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BETTING ON KINGS

I guess it's a desert saga they still talk about in the State of Nevada. Clear back in the year 1949, a big gambler named Nicholas "Nick the Greek" Dandolos challenged legendary poker player Johnny Moss to a high stakes marathon game. The two men sat down at a green-felt table and essentially stayed there for five months, playing head-to-head poker against each other. Finally the whole thing shuddered to a finish with Mr. Moss winning what they called "the biggest game in town," a pot worth something like two million dollars. So the story goes. "The Greek" stood up, bowed to his adversary, said, "Mr. Moss, I have to let you go," and went upstairs to bed.

Out of that rather unsavory past comes what I understand they still call the World Series of Poker, held every year at the late Benny Binion's Horseshoe Club. Their Internet web site likes to brag that the winner takes home in excess of a million bucks: "more than the winner of the Kentucky Derby or the Wimbledon champ, or the man who captures the Masters [golf tournament.]"

Now friend, I'm certainly not advising you to scrape together a stake and head for the Silver State. Most of the 4,780 players in the Year 2000 tourney left their silver behind at the Horseshoe Club, and hitchhiked home with just the shirt on their back. But what I find intriguing — and there's certainly a lot of it in the Bible story we want to study these next few weeks — is this element of betting it all. Staking EVERYTHING on one event, one outcome, a single roll of the dice or the turn of a card. I don't think much of it when it happens at the Horseshoe Club, but it really thrills my soul when I find a great Bible character saying, along with Martin Luther: "Here I stand; I can do no other."
This very exciting Bible experience is one you can find starting in the book of First Kings, chapter 17, and it actually runs over to the end of the 19th chapter. And the hero of the day is a prophet of the Lord named Elijah. Of course, as soon as I say that name, you might remember something about a man being fed by ravens. And perhaps you have a Sunday School memory of a place called Mount Carmel, where one of the great Old Testament showdowns took place. Although instead of a one-on-one competition, this was more like 450 to one.

If you read the various commentaries about Elijah the Tishbite, "from Tishbe in Gilead," as he's described, we find out that he has a most interesting name. Elijah actually means "The Lord is my God," or "Jehovah is my God." That's important for a couple of reasons. First of all, as you read through these few pages of the Bible you discover that Elijah is essentially living in enemy-occupied territory. The false worship of Baal has taken over all of Israel. We'll study more about that as we continue, but under the despotic leadership of Ahab and, especially, Jezebel, Israel has "gone whoring after false gods," as the Bible rather colorfully puts it. The NIV describes their apostasy — this is back in First Chronicles 5 — with these words:

"But they were unfaithful to the God of their fathers and prostituted themselves to the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them."

And as this story gets underway, the worship of Baal is rampant. There are shrines everywhere; there are what the Scriptures call "groves," leafy tabernacles dedicated to the corrupt worship of these idols. And here Elijah is carrying around a name meaning "The Lord is my God." You would think, for his own protection, that he would have changed his drivers license to read "Fred Smith" or something equally innocuous.

But here at the very beginning of our story, Elijah walks right into the palace of Ahab, right into the citadel of rebellious Baal worship, and makes this announcement:

"As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, WHOM I SERVE, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word."

You talk about letting it all hang out! I don't know if he was wearing a name tag or not — "The Lord is my God" — but he stands in front of a king who commands the armies of Israel. A king whose wife consorts with paid assassins. A king who openly bows down to this god of nature named Baal. And Elijah announces to him that HIS God, the true God, the God HE serves . . . is going to stop the rain for the next several years.
So already we see elements of "bet it all on one roll of the dice" in this unique man. With a word Ahab can have him killed, but he says his piece.

There's a fascinating old Christian bestseller — some of you have likely read it — entitled Prophets and Kings, by the late Christian writer, E. G. White. She adds some extra color to this story, describing Elijah's decision to go before the king. Listen to this:

"It was only by the exercise of strong faith in the unfailing power of God's word that Elijah delivered the message," she writes. "Had he not possessed implicit confidence in the One whom he served, he would never have appeared before Ahab. On his way to Samaria, Elijah had passed by ever-flowing streams, hills covered with verdure, and stately forests that seemed beyond the reach of drought. Everything on which the eye rested was clothed with beauty. The prophet might have wondered how the streams that had never ceased their flow could become dry, or how those hills and valleys could be burned with drought."

That's quite a picture, isn't it? There's green, green, green everywhere as he hikes over to the palace. As he enters the gates of the king's estate, there are probably plants blooming all over the place, and water fountains spraying the ornate ponds with a Bellagio Hotel display. There's dew on the ground, and three inches of rain forecast for the coming weekend on CNN. But God has said to Elijah, "Tell the king there's going to be no more rain." And despite the evidence to the contrary, despite the dark nimbus clouds scooting across the sky, Elijah bets everywhere he has on the word of the Lord. He bets his LIFE, in fact, on the fact that "Jehovah is my God." This same gospel writer finishes her thought. Notice:

"[Elijah] gave no place to unbelief. He fully believed that God would humble apostate Israel, and that through judgments they would be brought to repentance. The fiat of Heaven had gone forth; God's word could not fail; and at the peril of his life Elijah fearlessly fulfilled his commission."

Proof of how dangerous this moment truly was follows immediately from the biblical text. Before Ahab can gather his wits, or shout to the guards, "Off with his head!", Elijah is out of there. And he immediately goes into hiding. This is where the famous feeding-by-ravens story happens, as Elijah completely withdraws from civilization. You may remember the brook Cherith, or Kerith Ravine, as some of the newer translations render it. Over in chapter 18, skipping ahead in the story, we find that not only does King Ahab search diligently for this renegade prophet, fully intending to kill him, but he sends emissaries to every surrounding nation and territory, demanding that they surrender him. After a couple of years of no rain, Elijah had a million-shekel bounty on his head.
And yet, staying in chapter 18 now, when God tells him, "All right, Elijah, time to come out of hiding. Time to present yourself before King Ahab again" . . . Elijah does it! Once again, he bets everything on the providence and protection of God.

And then, of course, you know I want to go to the top of Mount Carmel. And friend, let me say this: forget the Las Vegas Horseshoe Club and the World Series of Poker. That's a one-dollar Lotto ticket compared with what Elijah dares to do on the summit of Carmel. Right there before the entire watching nation, he and the prophets of Baal put up two big altars. And Elijah himself outlines the stakes of the gamble: "Whichever God answers by fire," he says, "will be our true God. If Baal comes through, if we actually hear from Baal today . . . then ALL OF US — MYSELF INCLUDED — will follow him." This lonely prophet is so sure of the God he serves that he is willing to stake not just his life, but his ETERNAL life, and the destiny of the entire nation, on the promises of that God.

You know, friend, we read Bible lessons sometimes that exhort us to "be like Elijah." How would we do that? Well, it's good to speak up against sin and tyranny; it's good to be vocal in opposing the evil culture around us. It's marvelous to proclaim — with our name and with our lips — that we're loyal to the King of the universe, that "Jehovah is my God." But most of all, I want to have this willingness to stake everything I've got on the promises of the God I serve. To trust Him with everything: my life, my career plans, my future, my eternal destiny, everything.

I guess it doesn't really do, though, to liken this to something so small as a "World Series of Poker." Not when you already know you have a sure thing.