1 Kings 18:41-19:8
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Where do we go after the mountaintop?
For those of you who joined us at winter camp you know what I mean, that you experienced the mountaintop highs and emotions
It feels so close to the Lord there, but then you come home
Everything starts to level out again because of the monotony of your daily life
Or maybe you have fallen back into that habitual sin that you struggle with
If you didn’t go to camp perhaps you remember the day you received salvation
Those beginning weeks of new life, being brought out of the death of your sins and into new life with Jesus is so intense and beautiful
But again, daily life can creep in and somehow you don’t feel like you are on the mountaintop
Habits creep in and suddenly you’re struggling with sin
You’ve found yourself places that you don’t want to be
Maybe you’re looking at things online that you shouldn’t be
Or you’re struggling with your self image
Or you’re wrestling with self harm
And all the while you’re thinking to yourself, “what happened?”
How do I get back to the mountaintop?
How can I be like Elijah?
We’ve been going through this series and every step of the way things get difficult but he stays strong
We literally left him last week on top of the mountain after he killed the 450 prophets of Baal
How can I be like him? How do you build a faith so strong? How do I stay on the mountaintop?
Look to the mountaintop
Elijah is there, he’s killed the prophets of Baal at the Kishon river
He’s doing what the Lord has called him to
Read 18:41-46
The Showers
The Showers
So, we have had an amazing victory against Ba’al
The Lord has shown Himself to Israel and absolutely decimated Ba’al
Even the people are the ones that seized Ba’al’s prophets
Now, Elijah goes to Ahab and tells him to eat
Ahab goes to eat, but Elijah goes to the top of Mt. Carmel
While he is there he prays
Seven times he prays here and each time he tells his servant to go and look to the west to see if the rain is coming or not
Six times there is no sign of the rain
Though in verse 41 we read of the sound of heavy rain
But on the seventh time his servant returns to tell him that there is a cloud coming up from the sea
The rain is coming, the prayer has been answered
We continue to see amazing things taking place in the life of Elijah and next he heralds for Ahab on their way to Jezreel
In the days of old messengers would herald for their king, they would run before the chariot of the king
Here Elijah is heralding before Ahab’s return
We shouldn’t miss this dramatic reversal, where now this “troubler” as Ahab called Elijah before is now heralding for that same king
How amazing is this? Isn’t it amazing what the Lord is doing?
What about in your own life? Do you remember the times on the mountaintop? When you were chasing the Lord so hard that it seemed nothing else mattered?
Elijah has faced the wicked prophets of Ba’al, he’s heralding for the king that was more wicked than his father and brought Israel to this low place
AND the people have bowed before the Lord declaring that He is God, that He is the LORD
But that newfound hope won’t last for long
Read 19:1-4
Flight Of Despair
Flight Of Despair
Upon their return what happens?
Ahab tells Jezebel everything that Elijah had done and she sends a messenger to Elijah
“So may the gods do to me and even more, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.”
She threatens Elijah and he flees for his life
The hope of surrender from the queen of Israel was not the result
He flees roughly 100 miles south to Beersheba where he leaves his servant and continues on into the wilderness
This is where we find Elijah at the lowest point that we have ever seen him
But 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.”
Take away my life or take away my soul
What happened?
We have seen him remain faithful in the wilderness alone
We saw him remain faithful when the widow of Zarephath accused him of killing her son
We saw him remain faithful earlier when the king and queen of Israel intended to kill him
We saw him remain faithful when he stood alone against the 450 prophets of Ba’al
But here, Elijah is threatened again and his emotions overcome him and he flees into the wilderness alone
We live this way too, don’t we?
We can remember times when our prayer lives were amazing
Or we were doing really good at staying in our Bible’s
Or maybe we were at a high point at camp
But then something happens and we’re back in that sin
Or we’re back in that mindset
Or depression has overtaken us to the point too that we say “I am no better than my fathers, it would be better if you took my soul away from me!”
That’s us, that makes sense for us, right?
This is Elijah!
He’s a prophet, he’s THE prophet!
But here we see him in such dismay that he wishes that the Lord would take away his life
James reminds us that Elijah too was a man like us
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
He was a man with a nature like ours, here he is feeling the same things that we often feel
And he’s not the only one
Job felt this way
Job 6:8,9
Moses felt this way Num 11:10-15
Jonah felt this way Jon 4:3,8
Jeremiah felt this way Jer 20:14-18
The Bible understands where we are at
It’s not shying away from emotions at all, especially not the deep and difficult ones
Elijah is wishing that the Lord take his life away from him
We get this way too, that feeling of deep depression
When life has become so heavy that we cannot see the end that God might have for us? How could it get any better than it is now? When the world seems so dark that the ending cannot possibly be good.
