By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
February 11, 2024
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2 Kings 2:1–12 (ESV)
1 Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. 2 And Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. 3 And the sons of the prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over you?” And he said, “Yes, I know it; keep quiet.” 4 Elijah said to him, “Elisha, please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.” But he said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they came to Jericho. 5 The sons of the prophets who were at Jericho drew near to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over you?” And he answered, “Yes, I know it; keep quiet.” 6 Then Elijah said to him, “Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” But he said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them went on. 7 Fifty men of the sons of the prophets also went and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. 8 Then Elijah took his cloak and rolled it up and struck the water, and the water was parted to the one side and to the other, till the two of them could go over on dry ground. 9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me.” 10 And he said, “You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you, but if you do not see me, it shall not be so.” 11 And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 12 And Elisha saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.
I was excited to be able to speak about Elijah this week. I have always liked this particular character in scripture. He was probably my hero when I was a child. It was Elijah that caused me to believe in the awesome power of God.
I might need to give some context to that. Most of you know that I was raised on a farm in North Central Kansas. I lived on the high plains of Kansas, or the short grass prairies. Ecologically this is significant. When most people consider the prairies, they think about waist high grass that looks like a vast green ocean as it stretches out toward the horizon, rolling over the hills, and making waves as the wind blows. That was not where I grew up. The High Plains were dry, the natural grass could get tall but not like the tall grass prairies of Eastern, Kansas. Where I grew up the primary native grass was Buffalo grass. If you know anything about grass, which I do since that was my career for several years. Buffalo grass is a hardy drought tolerant grass that grows close to the ground. The reason this grass was prominent in the high plains is because it is dry. The high plains are not quite a desert, but it might as well be.
I grew up in this dry land. In many of the dryer parts of Kansas, like the southwest areas, it is possible to use irrigation, but that was not an option where I grew up. There were too many hills and not enough water.
When you grow up in an area where your very existence revolves around getting just enough rain at the right time, you pay attention to things like the weather. I learned to read the weather map early in my life, and although I do not have the formal education, I could probably make it as a city meteorologist.
When I was a child, we had an intense drought. I remember many years, where I would ride in the combine with my grandpa, where he would just shake his head as he harvested wheat. The wheat was so short and thin that the yield would not cover the cost of the fuel required to harvest it, and not nearly enough to provide for a family. The 1980’s for northern Kansas was not good.
The first time we hear about Elijah in scripture is when he predicts a drought. I grew up during a drought, so this character in scripture attracted my attention. He stood before king Ahab, and he said, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word.”
I have been a bible nerd for a long time. I read about Elijah early in grade school. And I would read about him often. For several years this drought plagued Israel. When an arid land has below average rain, famine and poverty quickly follow. People have to make a drastic choice, do I save the grain to plant next year, or do I feed my family?
After Elijah predicted the drought, he went and lived by a brook. While he was there, God provided his needs. Twice a day the ravens would bring Elijah meat and bread. I always found this fascinating. The first thing that I always thought about is ravens were considered unclean, yet God used them serve Elijah his meals. The second thing that caused me to ponder was how did these ravens get bread? The land was in a drought and the people did not have much food to spare, yet the birds were finding bread enough to feed themselves and a prophet of God.
Eventually the drought became so intense that the brook no long contained water. I have watched and seen rivers run dry. It is a depressing sight. When they flow everything is green and life seems to have hope. But when a river, when a primary source of water shrinks to a stream, and then stops flowing altogether, despair can set in.
When the brook dries out, Elijah is urged by God to walk completely through the Kingdom of Israel, over the border into Lebanon where he is to find a widow and her son to live with. I want us to just for a moment consider what is going on in that story. God commanded Elijah to immigrate. He urged him to cross the northern boarder and to go live in that nation. He went, and he lived with a widow, but Sidon was also facing hardship at that time. The widow did not have much to offer.
Elijah calls out to her asking for a morsel of bread. She answered his call by saying, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” Elijah tells her not to fear and to go make the bread for her last meal, but to make a little cake for him first, and with the remainder she can feed her and her son. If you remember the story, the widow always had enough flour and oil to eat because God blessed her for her hospitality. God will provide for those that help others.
Elijah enjoyed the hospitality of this widow for a long time, but while he lived with them her son died. This greatly troubled Elijah, and he cried to God, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity, even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son.” He then, in his grief, stretched his body over the boy three times, and prayed, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” God heard the prayers of this prophet and the boy was raised to life again.
