- Stacey’s gonna kill me for sharing this story. But, I just have to. One winter several years ago, Stacey and I were traveling from Colorado to her home in Arkansas. Now the route that you take to make that trip is Interstate 70 which runs from the Western border of Kansas all the way to the Eastern part of Kansas. And if you have never been on that Interstate, then you are a blessed individual, because it is the most boring stretch of interstate in the entire country (except for the -- you can find along the way.) So we driving along on I70, it’s the middle of winter, and the weather is terrible. It didn’t start off bay, but halfway into our trip, the freezing rain started falling, and the roads were getting slicker and slicker and Stacey was driving. Now I had dozed off when it all started, but I was quickly awakened, when I heard a gasp come from the driver’s side. And I quickly realized that we had just done a 360 degree turn on the shoulder of the interstate and the nose of our car was facing the ditch along the side of the road. Talk about feeling out of control. Anybody who has lost control of their car on an icy road knows exactly how that feels. When you want one thing, but your car is doing something completely different.
- Sometimes that is how our life feels. Out of control. And sometimes there are times when it seems the world is out of control. And that maybe even God is not in control anymore, but has gone silent on us. Maybe we don’t say it, but often that’s how we feel.
- Like when we turn on our TV’s and we see immoral lifestyles being not only accepted but celebrated. Like when we see evil people do evil things and get away with it. When we see racism still alive, and injustice and dishonesty getting the upper hand. When we see these things, we wonder, why does God remain silent? Is he in control anymore?
- Or in our own personal lives. When we see a loved one suffer and suffer with cancer or Alzheimers, and we wonder why God doesn’t just take them? Or when we are criticized and condemned for doing what is right. Or when our children reject and rebel from everything you taught them growing up. Whenever things like this happen, we wonder, why does God remain silent? Is he in control anymore?
- Well, Elijah was asking the same questions. We have to remember something as we look at the life of Elijah. We have to remember that though he is a great prophet, he is still a human prophet, with human weaknesses, and human frailties, like all of us. And in I Kings 19 we see this more than ever.
- Let me remind you what has happened leading up to this point. Elijah went before the wicked King Ahab to give him the message that there would be no rain in the land for years. Elijah is sent into seclusion and then he spends several years with a widow in Zarephat. Then in chapter 18, God brings Elijah to confront Ahab. And on Mt Carmel we read about the battle of the gods. One one side are the 450 prophets of Baal and on the other side is Elijah and the Lord. It is the Lord who answered by fire and the people cried out, "The Lord- He is God! The Lord- He is God!" You see the people who witnessed fire come screaching down from heaven to consume the altar, the soil, the water and the stones realized that it was the Lord who had performed such a miracle. And so when Elijah commands these same people to seize all of the prophets of Baal and Asherah (as he does in I Kings 18:40) and to throw them in the Kishon Valley to be killed. The people quickly respond.
- And after all of this takes place, Elijah goes to Ahab and tells him to go home and get ready because the 3 and a half year drought is about to come to an end. So Ahab races home to his summer palace which is located in Jezreel, and Elijah goes also, even beats Ahab back. And listen to what happens back at the palace... (19:1-2)
- It’s hard to believe that Elijah, this great man of God, who had just witnessed fire come from heaven, who had just confronted the 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah, who had just stared down the King of Israel would be afraid of this woman, this wife of Ahab, this Jezebel. On writing about this, an author once said,
"It has often been asked how a man could experiece such divine provision, perform such great miracle, singlehandedly withstand 450 pagan prophets and the king himself, and yet cower before feminine threats."
- Men we know what that’s like to cower before feminine threats, don’t we?? Well, anyway, for some reason, Elijah cowered before the threat of Jezebel and he fled, he ran away. And where did he run. The text says he ran to Beersheba. Beersheba, the southern most part of the entire kingdom. Elijah was in the northern part of the kingdom when the threat is given, and he runs as far away as possible. It would be like running to the tip of Texas for us. Elijah wanted to get as far away as possible. And so that’s what he did, he went to Beersheba. And listen to what happens in Beersheba... (vs 3-9a)
- Have you ever felt that way? I have had enough, take my life. I have had it up to here. Life is not worth living anymore. Well, maybe some of you have felt the temptation to commit suicide. Maybe some of you have been in that dark place, that dark hole, and there is no light, and you feel as if the only solution, the only answer is to end it all.
- And even if you have never reached that point in your life, you have still felt that desire to just quit. To quit your job, to quit your marriage, to quit as a parent, to quit church, to just quit trying. To just give up, throw in the towel. And you say, "That’s it, I have had enough!" Maybe you are there now in your life. Maybe right now, you feel like giving up.
- That’s where Elijah was. He had had enough. And so God hears his cry. He hears his tears, and he reaches down from the heavens and he touches Elijah and gives him food, and sends him even further south into the desert. For 40 days and 40 nights, Elijah retreats into the wilderness. Sort of reminds me of another man who spent 40 days and nights in the desert, perhaps it was the same desert. And it was there that Jesus was tempted. And so Elijah retreats into that desert, gets away from it all.
- But, we still need to ask... why does Elijah, a man who has demonstrated no fear up to this point, a man who has faced his enemies, has seen the powerful acts of God time after time... why does Elijah allow the threats of Jezebel to cause him to plunge into such distress and frustration. Well Elijah is going to answer that question for us in the next few verses. As we read, picture in your mind, this man, this prophet, all alone, tormented with hopelessness and frustration, sleeping in a cave in the middle of the barren wilderness.
- vss 9b-13a
- Why did Elijah allow the threats of Jezebel to cause him to go into such despair and anguish? Well, the heart of his frustration is the apparent silence of God. Elijah was questioning whether or not God was truly in control. Ahab has been on his throne for years and years, Jezebel has had her evil ways, the people of Israel continue to reject the Lord, and yet God allows these terrible things to continue. If God is in control, then why would he allow such evil things to happen? Elijah felt like God was silent, and so God sends a powerful wind, then an earthquake, then a fire. But God was not in any of those, and then a gentle whisper and Elijah could sense God’s presence in that gentle whisper.
- You see, just when we think God is silent, just when we think he is out of control. Just when we begin to doubt, and lose hope, and wonder if it would be better to just quit. God speaks in ways we least expect. Elijah would have expected God to speak in a powerful wind like he would do at Pentecost, Elijah would expect God to speak in an earthquake like he did for Moses and the Israelites, Elijah would expect God to speak in a fire like he did on top of Mt Carmel and in the Burning Bush. But Elijah didn’t expect God to speak with a gentle whisper.
- Just when Elijah thought God was silent, and was not in control, the Lord reminded Elijah that He never sleeps, that he never loses sight of his world, that he will always respond to the cries of his people. Just when Elijah thought he was all alone, the Lord reminded him that the Lord is always at work in the world. That he is always active, always in control. The Lord reminded Elijah that in the end all wrongs will be righted, all evil will be squelched. And when Elijah least expected it, God spoke with a whisper.
- And a second time, a voice asked him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" And Elijah replied exactly the same way as before... vs 14.
- And this time the Lord said to him... vs 15-18
- Interestingly enough, all of those men that Elijah was to anoint... Elisha, Jehu, Hazael... would all have a part in eventually wiping out Ahab and Jezebel and their entire family. And just when Elijah thought he was all alone, the Lord reminded him that there are 7000 in Israel who worship the Lord.
- The point is this. Often in life we will feel the same way Elijah did. We will feel alone, we will feel frustrated... thinking God is silent. That God is not in control anymore. We will question God and wonder why he allows certain things to continue, and why he doesn’t seem to be answering our prayers. And maybe in our life, we will cry out to God the same cry that Elijah had... "I have had enough Lord, take my life, I quit."
- When we do, when we feel this way, then it is important that we do two things. First, we must share these feelings with God. He can handle it. He already knows what’s on your heart, so you might as well share it with him. Don’t run from God, because wherever you go, God will be there too (just ask Jonah!). If you feel like crying out, then cry out to God.
- And secondly, when you cry out to God, ask him to change your vision. Because often when we think that God is silent, when we think he is no longer in control, it is because we are looking in the wrong places. We are missing the great things that God is doing in our world. We have our attention focused on the bad instead of the good. On the evil instead of the righteous. God’s blessings and God’s people are all around us. God may not be where we expect him to be, but if we are quiet enough, if we are still enough, then even in the worst storms of life, we will be able hear his whisper calling our name. We will be able to see God’s hand in our lives and in our world.
- Recite Lucado poem from "A Gentle Thunder"
Once there was a man who dared God to speak.
Burn the bush like you did for Moses, God
And I will follow.
Collapse the walls like you did for Joshua, God
And I will fight.
Still the waves like you did on Galilee, God
And I will listen.
And so the man sat by a bush, near a wall, close to the sea
and waited for God to speak.
And God heard the man, so God answered.
He sent fire, nor for a busch, but for a church.
He brought down a wall, not of brick, but of sin.
He stilled a storm, not of the sea, but of a soul.
And God waited for the man to respond,
And he waited...
And he waited...
And waited.
But because the man was looing at bushes, not hearts;
bricks and not lives, seas and not sould,
he decided that God had done nothing.
Finally he looked to God and asked, Have you lost you power?
And God looked at him and said, Have you lost your hearing?