When everything is so difficult I often go to stories, things that will help me. Seeing Elijah here helps me when I have fallen to a place that I can’t imagine getting out of
I use other stories too, good literature that helps me picture continuing on and enduring through darkness
“It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going, because they were holding on to something. That there is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”
Elijah is here, he asks that the Lord take his life away and then goes to sleep
He has not ultimately given up yet, there must still be more to hold onto even in this dark dismay!
Elijah is here, but where is the Lord?
He’s not in a rebuke, He’s not in a judgment, that’s not placed on Elijah for feeling this or for fleeing into the wilderness
Even when the last three years should demonstrate that the security of his life is clearly in the Lord’s hands.
Instead, he prays and lays down to rest
Read 19:5-8
And behold
an angel wakes him up telling him to eat
And behold
There was cake and a jar of water and he lays down to sleep again until he is awoken again to eat
But this time is different. Why? because the journey ahead is too great for him
He is going to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God
Elijah is going to Mount Sinai, where the Lord had appeared to Moses many many years ago
He eats and leaves, a journey that takes him forty days and nights, of which he is fasting during
That length of time is double what it should have taken him, but we know the time is significant also
As the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years after a moral failing, Elijah spends forty days on his way to Mount Sinai
What’s the point of this? Why go to Mount Sinai?
Did you notice something strange in our text for tonight?
And I don’t mean that Elijah prayed that the Lord would take his life away, because we too can understand that
I mean the response to his prayer
Elijah did not hear from the Lord in this last prayer
The one before this was answered, the rain came
In fact, this is the first prayer that we see that God does not reveal Himself to Elijah
When he first approaches Ahab the Lord stops the rain
When he prays over the widow of Zarephath’s son his soul returned to him
When he prays over the altar atop Mt. Carmel the Lord sends fire down
When he prays for the rain to return the Lord lifts a cloud from the west and brings rain
But this prayer isn’t answered
Additionally, the word of the Lord often comes to Elijah when he is not praying
When the rain stops God removes Elijah from danger by telling him to go out into the wilderness
When the river dries up God tells him to go to the widow
He hears from God when he is told to go to Ahab
Every time that we have seen Elijah in danger God delivers him
His word comes to Elijah and Elijah is directed into what he should be doing
But here, Jezebel’s threat appears before Elijah and he flees from danger on his own
No word from God, no prayer, and when he does pray there is no answer
Which should stand out to us for all of those reasons BUT ALSO because in the last chapter the Lord is contrasted with Baal who is told twice did not answer his people and was not listening, but God is demonstrated to bring his word
Here, Elijah flees for his life, asks that God would end it, but the Lord does not appear to him there
Instead, an angel wakes him up with bread and water and tells him he’s going on a journey to the mountain of God
In that sequence we are given the Hebrew word “Hinney” which is translated to “behold”
and behold, an angel
and behold, food
Then he leaves for the Mountain of God
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?”
Indeed, what is he doing here?
Every time he has waited for God to tell him what to do but this time he flees on his own
Sometimes, we let our hearts to overtake us, we can be ruled by our fears, our dismay, our exhaustion. and they can take us to the breaking point
For Elijah, it may have seemed that nothing was working out because Jezebel did not surrender
Yet, he had this great victory with the people, the people had turned back to the Lord, and where was he needed? With them
They had no spiritual leader with them, Jezebel was hunting all of them
But Elijah flees into the wilderness
And we can flee too when life seems to be too great
In the wilderness God lets him rest. He leaves him to himself
Sends one of his servants to bring him food and water, resting again, and finally providing food and water to strengthen him before his long journey to the mountain of God
and hinney, and behold, the word of the Lord came to him
What are you doing here Elijah?
What are you doing here_________?
Why have you run into the wilderness of your sins?
It’s time for you to return to the mountain of the Lord
And here’s the beautiful thing. In Elijah’s time, the people had to worship in the temple, they had to go there
Elijah has to make this journey to the mountain of God
But you and me? We do not. Instead, we need to bow our heads, pray to the Lord and we are at the throne of God.
Jesus’ blood was spilt so that you and I could live with Him, living in communion with Him
The temple of the Lord is in your hearts, He is with you, even when you try to run
What are you doing here? God asks Elijah, I will ask it to you toninght
What are you doing here? Where are you?
Don’t you think it’s time to return to the mountain of God?
You need to pray to Him
“Lord, where am I? What am I doing? I need to find my way back to You”
Help me in that, please
