Public opinion didn’t add anything to His deity, He was always there. Had the people responded to doctrinal teaching from the prophets in the first place they would not have needed either the historical crisis or the miracle in the second place. What they say is extremely superficial. They simply recognise that Jehovah Elohim is truly God rather than Baal.

Verse 40 — the error of Elijah.

This was the thing that, at least temporarily, ruined Elijah’s ministry. Elijah suddenly has great authority and anything he says the people will do.

Note the qal imperative of tapas — to capture, to seize violently. Immediately he is misusing his new authority over the people and giving the wrong command. He advocates violence when the issue is thought, not violence. The issue is doctrine and freedom. You must have freedom to make a decision. The people have seen the power of God and have made a decision, now lets move on with doctrine. The issue is not violence.

Next we have the niphel imperfect of malat which means to be delivered. Here is means to escape: let no one escape. The people responded immediately to the authority of Elijah. Elijah is in charge and as soon as has this authority he makes the greatest mistake that anyone can in any type of a coup de tat — use violence against those who are on the other side. The moment you use violence you have destroyed your cause. The cause must be in the heart, in the soul, in the thinking of the individual. It must be accomplished with persuasion, it must be presented through doctrine.

Elijah ruined his cause immediately. These men had already been discredited. Now having been discredited he does them a favour, making them honourable again and making martyrs out of them by their execution.

Next we have the qal imperfect of the verb shachat which means to slaughter. Principle: God has solved the problem. Note that the divine solution requires the function of volition under conditions of freedom. Violence destroys freedom. Freedom is the status of human volition, the uncaused cause of human function [live and let live principle]. Freedom is legitimate determination, exemption from the necessity of self-fulfilment, the privilege of franchise in the human race. Freedom is also exemption from arbitrary control and Elijah has just established arbitrary control.

Freedom is not a principle in itself but it is a principle related to privacy. You cannot have freedom unless you have privacy. Also you cannot have freedom without property. And you cannot have freedom without the umbrella of authority. Therefore the laws of divine establishment which define authority in terms of the judge on the bench, the police officer on the corner, the military to protect that freedom, the function of legitimate government regardless of the style of government. There must be a legitimate system of authority.

So we have privacy as the environment for freedom, property is what is legitimately acquired or possessed by the individual in freedom, and that includes the principle of free enterprise and the principle of profit. The umbrella of authority is the power delegated by God to command, to train, to prepare for life, to employ, to teach, to act as an agent or a principle for a nation, state, county or a city. Authority includes parents over the children, husband over the wife, teacher over the student, the coach over the athlete, etc.

Freedom and equality cannot coexist! Freedom can neither guarantee nor manufacture equality in the human race. Some use freedom to advance under the principle of self-determination and some use freedom to retrogress and the point is you are free to go either way. This is true of the believer whose attitude toward doctrine determines whether he will advance to maturity or retrogress to the eight different stages of reversionism or apostasy. Remember that heaven is a perfect place and there are going to be great differences in heaven. Some are going to have great rewards with their resurrection body and some are going to have no rewards with their resurrection body, and that is determined by the use of their volition in time. So that heaven which is a perfect place has inequality! Equality is not a virtue; inequality is the function of freedom. Freedom is a reality and equality is a myth.

Equality, then, becomes the device of the arrogant, the disoriented, the sociopath. Freedom is the motivation of the grace-oriented and freedom means live and let live. Forced equality is not only the policy of tyrants but it is the basis for Satan’s eschatological cosmos diabolicus — his pseudo Millennium. Freedom is the policy of God in the creation of the human race to resolve the older angelic conflict. Freedom is dogmatic and inflexible about the essentials of life and reality, while flexible and pliable regarding the nonessentials. Therefore freedom is both common sense and orientation to reality, which includes respect for privacy, respect for the property, respect for authority under the divine institutions.

Freedom must have content and that content is spiritual as revealed in the Word of God. Under the laws of divine establishment freedom and authority therefore are mated. You cannot have freedom without authority; you cannot have authority without freedom. Freedom without authority is anarchy; authority without freedom is tyranny. Freedom without authority of doctrine is antinomianism; authority without freedom is legalism.

Elijah has just violated this principle. The people of their own free will have surrendered authority to him, and he has just abused that authority to wipe out his enemies. The fact that they are enemies of God — all right. But God has demonstrated on that day the fallacy of the Baal cult. How does Elijah know that some of those prophets might not believe in Christ somewhere down the line. They have seen the miracle, they have seen the manifestation of divine power. The worst thing you can do after you have won the battle is to turn and use violence. It means you are no more capable than those you have replaced.

The principle is that God has already solved the problem. The divine solution required the function of volition under conditions of freedom. The people exercised their free will and they got down on their faces and chose — and verbalised their choice. That immediately gave Elijah the authority he needed for Bible teaching, for doctrine is necessary after the beginning of revival. But he threw it away by personally getting petty.

Elijah added to the divine solution by the use of violence. His prayer was as far as he should have gone. Violence in this case rejects both volition and the function of human freedom. God in His perfect justice has a right to command the slaughter of the false prophets. There was no such command given. The victory has already been won and there is no doubt as to the worthiness of these false prophets to be slaughtered, but remember that killing people or slaughtering is only justified under certain conditions — killing the enemy in battle and capital punishment after the proper jurisprudence in a courtroom. This action seems to be precipitous, completely and totally unnecessary as an action on the part of Elijah. The slaughter of those 450 false prophets did not stop the Baal cult in the northern kingdom. As a matter of fact they had already been discredited and the follow up necessary was not violence but the communication of truth. As a matter of fact the action may have perpetuated the Baal cult slightly by making martyrs out of the wrong people. There are still, by the way, Jezebel’s 400 prophets of the Asherah and there will be replacements for these false prophets. The martyrdom simply prolonged the Baal cult. Better to let the 450 prophets live since they had actually seen the miracle and since they would also have been impressed with the power of God and perhaps even some of them would come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But there are at least four reasons why they should have been permitted to live

1. It would give them the opportunity of believing in Christ, as such a demonstration of divine power on Mount Carmel certainly would bring people around to this position. That is a part of the principle of revival.

2. It would have intimidated them and even removed them from the scene without making martyrs of them. When evil people are martyred they are glorified by humanity.

3. It would have neutralised the wrath and vengeance of Jezebel who will seek to get rid of Elijah.

4. It opened the door for more violence where violence was not needed and where violence could not solve the problem. Furthermore, it caused Elijah to leave the function of pivot politics, where all of the solutions reside, and become a part of the structure of power politics. It is power politics which uses violence to accomplish its objective. So if Elijah had left the 450 prophets in the Lord’s hands then the sovereignty of God would have remained the issue in the disposal of these false prophets.

Principle

1. There is no indication that it was God’s will to destroy the 450 prophets of Baal.

2. All Elijah did was to open the door for the justification of more violence. Society degenerates when society does not function on the basis of the authority of law. That means several things: an honourable function of law enforcement, the correct courtroom procedures carried out by judges, especially in the laws of evidence.

3. Violence simply does not solve the problem. In fact violence intensifies the problem and confuses the true issue.

4. Violence is also a rejection of the function of establishment principles of government to resolve problems. Violence says, in effect, that freedom can’t do the job.

5. At the moment that Elijah gave the fatal command which resulted in the death of the 450 prophets of Baal he departed from the plan of God by exchanging his humility for arrogance, his hopeless situation for self-righteousness. It was his own personal self-righteous reaction.

6. It was a self-righteous, therefore arrogant, act of Elijah when he ordered the death of the 450 prophets. He set back the revival for a few years until Elisha would take his place.

7. God’s righteousness had perfectly solved the problem; man’s self-righteousness can only confuse the issue. The lesson being: if God is going to us be sure to stay out of His way. Don’t intrude with self-righteousness.

8. When Elijah proposed the contest on Mount Carmel he did not include any statement or inference or even a reference to the fact that losers must die.

9. In a moment of great victory the believer is most vulnerable to defeat, and often defeats come out of great victory.

10. The defeat comes through arrogance which produces self-righteousness in prosperity.

11. Here we see Elijah’s self-righteousness. In the next chapter we will see his self-pity. Once the believer exchanges humility for arrogance he becomes weak, vulnerable, vacillating, and courage is replaced by cowardice.

Elijah has made his first, but not his last, mistake. Keep it simple is always the principle. Only do what God commands; never add your own little refinements to the plan of God to confuse the issue. In other words, never muddy up the water with arrogant innovations — which is exactly what Elijah did.

The results of this error are not apparent on Mount Carmel but within 24 hours the results will become obvious to the entire nation. God’s Word specifies when violence is to be used to solve problems.

Verses 41-46 — the failure of the politician.

The personal results to Elijah are found in the next chapter. By resorting to violence he switches from pivot to power politics and consequently will become intimidated by power politics. (In power politics there is always someone who has more power and who can intimidate you when you have intimidated others) Jezebel’s threat of violence to Elijah will cause him to run away.

Principle of doctrine by way of introduction to the final paragraph

The theology of God’s perfect plan.

1. Definition and description: God is perfect, therefore anything that God does is perfect, therefore God’s plan is perfect. Perfect God can only produce a perfect plan. Even for sinful and imperfect people such as mankind God’s plan is perfect even though we fail in many ways. The perfect plan of God cannot be divorced from the perfect essence of God and therefore certain divine attributes must be understood before the plan of God can be appreciated.

The function of the essence of God in planning and in executing the plan of God requires that certain doctrines be understood. For example, God planned the solution to the historical crisis in northern Israel. God’s plan was perfect. Elijah handled it perfectly as long as Elijah remained in a state of humility and recognised his total helplessness and total dependence on the power of God. But as soon as he received some human authority for himself he went to pieces.

Inasmuch as the will of mankind is an instrument created by God for the execution of His own plan, human volition whether positive or negative, must serve the divine purpose rather than hinder it. Elijah made perfect decisions all along the way because he was a mature believer. But once he saw the victory and once he himself was impressed by the power of God, even though he had stated that he was there to glorify God, he took a piece of the action and claimed it for himself. Therefore we need to look at some of the reasons for man’s failure to execute the plan of God. Why does man fail? Why does he operate beautifully and then come suddenly to a dead end?

2. In the second stage of the faith-rest function, the application of doctrine to the situation, the doctrine is in the right lobe, it was learned by concentration, it is applied by reverse concentration. One of the principles that must be applied is the sovereignty of God. God is a Person; His personality connotes His self-consciousness, His self-determination. God recognises Himself as a Person and as such He thinks, He decides and He acts rationally. The sovereignty of God is bound up in the self-determination as well as the decrees of God. God is the supreme Being of the universe and He exists in three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, each Person having the same amount of sovereignty so that each Person of the divine Trinity is coequal and coeternal. The sovereignty of God is His absolute dominion over His created things. All things depend on the will of God and, therefore, the sovereignty of God. Nothing is certain apart from the will of God. Sovereignty is the power and the prerogative of God as the creator over the creature, as the Saviour over the regenerate, as the Ruler over the positive believer and as the disciplinarian over the negative believer. God is absolute authority and to the extent that we remain under His authority and never lose track of it when we are making application to life, we are perfectly safe. In any authority that we possess, inevitably we must recognise the Source of authority just as we recognise the Source of everything that we have.

The sovereignty or the authority of God is manifest as creator. He has authority over creation, whether it is animate or inanimate. As Redeemer He has authority over all categories of believer. As the Source of blessing He has both authority and the right to impute blessing in time as well as in eternity to certain believers who execute the plan of God to attainment of spiritual maturity, and then fulfil the will of God in life.

God’s authority, then, extends to both possible things and actual things. Over possible things God is sovereign in that He leaves them only as possible and not as actual, or destines them to be yet future. In this, therefore, God renders no account to others but He acts in agreement with His perfect being. With regard to existing things God is the final and the absolute authority.

3. The will of God. In life there is one all-inclusive will and purpose of God concerning all that ever was or ever will be. This will and purpose originates within God Himself and is perfectly compatible with His own attributes. God knows Himself perfectly and understands His own attributes. Being perfect God and having always existed, and understanding His attributes and how they work, He has therefore a perfect will. The will of God is objectively designed for His glory and even for His pleasure and satisfaction. And it could not be otherwise, due to His perfect essence.

Since there are three Persons in the Trinity the divine will and actions of God within the Godhead are imminent, intrinsic and subjective.

The will of God related to creation is exactly the antithesis of the will of God within the Godhead, for you have imminence within the Godhead, for you have intrinsic values and perfect subjectivity, inasmuch as each member of the Godhead has a perfect love for the other members. But when the will of God is related to creatures like ourselves then you have an extrinsic rather than an imminent concept. In other words outside of God the creature volition is invented and is recognised for its failures and its success. All decisions must be free. God cannot coerce the creature, there is no voice that says: “Don’t do it Elijah, it is not my will” .That is totally outside of the plan of God and the perfect function of God. Once He gives a creature freewill, as He has to all of us, then that freewill must operate. The only motivation for moving forward must be the thought and the motivation of doctrine that the individual has learned through positive volition and submitting to the authority of the communicator. That is all; that is the sum total of it. Therefore, once again, the importance of Bible doctrine.

But this is not time to be talking about the importance of Bible doctrine since Elijah knew more doctrine than any of us. It was his neglect of doctrine and the intrusion of the authority principle leading to arrogance that was so devastating in his life. He had doctrine right there one moment and the next moment it was all gone and he became a monster.

So the will of God related to the creature is extrinsic. It is also transient — i.e. chronological. Events must function in their sequence; cause and effect must be related to time. It is very difficult for us to understand that there is no time where God is concerned. A day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day to the Lord. But to us, He has placed us in a game, as it were, that has boundaries. God had to place us in an environment and the first part of our environment is not this world but time. But we must remember that God is outside of time; He is extrinsic and we are transient. Therefore, being transient God permits us to use our volition to follow a path which often leads to disaster after great victory, as it did with Elijah.

God is also objective where mankind is concerned. This is the function of His divine integrity and the ultimate glory to Himself. God never functions apart from His perfect justice or His perfect righteousness. How can we be blessed? Because inside of every believer is resident the imputed righteousness of God, and therefore there is that perfect grace link which keeps it all together. And since God’s will is all-comprehensive, not the slightest uncertainty could exist as to one of the smallest events without confusion to all. God knew what would happen and what would not happen. He knew in eternity past that Elijah would fail in demanding the execution of the 450 prophets.

All of the events of history are interwoven and they are interdependent. The will of God is eternal; God is not gaining in knowledge but God knows at any time He has always known. And since nothing can occur unknown to God His will is unchangeable. The will of God is reflected in the divine decrees which will be completed with regard to everything — His creatures, to angels, to human beings, to creation in general, both animate and inanimate. Remember the principle again: Jesus Christ controls history.

Elijah did not say No to doctrine, he was in ultra supergrace; he was a mature believer. He hadn’t believed any lies about the Baal cult. The intensification of authority resulted in his arrogance and suddenly Elijah, who has been persona non grata, has maximum authority. So, in effect, the misuse of this authority and the arrogance related to it, causes the distortion. The authority was there to communicate doctrine, to fulfill a fantastic ministry at that time. But instead he abused the authority, bringing arrogance into the picture, and by so doing he used that authority to produce under pressure, pettiness. He took this authority and linked it with his arrogance and destroyed his own ministry. That isn’t all. He moved out of pivot politics and once he did that he took his authority and put it into the wrong framework — power politics. At the top of the heap in his country is Jezebel who rules Ahab and everything else. Therefore Elijah puts himself in a place of vulnerability so that he can be intimidated by a greater power.

Once God gives Elijah authority the purpose of that authority is to communicate doctrine to the people. Remember that historical disaster is solved by principle one: Jesus Christ controls history; principle two: a pivot of mature believers; principle three: spiritual leadership communicating Bible doctrine. It was principle three where the problem existed for him.

So Jesus Christ controls history; God is bound by His integrity, His righteousness and His justice to complete what He has begun. Jesus Christ will bring the northern kingdom back around but notice that the basis for doing so is the pivot — 7000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal. The spiritual leadership of Elijah must be set aside for the communication of doctrine. And even though the northern kingdom has 150 more years as a client nation it cannot be attributed to Elijah except in the sense that later on he will found some theological seminaries from which will come the communicators, including the man who will succeed him — Elisha.

So the work of God in relationship to creatures might be called providence. Providence by which He moulds all events into the fulfilment of His will and His purpose. And while preservation continues the existence of creatures, animate and inanimate, providence directs their progress. Human history therefore is programmed by the dispensations and the divine objective in human history is revealed in the imputations.

The omniscience of God related to the situation

We know that God knows perfectly and eternally all that is knowable, both actual and possible. God’s perception and sagacity is totally compatible with His essence. God is eternal, His knowledge is eternal and not in any way related to time. Every minute detail of both the angelic conflict and human creation is completely and perfectly in His hand at all times. Therefore the future is as clearly comprehended by God as the past. Time has nothing to do with His knowledge.

God knew in eternity past that Elijah would make this grave error of his own free will on that hill. Elijah failed, not under the normal circumstances of his spiritual function as a communicator of doctrine but he failed in the improper use of his authority. He used his authority to destroy and use violence, moving into the field of power politics. God knows all that would have been involved had he adopted any number of plans. He knows what would have happened in every case had man’s decision been different. He knew that Elijah would make the wrong decision and He knew that he would fail but He had to go ahead and permit it under the concept that He Himself is the inventor of self- determination.

The omniscience of God can only feed facts into the computer of divine decrees and the computer, then, has to print out the facts about the believer under the categories of foreknowledge, election and predestination. The failure of Elijah did not hinder the recovery from historical crisis.

Elijah is still the spiritual leader and his failure does not hinder the plan of God. Principle: No matter how great you may become spiritually don’t ever get too big for your breeches. Don’t ever assume that the plan of God revolves around your success or failure. That is just human arrogance! Humility is probably one of the greatest mental attitude systems that could ever be devised to stay in the positive side of the plan of God. True humility is a mental attitude.

Verse 41 — the function of the politician.

The qal imperfect of amar. Elijah is still giving orders. He has already made one mistake in ordering the death of the prophets of Baal; this time he speaks to the king. Notice he is being carried away by this thing. In temporal functions the king is in command of the nation, but Elijah is now ordering around the king. The qal imperative of alah means to go up on a hill nearby. It is an order: Get up there! He is still giving orders but it is all going to blow up in his face because he abused the authority that God had given him. [The king is going to obey. He is accustomed to it; he has already been leash-roped, his wife did that at the honeymoon!]

We have two more qal imperatives: the qal imperative of akal — eat. Also shathah generally means to drink alcoholic beverage. We should notice that with these commands to the king there is also some sanctified sarcasm, the fact that Ahab is a politician rather than a statesman. So when the problem is in the process of being solved get the politician close enough to the situation where he can get credit for it later, but keep him far enough away where his opinion or his authority cannot be used. King Ahab, the politician, is good for nothing except to eat good food and drink vintage wine! The politician is helpless in time of historical crisis.

From the first imperative it is obvious that King Ahab went down to the brook Kishon to watch the execution of the 450 prophets of Baal. Note that he did not use his authority to stop the execution, though he should have. Ahab is no coward in battle but he is a moral coward because he cannot think in a crisis. He is not afraid of anything but is absolutely useless. Principle: Lack of moral courage under pressure guarantees failure to utilise physical courage. Physical courage is absolutely useless unless you have the ability to think under pressure in terms of what is right and what is wrong [either establishment principles for the unbeliever or Bible doctrine for the believer in the norms and standards of the soul]. Ahab is a believer in reversionism; he has no norms and standards.

In this crisis King Ahab is good for nothing except to stay out of the way. And the politician is useless in historical disaster. From the first imperative it is obvious that Ahab makes no protest of any kind, nor did he do anything to try to save the false prophets. After all, they did represent what was the state religion in apostasy. The events of the day did not hinder his appetite. He watched the 450 prophets slaughtered until the brook ran red with blood.

When Elijah said “there is the sound of abundance of rain” that was his faith-rest conclusion. He knew that rain was coming; he was the strong man assuring the weak man that everything would be all right. Ahab needs assurance for he is totally out of his element. He has no spiritual function as

a statesman, he has no policy, he has no awareness of his own failure and weakness; he just simply is typical of what develops in people who become politicians. First they are dishonest to themselves, then they are arrogant, and then with their dishonesty and arrogance they enter into hypocrisy and they become amoral in their thinking. Ahab as a politician is a spectator without understanding what is really happening. With his maximum authority as king he is totally useless. It is the authority of Elijah that will carry the day.

“sound” of abundance of rain. This is the third stage of the faith-rest drill [there is no “sound” of rain].

Verse 42 — Notice that Ahab is all action! We have the same three verbs he obeyed implicitly — alah, akal, shathah — he went up, he started eating, he drank. This is the sum total of his contribution to the crisis, the satisfying of his own personal needs.

Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel and sat down to pray. He is alone and it is his relationship with God which counts, not his relationship with people. For the believer only relationship with God counts anyway, everything else is secondary. The qal imperfect of gahar — he crouched and put his face between his knees. This is his posture for this prayer which was the continued function of the faith-rest technique. The prayer which follows must be classified as persevering or prevailing prayer. It was a prayer where there was the test of discouragement but he didn’t give up. He continued his prayer until the evidence of the rain was on the horizon. A client nation to God must be supported by the consistent and persevering prayer of believers who function under all three stages of the faith-rest drill. The posture of Elijah reveals his inner attitude of humility regained; it is one of helplessness in a hopeless situation. Total humility is necessary to harness the power of God.

Principle

1. While Ahab the king is eating and drinking, Elijah the prophet is praying and persevering. This is the third stage of the faith-rest drill.

2. A principle emerges: Poor rulership does not hinder divine prosperity.

3. Divine prosperity does not depend on human government or human leadership.

4. Divine prosperity to a nation depends on the believer in the sense of advancing to maturity. It depends on pivot, blessing by association, historical impact — categories of mature blessing.

5. Ultimately client nation prosperity depends upon the Lord Jesus Christ who controls history.

6. God’s man for the crisis must not only be in a state of humility and recognise his own helplessness, but under these conditions he must also be a man of prayer. [You can’t get enough practice!] This means that prayer counts with God, and most prayer is lonely activity.

7. Elijah and the widow’s son are there but Elijah alone functions in prayer. [The hustler and the prayer warrior]. The faith-rest drill: Faith reaches out and claims a promise in order to remove the fear-panic ploy. Then faith uses doctrine resident in the right lobe of the soul and under reverse concentration applies it to the situation. We have already seen how the logistical grace rationale produces physical courage and how the plan of God rationale produces moral courage; so that faith once more reaches out and has doctrinal conclusions so that the individual is in control of the situation.

When you begin to knock out certain parts of the rationale certain things begin to happen. It is possible to have physical courage in combat and not have moral courage in ordinary times, e.g. Ahab, who did nothing to stop the massacre of the 450 prophets of Baal. Once you resort to violence you enter into power politics and once you enter into power politics you are never the same again. Ahab is in power politics; Ahab fails. Not only Ahab has failed but, even worse, Elijah has failed also. With his massacre of the prophets of Baal he has switched from the principles of pivot politics represented by the laws of divine establishment to power politics. Violence is never the answer to the problem. There is a place for killing while fighting as a representative of one’s country and there is also a place for capital punishment as pointed out by many passages of the Word of God. But to resort to violence to solve problems is never the answer; it is a violation of the laws of divine establishment which sponsor human freedom. Elijah forgot that grace principle that the power of pivot politics is in thinking and the proper use of authority, not in violence, lynch mobs and assassins.

Verse 43 — Elijah’s faith-rest drill.

“And he said to the young lad” — the qal imperfect of the verb amar, the verb of communication. The verb is used to portray Elijah’s instructions to the young lad. He did not speak to his “servant,” the noun is naar which means youth, young lad, boy. It is the same word that is used in the previous chapter for the son of the widow of Zarephath. We also have the third masculine singular suffix which refers to Elijah — He said to his young lad. It would seem that the young lad accompanied Elijah when he departed from Zarephath.

Next we have a command: the qal imperative of the verb alah which means to go up, to ascend. Elijah starts to send the young lad up to take a look and make a reconnaissance. He also treats the young man with respect by using the particle na, a part of poise and control of one’s self is the display of good manners. This is a voluntary servant, there is love and affection, and the sign of love, affection, and the inner thoughtfulness of the soul are the good manners displayed by Elijah.

He gave the command in the hiphil imperative of the verb nabat which means to look around. The lad’s response: the qal imperfect of alah — action. He is going to do a lot of walking but this situation does not call for action, it calls for prayer. The young lad is immature in other ways and must be put to work since he does not have the ability to sit, concentrate, pray. The hiphil imperfect of nabat means that he looks around, makes his reconnaissance as per requested. He will scan the horizon very carefully. Then one other verb gives his action, the qal imperfect of amar which means to communicate his report — “There is nothing.”

Principle

1. The fact that there is nothing demands perseverance in prayer, not action. This is a matter for thought, not muscle.

2. Persistence without discouragement for testing of faith-rest confidence is the issue. Persistence of thought, not perpetuation of workout.

3. When prayer appears to be useless we must not be discouraged or weary of prayer. It requires more concentration.

4. Prayer is an extension then of the faith-rest function and the faith-rest function must be tested at every point.

5. Therefore, seven times the command was given.

6. On the part of Elijah this was his confidence in the third stage of the faith-rest drill. He formed that doctrinal conclusion which keeps him in control of the situation. Pray without ceasing — 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

So when our Bible says: “And he said, Go back seven times,” it means that seven times he repeated this phrase, the qal imperative of shub.

Such a negative report (There is nothing) did not discourage the prophet who continued to use thought, the muscle of the faith-rest technique. He had the correct rationale but he wasn’t discouraged because there was no instant answer or instant solution. So he continued to pray while the young lad marched up and down the mountain. Principle: Spiritual power exceeds physical power.

Verse 44 — the seventh report.

The qal imperfect of hajah indicates that persistence on the right track is always rewarded. It isn’t the ability that counts, the secret always is to keep plugging no matter how discouraging things are. The believers who make it aren’t the smartest ones necessarily, but they are those who do not give up. That is the characteristic Elijah was demonstrating in this final great prayer.

“a cloud as small as a man’s hand” — the noun olah means both burnt offering and rising like rising smoke of the burnt offering. We saw this with the minchah which Elijah offered and now it is used right here — “rising from the sea.”

“Go up, say unto Ahab, make ready [harness] your chariot” — the qal imperative of atsar, “get down off the mountain so that the rain does not detain you.”

Greatness has many manifestations. One of them is thoughtfulness for others who have been antagonistic. Elijah is concerned for the safety of this king who has failed in so many ways. There is a principle behind it and one that we must never forget and we must relate it to the fact that no matter how bad a ruler, a government leader, someone who has authority and responsibility may be, there is a certain courtesy that is owed to the office in spite of any failures of the individual.

Principle

1. You will note how thoughtful Elijah is regarding every minute detail. He still has, and has not lost as yet, this thoughtfulness of other people. One of the most important functions of those who are in authority is to lean overboard in being thoughtful of those who operate under that authority. All responsibility that the believer has must be utilised in terms of responsibility to God. God disciplines for malfunction of this responsibility on the part of believers.

2. Elijah has respect for authority even though Ahab is a failure. Ahab is still the king. Elijah is applying establishment courtesy in his thoughtfulness to Ahab.

3. The clearness of the sky on that day made it possible to see the smallest cloud on the horizon. The smallest speck in the sky was all the answer that Elijah needed. His faith-rest function in all three stages of the drill had been magnificent.

Faith demands action. Both Elijah and Ahab must move fast to get off the mountain before the cloud burst occurs and they are detained. Elijah did not think only of himself but very thoughtfully considered Ahab. His courtesy could have been disastrous if Ahab reaches Jezreel first and that gives him opportunity to distort what happened on Mount Carmel. Verse 46 reminds us of something: in his courtesy Elijah forgot that he must get there first before the king. He had to outrun the chariot of King Ahab.

Verse 45 — the power of prevailing prayer.

From the foot of Mount Carmel it is six miles across the plain of Esdraelon to the city of Jezreel. The palace of Jezebel was the summer residence of the monarch and there he fled as fast as his chariot would take him.

The rain came, not because anyone in Israel deserved it, but because of three related factors: a. Jesus Christ controls history; b. The pivot of mature believers; c. The spiritual leadership of Elijah and especially the power of prevailing prayer, a power released through the proper function of the faith-rest technique.

The crisis is over for the moment as far as the nation is concerned, but for Ahab and Elijah returning there was still a test for each man — Jezebel! Elijah suddenly realised that the battle was not over for if Ahab reached Jezreel first he could deceive the people about what occurred on Mount Carmel. And one thing the people wanted to know at this point was the truth.

Verse 46 — the action which follows thought: the physical power, the great conditioning of Elijah.

“And the hand [inspiration] of the Lord was on Elijah; and tucking his coat in his belt, he outran Ahab to Jezreel.” Note an anthropomorphism: jad Jehovah — “the hand of the Lord.” The hand of the Lord denotes the inner impulse stimulated by God. Thought must now relate to muscle. The hand of the Lord refers to inspiration; in this case motivation. By Elijah winning the race and getting to Jezreel first there was no way that King Ahab could lie or deceive the people about what had happened on Mount Carmel. The very presence of Elijah in Jezreel plus the torrential rainstorm would contradict any strategy of deceit which Ahab and Jezebel might pull together in order to trick the people. By winning the race Elijah would therefore forestall any suppression, distortion, or misrepresentation of the truth whereby Ahab or Jezebel would take credit for the break in the drought. They might say, “We broke the drought, not the Lord.” The delay of the rain until Elijah’s persistence of prayer and the track ability of the prophet, hindered any strategy to give Baal the credit.

Elijah’s run to Jezreel does show us one thing: he was also a disciplined man. He was in good physical condition. If there is anything that should accompany the wonderful doctrinal thought of the soul it is physical conditioning. There is one thing that you should never neglect in all of your life and that is to keep yourself in good physical condition. That means that you must be in to some form of exercise and be consistent in it.

There is an important principle here because once again we see the discipline of this man’s life, and therefore his capacity for life. It was no accident that he reached maturity; it was no accident that he was Israel’s greatest person in his day. All of these things are related: the motivation, the function of his thought, his mentality and his application. And the application did not include the neglect of exercise.

Not only did Elijah challenge the Baal cult but he prayed the persistent prayer of the faith-rest function and then he won the race against the chariot of Ahab to preserve that victory. It is true that some suffering is divine discipline; it is also true that a great deal of suffering is testing. When it is discipline the issue is always sin; when it is testing the issue is always grace. And knowing immediately which is the cause indicates your function.

Suppose the issue is sin, for the moment. What are you going to do? You simply go into the function that you have been taught — rebound or recovery of fellowship. In the first stage of the drill you claim a promise — 1 John 1:9. In the second stage of the drill you take doctrines you have studied that are pertinent and apply them to the situation (like all of your sins were imputed to Christ on the cross and judged). And having applied whatever pertinent doctrines that were necessary you are in control of the situation under the third stage of the drill — and that means no guilt complex, no self-effacement, no looking for something to do to “make it up” to God.

In the Christian life the major issue is really not sin at all. Sin is a by-product of the old sin nature, it is not the issue. The issue in spiritual life is grace. Sin is one of the few problems in life that was solved at the cross. So generally the reason that we suffer is for testing and since the issue is grace the function is faith-rest in one of the rationales we have noted.

Before you are ready for real historical crisis you must be tested quite extensively. God uses prepared people and a part of that preparation is a rather large number of FTXs (field training exercises) in which you are tested in your personal life under all of the social pressures, professional and business pressures, personal pressures, etc. that you could possibly have by way of testing. This is so that after having faced the charge of the mosquito over a period of time you suddenly realise one day that the elephant is charging, not the mosquito, and that you shoot down the elephant just as you shoot down the mosquito. You pull that faith-rest drill out like it is “old hat.” The result: you are the man for the crisis.

