Coram Deo: In the Presence of God

Scripture: 1 Kings 17: 1-5; 18: 1-15

Sermon: Coram Deo: In the Presence of God

Preached: November 3, 1997 p.m. Rehoboth CRC

Rev. Mike Abma

INTRODUCTION — SPIRITUAL AMNESIA

For the last several months we have been looking at the Old Testament Offices of first priest, then king, and lastly prophet. Generally we have tried to introduce each of these roles and then get more specific as we went along. Tonight, though, I would like to try get at the very heart of what it means to be a prophet — not just way back when, but what it means to be a prophet even today. I would like to do that by looking at one of the great prophets of the Old Testament, Elijah.

Elijah literally bursts onto the scene in verse one of chapter 17. We know nothing about Elijah until then. But suddenly there he is, going toe-to-toe with king Ahab and bringing a curse of a drought to the land. To understand Elijah’s role as a prophet, we do have to get an idea of the age he lived in. For over fifty years, the Northern Kingdom of Israel had been slipping further and further from God. It started already near the end of Solomon’s rule. But after Solomon there was a list of kings who disappointed the Lord more and more: Jereboam, Nadab, Elah, Zimri, Tibni, Omri. Things had hit there worst with the reign of Ahab. To sum up how bad things had become, the writer of 1 Kings notes at the end of ! kings 16:34 that during Ahab’s reign a guy called Hiel of Bethel decided to rebuild the city of Jericho, even though this had been strictly forbidden by God years ago. But rebuild the city they did anyway. Why? Because they had forgotten. People were afflicted with spiritual amnesia. Sure, there were still all these signs that Israel was a religious country, a spiritual country. But they had forgotten that the Lord Almighty was their God, their only God. They had forgotten that their lives had to be lived in obedience to him.

ELIJAH, The PROPHET

So in out of the blue strides Elijah at the beginning of chapter 17. He strides directly into King Ahab’s throne room and these are the first words attributed to Elijah:

As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except by my word.

If you were listening closely to both reading, you might have noticed that Elijah uses the exact same words when speaking to Obadiah in 18:15, thus reversing the curse of drought with the blessing of rain:

As the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today.

The phrase, As the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel lives, whom I serve was a favourite of Elijah’s and preceded a number of his pronouncements. Even his successor, Elisha, used this phrase in 2 Kings 3:14 and 2 Kings 5:16. It is rather easy to quickly read these words because they appear so formal. They sound like simply words of introduction to an important announcement. But the more you look at those words, especially in the context Elijah lived, the more revolutionary and fundamental they become in terms of Elijah’s role as a prophet.

In Hebrew the phrase, As the Lord he God of Israel lives, reads

Haya Yahweh Elohim Israel — In a country that was forgetting who its God was, in a country that was quickly drifting into all kinds of other worship and spirituality, Elijah proclaims the two most fundamental names of God, Yahweh and Elohim. He re-emphasizes the firm reality of God’s existence and his power.

The next phrase in the NIV reads, Whom I serve.

This is one of these cases where an approximate meaning takes the place of the literal translation of the Hebrew. The Hebrew reads asher amaditi lephanah which translated means, before whom I stand, or even more literally, before whose face I stand, or, to give it a bit of a poetic sound, in whose presence I live and breathe.

In many ways, this little phrase that introduced Elijah’s pronouncements captures the essence, the heart of his role and message as a prophet. As a prophet he was gripped by the reality of God’s existence. A prophet knows, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the Lord, the God of Israel, lives. Many prophets had first-hand experiences of God’s overwhelming reality. But a prophet also realized that God didn’t live far away, he didn’t slumber or sleep, he didn’t fade in and out of the picture, here one day and gone the next. No, a prophet lived with the conviction that God lives and that we live our lives in the presence of God, under the gaze of God.

These two fundamental ways of looking at life — that God really is alive and that we really do live in the shadow of His Presence — gave purpose and meaning to a prophet. It was only in being fully convicted that the Lord lived and that we live in his hand that Elijah could have the courage to walk straight into Ahab’s throne room and confront the wishy-washy king the way he did. Ahab had no power over Elijah, but neither did Jezebel’s heathen hatred, or the pitiful prophets of Baal and their misguided devotion.

OBADIAH

Over against the seemingly rock solid convictions of Elijah the prophet, we are given a glimpse into the life of a more ordinary Israelite, struggling to live out his faith. In chapter 18 we are introduced to Obadiah, a high ranking civil servant in Ahab’s court who was also doing whatever he could to serve the Lord without getting killed. Obadiah had already secretly rescued and hidden 100 faithful prophets of God. While on an errand to find some pasture for Ahabs horses — without horses a king was militarily defenceless — Elijah does his sudden-appearance thing to Obadiah. Obadiah is stunned. Ahab had searched everywhere in his efforts to kill Elijah, and now, there Elijah was, again seemingly out of the blue. But Elijah’s presence terrified Obadiah. Obadiah was afraid that if he went to get Ahab, Elijah would do his disappearing trick again, and Obadiah would lose his head.

