Scripture: “Keep looking, seven times if necessary” (1 Kings 18:44)
Happy New Year! I don’t know about you but this is actually one of my favorite holidays of the year. I look forward to the last couple of weeks of December because they are times of planning and anticipating. I also have an opportunity to look at some of those dreams and desires that alluded me the previous year. But the best part of the New Year is I am given another opportunity to enlist in the Army of Hope. When a New Year approaches I am given the opportunity to announce that in spite of a continued world of pain and suffering, in the midst of a growing community of pessimism and cynicism I can choose to look for hope in the big and small events of life. New Year’s Day is decision day for me. It was decision day for Ahab as well.
After many years of drought, Elijah is telling Ahab, the king of Israel, that rain was coming. Ahab was not only a bad king, he was a king who had done more evil than any king before him and any king after him. In fact, in the Book of Kings, Ahab is listed as “The New Champion of Evil” (1 Kings 16:30-33) One of the evil deeds performed by this king was to sacrifice his two sons, his eldest and youngest sons, as part of the foundation for the new walls to Jericho.
Prior to the announcement of the coming rain, Ahab had witness Elijah massacre all of the false prophets and now believes that he is about to meet the same fate. Instead, Elijah tells Ahab, “Rise up, celebrate! Rain is on the way” (1 Kings 18:41).
What an amazing proclamation. Ahab, “The New Champion of Evil” is being offered the opportunity to repent, to think about God differently than the way he had been thinking about God and about himself. It was New Year’s Day for Ahab.
It is yet another wonderful example of how our God is so incredibly generous with His love and His forgiveness. It is understandable why Ahab might hesitate to believe such great news. His entire life has been filled with darkness. “When your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!” (Matthew 6:23). This is what John means when he writes, “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:5).
Ahab was in such bondage to his false belief of the Baal gods, even though he had just seen an amazing miracle from God (see Miracle on Mt. Carmel, 1 Kings 18:16-40), that it was nearly impossible for him to believe that God was real and that God would give him another chance to reign as King of Israel. It was nearly impossible for him to believe that God saw him in a different way.
When God looked at Ahab He did not see Ahab as “The New Champion of Evil,” rather God saw Him as a person worthy of His love, attention, acceptance, and redemption. God wanted to rain forgiveness and mercy upon Ahab’s life. God wanted Ahab to know that “He was a member of a chosen race, part of a royal priesthood, a member of a holy nation, he was God’s own possession” (1 Peter 2:9-10). God wanted Ahab to hear the words, “You are my son and in you I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).
Of course Ahab would have difficulty hearing those words because his pattern of behavior told him something entirely different. His thoughts were overwhelmed with the reality that when people openly rebel and ignore God there are severe consequences to pay. And yet, Elijah was telling Ahab, “Keep looking, seven times if necessary.” Elijah was saying, “If your faith were only the size of a mustard seed, it would be large enough…” (Luke 17:6). How hard it is for us to believe the words – “You are my image bearer, You are my masterpiece, You are a my new creation, You are my beloved son or daughter. You are filled with light not darkness,”
My prayer for you, your family and your circle of friends is that as you begin this New Year, as you continue your journey of resiliency that you will continue to look in every way and every day for God to reveal His delight in you as His son or daughter. I pray that you will notice in this story that the rain cloud was coming even if Ahab could not believe it. In other words, God will continue to love you and continue to see you as His beloved even if you don’t believe it or see – Trust me just keep looking and you will see it. Happy New Year’s!!!
