Did you know that when a dead fish begins to rot it always starts with the head. Elijah was God’s prophet whom He raised up to confront the apostate Ahab the king and leader of Israel who had turned away from the Lord and had led God’s people into idolatry. According to God’s Word the worship of idols is in fact the worship of demons and so the power of the occult started to spread like a poisonous gangrene among the people of God starting with its leader and his administration (Deuteronomy 32:16-17) (Psalm 106:36-37) (1 Corinthians 10:20).
Ahab was married to Jezebel who in reality was a witch, a seductress, and an open practitioner of the occult. She was a rebellious and cold hearted calculating adversary of God, of His laws, and despised His people. She harassed and killed God’s prophets, and arranged for an innocent man to be falsely charged and executed. She had 450 prophets who worshipped and served the pagan demonic ‘god’ (entity) Baal.
God’s people hovered between two opinions and were being swayed that Baal was a deity that they needed to worship along with the worship of the true God of Israel (1Kings 18:21). It was a mixture of truth and error laid side by side with each other. Satan never tells outright lies when He is seeking to spiritually seduce God’s people. He will always mix truth with error which the New Testament defines as “secretly introducing destructive heresies” (2 Peter 2:1). It can be likened to a beautiful gourmet sandwich filled with all kinds of nutritious ingredients but also laced with a small amount of arsenic, a slow acting poison in the mix, undetectable, but deadly over a prolonged period of time.
Everything came to a head on Mt Carmel when Elijah alone faced the 250 prophets of Baal who were hyping themselves up and seeking to whip God’s people up to join in the frenzy and impressive display of their so called power but they could not bring down fire from the heavens. God’s people were taken in by this display, much like we see happening in those mega-churches today where they are claiming miracles, signs and wonders and manifestations of every kind while teaching doctrines that they should not be teaching. When Elijah stepped up before the people he knew how to bring down the fire from heaven and after that dealt ruthlessly with the false prophets.
The conflict was not over because Jezebel wanted to kill him and so he had to flee for his life but he was sheltered and fed by God and given strength to keep going to finish his ministry and ultimately to be rescued out of the clutches of Jezebel. As for Ahab and Jezebel they both died violent deaths, they died as they had lived! As for Ahab we are told that when he died in the chariot it was sunset (1 Kings 22:36). In other words he died an unsaved man and went to join Jezebel in Sheol in that compartment where all of the unsaved are imprisoned until the judgement on the last day. Metaphorically speaking the sun had set on Ahab’s life.
Elijah and the 100 prophets hidden in the caves by Obadiah and the 7.000 who had not bowed the knees to Baal represent the faithful remnant of the last days. who will do supernatural works through God’s power but it will also be a time of severe persecution where faithful believers will be persecuted and killed as were most of the prophets in Israel who stood against the spiritually bankrupt regime and the power of the occult. Prophetically speaking, Ahab can represent the leaders of God’s people corporately in the last days who have been spiritually seduced by the spirit of antichrist personified in Jezebel who was a seductress of the worst kind, controlled by a very powerful principality, and who knew how to draw Israel’s leaders into her web of spiritual adultery and occult power.
Let’s very briefly look at Elijah because he is also a type of the faithful Body of the Messiah in the last days and their final confrontation with Satan’s kingdom on earth just before the Lord Jesus comes back. These things that happened to Elijah is prophetic for the last days for the faithful Body of the Messiah and indeed as the song goes “these are the days of Elijah!” Let’s now look at Elijah in relation to the last days Body of the Messiah, the faithful Church.
1. Elijah was called by God, he did not call himself. He was led by the Holy Spirit and God provided supernaturally for his physical needs (1 Kings 17:1-6)
When Elijah was called a famine also came, but spiritually there was already a famine in the land for the hearing of the Word of God which is a distinct mark of western Christendom today. God will have sent this famine (Amos 8:11-12). In the last of the last days during the last three and a half years of this present evil age God will supernaturally provide for His faithful servants who will be regularly led by the Spirit and not by the commandments and religious traditions of man. It may not seem now in which ways God will provide for His faithful believing remnant, but He will because to those who are faithful to Him He shows Himself faithful to them in both spiritual and temporal matters (Psalm 18:25).