Now it is extremely important for you to realise that the problems you have by way of suffering are not designed for you to gripe or find your best friend and weep and wail. The reason should be quite obvious: God is not unfair or mean or cruel. He has designed suffering for testing so that we might pass the test. We must learn to use all three stages of the faith-rest drill. If we cannot apply doctrine in a normal easygoing personal test we will never apply doctrine in a time of great disaster.

Remember the “no water” situation of the children of Israel under Moses. No water was not punishment for sin, it was a logistical grace test. When you think sin in testing you flunk!

It is impossible to apply the Word of God, no matter how much doctrine we have learned, if there is any arrogance in the soul. What really happens is that arrogance does not transfer doctrine from the left lobe of the soul over to the right lobe where it becomes applicable, to the frame of reference, to the memory centre, to vocabulary and categorical storage, and forming norms and standards for the royal family honour code, sometimes called the Christian way of life. Doctrine must be in the right lobe and it must be there under conditions whereby it can be applied, for the real dynamics of the spiritual life reside in the second stage of the faith-rest drill in which doctrine is applied from the right lobe to experience. It is possible to learn a great deal of doctrine and to take such pride in this that immediately one has arrogance. And if a believer is arrogant he does not need scar tissue of the soul in order to believe the lie and to fail to apply doctrine.

In rightly dividing the Word of truth the believer cannot advance until he learns to make certain distinctions. These distinctions are also involved in the doctrine of suffering. All suffering is divided into two categories: divine discipline or testing. Immediately one must determine the cause of suffering in his own life. When any type of suffering comes along the question is, What is the issue? If it is divine discipline the issue is personal sin; if it is testing the issue is the grace policy of God.

If the issue is personal sin the function is still the faith-rest technique. In stage one you claim a promise, like 1 John 1:9. The second stage requires that you take doctrine in your soul and apply it to the situation. This means that you can go back to the first judicial imputation, Adam’s original sin was imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature so that you were condemned on the basis of Adam’s original sin. That means that all of your personal sins were collected and imputed to Christ on the cross and judged there. So when you cite or name a sin that you have committed you are simply citing or naming something that has already been in God’s courtroom and judged. And the reason that you are forgiven by simply naming your sins is because that sin was judged when Christ was on the cross. The application of doctrine is the doctrine of imputation, the imputation of Adam’s original sin at birth, condemnation, the imputation of our personal sins to Christ on the cross, judgement of those sins. We cite or name the sin that has already been judged. So that, in the third stage of the faith-rest drill we are in control of the situation, we make a doctrinal conclusion: “I am back in fellowship.” From that we become aware of the fact that we are again filled with the Holy Spirit.

This is the use of the faith-rest drill and this eliminates any arrogance about your sin, any guilt complex, any idea that you must make it up to God by doing something. When the suffering is simply divine discipline the issue is what sin is outstanding. What hasn’t been confessed?

Regarding the suffering which occurred because of your divine discipline, three things can happen to it: It can continue at its present rate. If it does the purpose of that suffering is now testing for blessing. Secondly, the suffering may diminish, in which case it is still suffering for the purpose of testing. The reason it is diminished is because of 1 Corinthians 10:13, God will not test you beyond your endurance, your ability to cope. In other words it has to be diminished so that it can become a test. Thirdly, “if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged,” that the suffering will be removed entirely. In which case this issue is over and there is no testing to follow immediately. This must be remembered because most of the suffering that you are going to face demands that you clear the decks of arrogance and a guilt complex.

Most suffering is simply a test for historical disaster and historical catastrophe. And since that is true you must be prepared to fulfil the real purpose for practically all suffering that you will ever face. There are some exceptions in reversionism but assuming that one is positive toward doctrine most of the suffering that will be faced is testing. The issue is grace; the function is the faith-rest drill in its three stages.

But you have an option at this point. In the three stages there are three different rationales or part of a rationale, depending on the time you have. The first is logistical grace, the one where when the disaster hits you discover almost immediately that you are still alive and therefore God still has a plan for your life, etc. The second one is the plan of God rationale and the third is the essence of God rationale. Any one of these three or combination of them can be applied to any personal testing in life and any collective testing, like national catastrophe.

You will never have a test for which you did not have previous preparation. (However, you may have failed the preparation and, therefore, you will also flunk the test. If you flunk your daily work you flunk the final exam.) And with the testing God will provide a way of escape — 1 Corinthians 10:13. The “way of escape” are the three rationales.

Romans 8:28: God works all things together for good in X radical. He sustains us with the laws of divine establishment and, therefore, freedom is the result. In Y radical He sustains us, not only with establishment but, with logistical grace. He provides us time in this world. He provides us food shelter, clothing, doctrine and the communication of the Word, everything necessary to advance to Z radical. In Z radical we not only have the laws of divine establishment and logistical grace but now we have the six categories of supergrace blessing added to it, the glorification factor.

In the King James version of Romans 8:29 it says: “For whom he did fore know, he also did predestine to be conformed to image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” This is the beginning of the principle of reverse concentration, the rationale of the plan of God.

It starts out with the causal use of the conjunction o(ti in the Greek. This introduces the reasoning of the mature believer who has just discovered from the fear-panic ploy that he is in some kind of a disaster. He has claimed Romans 8:28 and now he begins the plan of God rationale. Having stabilised his mentality through faith-rest (claiming a promise, first stage of the drill) he now begins the rationale with the conjunction “because” .Next comes the accusative masculine plural, direct object from the relative pronoun o(j — ‘whom’ (there must be the repetition of the main verb in Romans 8:28).

Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb proginwskw — “whom he foreknew.” We must start with the foreknowledge of God. God, who existed in eternity past, knew all about you. Foreknowledge is a printout of the divine decrees which occurred in eternity past. In the computer of divine decrees the omniscience only programs or feeds in what actually happens by way of thought, decision, and action. The alternatives, the possibilities which did not happen, He knows in His omniscience but He does not feed them into the decrees. For the believer there is a printout — the rationale takes five printouts, starting here with foreknowledge, moving to election to privilege, to justification or the reception of +R, then to glorification for there is a relationship between the indwelling righteousness of God and glorifying Him on this earth. The first three refer to eternity past; the last two refer to time.

When the time comes for testing you can reach out to the first factor, foreknowledge. God was thinking about you in eternity past, you were in His plan, God still has a purpose for your life [election to privilege, the privilege of delivering your own nation by cracking the maturity barrier]. When you crack the maturity barrier there is +R which is the basis for reception of logistical grace, keeping you alive, and which will be converted into great blessing which glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ in time and sets up the A fortiori that if God did the greater for you in imputing from His justice to His righteousness supergrace blessing in time, it follows A fortiori that He will not withhold far greater blessing and reward in eternity, imputed from the justice of God to the resurrection body. That is the A fortiori which parlays blessing in time into eternal blessing and reward and fulfils the purpose for the creation of man in the angelic conflict.

Now the decrees of God are pictured as a giant computer. There are three categories of divine knowledge. There is self-knowledge. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit know themselves. They know their own sovereignty, their own holiness, their own love, eternal life, omniscience, etc. and each member of the Trinity has the same from eternity past. The deity of each member of the Trinity is incorruptible. The first Person is called the Father because He is the author of the divine plan for mankind; the second Person is called the Son because in a state of obedience He also becomes true humanity combined with His deity forever and, therefore, the unique Person of the universe; the third Person is called the Holy Spirit because His part of the plan of God is the sustaining ministry of divine power.

All three have identical essence so that when we are looking at them from the standpoint of essence we have, for example, in the Hebrew the noun Elohim for God. This is a plural word. We translate it in the singular but it recognises the fact that three divine Persons have identical essence, they have always existed, there was never a time when they did not exist and there never will be a time when they did not exist. In the Hebrew, for example, if we want to talk about one member of the Godhead then we use the Tetragrammaton — Jehovah [Jehovah the Father, Jehovah the Son, Jehovah the Holy Spirit] in order to make a distinction. When we have two or more members of the Godhead in view then we have Elohim. So that there is identical essence and coexistence eternally between all members of the Godhead.

Omniscience is not the first category of divine knowledge, it is self-knowledge. Each member of the Godhead knows Himself perfectly. God has always known Himself; He has always known His attributes, how they function, their incorruptibility, their immutability, their eternity, how they function with creatures, etc. Omniscience is different. Omniscience is the knowledge of God, not directed toward Himself, but directed toward creatures. So omniscience is a technical word; it knows the actual and the probable. The actual is what occurred in history. God knew in eternity past everything that would happen in history. There never was a time when He didn’t know every testing that you would have, every problem, every trial, every difficulty, every need. So that with omniscience God knows with all types of creatures everything they will ever think, decide or do, and that is fed into a giant computer which we call divine decrees.

God knew that there were some alternatives. Every time you face an issue you decide to do something which is reality and the actual. But you also had other possibilities. For example God could tell you what would have happened if you had married someone else, what would have happened if you had chosen this profession instead of that profession, what would have happened if you had gone to one church instead of another church, what would have happened if you had been living in Africa in your generation instead of living where you are, etc. All of these things are known to God down to the last generation of the Millennium. Omniscience knows both the actual and the probable; and the repercussion of the probable, not only with regard to you but how you relate to everyone else in time.

Then there is the foreknowledge mentioned in Romans 8:29. For every believer there is a printout called foreknowledge. It is not the same as omniscience; technically it is extremely different. Foreknowledge relates only to what is in the computer; it is a printout for believers only; it is technical and has no relationship to the unbeliever or probability. The computer of divine decrees prints out facts about the believer under this category — foreknowledge. (It prints out facts about the unbeliever too. They are called reprobation, condemnation, retribution, etc.) Nothing could be foreknown until it was first decreed. Both foreknowledge and omniscience have existed in eternity past — God is eternal — but there is a difference between these two words as brought into the Word of God. The omniscience knows the actual and programs it into the computer and the probabilities are left out of the computer. That technically is omniscience. But foreknowledge is God’s knowledge of what is in the computer or the printout. Foreknowledge is mentioned as a result. So that we must understand that in foreknowledge nothing can be foreknown by God until first of all it is in the computer, until it is decreed. Foreknowledge is where we make our application, not omniscience.

In the plan of God rationale we apply, first of all, the foreknowledge. What does foreknowledge mean to us? It means that billions of years ago God knew all about us. He knew everything that would ever happen to us; we were in His mind. There is nothing that will ever overtake us by way of testing or disaster or difficulty or trial that God has not understood. God’s self-knowledge and omniscience always precede the divine decrees while God’s foreknowledge is a printout of the divine decrees. Therefore, in this particular rationale the first printout is foreknowledge, not omniscience. Foreknowledge is personal, it has to do with everything that you will ever face. Therefore having known this we can link this up with logistical grace support, He provides whatever the need is. This includes the fact that when the testing comes it will not be beyond our endurance for we do have the doctrine and we do have the information, and we do have the preparation by lesser testing along the way.

So while the omniscience of God knows every thought, decision and action of every person in history not so the foreknowledge of God which makes nothing certain. Only the decrees make it certain. The foreknowledge of God is simply a term used for mankind so that man will understand in time of any pressure in time of any pressure, any disaster, or any difficulty that God had him personally in mind. You are personally in the mind of God. No person in the human race has ever been lost to Him and all believers are in the mind of God in a special way.

Not only does God remember you but God places a fantastic value on you, so that any time you face any kind of a disaster, in the rationale called the Plan of God the first thing that must come to mind is the fact that God is eternal. There never was a time when God did not exist, when He did not understand Himself and that He did not know everything that was happening in history, and that means everything that was happening in your environment of adversity. But it also means something else. God has you personally in mind and He intended for you with your heritage of Bible doctrine to be able to start thinking. Example: “I was in the mind of God billions of years ago. This situation is unfamiliar to me and disastrous, but not to God. Billions of years ago God provided for this situation.”

So we have the concept, then, that the foreknowledge of God makes nothing certain, it merely acknowledges what is certain. And foreknowledge, therefore, is the first stage of our rationale.

“Because whom he foreknew.” Then we have an adjunctive conjunction kai which is translated “also” plus the aorist active indicative of proorizw. O)rizw is where we get the English word “horizon.” Orizw with the pro in front of it means to “fore,” to know the horizon before we see the horizon. Billions of years ago God could see what was over the horizon. He can see ahead in your life; He knows where the ship of your life is going. And since He knows what is ahead [He knows there are some shoals that will distract us; He knows that there are some reefs that would be disastrous] He prepares us always ahead of time. And essentially doctrine is your preparation, not doctrine in the Word, doctrine in your soul where you can apply it.

God has a purpose for your life and you must be related to that by remembering that in the second stage of the faith-rest drill you must start with the fact of foreknowledge. And from that “because whom he foreknew, he also foreordained [or predestined].” In other words you can never divorce yourself from the fact that God thought about you billions of years ago and that He had a plan for your life- that is what foreordination means.

But we have a different aorist here in the translation. In the foreknowledge we have the constative aorist which gathers up into one entirety the action of the verb — God always foreknew. But the culminative aorist regards the results and views the decrees of God in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the printout of foreordination. Foreordination, then, is an act of an infinitely intelligent and wise God in determining the certain futurition of all events in history. Foreordination or predestination is really synonymous with the divine decrees but it is the printout for your personal life.

So the omniscience of God actually programs the decrees. For the believer the printout is first of all foreknowledge, God knew all about you in eternity past. Predestination means also that you are in the plan of God. God not only thought about you but because He is perfect He didn’t leave you to struggle for yourself. God placed you in the framework of a perfect plan.

Now we are moving into the application. If God has a plan for my life and if this particular disaster is a part of that plan, then God also has a solution, and answer. [I’m still alive, God still has a purpose for my life]. So you begin to apply, you begin to think. The real dynamics in life are in thinking, the function of the soul, not in doing. Action is secondary to thought. It is always the thought that determines the greatness, thought under pressure.

The active voice, God the Father as the Author of the divine plan produces the action of the verb in eternity past. He has a plan for you. You are a part of a perfect plan. God is perfect; His plan is perfect. The problem is that we are imperfect, we have an old sin nature. The old sin nature has three manifestations. One is personal sin but all of our personal sins were collected and imputed to Christ on the cross and judged. The other two facets of the OSN were not judged on the cross — human good and evil which is the Satanic policy for the angelic conflict. Therefore we must be tested in the field of good and evil. Good can be a distraction from the plan of God. Evil is a distraction from the plan of God. So sin is judged but much of our testing is going to revolve around good and evil. Therefore, not only is the plan of God rationale pertinent to our disasters but it is also pertinent to every moment that we have in prosperity as well.

“he also predestined” the declarative indicative mood is for the rationale of doctrine which applies to disaster resulting in blessing for the believer who uses it. While these things occur simultaneously in eternity past they have to be broken down for application. Every believer was in God’s thoughts in eternity past and therefore being in the thought of God means being in the plan of God.

If God is perfect, and He is, and if He provides a plan the plan also must be absolutely perfect, it must reflect God. But the plan is completely surrounded by the imperfection of cosmos diabolicus. Now how can a perfect God design a perfect plan for believers who in themselves have an OSN and are imperfect, performing acts of sin, human good and evil. How can the plan be perfect? The answer is very simple. The integrity of God is the issue. God’s justice is our point of reference, not His love. The other half of divine holiness is His righteousness. By imputing divine righteousness from the justice of God to each one of us at salvation it is possible to pour down the grace pipe logistical grace, until we reach maturity where added to that are the six categories of blessing which glorify God.

When the justice of God imputes those blessings to the righteousness of God it is imputing from one perfect attribute to another perfect attribute. Our blessings go from the perfection of God to the perfection of God so that our failures are not the issue in God blessing us. Nor our successes, nor our works, nor our morality and self-righteousness. Many things are commanded as production but they are not the basis for divine blessing otherwise God’s perfect plan wouldn’t be perfect. Nothing in God’s plan ever depends on us.

The perception of doctrine is related not only to spiritual growth but to the category of blessing. Under logistical grace you can be prospered by God but under the supergrace blessing it is more than just blessing; it is that which glorifies God. God is not glorified in the logistical support; God is glorified in the supergrace blessing support. So you may as a result of logistical grace be promoted but when you are promoted on the basis of supergrace then it has great significance in glorifying the Lord.

So far the rationale follows two considerations then: first, the solution to disaster was in the mind of God; secondly, the solution to disaster was in the plan of God in eternity past. Reverse concentration demands that we realise that God has always known and that God has always planned for each one of us. So that when disaster hits this is the solid ground on which we make personal applications to varying situations.

“to be conformed to the image of his Son” — the plan of God demands that we recognise the ultimate in the plan of God. “conformed ones” is an accusative masculine plural adjective summorfij, it means “conformed ones” to the image of His Son. This is a specific reference to our dispensation, the Church Age, and the meaning of our dispensation as it relates to the plan of God. God knew in eternity past that He was going to set aside Israel as a client nation to God, and that the client nation would be disciplined on three different occasions. The client nation was set aside for the times of the Gentiles and the Jews were scattered throughout the earth and there cannot be a Jewish client nation. That means that only Gentile nations can have client nation status and for that to occur there had to be something new. The death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Christ caused Christ to be seated at the right hand of the Father under the third category of His royalty. First category = deity. His title is the Son of God; second category of royalty is His humanity. He is of the line of David and therefore His title is the Son of David; but His third category is battlefield royalty. This is the ultimate in the angelic conflict. When He was seated at the right hand of the Father He was given the title King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

There is a difference. In His first royalty He has a family, the Father and the Holy Spirit. In the second category He has the entire dynasty of David. In the third category, no royal family. Therefore, the Church Age is the calling out of a royal family for His third category of royalty. That means that we live in a time of great significance. Each one of us is not only in the mind of God and in the plan of God but in the mind and plan of God in the most exciting of all dispensations. We are not just simply family of God we are royal family of God, and much more is expected of royalty. So we are the conformed ones to the image of His Son. This is a reference to the formation of the royal family of God during the Church Age.

“that he might be the firstborn” is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. The present active infinitive of e)imi indicates the purpose, God’s purpose in the royal family. The present tense is a static present from a condition which will always exist. The active voice: Jesus Christ in resurrection, ascension and session produces the action. This is the infinitive of purpose: “that he might be the firstborn.” The concept of the firstborn is threefold: it is rulership. Christ is the Prince Ruler of the Church and at the second advent He will be the Ruler of restored Israel as well as the entire world. The second concept: priesthood. Christ is ordained as the royal priest forever in the pattern of Melchizedek. The third concept: the double portion as the concept of the firstborn. Christ has two eternal kingdoms: Israel and the Church.

“among many brethren” — you are the many brethren. So something is added. Not only did God think of you in eternity past — foreknowledge — but God put you in a plan in eternity past — predestination. And this plan calls for something special, being related to the firstborn as royal family of God. This is extremely important because it strengthens the foundation for the plan of God rationale.

In Romans 8:28 we have the first stage of the faith-rest drill in that we have a special promise which can be claimed to remove the fear-panic ploy. It is possible to learn many doctrines and yet to fail to use them under pressure or disaster. Doctrine is not only designed by God for spiritual advance but it is also designed for reversing the concentration principle and applying that doctrine in a rationale system to a pressure or disaster situation. Disaster and pressure often overtakes the believer so suddenly that he is placed in the panic palace type situation. No believer can think or apply doctrine under those conditions and, therefore, the mind must be cleared of any type of fear before any application can take place. The first stage of the faith-rest drill is designed for that purpose in mind. We have many commands in the Scripture and these commands are designed to supersede fear with the faith-rest function. The principle is stated in Psalm 56:3 — “In the day when I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” And the qal imperfect of batach means that this must be a lifetime habit. The concept is designed so that fear, worry or anxiety can be removed and it represents the first stage of the faith-rest drill. Because of divine provision in the faith-rest drill the Scripture is saturated with pertinent promises which can be removed from the context without jeopardising the interpretation and personally used by you. If you are frightened or disturbed about something then obviously your concentration is limited.

The content of the faith-rest drill is doctrine which is the power of God which He provides through the Word. The faith-rest drill is commanded many times in Scripture without using the actual term, faith-rest. Faith itself is used. For example in 1 Corinthians 2:5: “That your faith should not be in the wisdom of man but in the power of God,” indicating the second stage of the faith-rest drill which is the application of doctrine under reverse concentration and which puts you in control of the situation rather than using some human viewpoint system or rationale. Isaiah 26:3,4: “A sustained purpose you will guard in perfect prosperity: because he trusts in you [faith-rest drill].” In other words your function of the faith-rest drill in its three stages becomes a sustained purpose for your life. “Trust in the Lord forever [the perpetuation of the faith-rest drill] for in the Lord Jehovah is a rock of ages [your stability in life is related to the function of the faith-rest drill].”

The plan of God rationale is different from the plan of God in that it takes five different printouts from the computer of divine decrees and relates them to the plan of God in a system of thinking so that you can handle any adversity in life, whether it is a personal testing or a collective testing like historical disaster. Then there is the essence of God rationale which takes a combination of various divine attributes or individual attributes and applies them to a situation. These are organised systems of rationale and, of course, there are many other doctrines that can be applied.

Knowledge of doctrine then is the greatest virtue in the Christian life for without knowledge of doctrine there is no application to testing under the principle of reverse concentration. The ministry of the Holy Spirit in perception of doctrine is extended to application of doctrine. A system of concentration is necessary to get that doctrine in the left lobe. Faith, positive volition and the acceptance of that doctrine transfers it over to the right lobe. It goes into the frame of reference, into the memory centre, and becomes a part of your vocabulary, develops a category [three stages of the faith-rest drill] so that it is available, and also it becomes a part of your norms and your standards from the divine viewpoint.

Now this is a system of concentration under the ministry of the Holy Spirit which is reversed in time of application. It is the same concentration used in learning doctrine. For example there might be many reason s why you might be distracted — personal problems, some kind of a difficulty which is distracting to you. To that extent there is no concentration and that means if you were to have a testing at that moment you might fail it for the simple reason that what distracts you from learning something right now will also distract you from applying something at any other time. Any time that you find that you are unable to concentrate while doctrine is being taught you can be very sure that you would also be unable to concentrate if you had some time of a test. Hence, not only the necessity for the indwelling of the Spirit, but for the filling of the Spirit in all of these spiritual functions. That is why we call them “spiritual functions.” because they depend upon the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

Testing means training. God trains us by suffering. The greatest applications of doctrine we will ever make are under periods of suffering. (We can make them under prosperity but that takes a lot of spiritual advance) But what you really are is what happens when you get under that pressure and you have the opportunity off reverse concentration.

How the essence of God rationale can be applied

1. Misapplication. The greatest misapplication in the essence of God rationale is the fact that the Bible says so many times that God “so loved the world,” “God commendeth his love toward us,” etc. As a result there is a misapplication and therefore a malfunction in the second stage of the faith-rest drill.

a. Like all the divine attributes love belongs to the essence of God.

b. God is love, always has been love, and there never will be a time when God is not love. God, therefore, does not fall in love. Nor does His love grow, increase or decline. There are no variations to God’s love.

c. God’s love has two directions: objectively it is toward the other members of the Trinity. It has to be directed toward perfection. Subjectively God’s love is directed toward His own integrity, His righteousness and justice.

d. In contrast to human love God’s love does not have to be sustained by emotion, physical stimulation, or require a visual object for perpetuation.

e. Human love is originated and perpetuated by four interrelated categories: thinking, emotion, sex, and the spiritual factor which is from the entire person — awe, respect, capacity, fulfilment of norms and standards.

f. The problem is that mankind tends to superimpose his own human love concepts on God. He assumes that God loves as we love and this assumption is not only misapplication, but it results in the first and most drastic distortion concept in the second stage of the drill. More harm is done in application by picking up “God is love” and running with it without doctrinal information.

g. So that in time of testing or disaster the believer who malfunctions often remarks: How can a loving God do this to me? Or: How can a loving God let this happen to me? This is a distortion, a misapplication of the essence of God rationale. It results from assuming several things: that the love of God is like human love and, secondly, that the love of God is the point of contact or the frame of reference in our relationship with God. And that is not correct.

2. The correct application. Our actual relationship with God is a relationship with His integrity. The source of all blessing and testing, the source of all divine discipline and punishment is the holiness or the integrity of God. God is holy, this means He has integrity — justice and righteousness. His justice and righteousness have always existed in a perfect status; they have never been corrupted nor can they be corrupted. Righteousness is the principle of divine integrity; justice is the function of divine integrity. Neither man’s sinfulness, his arrogance, his self-righteousness, his pleasing personality or his good deeds can influence the integrity of God. And God has never blessed any of us because of anything we have done. The integrity of God gains nothing from the function of any creature. That is the principle which must be understood for the correct application, for correct function of reverse concentration.

On the contrary creatures gain from the integrity of God. God’s righteousness is eternal, is perfect, and it is not subject to sin, to failure or even to improvement.

Man cannot change or improve the righteousness of God, for no one can establish or promote the integrity of God. God’s righteousness is the guardian of God’s justice; God’s justice is the guardian of God’s essence. Consequently, divine attributes stand without any help from any angel or any member of the human race. And the principle of application: God does not need our help; we need His help. This is why humility is so important in time of testing. Humility has no hang-ups, none of the arrogance patterns, no self-righteousness to hold you back, so self-pity to disorient you. And therefore with humility it is very easy to come to God and say, I need help. In that application you have recognised the true function of the integrity of God. The integrity of God can help you; you cannot help the integrity of God.

Our help comes from the imputation of blessing from the justice of God to the righteousness of God who indwells every believer. So justice imputes to righteousness. That is the issue and the principle for application.

3. Divine justice can only bless perfect righteousness. The integrity of God, again, is composed of His righteousness and justice and the integrity of God guarantees no compromise to any of the attributes of God in dealing with creatures. We are sinful, we fail, our old sin nature produces personal sin, human good and some evil. Therefore, there is no way that God could bless us as individuals because that would be a compromise and, therefore, a destruction of incorruptible divine attributes.

All blessing that you will ever have in this lifetime will come from the justice of God to the righteousness of God. Not to you because you have “improved,” not to you because you have changed your personality; not to you for this or that or the other thing. We are what we are and God blesses us, not because of what we are, but because of what He is. The righteousness of God demands that the justice of God executes logistical grace for the worst failure in the Christian life and for the most successful believer in the Christian life. That removes all illusion of personal greatness. No blessing comes from God because of angelic or human merit.

4. The true application of the love of God. This is based on the possession of God’s righteousness. God loves His own righteousness. His righteousness therefore demands love and receives love. We possess God’s righteousness the moment we believe on Christ and possessing God’s righteousness means that God loves us not because of what we are but because of what God is. And we have what God is; we have His righteousness.

Remember that God’s righteousness takes precedence: “whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.” Because we have God’s righteousness, sometimes His righteousness says: Spank him! So the Lord loves us because He loves that righteousness that we have and the justice of God responds — divine discipline. Sometimes it will say, Bless him, and calls for logistical grace blessing or calls for supergrace blessing, whichever the case may be. What the righteousness of God demands the justice of God executes, and whether it is discipline or blessing He still loves us. That is divine love.

5. The application of eternal life. Eternity means that God has always existed. He has no beginning and no end. God is not subject to time but the cause of time, and though without substance both time and space are objects of His creation. God is not in time, time is in God; He originated it. God is logical and, therefore, does not need to be chronological, which is why a day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day. This principle results in the application of patience in testing.

The principle is that God cannot be more or less than He is under eternity. His immensity is one of the applications. God cannot be more or less than He is in relationship to space. He is both imminent and transcendent so that the application demands removal of fear, hysteria, etc.

6. God’s knowledge. Omniscience relates to the eternal decrees, foreknowledge relates to the plan of God rationale. There is application from all three categories of the knowledge of God: His self-knowledge, omniscience, and His foreknowledge.

7. Application of omnipotence. God’s power is greater than any creature power. Therefore He overrules any form of tyranny or evil when it suits His purpose: Jesus Christ controls history. This is to offset the usual fears and hysteria that comes from one finding himself under a system of tyranny.

8. Application of God’s veracity. God is infinite, without boundary or limitation, uniting those perfections that belong to His own character. God cannot tempt; God cannot sin; God cannot be complicated with ignorance or nonsense or absurdities. God may be self-limited such as the humanity of Christ in the hypostatic union. Jesus Christ as God imposed self-limitations in keeping with the incarnation. But self-limitation is for the sake of a grace policy which benefits man to the maximum. God is infinite energy and infinite power and infinity characterises all that God does. This includes His function of integrity, His veracity, His Word of truth. The divine motive for His own glory is not self-praise. God recognises His glory; He claims it in the interest of absolute truth. And you begin with that absolute truth, which we call doctrine, and you relate it to His person, His character. God is true to Himself, His being, His character. Man can say that he speaks the truth; God is the truth. God does not hold the truth as something that He acquires since He is the truth from all eternity past. The application of this is that there are absolutes in life. Modern thinking says that everything is relative and that there is not such thing as absolute truth. In God every form of truth and every form of knowledge dwells in absoluteness. God is the source of truth and this attribute guarantees the genuineness of divine revelation. The application, then, is quite obvious. God honours doctrine or truth resident in the soul of the believer for spiritual growth. When you transfer through the function of GAP Bible doctrine into your soul — gnwsij and then e)pignwsij --- God honours that as the only way of spiritual growth. Therefore the many analogies in the Word of God between doctrine and food (food provides growth, energy, etc. Doctrine provides growth, energy, etc.). Application avoids distraction from learning doctrine. Application: God provides logistical grace support so that we can learn doctrine.

It becomes obvious, then, that God’s attribute of veracity is one of the most important applications in our understanding as to what constitutes Christian modus operandi.

“We know in fact that to those who love the God.” The essence of God rationale then is based on the accusative singular, direct object of the noun Qeoj. The mature believer is defined in terms of his occupation with Christ or his maximum category one love. Therefore we have the dative of advantage in the articular participle referring to the advantage of being a mature believer. And this requires maximum doctrine in the soul. The mature believer has wider scope of application of that doctrine in reverse concentration. This also implies the mature believer can and does malfunction in one of the three stages of the faith-rest drill, usually stage one or stage three.

“all things work together for good” — incorrectly translated. The Greek says: “he [God] works all things together for good,” and there is a vast difference.

We start, then, with the verb, the present active indicative of the verb sunergew. It has the third person singular suffix in the formation of the verb and it is translated “he works together.” We have a perfective present tense where a fact of doctrine which has always existed but is emphasised to us as a present reality. God has always worked things together for good, He is perfect and couldn’t work them any other way. The outcome inevitably is going to be compatible with His own sovereign will and, therefore, obviously He works them together for good. In fact He is the only one who can. This is also a static present representing a condition which perpetually exists. God is perpetually perfect, He is perpetually genius, and therefore obviously it is going to always work. The active voice , God produces the action of the verb through the imputation from His justice, especially in this context, logistical grace provision plus the plan of God rationale. The indicative mood is declarative expressing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

What does God work together for good? Well, we have the accusative neuter plural from the adjective substantive paj. It is used as the direct object of the verb. “All things” is a correct translation. Paj merely means “all,” but in the neuter form it also is used as a substantive and is correctly translated.

The question is, once we understand the translation, what does “all things” mean? It includes many things but it refers to suffering in the life of the believer, whether it is for discipline or for testing, or blessing. It also includes the plan of God, X+Y+Z. “All things” in this context includes the idea of human life imputed at birth plus Adam’s original sin which sets up the first potential. Condemnation must precede salvation. Plus the pertinent doctrine which reads us into the picture, in this case redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, and other doctrines pertaining to Christology and soteriology. This equals the first hope which is absolute confidence about a future thing, absolute confidence that when we believe in Christ we have eternal life.