Elijah was a prophet for the poor farmer living in a drought. After God restored life to the boy, God called Elijah back to Israel, back to the king’s court. The drought had lasted three years. The king of Israel was an evil guy. When the famine struck the land, he sent his steward out to find all the places where there might be some water, and when these places were found, he had the royal horses and mules taken to these springs. The land was in extreme poverty. The people were starving, and the king was more concerned with his horses.
Last week I made the distinction between the perspective of various religious worldviews. I mentioned how many of the polytheistic religions saw humanity as servants to the gods, where the view of the Hebrew faiths see humanity not as servants, but as image bearers. This is the difference at play. When we see the person beside us as fellow image bearers we should have compassion because we are equal. When we see the world in hierarchy where there are masters and servants, and the king being the one given divine rights to rule, there is no compassion. The king takes what he needs, and the people must struggle on what is left behind.
For three years, the land thirsted for moisture. And Ahab’s steward went through the land looking for places to water his master’s livestock. And on one of those journeys he came across Elijah. The steward was a Godly man, he knew who Elijah was, and he also did what he could to protect the various prophets of God. This steward’s name was Obadiah. When Obadiah saw Elijah he feared for his life and the life of the prophet. The king blamed Elijah for the famine. In the king’s eyes, it was Elijah that caused the drought, not his own wickedness or his lack of empathy. Obadiah wanted to protect Elijah, but Elijah had another plan.
This is when Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal do a duel. They go to Mount Carmel and 850 of the various priests of the Canaanite religion face off against Elijah. They build an altar to their god, they cry out and demand that their deity light the sacrificial fire. All day they cut themselves, they cry, they scream to the heavens. Elijah even gives them encouragement saying that they should yell louder, because maybe Baal is asleep or possibly in the restroom. Yes, this is one reason why I loved this story as a kid.
The priest of Baal and Asherah cried, but there is no answer. Finally, Elijah had enough. And he prepares his sacrifice. He has those that were appointed to assist him to dig a trench around the altar, a trench large enough to contain two seah of seed. We might not understand how big that is, but it is approximately four gallons. Elijah directs his assistants to fill four jars of water and to dump it on the altar, three times.
We are not told how much water this would have been. But the trench that was dug around the altar could hold four gallons and that trench was filled with water. This was a drought ridden land, and they just dumped water directly onto the ground, so much water to fill a trench that could hold four gallons. And the water stood in that trench. One website I looked at said that they probably used just over three gallons. I have lived through a drought and I know how quickly the ground can soak up water, this was most likely jars that held significantly more water. They were potentially like the water jars used by Jesus when he turned water to wine at the wedding. I would venture to say that these were jars that each held twenty gallons of water, used for ritual cleaning, so I think they dumped 240 gallons of water on Elijah’s altar.
The assistants dug the trench, and they dumped the water on the ground. I am sure the people watching, watched with horror in their eyes as Elijah wasted such a valuable commodity. Then Elijah, turned and prayed.
“O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”
The priest of Baal cried to their gods all day, and Elijah says a few words. With those words fire came down from heaven and burned the sacrifice, the stones of the alter, and completely evaporated the water. Elijah then commanded the people to seize the priest of Baal, and told Ahab to go home to wait for rain.
Soon the rain did come to the land. And After the rain came Elijah ran for his life, because he had humiliated the evil queen, and the people killed all her prophets. He ran to hide in a cave. He had just witnessed the most amazing thing I can imagine, and he sat in a cave in deep despair.
God meets with Elijah in that cave. The Lord asks what he is doing. Elijah answers, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”
God then tells Elijah to go out and stand on the mountain because he will meet with him. There was a wind that tore blew that ripped rocks from the mountain face. There was an earthquake that shook the very foundations of the earth. Then there was a fire that rushed across the drought stricken land. God was not in any of those things that we would call acts of God. The after the fire there was a stillness, and it was in the stillness that Elijah met with God on the mountain.
Shortly after this, Elijah leaves the cave and meets with Elisha. Elijah just walks up to him while he is driving the oxen on a plow, and he puts his cloak upon him, and keeps walking. Elisha dumbfounded at why some man would just toss his coat on him while he was working runs after Elijah, and upon seeing who it was, he says “Let me kiss my father and mother, and then I will follow you.” When he comes back to Elijah, he offers the oxen as a sacrifice, and they share the meat with the community. We are told that there were twelve yokes of oxen. A yoke is stretched between two animals, so there were twenty-four oxen offered that day. I do not know why he needed that many oxen to pull a plow, but that is a lot of meat. And from that moment on Elisha follows the great prophet.
