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MOUNTAINTOP LOYALTY: THE ELIJAH
EXPERIENCE #11
JOGGING WITH THE ENEMY
Have you ever heard the expression, “Broken-Glass Republican”?
Back before the Year 2000 U.S. presidential elections, there were voters
out there with the attitude: “I’d crawl over broken glass if I had to
. . . to get that Bill Clinton out of the White House.” And that kind
of political passion felt against the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
is certainly nothing new. There’s a marvelous story in Chuck Colson’s
autobiography, entitled Born Again, where, back in the heyday of the Nixon
years, Colson was in the inner circle, special counsel to the President
himself. Nixon haters everywhere took out their wrath on Chuck Colson,
and he cheerfully and relentlessly returned the favor, helping Nixon exact
revenge on any unfortunate Democrat or liberal news person who got onto
the famous “enemies list.”
Then one hot August night, 1973, at the very height of the Watergate scandal,
with prosecutors breathing down his neck, Chuck Colson became a Christian.
After visiting with a new born-again friend named Tom Phillips, he went
out to his car. And weeping there in the darkness, he finally surrendered
himself to God. He didn’t know how to pray, but just said “Take me, take
me,” over and over in the darkness.
Well, his friend Tom was thrilled to hear the news. He told his Christian
friend, Doug Coe, and Doug came by Colson’s office to celebrate the decision.
“This is great,” he kept saying. “This is just great.” And then he almost
jumped out of his chair. “Man, you’ll want to meet with Harold Hughes,”
he said. “Harold Hughes is a tremendous Christian.”
And Colson cracked up. “You’re nuts,” he said. “You don’t know what you’re
talking about. Harold Hughes” — this was Senator Harold Hughes from Iowa
— “can’t stand me, and I can’t stand him.” The two-fisted former governor
of Iowa, now a liberal Democratic senator, held a spot very high on the
Nixon enemy list.
“Oh, that doesn’t matter now,” Coe said with a dismissive wave. “Now that
you’re a Christian, Harold will be very happy to be your friend.”
Well, to make a long story short, when Hughes heard that Colson — the
arch-Republican who had once said he’d run over his own grandmother to
get Nixon re-elected — was now a fellow believer, at first he didn’t believe
it. “Plus I hate that guy,” he told Doug Coe. “Hate him, hate him, hate
him.” And Doug had to remind Harold that Christians were commanded to
love, and to forgive, their enemies. And in late September, after a bit
of an awkward start, Harold Hughes listened as Chuck Colson told of his
experience, of being born again as a new Christian. Harold listened without
saying a word, and then all at once, raised up both hands and slapped
them down on his knees.
“That’s all I need to know,” he said. “Chuck, you have
accepted Jesus and He has forgiven you. I do the same. I love you now
as my brother in Christ. I will stand with you, defend you anywhere, and
trust you with anything I have.”
And thus began a friendship which has continued now
for three decades.
Well, it’s a marvelous saga — and some of you listeners, I’m sure, have
read one of the powerful religious bestsellers to come from Chuck Colson’s
pen since those days. But how does it tuck into the story of Elijah, who
has just stood tall with God on the summit of Mount Carmel, and beaten
back the forces of the fallen god Baal? You remember that King Ahab and
Queen Jezebel had been front and center in the spiritual destruction of
Israel, leading the people into apostasy. And of course, for three long,
dry years Ahab had essentially had a bounty on the head of the prophet
Elijah. Speaking of broken glass, he was willing to fight his way through
20 miles of thorn bushes if he could just get rid of his enemy, Elijah
the Tishbite.
Of course, on the top of Mount Carmel, Elijah and Ahab had agreed to a
temporary ceasefire while they had the showdown with the two altars. Ahab’s
side had lost, and Elijah’s God had prevailed, with the fire coming down
out of heaven in response to his prayer. And you recall that we studied
on Friday how the 450 rebellious priests of Baal had been executed following
the mountaintop demonstration. Now, in the quiet aftermath of the shouting
and the fire and the carnage, we find a special little scene reminiscent
of the rapprochement or bonding moment between Colson and his enemy, Harold
Hughes.
