Calvinism Everywhere, Part 25

The familiar Elijah narrative warrants careful consideration. But this post will only look at those elements that highlight the theme of this series on Calvinism everywhere. Feel free, however, to read that choice section of Old Testament narrative again and again. No one's stopping you from much instruction and encouragement. Even much fun.

Elijah predicts, as YHWH's spokesman, that "there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word" (1 Kgs. 17:1). And of course you know what happens, if only because it's included in this series of posts. And then we read, in the narrative of Elijah's conversation with the widow of Zarephath, that the God of Israel said this to the widow: "The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that YHWH sends rain upon the earth" (1 Kgs. 17:14). Then predictably, by now, we read in v. 16 the fulfillment of the prediction: "The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah." Are you yet getting used to that wonderful phrase, "according to the word the LORD"? And then, also predictably, shortly thereafter, there was rain (1 Kgs. 18:45). For the mouth of the Lord had spoken.

Next chapter, in the showdown with the prophets of Baal, after they've gone through their goofy gyrations, to absolutely no effect whatever, apart from lacerations and mutilations, Elijah prays to the Lord of heaven and earth: "Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that you, O LORD, are God . . . (1 Kgs. 18:37). So fire falls from Heaven and consumes offering, wood, stones, dust, licking up also the water in the trench. This is done, and I make note of it here, that we might know that YHWH, Father, Son, and Spirit, he is God. There is no other. This is his own world, and his will will be done. And so rounding off the narrative before Elisha's call, we read once again of more deaths predicted, as in the previous chapters, "according to the word of the LORD." See 1 Kgs. 19:17.