It is thought that Elisha followed Elijah for around ten years. They watch battles fought, they spoke truth to power, and brought kings to repentance. They watched as those kings again turned from God in their pursuit of wealth and power. During this time several prophets emerged, joining Elijah mission. This group became known as the sons of the prophets. This guild of Godly men could have been an actual organization, or it might have been simply an organic fellowship of like-minded people. But as Israel was turning toward Baal, it was these prophets that went around encouraging the nation to return to God. No matter what their actual makeup was they did correspond.
Today, our scripture reading comes from the end of Elijah’s ministry. I spent the time building to this so that we could understand what was going on. Elijah, had taken on an entire nation. He looked into the very eyes of the devil and watched as God provided a victory.
I so wanted to be like Elijah. When kids would pick on me in school, which they would often do, because I was a nerd not only a bible nerd. My nickname was the Scientist. I would go out at recess, gather sticks, and I would ask God to show them that he was real, and that I was not just a nerd. I begged God to reveal Himself by starting those sticks on fire. Looking back on it I am glad God never answered that prayer in the manner I wanted him to because I would have been kicked out of school.
Elisha and these Sons of the Prophets, had spent a decade walking through Israel. They faced off with the practitioners of the pagan Canaanite religions. They spoke boldly. They watched God do many amazing things. And now things are about to change.
Elijah tells Elisha, to stay in Gilgal because the Lord is sending him to Bethel. Elisha refuses this and follows Elijah to Bethel. When they get to that place the sons of the prophets come out of the town to meet Elisha, and they say to him, “Do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over you?” And Elisha responds, “Yes, I know it; keep quiet.”
Elijah then pleads with Elisha, to remain again at Bethel, because the Lord is telling him to go to Jericho. Elisha says to his teacher, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.”
They approach Jericho and again the sons of the prophets come out to meet Elisha. These also speak to him saying, “Do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over you?” Again, Elisha responds, “Yes, I know it; keep quiet.”
Elijah for a third time says encourages Elisha to remain as he continues his thirty-mile journey to the Jordan. Elisha for a third time responds with the same words, that he will never leave his teacher alone. And this time fifty of the sons of the prophets walk with the duo.
Elijah walks to the Jordan, he takes off his coat and rolls it up. He hits the water with the bundle and the waters part, just like it did for Joshua when he entered the promised land. As the waters part leaving behind dry land, Elijah and Elisha walk out of that land of Promise, into the wilderness.
They reach the far bank, leaving the other sons of the prophets on the other side. Elijah then turns to his apprentice. For years, they had walked and served together. And Elijah says, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.” Elisha looks at his teacher, and responds, “Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me.”
What is Elisha asking? Is he greedy for power? No, the double portion is what is given to the eldest son upon the death of the father. The double portion is given because it is the responsibility of the eldest to be the safety net that provides for the family’s future security. Elisha is saying to Elijah, that he fully accepts the responsibility that was offered to him. Elisha looks at his master and says I am willing to walk, I am willing to lead, I am willing to encourage those men across the river just as you encouraged me.
Elijah looks at his apprentice and informs him that he has asked for a hard thing. It is hard to live a life honoring God. It is difficult to treat others as image bearers of God even though they reject the very notion that they were created in that image. A righteous and Godly lifestyle is difficult because the kingdoms of mankind and the desires of men’s hearts are often perverted from the ways of God. Yet, Elisha looks at his master teacher and says, “as the Lord lives I am willing to walk that walk.”
We face struggles and hardships. We look out around us, and we wish that God would show his awesome power to the world so that they would believe. We even cry out telling those around us that if we do not change our course we will surely face calamity. What do we learn from today’s passage?
God is not in the feats of power. God is not in the mighty earthquake or wildfire. The Lord is in the stillness.
“Yes, I know it; keep quiet.” Is the answer that Elisha repeats to the sons of the prophets. He is not telling them to shut up. He is not avoiding the topic of his teacher’s departure. Elisha is telling them where they will find God during the absence of their beloved leader.
“Yes, I know; keep quiet.” This is the anthem I encourage us to take as we leave these walls. It is the banner I hope we carry as we interact with those within our community that wonder and worry about the election and the wars around the world.
As Psalm 46 says:
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
Selah
There is a river whose steams make glad the city of God, the holy habitations of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah
Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolation on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire.
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah
“Yes, I know; keep quiet.” Elisha encourages us as sons and daughters of prophets and God. Be still, and walk in His light.
