Great men are dying every day and I don’t feel well. If you don’t believe that God has a sense of humor just look at the person beside you.
What happens when too much happens I Kings 19:1-18
Elijah had just experienced a tremendous victory on Mt. Carmel and I think he also had a sense of personal vindication because for the previous three and a half-years he had been on the run. He had been hiding both in Cherith and Zaraphath. He saw answered prayer as fire came down from heaven while at the same time the prophets of Baal were ignored by their god. This was followed by a revival among the people of Israel after which they took all the prophets of Baal down to the creek bed and killed every one of them. I think Elijah must have felt as though he had the world by the tail. And just when he thought he was about to see revival taking hold of the entire land he heard the deadly words of Jezebel, who said he had twenty-four hours to live. When he heard this he thought he would stretch out his time a bit by hitting the road and so he ran away.
James 5:17 says he is a man of like passions. And just to show you that he’s not the only prophet with problems we see a few others like him. In Jeremiah 20:14,15 the prophet says, “Cursed is the day on which I was born; let not the day on which my mother bore be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A male child is born unto thee; making him very glad.” In other words don’t waste any money on a birthday cake for me. I’m not very happy to be here. Or we also have the example of Job in Job 3:3-6 who said, “Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night in which it was said, there is a male child conceived. Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it, let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year; let it not come into the number of months.” And so Job like Jeremiah wasn’t too happy about life on planet earth. Like Elijah they showed what they could be when God filled and controlled them and also what they were when left to themselves. So, Elijah wasn’t the first to have emotional problems and he certainly won’t be the last. He has all the same feelings and fears that you and I have. He is just like us in that he had his share of both victory and defeat.
We might have a hard time relating to him when he’s challenging the king or confronting evil but when we see run for his life we can easily say now I know what it means to be a man of like passions. He experiences the same fears and insecurities as the rest of us do. Now as I said he is a man with many of the same problems as you and I and today we want to see his problems and what he did about them.
The first thing I see is, in running away Elijah had forgotten the faithfulness of God. There were seven supernatural things that had happened in his life. The famine he foretold had come to pass. He had been fed by the ravens. The widow’s flour and oil never ran out. The widow’s son had been raised from the dead. God sent fire to consume his offering on Mt. Carmel. The rains returned at the prophet’s request. And then with supernatural power he outran the king’s chariot. But in spite of all these things happening he ran away. And we’d ask ourselves why?
I First problem: physical and emotional exhaustion. Verse 3 and 4.
a He ran from Jerusalem all the way to Beersheba, there he left his servant and went another days journey into the wilderness. As I said last week he ran about one hundred and three miles in the dry desert air. A marathon race is 26 miles 385 yards. So this means Elijah would have run the equivalent of four marathons at one time without a break. They tell us that the body loses about fifteen pounds of water from running a marathon and we have to keep in mind that Elijah is running in a hot dry climate. So not only would he be suffering from water loss but there would also be the problem of heat exhaustion. Then he comes to the end of his run and collapses under a juniper tree. He had simply pushed himself too hard. Chuck Swindoll says, “The greatest temptation that any of us face in setting goals is that we tend to set our goals too high.” I think Elijah’s primary goal was to get as far away from Jezebel as he could. His problem was, with all his running he almost killed himself. He didn’t realize it but although the body is a marvelous creation it does have it’s limitations. God’s word speaks about how we need to care for our bodies. i In I Corinthians 6:19 we are told that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. If you were entrusted by God to care for the holy temple in Jerusalem would you keep it clean? Would you make sure it was presentable? Would you care for it in such a way that others would know that this temple belonged to God? Well, I’m sure you’d say, of course I would. And so logic tells us that we are to do the same with our physical bodies. After all, these are the temples of the living God.
ii I Corinthians 12 speaks of each believer as being members of the body as though we were members of an actual body in the sense that we all have a specific function. You know, you’re either an ear, nose or mouth or some part of the body that’s just as necessary but not as visible. Some people had the ability to serve up front while others serve in the background but we all serve.
