Chasing Chariots

The time has come to share with you where the name Chasing Chariots is derived from. It really is kind of a stretch to make one of my favorite stories in the Bible relate back to running, but it is a stretch I am willing to make.

I had the wonderful privilege of reading through 1st and 2nd Kings with a group of men from Orchard Hill Church led by the extremely knowledgeable Ed Baker. Not only was Ed’s knowledge inspiring, his passion for the word of God made me appreciate the stories of the Old Testament in a way I did not know possible. My favorite story from this journey comes in 1 Kings chapters 17-19. Each time I read the story I find more things that I love, and more ways that this crazy Old Testament story that normally sounded like a fairy tale to me relates very intimately to my life. So, although I will paraphrase the story I encourage you to read through it in the pages of your Bible. If you don’t have Ed Baker handy to explain all the nuances, grab a commentary from a book store or one online. However, don’t let the burden of understanding all that is going get in the way of letting God speak to you through the story.

There is this King Ahab who like so many before him has done wrong in the eyes of God. He has married one of the scariest characters in the Bible, Jezebel, and set up places for his people to worship the idols, Baal and Asherah. Elijah gets a message from God to tell Ahab that it will not rain in his land for the next few years until he says so.

God protects Elijah by telling him to go to a brook where he had plenty of water and the ravens, yes the ravens, brought him food in the morning and at night. When the brook dries up, God sends Elijah to a widow who is poor and famished and has resolved to die with her son. When Elijah asks for food and water she tells him her plight. Elijah tells her to go home and make him, herself and her son some bread with the supplies she has and tells her to not be afraid because the Lord said the supplies will not run out until it rained on the land. Some time later the woman’s son became ill and stopped breathing. She thinks that Elijah has been sent to remind her of her sins and take her son from her. Elijah prays to God to save her son and the Lord brings him back to life.

After at least three years of no rain God tells Elijah to go talk to Ahab. Before making it rain God wants to know that the people know they are worshipping false idols and He is the only true God, so he calls for a bit of a show down. Elijah comes across the person in charge of Ahab’s palace, Obadiah, and tells him to tell Ahab he is back. Obadiah is scared to do so because while Elijah has been gone Jezebel has been killing every prophet of the Lord she could find, and Ahab has been searching everywhere for Elijah. He was afraid that if he told Ahab he was back, and then Elijah was called somewhere else, that Ahab would kill him. Elijah promises this will not happen and Obadiah tells Ahab of Elijah’s return.

When Elijah meets with Ahab he reminds him of why the drought is happening. He tells him to gather all the people of Israel, the prophets of Baal and the prophets of Asherah and tell them to go to Mount Carmel. When everyone arrives Elijah gives them a ultimatum. He says you worship God, or you worship Baal. You can’t have both. He claims he is the only prophet of God left but there are 450 prophets of Baal. To prove that God is the only God he sets up a test. The prophets of Baal will prepare a bull for sacrifice and so will Elijah. They will both ask their god for fire and the god who answers is the true God.

The prophets of Baal go first because Elijah is so outnumbered. They call on Baal all morning but nothing happens. Then Elijah starts a bit of trash talk. He even implies that maybe Baal is too busy using the toilette to answer them. The prophets became upset and slashed themselves with swords to bleed in order for Baal to answer. They did this into the evening, but nothing happened.

Elijah then called everyone’s attention to him. The people came and helped him prepare the altar of the Lord with twelve stones for each tribe of Israel. He arranged the wood and placed the bull on the altar. He then asked the people to fill the trench they had made with 12 large jars of precious water during a drought. Then Elijah called upon the Lord to let the people know that he was the one true God so their hearts would return to Him. Fire came down that was so hot it burned up the entire altar: bull, stones, wood and water. The people of Israel turned back to God, and the prophets of Baal were put to death. Elijah told Ahab to go eat and drink because rain was on its way. As the people celebrated , Elijah knelt down on the top of Mount Carmel and prayed to God for the rain to come. He told his servant to go look for clouds seven times, and on the seventh trip he saw a small cloud coming over the horizon.

Elijah told Ahab to get in his chariot and get back home before the rain made it too hard to travel. The sky grew dark, the winds picked up, and a heavy rain began as Ahab rode of in his chariot. Elijah was so overwhelmed by what God had done that he was filled with the power of the Lord. He tucked his cloak into his belt and began running in the direction of Ahab’s chariot. The Lords power was so strong in him that he chased down Ahab’s chariots and passed them, beating them back to the town of Jezreel.

Elijah was so excited about what God had done for him and his people that he could not hold in his amazement and gratitude to God. He wanted to shout it so loud that he was able to accomplish the super-human feat of beating the chariots back to Jezreel from Mount Carmel. The story reminds me of my father’s conversion after attending a Young Life camp. He was so dumbfounded by this new knowledge of God’s amazing love for him that he could not hold it in.

I remember getting a call from him before he was to be a guest lecturer at UNI. He said, “Jordan, is it okay to talk about Jesus in a classroom at UNI.” I said, “Dad, I thought your lecture was about youth drug culture and intervention.” He said, “Well I can’t really keep my faith out of anything.” I said, “If you think it is the truth, no one can stop you from telling it.” A woman in the class asked him if he thought that jail or rehabilitation really changed anybody. He said, “No, because the only thing that can really change anybody is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” My father had the power to chase chariots in order to shout from the mountain tops the love and forgiveness that Jesus Christ had offered him. I hope that as I discover God in new ways that I don’t keep it to myself. I hope that God will fill me with the power to share it with the world. I hope that I am always chasing chariots.