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By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church March 15, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Ephesians 5:8–14 (ESV) 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit…
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By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
February 4, 2024
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Isaiah 40:21–31 (ESV)
21 Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; 23 who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. 24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. 25 To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing. 27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
There are days when I pull up the latest news and feel as if everything around me is going crazy. I am sure we all get to feeling this way at times. I listen to the stories being reported, and I wonder if the people involved had listened at all when they were in school.
I shake my head at times. I worry and I fret. I ponder what I can do to change the course of history. And I realize that there really is not much that can be done, at least on a larger scale. The only thing that I can change. The only area I can really make a difference is in my own life, and those people within my community that I can encourage.
We often get caught in this over arching narrative of the twenty-four-hour news cycles. We get bombarded by reports of how terrible everything is and if we do not vote a certain way everything will just get worse. But as we watch these reports, do we take a step back and examine the reality around what is being said?
Isaiah was an important man in his culture. He is probably the only prophet of Israel that actually held a position within the society where he could encourage change on a larger scale. He was a member of the royal family. Many believe that he was a courier of sort, which would mean he carried messages from the throne of Judah to various other governmental offices both within Judah and the surrounding nations. As I sat reflecting on today’s passage, Isaiah’s position within his culture weighed on my mind.
For most people within any culture our scope of knowledge and influence is fairly minimal. Isaiah was not like us. He saw the way governments operated. He was involved in what a book I have recently been reading would call “the game of whispers.” meaning he heard the plots and schemes of those that held power. But what he knew better than any of us is how the manipulations of rulers, often came with a cost, and the ones that often paid the price were those that were ruled.
I opened to this passage and my first thought was not super spiritual. I love this passage, it contains some of the verses that provided some of the greatest encouragement in my journey of faith. But my initial thoughts were, “This is going to get me in trouble.”
This is the first thing that came to my mind because we are currently living in an era of history where people are frequently easily offended. We live in a time when people that say things we might not appreciate are mocked, ridiculed, and canceled. It is not exactly the best time in our nations’ history to speak from the writings of the prophets, because the words of the prophets tend to cause social discomfort.
“Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?”
I want us all to take a deep breath right now. And I want us to be open to hear. Isaiah begins this section with four questions. These are rhetorical questions, meaning they are not supposed to be answered directly. Instead, these are queries whose intent is to shock. The questions seem to encourage us to take a step back and remember, but when these rapid fire questions occur it is often a literary devise that draws attention to what is lacking or being neglected.
Isaiah was a scholarly man. He did know, he did hear. That was his job, not only as a prophet of God, but in his daily life. He would travel around carrying and composing official correspondences between empires. He looks around him, and he is observing that there is within these various places a blatant disregard of learning. The people he is working around are so caught up in their own contemporary understanding that they refuse to listen. They refuse to hear or even discuss other perspectives, and this refusal is leading them in a direction they are too blind to see.
Isaiah is calling his contemporaries ignorant. He is calling the leaders within the royal courts ignorant. He is calling the people within the surrounding empires ignorant. And he is calling those that read and listen to his teachings just as ignorant. This, unfortunately, includes us.
“Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?” Isaiah is clearly telling us that we are missing the point.
“It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.”
Isaiah tells us that we are ignorant. He says we are either distracted from or willfully neglecting something of importance. And the thing that we are neglecting is the reality of who we are.
“It is he who sits above the circle of the earth.” Him not us. I know that I often look at things within scripture in a manner that some might find odd. One of my favorite novels is the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and in that novel the whole purpose of earth is to help the mice figure out the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. There are times when I think that quest has been my reality. I have always been fascinated with various religious traditions and I have tried to seek out the common themes and to where they diverge. There are many similarities between various religions, but there are differences as well. According to our scriptures that divergence happens in the beginning.
Why were humans created? What is the point of our existence? According to many religious ideas humanity was created to serve the gods. But that is not the concept our scriptures teach, we were created to bear the image of God. We might miss this small seemingly insignificant nuance, but it is a big deal. Even within Christian traditions we often take the stance that we are servants of God. Many well-meaning and righteous people have lived with that mindset. Many have even done great things for God while living under the ideology of being a servant of God. But what does this manner of thinking imply?
In the pagan worldview of the ancient near east, there were those who were the offspring of the gods that were the rightful rulers of the people. They were the living gods on earth, the sons of god. They were giants, they held power and everyone under their authority were their servants. They were slaves. In this mindset the kings, emperors, the tsars, and warlords were the only ones that had rights. Isaiah worked for one of those kings.
The idea of an image bearer is different. Yes there is still a hierarchy, but it is different. It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and we bear his image. We are not servants or slaves but representatives or ambassadors. To bear the image is to be something.