I remember when I was in Guelph. I went to visit a man who was involved in the church but hadn’t come out for a long time. He told me he was a believer and that he watched our cable show every Tuesday night. He said he used to be quite involved in the bus ministry. He said he would take an empty bus and by going door to door during the week he would fill it and then he’d get another one. One day they called him forward to receive recognition for his efforts. He quietly went up and afterwards politely told the man in charge not to ever do that again. He was quite embarrassed. A few weeks later the same guy called him up and presented him with a plaque. And he told me that was the last time he had ever been to church. The fact is, we’re all different. Each of us in his own way has some means by which we can serve and please God. So in our bodies we are members of His body.
iii I Corinthians 15:44 tells us that our bodies are temporary. In other words none of us will live forever in this form. During the years I’ve been a pastor I’ve led funeral home tours for several youth groups. I take the kids through the funeral home and describe what happens from the time a body comes in the back door, goes through the preparation room and then the visitation, the service and the burial. Most of the kids were aware of death in an academic sense but when they actually saw the procedure of preparing and burying the body they become very aware of the fact that one day they will die. As a result of these tours I’ve had a few kids saved and several others start to think seriously about their lives and what they will do with the time that remains. So we are sown a natural body and raised a spiritual body.
iv And then in II Corinthians 4:7 our bodies are referred to as treasure vessels. This body is like a treasure chest. And it’s through these treasure vessels that we communicate the gospel. As I said, our bodies are marvelous creations but as Elijah shows us they need to be cared for.
C Besides the physical side of Elijah we also see how his emotional problems affected the way he thought. For instance, his prayer life is way off base. In verse four he prays, “Let me die.” (Basically he’s saying I’m sick of living. Things didn’t work out the way I wanted.) And then he says, “Take away my life: for I am no better than my fathers.” In other words, serving God didn’t pay off the way I expected.
If God had answered that prayer and Elijah was to have died out in the desert his name and reputation would have been under a cloud forever. He’d be known as the prophet who ran away. He wouldn’t have seen the miraculous acts of God such as the wind, the earthquake and the fire which were followed by the still small voice of God. He wouldn’t have founded the school of the prophets that are referred to over in II Kings 6. He wouldn’t have had a hand in the commissioning of Elisha. And he wouldn’t have been swept up to heaven in a whirlwind. He could have died like a dog in the desert rather than be welcomed as a hero as he entered the gates of heaven.
Some people have the idea that God is pragmatic. That He would feed Elijah by ravens and continue to bless him as long as he was useful and when he wasn’t He’d just toss him away. When we get old, sick or check into the Drew does God no longer have a purpose for us? I think as long as we have breath He continues to use us either to minister or be ministered to and He and continues to love us.
An unknown poet crystalizes Elijah’s situation when he wrote,
We mutter and sputter; We fume and we spurt;
We mumble and grumble; Our feeling get hurt,
We can’t understand things; Our vision grows dim,
When all that we need is a moment with Him.
And Elijah needed that time when he could sit down and listen to what God has to say.
D God’s response
i The first thing we have to ask ourselves is, does God still love him? I think that’s legitimate question from the standpoint that we often ask ourselves the same question when we fall into sin. Is God like Santa Claus who only loves us when we’re good? It’s an interesting question but in asking this we have to realize that God loved us before we came to Him. And before we were saved God knew everything we would ever do including all the good and all the bad. Think about that. If God is eternal and omniscient that means He knows everything that happens within the bounds of time before it happens. He knows what a success you would be and where you’d fail before He saved you. He saved you from all your past, present and future sin. One thing you’d never hear in heaven is, “Oh, brother, I didn’t see that coming.”
Let me show you what I mean. We look at someone like David who expresses his faith so beautifully as he writes the psalms and then we see him committing gross immorality and murder. And we ask, did God still love him? Or does God love Peter more as Peter stands staring in wonderment at Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration than He does when Peter denies the Lord in the garden? God saw all this happen before it happened. Nothing takes Him by surprise.
