The Bible Study Podcast, episode 289.

Today, the Bible Study podcast does part three of a study on faith.

Welcome to the Bible Study Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen.

As we planned this study, or as I planned this study on faith, it had been my intention in this week to do a study on the loss of faith or what to do when we are tempted to lose faith. And that has proved to be probably more appropriate than I thought in light of some tragic events that have happened in the United States this last week with the school shooting in Connecticut.

I can imagine that there are people who are losing faith.

There are people who are saying, how could there be a God?

How could a God allow something like this?

Now, even though personally,

I look at something awful and terrible as that as further proof that we live in a broken and fallen world, I could understand why someone would question at this kind of time. And so I want to look at

some biblical examples of people with great faith who had difficulty at times when it seemed like they would

lose their faith. And so let's look first at Elijah. Elijah, we've kind of danced around

some of the studies about Elijah, and you may remember that Elijah at one point challenges

the prophets of Baal to a pre-off, basically. He challenges them that each one will put together a burnt offering, but they won't provide the fire, and they will pray to their God, the prophets of Baal to Baal and Elijah to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And they will pray and see which God is real.

And so the 100 prophets of Baal dance around and cut themselves and pray all day and nothing happens.

And Elijah prays, and even though he has already wet down the altar, fire comes from the sky

and consumes the altar, the offering, and all the water.

You might think that's a happily ever after point in the story of

Elijah, and it's not. Because right after that, Elijah fears for his life. Because even though he

has defeated the prophets of Baal and the people have killed the prophets of Baal because they

recognize them at least for a moment as being false prophets, Elijah has to flee for his life because they are also the prophets of the

king. And so Elijah flees into the wilderness in the first part of chapter 19, which we won't read.

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