“and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers:” Often when I think of this phrase, my mind begins to think of insignificance. I think of the spies that Moses sent into the promise land, and they reported back that there were giants in the land and that they were mere grasshoppers in comparison. That is what many think Isaiah is saying. God is siting above the circle of the earth, and we are just insignificant grasshoppers compared to his holiness. But there is another way to look at this.
To bear the image of God is to be God’s ambassador to creation. What we do, what we say, how we interact with those around us is to represent the one whose image we are bearing. The image is not just a reflection but what we do and who we are. What does a grasshopper do? They devour, destroy. They swarm into an area consuming everything of value, and they move on leaving nothing. We do not hear about swarming locust in North America much anymore. There was a minor plague of locust in the 1930’s but the most significant swarming event occurred in 1874 caused by the Rocky Mountain Locust. But that species of locust is now extinct and the only remaining locust in the United States is the High Plains Locust which is very rare. It is not something that occurs here, but locust are still a problem throughout the world especially in Africa.
Isaiah is saying from the very beginning we were created for a purpose. We were to be representatives of God to the world. We were to reflect and extend throughout all creation what was important to God, but instead became swarms of locusts. We devour. We destroy. We take what once was fruitful and abundant, and we cause a shortage. God stretched out heavens as a tent wishing to dwell with us, but the princes, the emperors, the warlords have left nothing in their wake.
Do you see why I said this was going to get me into trouble? But Isaiah does not stop.
“Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth…” Here Isaiah speaks about the princes. There are people within a society that believe that they are God’s gift to humanity. Monarchies state they have a divine right to rule. Dictators often believe they are the smartest person within a society and without them the world would crumble. And I will not mention some current political ads going around.
Scarcely are they planted. Is difficult to translate. The words translated to scarcely literally mean also not. So the idea is that they are not planted, they are not sown. They are essentially weeds. These monarchs think there is some divine right to rule, but Isaiah says, no you were not planted you are just a weed sucking the life out of what was supposed to be there.
Yes, now I am really in trouble. We might think God ordained, or God’s providence dictated this or that. God gave authority to governments for a reason. Have I never read Roman’s 13? According to Isaiah the kingdom’s of men are weeds and grasshoppers. They destroy and infest. They corrupt and waste. All governments of mankind are empty.
Now that we are all thoroughly riled up. We should probably say why Isaiah says this.
“Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel. My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God? Have you not known? Have you not heard?” Isaiah repeats what he started with. We are ignorant. We are distracted or willfully negligent.
“The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.”
Isaiah is reminding us that God is the one that created, God is the one the established everything that we see and feel. God set this all in motion, and God does not stop. He says that God’s understanding is unsearchable. We might think this means we cannot know or that it is pointless to question, but no Isaiah means that there is no end in what we can learn if we turn to God.
What can we compare God to? Look up into the sky and see the stars that hang in the heavens. Who put them there? Who formed them? Who devised the laws of gravity that holds the billions of stars together and ignited the fusion reactions that cause them to generate life giving light and heat?
Its unsearchable meaning there will always be more questions than answers. We will constantly search and study and will always find more. The kingdoms might think they are mighty. They might think they are God’s gift to the earth, but to this day we cannot harness the power of the stars. And even if we could, we would likely use that power for what?
Isaiah lived in a time when empires were at war. Egypt was rising in the west, Assyria was rising in the east, and Babylon to the north. Great empires striving to rule the known world. And Israel and Judah were caught in the middle. We are God’s chosen people, they would claim. We were promised this land. And Isaiah laughs through his tears.
The nations of this world strive for dominance. We seek power, influence, wealth. But what is that really? The great band from my home state says, “All we are is dust in the wind.” We are weeds and grasshoppers, if we neglect what was initiated at the very beginning. We were not created to be slaves or servants, but Image bearers. Each of us were created to carry that of God to the world around us. We were created to share and encourage, we were created to make the entire earth into the Garden of God. We have neglected our duty, and have distracted with by the wiles of power.
“The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
Isaiah is urging us to learn. He is urging us to be open to discussion and willing to admit that we might be wrong. He pleads that we will stop looking to the kingdoms of men for our identity and instead remember who we truly are. We are not slaves, we are not servants relegated to bow knee in submission. We bear the image of God, as does the person beside you, and the one sitting in a trench in Ukraine or in the deserts of Yemen. The quests for power and dominance will all lead to destruction, but something will always remain in the wake. Let us focus on those things. The oppressed and the powerless. The ones that need help with their math homework or a ride to the doctor’s office. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength … You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The Hitchhiker’s Guide said that the meaning of Life, the universe, and everything was forty-two, but the greatest commandment as quoted in Mark 12 has forty-five words, forty-two if you drop the Hear O Israel. Surely that is significant.
