The Need for Troublers

After Elijah told King Ahab that a drought was coming which could only be ended by the prophet's word, the King probably paid little attention to him.  However, as flowing streams became dry creek beds and well water became unreachable, Ahab started looking for Elijah.  Nearly three years passed between the time the drought was announced and the time that Elijah made his appearance to the King.  And when the two met, Ahab greeted the prophet of the Lord with the name, "Troubler of Israel."  (I Kings 18:17)

 

Elijah was called a troubler because of the way he challenged and called into question the values of the world around him.  No longer was Israel a nation that worship Yahweh, but instead, under the King's leadership, it was kneeling at the altars of Baal.  It was a pagan system that was diametrically opposed to the value system of the worship of Yahweh.  Elijah's challenge threatened not only the King's authority, but the morality of a religion that was corrupt and had no real values.  It was a system that was leading people away from God instead of toward him.

 

Our culture needs some troublers.  Being silent in the presence of so many subtle changes in the value system of our spiritual culture is not a luxury which the church, its leaders, and its people can embrace.  Every day it seems that the secular culture invites the church to take another step away from the Biblical faith which has served the church and its people through the centuries.  And, while the values of our culture do not require an abandonment of Christian faith, it does call for its people to simultaneously kneel at another altar.  The road of blending in with culture is the road that takes us away from our Biblical faith and as it does so, it take us further and further from God.