2. Elijah was used by God to bless an unbelieving woman who needed spiritual and physical help. Elijah befriended her in her hour of desperate need and even after her son died Elijah was used by God to resurrect her son (1 Kings 17:7-24).
In the last days New Covenant believers will have supernatural power to preach the gospel of the kingdom like never before that will see many unsaved who have not taken the mark of the beast spiritually resurrected to life along with their families (John 11:25-26). Some will even be raised to life physically and by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit many unsaved people will get saved when they see God at work and hear the Word of God with signs following (Mark 11:15-18).
3. Elijah had the support fellow believers even though he believed he was now standing alone. He was not a one man operation. Obadiah was a faithful servant of the Lord who feared God more than he feared man, even though Obadiah was a man that wrestled with anxiety, yet by faith he hid 100 faithful prophets, risking his own life, when Jezebel went hunting for the heads of the prophets of God (1 Kings 18:1-15)
In the last days faithful New Covenant believers will not be standing alone. Many leaders will be killed and those faithful leaders who remain will be spiritually supported by faithful fellow believers. Fellowship in the Holy Spirit around the Lord’s Table and the Word of God and the exercising of spiritual gifts for edifying and strengthening the Body of the Messiah will be vital to spiritual survival in these last of the last days. Also faithful New Covenant believers at the very risk of their lives and livelihoods will be used by God to reach unsaved Jews with the gospel of the kingdom who will be destitute and without hope and in need of spiritual and physical care. The overriding expectancy in believers hearts will be the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus! Brothers and sisters the rescue is coming!!!
4. Elijah was confronted directly with the power of the occult. The false prophets of Baal had put an evil mesmerising spell over God’s people all gathered at Mt Carmel. These false prophets put on a prolonged dazzling display of supposed spiritual power and because it was directed by principalities in the unseen spiritual realm these false prophets had power over God’s people by and large except for the faithful remnant who had not bowed the knee to Baal. It was a contest in the arena of spiritual power with God’s power against Satan’s power yet God’s power prevailed in the end! (1 Kings 18:16-40),
We see this with Moses and Aaron when they had to confront the magicians of Egypt who were all practitioners of the occult and who, up to a point, could actually duplicate the miracles of Moses and Elijah. In the end Moses and Aaron were triumphant and prevailed over the occult powers by the power of God! (2 Timothy 3:8-9). The religious institutions of Christendom and Judaism of the last days will be enclaves of workers of all kinds of counterfeit miracles signs and wonders all directed by Satan whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and destroy by the splendour of His coming (2 Thessalonians 2:8-9).
In the last days when the Antichrist is persecuting faithful believers and spiritual seduction abounds and all kinds of false miracles, signs and wonders are being performed primarily with an apostate Christendom and in Israel, God’s faithful followers of the Lord Jesus, both Jew and Gentile being one new man in Him, will have supernatural power that will not only challenge occult power but overcome it by the blood of the Lamb, by their word of testimony to what the blood of Jesus does, and by not loving their lives in this world even if it means physical death (Revelation 12:11) (Revelation 11:1-12) .
Many faithful believers will lose their lives in this temporary life down here to gain a wonderful resurrection for the eternal life to come (Revelation 13:6-8; 20:4). In these days of great tribulation in the lives of all truly born again New Covenant believers, the light, the power, the love of God and their supernatural testimony to the Lord Jesus and to the power of His blood and His Word, will be wonderfully empowered by the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 4:12-19).
