1. Raven' Mad: Elijah, Ahab and the Faithful God Part 1

Welcome to the brand-new podcast, Stories of a Faithful God… For Kids. We’re going to look at the amazing things God’s done in the past… Things he’s told us about in the Bible. Some of these stories you might know well… or at least… think you know well. Others you might have never heard before, and you’ll go “What! God did that!”

The stories are all about God. The amazing God who loves us and made us and sent Jesus to rescue us. The God who’s… faithful. Faithful means he always keeps his promises. He always does what he says he’ll do. You can always trust him. Always rely on him. You never have to panic, thinking… “oh no… is he actually gonna do what he said?”... Because he always does.

I’m Dave Whittingham and I have four kids… though they’re getting a bit older now. I’ve made heaps of promises to my kids. Some of them I’ve kept aaannnndddd… some of them I haven’t. I haven’t always been faithful.

What about your parents or carers? I’m sure they love you heaps but… have they ever… arrived a bit late to pick you up? Or said they’d take you somewhere and never did? Or forgotten to buy some food that they said they would? Even when parents love their kids… they mess up.

So… will God ever mess up?

The best way to find out is to check out what he’s done in the past. If I said to my kids, “Hey guys, I’ve got a really bad dad joke for you”… they’ll believe me. Because they’ve heard me tell bad dad jokes before. And what someone’s done in the past, helps you know what they’ll do in the future.

It’s the same with God.

These stories about God that we’re going to look at… they’re some of the most exciting… dramatic… weird and wonderful stories you’ll ever hear. And they’re all true! I hope that as we think about them together… you’ll see just how great and good and faithful God is… and that you’ll know you can trust him with your life.

So here we go. The first ever episode of Stories of a Faithful God… for Kids.

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We’re going to jump into the Bible about half way through the Old Testament… about 860 years before Jesus came at the first Christmas. It’s a time where everything feels like its gone wrong. You can read about it in the Bible in 1 Kings chapters 16-19.

God made the world really really good just by speaking. Then he spoke to the first people he made, Adam and Eve, and told them how to live in his world. And the people said… “Ahhh… we don’t believe you. We think you’re lying.” And when they stopped listening to God’s word… the whole world became messed up.

Then God set up the people of Israel to be his special people. He told them how to live…. He told them how he’d bless them and look after them. He told them about the bad stuff that would happen if they ignored him. They had all these great words from God, but just like Adam and Eve, they were like, “Ahhh… we don’t believe you.” They didn’t think God was faithful.

Then God gave the Israelites kings. Leaders who were meant to show the Israelites how to listen to God. He told the kings what was good and best. But you know what… You’ve probably guessed by now. Even the kings didn’t believe God’s word.

The northern part of the country called Israel had had bad king after bad king after bad king. But guess what. A new king’s come to power. A guy named Ahab. This could be it! This could be the chance for one of them to get it right! Finally a king of Israel could stand up and say… we’re all going to listen to God’s word. And the Bible tells right from the beginning that Ahab is…. Evil.

Aaaaaggghhh.

So frustrating. Evil isn’t a happy sort of word, is it. Imagine if your teacher wrote a note home to your parents saying, “Today, your child was… evil”. It wouldn’t be great, would it?

But this is even worse than you think. Because the Bible tells us this about Ahab. I’m using the International Children’s Bible by the way. It’s a great translation for kids. And it says about Ahab in 1 Kings, chapter 16 verse 30…

He did more evil than any of the kings before him.

Whoa. He’s not just evil. He’s like… the evilist.

What does he do that’s so bad?

Well, he does everything all the other kings had done, but then goes even further in not listening to God’s word.

God had said to the Israelites, “Don’t marry women from other countries”. Not because he’s racist. God loves everyone. But because the other countries served other gods. Fake gods. Gods that can’t do anything.

Ahab doesn’t care what God says. And so he marries a women named Jezebel, from a country called Sidon. She is BAAAAAAD news. We’re going to hear more about her in episode 4.

Straight away… Ahab does exactly what God said would happen. He starts serving her fake gods. There’s one called Baal. The Sidonians believed in lots of gods, but they said Baal was king of all the gods. The Bible says there’s only one God, and he’s king of everything. So Baal and the real God are gonna have problems. Ahab also starts worshipping a fake god called Asherah, who’s supposed to be Baal’s wife.

This is so bad. These fake gods… they can’t speak. They don’t tell anyone to do anything. Which means people can just make it up. They can take someone’s money and say, Baal told me to do it. They can kick their big brother and say, I’m doing it for Asherah.