I remember someone said to me, “I think God really loves me now, I finally quit smoking.” I said, “No, He always loved you it’s just that now maybe He can use you. He can’t love you more than He already loves you seeing that His love is infinite.” Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.” If He loved you yesterday, He’ll love you today, He’ll love you tomorrow and He’ll love you forever. Romans 8:28-32 Paul writes, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Listen to that last verse again, it says, “He that spared not His own Son.” If He gave us the very best that He had, when we deserved it least, I mean He died for us when we couldn’t care less, then would He hold anything else back? Of course not.
So we come back to Elijah and we ask, does God love him more when he was sacrificing the animals and preaching to the people on Mt. Carmel than He does when he’s laying under a juniper tree grumbling and suicidal? And of course the answer is no.
I was watching a documentary on television one night about a serial killer they had captured in England. They interviewed his son and asked him what he thought about his father’s crimes. He said he was horrified and disgusted by the things his father had done. And then he said, “But I still love him because he is my father.” Who we are is not changed by what we do. I was watching the news the other night and they were discussing Karla Homolka. They interviewed her father and asked if he or any of his family would be at the hearing. He said no and then added we may see her someday but not now. Regardless of what she did the fact is she is still his daughter.
Well, Elijah is a mess physically and spiritually but God was more caring now than ever. You will remember when he was at Cherith God sent the birds to feed him. And when he was at Zaraphath things got a little better because God sent a widow special provisions to feed both her, her son and Elijah. And now he’s out in the wilderness and God sends an angel to prepare his food.
I think the fact is, we are more aware of God’s love when we are down and out. We see where Jesus tells the story about the shepherd who carried the lost sheep on his shoulders. And we ask, why is he carrying him? Is it because he was lost or maybe He’s concerned that he could be hurt or just too tired to walk. I think the key is he wants him to know that he’s valued as he welcomes him home. Or we think of the story of the prodical where the father welcomes him home. As he’s on his way back home and he says to himself, “I’ll tell dad I’m sorry for what I’ve done and I’m more than willing to work as one of the hired hands.” And when he gets home before he can get the words out his father says, “Put some clean clothes on him, give him a ring and put shoes on his feet.” In other words make him look like he deserves it even if he doesn’t.
So as Elijah fell down exhausted under the tree God ministered to his needs. Sometimes we need to be rebuked by God and sometimes we just need a hug. Back in January of 1971 I had been dealing drugs and living for myself when a man confronted me with the gospel of Jesus Christ. After much discussion I said I wanted to accept the Lord and he led me in a prayer of commitment. The only way to describe the feeling that I had when I knew my sins were forgiven and that God loved me was that He hugged me. I’m not saying He physically hugged me but I had the feeling that He somehow expressed His love in the same way that we would if we hugged someone.
I was reading the cartoons one Saturday and came to Hagar the Horrible. In the first panel Hagar walked in the house dripping wet. In the second he said, “The ship sunk, all the men deserted, the dog ate my bearskin coat, I’ve got a cold and I need a hug.” And then in the last panel the entire family is hugging him, including the dog.
Elijah had the same problem. He was completely worn out. He had pushed himself too hard and now he simply needed rest and reassurance. His situation reminds me of the words of David who said in Psalm 119:71, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes.”
And it’s interesting to see that God prepared Elijah a lunch. Let me just touch on the subject of angels here. It says an angel woke him up and fed him in verses 5-7. In Hebrews 1:14 we read, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.” Whether we are aware of it or not God has angels who minister to our needs. I’d like to tell you how but I don’t have a clue. I only know what the Bible says. For instance, when Lot lived in Sodom and God told him and his family to leave it says in Genesis 19 that an angel took them by the hand and led them out of the city. When Daniel was in the lion’s den it says an angel came an closed the lion’s mouths. When Lazarus died the scripture says an angel carried him to Abraham’s bosom. When Peter was in the prison it says an angel set him free. When Paul was on board a ship that was about to sink he says that an angel assured him that everyone on board would be saved from the sea. In Psalm 34:7 we read, “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about those who fear Him, and delivereth him.” And then in Psalm 91:11 it says, “For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” And in Matthew 18:10 Jesus said, “Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father, who is in heaven.” This tells us that God has His angels all around us delivering, keeping and protecting us.