The next stage is “Y” radical and in this bracket we start out with judicial imputation number one, all personal sins were imputed to Christ for judgement. We are condemned on the basis of someone else’s sin. We are condemned at birth on the basis of the imputation of Adam’s sin and that means that none of our personal sins ever form the basis for our condemnation. Instead, our personal sins are all imputed to Christ on the cross for judgement. Our condemnation is passed on to Him and He becomes our efficacious substitute so that salvation is now available to all, since everyone’s sins were judged on the cross when they were imputed.

That leads to a second judicial imputation, the imputation of divine righteousness to us at the moment we believe in Christ. That is the basis for all blessing. Grace is the policy of the justice of God in imputing blessing to the indwelling righteousness of God. This equals the second potential, the potential for the imputation of great blessing, supergrace blessing, special blessing, to the mature believer when he cracks the maturity barrier. It comes in six categories over the lifetime of the mature believer. Plus the pertinent doctrine. In this case it deals with the function of the Christian way of life. This equals the second hope which is absolute confidence that when we through the daily function of GAP gain maximum doctrine resident in the soul we will reach maturity.

That brings us into “Z” radical where we have the imputation of eternal life which is pertinent because of blessing and reward for the mature believer in eternity. There is the imputation of eternal life plus the imputation of special blessing in time — in six categories = the third potential which is the imputation of blessing and reward at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Plus the pertinent doctrine, and that equals the third hope which is absolute confidence that when the mature believer stands at the Judgement Seat of Christ he will receive great blessing and reward. And that is the A)gaqoj or “the good.”

In the plan of God there must be always a sustaining factor; not human security but God’s .And the sustaining factor has the laws of divine establishment for the unbeliever [the human race in X radical], plus Y radical in which we as believers have added to the laws of divine establishment the logistical grace support [the justice of God imputes logistical support to +R]. In Z radical there are three support systems: the laws of divine establishment, the perpetuation and continuation of logistical grace, plus supergrace blessings. Therefore, He works “all things” together for good, He provides the laws of divine establishment.

And then there is the final prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative singular of the adjective substantive a)gaqoj, good of intrinsic value. A)gaqoj means that whatever has intrinsic value always maintains that value. (For example, gold has intrinsic value. Gold always has value wherever you find it.) The plan of God, of course, is the ultimate in intrinsic value. When it says “for good” it is referring to the intrinsic value factor. Note that a)gaqoj has no definite article here, emphasising the perfect quality of the plan of God. Only God in His perfect plan can work all things together for good.

The question arises as to how God is glorified in the perfect plan. The key to this is found in the imputation of supergrace blessings to the righteousness of God in the mature believer. This glorifies God in time and the imputation of eternal blessing and reward glorifies God in eternity. We call one a tactical victory [time] and the other a strategical victory [eternity], the one which goes on forever.

“to them who are the called according to his purpose,” which is literally, “to those who are elected to privilege according to a predetermined plan.” We start out with the word toij which is simply the dative plural definite article. The definite article here is used as a demonstrative pronoun and a demonstrative pronoun always places emphasis on something in context and it emphasises here the believer’s relationship to the client nation. You and I not only have a relationship to God but we live in a client nation. Our relationship to God is extremely important and as it is correct as far as the Word is concerned then it becomes even more important in the country in which we live. For approaching is historical crisis and whether we survive or not depends on our attitude toward Bible doctrine. So we will translate toij, the definite article, “to those.”

“who are elected to privilege” — we have the present active participle of e)imi, the verb to be. The customary present tense denotes what habitually occurs when the believer attains spiritual maturity. He is elected to privilege, he has the privilege of historical impact as well as blessing by association. The active voice: the believer produces the action, he forms a pivot in the Gentile client nation in the times of the Gentiles. The participle is a part of a dative absolute of advantage — without publicity or appearing on the page of history the mature believer is the hidden, the unknown source of prosperity in a client nation as well as the basis for its deliverance.

This is a part of a plan. The final prepositional phrase, kata plus the accusative singular of proqesij, a predetermined plan. Translation: “according to a predetermined plan.”

The corrected translation then: “We know in fact that to those who love God, he [God] works all things together for good, to those who are elected to privilege according to a predetermined plan.”

This is a verse which tells us, in effect, that our life as a believer positive toward doctrine, has great significance. For example, take the word a)gaqoj used for the plan of God and relates it to the modus operandi of the believer. Throughout the entire book of Romans a)gaqoj is used constantly. It is used as over against evil and many other ways. In Romans 12:2, “stop being conformed to this age: but be transformed by the renovation of your thought, that you may prove what the will of God is, namely, the good [it is the will of God that you advance to maturity], well-pleasing and complete.” The completed will of God in your life is your advance to maturity through perception of doctrine.

Romans 12:9 — “Your love must be non-hypocritical. Therefore despise the evil; adhere to the good.” The only possible way that you can ever straighten out love, the difference between personal and impersonal love, and fulfil all of the love commands and develop capacity for love under three categories is the perception of doctrine. That is the “adhere to the good.”

Romans 12:21 — Evil is the policy of Satan. “Stop being conquered by evil, but conquer evil by means of the good.” With all of the evil around us today — good being parlayed into evil, evil being parlayed into human good [human good is the front and evil is the modus operandi] — the only way that this can be stopped is by personal advance to maturity. In advancing to maturity you confiscate no property, you kill no one with bombs, you start no revolution, you do not destroy any legitimate authority. It is accomplished without hurting anyone, without destroying anyone, without offending anyone.

Romans 13:4 — “For it [human government] is the minister of God to you for the purpose of the good.” There are the laws of divine establishment — legitimate authority in life, the authority of the police officer, the authority of the judge on the bench, the authority of the military in protecting you from enemies abroad, the authority of little government and big free enterprise. All of these things are a part of the package and are so that you can advance to maturity. And in order that you might do it [the good, the plan of God] there is a major distraction — the criminal mind. The criminal, therefore, must be removed from the scene. Therefore the next sentence: “ … for it does not bear [or wear] the sword for nothing: for you see it [human government] is the minister of God for the purpose of wrath on him who practices evil.” The criminal is involved here. Tragically, when the criminal infiltrates the government in the form of bureaucracy then you do have some difficulty. But the principle does not change because of any distortion. The principle is a very simple one: human government and the laws of divine establishment guarantee your freedom and your privacy to advance to maturity.

Roman 14:16 — “Let not the good attained by you be slandered or maligned.” This is keeping close accounts in the rebound technique.

Romans 15:2 — “Let each one of us accommodate his neighbour for the purpose of the good to edification.” In other words the accommodation here is to avoid doing anything that would distract them from doctrine, namely intruding upon their privacy. “Neighbour” doesn’t mean the person living next door, it means the person sitting next to you in church. We should do nothing to distract them from Bible doctrine and concentration in the ministry of the Spirit.

Romans 16:19 — “Certainly the report of your obedience [authority orientation] has become known to all. Therefore, because of you I am delighted: but I want you to be wise with reference to the good, and unharmed with reference to the evil” .Again, the good here is the believer’s individual advance to maturity under X+Y+Z.

Romans 8:28 — “to those who are elected to privilege,” the mature believer forming the pivot of preservation; “according to a predetermined plan.” The predetermined plan is the plan of God under the concept of imputation. In other words there are many applications to made from the doctrine of imputation under the plan of God rationale.

The big issue here is how to apply the plan of God rationale in another way. The imputation is simply another way of using the plan of God rationale. (Imputation is always a function of the justice of God directed toward mankind and relating the plan of God to mankind. Imputation functions as an act of condemnation or blessing from the justice of God. It cannot be understood apart from its source, one half of divine integrity which is justice. All imputation is made from justice. Imputation may be defined as the action of the justice of God whereby either condemnation or blessing is attributed, ascribed, superimposed, superinduced; hence, imputed over and above that already existing.)

All imputations except two have a target or a home. Therefore there are two categories of imputation: firstly, those which have a home — the justice of God imputes something to something. What is imputed is the first part of the category and the home or the target is the second part, and between the first “something” to the second “something” there is always affinity. That is a real imputation. The plan of God in both X and Z radical has real imputations.

The plan of God in Y radical has another category called judicial imputation. A judicial imputation is the justice of God imputing to man what is not antecedently his own. Therefore, there is no real affinity. There is only something being imputed in a judicial imputation, no second “something” as in a real imputation.

In the plan of God there are seven imputations. Five of them are real imputations and two are judicial. Each one will have its own application. For example, human life is imputed to the divinely prepared home which is the soul. Human life resides in the soul, therefore, forever. Application: a. There is no sin, no failure, so system of evil or good and evil whereby human life can ever be separated from the soul of any member of the human race. b. If the justice of God took the time to impute human life to the emerged foetus after birth then God must have a purpose for my life. God is fair; the justice of God is the epitome of fairness. We have the imputation of Adam’s original sin at birth. It is imputed to the only home or target. When Adam committed his first sin the old sin nature was originated. So there is affinity between Adam’s original sin and the old sin nature just as there is affinity between human life and the soul. God, in His justice, covered for all of it. There are some people in the human race who will never reach accountability, therefore they must be instantly condemned. When God imputed Adam’s original sin to each one of us immediately after birth, that covered all of us. That is instant condemnation. Now God is free because of condemnation to save anyone who never achieves God consciousness.

You and I are condemned by Adam’s sin. God did not wait around for us to commit our first sin. We can go right back to our first day on this earth and see how fair God is; instead of condemning us on the basis of our sins He condemned us on the basis of Adam’s sin. Furthermore, when He gave us Adam’s sin He gave us Adam’s nature to go with it. After all, Adam’s sin has to have a home! The home is the old sin nature which produces not only sin but human good and evil.

THE EQUATION OF HOPE: THE PLAN OF GOD.

X [HL + AOS = P1 + BD = H1] +

Y [J1 + J2 = P2 + BD = H2] +

Z [EL + BT = P3 + BD = H3] = the seventh imputation.

Whenever you go to someone else you have immediately qualified them as far as you are concerned as an expert. They are an expert to you and yet God says, I have designed the plan so that you are your own expert. God imputed life to you so that you could apply doctrine that you had learned. God has imputed life to you so that you could learn doctrine so that you could apply doctrine that you had learned. And the whole objective of the spiritual life is to become spiritually self-sustaining, which means to operate your life on your own doctrine, not someone else’s doctrine. Each time you are under any kind of suffering or pressure or disaster, whether it is individual or collective, you are not exactly in a position to read your notes or the Bible or listen to a tape. You must be able to utilise something that you have learned prior to that situation. The procedure for handling the situation is the faith-rest drill in three stages but it takes a different turn depending on whether the situation is suffering for testing or suffering for sin. All of the doctrine you learn not only contributes to spiritual growth but at the same time it contributes to your repertoire of applyable things to life. You must always learn everything in the light of having to use and apply it under the second stage of the faith-rest drill.

Romans 8:29 — We start with the causal use of the conjunction o(ti which introduces the second stage of the faith-rest drill. It is usually translated “for” or “because” and in the second stage of the faith-rest drill we have reverse concentration emphasising the plan of God rationale; that is, approaching it from the standpoint of the divine decrees in which the omniscience of God, of course, programs it and the printouts are the plan of God rationale. But not only are the printouts the plan of God rationale but so is A fortiori, so is imputation.

All people have a tendency to become discouraged and one of the beautiful things that happens in life is that all people do not get discouraged at the same time. Therefore there is always someone who is not discouraged who can encourage other people not to get discouraged, though they are at the moment. This doesn’t work too well because it includes a lot of distraction, unless it is pure, distilled Bible doctrine which is communicated for the purpose of encouragement and communicated for the purpose of perception. Instant perception sometimes results in instant application.

Now the plan of God rationale has more than one approach, whether it is A fortiori, or imputation, or printout from the divine decrees, or several other variations.

“we know that whom” refers to the believer who is mature, who has learned enough doctrine to realise that God has a plan for his life. He has learned enough doctrine to realise that he can apply the attributes of God under the essence of God rationale or he can apply the plan of God rationale under one of its many aspects. The we have the aorist active indicative of the verb proginwskw — to know before, to know in advance, to have foreknowledge of something. We will translate it, “whom he has foreknown.” God’s foreknowledge is a printout of divine decrees in eternity past and the beginning of the rationale emphasised in this passage, a rationale for mature believers. The active voice — God produces the action in providing a perfect plan for us. Foreknowledge is the one attribute aspect of the essence of God that requires some rather technical understanding. Principle: The decrees of God are pictured as a giant computer in which the omniscience of God feeds historical facts before time began. The omniscience of God programs the computer with the actual since God knows all that is knowable, both actual and possible. But the decrees deal only with the decisions you did make, the thoughts you did have, and the actions that will occur in your life from your own self-determination.

Dealing with the believer the first of these is foreknowledge, a word which applies to believer only. Not only does it have to do with the believer but it has to do with your ability to make application to situations in life.

Under reverse concentration the second stage of the faith-rest drill the mature believer possesses an outline in these two verses that he can actually use. The concept is foreknowledge first, foreknowledge in its simplest form, the believers in the mind of God in eternity past as well as at the present. Since God is infinite, not subject to time, there never was a time when you as a believer were not in the mind of God and there never will be such a time. You have not lost your identity and you do not need any identification tag at any time with God. Predestination: the believer is in the plan of God. Election: the believer is in the purpose of God in eternity past. Justification and glorification are the actual beginning of the A fortiori rationale in the plan of God rationale.

Foreknowledge is one of three categories of divine knowledge and therefore we will consider a doctrine called the divine attribute of knowledge. You must remember that the computer of divine decrees prints out on the unbeliever as well — reprobation, condemnation, retribution. We are dealing here with the printout for believers only.

The divine attribute of knowledge

A. Self-knowledge.

1. God is eternal, His knowledge is eternal.

2. God is sovereign therefore His knowledge is infinitely superior to angelic or human perception or angelic or human genius. He has an absolute IQ in contrast to creatures who have a relative IQ.

3. Time has nothing to do with God’s knowledge. In other words the future is as perspicuous as the past.

4. Since God is a person He possess both self-consciousness and self-determination.

5. Therefore, God as a person acts rationally in compatibility with His absolute will, knowledge and perfection.

6. God is Himself. Therefore He knows Himself to be beyond comparison with any creature being.

7. Because God is infinite His knowledge is without boundary or limitation whether directed toward Himself or creatures, whether related to time or space.

8. Consequently God’s knowledge, which is infinite, is never complicated with ignorance or absurdities. The revelation of God’s plan never deals with absurdities.

9. God exists eternally unsustained by Himself or any other source. Therefore His knowledge of Himself is as unalterable as He is Himself.

10. God cannot change; His knowledge of Himself cannot change.

11. God’s knowledge of Himself precedes both time and space. Therefore God’s knowledge of Himself is not subject to time or space.

12. God’s knowledge cannot be more or less than it is. His knowledge of Himself cannot be more or less than it is today or billions of years ago. Everything that is knowable in the history of any creature was always in the mind of God and never outside of the mind of God. God’s knowledge is related to His attribute called veracity, His attribute called faithfulness — part of immutability.

13. God’s self-knowledge is related to the other members of the Trinity as well as to Himself. What God know about Himself — the essence of deity — He also knows about the other two members of the Trinity, inasmuch as they have identical essence.

B. The omniscience of God.

1. While God’s self-knowledge relates to His own divine attributes and the attributes of the other members of the Trinity, omniscience is not so. Omniscience is God’s knowledge related to creatures. This is important to distinguish.

2. It is defined as God’s objective knowledge in that it deals with the creature — someone outside of the sphere of self-knowledge. So it is defined as God’s objective knowledge of the universe and all its creatures.

3. Since the divine decrees establish reality, omniscience includes all that is in the decrees plus all that is not fed into the decrees.

4. Billions of years ago in eternity past the omniscience of God knew every thought, every decision, every action of every creature, plus every action and function of inanimate universe.

5. Time has nothing to do with God’s omniscience. The future is as perspicuous as the past simultaneously.

6. The omniscience of God not only knows the alternatives to history, probables, it includes the actuals.

6. The omniscience of God knows the alternatives of history under the category of probable.

7. Omniscience knows all that would have been involved in every case where the individual decision, action, or thought might have been different.

8. Omniscience includes the actual — that which is fed into the computer of history — and the possible — the alternatives that could have occurred but did not occur.

9. Omniscience is defined as follows: God knows perfectly, eternally and simultaneously all that is knowable, both actual and possible.

10. The actual is fed into the computer of divine decrees. It becomes history. While the possible or probable are the decisions, actions, thoughts which could have been made but were not made. They existed as a momentary possibility.

11. Every minute detail of both angelic and human history is completely in God’s mind at all times. Therefore, omniscience perceives the free as free, the necessary as necessary, together with all their causes, conditions and relations as one indivisible system of things, every linkage of which is absolutely essential to the whole.

C. The foreknowledge of God.

1. Foreknowledge must be distinguished from omniscience. Between the two categories of God’s knowledge stands the computer of divine decrees.

2. Omniscience programs the computer of divine decrees with historical facts, thoughts, decisions, actions.

3. Foreknowledge is the printout of the computer of divine decrees. And the principle: Nothing is foreknown until it is first decreed.

4. Only the computer of divine decrees establishes reality which means foreknowledge follows as a printout of the decrees.

5. The foreknowledge of God makes nothing certain but merely acknowledges what is certain — the content of divine decrees. It becomes obvious then that in divine revelation the foreknowledge of God is a means of relating us to the plan of God as an individual.

6. God foreknows all things as certainly future because He has decreed them from His omniscience.

7. The omniscience of God feeds the facts into the computer while the foreknowledge of God prints out the facts.

D. Summary.

1. In summary God’s self-knowledge and omniscience precede the decrees, while God’s foreknowledge is a printout of the decrees. In other words it takes God’s infinite knowledge and reduces it categorically to foreknowledge which is the point at which revelation of God’s knowledge is applicable, where you can say ‘God always knew me in eternity past.’ He knew all about me and yet He still imputed life to me.

2. While the omniscience of God knows every thought and decision and action of history, not so the foreknowledge of God. The foreknowledge of God is limited to only what happens; the omniscience of God is more extensive, it programs the computer.

3. The foreknowledge of God can make nothing certain but only acknowledges what is certain.

4. Since the divine decrees establish certainty nothing can be foreknown until it is first of all decreed.

5. God foreknows all events as certainly future because He has first decreed them from His omniscience.

6. Therefore in our thinking omniscience came first — omniscience knowing both the actual and the possible.

7. Foreknowledge is limited, it deals only with the actual — only with history. Whatever historical disaster is on the horizon God knew about it billions of years ago. While everything was decreed simultaneously and not by stages. The plan of God rationale applies only foreknowledge as the second stage of the faith-rest drill. Foreknowledge is a doctrine for the believer’s application in time; omniscience is a doctrine for the believer’s application in eternity.

Under pressure of testing then the believer must remember that no matter how great the pressure, no matter how great the disaster, there never was a time, there never will be a time, when God forgets us. Your identity cannot be lost.

Rom. 8:29 — the next phrase starts out with the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai meaning “also.” With this we have the aorist active indicative of proorizw — foreordain, predesign. It is generally translated “predestine.”

Any time you have any suffering in your life you must immediately categorise it in order to deal with it from the doctrine you have learned and from the function of your own spiritual life. The two most basic concepts of any type of suffering are either: a. Divine discipline or b. Testing. All categories of suffering relate one way or the other.

Any type of suffering in a personal way in life is merely designed for some greater test along the way. God never leaves us without some training and some

preparation in the field of adversity. We need to profit from any problems and difficulties which come our way on a daily basis. Remember, under divine discipline the

issue is always personal sin, but under testing the issue is always the grace policy of God. We have two different issues and therefore our application must be

different. It was perhaps this lack of flexibility that caused Elijah, who was so great, to fail so miserably after he began that great revival on Mount Carmel. As far as

function is concerned, no matter what the disaster, the difficulty, the suffering, the uncertainty, the problem may be, it requires the faith-rest technique in all three areas

of the drill. Our difficulties are tests that we must take perhaps daily, perhaps weekly, but we are going to have regular and consistent tests. There are so

many opportunities and they are intended to put muscle on our faith, to give us the ability to reverse concentration under all kinds of pressure so that we can actually be

in control of every situation.

This becomes an extremely important principle because without it there is no way that we can survive any major disaster and historical catastrophe, or even

fulfil the purpose that we remain in this life. Remember that the devil is the ruler of this world and that every bit of thought and every system is designed by Satan as the

ruler of this world to counter everything that we are taught in the Word of God. And the predominance of the divine viewpoint in our soul and its application to

experience in all circumstances of life requires not only knowledge of doctrine but this very important application.

Romans 8:29 — “he also predestined” is the aorist active indicative of proorizw, which means to foreordain, predesign. The culminative aorist views the

decrees of God in their entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. Predestination is the act of an infinitely intelligent and wise God in determining the

certain futurition of all events in history and, in our case, with regard to the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. The active voice: the omniscience of God knowing the

actual and also knowing the probable, feeds into the computer of divine decrees the information.

The principle is a very simple one: the actual is fed into the computer with regard to the believer. There never was and there never will be a member of the

human race who is unknown to God. This has to be related to the plan of God. God has made perfect provision for our life and He has provided everything under the

concept of predestination. Predestination does not in any way coerce our volition; it merely anticipates how our volition works, moment by moment throughout our

lifetime. So the omniscience of God, then, produces the action of the verb in eternity past and relates it to His work for the royal family at salvation. Predestination

relates the believer to the plan of God.

Predestination indicates what God plans and executes for the believer in eternity past. While predestination is synonymous with the divine decrees it is used

here to emphasise what God does for man rather than what man does for God. The whole concept of predestination is God doing something for us. We are not helping

Him, we are not helping His plan; we are the helpless ones; He is the helpful one.

As a printout of the divine decrees, foreordination or predestination indicates what God does for man at salvation through faith in Christ. God does certain things

for the believer at salvation, including the baptism of the Holy Spirit. God does certain things for the believer after salvation such as logistical grace support. These were

all foreordained or predestined in the sense that God knew exactly what freewill decisions we would make, He knew what we would think, He knew all about us.

While the printout of foreknowledge means that we were in the mind of God in eternity past, the printout of predestination means that we are in the plan of God as well

as the provision of God forever. In that sense logistical grace, while a separate rationale, is really a part of the plan of God rationale. The decrees record our thoughts,

our actions, our decisions, our successes, our failures. God made provision for both under foreknowledge which anticipates them, and predestination which

provides for them.

So we might say that there is a secondary application. Foreknowledge anticipates and predestination provides. So that billions of years ago every disaster, every

difficulty, every heartache, every frustration, every problem, was not only anticipated by the foreknowledge but God made perfect provision for it in eternity past. But

making perfect provision does not mean that you will follow His provision, accept it and use it. You still have freewill; you must accept it or reject it. And of course your

awareness of His provision in any situation is dependant upon your doctrinal perception and orientation to life through the divine viewpoint. So the decrees record the

thoughts, actions, and deeds, and predestination provides for them. God helps man in eternity past while in eternity past we did not exist. So obviously we were no help

to God.

Now concerning pressure, disaster, catastrophe, this implies we were in the mind of God in eternity past and predestination says we are in the plan of God in

eternity past. Therefore, when testing occurs it was known to God in eternity past, He made provision for the same long before any creature existed. God knew

whether we would fail or succeed in every testing. God made provision in eternity past for every pressure, every disaster, every difficulty, trial, frustration that we will

ever face. He didn’t do it in time, He did it billions of years ago.

For the believer in the Church Age and/or the royal family of God predestination must be defined in terms of this dispensation. We are “conformed ones to the

image of his Son.” The word “conformed ones” is the accusative plural, direct object of the verb to foreordain, summorfoj. We have a genitive of relationship from

the noun e)ikon which refers to Christ in His hypostatic union plus His third category of royalty after His resurrection, ascension and session. The Lord Jesus Christ

as God has always been royalty with a royal family. The Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of David is royalty in the line of David and has a royal family in David’s line. The

Lord Jesus Christ in battlefield royalty as seated at the right hand of the Father as King of kings and Lord of lords, did not have a royal family. Therefore the

postponement of the Age of Israel plus the wonderful fact that a royal family is now called out (the Church or the body of Christ) is a part of the pattern of

predestination. It was foreordained that once Christ would be seated at the right hand of the Father He would be given a royal family. We as believers are part of that

royal family. And a part, then, means that we are “conformed ones” to the image of His Son, which is a reference to the royal family of God during the Church Age. This involves some wonderful doctrines. For example, the doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby for the first time in history, when a person believes in

Jesus Christ, God the Holy Spirit takes him and enters him into union with Christ seated at the right hand of the Father. We are always in union with Christ; we always

will be. It was accomplished positionally at salvation and that was when we became “conformed ones” with Christ. We are in conformation with Him right now

because we are in union with Him. Experientially we may fail, experientially we may be the worst people on this earth, experientially we may do many things that are

wrong, but positionally we are conformed to the image of His Son as of the moment of salvation. Now how can any disaster, any problem, or any difficulty be greater

than being in the royal family forever?

We now share the life of Christ which is eternal life, we share His perfect righteousness which means that we have a double portion, for the Father’s eternal

life and the Father’s righteousness was imputed from the justice of God to the indwelling righteousness of God at salvation. But we have a double portion. We are royal

family, we have the eternal life of the Father imputed to the human spirit which was prepared by the Holy Spirit and is correctly the doctrine of regeneration.

(Regeneration is not believing in Christ, it is what happens when you believe in Christ) We also have the eternal life of Christ because we are in union with Him. So as

royal family of God we have a double portion: the eternal life of the Father, the eternal life of the Son.

We are also heirs of God the Father because Christ is an heir and we are joint heirs. We have His sonship, His election (for He was elected to privilege; we are

royal family, we are elected to privilege), we have His destiny (which is also called predestination), we share His destiny now and forever, we also have His priesthood

(we are royal priests), we also have His kingship, we are going to reign with Him as royal family forever. We are royal family and this is what it means when it says:

“we are conformed to the image of his Son.” Predestination is therefore a very technical word for the royal family of God which was actually formed in eternity past. In

eternity past God actually knew all who would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. From His omniscience he entered this into the computer so that as a printout of the

computer it became the foreknowledge of God on which He acted. Knowing who would be members of the royal family of God it was the purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ in special logistical grace provision to provide for believers in this dispensation as royal family. Royal family means quite a different provision than the family

of God in the past or the familyof God in the future dispensation. We are “royal” family, therefore we have very special provision. It is the application of this provision

that causes us to handle the disasters of life as they occur.

Knowing who would be in the royal family God provided at salvation those things that are necessary to make each believer of the Church Age part of the royal

family function forever. Therefore we will never have a problem for which there was not perfect provision in eternity past. The provision is in the realm of Bible

doctrine and therefore the importance of learning doctrine.

Understanding these doctrines, then, is a part of the plan of God rationale. Applying these doctrines is a part of the second stage of the faith-rest drill, reverse

concentration. Reverse concentration can only apply doctrine that is in the soul, doctrine that you have and understand. You cannot apply zero to a problem and come

up with any more than zero!

In rounding out this particular verse we come back to who is to be glorified. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who is to be glorified. We have a purpose clause

to emphasis that, e)ij plus the accusative the articular infinitive. This introduces a purpose clause, the infinitive of e)imi, it is the present active infinitive. We have a

static present for a condition which always exists, that is, He is always going to be the firstborn with all of the firstborn privileges. The active voice: Jesus Christ

produces through His resurrection, ascension, and session at the right hand of the Father. The infinitive states His purpose. With this we have the accusative singular of

general reference from the intensive pronoun a)utoj. A)utoj is in the accusative but that doesn’t mean that it is the direct object of the verb. Actually the accusative

of general reference acts as the subject. Furthermore there is confusion because while a)utoj is an intensive pronoun meaning “the same” it is never used that way in

the Koine Greek. It is used for the third person singular or plural personal pronoun only in the Classical Greek but there is not one in the Koine Greek of the New

Testament. So it is translated “that he might be.” Then we have the accusative singular direct object of prwtotokoj — firstborn.

In Colossians 1:15, speaking of Christ: “who keeps on being the exact image of the unseen God, the privileged firstborn with reference to all creatures.” Christ

is privileged firstborn in any creature relationship. In relationship to the election of Israel He is the eternal Ruler of Israel. “King of kings and Lord of lords” includes the

fact that He will rule restored Israel forever. He is also Ruler of the second great creature election which is the Church. In connection with this He is called the

“firstborn among many brethren” — that is, among all who believe.

Firstborn is a title of rulership and privilege as well as an indication of sequence in a family. Since this title is related to eternal God, the Lord Jesus Christ, it has

great significance in three ways. First of all Jesus Christ is the ruler of the Church. At the second advent Christ will also rule another election, Israel, as well. Then

there is the matter of the priesthood. Jesus Christ is a royal priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek, so He is a King-Priest. He is the family’s spiritual

leader and guide. The book of Hebrews, beginning in chapter six, discusses in great detail the principle of our Lord Jesus Christ as the royal priest.

Corrected translation of verse 29: “Because we know that whom he has foreknown he has also predestined conformed ones to the image of his Son, that he

might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

The subject of elections demands a third printout to be discussed — verse 30. We start with the transitional use of the post positive conjunctive particle de, and.

With this we have the accusative masculine plural from the relative pronoun o(j, reading us right back into the picture for learning doctrine that we can apply in time of

disaster — “and whom.” Then we have the repeated aorist active indicative of proorizw — this time the culminative aorist views the decrees of God for the Church

Age believer in its entirety but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the believer is in the plan of God from eternity past. The active voice: God the Father,

Author of the divine plan, produces the action of the verb and the indicative mood is declarative for reality of divine decrees.

Next the verb, the aorist active indicative of kalew which means to call but has a technical meaning here: to be elected to privilege. This is the gnomic aorist

tense which takes the doctrine of election of the royal family and regards it as axiomatic. The doctrine is not merely an exercise in mental agility, but as a printout

omniscience feeds the computer and we have foreknowledge, predestination and, now, election to privilege. We are in the mind of God in eternity past, we are in the

plan of God in eternity past and, if we want a key word, this means “privilege” of God in eternity past.

There are three elections to privilege in history. The first is Christ, the second is Israel, and the third is the Church. There are no other elections. This is a

printout for either Christ or for believers. Jesus Christ was elected was elected to privilege. Election to privilege relates to His hypostatic union, incarnation, first advent,

death, burial and resurrection, and ascension. That is the election to privilege of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the privilege of Christ as eternal God to become true

humanity and to become the saviour of the world on the cross. It is His privilege therefore to fulfil everything necessary by way of works so that in salvation we merely

believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and become the possessors of eternal life. It was the privilege of Israel to be the forerunner of Christ as the client nation of the Old

Testament, except for seventy years in Chaldea when Persia fulfilled that responsibility. It is our privilege and opportunity as the royal family of God to live in a client

nation (as goes the believer, so goes the client nation). We are elected to privilege. That privilege has to do with our personal life and service to the Lord and it has to do

with our life in relationship to spiritual advance. The failure of the client nation can be definitely related to the believer’s rejection of Bible doctrine. His rejection of

doctrine means no spiritual growth, no pivot, and the supercharger to every form of reversionism and apostasy.

“them he also justified” — we have the aorist active indicative of the verb dikaiow, referring to a momentary action at salvation which is the imputation of

God’s righteousness. The active voice: the justice of God produces the action of the verb and the declarative indicative is for a dogmatic statement of doctrine. We

possess at the moment of salvation the one thing that can never be taken from us. We can never be punished for losing the target for all the logistical support and for all

divine blessing — God’s divine righteousness. This makes it possible for the integrity of God to function in our direction and it also makes it possible for God to love us

without compromising His perfect love. Justice is the point of reference and justice imputes logistical grace support and blessing to the immature believer. This means

that we are not blessed by what we do by way of legitimate production or illegitimate production.