We’re still in the book of I Kings, chapter 18, and there’s still not
a cloud in the sky. But Elijah, speaking by faith, says to the king:
“Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy
rain.”
At the very beginning of chapter 18, God had already
promised Elijah:
“Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”
But now, when Elijah climbs up to the very summit of
the mountain, says a prayer of thanksgiving, and then sends his servant
to scan the horizon of the Mediterranean Sea, the weatherman comes back
with a negative. “Nothing there, Elijah,” he says.
“Go look again,” he tells him.
“Still nothing.” Not a cloud, not a hint of moisture. And seven times
in a row, Elijah turns to the Weather Channel before the servant finally
reports:
“A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the
sea.”
And now here’s the very nice part of the story. Elijah
says to the servant:
“Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down
before the rain stops you.’”
But before King Ahab can even finish up his sack lunch
and brush his teeth, the rains begin to come down. And I mean, it’s enough
rain to make up for the three years of drought. “The sky grew black with
clouds,” it says in the NIV, “the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and
Ahab rode off to Jezreel.”
Keep in mind that Elijah has been persecuted by Ahab, threatened with
death by Ahab, tracked down from one corner of the kingdom to the other
by Ahab. But now as it begins to thunder and pour down rain, do you know
what the prophet of God does? I like how the Clear Word paraphrase of
the Bible finishes chapter 18 here. Listen:
“Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Elijah. He pulled
up his robe, tucked it in his belt, and in the power of God, caught up
with Ahab and ran ahead of his horses, guiding the chariot for more than
twenty miles through blinding rain all the way to Jezreel.”
Now, we just recently had the Los Angeles Marathon,
not too far down the freeway from where we do our work. And that’s a hard,
pavement-pounding 26 miles. The prophet Elijah, with no Nike shoes, no
Gatorade, no Atomic Polartec fleece running jacket, and no flashlight,
runs almost a full marathon in mud and a driving rain, leading his avowed
adversary, King Ahab, to the gates of Jezreel where — don’t forget — a
nice lady named Queen Jezebel is waiting with her Gestapo troops.
Isn’t that a tremendous gesture? And we have to confess that the niceness
of this story lasts approximately 20 minutes, because in verses one and
two of the very next chapter, Jezebel sends an e-mail to Elijah, guaranteeing
that by sundown the next day she’s going to do to him like he did to the
450 prophets, so help her God. But that’s a story for tomorrow, and right
here at the finish line of the Jezreel Marathon, let’s just pause to notice
that when we have achieved victory in Almighty God, we can then afford
to be gracious and kind toward those who were on the other side of the
battlefield.
And really, Elijah’s battle wasn’t with Ahab. Ahab was just a pawn, a
confused little king in the great, titanic struggle between good and evil,
between God and Satan. It wasn’t even really about Baal, which was nothing
but a stupid stone carving. This whole story, friend, is about God in
heaven, and Satan — wherever he lives — and their relentless struggle
for this planet and the hearts and minds of people on this planet. And
what a beautiful picture of reaching out, of seeing the larger view, where
Elijah says to Ahab: “You’re still my king, my lord.” (Small “l” in “lord,”
but still lord. Still ruler.) “Let me lead you, my king, back to the safety
of God’s service.”
One commentator put it like this:
“In this gracious act of God’s messenger shown to a wicked king is a lesson
for all who claim to be servants of God. . . . After the signal triumphs
of God with which God had been pleased to honor his public ministry, he
was willing to perform the service of a menial.”
The NIV scholars note what a huge opportunity this
might have been for Ahab.
“This dramatic scene,” they write, “with the Lord’s prophet running before
the king and the Lord Himself racing behind him riding His mighty thundercloud
chariot, served as a powerful appeal to Ahab to break once and for all
with Baal and henceforth to rule as the servant of the Lord.”
Yes, because of Elijah’s act of kindness, Ahab was
not far from God’s kingdom that night. Unfortunately, he was still married
to a Jezebel named Jezebel. And our story continues.
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