It’s possible that many things that could have happened to us didn’t happen because God’s angel’s protected us. I think we’re going to wait until we get to heaven to find out everything that happened in this world. Well, we’ve seen his first problem was that he was exhausted.
II Second problem
a In verse 10 he saw himself as indispensable. God asked him a question in verse 9 when He says, “What are you doing here?” Have you ever wondered why God who knows everything always asks questions? In Genesis 3:9 He asked Adam, “Where are you?” In verse 11 He asks, “Who told you that you were naked?” And then He asks, “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” And then in verse 13 it says, “And the Lord said to the woman, what is this that you have done?” In Genesis 4:6 in response to the offering given by Cain God asks, “Why are you so angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted?” And then in verse 9 at the murder of Abel God asks Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” Everyone of these questions is being asked to get the people to face their sin.
In the Matthew 15:34 Jesus asks His disciples, “How many loaves do you have?” And we would ask, is He doing inventory? Of course not. He knew how many loaves they had. He wants them to realize that they can’t do anything and that He can and will.
In Matthew 16:13 He says, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?“ Verse 15, “But who do you say that I am?” Matthew 21:25, “The baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven or from men?” Matthew 22:42, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” And then Matthew 23:23 He condemns the self-righteous pharisees by saying, “Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” So we see these questions are asked with the intention of getting the people He’s addressing to think about what He’s saying.
In response to God’s questioning, “What are you doing here?” Elijah says, “I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts. For the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” He says, I’ve done everything I could and everybody turned on me. As somebody said, “It’s always darkest just before it’s pitch black” and that seems to sum up Elijah’s attitude.
If we look carefully, we can see that Elijah has shifted his focus. He no longer sees the God of all power, all he sees is Elijah and his problems. He thought he was heaven’s last hope. Elijah needed a shot of reality therapy. Robert Ringer in his book ‘Looking out for Number One’ says, “Reality therapy is seeing life as it really is, rather than as we wish it were.”
In Christian counseling they use the term “Elijah complex” to describe people who think they are the only ones who are faithful. The only faithful church, the only faithful Bible school or the only faithful denomination. And that describes the way he felt about life. He was the only one that God had to rely on. We might say he was overly pessimistic. He forgot that God was on the throne. And God said that He had over seven thousand believers. We tend to wonder about the quality of their spirituality but the fact is, God could have used any one of them to do what Elijah did.
Back in the seventies and eighties I traveled all around Ontario playing guitar and singing, I even went out to the west coast and back with a band. It seemed like everywhere I went people knew who I was. Then the Lord called me to go to Bible College in New York and I was away for a little over a year. When I came back, I thought everyone would be excited to see me. A few people said, ”Oh, have you been away?” That really does something for your ego when you’ve been gone and nobody notices. The first problem was he was exhausted. The second problem was he thought he was indispensable.
III Third problem
a Elijah had lost his perspective. He had forgotten who God was. Now more than ever he needed a fresh vision of God. So we see that the angel fed him twice and then he lay down and slept and then he did it again. In the strength of that food he traveled for forty days and nights and then he arrives at Mt. Horeb. Back in Exodus 33 Moses had an encounter with God here after a forty-day fast. So I think God was taking him back to the basics.