The application of justification is twofold: a. The believer possesses imputed divine righteousness as the home or target for the imputation of logistical grace

support and blessing; b. Imputed divine righteousness resident in the believer is also the basis for the imputation of special blessing in six categories at maturity and

thereafter. Capacity comes from maturity adjustment to the justice of God.

The principle of A fortiori and how it is used throughout Scripture

Definition: A fortiori is a Latin phrase meaning “with stronger reason.” “A” is the preposition — “with.” Fortiori — “stronger reason.” It is a system of logic using comparison; it is a conclusion compared with another conclusion or recognised fact of doctrine as inferred to be even more certain and inescapable. A fortiori uses an inferential conclusion as being even more conclusive than another reasoned conclusion or recognised fact. In setting up a comparison it establishes reality in both conclusions as they are inferentially related. A fortiori is a system then also of argumentation and debate which takes an accepted fact and by comparison produces an inescapable fact of doctrine, and relates the two in such a way to establish the reality of both and draw an inescapable conclusion. Inescapable conclusions are the basis of application of doctrine in reverse concentration.

The phrase is used in argumentation to produce several categories of conclusion. One category is that something does not take place because the cause which alone could bring it to pass operates still more strongly in another case without producing that effect. That is its debater’s use. A second category of A fortiori is that something does not take place because causes much weaker than those which operate to bring it about are effective in another case. The classical illustration of this: if a weak man is dangerous it follows A fortiori that a weak and stupid man is much more dangerous.

The uses of A fortiori in Scripture

1. There is one in connection with logistical grace found in Matthew 6:30. If God provides clothing for grass, it follows A fortiori that He will provide clothing for believers under logistical grace.

2. The A fortiori of deliverance from the last judgement is found in Romans 5:8,9 — “much more therefore.” If the believer is justified by the blood of Christ it follows A fortiori that the believer will be delivered from the last judgement. If the greater benefit has been given it is obvious that God is not going to withhold the less. Two conclusions are combined, compared, to form an application — in this case eternal security.

3. In Roman 5:10 we have the A fortiori of reconciliation — “much more.” If we were reconciled to God as His enemies it follows A fortiori that we shall be delivered as sons by His life. In other words, if the greater benefit has been given [reconciliation], the less [deliverance by His life] shall not be withheld. If God can do the greater it follows A fortiori that He can accomplish the less. Greater or less is not a matter of quality or quantity but a matter of effort required. The conclusions: the greater is reconciliation; the less is the deliverance in his life which is again logistical grace. Put the two together and you have your life whether you fail or succeed. God will always provide for you in this life.

4. The A fortiori of temporal blessing is found in Roman 5:15 — “much more the grace of God.” If God provided the greater in justification [potential for blessing] and logistical grace [life support], it follows A fortiori that the justice of God can provide the less, the imputation of special blessing to the mature believer. Therefore, if the justice of God provided the greater in justification [the imputation of divine righteousness] it follows A fortiori that He will not withhold the less [imputation of special blessing in maturity].

5. The A fortiori of eternal blessing is found in Romans 5:17 — “much more they.” If the justice of God provided the greater at spiritual maturity [the imputation of special blessing] it follows A fortiori that the justice of God will not withhold the less [eternal blessing and reward at the judgement seat of Christ].

6. These are combined in Romans 8:31,32 and are anticipated here by the word “these same ones he also justified.” We have a temporal and eternal A fortiori which are brought out in these two verses.

“how shall he not with him freely give us the all things?” This is the A fortiori which starts here with two words — [time] justification, [eternity] glorification. In the system, the faith-rest dynamics second stage of the drill, by understanding justification in time leading to special blessing in time [tactical victory] you have the imputation of eternal blessing and reward into eternal which is the strategic victory. So that tactically we can glorify Him in time and strategically we can glorify Him forever. And that is why we have been left here, to glorify Him.

The temporal A fortiori: if the justice of God provided the greater at salvation [justification] it follows A fortiori that the justice of God will provide the less at spiritual maturity, the imputation of special blessing. One link that is left out is the whole logistical grace system. The logistical grace rationale takes you from justification to maturity.

The eternal A fortiori: if the justice of God provided the greater at spiritual maturity [imputation of special blessing] it follows A fortiori that He will also provide the less at the judgement seat of Christ [the imputation of eternal blessing and reward]. And these two A fortioris of blessing in time and in eternity actually summarise the whole purpose for the believer remaining in this life. Therefore it becomes an extremely important concept.

Romans 8:30 — “and whom he justified, them he also glorified” .This is a statement of the mature believer’s A fortiori, the A fortiori of eternal blessing. And therefore the connective use of the post positive conjunctive particle de is intensive and should be translated “moreover” rather than “and.”

“whom he has justified” — and again we have the aorist active indicative of dikaiow. Then we have the aorist active indicative of docazw — to glorify. “These same ones he has also glorified.” This is a culminative aorist. It views the imputation of eternal blessing and reward at the judgement seat of Christ in its entirety — all of the eternal blessing and reward that you will receive at the judgement seat of Christ, but it emphasises the result of that — the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ forever. The imputation of blessing to the mature believer at the judgement seat of Christ glorifies God forever. Note: It is always what He does for us that glorifies Him, not what we do for Him.

The active voice, the justice of God produces the action of the verb through the imputation of eternal blessing and reward at the judgement seat of Christ, and the declarative indicative mood is for the reality of the imputation of blessing and reward which glorifies God forever.

The A fortiori rationale is constructed on two words — justification and glorification. These two are related to time and this is a separate rationale. This is the one that leads to the doctrinal conclusion in verse 31 and gets control of the situation in verse 32. These are application words here rather than doctrinal words. This is reverse concentration.

Verse 31 — “Therefore, to what conclusion are we forced, face to face with these things?” This is idiomatic. Putting it into better English: “Therefore, face to face with these things [the plan of God rationale and its booster, justification and glorification] to what conclusion are we forced?” The plan of God is greater than any problem, any testing, or any disaster of life. Therefore, to reach maturity the believer must pass many tests in which the plan of God rationale is used in reverse concentration. And occasionally you are going to be so down, so despondent, so discouraged that you need to crank in that supercharger — the A fortiori rationale. Reverse concentration is the second stage of the faith-rest drill and is the true dynamics of spiritual advance.

There are two important reasons for maximum as well as persistent reception of doctrine. The first is spiritual growth and the attainment of maturity. That is the objective of God’s plan. Basically, that is why He keeps us alive. The second reason is application of doctrine under pressure and disaster — reverse concentration. The application of the plan of God rationale is developed, then, from two viewpoints. First of all from the viewpoint of the eternal printouts — foreknowledge, predestination, election to privilege. These have to do with eternity past. But the booster is in justification and glorification which sets up A fortiori as a separate rationale for times of great discouragement.

In verse 31 the conclusion is stated in the second rhetorical question: “If God be for us, who is against us?” In good English the first part should be translated: “If the God be on our side [and He is].” (Application of the essence of God rationale) All of the rationales say, Yes, God is on our side. The rationale is to take all of it or part of it and recover from self-pity or the various introspective subjectivities of life which are related to the arrogance complex. Tij kaq h(mwn — “who is against us?” The whole thrust of the application of doctrine is to show that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.

Principle

1. God is on our side; God is for us. This is illustrated by failure as well as success. Divine discipline means, in essence, failure. Testing means FTXs to nail down doctrines and to advance spiritually.

2. This becomes the doctrinal conclusion from the application of these systems of doctrine in time of testing.

3. These systems force the mature believer to doctrinal conclusions. They force advancing believers to doctrinal conclusions.

4. This doctrinal conclusion also sets up the supercharger, the booster — the A fortiori which starts with the judicial imputation of divine righteousness.

5. The first judicial imputation — all personal sins were collected and imputed to Christ on the cross for judgement. That becomes the rationale in reverse concentration in Rebound so that you reach the doctrinal conclusion, “I’m back in fellowship.” Therefore, control of the situation, filling of the Holy Spirit.

Judicial imputation number two applied — doctrinal conclusion, I’m being supported logistically until I get there, and once I get there I have +R so that He can impute to me in six categories, blessing which glorifies Him. So that is the doctrinal conclusion. Now I am in control of the situation again because I must be tested to apply these things and to learn to apply these things so that I am ready for historical disaster as well as the good times to come.

6. All personal sins in history were judged by the justice of God on the cross. Therefore the reason behind reverse concentration. You merely name your sins, not go through some system of penance. This means that you can get over to the second judicial imputation and apply that.

7. One half of divine holiness is God’s righteousness which has been imputed to us to provide a home or a target for both logistical and supergrace blessings.

In the first part of verse 32 we have the first judicial imputation emphasised. Judicial imputation number two [second half of the verse] brings in the second A fortiori. Put the two together and you have your supercharger in operation and you are in control of the situation.

In the plan of God rationale there are two systems of A fortiori blessing, the temporal and the eternal. The temporal system: if the justice of God at salvation provides the greater — the judicial imputation of divine righteousness — it follows A fortiori that the justice of God will provide the less at maturity — the imputation of special blessing or supergrace blessing in six categories. The eternal system: if the justice of God imputes the greater at spiritual maturity [special blessings in time] it follows A fortiori that the justice of God will impute the less at the judgement seat of Christ in eternity. These two A fortiori blessings are not only a part of the plan of God rationale but they are the supercharger and, at the same time, they are the stated means of glorifying God both tactically and strategically in His plan. The tactical glorification occurs in time; the strategic glorification occurs in eternity.

Verse 32 — starts out with the nominative singular from the relative pronoun o(j whose antecedent is o( qeoj in the previous verse. So the first word in the verse is “who” rather than “He that.” Next comes the intensive use of the enclitic pronoun gh — “even.” Then we have the aorist middle indicative of feidomai ou — “did not spare.” Corrected translation: “The God who did not even spare.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the judicial imputation of all human sins in history, and regardless of extent or duration, gathers them up into a single whole. [The justice of God imputes them to Christ on the cross and judges them].

The middle voice of feidomai — God the Father produced the action of the verb by means of the first judicial imputation at the cross and subsequent judgement in which He judged all of our sins. That is what it means when it says, “he spared not.” There is no affinity between our sins and the impeccability of the perfect Son of God. Since none of the sins imputed were antecedently His own this is classified as a judicial imputation.

With this verb we have the objective genitive singular from i)dioj, and adjective of possession and it is translated “his own.” Then we have the noun, also in the objective genitive, u(ioj referring to the humanity of Christ, the uniqueness of Christ in hypostatic union, undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever. Translation so far: “The God who did not even spare his own Son.” This phrase is very important because it sets up the supercharger, A fortiori.

Next comes the adversative conjunction a)lla which sets up a contrast between the negative clause in which the Father did not spare His Son at the cross, and the positive clause in which He judged Him at the cross. It is correctly translated “but.” Then the aorist active indicative of the verb paradidomi — which means several things. It does mean to betray but it means here to deliver over to judgement as an act of justice. Therefore we will translate, “but he [the Father] has delivered him [the Son] over to judgement.” The word “him” comes from the accusative singular direct object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj which is used as the third person personal pronoun in the Koine Greek. The aorist tense of the verb paradidomi is culminative, it views the judicial imputation of all personal sins to Christ on the cross in its entirety but it emphasises the existing results in salvation — logistical grace provision and the tactical victory of special blessing imputed. Then we have u(per plus the genitive means “on behalf of,” it is substitutionary — h(mwn panta, “us all.”

If the justice of God can accomplish the greater — the imputation of +R at salvation — it follows A fortiori that the justice of God can accomplish the less. Now that we have +R it is even easier because +R becomes the target for all logistical grace blessing. This is why God can continue to give us life and breath and even blessing when we have completely and totally failed in His plan. It would be impossible for the justice of God to impute divine righteousness to the believer at salvation except for the fact that all personal sins were imputed to Christ on the cross.

Principle

1. Both God the Father and God the Son are eternal members of the holy Trinity. Therefore, they are coequal and coeternal.

2. Both the Father and the Son have always had an infinite and eternal love for each other.

3. But you will note at the cross that this eternal and infinite love was set aside so that justice might function in providing us with salvation.

4. In judgement divine justice takes precedence over divine love. After the fall of man divine justice, then, became the point of reference. Where sin is involved justice takes precedence over love.

5. At the cross divine justice takes precedence over divine love making justice the point of reference.

6. Divine justice judges our sins when they were imputed to Christ on the cross.

7. In the first judicial imputation divine justice supersedes divine love. And that establishes the precedent. Love is not excluded but God’s perfect justice is the point of reference and the originator of grace function. Therefore, God will always be fair to all members of the human race. His justice is incorruptible, unchangeable, eternal.

So the transitory phrase here is: “how shall he not also.” We have the interrogative pronoun poj is used here for a rhetorical question to set up A fortiori. With this we have a very unusual negative o)uxi. It is an interrogative word in a question which expects an affirmative answer. But in the rationale of the plan of God it demands that you understand the transition. We also have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai and this is translated correctly, “also.” Then the prepositional phrase sun plus the dative of person of the intensive pronoun a)utoj — “with him.”

Principle

1. Our association with Christ begins at salvation. It begins by a grace action the moment we believe in Christ. God’s righteousness is imputed to us.

2. We have classified this as the second judicial imputation in the plan of God. Since it is judicial there is no antecedence; there is no home or target to make such an imputation.

3. No antecedence, no affinity, no home or target for the indwelling divine righteousness not only is judicial but it does set up a new relationship between mankind and God called grace. This new relationship is based upon the possession of God’s righteousness. It becomes the home or the target for logistical grace support, totally apart from anything we do or do not do.

4. Therefore both judicial imputations combine to provide the greater factor in the A fortiori of blessing in time.

5. Logistical grace blessing begins immediately after salvation. We are given a certain amount of time on this earth before either death or the Rapture. We are given life-support systems, whether they relate to our physical bodies or whether they relate to the spiritual activities of the angelic conflict. We are provided a right pastor, the communication of doctrine, the principles by which such doctrine can be assimilated with or without personality conflicts, etc.

6. This is the divine support of the believer in “Y” radical. Supergrace blessing begins with the attainment of spiritual maturity through maximum doctrine in the soul.

7. For the mature believer the justice of God imputes the righteousness of God for the purpose in every life of reaching maturity and receiving down that grace pipeline from the justice of God six categories of blessing. That is why we are still alive and are still here!

The plan of God rationale has a supercharger, the A fortiori rationale which gives it extra strength and is especially designed for discouragement of one sort or an other.

Rom. 8:32b — “freely give us all things.” “Freely” is not a good word. Nothing is free in life. Anything that is free to you cost someone else something. Someone paid. Therefore there is no excuse for putting the word “free” in here. Salvation isn’t free, it cost Christ everything; it cost God the Father the judgement of His own Son on the cross. “No charge” is a part of a grace policy; but if you take “no charge” out of its grace context and somehow imply that it is free and doesn’t cost anyone anything, and therefore do not approach it with some sense of appreciation or authority, then obviously you are going to lose out along the line.

Ta — accusative plural of the definite article, panta, accusative plural of the adjective substantive paj, h(min , is a dative plural indirect object of e)gw. This is the word order in the Greek but not the order we approach it because the last word in the sentence is xarisetai, the future middle indicative of xarizomai, a verb formed on a noun, xarij. Xarij means grace; xarizomai means to be graced out, to graciously give, or to give in grace. The future tense is a deliberative future used in a rhetorical question taking the place of a direct assertion. Paul uses rhetoricals and debater’s technique, to form an A fortiori conclusion regarding the imputation of grace blessing, both logistical and supergrace. The middle voice, this is a deponent verb, middle in form but active in meaning. Therefore the active voice would mean the justice of God produces the action through two imputations: logistical and special blessings, both of which are motivators when properly applied. So xarizomai means to graciously give [not “freely,” it cost God something!]. So the “all things” refers to the blessings systems of Y and Z radical.

There is a blessings system in each stage of the plan of God. In X radical unbelievers prosper. They prosper overtly and apparently. Some unbelievers are very prosperous because they followed the laws of divine establishment in free enterprise. People who follow the laws of divine establishment are going to prosper, one way or another. There is a system of prosperity for unbeliever and believer related to the laws of divine establishment. It is inevitable that there will be prosperity where establishment and freedom exist.

In Y radical there is another brand of prosperity. Under logistical grace God prospers certain believers. In Y radical we not only have the laws of divine establishment, free enterprise, but we have logistical grace. And God promotes people under logistical grace. But it is for those who are positive toward doctrine. Those who are negative could prosper if they were operating under free enterprise. That is why the Scriptures refer to the reversionist prospering. And why does he prosper? Not because he is taking in doctrine but because of establishment. So you have one group prospering under establishment and one under logistical grace. However, the one who prospers under establishment without doctrine has no capacity and sooner or later his prosperity will be a source of great misery. But the person who prospers from logistical grace has capacity for his prosperity which becomes a source of great happiness. And if he happens to lose his prosperity he still has his happiness.

The ultimate is when we get to Z radical. This is where we have the six categories of logistical grace blessing. These are the ultimate because you have capacity for love, capacity for happiness, capacity for blessing, occupation with the Person of Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole thing is meaningful. Also, when testing comes you have the whole realm of rationales from which to apply to any situation. So the real “tiger” in life is the mature believer. He could actually have all three forms of prosperity.

Corrected translation: “The God who did not even spare his own Son, but he has delivered him over to the judgement on behalf of us all, how shall he not also with him graciously give to us the all things?”

Principle

1. The A fortiori rationale demands application under the second stage of the faith-rest drill.

2. Such reverse concentration leads to the third stage of the faith-rest drill which is doctrinal conclusion. The follow-through is control of the situation.

3. A fortiori is a supercharger, a shorter and quicker rationale. It is to double the “horsepower” in instant testing.

4. Again, A fortiori is the Latin phrase meaning “with stronger reason.”

5. It is both a system of logic, using comparison, and a rationale for the believer under pressure.

6. It compares a previous of doctrinal conclusion with another conclusion of doctrine to recognise the certainty of xarizomai, the certainty of God’s grace policy.

7. A fortiori uses an inferential conclusion as being more conclusive than another reasoned conclusion or fact of doctrine.

8. A fortiori is a rationale which takes an accepted fact of doctrine and by comparison produces an inescapable fact of doctrine.

9. If the justice of God provided the greater at salvation through the judicial imputation of divine righteousness, it follows A fortiori that He will not withhold the less after salvation. The less is logistical grace.

10. The eternal application is even more important. If the justice of God provides the greater at maturity through the imputation of special blessing in six categories it follows A fortiori that He will not withhold the less at the judgement seat of Christ through the imputation of eternal blessing and reward.

The system is a very simple one: logistical grace plus supergrace equals eternal glorification of Christ. That is why we are here. We are not here to please ourselves or even glorify ourselves. No one ever loses by following God’s plan to the ultimate which is glorification of Christ. Everyone loses when, somewhere along the line, we peel off and neglect doctrine.

Probably the most tragic thing about Elijah is that he had great spiritual gifts, he was a great communicator and a man of great strength as an individual, he was a loner and he was “gutsy,” he was great spiritually until … The big problem is that “until.” Elijah was a man who had everything going for him, a man whose courage was to be admired, whose spiritual life was phenomenal, whose reverse concentration was there all the way, until … One thing happened. God gave him some authority. The problem with Elijah was that with all that authority he couldn’t make the right decision.

A lot of people in this world are fantastic until they are given some authority. They can’t take it. Elijah was one of those people who couldn’t handle authority. He had instant arrogance. When all of those thousands of people were standing there at attention ready to obey his orders, instead of having them stand fast and do nothing, he gave the command to kill the 450 prophets of Baal. Elijah could operate without authority. He wasn’t designed for authority because, while a pastor-teacher must have authority in the local church, Elijah was essentially an evangelist. And as such his authority was his spiritual gift of prophecy, which functioned like the gift of evangelism today, enabling him to stand up in front of all kinds of people — unbelievers — and have them listening and responding. There are certain authorities in life which are related to communication, not to people. That is what the gift of evangelism is, to operate outside the local church, and it is a gift where you do not have to have the ability to handle authority.

Outline of Chapter 19

1. One man’s failure, verses 1-8.

2. One man’s lesson, verses 9-14.

3. Jesus Christ controls history, verses 15-21.

Verse 1 — Ahab reports to Jezebel.

The greatest mistake that Elijah ever made was to order the death of the prophets of Baal. If some of them deserved to die it was a matter for court jurisprudence, not for a power-mad prophet. Whatever society demanded of these people the proper procedures should have prevailed.

We have the hiphil imperfect of the verb nagad — told. The hiphil is usually causative active voice. It is also used for impulse. Ahab is under a conditioned impulse. As soon as he gets into the presence of his wife he “spills his guts.” He tells her everything. Instead of controlling his wife it was a case of petticoat government; the woman ran the show.

Jezebel began to plot the destruction of Elijah because, note, Elijah only used authority with a large group of people one time and used it wrongly. And he laid himself wide open. Elijah the strong is now Elijah the weak. The worst thing he could have done was to jump on the side of power politics by using violence in order to change something. The Lord had already changed it but he went absolutely power mad. And when he did that he laid himself open to the smartest woman in the world at that time. She was smart enough to know that if you make a martyr out of a “jackass” then the “jackass” becomes the rallying point for the movement that he represents. But, leave him alone and the thing will die. By now Jezebel is smiling! She saw where Elijah had made his first mistake and she used it.

Principles

1. The Lord had won using Elijah but Elijah had lost. He violated the principle of pivot politics by using violence on the prophets of Baal.

2. Elijah had placed himself under the power of Jezebel, for he is now a part of power politics. As long as Elijah refrained from killing those prophets, they were already discredited by the Lord. It was better to leave them alive and discredited than to kill them and immediately make martyrs for the cause. And, furthermore, this is what Elijah has done. Elijah was spiritual top dog in the spiritual situation [pivot politics]; Jezebel was top dog in power politics. Elijah is a social action type all the way now. The Lord will sustain him but he is not using doctrine any longer. He is all mixed up and up at the top of power politics is Jezebel. And she is not going to kill him, she is just going to scare him to death! She is going to discredit him without touching him.

3. Ahab’s reaction has been passive. Ahab was sensual, materialistic, self-centred, and preoccupied with hedonistic philosophies and their application to experience.

4. As long as there was food, wine, parties, fodder for the horses and mules, and as long as nothing interrupted his pleasures, he couldn’t care less about religion or which God anyone accepted.

5. But Jezebel’s reaction was quite different. She is seething with anger but she is smart. She is smart enough to realise that Elijah has now weakened himself with an act of violence.

6. By sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, Elijah had great power. By using his new-found authority he destroyed himself — not the plan of God.

7. So by using the sword of violence to kill the prophets of Baal Elijah had departed from the three systems of rationale in reverse concentration.

8. Elijah, then, has departed from pivot politics to enter power politics when he used violence against the prophets of Baal. It was Jesus Christ, the God of Israel, who sent the fire from heaven which won the victory. But it was Elijah abusing and distorting that power that almost removed the true issue. When you have authority you must be correct in the orders you give or lose control of the situation. Elijah lost control of the situation when he abandoned the three stages of the faith-rest drill. And by resorting to violence Elijah has admitted the validity of violence as a solution, and therefore the threat of violence will drive him away.

The power of the believer does not reside in human force, violence, intimidation, and tyranny. Force and violence always creates create greater problems. The power of Jesus Christ resides in the Lord Jesus Christ and the doctrinal principles that He has provided, and these principles are related to the fact that Jesus Christ controls history. The power of the believer is the power of thought. Victory does not mean that the believer stops thinking. In ordering the execution of the 450 prophets of Baal Elijah stopped thinking and started emoting. Violence is not the solution to the problems of life.

Justified violence does exist in two categories: a. internal client nation — the intimidation and execution of criminals in order to restrain crime; b. the defeat and the destruction of the enemies to the client nation. Military is designed to kill the enemy without being personally involved with sin, guilt or retribution.

The problems of life which we face always demand a solution. Our problems can generally be divided into two categories: our personal problems and then the problems that are related to our life in a society, a nation. So these problems can be classified as either personal or collective or sometimes a combination of both. While man cannot solve his problems he tries to compensate by trying to solve the collective problems of a given society or a national entity.

Some of the greatest reformers were the most maladjusted people to life. It was their maladjustment which inspired them to try to solve other people’s problems. Many of the people who are now recognised historically as being great reformers — some of the original feminists, for example — were people whose personal lives were filled with problems. Obviously they had no solutions and orientation to life.

Basically there are two approaches to problem-solving as far as the collective principle is concerned. It is the contrast between the two that we have had to note in some detail, pivot versus power politics. Pivot politics is the divine solution to life which we have been studying under the three rationales of reverse concentration, the second stage of the faith-rest drill, the essence of God rationale, the plan of God rationale, and the logistical grace rationale. Pivot politics as the divine solution to life demands that the individual believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, advance in the plan of God through the perception of doctrine, attain maturity and becoming part of that pivot which forms and preserves the client nation to God. So pivot politics always adheres to principles of establishment, freedom, free enterprise, and it advocates the function of the laws of divine establishment in society, which means that everyone through his own self-determination should be free to advance or succeed on his own.

Now, reformers and crusaders come along and say that people should not have the right of self-determination. “We should decide for them what they should do and should not do because we are better qualified to live their lives than they are,” is their attitude. All crusaders are nosy people. They have no concept of freedom in terms of privacy. A person should have the right to make his own mistakes, as long as he is not violating criminal law, and his own successes without someone telling him what to do. But power politics comes along and says that human beings shouldn’t really run around loose with free will and says that it will make decisions for them.

Power politics is both a human and a satanic solution to life’s problems. It is essentially the concept of social action practised by the National Council of Churches as an illustration and by the communist parties of the world.

What happens is that believers in their process of rejecting doctrine build a layer of scar tissue on the soul, then another layer and then another. This intensifies the arrogance factor until eventually these people come to believe a lie. The intensification of the arrogance factor in time of prosperity produces self-righteousness but in time of disaster or adversity it produces self-pity. They often amalgamate to form a guilt complex. Here is where power politics gets its start. A self-righteous person is very arrogant and in his arrogance he feels that he is an expert on how others ought to run their lives. Therefore he intrudes upon their privacy in order to do so. This starts social action, and Christians who start out being self-righteous bullies in their own local churches wind up being crusaders. Power politics, then, is essentially the concept of social action intruding upon the privacy and freedom of others in the name of greater good.

Many believers become distracted from the plan of God and from the rationales of God under the second stage of the faith-rest drill, reverse concentration. They become distracted because of power politics. They become involved in social action for the establishment of a pseudo-Millennium. Pivot politics versus power politics is the great issue here because, as we have seen up to this point, Elijah was the greatest man of his age as a spiritual leader and was doing so magnificently until he gave that order to kill the prophets of Baal. That switched him from pivot politics over to power politics and left him completely vulnerable.

When you take the law into your own hands you are no better than lawless problem you are trying to cure. It is rejection of legitimate authority and whether that authority is weak or strong is not the issue. When you ignore authority in order to cure a problem in a national entity you merely create lawlessness and dictatorship.

Pivot politics emphasises thought, the application of doctrine to the crisis in reverse concentration. Power politics represents action, the application of violence, tyranny, arrogance, self-righteousness, evil, revolution, assassination. Pivot politics emphasises grace; power politics emphasises change. (Often the first thing people want to do when they get some power is to change things)

Bible doctrine demands that the believer rejects power politics — which means change by revolution, change by radical surgery. Pivot politics always advocates following the law, using procedures which do not interfere with anyone’s freedom or privacy or property, and does not overthrow legitimate authority. Our privilege and our right as believers is to utilise our freedom to go from salvation to the pivot (It is the 7000 who saved the nation, not Elijah). Elijah started a revival and never finished it because he went from pivot to power politics. What saved the nation and perpetuated it for 150 more years was the pivot. And the people in the pivot are not named, they are in no history books, they are unknown. What does more to benefit a country than anything else are the unknown, unnamed, unheralded believers who crack the maturity barrier. That is what counts. Because, you see, a nation is perpetuated apart from assassination, apart from violence, apart from revolution, apart from confiscation of property, apart from intrusion upon the privacy of law-abiding citizens. That is the point. The tragedy is that we, the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, have the key to our nation’s problems and we are ignoring the solution — our personal advance to maturity.

Had Elijah not made the switch God would have used him in a very special way. God could use Elijah without ever giving him any authority, except in people listening to what he had to say and the transference of thought from Elijah’s soul to the souls of his listeners — which would have been the authority of a public speaker demanding and receiving attention and concentration. That authority would have been legitimate with Elijah. And that is how he received this other authority. He received authority from the people because they were impressed by what he said, what he prayed, what he did, and they surrendered authority to him. And he should have handed it right back and said: “No .My responsibility now is to present to you Jesus Christ (whom he called Jehovah Elohim, the God of Israel),” and taken it from there. No person should take authority given to him and use it to start a mob action.

Ahab should have protested when Elijah decided to kill the prophets of Baal. He could have stepped up and reminded Elijah that they had courts for matters such as this. Let them be tried properly. In the Mosaic law all were innocent until proven guilty. Let this be done “decently and in order.” Order means proper authority, not emotion just because a lot of people are emotional. That is how mobs get started.

Change through power politics destroys human freedom, that is, change in the sense of destroying freedom. It attacks establishment authority, personal privacy, property and free enterprise. Pivot politics offers solutions to the national crisis without ever tampering with human freedom. A pivot of mature believers break no laws, sponsor no violence, sponsor no assassination, terrorism or revolution. They confiscate no property or intrude upon human privacy, but they turn the world upside down by the great invisible factor of Bible doctrine in the soul. Power politics tries to change the leopard’s spots while pivot politics never changes the leopard’s spots, only his direction.

Many have enough doctrine to be very discerning about the problems about them but they do not have enough doctrine to be discerning about the solution. The problems of life are going to be a distraction unless we can use the three rationales we have been considering. It is not enough to claim a promise. The only way to clear the decks for action is with the second stage of the faith-rest drill — reverse concentration.

You do not solve tyranny by replacing it with another form of tyranny. All Elijah did was to set aside the tyranny of Baal and set up the tyranny of what we might call “Christian self-righteousness.”

Every believer in supergrace is not qualified to have authority. Authority is one principle in life for which most people are not qualified. Another is power and most people are not qualified for it because they are not exposed to the realities of life at an early enough age and, in fact, are often protected from the realities of life. And if they come into contact with the realities of life they are so disturbed by what they see that they turn to some system of escape, such as dope.

Elijah apparently thought he was doing the right thing. The problem is when some people have too much authority and can’t handle it there is instant arrogance. With Elijah it was impulsive arrogance. He has more authority at that time than anyone in northern Israel and he wasn’t smart enough to “stick to his knitting.” He was a great teacher of doctrine and he didn’t stick with it. He should have said: “We will have Bible class tomorrow night in Jezreel, we will not kill these prophets. They have been discredited, if they are criminals they are subject to legal action.” But his action completely ruined his career. He had no ability to handle the authority he was given.

The subject of the “sword” brought us last time to Matthew 26:52 where Jesus said to Peter: “Put your sword back in its sheath. For all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” This is a reference to crime, not to military function and not to the function of the police officer in the line of duty in shooting a criminal. This is the function of crime itself.

In order to understand what Jesus said and to relate it to 1 Kings 19:1 where we also have the mention of the sword, the following points should be noted.

1. Matthew 26:52 is a reference to crime, to illegal violence, or any system of using power to destroy the freedom of others. This verse, in effect, parallels the verse in 1 Kings 19:1 — “by means of the sword” .

2. Matthew 26:52 does not refer to military function or law enforcement which are legal uses of force and violence within the framework of their professional function.

