Elijah and the Rider of the Clouds, the Bringer of the Rain

The Circuit Overseer gave us a lovely talk Thursday night - how can I do it justice in the blog?  For one thing, I wish that Izzy, my virtual friend (is "virtual" the right word?  I mean we only know each other through the internet) could have been in the seat beside me to hear it. We were learning from the example of one of his faithful ancestors, the prophet Elijah.

The Speaker first set the scene for us - and although I have read this account many times - he brought out so many things, so much meaning.

At this time the Israelites had become divided - into the 2-tribe and the 10-tribe Kingdom.   And King Ahab was ruling over the 10 tribe kingdom.  He was not a good king, and had married Jezebel - a worshipper of Baal - who had brought the cruel practices of Baal worship right into the congregation.

Jehovah, through his prophet, is going to try and help bring the people back to their senses.   He sets it out clearly and simply at 1 Kings 18:21:  "Then E‧li′jah approached all the people and said: “How long will you be limping upon two different opinions? If Jehovah is the [true] God, go following him; but if Ba′al is, go following him.” And the people did not say a word in answer to him."

So - make up your minds.  And then, because Jehovah always makes things clear and simple, he wants us to listen, understand and obey, he empowers Elijah to demonstrate the facts of the matter.

Elijah first appears in the record when he is sent by Jehovah to announce chastisement upon Israel for their sins. His first reported words are: “As Jehovah the God of Israel before whom I do stand is living.” Elijah points out that Jehovah the living God of Israel has decreed that no rain or dew will occur for a period of years, except at Elijah’s word. This time period proves to be three years and six months. (1Ki 17:1; Jas 5:17).  And here is the point of the blog title.  Apparently Baal was known as "The Rider of the Clouds" and "The Bringer of the Rain".  Israel was worshipping "The Bringer of the Rain" instead of Jehovah - and they got no rain at Jehovah's word.

That could have told them something.   However, if you read 1 Kings 18:21-40, you will see that Jehovah went on to make it absolutely clear who the true God is.  Jehovah wants us to know the truth, it is Satan who wants to deceive us.

I hope to come back to this talk - blogwise.  And I need to keep thinking about it too.   It drew us all even closer to our Creator, I think, seeing the tender care he took of his prophet.

Talking of tender care, Captain Butterfly sacrificed a whole days photographing in the sun to take me out for lunch at Arundel.   The light was so wonderful - I hope that an Autumnal picture will appear at the head of this blog in time.  We had a sort of Colcannon, with a fried egg on top.  Properly fried, not done chef-style, i.e. it was cooked right through, which is the way I like my eggs.

I had 3 projects for the day. To get my Watchtower study done - done at Arundel, in the car while Capt.B did his photography.  There was a concert on in the restaurant, so I couldn't study there as usual, and missed out on my lovely mug of frothy coffee.  To get my reply to Kathryn finished and posted. Done. And to blog. Which I am at least doing now.