The world may seem to be going crazy, but are we focused on what is most important? Are we looking toward the proper directions? Are we seeking our hope and strength from the one who figured it all out eons ago and gave us a purpose from the very beginning.
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church February 22, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Romans 5:12–19 (ESV) 12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church February 15, 2026 Click Here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 2 Peter 1:16–21 (ESV) 16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church February 8, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship 1 Corinthians 2 (ESV) 1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you…
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By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
January 21, 2024
Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship
Jonah 3:1–5 (ESV)
1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
Last Sunday we spent worship cuddled under a warm blanket drinking a hot beverage. Well at least that is how I picture it in my mind. Most of us probably spent the time complaining about the temperature, and wondering why on earth we live in a place that gets so cold. We wonder, we complain, we judge, we do a lot of things. Many of these things we so often do, we do not even consider beyond the moment. It is just who we are, it is our nature we might say. But have we ever considered if those things we label human nature or just a cultural norm are things we are encouraged to change?
Last Sunday, if you happened to have logged into to YouTube and watched the meeting for worship we posted, we discussed the calling of Samuel. I presented some background history that lead to Samuel being in that place at that time. Israel at the time of Samuel was not exactly paradise. At the closing of the book of Judges, Israel was so bad that Sodom might be considered tame. The corruption was so bad that Eli, the priest’s, own sons were using their position for personal gain. This gain was financial, but they were also abusing their position for more lustful endeavors. Abuse is common within any organization. Wherever people gather together for any reason: for work, entertainment, worship, education pretty much any gathering for any reason. Wherever people gather, there will be those within organizations that will use their position for nefarious reasons. They may even justify that abuse and codify it into the rules and laws that these organizations accept as their governance.
We accept this. We label it as human nature, or we say that it is just how our culture operates. It is accepted, even defended while many know full that there is abuse within the system. I do not dwell on this often, but there are moments where I do think about it. I love the organizations I am part of. Of course, I do if I did not think that I would not be part of the organization. And I am a member of various organizations: from Cub Scouts, church, and other. I am a citizen of a nation. That is and organization. I have chosen to live in a certain place within this nation, a state, a city, a neighborhood. Each are an organization. They are organizations that operate within the confines on another organization, but they are different. Kansas is different from Missouri, even though they are neighboring states. Belton is different than Kansas City. Olathe, Overland Park, Independence and KCK are all different even though they are positioned within a similar geographic region. We do not think about the differences, it is simply the way things are. We do not think about it until we go somewhere else.
I grew up in Kansas and now live in Missouri. For the most part there are not many differences. But there are a few things that just annoy me. Things that I do not understand and at times I think are downright criminal. Like why do I need to go get a car inspection before I can get my car tag? Or why do I have to go to one place to pay the taxes on a car and another place to get the tag? Or why do car dealers not include sales tax in the sale of a vehicle in Missouri and I have to pay that later? There are reasons for those differences, and the people that wrote the laws that govern those rules could probably list them off and justify them in my mind, but they are different from Kansas. Since I know two different methods of handling these similar tasks, it annoys me. That being said I am not saying that Kansas is better than Missouri. I know people that have moved into Kansas from Missouri, and they are just as annoyed as I am at the little seemingly insignificant differences. And there are those that have never realized that there was any other way of doing things.
We often just accept as normal the things that go on around us. It is human nature, it is our culture. I have a great deal of respect for my nation. I think it is the greatest nation ever formed by men and I would not want to live anywhere else. And I am certain that many of us would agree. But how many of us have been somewhere else? How many of us have experienced real life outside this nation? I say real life because going on a trip to Cancun does not give you a real taste of what is like to live in Mexico.
You might not think much about it. To many of us, we might even consider the Constitution to almost sacred, but it is not. A nation, our nation, is an organization, some of our ancestors might have assisted in forming the organization, but like most organizations there are some things within it that are suspect. For most of my life I did not question it or even take notice because it is a good organization. But there are places where it is completely wrong. Luckily, we have a process where we can amend this document to correct past mistakes, but the reality that those things were in existence at one point in time has lasting effects within our culture.