3. The principle of Matthew 26:52 applies to Elijah who resorted to violence after the victory had been won by the Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah Elohim the God of Israel.

4. Elijah could not handle the power or the authority which the people gave him after the victory.

5. Elijah failed because impulsive arrogance came to him with the authority offered by the people.

6. Many people in life cannot handle authority. Given authority they undergo a complete personality change. Elijah without temporal authority was great but Elijah possessing temporal authority failed completely.

7. One failure leads to another failure. Having adopted the concept that violence means power Elijah became vulnerable to intimidation by greater power.

8. Jezebel could not have intimidated Elijah in pivot politics but Elijah in power politics is out of his spiritual element. Elijah with his great power, his great courage, his great spiritual life, is suddenly weak, helpless, stupid, vulnerable, arrogant, self-righteous and cowardly.

9. With pressure from Jezebel he will also be filled with self-pity.

10. The principle: No matter how the believer succeeds in life his power must always be related to the Word of God and the proper use of the faith-rest technique. This keeps him from accepting more power than he can handle.

So Elijah departed from the Word of God in ordering the execution of the prophets of Baal. And having departed in the sense of malfunction of reverse concentration Elijah is no longer making doctrinal conclusions which form standards to meet the situation, but he has lost control of the situation. When the mob fell on the 450 prophets of Baal not only were the people out of control but so was Elijah. Having departed from pivot politics Elijah is now just another weak person. The believer is helpless to cope with life apart from doctrine resident in the soul. No believer can perpetuate any spiritual victory in his life without constant reverse concentration which gives him instant doctrinal conclusions to face any situation. In Elijah’s case it was there but he didn’t use it. Instead he used impulsive arrogance from emotion.

We all have blind sides. We all are put in a position where we think we have a solution but if it doesn’t line up with the Word of God then we are wrong.

Principle

1. Jezebel bordered on genius. In recognising the weakness of others she was especially adept. She exploited these at the right time with expert timing. She knew as soon as she was told that Elijah had killed the prophets that she was going to defeat him. He had moved from pivot politics where he had victory over her to power politics where he was subject to any type of intimidation.

2. Elijah had demonstrated no weakness in going to the brook Cherith nor his separation when he went to the land of Zarephath.

3. Elijah had demonstrated no weakness in the confrontation in the contest on Mount Carmel — until after the victory was won.

4. After the victory Elijah simply stopped thinking. His greatest test was coming up: Would he accept authority he had no right to? Would he accept authority from the people? He was the people’s man when it came to doctrine; he was not the people’s man when it came to ruling. And he needed all of that establishment doctrine to apply at that moment. He should have said: “Leave them alone. If they are guilty of anything, let them be tried in the proper manner”.

5. The dynamic rationale of the second stage of the faith-rest drill simply ceased to operate because when the people gave Elijah power and authority it was too much of a temptation. He accepted it and what the people wanted was blood. They are terribly embarrassed because they had fallen for the Baal apostasy and now they wanted to compensate for their big guilt complex by wiping out the prophets of Baal. When people have been duped by someone they want to turn on the person who deceived them. The only one to restrain them is someone with doctrine. That would have required application of establishment principles, application of authority principles, application of power principles so that he was still in control of the situation. If there was one person who should have acted as the safeguard for those 450 prophets it was Elijah.

6. This is why Elijah began to lose control of the situation. Not only did he lose control but he exposed to Jezebel’s evil genius his weakness.

7. Violence indicates the presence of arrogance and Elijah’s respect for the intimidating properties of the function of human power now become apparent. Therefore, instead of weakness becoming strength his strength became weakness.

Verse 2 — such counterattacks can only be resisted under the second stage of the faith-rest drill. The qal imperfect of the verb shalach means to send. It means to send a messenger, not an assassin. Jezebel doesn’t want him dead, she has discovered that here is another weak man. She is too smart to kill people unnecessarily. Her objective is to discredit him. The situation is the reverse of Mount Carmel. When the Lord sent that fire from heaven the 450 prophets of Baal were discredited. And once they are discredited, leave them alone! Let them live in a state of being discredited. Don’t make a martyr out of them.

Jezebel is smart. The hero is now Elijah and there is not going to be any tombstone built by Jezebel. The people have to start hating Elijah again. Her idea is to get Elijah to run away and that is exactly what Elijah is going to do.

The qal infinitive of amar — she communicates a message through a messenger. “So let the Lord do to me,” the qal imperfect of asah; “if I do not make” — the qal imperfect of the verb sum, to put down; “one of them” — the prophets of Baal. She only threatens him because she knows that because of his arrogance he cannot think, he cannot use reverse concentration, he cannot use doctrine, and he will be intimidated and run. Arrogance always produces fear if in arrogance you can’t produce what your arrogance demands.

It is extremely important in the Christian way of life and under the royal family honour code that under the principle of live and let live, under the principle of giving each person a chance to use his own volition in the plan of God, we must refrain from being judge or judge and jury with regard to the lives of those around us and those with whom we have contact. Under power politics and under the principle of the criminal mind this concept is rejected. The Word of God enjoins us as believers to avoid gossip, maligning or judging. And the reason for this is because those of our fellow believers and those with whom we associate are generally law-abiding citizens, and if they are not then it is the purpose of law to demonstrate otherwise. This is why we have law enforcement; this is why we have the laws of jurisprudence functioning in our land — sometimes magnificently and sometimes indifferently, but the principle remains under concept privacy that a person is innocent until he is proven guilty. This is for believer and unbeliever alike but it is brought into the realm of the Christian life under the principle of “judge not the ye be not judged” .And under the principle that every believer must live his life as unto the Lord it is the responsibility of the local church, the pastor of the local church, and those who have the teaching mission in the local church to the young people, to constantly emphasise the fact that the moment you start to malign other people or to judge them or to say things about them that are allegations at best and lies in most cases, you may be very self-righteous and respectable but you have just become a member of the category known as the criminal mind.

The criminal is not restricted to some area of the city where crime is prevalent. The criminal is not a victim of his environment as is so often taught but the criminal is such because of his own self-determination. He is a criminal because of his own volition, because he rejects establishment, or because he rejects doctrine or both. And yet it is possible to accept doctrine as Elijah had and become an ultra supergrace believer, and go from ultra supergrace great spiritual leader to a criminal by one decision. It is an awesome thought and one we must give great respect to because Elijah is one of greatest believers in the Old Testament, and yet under impulsive arrogance he went from pivot politics to power politics and from instant ultra supergrace to becoming an actual criminal himself. And one of the reasons why he fled is because the criminal mentality always moves in fear of apprehension.

It is hard to think of Elijah as a criminal because we do not simply associate people who have advanced to ultra supergrace as being potentials under this category. And yet Elijah in many ways was the super criminal. First of all he had no respect for the laws of divine establishment, he was given authority by the people which is related to temporal government, not to his fantastic spiritual gift of prophet. This was authority involved in rulership. Elijah had maximum authority in life but it was spiritual authority, it was authority to communicate, it was authority when he stood up before a group of people and presented doctrinal issues and people immediately became silent and they listened. This was his spiritual gift. But there are two implications that we must always remember. A person who has such a spiritual gift is not necessarily able to handle authority in the temporal realm. And the second principle is that just because a person reaches maximum spiritual growth it does not mean that he can handle any authority. Elijah should never have accepted that authority. It was temporal authority, it was governmental authority, it was authority in the realm of politics.

Elijah was a great communicator of doctrine and he should have stood on that fact. He suddenly became very ambitious to straighten out the nation. And when the people surrendered their authority to him and asked what should be done about the 450 prophets of Baal he immediately demonstrated impulsive arrogance and great irresponsibility. In effect, he became instant criminal for when he gave orders to kill them it was murder. He also placed himself in maximum vulnerability and it will not be surprising, then, to find him fleeing the land as a result of criminal mentality. (This is not to suggest that he was a hardened criminal but the ordering the death of the 450 prophets of Baal who had already been discredited by the Lord was the responsibility of temporal government if it was required.)

Between verse one and two of 1 Kings 19, Jezebel knows exactly how to get rid of Elijah. He is guilty of illegal violence; he is, in effect, is now in power politics. But he is the babe in the woods compared with Jezebel who is brilliant in this field; he is vulnerable to intimidation. Once you go in for illegal violence somewhere there is always a greater violence to destroy you. This is the basic principle behind the control of crime. A criminal has the option of committing crime or not committing crime. If he exercises his option to enter into acts of crime then immediately he can be destroyed by a greater violence; furthermore, a righteous violence, a legal violence — capital punishment. Once he has been demonstrated guilty by the laws of evidence he is placed in a punishment category and removed from society. His death under capital punishment becomes a deterrent to others who would enter a life of crime and who up to this point have considered it something of an honour to be a criminal.

Principle

1. Elijah has transferred from pivot to power politics by his command to violence resulting in the assassination of the 450 prophets of Baal.

2. They were undoubtedly guilty but they were not tried by a court of law. This is exactly the same as a lynch mob. Even if a man is guilty he still has the right to a trial.

3. The battle is fought in the mind with thought and with Bible doctrine. Elijah, therefore, had already won the battle. But he became vulnerable because after the victory he relaxed his vigilance too soon.

4. Slaughter of the 450 prophets of Baal was trying to solve evil by the use of evil. The difference between the two is very simple. The 450 prophets of Baal were guilty of evil, evil in their doctrine, evil in their activities (child sacrifice, the phallic cult, etc.). Elijah tried to solve the problem with human good evil.

5. The prophet suddenly has power and authority which he could not handle.

6. Elijah had to use that power which resulted in abusing that power. He accepted power from the people, he used the power and the result was the abuse of power. Abuse of power is tyranny.

7. Suddenly Elijah rejected pivot politics and the three rationales of the faith-rest drill.

So the principle: Distraction by power replaces concentration on doctrine. Distraction by power results in malfunction of the faith-rest drill.

Principle

1. The victory on Mount Carmel was won by Bible doctrine, Bible doctrine applied, second stage of the faith-rest drill, reverse concentration. The issue was the Lord Jesus Christ on Mount Carmel and Elijah stated in the previous chapter what the issue was. He was doing these things that God might be glorified. When Elijah was distracted from doctrine and grace orientation, and when he malfunctioned in the second stage of the faith-rest drill by impulsive arrogance, this was an abuse of (temporal) power. There are good reasons for separating spiritual authority from temporal authority. (Principle: The influence of spiritual dynamics or doctrine depends upon freedom. And only establishment provides that freedom. So when any religion or any church becomes the State that automatically eliminates freedom and it eliminates the opportunity of persuading people about Christ).

2. In time of victory or prosperity on Mount Carmel it was impulsive arrogance producing self-righteousness which motivated the murder of the 450 prophets. Many of the people on that mountain had sacrificed their children to Baal. Many of them had been victims of this religious organisation and they were most anxious to destroy these prophets. But the law must protect even the criminal until he has a fair trial.

3. In time of pressure and adversity that same arrogance in Elijah will motivate fear, self-pity (under the juniper tree).

4. Arrogance abandons doctrine in the soul. No matter how much doctrine is stored there it is abandoned rather than applied in reverse concentration.

5. Arrogance sets aside the three stages of the faith-rest drill and begins to operate in the sphere of power politics.

6. Arrogance produces pettiness and combines it with power lust to produce violence lust. Once you accept violence as the way of solving your problems you have, in effect, accepted your own doom.

7. Once you have abused power and authority by resorting to violence you become a slave to the system of power politics. And Elijah starts in power politics as a slave and he never improves.

8. It is the resultant vulnerability to intimidation which becomes an obsession with Elijah. He replaces the faith-rest function with the fear-panic ploy.

9. Doctrine still resides in his soul but Elijah had a complete breakdown of reverse concentration in the second stage of the drill.

10. The malfunction of the second stage of the faith-rest drill results in a breakdown or malfunction of the first stage of the drill so that the mind is now cluttered with mental attitude sins. He has fear, paranoia, and therefore cannot function.

Institutional arrogance is the source of great danger to any member of the human race, and that means any believer. It is a distraction to doctrine, a distraction to spiritual life, a distraction to patriotism, a distraction to any form of modus vivendi. By institutional arrogance is meant: All of us in our lifetime will have the opportunity of being related to some form of organisation. We are somewhere within the framework of that organisation. Any time that a person succeeds within an organisation, does his job extremely well, receives recognition for it, is singled out for special acclaim, he is in danger of another relatively subtle and somewhat sophisticated form of arrogance.

Arrogance is failure to recognise what we as individuals owe to the organisation, the institution, to the business, to the team, to the system of discipline, to the system of authority and to the principles which originate such organisation, motivated and perpetuated. Arrogance is failure to orient to the institution and to its organisation and to assume that because you have done well that you, in effect, make the institution or the organisation, rather than the organisation you. There is often an idea that because a person excels he is somehow a superior member of the human race, that there is no teamwork involved and no one else had anything to do with it. It never occurs to the arrogant person that others are involved and that, in effect, it is a system and that the approbation that one receives is simply the result of a system or an organisation. And instead of being grateful for the system and for the organisation the individual becomes not only arrogant but a deterrent to that organisation and a problem.

The trouble with Elijah was that he went to the top in his organisation — prophet. However, this is a spiritual organisation, it should be kept separate from a temporal organisation. There should be separation from the spiritual and the temporal organisation. When the people said: “Come over and join us Elijah,” he made his big mistake. When he accepted that authority and said: “Kill those prophets", he put himself right down at the bottom. He was suffering from instant institutional arrogance and two days later he was running for his life.

Principles

1. Jezebel was not only a brilliant woman but a master of power politics. She had controlled and dominated weak Ahab and was accustomed to being able to manipulate men. The only man she ever feared was Elijah and he played right into her hands with arrogance. No matter how great a man is, add arrogance to him and you have a “weak sister.”

2. Ahab was a great soldier but he was putty in the hands of Jezebel.

3. Jezebel finally saw the weakness of Elijah. She was the only one who recognised his arrogance and his failure. Therefore, Jezebel must strike quickly, neutralise Elijah and discredit him in the eyes of the people before the revival on Mount Carmel gained momentum in Jezreel.

4. To assassinate Elijah would be easy to Jezebel (At least in her thinking) but it would create a martyr adding momentum to the revival. A dead Elijah at this point would be the absolute perpetuation of the revival.

5. Therefore, Jezebel had to get rid of Elijah without being blamed for it. The situation required finesse. Any person in a state of arrogance is a sucker for any system of finesse. Arrogance destroys the ability to recognise the finesse and to counter it.

6. Her subtle mind turned to the threat strategy which has been used so effectively in the 20th century by the communists of Russia.

7. If Jezebel had intended to kill Elijah she would have sent an assassin rather than a messenger. What destroyed Elijah was the message to the right lobe — thought.

8. To assassinate Elijah would have promoted the cause of Jehovah Elohim, the God of Israel, but to discredit Elijah would neutralise the victory on Mount Carmel.

9. Therefore, the most effective way of dealing with Elijah was to frighten him and at this moment he is vulnerable to fright because of impulsive arrogance and institutional arrogance. Because a person has a perfect track record of courage it does not follow that he will always be courageous. That depends upon the state of his soul.

10. As long as Elijah remained in pivot politics and used the logistical grace rationale it would have been impossible to intimidate him.

11. But Elijah deserted and is now vulnerable to intimidation and defeat. Therefore, a principle: To assassinate evil men is to convert them into heroes; to assassinate a hero is to advance a cause.

Principle

1. The believer without the grace provision of logistical support and the divine resources of Bible doctrine in the soul is not only helpless in contention with power politics but a prime candidate for total failure.

2. The evil system of cosmos diabolicus is too subtle, too sophisticated, far too designing and contriving and skilled in subterfuge to be handled by a believer minus doctrine. Never divorce yourself from your source of strength (Bible doctrine).

3. It should be pointed out that Elijah had maximum doctrine in the soul but the arrogance complex short-circuited any possibility of faith-rest function. And either reverse concentration in the essence of God rationale, the plan of God rationale with its booster (A fortiori), or the logistical grace rationale would be more than enough for the subtleties of Jezebel’s cunning. Arrogance has deprived Elijah of the one system of countering Jezebel’s finesse.

4. The threat strategy is the perfect counterattack because when Elijah resorted to violence he overextended his attack leaving a gap in his lines.

5. Jezebel would exploit Elijah’s failure because there is no rebound, no recovery of fellowship so necessary at this time, no ministry of the Holy Spirit to take doctrine in the soul and apply it to the situation.

6. In effect, Elijah has deserted grace.

7. Elijah has become involved in a complex of arrogant functions — scar tissue of the soul arrogance, impulsive arrogance, institutional arrogance, and therefore his source of strength (doctrine in the soul), the means by which he attained ultra supergrace is now no help to him because he can’t use it.

8. Arrogance works with or without scar tissue of the soul; arrogance is the believer’s worst enemy, it turns his strength into weakness. It is the fifth column destroying our line of communication with God and our orientation to life in general.

1 Kings 19:3 — the success of Jezebel’s counterattack.

“As a result he became frightened, and he got up and ran for his life, so he came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah, and he deserted his young man.”

The first verb is the qal perfect of jare — fear. Strangely enough the form we have in the text can also be the qal imperfect of raa, to see. That is the way it is translated in the King James version. The oldest text is the Septuagint which is older than the Hebrew text — because the original Hebrew text is not available. And the original Greek text says kai e)fobeqe — an aorist active indicative of the verb fobew, to fear. So Elijah didn’t “see” anything, he was afraid. The Greek of the Septuagint says he was frightened.

Fear has two concepts. It has the concept of awe, respect, appreciation for authority in an organisation. And therefore the word can be translated “awe.” Out of that organisation as Elijah is and stepping into the temporal, the concept is “fear.”

In the Scripture fear has two concepts: a mental attitude sin and the virtue of respect for authority. As a mental attitude sin fear is characterised by panic in danger, dread, apprehension or consternation, horror. Fear is also reverence and respect for authority and it is also love in the true sense of respect. Fear is used in the Scripture for occupation with Christ, e.g. 2 Samuel 23:2,3, institutional virtue. See also Nehemiah 5:9; Job 28:28.

The fear of Elijah represents the malfunction of the faith-rest drill. When fear and doctrine coexist, doctrine is neutralised. It is always fear which cancels out the application of doctrine.

Some sins contribute more to the problems of life than others. Arrogance, of course, was the original sin of Satan and as such it is obvious that it is the original sin all creatures. Therefore it is one of the most awful sins of all time. In categorising it we find that there are at least three different types of arrogance, they all finally go in the same direction, but the category is based on how they start.

First of all there is scar tissue arrogance which is the arrogance that comes from negative volition toward doctrine or rejecting doctrinal teaching. Every time you say “No” to Bible doctrine a layer of scar tissue is formed on the soul and at the same time arrogance is developed from rejecting the authority of the communicator and the result is that arrogance intensifies with rejection of doctrine. We saw the result of that in “believing the lie” .That arrogance, like all the rest, finally results in time of prosperity producing self-righteousness. In time of adversity it produces self-pity.

The second category of arrogance is impulsive arrogance. This finds the person given authority which he cannot handle. He has no capacity for that authority, he has no sense of responsibility toward God or toward others in relationship to that authority. In effect, he relates that authority to himself. This was the basis for Elijah giving the command to kill the prophets of Baal. He had spiritual authority related to communication of doctrine; he had no temporal authority assigned to him at all. (Moses had both.) Therefore, Elijah as a political ruler was a total failure. His rulership lasted for perhaps an hour. The concept behind it was impulsive arrogance. Since he couldn’t handle the authority he ruled by impulse.

The third category is institutional arrogance in which you find yourself in an organisation and assuming that you made the organisation rather than the organisation making you is a part of this arrogance. This is considering yourself in arrogance to be bigger than the organisation, the organisation needs you, you do not need the organisation. This is a basic disorientation to life in the field of authority.

Probably one of the greatest areas of malfunction leading to institutional arrogance today manifest in historical example is the feminist movement in which women are given authority which they cannot handle, as Elijah could not. Women in an organisation called marriage may wake up one day and discover they are totally superior to their husbands. They are smarter, better organised, make better decisions whereas he makes none at all. The temptation for such a lady is to take over. And it is because of bitter reaction in marriage or impulsive arrogance when a woman has been assigned more authority than she can handle in some field of life, that has amalgamated in the feminist movement.

Now the feminist movement is not necessary to give a woman a place under the sun, in business or in any form of life. When a woman demands and organises for the exact purpose of doing anything a man can do, like working in a coal mine, it is very unfeminine. The problem is that she loses everything that she could gain. Obviously we live in a society when there are many things that women do better than men but when the woman organises to do it and we have arrogant “weak sisters” for politicians, then we have tragedies like women working in coal mines and women in combat outfits. The feminist movement is anarchy and idiocy. Above all it is arrogance.

There is nothing in the Scripture to hinder a woman working, a woman being the president of a company, a woman succeeding where many men are totally incompetent.

There is an overall doctrine that helps to deal with the subject and which would have helped Elijah had he used it. That doctrine deals with the theology of God’s plan. Ultimately everything gets back to who and what God is and to what His plan is. All of our standards sooner or later have to be divine standards as revealed in the Word or revealed through the laws of divine establishment. One of the greatest weaknesses of a believer is being a believer for a lengthy period of time and still have no divine standards and to be operating on emotional self-righteousness and to assume that this is the whole thing. Attitude: There are certain things that I do not do, therefore I am a good Christian. There are certain things that I do do and therefore I am a good Christian.

Our standards must be fashioned and formed by Bible doctrine. The place where all of this begins is the theology of the plan of God. God is perfect and therefore His plan is perfect. Even for sinful and imperfect beings the plan must be perfect. The plan of God is designed for those who are imperfect, those who are sinful, and it is designed to control their sinfulness, their human good and their evil.

In our first two rationales the essence of God and the plan of God combine in this statement: The perfect plan of God cannot be divorced from the perfect essence of God. This is why in understanding the plan of God you must understand the attributes of God because many of His attributes relate directly to the revealed plan of God and all are involved in some way. If we are going to avoid institutional arrogance in the plan of God then we must understand these relatively simple things.

The function of the essence of God in planning and executing the plan of God requires certain doctrines to be at least stated, assumed, understood — the sovereignty of God, the will of God, the omniscience of God, the computer decrees, the printouts [election, foreknowledge, predestination], the function of the integrity of God, justification and glorification. It should be noted that man’s failure to execute the plan of God does not frustrate the plan of God in any way.

The sovereignty of God

A great deal is said about sovereignty which is profound and wrong — hyper-Calvinism. A great deal is said which is abusing and blasphemy about the sovereignty of God in organisations which glorify human volition to the point of exclusion of the sovereignty of God — Arminianism. But between Arminianism and hyper-Calvinism is the Biblical truth which avoids the extremes of human arrogance in the interpretation of the Word of God. God is a person. He has personality. God has self-consciousness and self-determination. God recognises Himself as a personality and as such He thinks, He decides, He acts rationally. The thinking relating to the deciding and relating to the action can be called the sovereignty of God. The self-consciousness and the self-determination can also be called the sovereignty of God for the sovereignty of God is bound up in the self-determination and in the divine decrees.

God is the supreme Being in the universe and when we use the word “God” we refer to three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit who are coequal and coeternal. They have identical essence in three separate and distinct personalities, but we will use the word “God” to cover the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Each one has the same amount of sovereignty so that each member of the Trinity is coequal, coeternal.

The sovereignty of God is His absolute dominion over created beings, so that we might say that sovereignty is a revealed characteristic or attribute of God which is related to us as creatures, to man as one category of creatures, to angels as another category of creatures. Regardless of the category of creature all things depend on the will of God. Nothing is certain apart from the will of God. The will of God cannot be divorced from the sovereignty of God. Sovereignty is the power and the prerogative of God as creator over creatures, as saviour over believer, as ruler over positive believers, as disciplinarian over negative or carnal believers.

So the sovereignty of God recognises the table of organisation in the plan of God. He has absolute authority. He may delegate that authority and He does. But those who have authority from God must never forget, as Elijah did, the Source and the origin of that authority. For when arrogance forgets discipline follows. Don’t ever get so arrogant that you forget that everything that you have, everything that you are, everything that you will ever be is courtesy of the sovereignty and the will of God. If you do exercise authority, that authority comes from Him.

Elijah didn’t have to give the command to kill. It was an impulsive thing from arrogance. Nor did Elijah have to run away. That was institutional arrogance. So it becomes obvious then that Elijah had divorced himself from the will of God. Therefore we look at the will of God as the central structure of the plan of God.

Because God is sovereign He has an all-inclusive will and purpose concerning all that ever was or ever will be, the first and the last of all creatures. This will and purpose originates within Himself and is totally compatible with His attributes. The will of God is objectively designed for His glory. (More than that, we are here for His pleasure.)

The will of God always relates to creation and the will of God can be described under several technical words. Since there are three persons in the Trinity the divine will and action of God within the Godhead can be described as imminent, intrinsic and subjective. Related to creatures it can be described as extrinsic, outside of God in that creature volition was invented. And so when we go from the intrinsic relationship of the members of the Godhead to their relationship with creatures we go from intrinsic to extrinsic. Extrinsic brings in the factor of our free will. And because the will of God related to creatures is extrinsic it also becomes transient, i.e. the chronological function of history, the chronology of your life and mine, the chronology of the life of Elijah.

But we must also say, along with the fact that the plan of God, the sovereignty of God, the will of God is extrinsic and transient (we are confined to time) it is also objective. This makes it different from all other plans, all other institutional organisational concepts. It is objective because it has as its ultimate function the integrity of God blessing us, either through logistical grace or supergrace blessing, and when the integrity of God blesses us — imputation from justice of God to the righteousness of God indwelling us, the ultimate is the glory of God. That is a perfect plan. And since God’s will is all-comprehensive not the slightest uncertainty could ever exist as to one of the smallest events without confusion to all. There is no confusion in the plan of God.

The will of God is eternal because God is not gaining in knowledge. What God knows at any time He has always known — regarding Himself, self knowledge; regarding creatures, omniscience. Therefore, since nothing can occur unknown to God His will is unchangeable and certain. God knew billions of years ago that Elijah was going to fail and that he would become frightened and intimidated and flee. The will of God as reflected in divine decrees will be completed with regard to all of His creatures whether they are angelic or human, and to creation in general.

The sovereignty of God is bound by the integrity or holiness of God. It never acts independently of the other attributes, including divine integrity. Therefore, when righteousness and justice function in our direction, as they do, in the plan of God, they do so in complete compatibility with and co-ordination with the sovereignty or will of God. So God is bound by this integrity, and by His truth or veracity which we call doctrine, and by another attribute called immutability which produces faithfulness to complete what He has begun with regard to creation and history and with regard to your personal life. And God will complete what He has begun in our lives.

1 Kings 19:4 is very hard to get into because so much doctrine must be clarified in studying Elijah under the juniper tree. There are four basic categories of arrogance and several others that are not quite as basic.

1. Arrogance as the sin of pride. This is Satan’s original sin.

2. Scar tissue or negative volition arrogance.

Volitional arrogance. Negative volition toward doctrine builds scar tissue of the soul and simultaneously intensifies the arrogance factor — which rejects the authority of the communicator of doctrine, rejects the spiritual gift of communication, and the combination of intensified arrogance plus the scar tissue on the soul causes that believer to believe a lie. The results of this arrogance are twofold: the acceptance of false doctrine or believing a lie (also known as strong delusion) in 2 Thessalonians 2:11, and secondly, the slavery to the circumstances of life and/or instability and oscillation between the results of arrogance in prosperity and the results of arrogance in adversity.

3. Impulsive arrogance. This comes from having more power and authority than you can handle. It is the abuse of power as in the case of Elijah on Mount Carmel.

4. Institutional arrogance. This is where an individual assumes that an organisation cannot get along without him. One of its greatest manifestations is bitterness, another is serious complaining. Generally it is characterised by a person who succeeds in an organisation and distorts that success or accomplishment into a system of pride. Or in the antithesis it is also manifest in a person who does not succeed in an organisation and assumes that he is not getting the breaks compatible with his own ability. In either case institutional arrogance becomes functional in the soul. Institutional arrogance opposes one or more of these factors: authority, policy or purpose. The honour code principle is to accept these factors in an organisation.

5. Blind Arrogance. God’s standards for maturity and qualification for special blessing are the same for every believer. It is advance toward maturity through maximum doctrine resident in the soul. It therefore becomes blind arrogance for any believer to imply that he has achieved through some unique experience something no other believer has experienced or had; that he has achieved maturity through his unique experience, or that his life is more important than anyone else’s because he is spiritually better than others.

Blind arrogance is an offshoot of scar tissue or negative volition arrogance. It comes in time of prosperity from self-righteousness. Generally it comes from self-righteousness and legalism. Some form of salvation by works can produce blind arrogance in the unbeliever; Spirituality by works, maturity by works for the believer. The emotional experiences of the holy rollers who associate spirituality with a false emotional experience; they allege to be speaking in tongues — an obsolete spiritual gift which hasn’t functioned since AD 70. (These people suffer from blind arrogance.) The self-centred arrogance of that believer who assumes that his life, his activities, his opinions are more important than anyone else’s .(They may be more accurate, but more important introduces a different concept). The person who assumes that the plan of God stands or falls on the basis of his behaviour. It is arrogance that assumes that the plan of God depends on any believer. It is obvious that the plan of God depends on God. The arrogance of the person who sets up false standards and then by complying with these false standards concludes that he is a great believer. The arrogance of perpetuating your enthusiasms on others who are not interested, and judging them with harsh criticism because they are not interested.

6. Conspiracy arrogance. Psalm 12:2 — “They [the mutual admiration societies of life] speak each one to his friend: vindicating themselves with a lip of flatteries, they speak with double standard [double heart].”

Under the abnormal circumstances of the mutual admiration society where a third person, either a believer in authority or a person in authority who is not a believer, usually becomes the target of slander and retaliation of one kind or another. And the basis of this is the concept of conspiracy arrogance.

7. Angelic arrogance. Satan said (Isaiah 14:12-14): “ … I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars [head of all the angels] of God; I will sit on the mount of the assembly in the recesses of the north .… I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High God.” This is the origin of it all, angelic arrogance. cf. Ezekiel 28:14-17.

The arrogance factor is intensified not only by rejecting doctrine but by rejecting authority. One of the places where arrogance always sprouts is where authority is involved. The authority of the communicator and the content of the communication intensifies arrogance when resisted. The results are twofold: the acceptance of false doctrine, which is believing the lie — also called strong delusion in 2 Thess. 2:11; secondly, slavery to circumstances of life which is instability, oscillation between self-righteousness in prosperity and self-pity in adversity. The amalgamation of self-righteousness and self-pity is the guilt complex.

There is an illustration of blind arrogance taught by the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 20:11-16. The background for the subject (see Elijah 69) has to do with the labour union crowd who had bargained with management for an agreed wage. They would work twelve hours a day for one denarius and they had accepted that bargain. The capitalists [management] needed more labour and therefore hired four times, at different times, “non-union” labour, some of whom only worked for one hour. The ones who had worked for one hour did no bargaining at all, they left it to the employer what they should receive. At the payoff at the end of the day the “scab labour” who had worked one hour received exactly the same wage as the “union” crowd who worked twelve hours. Of course the “labour union” crowd protested.

They ignored several principles in their protest which Jesus will call blind arrogance. Management invests the money; management makes the policy. The “scab labour” made no bargain for wages, they trusted management for what was fair. Management was gracious and paid them a day’s wages even though they worked only one out of the twelve hours. “Union labour” protested even though management had fulfilled their contract to the union.

Beginning in verse eleven it sounds like this: “And when they received it [wages], they [the “union” crowd] began to complain against the landowner [who represents management or capitalism],

Saying, these last [the “scab labour"] have worked only one hour, but you have made them equal with us, who have endured the burden of the day and the scorching heat.