Every once in a while God has to do the same with us. Most of us were either saved at home, in Sunday school or someone led us to the Lord. After we were saved most of us have had someone tell us that the most important thing we can do is have a daily devotional time. I’ve heard people say that the best time to have one is in the morning because this sets the tone for the day. I remember hearing Jack Wyrtzen says that he wouldn’t allow himself to have any breakfast before he read the word of God. Then others say it’s better to have a certain time during the day so you can be awake and then you can remember what you read. For me, I like to have my devotions before I go to bed at night. That way, it’s on my mind as the last thing I do before I go to sleep. There is no one time better than the other to spend time with the Lord but if you come to the conclusion that you don’t have time then you are heading for a spiritual disaster.
b He’s up on a mountain in a cave and we see God demonstrates His power for Elijah and He does three things. First, He sends a whirlwind. It says in verse 11, “And behold the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord but the Lord was not in the wind.” This reminds us how God had revealed great secrets to Job about nature and creation. “And after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake.” Remember when Moses received the ten commandments and the scripture says the earth quaked at the presence of God. And then in verse 12 it says, “And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire.” And you will remember that God appeared in the burning bush to Moses. In each of these great miracles Elijah may have been reminded of God’s power in the past but he received no sense of assurance. In the last half of verse 12 it says, “And after the fire a still, small voice.” God’s word is more comforting than any miracle we could possibly witness.
Elijah may have thought that Israel would only pay attention to God if God did something that really grabbed their attention but then he realized that God had done the miraculous. He sent the drought, the fire and the rain but the results were nil. The real difference God makes in the lives of men and women is when He speaks to them. People may applaud His actions but they obey His voice.
In II Peter 1:15-17 Peter says, “Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God, the Father, honor and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, this is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Peter says even though we beheld His majesty and saw His glory we have something more sure than our experience. We have the very word of God. These things not only confirmed the word of God but they also indicated that Elijah was about to go through a change in terms of his style of ministry.
IV Fourth problem
a What was he going to do now? He needed some direction. He needed something to do. People who are depressed need some kind of activity. I remember during the first year or so after I was saved I had all kinds of problems. Not only was there a new spiritual direction in my life but I also wrestled with depression. It may have had something to do with taking all kinds of drugs for previous couple of years. The guy who had led me to Christ had a simple solution to the problem. He said, “Do you know what you need to do? You need to get down on your hands and knees and scrub the floor. I argued for a bit then I got a bucket, a sponge and some soap. I got down on my hands and knees and spent an hour scrubbing the floor.” When I was done, I looked at the floor and felt as though I had really accomplished something.
I read an article in Leadership magazine where a pastor installed an extra toilet in his house that no one ever used. He said he came home every day and went downstair and flushed the toilet just to remind himself that he finished something in life.
b Elijah’s prophetic ministry was complete. He had laid the foundation for God’s work and now he was to anoint those who would complete the job. He was told to do three things. First, he was to anoint Hazael to be king of Syria. This meant he had to travel five hundred miles to Hazael’s home. Hazael would be the one who would kill Ahab and then punish Israel for their unbelief, idolatry and immorality. Secondly, he was to anoint Jehu king of Israel. He would be the one who would kill Jezebel. And then third, he was to anoint Elisha who would be prophet in his place.
Conclusion
He had a physical problem and he needed rest. He had an emotional problem and he needed reassurance. He had a spiritual problem and he needed a fresh vision of God. He had a psychological problem and he needed a bit of reality therapy. God needed to deal with his pride and teach him that he wasn’t indispensable. And he needed some practical direction in terms of where he was to go and what he was to do.
I remember when I was first saved they introduced a new chorus at our church and it was such an encouragement to me that I had to write it down so I remember it while I was working. It’s probably one you know quite well. It goes:
Something beautiful, something good
All my confusion, He understood
All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife
But He made something beautiful of my life.
When Moses ran away God met him out in the desert. Jonah ran away and God met him in the belly of a whale. And then Elijah ran away and God met him under a juniper tree. So we see in these passages of scripture that Elijah is not the only one who is a man of like passions. As I said last day these are all people just like ourselves, people who God had chosen to use not because they were better than the rest of us but because they were available.
In Exodus 33 we see where God met Moses on a mountain. In I Kings 19 we see God meeting Elijah on a mountain. In Matthew 17 Jesus met both Moses and Elijah on a mountain. In our lives He meets most of us down in the valleys of life because that’s where life is lived and that’s where we are most sensitive to His presence.