And so… (slow) Ahab’s ignoring the words of the living God… and listening to gods that… can’t speak?

This is so bad! The Israelites are meant to be God’s special people… Showing the whole world how good and important it is to listen to God’s word. When they’re in trouble… the whole world’s in trouble.

Just to show how bad it is… The Bible throws another tiny story about something that happens at the same time. A story about someone who ignores God’s word.

Way back before this God had helped the Israelites take over the land of Canaan. The first city they’d conquered was called Jericho. You might remember how God made the whole wall fall down. Well God had said to the Israelites… “never rebuild Jericho. In fact, if you start rebuilding the Jericho, your oldest son will die. If you try to rebuild the gates… your youngest son will die.”

God’s really serious about this. And he’s spoken to the Israelites so they know exactly what to do and not do.

In Ahab’s time, though… most people don’t believe God’s word. And so a guy called Hiel says, “Hmmm. Jericho’s looking a bit run down. I think I’ll rebuild it.” And just like God said would happen… his older son, called Abiram… dies. And when Hiel starts rebuilding the gates… his youngest son… Segub… dies.

If only Hiel had listened to God’s word.

Well now… God’s going to speak again. He’s going to speak to Ahab through a prophet named Elijah. I wonder if Ahab will listen?

The news that God sends to Ahab sounds pretty bad but… don’t panic when you hear it… God has a good plan in mind. This is what the Bible says. I’m reading from 1 Kings… or some people say First Kings… First Kings chapter 17, verse 1. It says this:

Now Elijah was a prophet from the town of Tishbe in Gilead. Elijah said to King Ahab, “I serve the Lord, the God of Israel. As surely as the Lord lives, I tell you the truth. No rain or dew will fall during the next few years unless I command it.”

Imagine that. Not a single drop of rain… Not even any dew on the ground. That means… no food is going to grow. That’d be pretty scary.

Unless you think… “Elijah… who’s he? He doesn’t speak for God. And even if he did… who cares? God doesn’t send the rain. Baal does.” That’s probably what King Ahab’s thinking.

Except… Elijah does speak for God… So its all going to come true.

And now God speaks to Elijah and says… run away. Go and hide in this ravine… like a steep valley. There’s a little creek there, so you can drink water from that. And don’t worry about food because…

Now… this is a little weird. How about I read it to you and you see what you think. This is from verse 2:

Then the Lord spoke his word to Elijah: “Leave this place. Go east and hide near Kerith Ravine. It is east of the Jordan River. You may drink from the brook. And I have commanded ravens (big black birds) to bring you food there.” So Elijah did what the Lord told him to do. He went to Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and lived there. The birds brought Elijah bread and meat every morning and every evening. And he drank water from the brook.

Have your mum or dad or whoever looks after you… have they ever said, “Ohhh… I’m so tired. I don’t feel like cooking tonight. I know… we’ll ask God to send some ravens with some food.” Maybe you could suggest it to them tonight. “Hey mum, you do so much for us. Why don’t you put your feet up and have a night off from cooking. We’ll just wait for the ravens.”

This is so weird! Ravens don’t normally bring food to people! In fact, even if I wanted them to, I couldn’t make them do it. You try asking a raven to bring you some meat and bread every morning and every evening. See how you go.

But you know who can tell the ravens what to do? The God who speaks. The God of the Bible. His words are good and powerful and strong.

Ahab ignores God’s word… and look where that gets him… Stuck in a drought.

Elijah… well he obeys God’s word. And even though it seems weird… Even though it means Elijah will have to be all alone and just rely on God to send the food every day… he obeys God’s word. And God keeps his word… and powerfully looks after Elijah every single day.

Did you know that God speaks his word to us in the Bible. And its still true… and its still good. Just like with Elijah… if you trust and obey God’s word… God will look after you in the way that only he can.

In a very famous Bible verse… John 3:16… God speaks his word and makes a promise. It’s a promise about what’ll happen if you believe in Jesus. God promises a gift better than anything you’ll ever get at a birthday. This is what God says in John 3:16:

For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son…(that’s Jesus). God gave his Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life.

God speaks… and he promises eternal life for all who trust and believe in his Son Jesus. That’s life forever and ever and ever. And just like in Elijah’s day… God’s faithful… and we can believe his word.

But in Elijah’s day… there’s still no rain. And the water in Elijah’s creek is about to run out. What’s going to happen to him? What’s going to happen to Israel? Are they going to start listening to God? Well that’s a story… for next time.

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