But he answered and said to them, My friends, I am doing you no wrong: did you not bargain with me for a denarius?

Take what is yours and go; I desire to give to this last group as I also gave to you.

Is it, not lawful for me to do what I desire with mine own capital? or are you jealous because I am generous?”

Note

1. The Lord Jesus Christ supports free enterprise; He is anti-socialism and anti-communism.

2. Management was just and fair in giving them what they had bargained for.

3. Management could do anything they wanted with the “scab labour” with whom there was no contract of any kind.

Now comes the issue of blind arrogance in Matthew 20:16 — “Therefore the last shall be first and the first shall be last,” which means: Therefore the last [the mature believers] shall be first [the A fortiori blessing in time and in eternity] and the first [the believers involved in blind arrogance] shall be last [neither supergrace blessing in time nor eternal blessing and reward in eternity].”

But there is more from that. This is Jesus using the parable to illustrate it. For “the last” [the ones who were paid last] became first because they received the same wage without bargaining that the union received. The first are the “union” labourers who bargained and had a contract. They are last in that because they did not trust management and went for a contract, they received exactly what the contract called for. Whereas those who trusted management received more than could ever have dreamed of receiving.

In dictating policy to management the “union” crowd were guilty of blind arrogance. Management lived up to the bargain and kept the contract. Blind arrogance is defined here by our Lord as sticking your nose into business which is not your business, dictating to someone where you have no right to dictate. They labour “union” had no right to dictate, they had a fair contract. They had bargained and both sides had accepted the contract. Blind arrogance is telling someone else how to run their business. It smacks of self-righteousness. In blind arrogance it never occurred to the “union” crowd that management had a right to pay wages to those who left it in the hands of management and did not bargain. And Jesus illustrates the believer in reversionism who in blind arrogance establishes his own standards rather than yielding to the superior standards of God’s grace and integrity.

In other words, Jesus is making an analogy between the “union” crowd who had a contract and the reversionistic believer. The believer who accepts Christ has a contract for eternal life. And when he goes into reversionism that is all he gets. He is the first who is last. But the person who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and then follows the grace line and does not dictate standards to the Lord, he is the last who is first.

One characteristic you will always notice: blind arrogance is always telling people how to run their business.

1 Kings 19:4 — The qal imperfect of halak, to hike, to march, to walk, to go. Translation: “He himself went a day’s journey.” The third person singular pronoun is translated in the reflexive form because of the very presence of the pronoun with the verb, hu; “the desert” — midbar [desert, not wilderness. In this case, the Negev.] The action that follows, the qal imperfect of bo. “And came” is a good translation. The qal imperfect of jashab, to sit down. Then the tree which is the rotem, a small brush tree in the desert called a broom tree. It is leafless and therefore has very little shade, if any.

When you get divorced from reality from the interlocking function of the six categories of arrogance and it is hot in the desert, and you finally get discouraged and sit down, shade is not an issue. You wouldn’t know that from the “juniper” tree. But this isn’t a juniper tree, it is a broom tree. The long march under the burning sun, the blistered feet moving over scorching sand, no food, no water, plus arrogance, self-pity, fear. Remember that when you are frightened and tired and feeling sorry for yourself a broom tree is the best tree in the world to sit under! It offers absolutely no shade.

Elijah sat down completely devoid of physical strength and nervous energy. His spiritual failure and physical exhaustion has now brought him to the breaking point. He ran away because he was afraid. Now he wants to die. He prayed that the Lord would kill him.

Then he uttered two adverbs, rab meaning too much, and then the second adverb which means “now.” “Too much now” or “I’ve had it” or “this is it.”

The rest of what he said is typical of the interlocking function of categories of arrogance. Literal translation: “O Jehovah, take my life; for I am not good from my ancestors.” The qal imperative from laqach. He doesn’t make a request, he commands that Jehovah takes his life. He uses the word nephish which means both soul and life. Since the soul is the area of residence for human life it also doubles as a word for life. Then he gives a reason in the causal conjunction ki — because. Then we have the first person singular personal pronoun anchi — “I.” The next word is tob — good, and then we have a prepositional phrase with it m — from, plus ab which means fathers or ancestors. There is also a first person singular suffix with ab which refers to Elijah who is praying and commanding his death and giving the reason: “I’ve had it, O Jehovah, take my life; because I am not better than my ancestors.”

Principle

1. The fear-panic ploy resulted in fear of death so that Elijah fled from Jezreel from the presence and the periphery of Jezebel. He ran away to save his life. He deserted the evangelistic function which had now become a revival.

2. The inconsistency of irrationality is noted in the fact that Elijah was afraid to die in Jezreel and fled. Now under the broom tree he wants to die. The reason why this inconsistency exists is because of a principle: the interlocking function of arrogance categories results in the inability to think. And the inability to think under pressure means cowardice.

3. The change is caused by interlocking systems of arrogance under pressure which cause self-pity.

4. Now the only thing that shows are not the interlocking systems of arrogance but the result: a self-pity that has lost all capacity for life. So the self-pity is totally divorced from the reality of the plan of God as well as total inability of an ultra-supergrace believer to use reverse concentration.

5. Malfunction of the faith-rest drill means loss of perspective. This is a very rapid decline and disintegration.

6. Elijah, once a man of great courage and integrity, is now a craven coward filled with self-pity.

7. The inconsistency is obvious. Elijah ran away because he was afraid to die. But now that he has deserted his post he begs God, he orders God to kill him. He wants to die.

8. Divorced from the second stage of the faith-rest drill the believer never knows what he wants because emotional revolt has replaced the rationale of reverse concentration and he is a total failure with regard to application of doctrine.

9. Along with self-pity Elijah’s shocked arrogance produces the inevitable depression.

10. It is significant that Elijah sits under the only tree in the desert that is leafless — the broom tree — because the broom tree describes perfectly the status quo of Elijah. At this moment he has no priorities, no recall of doctrine, no application of doctrine, no control of the situation. In other words he is like the tree. The tree has no leaves and he has nothing too.

11. There is no blessing, no happiness, no awareness of God’s integrity, no grace orientation, no capacity for love or for life under the broom tree.

Principles

1. Arrogance under pressure not only produces self-pity but an erroneous evaluation of one’s life.

2. This mental depression of Elijah resulted in a prayer which might be translated, “Too much O Lord, take my life.” Which means that Elijah and the broom tree are very much alike. The broom tree offers no shade and Elijah cannot see life in the perspective of shade. The broom tree is relatively useless in the desert; Elijah, the great believer, is now totally useless.

3. The first principle of erroneous evaluation of his own life and self-centredness is: any time a believer gives orders to the Lord he has not only lost perspective of life but he has moved into the sphere of blasphemy. Any time the believer starts using the imperative with God, either he is on very solid ground and he knows it or he is on no ground at all and doesn’t know it. Disorientation is the name of Elijah’s status quo.

4. It should be pointed out, then, that the Lord alone, the sovereignty of God, decides when we will die. We do not order the Lord with regard to anything unless there is something wrong with us. God has given us some specifics as to when and where and under what conditions we can make demands of Him. They are related to prayer; they are related to faith-rest function, under proper conditions. But we do not dictate to the Lord the time in which we die or in the manner of our death. That is strictly His business alone.

5. No believer has, at the same time, the right to dictate the course of his life [the person who wants to get married NOW, the person who wants to be promoted NOW, the person who wants something NOW and not tomorrow or the next day].

6. The rationale of logistical grace plus the other two rationales have completely deserted the frame of reference and the memory centre of this great believer.

7. Arrogance and the interlocking systems of arrogance has not only caused malfunction in the faith-rest life but it has devastated it. This is no longer a matter of malfunction, this is a matter of destruction of the faith-rest technique. The faith-rest technique is something you should use every day. Look out when you stop using it!

8. You will note that in this statement Elijah makes a comparison with his ancestors of the Exodus generation — “I’m no better than my ancestors.” Generally the word “ancestors” refers to the Exodus generation. The Exodus generation failed to use the faith-rest drill. In that way at this moment Elijah is exactly like his ancestors.

There is no objectivity in the soul of the individual who through his own volition has succumbed resulting in interlocking systems of arrogance. He is totally subjective. In addition to that the interlocking systems have produced a cowardice and the very presence of cowardice in the soul means the presence of irrationality in the soul. Elijah has all of that spiritual food in his soul, he is an ultra-supergrace believer, and yet he is not using it. That is because interlocking systems of arrogance cause us to lose touch with reality, we are out of control where the situation is concerned.

Principle

1. The victory on Mount Carmel does not guarantee victory the next day. (Even though Elijah had a strong body it was absolutely meaningless. It is the strength of the soul that counts). Immediately after great victories we are vulnerable to failures and even to defeat.

2. The three stages of the faith-rest drill must be a daily function of the believer no matter how far he advances in the spiritual life and in the plan of God. This observation is made on the basis of the fact that Elijah was in ultra-supergrace and one of the two greatest believers of the Old Testament.

(No matter how far you advance, then, you must never get away from the function of the faith-rest drill. By that it does not mean that you will consciously go though all three stages every time you turn around. But you will be applying and claiming doctrine and making doctrinal conclusions. You may not use the faith-rest drill in every instance in all three stages, you may be able to only use one stage. You may make a sudden conclusion from a doctrine that came into the mind — two stages. But you will constantly be using the faith-rest drill under the principle that without faith it is impossible to please Him. That faith is doctrine but that faith is the faith-rest drill with special emphasis on the second stage of the drill which is, of course, reverse concentration.)

3. Attaining maturity does not warrant a vacation from the faith-rest dynamics. For if you let up on the faith-rest drill arrogance of one form or another infiltrates like an opportunist probing for a weakness. And the next thing you know you are under the control of interlocking systems of arrogance.

4. Faith-rest keeps the believer in touch with the reality of God’s logistical grace and God’s perfect plan.

5. Elijah has lost his perspective under the leafless bush. He has forgotten the Lord of the burning bush so that preoccupation with self excludes occupation with Christ.

6. Success or failure of the ancestors is not an issue; success or failure of the living is not an issue. When you are down the worst thing you can do is to compare yourself with others, it is arrogance. Remember that self-pity is just as much arrogance as self-righteousness. Therefore, when you are down do not compare yourself with others, dead or living. You must compare yourself with doctrine. That is the standard.

7. Motivation, momentum and fulfilment of the plan of God for Elijah’s life is the issue. The issue is doctrinal motivation, perceptive momentum, and the fulfilment of God’s plan and purpose for Elijah’s life. Which means that impulsive arrogance in ordering the death of 450 prophets of Baal has resulted again in the function of the interlocking systems of arrogance and Elijah has not broken out — yet. Interlocking systems of arrogance guarantee the failure of the greatest believers in life and the ultra-supergrace believer is not exempt.

In verses 5-7 we have a new paragraph, still at the broom tree: the blessings of logistical grace.

Here is a man who has failed in every way. He was as much a failure as he was a success on Mount Carmel. Now the contrast is absolutely remarkable. While God gave Elijah logistical support on Mount Carmel He is now giving Elijah just as much support under the broom tree as he did on Mount Carmel.

Every believer in reversionism, any believer who has failed in any possible way, receives logistical support from God and logistical grace does not distinguish between the failure and the one who succeeds in the Christian life. There is no differentiation between failure and success as far as logistical grace is concerned. The only prerequisite for logistical grace is the imputation of divine righteousness. You must have +R. In other words, you must have received or believed in Jesus Christ.

Logistical grace is a fantastic concept. It means that there are ways of blessing (although not ways of enjoying it) apart from the advance to maturity. Technically there are several ways people can receive great prosperity and great blessing apart from the advance to maturity. First of all, any believer or unbeliever can receive fantastic prosperity by his observation of the laws of divine establishment. If you keep the laws of establishment you will prosper, you will succeed, you will be promoted whether you are a believer or an unbeliever.

Why is it possible for bad people, evil people, to prosper? First, because they have observed some phase of establishment. If one has a personal honour code as an unbeliever that is compatible with establishment principles he will be promoted, he will prosper. If one is a reversionistic believer and observe the laws of divine establishment he will succeed, he will be promoted. If one is a reversionistic believer who has failed in every possible way it is still possible to have prosperity for another reason in addition to establishment. That has to do with blessing by association. If he has been or is presently associated with some mature believer, some believer who has cracked the maturity barrier, and there is some relationship which you possess — marriage, family, relative or some business or organisational relationship — whereby association with a mature believer has resulted in his success, prosperity, promotion.

Now in all of these cases the prosperity, the success, the promotion is real. But there is no capacity to enjoy the prosperity, the promotion, the success. And, therefore, though the individual possess prosperity, promotion, success, he has no capacity for it and it is a source of great misery. So the only people in life who enjoy their success are those who have the capacity for it and the capacity can only exist through advance to maturity.

Most Christians are distracted from their advance to maturity because they are distracted by the success of people whom they have personally evaluated as evil. However, to be evaluating people is not the believer’s job, not his responsibility. To be upset because someone who is a jerk has succeeded is not his responsibility, it is merely a testing to see if he can utilise properly the faith-rest drill as it relates to the logistical grace rationale.

Benefit accrues to the believer because he possess God’s righteousness, because he has personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. We were saved by grace. Faith is the absence of human merit. This principle continues, we are blessed, we are supported, we are sustained by logistical grace. All of the life support systems which exist to keep us alive in the Devil’s are given to us on the basis of our personal possession of God’s righteousness. This is to destroy any illusion that because you have made some sacrifice, because you have given up some sin, or done this or that, that somehow God is blessing you. God does not bless us because of anything we do; God blesses us because of what He does. He will not compromise His essence to bless anyone because they are nice, sweet, moral, etc.

1 Kings 19:5-7 — the blessing of logistical grace. First of all we have the qal imperfect from shakab, to sleep from exhaustion. He has used up his physical energy in running, he has used up his nervous energy in worry and fear and anxiety. He is completely exhausted, still under the broom tree without shade. The verb that follows says: “as a result of being so exhausted he fell asleep” — jashan. But having slept, notice the next phrase, hineh — behold, zeh, a demonstrative pronoun, “this.” It calls attention to an unusual event. It is an idiom for, Now look at this. The unusual event is the function of logistical grace support to a believer who has totally and completely failed. Bit logistical grace support does not depend on the success or the failure of the believer but on the fact that one half of divine integrity still resides in Elijah and always will. Logistical grace support is based upon the residence of God’s righteousness in every believer and support is imputed from the justice of God to the righteousness of God.

Next comes the qal active participle from the verb naga, to touch. Here it is a qal active participle, he had to be touched repeatedly. He was sound asleep as only an exhausted person can be. The angel was touching him. (The angel was the Lord Jesus Christ) He said, qal imperfect of amar, communication of thought. Notice that what Elijah thinks is totally inconsequential. If you have malfunctioned in the faith-rest drill what you think is of no consequence. If you can’t through reverse concentration apply doctrine to a situation then what you think is absolutely meaningless. At a time like this it is only what the Lord thinks that counts. And the Lord has often graciously bestowed upon us His thoughts. He permits us to get some benefit of His thinking. That is exactly what happened in Elijah’s case. (We have to get it through the Word today. Elijah had it through a verbal dialogue which follows) He said to him qum — “get up,” a qal imperative. The second order is also a qal imperative, akal — eat. This verse emphasises the angel as the source of the food. The food was provided — logistical grace.

Verse 6 tells us what was there. The hiphil imperfect of nabat — [nabat means to look around]. The hiphil stem is causative active voice. By what the Lord said he was forced to move his head around and see. He did, he looked at the food. And when he turned and saw that food there for him and had nothing to say he also demonstrates that interlocking systems of arrogance destroy capacity for life. A few hours before this man was in ultra-supergrace but the interlocking systems of arrogance have not only neutralised all that doctrine resident in the soul so he can’t apply it, but at the same time they have destroyed his capacity for life, his capacity for happiness, his capacity for love, his ordinary, simple principles of thanksgiving. True thanksgiving or appreciation is the beginning for capacity for life. When you truly are grateful for what has been done for you, then you are beginning to have capacity for life. When you begin to appreciate what your parents did for you in all the years that you were under their roof and never once did it occur to you that they sacrificed, they saved, they did something on your behalf, they provided your needs — and you took it all for granted, went out into the world totally disoriented to life.

The noun ugah is a bread cake. This bread is the absolute ultimate in sustaining health and life. Not only will he recover his tremendous nervous energy but his physical condition will be so great that on the strength of this bread he will make a forced march of forty days into the desert. We call it a loaf of bread but it is a lot more than that.

Elijah ate the entire loaf of bread and drank the jug of water. He also returned to his broom tree bed and fell asleep — without so much as a by your leave. When a person is down as Elijah is and has extremely poor manners, that becomes a detail. You ladies never nag your husbands, even though they might be wrong about some detail, when they have come in after a hard day’s work, that’s the principle. Don’t jump people about “picky” things even though they are wrong about “picky” things when the major issue is staring everyone in the face. Elijah is wrong about his appreciation, thanksgiving is capacity for life, but right now that is a detail. Remember that when you are dealing with failure always stay with the major issue, interlocking systems of arrogance. If a person is suffering from interlocking systems of arrogance, picking on something — their poor manners, etc., they are unteachable. Because of Elijah’s arrogance the Lord didn’t try to teach him or rebuke him. This was not the time. This verse not only depicts the provision of logistical grace but it also depicts the total ingratitude of the believer under interlocking systems of arrogance. Ingratitude means inability to think, to apply, to appreciate and to have a capacity. Elijah was preoccupied with the food and the water, he was hungry, he was thirsty, he was not occupied with the Lord. Interlocking systems of arrogance destroy capacity for life, capacity for love, capacity for happiness, and cause inability to utilise doctrine you have learned. And they guarantee ingratitude.

Verse 7 — first of all we have, as in verse 5, the Hebrew noun malak, a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, it is not an angelic creature. It is called here malak adonai, malak Jehovah and this is a theophany, a manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. With this we have the qal imperfect of the verb shub, indicating the faithfulness of our Lord in the function of logistical grace. The Lord Jesus Christ as the angel of Jehovah appears to him in this form in order that He might be seen by Elijah, but this is, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ as God from His justice providing logistical grace to +R in Elijah. The principle again: The justice of God sets up a pipeline with the righteousness of God which indwells Elijah. He is a total failure but he is the recipient of logistical grace. Elijah’s failure has not stopped or discontinued any form of logistical grace support. The believer’s failure does not abrogate the grace of God.

The Lord had to again awaken Elijah. The tremendous exhaustion which we have noted was both physical and the use of nervous energy and fear. The qal imperfect of naga means to awaken him in this manner and we have the same commands as before, two qal imperatives. First of all qum, get up, and akal, eat. The principle of all of this is that human failure cannot change the plan of God. Divine integrity is not influenced by human failure.

Principles

1. Preoccupation with self precludes preoccupation with Christ. In other words, interlocking systems of arrogance always guarantee failure, even in the mature believer, in the field of category one love.

2. The second provision of bread and water made no more impression on Elijah’s arrogance than the first provision of logistical grace. He has nothing to say, he is self-centred, full of self-pity.

3. Believers under the influence of interlocking systems of arrogance are never impressed with anything that anyone does for them. They are only impressed with themselves.

4. In prosperity arrogant self-centredness manifests itself in self-righteousness.

5. In adversity arrogant self-centredness manifests itself in self-pity.

6. Arrogance without scar tissue of the soul accomplishes the same as arrogance with scar tissue of the soul. Whether a success or as failure, once a person comes under the interlocking systems of arrogance, it produces the same symptoms.

7. Elijah’s preoccupation with self has blotted out his former occupation with Christ.

8. Furthermore, the faith-rest drill in its three stages has now malfunctioned at every stage. Elijah is like a ship dead in the water.

9. Such terrible human failure on the part of a mature believer like Elijah, however, makes no impression on the integrity of God. That is, God does not in any way withhold any of His logistical grace support or logistical grace blessings. Again the principle: divine integrity is not influenced by human failure.

10. God can only be influenced by His own perfect essence.

11. The essence of God does not interact with mankind’s failures or success, and therefore the integrity of God does not interact with your success or failure. The essence of God only interacts with His own divine attributes.

Principle

1. Interlocking systems of arrogance not only lose control of any situation or circumstance but they lose control of self in those circumstances so that the individual involved, be he ultra-supergrace or the last stages of reversionism, reacts exactly the same way. Therefore you cannot tell the difference between a supergrace believer and a reversionist when that individual is under the influence of interlocking systems of arrogance.

2. Interlocking systems of arrogance destroy capacity for life and happiness. You can have the first five categories of the supergrace blessing — the spiritual blessing category, temporal blessings, blessing by association, historical impact, great happiness in adversity — and be completely miserable and without capacity to enjoy any of the things that God has given you. Why? Interlocking systems of arrogance.

3. Interlocking systems of arrogance also divorce the believer from the realities of life.

The contributions to the interlocking systems of arrogance

In the interlocking systems of arrogance there are four basic categories. The first is the arrogance as a mental attitude sin which we call pride. Secondly, there is scar tissue or negative volition arrogance [these all interlock. All sin, good, and evil comes from the old sin nature interlocking systems of arrogance involve sin, good, and evil. They also involve parlaying sin into evil and parlaying human good into evil, parlaying human good into sin and parlaying sin into human good]. Negative volition toward doctrine not only builds the scar tissue of the soul but while you are doing it arrogance as pride is intensified into negative volition arrogance. This arrogance intensifies because you reject the authority of the communicator of doctrine.

The result of this negative arrogance is twofold: you accept the lie. Anything that is false, you believe it. Secondly, there is slavery to circumstances and resultant instability, oscillation dependant upon circumstances because you are a slave to them.

Thirdly there is impulsive arrogance. This is how ultra-supergrace believers get caught. It comes from having more power and authority than you can handle. This why certain people should never be promoted beyond a certain rank.

Fourthly, there is institutional arrogance in which an individual assumes that an organisation cannot get along without him. It assumes that the individual is carrying the organisation rather than the organisation carrying the individual. In other words, “they can’t get along without me” syndrome. This happens also to the athlete who becomes successful and doesn’t appreciate the system that gives him success. Institutional arrogance can apply to a school system, a police force, or other organisations where a person says he is not appreciated and isn’t being given the recognition he deserves.

Fifthly, there is blind arrogance. This is to become involved and not know it. It usually starts with self-righteousness and it applies to any believer who implies or alleges that he has achieved spiritual greatness or any kind of greatness through some system of self-sacrifice, some unique experience, and has achieved a greater relationship with God than anyone else. Blind arrogance is the “holy roller” who alleges to speak in tongues or have an ecstatic experience and call it spiritual. It is assuming that the plan of God stands or falls on the basis of your behaviour, your function. In other words, if you don’t witness to ten people a day the plan of God is going to fail! Blind arrogance is self-centredness of the believer who assumes that his life, his production, his opinions, his activities, his experiences, are more important than anyone else’s .It is the conclusion that the plan of God has failed because you have failed. It is setting up false standards and then concluding spiritual greatness by complying with those standards. It is assuming that any sign of friendliness of the opposite sex implies that such a person is madly in love with you, the assumption that a few dates is tantamount to a promise of marriage.

Sixthly, conspiracy arrogance is the mutual admiration society. This involves two categories of arrogant people: the arrogant aggressor who is the initiator of the conspiracy and also the arrogant follower who is just as arrogant but an entirely different personality — leaning toward subjective self-centredness. The former is objective self-centredness.

1 Kings 19:8 — the retreat to Mount Horeb.

He obeyed: “he arose” qum. Then we have akal — he ate; shathah — he drank. We have a series of verbs where we have action but nothing said. That is his sulking, locked-in arrogance. Then it says in the qal imperfect, he marched, he trekked for forty days — jalak.

He came to Horeb, choreb which means “waste.” It is the famous mountain of the book of Deuteronomy. This where Moses received the Law. In other passages it is called Sinai. It is interesting to note that the two greatest believers in the Old Testament are associated with Mount Horeb/Sinai — Moses and Elijah — called the Mountain of God because Moses received the covenant related to the function of the client nation on that mountain. The northern kingdom is still a client nation over 500 years later but is now in jeopardy. The very location of Elijah’s destination should have jogged his memory regarding the function of Israel as the client nation to God and the importance of Israel as the client nation. But he still doesn’t do any thinking about this.

“The Mountain of God” — Principles

1. Moses and Elijah have much in common as the two greatest believers in the Old Testament.

2. Both ended great careers as ultra-supergrace believers in failure. Both failed because of the malfunction of the faith-rest technique, especially the second stage of the drill which is reverse concentration.

3. Moses was not permitted to enter the land and Elijah was set aside as the leader of the revival.

4. Moses and Elijah are linked to another mountain called Transfiguration — Malachi 4:4-6; Luke 16:31. 5. John the Baptist was the herald of the first advent — Luke 1:17; Matthew 17:10-13 — while Elijah is one of the two heralds of the second advent — Malachi 4:5,6; Revelation 11:3-12.

6. Both Moses and Elijah departed from phase two under mysterious circumstances. Moses — Deuteronomy 34:5,6; Jude 9; Elijah — 2 Kings 2:11. And it is interesting to note that Elijah now comes to the Mount of God, a name of a mountain which is linked with Moses and with Elijah both now and forever.

In 1 Kings 19:9 we are preparing to study that portion of the chapter where an ultra-supergrace believer rejects one of the greatest doctrinal lessons of all time and thereby demonstrates, not only the failure of his life which was interlocking systems of arrogance, but does show some potentialities even for other factors as well. We have been studying the first six interlocking systems of arrogance as the source of danger to believers regardless of status of spiritual growth and a hindrance to glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a seventh.

The seventh: criminal arrogance.

Criminal arrogance originates from institutional arrogance as a total rejection of authority in a client nation, complete or partial disorientation to authority. The criminal mind is sociopathic and the criminal mind is a pathological liar with unrestrained mental attitude sins and no compunction about the use of violence to attain his objectives.

The Criminal Mind

1. The criminal mind rejects all authority in life. This does not mean that a criminal does not give overt acknowledgement to some form of authority but that, of course, is a part of machination.

2. In arrogance (Interlocking systems) the criminal accepts only one authority in life and that is his own.

3. He uses authority to suit his own purpose just as he uses people in the execution of any nefarious scheme.

4. The criminal mind rejects all establishment authority and as such is the enemy of the client nation to God.

5. The criminal often appears to accept some authority, the authority of a psychiatrist, spiritual authority, and often the criminal mind appears to be positive to accept the Gospel message and to definitely believe in Christ.

6. Once the criminal category, the criminal mind, believes in Christ the issues are very clearly drawn. At that point the criminal faces his real crisis in life. This is, of course, assuming that the conversion is genuine.

7. If, after believing in Christ, the criminal becomes positive toward doctrine this becomes his only hope for a genuine rehabilitation.

8. But if he appears to be positive and uses doctrine as another front then interlocking systems of arrogance prevail and crime wins.

Notice something about points seven and eight: Only the man with the criminal mind can determine whether he will recover or not. It is a matter of his own personal volition.

Article: With Malice Of Forethought

“Crime is a mystery as old as Cain and Abel. We’ve developed a whole vocabulary of euphemisms for it but still no real answers: a good boy turned bad, the black sheep of the family, straying from the straight and narrow, bad seed.

In this century so-called environmental theories of crime are ascendant. One such school of thought most popular in the nineteen fifties emphasises the importance of psychological factors as the root cause of crime. Childhood traumas, it is argued, are responsible for criminal behaviour in adulthood. Freudians, for example, hold that a criminal feels guilty as a result of an unresolved edifice feeling toward his mother and father. He commits crimes according to this view in order to be caught and punished so that he can feel less guilty. However, traditional psychiatric attempts to cure crime, not only therapy but also drugs, shock and psycho-surgery, have proved remarkably ineffective.

Beginning in the nineteen fifties the psychological view of crime has come under attack, not only for its failure to produce results, but also from civil libertarians critical of the power that mental health officials traditionally exercise over prisoners. An alternative, the sociological view which gained currency in the nineteen sixties, places the blame for crime on various elements in the individual social environment. Theorists have singled out everything from ghetto life to school systems, to the use of television violence, as the cause for crime. But members of minority groups have protested attempts to link poverty with crime, pointing out that many ghetto residents lead very responsible lives and that many affluent people turn to crime. Evidence for other possible sociological causes of crime has remained sparse at best.

In the absence of hard facts and reliable results, disenchantment with such sociological theories inevitably sets in. This decade, the 1970s, has been characterised by a growing disillusionment with all environmental theories of crime and with it the very idea that criminals can be rehabilitated. The public seems increasingly sympathetic to theorists who state that criminals are born and not made, and that criminals can only be dissuaded from crime by the threat of severe punishment.

In the midst of such revisionary thinking two hitherto unknown psychiatrists, Dr Stanton Samenow and the late Dr Samuel Yochelson, recently published the first two volumes of a three-volume work called “The Criminal Personality” .These books, the result of a fifteen-year study of approximately 250 criminals, represent an unprecedented attempt to describe the personality characteristics and personality patterns that make criminals different from non-criminals, and how some can be habilitated. Their findings are startling and controversial. The study lends support to the view of crime most concisely expressed by the Harvard Government professor, James Q. Wilson: Evil people exist. The authors conclusions are unabashedly moralistic. They insist that the criminal from an early age has chosen the bad over the good.

Yochelson began the lengthy study alone in 1960 at the age of fifty five. While maintaining a private practice in Buffalo he had occasionally worked for the State of New York, helping the Courts’ determinations of the sanity or insanity of criminals under the Mc Naughton rule which holds that no one who isn’t in control of his actions, or doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong, should be convicted of a crime.

Yochelson was asked by the superintendent of St.. Elizabeth’s Hospital, the Federal mental hospital in Washington DC, to direct an investigation of criminal behaviour funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. In accepting, Yochelson stipulated that he would keep his communications with the subject of the studies confidential, even from the staff at St. Elizabeth’s .He also stipulated that he wouldn’t have any influence over when or whether the men of his study would be released. St. Elizabeth’s agreed and Yochelson left New York for Washington’s hospital and was joined in 1970 by Dr Samenow, a friend who had just left graduate school.

For a total of fifteen years Yochelson and Samenow studied about 250 males who had committed crimes. In the criminal personality they would refer to all of these men as criminals even though most had actually been found not guilty by reasons of insanity. But eventually the study would be widened to cover men who had not been committed but were at St. Elizabeth’s for observation. Still later it would include men who had been convicted of crimes and were free or on parole. So, generally speaking, this study was made, not of people in prison where they give the right answers in order to get out, but people on the outside.

The subjects were primarily adults over twenty one, though some were as young as thirteen. Most were black, a reflection on the racial makeup of the Washington area. They were from all social and economic backgrounds. The researchers spent thousands of hours interviewing these men, sometimes as much as eight thousand hours with one criminal. Later, Yochelson and Samenow would also talk to the men’s families, girlfriends, employers, and associates.

When Yochelson began the studies his attitudes were typical of those current among psychiatrists working in correctional institutions at the time and still held by most of them today. He was inclined to seek for the causes of crime in the past, particularly in their childhood experiences. However, after spending many hours with subjects who willingly discussed their childhood traumas and how these might be related to their crimes, Yochelson began to be frustrated by the approach. The process didn’t seem to lead to any change of thinking or behaviour. Yochelson wrote: After psychotherapy (talking about the criminals) we have produced criminals with insight but criminals none the less, even though they were smarter now about themselves and often smarter in the committing of crimes.

