Days of Elijah

As I help the chapel team pick out songs and practice them each week, one thing I try to do on a regular basis is talk with them about the songs we're singing. If I can help them to really understand the meaning behind the words, then I think the songs will resonate more with them and make it more meaningful. This particular song, Days of Elijah, is one I learned in high school. I've always enjoyed singing it because it's upbeat, and there are lots of recognizable scripture references in there, but I had never really thought about what the song was actually saying until just recently.

These are the days of Elijah

Declaring the Word of the Lord

And these are the days of your servant, Moses

Righteousness being restored

And though these are days of great trial

Of famine and darkness and sword

Still we are the voice in the desert crying

Prepare ye the way of the Lord!

Behold He comes riding on the clouds

Shining like the sun at the trumpet call

So lift your voice, it’s the year of Jubilee

Out of Zion’s hill salvation comes

And these are the days of Ezekiel

Dry bones becoming as flesh

And these are the days of your servant, David

Rebuilding a temple of praise

And these are the days of the harvest

The fields are as white in your world

And we are the laborers in your vineyard

Declaring the Word of the Lord

If you had asked me a month ago what this song means, I would have said something about Jesus returning and people being set free. And that's part of it, but there's so much more to this song than what the chorus is saying.

In the days of the prophet Elijah, the land was suffering a famine, King Ahab had turned the entire country away from the Lord, and Elijah, the last remaining prophet of the Lord, had a death sentence on his head. Yet even in the face of famine, darkness, and sword, Elijah stood against the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, calling on the power of God to remind the Israelites who was LORD. And when they saw God consume Elijah's altar with fire, they fell down to the ground, crying, "The Lord is God! The Lord is God!" (I Kings 18:20-40)

In the days of Ezekiel, God brought Ezekiel to a valley filled with dry bones. He commanded Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones that the Lord would cause muscle and flesh to cover them and breath to enter them so that they would come to life. (Ezekiel 37:1-14)

This song is about more than just Jesus returning, it is a call to evangelism. We may be faced with situations like Elijah's, where we face hostility and persecution for sharing God's word; or we may have opportunities like Ezekiel to share the gift of eternal life with people who have never heard the Gospel. Whatever the circumstance, we are commanded to preach the word.

People need to hear the Gospel, but how can they hear it unless we tell them?

"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." (Matthew 9:37)