Pot Bangers - Pt 1

There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “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.” And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. (1 Kings 19:9-11 ESV). “Pot bangers” may not be a phrase you are familiar with. It is urban slang and often used to indicate someone who has something they want to say in protest. In order to be heard, they first “bang some pots together” to gain attention. At Texas A&M, pot bangers are a little more specific. For rainy weather it used to be standard dress for the day in the Corps of Cadets to wear a WWII issue helmet liner. They we issued and used throughout the military for many years. We called them “pots” for short. With the helmet over them, they gave protection to injury to the head. They were also used for other things as well. If you wanted to get a crowds attention, you could bang them together and make a lot of noise. Thus, anything said in protest today would be considered “pot banging.” Our reading today comes from a part of Israel’s darkest days. Elijah must have felt that he was the only believer left through the experiences of this time. He was doing some of his own “pot banging.” But it is not true, then or ever, that the Lord would leave any part of his world entirely in the hands of evil powers, even for a moment. He is always and everywhere in control. It is he who is engineering the drought that sends Ahab scouring the country to find pasture for his horses. He has a hundred prophets in Israel besides Elijah, and a secret agent at the heart of government (another apt name, Obadiah, “servant of Yah”), to frustrate Jezebel’s plan to kill them. As the hymn puts it, “Remember that omnipotence has servants everywhere.” It cannot have been easy for faithful believers to endure both the wickedness of Ahab and Jezebel and the Lord’s patient method of dealing with it. They must have wondered how long it would all go on. But the divine timetable is as much under control as everything else, and the Lord himself had set the date for the breaking of the drought. We must never underestimate the power of evil. But let’s not exaggerate it either. Be confident. The Lord is now in control and forever will reign! Trust in Him!