The men did, very slowly, begin to confide in Yochelson more honestly than they otherwise would have, he felt, because they knew he couldn’t affect their release. The information he gained from them and then from their families and friends seemed to contradict all the long-held beliefs about criminals and the cause of criminal behaviour. Take, for example, the theory that crime is caused by such environmental factors as broken homes or ghetto neighbourhoods. Yochelson began to question such notions when he found that some of his subjects actually came from privileged backgrounds and from very loving, stable homes. Even when the men did not have deprived childhoods he determined that they often had brothers and sisters who had not become criminals.

When he interviewed the men’s families he at first had trouble winning their trust. Eventually, however, they would confide that the child who had become the criminal had always been different from the rest. Often this child had begun stealing from relatives and from other children from as early as aged five and breaking the law at age nine.

Another common assumption is that criminals specialise in crime, that one criminal may be a mugger and another a murderer. Yochelson found, to the contrary, that each of his subjects had committed crimes of every type. Indeed, each man was a proverbial walking crime wave having committed hundreds, if not thousands, of crimes during his career, most often without being apprehended. One man laid claim to more than two hundred thousand crimes in a forty-year career. He had been arrested only once and had no criminal record, because he had been committed to St. Elizabeth’s instead of being sent to prison.

Yochelson also decided that even when they had been judged insane, the men in his care were not. Many confided to him that they had schemed and faked insanity in order to be committed, believing that the conditions in a mental hospital would be superior to those in a prison. Having faked insanity they could also fake a cure and be released. The men had learned techniques for appearing insane from books and from other criminals. Sometimes they had even studied how to take psychological tests so that they would know, for example, the proper reasons for making a certain test. In studying medical records Yochelson felt that the psychiatrists examining the men appeared to have been remarkably gullible, readily diagnosing confessed fakers as insane. He became highly critical of psychiatry, stating in notes that psychiatrists would routinely label any behaviour they didn’t understand as psychotic or schizophrenic. He concluded that men were always in control of their criminal actions and always knew right from wrong while committing a criminal act. On those rare occasions where a man suffered from episodes of insanity he stated the man was then not sufficiently in touch reality to be capable of committing a crime.

According to Yochelson his subjects thought constantly of criminal acts. One of these men on walking into a store would think of shoplifting, assault and robbing the cash register. Such plans could always be rejected if they seemed to present too great a chance of being caught. Even so-called crimes of passion, Yochelson concluded, are not impulsive. A man might weigh such crime for months, waiting for the right moment to do it. If a criminal act seems irrational or insane to the non-criminal this is only because criminals do not think the way non-criminals do. When Yochelson extended his study beyond St. Elizabeth’s to convicted criminals he found no difference between the thinking patterns of convicted criminals and those who had been judged insane.

Finally, Yochelson concluded that the men in his study were chronic liars and dissemblers and had been since a very early age. They would say and do anything that might improve their chances of release. They were also masters of self-justification, full of reasons why their criminal behaviour should be permitted by society and adamantly unwilling to change. Yochelson decided that it would be pointless to continue searching for the cause of crime. For one thing, he reasoned, criminals could not be trusted to tell the truth. Further, this process only provides criminals with more excuses for committing crime.

In the mid-nineteen sixties he began an entirely new approach to his study of the criminal. He began to tell the men in his charge that he didn’t regard them as insane, that he held them responsible for their own acts. He also declared that he was no longer interested in looking to the past for the causes of crime. Now, he said, this study would focus on rather than the why, what. He would try to draw a portrait of the criminal with particular emphasis on his thinking and his thinking errors that allowed a criminal to commit crimes. Again, the results challenged accepted thinking. According to Yochelson and Samenow the criminal may be born into any kind of family, rich or poor, loving or unloving, middle or upper class. They claimed that no set of childhood circumstances, family or society, is predictive of criminality. They think that criminals can be of any race as well as either male or female, although their data is almost entirely on males.

The criminal child, as Yochelson and Samenow bluntly calls him, is likely to be precocious and talented, good-looking, healthy and energetic. He is also likely to be restless, however, and to have a short attention span. His talents and energies soon turn from pursuits such as painting or learning the alphabet to activities that offer a greater “charge” in thrills and excitement. He shows an early interest in sex as well as in crime … ”

The principle of all of this is that the criminal mind is our number seven system of interlocking systems of arrogance. Elijah was not of criminal mind, simply because he reached ultra-supergrace. To do so he had to accept too many systems of establishment and authority. Therefore, his criminal act is not the result of a criminal mind. It does result from impulsive arrogance which indicates that there are some criminals who commit criminal acts simply because they are given more responsibility than they can handle.

There is one hope for any criminal mind and Yochelson and Samenow pinpointed it when they said “habilitation rather than rehabilitation.” They must be given a way of life which involves the strictest system of morality. In other words, the strictest system of establishment. This, of course, means to us one thing: regeneration, a genuine conversion, belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, plus the perceptive function of doctrine. The criminal mind will have tremendous testing but this testing can be overcome by the three stages of the faith-rest drill.

1 Kings 19:9-14 — the second paragraph of this great chapter. In this paragraph we notice Elijah’s lessons. He was given a chance for recovery, what would be called in the criminal area habilitation rather than rehabilitation. The retreat to the cave and the grace of the Lord are manifest in verse 9.

“Now there he entered a cave [this is on the mountain of God, Mount Sinai] and remained [he spent the night there]; and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and said to him, Elijah, what are you doing here?” That question is the basis for establishing his recovery.

Remember that all suffering that comes to you is in one of two categories, either testing for the purpose of blessing and growth, or divine discipline. The issue in testing and the issue in discipline are entirely different and therefore require a different function of the faith-rest drill. In the case of divine discipline the issue is sin, but in the case of testing the issue is always grace.

The function in divine discipline suffering is the three stages of the faith-rest drill. Stage 1, you claim a rebound promise like 1 John 1:9. Stage 2, reverse concentration applies judicial imputation number one to the situation. Stage 3, you have doctrinal conclusions, you are back in fellowship and with that you are in control of the situation, i.e. the filling of the Holy Spirit. If there is any residue of suffering the purpose of that suffering now changes from discipline over to testing. The suffering may continue at its present intensity, which means you have the capacity for that much suffering. But generally the suffering will be lowered because of lack of capacity. Remember 1 Cor. 10:13, you are not going to be tested beyond you capacity.

In testing the situation is different. In testing we still have the solution in the three stages of the faith-rest drill. The principle remains the same: faith reaches out and claims a promise to clear the mind for action (reverse concentration). In the second stage of the drill you still have reverse concentration using one of the three basic rationales [the essence of God rationale; the logistical grace rationale; the plan of God rationale]. The result then is doctrinal conclusion and control of the situation.

There is a major breakdown with regard to the second stage of the faith-rest drill here with Elijah. It starts out by saying he entered the cave. That is the qal imperfect of bo. In his status he looked for some kind of shelter, found a cave and entered it. The qal imperfect from the verb lum means to spend the night. He wasn’t going to stay there permanently.

Principle

1. Arrogance under pressure produces self-pity. What better place to indulge in self-pity than the darkness of a cave. So we now find Elijah in that state of interlocking systems where under the pressure of adversity [his discipline] he is in a state of self-pity.

2. How can you tell the difference between a mature believer and a reversionistic believer when either one of them is involved in a heavy sin? The difference is attitude toward doctrine. The reversionistic believer is negative; the mature believer is still positive toward doctrine. The reversionistic believer has negative response to divine discipline whereas the mature believer generally has positive response to divine discipline. But the difference is attitude toward doctrine. The mature believer remains positive toward doctrine and will eventually respond to discipline whereas the reversionist is negative toward doctrine and rejects discipline and merely intensifies the interlocking systems of arrogance in his life.

3. The interlocking systems of arrogance in Elijah made him vulnerable to intimidation, self-centredness, fear, self-pity and a distortion of the facts in his own mind, he rationalised the facts into a system of distortion. [Note: There is no recovery for you as a believer when you distort the facts of the case.]

4. After the forty-day march to Mount Horeb Elijah had time for reflection. He could think on the march; he could reflect when he reached there. He had time to apply doctrine to the situation under the second stage of the faith-rest drill [reverse concentration]. And he has a mind loaded with doctrine but he will not and cannot apply it under reverse concentration because of interlocking systems of arrogance. Interlocking systems of arrogance cut off at the pass all reverse concentration, all application of doctrine to a situation.

5. In conclusion, therefore, Elijah had abandoned the second stage of the faith-rest drill because of the interlocking systems of arrogance in his soul. In those systems f arrogance the result is self-centredness, egocentricity, resulting in so much preoccupation with self that his own self-righteousness has manufactured a paranoia. He will state that paranoia twice in this chapter. He will answer the question first in verse 10 and then again in verse 17. Each time he will state a paranoia. 6. It should also be pointed out that Elijah did not earn or deserve or merit any contact any contact from God. But the grace policy continues regardless of the believer’s failure. And for forty days, the point between the broom tree and the cave, he was being supported by logistical grace. God keeps “failures” alive in the Christian way of life!

“and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him,” — dabar Jehovah, the word of the Lord; “and he said to him,” the qal imperfect of the verb amar.

The following content is designed to correct the situation and get Elijah back with the revival at Jezreel. In this case the word of the Lord is verbalised but to the royal family of God in the 20th century [to us] it is in written form. God speaks through His Word since the completion of the canon of Scripture and, therefore, our recovery deals strictly with the Word.

We have an adverb that follows, poh which means “in this place” or “here.” What are you doing here (in this place) Elijah?

Now Elijah is located in a place which is not a part of God’s plan or God’s will for his life. He should be back in the northern kingdom continuing with the revival, using the authority that God gave him communicating doctrine, rather than using the temporal authority the people gave him which he, of course, under impulsive arrogance used for the murder of the 450 prophets of Baal.

God did not question Elijah when he was at the brook of Cherith. He didn’t question him at the well at Zarephath at the last meal incident. He didn’t question him on Mount Carmel. These were places he was supposed to be and where he was in the will of God. But now Elijah is out of the mental, geographical, and operational will of God for his life. Elijah has failed but God speaks to him. That’s grace. Not only does God break the silence but He will communicate doctrine by which Elijah can apply and recover.

The Septuagint uses a prepositional phrase, e)ij to speleion, which means “in this cave,” where Moses saw the Lord on the same mountain where the cave is located: Exodus 33:22 — “And it shall come to pass [says the Lord to Moses], while my glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cave” .Probably the same cave where Elijah is now residing. The English mistranslates here, “in a cleft of the rock.” That is not correct in the Hebrew. Elijah is also going to see the glory of the Lord in reversion recovery.

“What are you doing here Elijah? The question was designed to awaken the conscience of Elijah and to cause him to realise that he was out of fellowship. Elijah possessed the righteousness of God. God does not love Elijah any less than He did at Mount Carmel. Why? Because at one end of the grace pipeline is the justice of God and on the other end is the imputed righteousness of God. All believers have the imputed righteousness of God. Justice plus righteousness is the holiness or the integrity of God. Justice is the initiator of all logistical grace which is imputed down the grace pipeline to the righteousness of God. God does not bless us or support us because we are good or bad, because we fail or succeed in His plan. God only blesses us because we have His righteousness and all logistical grace support as well as supergrace blessing goes from the justice of God to the righteousness of God. This is the way that God can bless us and sustain us in this life without in any way compromising His attributes. So God’s love and integrity for the believer does not change because the believer has failed. God has not failed Elijah because Elijah has failed God. And when we fail God He does not fail us. We are still alive, God still has a purpose for our lives and He still imputes logistical grace support but keeps us alive from His righteousness to His justice.

This adds up to a very important principle: The plan of God does not depend on you or me, it depends on God. And God has found a way to bless us even when we fail. And the fact that you and I are alive today is because the justice of God has imputed to the righteousness inside of us (His righteousness) another day. He will provide what we need for this day. That is the issue in logistical grace.

The big principle in this particular area is the one which distracts the mature believer, interlocking systems of arrogance or the arrogance complex. No matter how high you rise in the ranks of the Christian life you can always be tripped up by the interlocking systems of arrogance.

Self-righteous reaction

1. Interlocking systems of arrogance relate impulsive arrogance to self-righteous reaction.

2 The self-righteous reaction is a part of self-righteousness, not simply in prosperity under the negative volition system, but self-righteousness as a manifestation of arrogance in time of a specific prosperity. The specific prosperity is being awarded a great deal of power and authority. Just as what happened to Elijah on Mount Carmel. He was awarded by the people an authority which he could not handle.

3. Self-righteous arrogance must be classified in this case as self-righteous reaction which we commonly call righteous indignation out of control.

4. Illustration (Politics): A conservative may react against the failure of a liberal government to control evil and take the law into his own hands. It is the taking the law into his own hands which is the self-righteous reaction as a part of the arrogance complex.

5. This is essentially what Elijah did in ordering the execution of the 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18:40.

6. For example, we have today the self-righteous indignation of the law-abiding citizen, very moral, very self-righteous, and he has divine establishment norms. With these plus arrogance he reacts against any unfair system of income tax. Therefore he cheats on his income tax returns, which is self-righteous arrogance reaction, making him dishonest. He is reacting against evil by producing his own.

7. For example, the abused citizen who is the victim of some criminal act against himself or against his loved ones. He may react by personal or individual vigilantism.

8. That religious fanatic, John Calvin, took over the civil authority of the city of Geneva to enforce his own morals, norms and standards on the populace. He was guilty of interlocking systems of arrogance. He even formed a vigilante committee and actually executed people who didn’t agree with his sermons.

9. The strong believer positive toward doctrine must therefore be alert to avoid impulsive arrogance.

10. When arrogance combines with self-righteousness and the believer is tempted to react under impulsive or even institutional arrogance he would do well to leave the matter in the Lord’s hands and the function of divine justice from the justice of God.

11. The believer’s responsibility toward the Lord does not imply irresponsibility toward establishment authority. Granted, establishment authority is often ghastly and it is easy for the believer who understands authority to react. If you react with arrogance you are out of line because you are going to reject establishment authority. Arrogance bypasses establishment authority in favour of personal retaliation or personal vengeance or breaking the very laws which we as believers are commanded to uphold.

Verse 11 — our Lord is now going to do a favour to Elijah. He is going to take Elijah to the front of the cave and give him a lesson designed to awaken Elijah to the fact that he has failed miserably, that interlocking systems of arrogance have caused him to enter into a state of carnality — not reversionism. He is a mature believer, not a reversionist. (Maturity doesn’t in any way shrink the old sin nature) In verses 11-12 we have the doctrine of the correct use of power, the importance of the proper use of authority.

Verse 11 — “Therefore he replied, Go outside and stand on the mountain face to face with the Lord. And, behold, the Lord was passing by … “ The qal imperative of jatsa is a command. You cannot learn doctrine either for spiritual growth or for recovery apart from recognition of authority. The imperative indicates the authority of our Lord who is going to teach the lesson and communicate the doctrine to Elijah. The first step in recovery is to accept authority.

In the improper use of power you have the self-pity that followed and the self-pity is related to the darkness of the cave. “Come outside.” In other words, you can stay home and sulk and never recover or you can step outside and hear the doctrine. And through your own volition start to use the faith-rest drill, the rebound technique, analyse your own problems, confess your own sins. It is a private relationship between you and the Lord. That is called recovery through being spiritually self-sustaining. You cannot be spiritually self-sustaining, however, and arrogant at the same time. And you have to face reality with the common sense of doctrine.

We have a waw conversive which changes the qal perfect of amad into the imperfect. This is the imperfect jussive and the jussive is tantamount to a command so actually we have a second command, “stand.” (In the ancient world the teacher sat and the people stood.) The point is: there is a different posture between the one who communicates the doctrine and those who receive the doctrine. This is the principle that in the communication of doctrine one person, and one person only, has the authority. One command must be obeyed before the second command becomes a reality. The command to stand on the mountain becomes a command for strict academic discipline and concentration on doctrine.

Strict academic discipline includes several factors. First of all, and most important, is the principle of poise. Poise is one of the most magnificent of virtues. You cannot have leadership without poise. The ability to accept authority even though it is grating against your inner sensibilities is poise. Poise means humility, in effect. Second is concentration. With all the poise in the world you also need something else to get it yourself, you have to concentrate. And you have to be motivated to concentrate. “And behold the Lord was passing by” is a reference to God the Holy Spirit. Without the ministry of the Holy Spirit none of us are ever going to understand anything.

The “face to face with the Lord” in verse 11 has to do with authority in teaching and the principle is that regardless of the fact that he has forgotten the various categories of rationales and that in effect he has forgotten the entire faith-rest drill, the faith-rest drill is still there. “Lord” is a reference to one of the three members of the Trinity. Generally any time there is a visible member of the Godhead, Jehovah (Lord) in the Old Testament refers to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the visible person of the Trinity. But also in this passage we have Jehovah used for the third person of the Trinity and it is actually God the Holy Spirit who is “passing by.” We have the qal active participle of the verb abar, the word used for passing by or passing through. The pivot politics has been abandoned and the power of pivot politics is related to divine power to change things. The human power of power politics is related to the human use of violence or some other distortion of authority to change things. The principle, then, is that if you are going to avoid the abuse of authority in your life, if you are therefore going to maintain your advance, your momentum in the plan of God in your life, you must have two factors: one is the Bible doctrine which you learn daily and the other is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in your life under the title of the filling of the Spirit. Without these it is impossible to accept legitimate authority. Just as the Lord reveal Himself to Moses in Exodus 33:22 in the burning bush, so at the same place the Lord now revealed Himself to Elijah. However, on this occasion there is a different emphasis and a different lesson to be taught. Elijah has become involved in power politics since he commanded the execution of the 450 prophets of Baal. Elijah did not use his great authority to turn them over to the law. Instead he took the law into his own hands because of self-righteous arrogance. He abused human power to create a change which did not solve the problem. Principle: Change does not solve problems. Only the correct application of Bible doctrine in the soul avoids the abuse of human power in power politics. Elijah was about to receive his doctrinal lesson in the correct use of power. All correct use of power must be related to Bible doctrine and to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit as far as believers are concerned. Since unbelievers are involved in establishment they must understand establishment principles of authority. One of the things that destroys the system is to create in the system a power that overthrows the system. When the system is gone all we have left is the power. This is part of the function of power politics to destroy the system. Now the power that overthrows is generally a power of irresponsibility and therefore instead of creating even a better system this simply becomes a system of dictatorship in which all freedom and all self-determination is rejected. People do no realise that when they destroy a system which represents establishment authority they always create an anarchy and therefore lose everything that they thought they were gaining. They end up with power outside of the system. We call it tyranny.

Power in a system is called authority; power minus the system becomes evil. God has created a system so that we can all have freedom, so that we can work within the system and everyone can be restrained from destroying anyone else.

Right now there is violence in trying to solve racial issues. There is no race. One thing that is clear in the United States from the Constitution is that a citizen’s race is of absolutely no consequence. He is free to succeed or free to fail but race has nothing to do with it. And to try to force a racial issue has produced some violence and if this forcing of a racial issue is not stopped, and if people are not left alone, it is going to cause a lot more. And it sets up a lot of prejudice that simply does not exist. We are all citizens of our country and our background is not the issue. We are free to fail and we are free to succeed; we are free to advance as far as our ability will take us. Making an issue of race is hurting both sides of the argument, it produces nothing but antagonism. The system says background is not an issue and it is of no consequence. The issue is how you respond and perform in the system. But, you see, the bleeding heart do-gooder comes in and sets up antagonisms, and so they have to have an antagonisms officer — but they don’t call it that, they call it a race relations officer. This an illustration of how national arrogance can destroy a nation. It is a bomb about to blow up. And what is national arrogance? Minorityism and racism. The fact that we have different colour skins is no issue. But every time people demand certain things for their race they make an issue out of it. In other words, they reject the system and that becomes a point of arrogance.

There are three illustrations of power outside the system. The first of these is the “great and strong wind” — verse 11. We would call that a hurricane or a tornado. This represents the ultimate in natural power. But what about a hurricane? A great and strong wind does not operate within a system. It is destructive. That is exactly what happens when people come to power by means of power politics, by means of violence, by means of destroying establishment authority. Once you have destroyed the system you have in effect destroyed yourself and, furthermore, you have removed any possibility of advancing yourself. Once you destroy the system then you cannot advance within that system.

Notice what the wind does. A mountain is a well established terrain. It represents all good establishment function. Establishment represents the principles of freedom by which we all operate in a system. Freedom includes authority, privacy and property. Now along comes the wind and destroys the mountain. There is your arrogance!

“and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord.” That “great and terrible wind” represents interlocking systems of arrogance which bring about revolution, the destruction of a system, the destruction of establishment. It represents the power of power politics, the power that destroys the system. And we notice immediately that God is not in it, a very important principle — “but the Lord was not in the wind.” God is not in anything that destroys the system. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit works only in pivot politics to make possible perception of doctrine as well as the application of doctrine through reverse concentration, second stage of the faith-rest drill. Change brought by the violence of power politics is devastating to the human race, whereas change wrought in the soul through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit is a blessing to man.

In verse 11 we have noted that the mountain represents the stability of life which God has provided through the laws of divine establishment as well as the principle of authority in life which we call simply “the system” .Authority is held by those who are incompetent as well as those who are extremely competent. But it isn’t the person who holds the authority it is the principle of authority that gives us our freedom and our function as a client nation to God. The great wind or the hurricane destroyed what was stable and what should have been there. It was a destructive force representing, not only the interlocking systems of arrogance, but any form of antagonism to authority.

Many people in life always feel they are getting a bad deal. Sometimes they are and sometimes they are not. Many people feel as though they are not properly recognised for their true ability and talent. Many people feel that prejudice is frustrating their advance within an organisation or within a system. But in reality it is the system that defines success and it is the system that will bring one to success provided that he has the patience and the poise and the good sense to leave the problems that often occur in the hands of the Lord. For anyone who is in any kind of an organisation is going to discover sooner or later that the very system which destroys the weak also promotes the strong. If you are vulnerable to weakness in one system of authority you will be vulnerable to weakness in any system of authority.

When it says that the Lord was not in the great wind we know immediately that in any system of anti-authority or power politics is definitely not the answer.

“and after the wind an earthquake.” The earthquake also represents the abuse of human power in the function of violence, killing, torturing, raping, or even the function of prejudice. One of the greatest things that can happen to anyone during their childhood is to grow up in a family where there is no prejudice. People develop prejudice almost instantaneously and the old sin nature contributes to it. But to grow up in a society where there is very little prejudice, except to ill-mannered people and bores, this is a wonderful thing.

The earthquake represents the abuse of power as well as the rejection of authority. It represents the criminal element in a country; it represents the person who is ant-authority and the person who upsets the concept of authority in a client nation. It represents the functions of the abuse of power by governments. It is the policy, then, of power politics to act as the earthquake and to be destructive to a national entity. But God the Holy Spirit is not involved in power politics, nor does God approve of any system of government whereby the freedom of the individual is destroyed or curtailed, or whereby he is intimidated for believing in Christ — or even in being intimidated for not believing in Christ, as per the Government of John Calvin in Geneva.

The changes wrought by God do not violate God’s laws or God’s standards. Furthermore, God does not sponsor sin and torture, or murder, or violence, or rape, or crime, or anything else whereby people seek to gain some end and call it even a legitimate end. Both the hurricane, then, and the earthquake are messages to Elijah that he was out of line in commanding the execution of the 450 prophets of Baal. When Elijah gave that order he not only switched from pivot to power politics but he made himself the weakest man in the land whereas before he had been the strongest.

God does not use violence or the abuse of human power and authority to fulfil His perfect plan. Killing in battle and capital punishment are not regarded as violence or abuse of human power. But a lynching mob, terrorism, assassination, vigilantes, revolution, murder, torture, using hostages, these are evil abuses of power. In verse 12 — “and after the earthquake a fire; but Jehovah was not in the fire: and after the fire a gentle whispering [or the voice of silence atomic].”

The fire is mentioned under the word esh and the principle of fire has always been the same, an attack upon human freedom by an attack upon property. If we are going to understand the concept of fire in this passage we need to review briefly the concept of human property. Remember that freedom cannot exist without the other factors related to it. You cannot have freedom without authority or authority without freedom. Freedom without authority is anarchy; authority without freedom is tyranny. Nor can you have freedom without privacy or property. Property has always been a major issue in freedom.

If you are in business you not only have a right to profit but you have a right to any type of profit that can be gained. The Government, for example, has no right to tell you what your profit should be and to claim that you are immoral if you are in a higher percentage profit bracket than other businesses, than other organisations, or other people. The Government as the authority then becomes the destructive fire. When the Government tries to regulate profits, when the Government implies that it is immoral to make a profit, when liberals come along and say that profit is wrong and you shouldn’t make a profit, the liberals and the Government are the evils of power politics. The law of supply and demand is the correct economic law. Profit is not only legitimate but profit is right, and the motivation for free enterprise is profit. Not only do people have a right to make money and a right to profit but in addition to that people have a right to own personal property. The fire, then, is being a have-not and resenting those who have and therefore seeking to destroy their property. Or joining some revolutionary organisation that will control the Government and confiscate their property. The Government confiscating property is the fire in this passage; the arsonist is the fire in this passage; the person who is careless and evil with regard to other people’s property, the person who puts his feet on someone else’s nice table; all of this is lack of respect for property. This is the principle of freedom and rejecting the authority that makes your freedom possible.

“but Jehovah was not in the fire” — this refers to God the Holy Spirit. The principle is that change wrought by power politics is devastating, like a fire that destroys the forest because of some careless individual or the fire that burns down a property. But change wrought by God the Holy Spirit is compatible with the plan of God and with the power of God. Fire is a reminder of the fact that the Baal cult offered human sacrifice and they used fire to do it and they threw children into the fire as well as adults in human sacrifice. So the fire is a rejection of all systems of human authority, establishment authority, and therefore authority wrought by God to protect us from Satan as the ruler of this world. Jehovah is not in power politics and power politics is not the plan of God nor the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Jehovah is represented at the close of the verse — “and after the fire a still small voice.” First we have in the construct form the word qol which means “voice of” literally. Secondly we have the noun in the feminine singular demamah, silence, or stillness, and sometimes it means a whisper. So we have a voice of silence, of stillness, of whisper. Then we have the adjective in the feminine singular daq, a small particle of dust. It would mean an atom today. “Voice of silence atomic. Voice of silence powerful.” This is also an idiom for a low whisper, a gentle whisper. So there are two admissible translations. First, a voice of silence atomic; secondly, a sound of a gentle whisper. Either way we have a title for the Lord who is the third person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit.

The first translation, “ a voice of silence atomic,” being strictly 20th century of course has great application to us, a voice that makes no sound but is the most powerful voice in the world. The voice of the Holy Spirit is inaudible and yet it is the most powerful voice in the world in any time of history. The power is in the doctrine which is understood through the filling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit also provides, in addition to perception of doctrine, the good manners and the concentration necessary to learn Bible doctrine. The Holy Spirit also provides the basis for reverse concentration, the second stage of the faith-rest drill.

The second translation “a sound of a gentle whisper” emphasises the importance of Bible doctrine resident in the soul as a little more compatible with this passage in saving the country. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit in teaching Bible doctrine so that we can grow in grace for there are only three ways in which a nation can be delivered in time of crisis: 1. Jesus Christ controls history; 2. Spiritual leadership such as Elijah; 3. The existence of a pivot large enough to preserve the nation.

By all categories of human participation it is that pivot of unknown believers that is the most stable way in which a nation can be preserved. “A sound of a gentle whisper” emphasises the importance of the means by which a pivot is formed — maximum doctrine resident in the soul. Bible doctrine can only be understood by the ministry of God the Holy Spirit and can only be applied through the ministry of that same third person of the Trinity.

For a whisper to be heard you have to concentrate and this emphasises the importance of concentrating on the teaching of Bible doctrine. In Hebrews 3:7 the Word of God is called the voice of the Spirit but the Word of God is the voice of the Spirit in terms of concentration. In addition to the concept of the logistical grace rationale is the fact that the power of God totally exceeds any form of creature power, including the power of Satan. God’s power resides in our soul in two forms: the indwelling and filling of the Holy Spirit and the perception and the residence of Bible doctrine in the right lobe. Any power used against the believer can be instantly neutralised by God.

In verse 13 and 14 we meet with Elijah flunking the examination. There was one examination question, it was given to him before the lesson and then asked again at the end of the lesson.

The qal imperfect of haja, it came to pass; “when” — now we have a prepositional phrase ke plus shama, “when (Elijah) heard it...” “… he covered his face with his mantle.” That is like standing up in the middle of church and saying, “Horrible!” He turned “thumbs down” on the whole thing.

Elijah was asked again the question: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” The same question in verse 9 was the test question. It was repeated after the great lesson on power. In spite of the great doctrinal lesson the believer out of fellowship, the believer who is disinterested or disoriented, does not learn the lesson. And in the next verse we find that Elijah flunked the exam. The mantle over Elijah’s face is the veil over his soul. He resists this doctrine because it hits him where it hurts.

Verse 14 — his failure. The same answer is repeated as in verse 10. Here are the same interlocking systems of arrogance. Self-righteous reaction. What he says is true but it is distorted by arrogance. [Just like the fourth estate today which will give some fact of news and then distort it into some liberal viewpoint or some system of muckraking].

After the great lesson this answer is comparable to flunking the final examination on the course. Elijah, under the influence of interlocking systems of arrogance, considers himself greater than the system — “I and I alone remain.” The hurricane, the earthquake and the fire, which illustrate the principles of power politics — he has ignored the concept completely, there is no reverse concentration in the field of recovery or in the field of using any of the rationales. The same answer, of course, includes his arrogance. Elijah pictures himself in self-righteousness as the only mature believer left around in Israel. This is not true, of course, there are 7000 mature believers who form the pivot. The unknown believers are the ones who are going to perpetuate the nation for 150 more years.

Elijah suffers from what any communicator of doctrine could have by way of a problem. For example, any pastor who thinks he is indispensable or who fails to appreciate the people in the pew. You see, it isn’t the pastor who is going to save the nation, it is the people in the pew according to this passage. Principle: Whether the nation stands or falls depends upon your daily intake of Bible doctrine.

Principle

1. The existence of a pivot of mature believers in the northern kingdom of Israel plus the fact that Jesus Christ controls history overrules the failure of Elijah at Jezreel, his failure at Beersheba, his failure under the broom tree and his failure at the cave.

2. Elijah has failed but Jesus Christ still controls history and the pivot of mature believers is large enough to preserve the client nation in historical crisis.

3. Elijah’s failure is the exact reverse of his prior success. So often Christians go in for short bursts of success and long-term failure. The reason is that we, members of the human race with our old sin natures, are prone to overrate our successes.

So the problem we face to day: real degeneracy is not bestiality or homosexuality or rape or murder. These are all shocking things but they are not degeneracy. Degeneracy is mass arrogance. It is the newspaper reporter, the members of the 4th state, communications news groups, overestimating their power and setting themselves up as God. Degeneracy is the mass of people who have overestimated their worth and their value apart from the principles of the Word of God. Degeneracy is what has opened the way for communism to conquer as a principle in this country. After all, the difference between communism and socialism is a matter of the application of violence. And more and more violence is being used by governments to intimidate. You can always tell when a government is going to go the way of the communist countries. First of all they confiscate. They intimidate by confiscation. Then eventually they come in and use violence. But the reason for degeneracy today is arrogance — mass arrogance —, the vanity of people. You can never crusade against arrogance. As soon as you do it breaks out in a different place. You can’t pass laws. Legislation is never designed to control interlocking systems of arrogance which is so devastating. It is a matter of personal volition, authority orientation for the human race in general, and it is a matter of grace orientation through the perception of Bible doctrine for the believer specifically.

4. In victory Elijah, the mature believer, used the three stages of the faith-rest drill. And therefore he succeeded in Samaria, Cherith, Zarephath and Mount Carmel.