You might not understand where I am going with this. You might even think that I am being political. I begin in this way because cultures can change. There was a point in our nation’s history where certain people were not allowed to vote, they were excluded from the greater participation in the governing of our nation. At one point only property owners could participate in government. It is easy to make justifications for this because landowners are the ones that have the most at stake if the organization is not run properly, but there is a problem. I do not own land. According to that way of thinking, I have nothing at risk, so I have nothing to say. My voice and my thoughts are of no value to the organization even though, the document forming our organization says “We the People.” Well to be honest, the constitution did not specifically say I could not vote without property, it says that the states determine who can and cannot vote. But there were debates within the various states that argued that concern, so it was not until the third president of this organization that all states allowed people like me, non landowners to vote.
What changed? Somehow, the people with power within the organization recognized something was not right. People that did not own land were affected by the laws our nation made, and they should be able to participate. There was a point in time where colonists were not given a voice in government even though they were forced to abide by the laws made by others. This made some people furious because they fought a war to rectify that problem. Landowners and non-land owners fought side by side in that war, and they were saying just because you do not own land your voice did not matter. We realized that there was something wrong, and we changed. Those changes are ongoing and should continue to improve.
Often organizations use exclusive tactics and at other times it can be inclusive. This goes back to the book of Judges. The main theme in that book is that there was no king in the land and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. This can be positive or negative. I personally see it as positive. The people were only subject to their God, their family, and their tribe. Those were the people that you were around every day. Those were the people that would help in your time of need and the people you would help during a crisis. Even after Israel had a king they retained this idea to some degree. That way of living only works if you truly live by the law, “Love God with all that you have and all that you are, and love your neighbor as yourself.” That was essentially the very law God wanted his people to live under. Take care of each other.
Why do I say all of this? I say this because God called Jonah to go to Nineveh. It is one thing to encourage change within our nation, but to go to another nation to encourage change is something different.
“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah saying, ‘Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.’” This is how the story opens. God, the God of Israel. Yahweh the one who calls Israel his own portion of all the people upon the earth. God is concerned about the people of Nineveh. Why does he even care? And why does he call it “That great city?”
When we look at this, it is important to see beyond the surface. We need to look through all scripture to gain a greater understanding, and then we need to look deeper still. We know that, according to scripture, at one point in history all people were one people. We all have a common origin with Adam and Eve. Their children Cain, Abel, and Seth went into the world outside Eden and began to populate the earth. Well Abel did not participate in the population much as Cain hit him with a rock.
Seth remained with his father, Adam, while Cain fled from the presence of God and settled in the land of Nod. Cain fled, and he built a city. I encourage you to go online and listen to the Bible Project’s study regarding cities in scripture, because it is amazing. Cain built this city in honor of his own son, but the underlying reason he built the city was because he was afraid. He was afraid that people would attack him, enact vengeance upon him, and take what he saw as his. Out of this city various people emerged. People that played pipes and lyres, people that forged instruments of bronze and iron, people who made tents and had livestock. And people that said, “If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.” Cain started civilization.
But notice the attitude that emerges from civilization. They increase. They expand. They make great things of beauty and value, and they also promote war. That is Lamech’s rant. It is saber-rattling. In his fear of people coming after him for his own misdeeds he wishes to insight greater fear. It is as if the evening news is written on the pages of scripture.
As the story continues, we are told that, “man began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.” For a long time I did not think anything of this, and wondered why this angered God to the point he would limit the life span of humanity because of it. Then I realized that humanity had not been referred to as sons of God before. And later in the same segment of the story it speaks of Nephilim, or giants. Throughout the known civilization in that age, the nations would refer to their leaders as both giants and sons of the gods. Their legends would speak about how these gods fathered children. Children like Hercules, Gilgamesh, and all the characters in the Percy Jackson series currently on Disney plus.
These sons of Elohim angered God, and he chose to rid the world of the resulting offspring. But who were these people? And why did they seek the relationship with the Elohim in that manner? Other spiritual writings from early Judaism calls these beings the Watchers, because that was their duty. They were supposed to watch over creation. They were to observe and report, but they lusted for the daughters of men they began to take a more active role, giving them knowledge of metal working, music, herbalism, and war. When we look at the larger picture we can begin to see something emerge. The descents of Cain formed cities, and these cities developed arts and trades that became the foundation of civilization. They began to use these things in their quest for power and domination. This quest began to alleviate the fear of others, but the fear began to consume them. They sought after greater knowledge to give them an edge over other cities, and at times this knowledge was found in inhumane places. They began to forget who their neighbors where, they were others, they were outsiders, no longer brothers and sister created in the image of God. Instead of sharing what they had, they began to exclude. Disaster was the result.