5. Elijah was spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically worn down having confronted spiritual powers and principalities of wickedness on Mt Carmel. Being human he feared for his life and wanted to escape the persecution. However, God had not finished with him and when Elijah fell asleep out of discouragement and exhaustion, God miraculously fed him once again that gave him the physical strength he needed to keep on keeping on for God! (1 Kings 19:1-8).
In the last days, even though faithful New Covenant believers will be spiritually, mentally and physically worn down by the persecution and the oppression of occult power spearheaded by the Antichrist, that little horn, God will keep them faithful, spiritually strong and provide for their every need both in spiritual and physical necessities.
6. As Elijah was coming to the end of his ministry God provided another one to take his place in Elisha (1 Kings 19:10-21).
John Wesley said “God buries His workers but continues His work.” During this time Elijah was used by the Lord to train his servant Elisha to take his place in ministry (2 Kings 2:1-10). In the last days faithful leaders using God’s Word will also train up those who will follow them. Elijah had his school of prophets. Satan may use his ‘snipers’ to kill off God’s Generals and officers on the field of battle but God always has His reserve troops to take the fight to His enemies. Victory is gained by standing upon the solid rock of the revelation of the Lord Jesus over which the gates of hell will never prevail! This is a militant offensive by the Body of the Messiah against Satan’s kingdom described in Matthew’s gospel, not a defence! (Matthew 16:15-17).
7. Elijah boldly confronted Ahab and prophesied his demise and that of Jezebel. Even though Ahab had a form of repentance he perished in the end because Ahab listened again to false prophets (1 Kings 21:17-24).
In the last days faithful New Covenant believers will stand boldly against the tyranny and spiritual seduction of apostate Church leaders by declaring their defeat through the work of the cross. Despite the opposition from the apostate leaders. these faithful followers of the Lord Jesus will continue to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God and the soon coming reign of the Messiah while holding steadfastly to the Word of God and that without compromise! These will be the ones “contending for the faith once delivered to the saints!” The last great sign that will usher in the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus and the Messianic kingdom on earth in the age to come will be when the gospel of the kingdom has been preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come! (Matthew 24:14).
8. Elijah experienced God’s power right up to the end of his ministry and it was known and felt by his adversaries (2 Kings Chapter 1).
In the last days faithful New Covenant believers will experience God’s power even to the end of their lives in this world! As we are told in the Bible that “the people who do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits” (Daniel 11:32) See also (Revelation 11:3-6). When the power of the Antichrist is unleashed in the world and spiritual deception is rampant especially through many false teachers and prophets it will be exposed by those who know the Lord. As the apostle Paul writes in the context of the last days; “Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone” (2 Timothy 3:8-9). Satan is not concerned about the unsaved in the world as they belong to him, the ones he is terrified of is those of us who are saved and who can decimate his empire by seeing multitudes saved out of his clutches through the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom! We may be hard-pressed now and weary in the fight against the world, the flesh and the devil, but in the end we win big time!!!
9. Elijah was caught up and rescued (2 Kings 2:11).
In the last days, immediately after those days of great tribulation when the Lord Jesus returns to earth, He will gather to Himself all of His faithful followers who are still alive on earth to join those who have already physically died. The rapture and resurrection will be simultaneous (Matthew 24:29-31) (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18). Not one born again child of God will be left behind! Every born again, blood washed blood redeemed, Spirit filled believer will be changed and receive their indestructible and immortal heavenly bodies in the twinkling of an eye! (1 Corinthians 15:51-53). These will have experienced and weathered the ‘birth pains’ but will rejoice in ‘the birth’ of the Kingdom of God established on earth.
After this happens who will remember the birth pains? They will be forgotten in the euphoria and unbridled joy of the ‘birth of the baby’ being the Messianic kingdom ruled over by the Messiah which we, who know the Lord Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, will inherit in the age to come and after that for all of eternity! The days of Elijah are coming again and are almost upon us. Elijah was caught up and we too will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air at His Second Coming and we shall forever be with the Lord!