5. In failure Elijah, the mature believer, malfunctioned under the three stages of the faith-rest drill. What makes the mature believer to malfunction in the faith-rest drill? After all, it is the mature believer who is the very best in that function. Arrogance! Even the greatest of believers gets caught with arrogance.

6. One man’s failure, even the greatest of men, does not hinder the plan of God. Nor does it destroy the nation.

7. The plan of God rolls right on even though Elijah failed through arrogance. He failed to use the rationales because of arrogance.

8. Because Elijah failed to learn the lesson that the divine plan will be executed by divine provision resulting in divine glory, Elijah is set aside as the great spiritual leader. So God must assign to him discipline and part of that discipline is to take a great spiritual leader and make him “an office boy.”

Elijah is now given the assignment of commissioning three people to replace him. There will eventually be a new king over Syria [at present a General in the Syrian Army]. There is also a young commander in the Jewish Army by the name of Jehu who is going to be the next king of the northern kingdom. And there is a young man who is right now working behind a plough. He will become the prophet who replaces Elijah.

Now this does not imply that Elijah’s ministry is terminated because he has been demoted. But the nature of his ministry is changed. No one is indispensable in the service of the Lord and no human being can ever conclude that God cannot get along without him, which is one of the first conclusions of arrogance. Eventually Elijah will make a recovery; he will never go back to the great spiritual leadership. He will be doing certain jobs. He will be advising the King on several occasions. Then he will eventually make some comeback and be the founder of three great seminaries — the Gilgal seminary of 2 Kings 2:1, the Bethel seminary of 2 Kings 2:3, and the Jericho seminary of 2 Kings 2:5. This would be one of the ways of preserving the results of the revival. These results must be preserved through Bible teaching. In other words, unchanging doctrine for a changing world.

In the course of human history a great many leaders are totally unqualified and can not possibly handle the authority vested in them. Their failure to function with great authority is based on everything from stupidity to arrogance. Many times the individual is qualified but barely misses. The reason for that cannot be found in any stupidity but more a failure to appreciate the system which brought him to the top. Most people have a tendency to reject the system once they are on top because of interlocking systems of arrogance.

Now when a nation falls into the failure of mass arrogance that nation has to be punished. Because there was a large enough pivot the northern kingdom is going to last 150 more years before it is finally destroyed by the fifth cycle of discipline. In the meantime they are in for some punishment because of their mass arrogance. And in order for this punishment to be brought about in such a way so as to hurt the nation with great historical catastrophe and at the same time not to destroy the nation there has to be certain people brought into the picture who are incompetent. God uses incompetent people in an incompetent client nation.

The idea that God is only going to use experts and the best is ridiculous. God uses highly incompetent and terribly arrogant people. He uses them to discipline a client nation or to discipline any nation. The whole concept coming up in verses 15, 16 and 17 is the use of a combination of incompetent people in civil or temporal leadership and to use a person who is totally competent spiritually. God is going to replace Elijah with great spiritual leadership. There is nothing to indicate that Elisha was a greater man than Elijah but God used him to a greater extent than he ever could Elijah, at least during the contemporary times in which they lived. (Elijah, of course has a future ministry; Elisha does not)

Elisha is probably one of the most unusual people who ever lived. He probably is perhaps the all-time high for maintaining the humility factor. Where he really shines above Moses and Elijah and Isaiah and other great people such as David is that most of these men were humanly speaking very attractive. But Elisha was probably one of the ugliest and most repulsive men who ever grew to manhood. He was bald from youth.

Verse 15 — “Go.” The command is the qal imperative of jalak, to march, to go. There is no preparatory command because Elijah has flunked the test, is still out of fellowship, and has not used the three stages of the faith-rest drill in rebound. No rebound. Therefore, when a believer is carnal and out of fellowship, without even a preparatory command he gets a direct order — “March!”

The second command is the qal imperative of shub, return (in disgrace). And then the qal perfect from bo with a temporal waw — when you get there. Now he has a job. The waw conversive with the qal perfect of mashach — you will anoint, you will appoint, you will commission. (The word “Messiah” comes from this word.) He is going to commission a man by the name of Hazael who is now one of the Generals of Benhadad, King of Aram, which we call today, Syria. It is a country of great professional soldiers and Hazael is a real pro. “Hazael to become King over Aram” — Literally. (Syria is the Greek for Aram) Note: Aram is Syria but not Assyria.

Now God is going to use Aram to punish the northern kingdom and, therefore, He must get rid of that great genius Benhadad who is now ruling. Benhadad has made Aram the strongest nation in western Asia and his long reign will be terminated by this young General, Hazael. Benhadad knew that Ahab was brilliant militarily and he would never seriously challenge him. But Hazael can’t wait! He is hungry for military glory so he wants to attack client nation northern Israel. And, in effect, the Lord Jesus Christ who controls history puts a leash on this young General and holds him down until the right time. But when He takes the leash off Hazael will attack them like a mad dog. And that will be punishment, a fourth cycle operation, in which a lot of Jews are going to get killed, and a lot of families are going to get killed, and a lot of businesses are going to be destroyed. The northern kingdom will come out on top because of that seven thousand in the pivot who have not bowed the knee to Baal. But they are going to be punished. The pivot was large enough to preserve the nation but God was not going to let His client nation get away with all of these things connected with Baal and other things we have noted. So Elijah, the failure, now is given the errand boy job. He is demoted from General to private or Chairman of the Board to office boy! So first of all he is to contact Hazael who is a young General in Syria. That means he will have to go right through the land and go to Syria. On his way he will stop and consult his successor, Elisha.

Now after Elijah anointed Hazael he had contact with Benhadad and Hazael both. Benhadad is going to get very sick in BC 841. And then Hazael is going to come in and put a towel over his head till he quits breathing! Then when he does become King of Syria in place of Benhadad he will very shortly get involved in hostilities with both the southern kingdom and the northern kingdom. In the meantime Elijah also has another job and that is to contact a young officer in Ahab’s northern kingdom — Jehu. And Jehu is going to be the next serious king of the northern kingdom. He has to be king before the punishment hits. Hazael will have to defeat the Assyrian Army of Shalmanezer the third before he can even turn to punish the southern kingdom.

Who are the people who are going to come out on top when a nation is under divine discipline? The only people who can be winners are believers who crack the maturity barrier. So, no matter how things go historically it does not hinder divine promotion of the mature believer, divine prosperity imputed to the mature believer, not for even a second.

As King of Syria Hazael will be involved in hostilities with the King of Judah, who is Ahaziah, and Jehoram who is the son of Ahab and Jezebel. And in the meantime Jehu will then kill Jehoram because Jehoram was a coward in battle. And Jehu will also kill Jezebel and then go on to lead Israel in the time of their great discipline. They are not going to be removed but they are really going to be disciplined. Hazael will administer that discipline but the Moabites will also come into the picture and attack Israel. There will even be at the same time, a siege of Jerusalem in which Hazael, after he runs through the northern kingdom, will go to Jerusalem. And the Jews of the southern kingdom who are also in for some discipline will buy him off. They will strip the Temple of all of its wealth.

After 40 years of rule Hazael will die in BC 801 which will be the turning of the century and the beginning of a new era. After that the discipline will be over.

Principle

1. Under the principle that Jesus Christ controls history Hazael, an unbeliever, was commissioned by God to discipline and punish the northern kingdom of Israel but not to destroy it.

2. Hazael actually administered the fourth cycle of discipline to the client nation, northern kingdom. But it was the Assyrian Army, first under Shalmanezer the fifth, who besieged Samaria in 727 BC. (But remember, Hazael is never associated with the destruction of the northern kingdom.) Sargon the second will finish it off in 721 BC after one of the longest sieges in history — six years. That is the fifth cycle of discipline.

Hazael administered the discipline to the northern kingdom. It was severe and only the believer with doctrine would survive unscathed. Application: No nation is invincible. No nation survives its interlocking systems of arrogance and resultant degeneracy. It takes arrogant believers and arrogant unbelievers to destroy a nation. Every day we must ask ourselves: “Am I an arrogant believer contributing to the fall of my nation?”

3. Back in 871 BC when Elijah is commissioned to be messenger to Hazael they were still 150 years away from destruction of the nation. Historical catastrophe to a client nation is not only divine discipline of that nation but acts as a warning of total destruction.

The terrible things that happen in history, the things which shock us as believers in Christ, are a part of God’s plan. They fulfil the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. Elisha prophesied to Hazael the terrible things he would do to Israel before he became king of Aram — 2 Kings 8:12, “And Hazael said (to Elisha), Why does my lord weep? Then he (Elisha) answered, Because I know the evil which you will do to the people of Israel: you will set on fire their fortifications, you will kill their young men with the sword, their little children you will bash their heads in, and their pregnant women your soldiers will rip open.”

Now the thought of such atrocities was repugnant to General Hazael at this time. But Hazael has forgotten something: Jesus Christ controls history. And while that was repugnant to him he will change over night. Interlocking systems of arrogance will make a monster out of him.

Incidentally, when Elisha and Hazael were having that last conference Elisha also said, “When you leave this headquarters and go back to the palace, you are going to kill the king.” And he did. Hazael is a perfect illustration of how a nice guy under interlocking systems of arrogance and power lust can become instant monster. And he found an excuse to invade Israel and all of the things that Elisha prophesied came to pass.

After the time that Elijah goes north to Damascus to tell the young General that he will some day be a very famous king, Jehoram, the youngest son of Ahab and Jezebel, will eventually become king over Israel and be wounded in battle. He will be forced to retire to Jezreel and leave the Army in command of Jehu. Jehu decides that he likes it so well that he is going to be “top commander.” So he will kill both sons of Ahab and the wife of Ahab, Jezebel. Jehu will march on Jezreel and when Jehoram went out to meet him Jehu shot him with his own bow. Pierced with that arrow Jehoram died in Naboth’s vineyard. His body was left there and Jehu said: “Don’t ever bury that man.” And his body rotted right there in Naboth’s vineyard.

The fulfilment of all of this is found in 2 Kings 13:22-23. Hazael would be the scourge of a whip for the punishment of a client nation. But that client nation would not be destroyed. Principle: Jesus Christ controls history.

Of all of the sins which are listed in the Word of God the one that makes a person most miserable is arrogance. It makes him overestimate his own worth and underestimate the value of everyone else — especially in the field of authority. If there is one thing that arrogance resents in others more than anything else it is the fact that they possess authority or power or in some form of hierarchy in life they occupy a higher position. Arrogance always resents anything that smacks of authority and anything that has responsibility for carrying out possibility. Probably one of the worst things arrogance does is to evaluate people in authority with regard to their appearance and personality.

Blind arrogance inevitably sees some flaw in the appearance of someone or some personality failure that is immediately resented. This is not only disorientation to life but it is often destructive to the person who does it, as we will see in our passage. For there is one man who lived who was often rejected by arrogant people simply because he was physically unattractive. This is true in every realm of life.

(Note: Never trust your personal judgement about someone in authority when you first encounter them. You could develop instant antagonism and the very fact that you are antagonistic and instantly in a state of personality conflict merely indicates blind arrogance.)

If you are properly motivated in grace orientation and humility your motivation reflects itself in your integrity. Integrity is the great safeguard against arrogance. A person with integrity accepts the authority of the individual without making an issue of his personality, etc.

Verse 16 — “And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel: ...” We have the qal imperfect of mashach which means to anoint, to appoint. This is Elijah doing “office boy” work now that he has failed in top responsibility spiritually. Principle: Jesus Christ controls history. Furthermore, Jesus Christ uses world rulers and governments of client nations to accomplish His will in world history. This leads us to a secondary consideration of the principle: there are no accidents in history. No nation rises, no nation falls accidentally. A lot of nations rise not because the nation is great but because everything around them is corrupt and they fill in in a place where corruption falls away.

Jehu ruled the northern kingdom of Israel from BC 845-818. According to 2 Kings 9:2 Elijah, who was given the job of anointing him, never got around to it. Nimshi is said to be his father here but it is his grandfather, and Jehoshaphat — not the king of Judah but another Jehoshaphat — was his father. Jehu eventually became the chief commander of the chariots of the northern kingdom under Ahab, and under his sons. He was anointed or commissioned by the Lord to be the destroyer of the Omri dynasty. Part of the divine discipline of the northern kingdom as a client nation was to be the destruction of its leadership. He is the executor of Jezebel and her second son Jehoram. In fact he wiped out completely the Ahab line.

He destroyed the Baal cult in the northern kingdom. When he became king he went to Samaria and he announced himself as a new convert to Baal. So they welcomed him with open arms and presented him to all of the priests. As soon as he had the names and the faces of all of the new priests of Baal, who had replaced the ones that Elijah had slain, at a given signal he pulled a scarf out and dropped it to the ground and his bodyguards who were disguised as Baal worshippers immediately assassinated all of the priests of Baal. But he sinned against the Lord, according to the Scripture, in not destroying the golden calves at Bethel. For this reason his dynasty extended for only four generations.

“and Elisha” — when Elijah failed there was a vacancy. There was no spiritual leader with maximum authority in the northern kingdom until Elisha finished his training. “the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah you will anoint to be prophet in your place” .That means Elisha will be the next spiritual leader. Elijah would never again have the full powers which he lost through interlocking systems of arrogance.

Abelmeholah is a valley located at the northern end of the Jordan valley, just south of the Sea of Galilee. It has been famous since ancient times for agriculture. Elisha apparently had a very different background from Elijah, he was a farmer.

The ministry of Elisha is very extensive. Needless to say he accomplished everything a great spiritual leader should and he did not make any of the mistakes that Elijah made. While Elijah is recognised by the Scriptures along with Moses as one of the two greatest men of the Old Testament Elisha is not mentioned in that category. Yet in many ways Elisha was greater than both Moses and Elijah, simply because he had the ability to go all of the way from the farm and then, after some training, take the top leadership spiritually with all of the authority vested in a leader who is a prophet. And never once did he even slip into arrogance.

Now Elijah had failed in two ways, and therefore he overreacted against his own failures in the training of Elisha, his replacement, so that he would not make the same mistakes. Elisha would have to find new mistakes to make because if there was one thing Elijah could do and do well it was train someone for a job — which is exactly what he did with Elisha.

Elijah failed first of all in the tenacity of the faith-rest drill. In all three stages of the faith-rest drill not once did Elisha ever waver. He was as persistent in the application of doctrine, to the second stage of the faith-rest drill, as he was in learning doctrine in the first place. Elijah trained Elisha to be consistent in all three stages of the faith-rest drill. He also trained him in persistence. He trained him in the field of the interlocking systems of arrogance so that he wouldn’t make the same mistakes. He trained him in a most magnificent way never to be discouraged when things were going badly. Three times, then, after he was through training him Elijah tried to get rid of him and three times Elisha demonstrated persistence in the faith-rest function. That is the story of 2 Kings chapter 2, verses 2,4, and 6. He was very persistent. Elisha is a synonym for tenacity. And after all tenacity is more important really than ability. Elisha was a plugger; Elijah was filled with ability. Of the two the most consistent is the one who keeps plugging. He isn’t discouraged no matter how many times he fails. He just bounces back and keeps trying.

While Elijah failed to learn the lesson of the importance of the power of the Holy Spirit in God’s servants — that is one of the lessons of the cave — he taught his successor very well, for Elisha’s very last request was for a double portion of the Holy Spirit in 2 Kings 2:9. Literally, that passage says: “Now it came to pass that when they [Elisha and Elijah] had crossed over [the Jordan], Elijah said to Elisha, Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you. And Elisha replied, Please sir, let a double portion of your spirit be on me.”

It is obvious that Elijah was an excellent teacher of doctrine, an excellent trainer of his successor Elisha, and in the departure by the chariot into heaven Elisha demonstrated reverse concentration or the application of doctrine he had been taught. By the way, he is recorded as being in a better relationship with the Holy Spirit over his life time than Elijah or anyone else.

The areas in which Elisha demonstrated faith-rest include the dynamics of the faith-rest drill in utilising the power of God, 2 Kings 2:13,14. Also, in a second area Elisha demonstrated the dynamics of the faith-rest drill in countermanding the scepticism of the theological students in 2 Kings 2:16-18. Elisha demonstrated the dynamics of the faith-rest drill in applying the attribute of God rationale in historical disaster in 2 Kings 2:19-22. These are the first three lessons that he learned. In addition to this, in 2 Kings 2:23-25 Elisha demonstrates the dynamics of the faith-rest drill in leaving divine discipline in the hands of the Lord.

2 Kings 2:23-25 — Elisha and the teenage punks! (Or when the bears got smart and ate the hippies!)

v23 “Then he [Elisha] went up from there [Jericho] to Bethel [the place where apostasy still existed in the northern kingdom because of the golden calf being worshipped there]: and as he was going up by the road, teenagers came out from the city, and ridiculed him, Go on up into town baldy, Go up into town baldy.”

These kids owe adults respect. Respect for older people is a part of establishment in society. So, first of all Elisha was entitled to respect because he was an older person. Secondly, he was entitled to respect because he was a traveller and a visitor to their city. Thirdly, he was entitled to VIP treatment and respect because he was the prophet, the spiritual leader of the nation. He was apparently unattractive. If he had been attractive and handsome perhaps they would not have bothered him or ridiculed him, but because he was so ugly they couldn’t resist it.

The question is what does Elisha do about it? Elijah may well have dealt with them as he did the prophets of Baal, and he would have been wrong. Elisha faces exactly the same situation in principle but he had learned the lesson well. No arrogance here. He turned around and looked at them and then he called down on them a curse in the name of the Lord. As a prophet he was within his rights to say: “The Lord judge thee.”

When the people said to Elijah, What shall we do with these prophets? he should have said, The Lord has already judged them, Leave them alone. That is what he didn’t say and what he should have said. Now, Elisha says what Elijah should have said, ‘The Lord Judge thee.’ He was leaving judgement in the hands of the Lord.

“Then two she-bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two of the teenagers in pieces.” Apparently not all of the teenagers were executed, only those who were incorrigible. The Hebrew says that only forty-two of the teenagers were torn to pieces. Which means the others were worth saving, would someday either do something great in society or some would even believe in the Lord or had believed in the Lord, or who had parents who were mature believers [blessing by association]. The ones who came back alive would have a lesson they would never forget, a lesson in authority!

Verse 25 — “And he went down from there [from Bethel] to Mount Carmel [where Elijah failed and where he succeeded], and from there he returned to Samaria.” Samaria is where Elijah should have gone instead of Jezreel. Elijah should have gone to Samaria and started teaching the Word, after Mount Carmel. Elisha retraces the steps of Elijah’s failure, succeeding where Elijah did not. Elijah went to Jezreel and then ran away. Elisha went to Samaria and stood fast.

Notice: Elisha did not resort to violence but functioned within the authority of his spiritual gift of prophecy by rebuking the teenagers in the name of the Lord. Elisha had the right to use his authority but he did not. God sent the bears who ripped to pieces 42 of the ‘hippies.’ And in this case Elisha avoided the failure of Elijah when Elijah commanded to kill the 450 prophets of Baal. He avoided impulsive arrogance. He did not resort to violence. He did not switch from pivot to power politics. Remember it was God who punished the teenagers.

Note that Elisha resisted the temptation of Elijah to use violence against opposition. After his victory over impulsive arrogance plus interlocking systems of arrogance he followed the path that Elijah should have taken in the previous chapter. Elisha did not resort to violence in the use of his authority but he left the matter in the Lord’s hands. He used the essence of God rationale plus application of the second stage of the drill, the reverse concentration with regard to the integrity of God. The integrity is made up of God’s righteousness, therefore God would be fair; God’s justice, the justice of God executes judgement. He also depends upon the omniscience of God, God knows all the facts. He depends upon the sovereignty of God with regard to timing of judgement. The death of the ‘punk kids’ probably made it possible for the rest of the gang to learn a lesson they would never forget and was probably the changing point in their lives.

By using the faith-rest drill by leaving the matter in the hands of the justice of God Elisha remains with pivot politics. We could forecast at this moment that he is going to have a fantastic ministry. He did not disobey the law. Divine judgement was executed through the two she-bears who ripped in pieces 42 ‘hippies.’ But we should remember: none of us have the right to take justice into our own hands, especially with ‘teenage punks.’ It is amazing how many teenage punks, left in the hands of the Lord or in legitimate systems of establishment function and law enforcement, turn out to be great people.

At some time in your life God is going to warn you that you are on the wrong path by putting you in a situation where you are hanging around with the wrong people and the wrong people in that crowd are going to be shockingly judged. You are going to survive. And it will be your last great warning before you take a nose dive and crash and burn, if you don’t take the warning. Life is too short to associate with attractive people who are evil. Sooner or later the justice of God, either directly or working through some disaster or working through law enforcement, will destroy those punks. And you will go down with them unless you learn the lesson.

1 Kings 19:17 — Jesus Christ controls history. “And it shall come to pass, that the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death: and the one that escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death.”

Notice that in the case of Jehu and Hazael we have civil rulers. Therefore where civil rulers are mentioned the word “sword” is used. This is the same as we have in Romans 13 — “he beareth not the sword in vain.” It means that in their own country they will have a great system of law enforcement so that both countries are going to be free from the greatest enemy of a national entity — criminals, crime. Crime is the internal, constant enemy. Crime is one of the most awful things in the world where freedom is concerned. The most evil people inside a nation are not the politicians but criminals.

The first meaning of the sword of Jehu and the sword of Hazael is that they were the top authority in national entities. Therefore, in their responsibility of government one of the greatest responsibilities is law enforcement. All law should be directed against crime and against those who would destroy our freedom. Law should never be used to try to establish the ideal society — make everyone love each other, tolerate each other, and so on. That is an infringement on freedom. Laws should be against crime, against those who violate the privacy, the property, the life of others. But to set up a lot of social laws and try to enforce them with government agencies is not fair to the general public. If crime gets completely out of control so that no law enforcement system can handle it, look for the cycles of discipline.

“Elisha shall put to death” — what does this mean? Elisha as a prophet has the right as the one with maximum spiritual authority to call upon divine justice to intervene. Not to use personal violence but to refer to the Supreme Court of heaven and get a reading. Notice the word “sword” is not used in connection with Elisha. [The prophet in the OT and the pastor-teacher today do not have the same authority!].

The other way in which this verse must be regarded is that the wars between Israel and Syria will be the means of divine punishment in the form of death to many reversionistic believers and many more apostate believers.

We have the hiphil imperfect from muth here. The hiphil stem is causative active voice. Elisha will be the indirect cause of divine judgement [death] as he was with the teenagers.

The ultimate cause is the integrity of God, the justice of God, who causes the death of reversionistic believers and apostate unbelievers. God uses historical disaster, economic disaster, warfare, disease, or some form of violence to discipline these people. Temporal government is often used to administer discipline where crime is concerned. The Israel-Aramaan wars were used to kill off those who God would punish with the sin unto death. These wars would include death in combat, death from disease, death from capture and torture, death from starvation. But the Government of Israel administered by Jehu would also execute many reversionistic believers and unbelievers for crime. That is the primary meaning of this verse.

Principle: For either the reversionistic believer or the apostate unbeliever there is no deliverance from judgement. For the criminal who escapes from the law God will still deal with him. There is no such thing as crime paying.

Pivot politics is the only refuge in history and pivot politics is the modus vivendi of the mature believer in Jesus Christ as well as the believer who is positive toward doctrine. Pivot politics is positive volition toward doctrine, correct motivation and momentum in the advance X+Y+Z in the plan of God. It is the believer who is positive toward doctrine, who is consistently that way, who exploits both logistical grace, attains spiritual maturity, and eventually receives the greatest blessing in life in maturity. He also will receive great blessing in eternity as well.

A former foreign ruler, Hazael the King of Aram, a client nation ruler and the spiritual leader of a client nation are used as God’s rod of punishment. Only one of the three (verse 17) has the solution to avoiding punishment and the recovery of the client nation — Elisha the prophet as the spiritual leader. And this is a reminder that the solution to man’s problems, whether individual or collective, historical and personal, is always in the spiritual realm — unchanging doctrine for a changing world. This is why it is important for us to understand pivot politics in the time in which we live because apart from pivot politics there is no hope for our country or for individuals. Pivot politics not only emphasises the salvation of the unbeliever but the perception of doctrine of the believer and its inevitable and resultant production.

Furthermore we have Jehu who will be the new ruler of Israel. He will not only be the means of exercising punishment on the dynasty of Omri, which include Omri, Ahab and his two sons and Jezebel, but as a great soldier he will perpetuate the principle of freedom through military victory. That freedom must be exploited by the individual, however, and not for self-advancement but for the fulfilment of the plan of God. The plan of God will be fulfilled in two ways as a result of Jehu’s reign and Elisha’s ministry in spiritual things. First of all there will be great evangelism and secondly there will be great Bible teaching, great doctrinal inculcation. The result will be a perpetuated pivot which will give 150 more years of history to the northern kingdom. Inevitably those who reject the doctrinal teaching of Elisha will be caught in the net of divine discipline through historical disaster.

There are two categories of people in the interlocking systems of arrogance who will have to be dealt with. First of all there will be the criminal element inside the land and there will be the enemy outside the land. The arrogance of the criminal is only exceeded by the arrogance of the psychotic person. Both the insane person and the criminal recognise no authority of any kind. Both suffer from exactly the same disease — megalomania. The difference between the criminal and the insane person is a matter of degree in the violation of the law. Both are extremely dangerous to a nation and when both are permitted to run loose it is disastrous for all who are concerned. The spin-off of reversionism and apostasy will be destroyed in battle with foreign powers, especially Hazael who is the ruler of Syria. They will also be destroyed by good law enforcement in the days of Jehu. And domestic disaster and violent death will occur in cases where there is ridicule of doctrine.

In verse 18 we resume our study. We have the pivot of mature believers who preserve the client nation. The Hebrew in corrected translation includes the word “furthermore” as the beginning of the sentence — “Furthermore, I have caused to remain … “ the hiphil perfect of the verb shaar — this is the remnant, this is the pivot; “seven thousand who have not bowed a knee to Baal” — the negative lo plus the qal perfect of kara. The second negative is with the word nashaq which means to kiss. Kissing Baal has to do with entering into the phallic cult in all of its activity. We translate it, “all the mouths which have not kissed him.”

Corrected translation of the entire passage: “Furthermore, I have caused to remain seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to Baal and all the mouths which have not kissed him.”

Because of the pivot of mature believers the northern kingdom will survive historical disaster. There will be great discipline all of the way to the fourth cycle before it is over, but the northern kingdom as the client nation to God will be given an additional 150 years. The basis for it is the pivot of mature believers and as a result of that pivot God will preserve that country. But because of the necessity for discipline the administration of the deliverance will come in the form of military victory. Eventually the military establishment under Jehu will deliver the nation in the times of Elisha. So we have two factors which are the same two factors which we must rely upon today. First of all Elisha, who is not a politician and who did not hold any temporal authority, through his teaching of doctrine provided the pivot of mature believers. The second is the army who under Jehu will be the means of administering the deliverance. This is exactly the same as with our country. There are only two things that contribute to the deliverance of our country and nothing else — military victory and a pivot of mature believers.

In time of historical disaster the pivot is the key to the nation’s survival — survival, not freedom from punishment. There are five cycles of discipline and the pivot can only protect from the fifth cycle. The presence of a pivot does not guarantee that a client nation to God eludes punishment. The previous verse dealing with Hazael and Jehu and Elisha makes it very clear that the northern kingdom is in for some terrible punishment. They will suffer economically, militarily, disease and destruction, and there will be great misery in the land. The pivot will preserve the nation from total destruction but the pivot cannot guarantee the insulation against divine punishment.

The degenerate, the apostate, the reversionistic have to be removed. God honours the pivot by not destroying that nation. God also honours the pivot by providing them the security and even the blessing that is related to the A fortiori system we have studied — the supercharger of the plan of God rationale. But great misery in a nation is absolutely guaranteed when the interlocking systems of arrogance become general in a national entity.

In this present period of time — the Church Age, the times of the Gentiles, the Age of the royal family of God when only Gentile nations can be client nations to God — a remnant, a pivot, has come into existence according to an election to privilege. The doctrine of election is related to the client nation of God, it relates to the pivot of mature believers who preserve the client nation and act as the stabiliser in stormy periods of history.

In the closing verses (19-21) the fact is dealt with that no man is indispensable to the plan of God. The subject is the calling of Elisha. However, we must conclude our study with the future ministry of Elijah. We have seen his total failure, we have seen his lack of recovery, we have seen his inability to distinguish between divine discipline and testing, we have seen his inability to recognise that in discipline the issue is sin and in testing the issue is grace. But although Elijah is gone his ministry is not over. Nearly everyone who has ever lived, once they die, their ministry is over. The only two exceptions are the two greatest believers of the Old Testament (Moses and Elijah) who both failed at the end of their lives. They both failed, not from the system of rejection of doctrine, but because of malfunction of the three stages of the faith-rest drill. Because they are the two greatest believers of the Old Testament God gives them a future ministry. They are coming back from the dead to be the two great teachers of doctrine in the Tribulation.

The future ministry of Elijah

1. John the Baptist is the herald of the first advent of Christ — Matthew 17:10-13; Luke 1:17.

2. John the Baptist as the herald of the first advent is described as having the same Spirit and the same power as Elijah will have as the herald of the second advent — Luke 1:16-17.

3. John the Baptist as the herald of the first advent made it very clear that he was not Elijah — John 1:21. 4. If Israel had accepted Christ as Messiah, if Israel had accepted John the Baptist as His herald, then there would have been no John the Baptist. Elijah would have been the herald instead of John the Baptist — Matthew 11:11-14. Who is least in the kingdom of heaven? The pivot of mature believers, the 7000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal. They did what Elijah should have done, the preservation of the nation. (John and Elijah are parallels in their function as heralds of the Lord Jesus Christ).

5. The prophecy of the return of Elijah — Malachi 4:4-6. Corrected translation: “Remember the law of Moses my servant, — the statutes (Codex 2, the spiritual code) and the judgements (Codex 3, the laws of divine establishment) — which I commanded him in Mount Horeb” (Notice that Malachi says that Moses received those commandments at Mount Horeb — Mt.. Horeb and Mt. Sinai are synonymous terms) for all Israel. v5 — Behold, I am going to send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord (the historical catastrophe of the last half of the Tribulation).

v6 — And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to children and the hearts of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the land with a curse.”

Turning the hearts of the fathers to children means they will turn with simple childlike faith and respond and believe in Christ. And the hearts of the children to their fathers means thy will follow the lead of their parents and believe in Christ.

6. Elijah is not the only herald at the second advent, there will be Moses also. See Acts 3:21-22.

7. On the Mount of Transfiguration when Christ was transformed into His appearance at the second advent, His heralds were also present — Matthew 17:3.

8. That Elijah has a future ministry is documented by Matthew 17:11 when our Lord said: “Elijah is coming and he will restore all things.” Elijah failed to restore all things in his first trip on the earth at Mount Carmel. But he gets a second chance at restoration of Israel at a more critical moment even than Mount Carmel.

9. The ministry of Moses and Elijah is presented in Revelation chapter 11:3-13.

Note: In verse 13 the number that died in the earthquake were 7000. We have been studying that the pivot in the northern kingdom was 7000 mature believers. Seven thousand preserved the northern kingdom in Elijah’s generation; seven thousand were destroyed at the end of Elijah’s ministry. In other words it is God’s marvellous sense of humour saying: “Look Elijah. Seven thousand took up the slack where you failed but I give you back your seven thousand at the end of your ministry.” This would indicate, then, that there is a destruction number as far as any nation’s judgement in concerned. In other words, when God starts to use the cycles of discipline the discipline is continued until the destruction number is reached. There is a syndicate of degenerate. The administration of the sin unto death and punishment always goes first to the syndicate. The syndicate is the opposite of the pivot.

The converts of Moses and Elijah are the people who defend Jerusalem in the Armageddon campaign.