MORAL ACTION: When National and State Leaders are Weak and Sinful (1 Kings 16:29-33)

By Dr. John M. Adams, Executive Director • Moral Action

Years ago, God placed a tremendous revival message on the heart of Dr. E. Harold Henderson of Dallas, Texas which he shared before God’s people. I was one of those people, along with many others. The points were so fitting for so many:

• God uses people from insignificant locations.

• God can use people who have no fame.

• God uses men and women who have no awesome abilities.

Elijah was also someone who would have identified with the points from Dr. Henderon’s sermon. Why was Elijah a prophet? How was he called? When did he begin his work? What were his credentials? We do not know. It is not necessary that we know, and it is enough that God called and used him. We can ask no more for ourselves; and yet, “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are” (James 5:16). He was not a superman. He was an ordinary person who believed God and was not afraid to speak and act in God’s name. If God could so use him, He can use us.

• Servants are needed when national leaders are weak and wicked. Elijah lived at the time Ahab was king of Israel and Jezebel was queen. Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians. She was a pagan who worshiped Baalim as her father did. Baal worship was accompanied by lascivious rites which included the grossest immorality and sexual perversion, the sacrifice of children in the fire by their parents and kissing Baal’s image. Jezebel was so devoted to that worship that the religion of Baal almost stamped out the worship of Jehovah in northern Israel.

Where was King Ahab while that was happening? He was so controlled by his wife, with such a weak personal devotion to God that he permitted idolatry to grow unchecked. God needed a man to stand up for right. That man was Elijah. Who is God’s person who will stand up today?

• Servants are needed in times of religious apostasy. Many years before Elijah’s ministry, King Jeroboam had built two golden images in Israel. He set one in Bethel to the south and one in Dan to the north. Worship of those golden calves came to be known as “the sins of Jeroboam” (I Kings 14:16). It degraded Israel for generations following Jeroboam’s reign. King Ahab worshiped those golden calves and the Baalim of his wicked wife. The nation so followed after those apostate religions that, at one time, there were only 7,000 people in the entire nation who had not bowed before an idol. God needed people to stand up for right when religion was perverted. Elijah was God’s man then. Who will be God’s person to stand up for doctrinal and moral purity today?

• Servants are needed to encourage the faithful remnant. Jezebel launched a crusade to kill all the prophets of God. She was so successful that only 100 prophets were spared, and then only because a governmental officer named Obadiah hid them in a cave and fed them bread and water. When Elijah stood on Mount Carmel to challenge the prophets of Baal, he stood alone. Not one of the 100 prophets dared stand with him, but the remnant was there. Someone needed to take a stand to encourage the remnant to take a stand. Elijah was God’s man then. Who will be God’s people today?

Does God need servants today who will stand against weak and wicked political rulers and religious error in order to encourage the faithful saints? Indeed, He does! Then you and I should follow the example of Elijah and take a stand for God.