1Kings 19 4-8
Pentecost 12
1Kings 19:4-8
August 31, 2003
“Elijah – Suffering Defeat in Victory”
After W. Otte
Introduction: “Nobody likes me. Everybody hates me. Think I’ll go eat worms - Long, slim, slimy ones - Short, fat, juicy ones - Itsy, bitsy, fuzzy, wuzzy worms. Nobody likes me. Everybody hates me. Think I’ll go eat worms.” The words of this camp song could have been the words of Elijah as he sat under the broom tree, sulking and feeling sorry for himself. You can sense the despair as Elijah complained “Enough, Lord! I’ve had enough! Take my life: I am no better off than my fathers. Then he rolled over and fell asleep as if to say Lord just let . . . me . . . be!” Elijah’s problem was that he felt God had abandoned him.
Elijah certainly wasn’t the only one of God’s chosen prophets to complain like that. Moses protested that leading Israel was too much to do alone. Jonah felt God had left him out to dry when God let Nineveh off the hook. Jeremiah complained bitterly about having no say in his career choice, since once God called him to be a prophet, there was no escape.
I. Sin curves man in on himself.
From Elijah’s perspective, things just weren’t fair. He’d been an eyewitness to God’s faithfulness and power. During his ministry in Israel God manifested His power. God cared for him during the three-year drought. God demonstrated his power through him, by defeating the prophets of Baal on the top of Mount Carmel. At the direction of the Lord, Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal, 450 of them. They set up two alters and offered bulls placed on wood. Elijah said “Then you call upon the name of your god and I will call on the name of the Lord; the god who answers by fire – he is God. The prophets of Baal went first as Elijah taunted them saying, “Shout louder, perhaps he is deep in thought, busy, or traveling, maybe he is asleep and must be awakened.” The prophets of Baal shouted louder but fire did not come. Then it was Elijah’s turn, but before he prayed he told them to put not one, not two, but three huge jars of water on the alter and the wood and on the bull. Then he prayed and God answered in a mighty display of fire that burned everything up. Elijah then had the prophets of Baal killed. After this God sent rain at Elijah’s request to end a three year drought that began with Elijah’s word and ended with his prayer. By the hand and power of the Lord Elijah stood in victory.
How quickly things change. At the first angry words from Israel’s pagan Queen Jezebel, Elijah turns tail and runs away. Jezebel threatens, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not kill you like you killed the prophets of Baal, her false prophets. This is where our text picks up and we find Elijah, despondent and cowering under the broom tree, suffering defeat at the moment of victory.
Elijah’s real problem was that he had lost his focus. He was turned in on himself. That is why he later says, “The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” Elijah, great prophet that he was, suffered from sin in his life. The effect of sin in his life was to turn his focus on himself. Because of sin lost focus of what God was doing, instead he focused on what he thought was threatening his life and fell into deep despair.
Martin Luther described the effects of sin by using a Latin phrase incurvatus in se. Sin curves us in on ourselves. Sin separates us from God and turns our attention from him to ourselves. When we look to ourselves, we discover our own weaknesses, our inability to provide for ourselves or protect ourselves, our inability to save ourselves, and we quickly fall into despair. It’s like we’re curled up into a little ball, and we lose sight of all that God is and all that God does for us.
We are curved in on ourselves.
I am Elijah! Not that I’ve experienced the kind of miraculous providence that sustained him through three years of drought. Not that God has ever chosen me to be his instrument in a demonstration of his power such as Elijah was on Mount Carmel. I am Elijah because I easily find myself forgetting all the wonderful things God has done for me. I easily find myself curving in on myself because of my sin. I easily find myself looking inside myself for hope, for power, for strength, for goodness, for value. And I’m disappointed because I don’t see what I’m looking for. When I don’t, I feel cut off from God, and when I’m cut off from God by my sin, I’m cut off from everyone else as well. So I find myself a little broom tree of some kind and begin to whine, “Nobody likes me. Everybody hates me. Think I’ll go eat worms. God, why don’t you just leave me alone too? Why don’t you just take my life and be done with it?” Are you like Elijah too?
I am like Elijah! I sometimes feel as if I’ve worked so hard, but people only think I work on Sundays. Sometimes I care so much but it doesn’t seem to matter. I keep on counseling and comforting and praying but my words all seem like a wisp of smoke, and all that is said and done doesn’t really seem to matter. As a result I end up wallowing in self-pity. My sin blinds me from seeing how God has been at work in me and working in you Are you Elijah too?
So we head for the broom tree. Some of us hide in whining and complaining. Some hide in turning into a workaholic, thinking we can pull ourselves out of despair by our own bootstraps. Some try to find solace in a bottle or in illicit drugs or in sex. Some search for deliverance in power trips. But we are all doing our searching under the wrong “broom tree”- suffering defeat in the moment of victory, like Elijah.
If at any time you feel inclined to say, “It is enough,” and you feel that you cannot bear the burden of life any longer, do not do as Elijah did, and flee into silence and solitude, hiding under your own broom tree. There is another tree that you and I need to go to. Come with me to the tree where God’s Son suffered and died. Come with me to the cross. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, manifested many miracles. The power of God was expressed in both His Word and actions. He did not hold back the rain or cause fire to reign down from heaven. Instead, the grace of God reigned down upon the whole earth. Jesus did not just heal the sick or feed the five thousand. His Word declared forgiveness. When we look up at the tree of the cross we may be inclined to see a man in defeat, bloodied and bruised, pierced for our transgressions. A man in defeat, no, at the cross we see Jesus who suffers victory in a moment that looks like defeat. Through His victory God gives us everything that we need. Believing in Jesus Christ as out Savior we are sure that we are forgiven and that God is with us no matter what happens in this life. Because of Him we know that our lives matter and that God is using us, even at this very moment, to further His kingdom on earth. God will sustain us on our way.
II. God turns the believer’s view outward.
God gives us food and strength for the journey of our lives. God wouldn’t let Elijah “go and eat worms.” God sent an angel to bring Elijah food and drink to sustain him for his journey. God told the prophet that he was not alone, that God has reserved for himself seven thousand Israelites who had not worshiped Baal. God had not abandoned Elijah. God turned Elijah out from himself and back toward him.
God hasn’t abandoned us. In love God shows us through His Word, how much we need Him. He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to hang on the tree in our place. God did not abandon us; he abandoned his own Son in our place. This is made painfully obvious in Jesus’ terrible cry from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, sin’s power over us was destroyed. We’re free; we’re victorious; we’re powerful. We’re protected; we’re safe; we have reason to live. By letting us know this, God “uncurls” us from our sinful condition. He is present; he is our power. Hearing His Word draws our eyes to him, away from ourselves.
God has placed us, his chosen ones, into a community of believers so that we can build one another up in the faith. He provides brothers and sisters in the faith to whom we can turn to hear of his love and comfort when we feel weak, discouraged, or despairing. He opens our eyes to see him at work through our brothers and sisters in Christ.
We are fed and nourished for our journey as well. Christ is the very bread of life. He gives us his own body and blood as food and drink, given and shed for our forgiveness, giving to us the gifts of life and salvation.
Conclusion: God speaks to us: “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” And strengthened by the food that God provides, we are prepared to continue our journey for God’s glory. Even though it appears that the things of this life are threatening us and getting us done we know that even though it looks like we have been defeated, we are victorious, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen