What are you doing here Elijah?

Are you where God wants you to be?

Elijah is one that many are very familiar with, his showdown on mount carmel with the “prophets of baal” is a story that has been preached many times over.

Elijah’s life, or at least the parts of it we hear about, was one marked with miracles. he prayed and stopped the rain for three and a half years, the ravens fed him, endless oil and flour, raising the widows dead son, and culminated on during that showdown, where Elijah call to God and the Lord send down fire that comsumed the soaking wet offering like dried twigs and then elijah prayed and the rain came. And a little bonus miracle of Elijah gaining super speed.

1 Kings 19:1Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

1 Kings 19:2Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.”

1 Kings 19:3Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

1 Kings 19:4But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

1 Kings 19:5And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.”

But after witnessing all these, and battling the enemies of God, after standing alone against all the enemies of God in the land, after seeing firsthand the works of God we see elijah get to a point of giving up. Not just walking away, but RUNNING, and not just giving up but giving up to the point want being DONE WITH LIFE.

Elijah wasn’t giving up on God, he had given up on the people, given up on his ministry.

When ahab reported all that had happend to Jezebel and she had no repented and instead was angry and even more opposed to The God of Isreal elijah was dis heartened.

He felt as though all the works and wonders and miracles and shows of Gods awesome power would not change anyhting long term.

It had not moved to heart of jezebel but hardened it, and its effect on the poeple of Isreal would only be temporary, that their heart would turn away from God and back to the baals and wickenness.

He saw the influence Jezevel had and how she was able to seduce the king and the people, and when she didn’t turn to God he thought it was only a matter of time before she suck her hooks back in the poeple

So he ran when she vowed to kill him

He didn’t run because he was afraid to die, as we see, he wanted to die.

But he didnt’ want to give that death to jezebel, he wasn’t ok with her having that “victory”

he had reached a point where it was over for him, there was nothing left, but at the very least he wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of killing him, letting her be able to use his execution as a way to boast.

He instead laid down under a tree, he asked the lord to end it and went to sleep waiting for death

1 Kings 19:5And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.”

1 Kings 19:6And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again.

1 Kings 19:7And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.”

1 Kings 19:8And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.