I don’t know about you but one of the best times I have is when all of our family gather around the table and share in a meal. To hear the laughter and watch the joy of our children and grandchildren, draws a sigh of contentment deep within my heart.

I am amazed at how blessed we really are. I often wonder if, by chance, we had no food at all and we sat at the same table, what would my attitude be like then.

In reading the Word of God this morning, my husband & I were reading in I Kings 18. This is a very familiar story to most. It is the story about Elijah and the prophets of Baal, you know it’s the one where he called down fire from heaven and consumed the altar.

Most of us that’s our very favorite part… We like all that gory, bloody, flesh oozing yuck for some reason especially when it is happening to our enemies.

One scripture that struck me this morning was (vs.19) it is the one that says all Israel were called and all the prophets who ate at Jezebel’s table. You are probably wondering why I care about Jezebel’s table and honestly I don’t know, except the Spirit of God within me is asking me the question,

“Do you eat at Jezebel’s table?”

You know in my smugness, I’m like God you know I don’t eat at her table, right?

Right, God?

Um, God?

In my mind I see Him drumming His fingers on His desk waiting for me to have that proverbial light bulb moment… So, what do you do when God ask you a question that you don’t know the answer to?

You have to wait, because guaranteed He will answer you or either He will let you sweat out the answer until it dawns on you what He really asked you in the first place.

Thinking back to my own experiences with family dinners, I think of that day coming when a feast will be made ready and all the children of the bridegroom will come to the wedding feast. Like us, I know God will be sitting there watching all His children enjoy the laughter and fellowship, deeply contented.

Wow! What a joy that will be!

So ask yourself, today in the famines of our day whether spiritual or physical, whose table do we eat from?

Like in that day when Elijah called the false prophets of Baal away from Jezebel’s table, curiously I wonder how many were in reality converted Israelites? Those who would sell their soul for a piece of bread? I know you think it would be impossible, but think about the fact there was no rain period for 3 years. No rain, no water in the brooks or streams! No rain, nothing for livestock to drink! No rain, no food to pick from gardens plush and green!

It’s a very big deal to have no rain!

So, I’m wondering just how many people sold out for a piece of bread and a drink of water? Where exactly did Jezebel get water & food to have a bountiful table to start with? How’s that possible in a famine? Do you ever wonder that?

Does this describe you; you’re struggling, God is silent, you work and work and God doesn’t seem to be watching over you or your family. You’re going down the proverbial hill and you see something enticing you on another hill?

You see a better table with lots of food, plenty of water, so much bounty that your kids can get sustenance from. The only catch is you have to compromise your faith, maybe not a lot but just a little? You argue to yourself “God won’t care, He will forgive” and for a while the Spirit of God within you strives to keep you on the path you’re supposed to be on”

Yet, we keep listening to the witch Jezebel and before you know it, you’re hook line and sinker dug in at her table. Anyone ever done this besides me? I admit I have done this much to my shame and regret.

You see those desert times, those times of famine, they aren’t meant to destroy us, but rather to teach us we can trust God! The Psalmist David said “I’ve never seen the Righteous forsaken, nor their seed begging bread”

Do we believe that really?

He also said “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies”

In this time all of Israel forgot who The Lord was. They were so captivated with the glory of Jezebel’s table they left their one true God. How many times have we left God for a table other than His? How many times do we compromise our Faith and Truth for a piece of bread?

Do we do this, yes, we do?

How quick are we to forget God when things go wrong? If honest about it we do this more often than not.

Maybe you are a Pastor and the church is struggling financially, who do you turn to for help?

Maybe you are a teacher and you got in trouble for mentioning God, do you stop proclaiming your faith because you got a little uncomfortable?

Maybe you are a housewife taking care of your family the best you can and your husband pays you no mind at all, do you compromise your faith by playing with a little fire on the Internet?

Maybe you’re a husband and your wife pays you no attention at all anymore, do you compromise your faith by a little so-called harmless flirting at the office?

Teenagers, your mom and dad make you furious, to cover it up you turn to your friends and they invite you to wash it all away in a bottle or puff it out with drag or suck it up with a line?

The table doesn’t necessarily have to be laden with food.

I think more of Jezebel’s table as being laden with sin and idolatry, and it’s in that perspective that I ask you, again…

Are you eating at Jezebel’s table today?

I challenge you in this;

Examine whose table you are eating at today!

Don’t compromise your faith in God for anyone or anything!

You see in the end those same prophets that ate at her table, God destroyed and swiftly and surely. You don’t want to be on the receiving end of His wrath. God’s table is big and bountiful and everything you need provided, you have to trust Him!
You have to trust that He is able to keep that which you have committed unto Him against that day!

II Timothy 1:12

But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.

I’m hid with Christ!

Shawn