God called Jonah to go to Nineveh, that great city. Israel was not immune from the exclusionary mindset. They, too, were driven by fear of others. Its only human. It was their culture. They were the people of God, God himself chose them to be his portion as he divided the people among the sons of God after the third fall of Babel. They were chosen. But were they chosen to exclude? No, they were to become the light to enlighten all the nations. Jonah hated Nineveh, they were evil and corrupt. He had no desire to help this people, so he ran from God. He attempted to go as far away from Nineveh as he could possibly get, but God was there.
Disaster was the result for Jonah’s running. He was caught in a storm greater than any experienced before. He knew it was of God’s doing, so he told his companions to toss him over the side of the ship. Jonah would rather end his own life before he brought a message of hope to the people he saw as his enemy. But God did not allow him to die. God sent a great fish, a whale, or some other sea creature to swallow Jonah. For three days Jonah lived within that chaos, and after a prayer, he was vomited onto the land once again.
Jonah went through a lot, but God’s calling did not change. Before Jonah had a chance to get his land legs under him again, the word of the Lord comes again to him a second time. “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” Jonah was given a second chance. He was given this second chance even after willful rebellion against his God.
He goes into the city. We are told that it would take three days to walk through the city, but Jonah stops after a day. And he calls out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
This is the extent of Jonah’s message. Eight words in English, six in the original language. Six words and the entire city believed God. The people were not given any additional knowledge. This strange foreigner comes into their city, and he yells, “you have forty days before your end.” Forty days. This number is often used in scripture, and it is usually associated with a trial followed by something great. I was curious about this number because forty days is important to Christian traditions as well. Jesus was in the wilderness of temptation for forty days, and to honor that time, Lent is a period of forty days leading up to Holy Week. During lent many faith traditions are encouraged to fast. Just as the people of Nineveh fasted. But again why forty?
I looked into this in relation to behavior and found that breaking a bad habit requires approximately eighteen to two hundred and fifty days according to Medical News Today. Other habit breaking websites say eighteen to sixty days. The range depends on how engrained the bad habit is. But when you look at the positive side of things. It can take eighteen to around twenty-one days to create a habit.
The message that God gave Jonah was to encourage the people to change their ways. And he gave them forty days, this is enough time for them to create a new habit different from what they were doing before. They did not know that this message came from Yahweh, Jonah did not tell them that, but they knew that the destruction they faced was coming from the spiritual realm.
They heard the message, and immediately called for a fast and to put on sackcloth. From the lowest servant to the most dignified noble within the royal courts. They did this even before their king made a royal proclamation to make it a law.
We are then told that when God saw what they did how they turned from their evil way, he relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them. God changed his mind we might say. Or in these modern times, they averted disaster because they changed their behavior.
I have faced disastrous moments. I have had reports from my doctor saying that I should change my diet because I was beginning to show signs of high cholesterol. I have even participated in a Lenten fast where I gave up drinking Dr. Pepper for forty days. To change is hard, but occasionally we need to fast. We need to abstain from things for a period of time so that we can see just how much of a grip various substances and activities have on us. We need to become aware and be mindful of how our actions affect our own well-being and those around us. That is why God gave them forty days. He gave them the opportunity to make the change if they desired.
But what about Jonah? Well, Jonah was upset. He wanted God to overthrow this great city. He had experienced a second chance himself, he had sat in the belly of chaos and was redeemed, yet he was hesitant to move beyond minimal effort. God may have relented his anger toward Nineveh, but eventually they returned to their evil ways. Eventually they were used by God to bring judgment upon Northern Kingdom. Which ironically was the geographic are Jonah was from. They returned because Jonah did not provide any additional knowledge.
God showed Jonah that he did not exclude, yet Jonah did. God showed Jonah that he was a God of grace and mercy, yet Jonah did not reciprocate that grace. God showed, but Jonah could not be bothered to share what he knew. Who are we? Are we like the people of Cain, hiding in our cities, in fear. Rattling our sabers trying to drive away anyone different from ourselves? Are we seeking knowledge to give us an edge at the expense of others? Or do we resemble God?
Jesus told the pharisees who demanded signs that the only sign they would receive was the sign of Jonah. On the surface we see this as Jesus being buried and rising on the third day, but could it be more than that? Could the sign be the irony of exclusion and mercilessness coming back to bite us? We live in a culture much like Nineveh. We know that much of what occurs could cause disaster, but what are we doing to help?
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church February 01, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship 1 Corinthians 1:18–31 (ESV) 18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church January 18, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Corinthians 1:1–9 (ESV) 1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, 2 To the church of…
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church January 11, 2026 Click Here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Acts 10:34–43 (ESV) 34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him…
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