Of course, behind Obadiah’s fears that Elijah would disappear was the general fear of every Israelite that not only would God’s prophet disappear, but God himself would disappear, leaving the believers abandoned, on their own, and defenceless.

Elijah’s words in verse 15 “As the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today” serve not only to assure Obadiah that Elijah isn’t going anywhere, but they also help reassure him that the Lord God Almighty isn’t going anywhere either. In fact, the Lord is always present, and we always live in his presence — whether we acknowledge that or not.

PROPHET’S ROLE THROUGH HISTORY

And that is such an essential part of the prophetic witness. Prophets throughout the Old testament speak loudly and boldly and even recklessly because their role it to remind people with spiritual amnesia that GOD IS ALIVE and he refuses to be forgotten, rejected, or ignored. The Prophet’s role is to remind the forgetful and the fearful that we all live in the presence of God, a presence that is holy, that is an all-consuming fire, a presence that exposes sin and will consume it. That prophets exist to remind us of the living and powerful reality of God and that we live and stand and breath before this God.

Throughout history, reform movements in the body of Christ have had this prophetic edge to them, this prophetic quality. The leaders of these reform movements have had an undeniable experience of God’s living reality. Knowing that God is real, knowing that we live in his presence, life is lived in a different way.

Take for example St. Francis of Assissi, one of the most influential reformers of the medieval church. Born at the end of the 12th century into a rather wealthy Italian clothes-merchant’s home, for Francis God and the church were simply part of life — they weren’t life. But one day Francis had an experience. Disillusioned with life, Francis heard the voice of God come to him. It said, “Go, repair my house which is crumbling.” Francis took all that he had and began repairing the crumbling church of St Damian. He even sold some cloth of his father’s and used the profits to fix the church. His father was outraged, and brought his son to court to recoup his losses. Eventually Francis appeared before the Bishop. Francis lay all that he had, even his clothes, before the Bishop and pronounced that henceforth he had no father but his Father in heaven. From there he went to live a life that imitated Christ’s to the best of his ability. He began a movement that purified the church.

Martin Luther, another prophet in his own right, had an overwhelming sense of the reality of God. His problem was that he felt thoroughly unworthy to stand before the face of God. It was only when he had an epiphany of grace, an experience that we can only stand before the face of God by the grace won for us through Jesus Christ, that his life took on true meaning. When challenged in court before the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1521 to recant his position, it is interesting to remember Martin Luther’s words, which in ways echo Elijah’s

“Here I stand before the face of God; I can do no other.”

John Calvin was also in ways a prophet sent to remind people of the living realtiy of God and that we live in God’s presence each day, in every minute detail of life. We may be familiar with certain reformation themes by Latin phrases like sola scriptura — Scripture alone; soli gratia — by grace alone; solo Christo — through Christ alone. But there is another phrase that was key to Calvin and to the Reformers that followed him. That is the phrase Coram Deo — Before God or In the Presence of God. If there is one aspect of John Calvin’s theology that is present from start to finish it is this sense of Coram Deo — God is real, not imaginary; God is here, not far away; God is now, not simply a God of the past or a God of the Future. God is real, God is here, God is now!

PROPHETIC ROLE IN OUR LIVES

And we stand before him, live in His presence, Coram Deo. Knowing we live in his presence shapes our lives, molds them. For it is an overwhelming privilege to know that there is no other creature in heaven or on earth that receives that attention and blessing that we as humans receive from God. But with privileges come responsibilities. From whom much is given, much will be required. All prophets call us to live our lives in loving response to God’s love.

So here we are. It is 1997. We still need to hear the words of the prophets of the past and of today.

* as we perhaps mumble the words to our hymns, not even paying attention to their meaning.

* as our minds drift during prayers, seemingly unaware of the awesome majesty of the one to whom we are praying

* as we will leave this church perhaps self-satisfied that at least we showed up in contrast to so many who do not

* as we will live through the coming week consumed by our busyness, the demands of each day, so often oblivious to the reality of God and that we live in his presence

We need to be prophesied to — reminded that God is real, that God refuses to be forgotten, treated lightly or flippantly. We need to be reminded that we live each single moment before his face, both in this church and outside of it. We need to be reminded of this.

OUR NEED TO BE PROPHETIC

We need to be prophesied to … but after we have heard, we also need to prophesy ourselves. We need to say to this world — that has all but forgotten who God is — we need

to say in our words but more importantly in our lives, that God is alive, and that we live consciously aware of living and standing before his face.

* We need to say that it is only through our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, the lamb of God, that our sin-stained lives can be cleaned and we can stand before God without shame.

* We need to say that our words, our hearts, our lives, our possessions are not our own but belong to and are ruled by Jesus Christ, who is our Great King.

It is only then that we can truly be prophets, testifying to the truth and grace of the greatest of all Prophets — for those who hear Jesus speak, those who witness Jesus live, have an overwhelming sense that we are in the presence not simply of a Prophet but of God. John says as much in his first letter where he writes

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched — this we proclaim concerning the Word of Life.