When you want to run and hide - 1 Kings 19
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Its been a little while since I have last been with you, I bring you greetings from Murrieta and my home fellowship there, Calvary Sunrise.
As some of you know, Pastor Reuben and I became friends through our Greek studies and our mentor Justin Alfred who was here not long ago. Our heart, as your heart are with Pastor Ruben as he cares for his mother in her last days.
One of the wonderful things of the family of God is that we share in Joy and in Grief together. We are never truly alone. It doesn’t matter if we don’t speak the same language, come from different cultures when you meet a fellow believer in Jesus Christ you enjoy instant fellowship.
Now I was seeking the Lord as to what to bring you today and I believe He has given a very specific message for this fellowship.
So pray with me and we will get into it.
Pray
As we begin I don’t need to tell you that these are very confusing times. We are on verge of world war, inflation is at record levels, two years of a world wide pandemic, and our own government is becoming more hostile to Christians. As a matter of fact as a Born Again bible believer you are listed as domestic terrorist according to our Government. Things that not long ago were held as normal are now seen as far right and fringe. Even Gods word is labelled as hate speech.
The text for this morning conveys those very feelings. Like America, Israel has gone from a God fearing nation to openly serving other Gods and have leaders that are actively persecuting followers of Yahweh. So, I have entitled this message “When you want to run and hide.”
So let’s open to our text for this morning in 1 Kings 19, Please stand as we read;
1 Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.
2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “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.”
3 And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.”
Our story comes on the heels of the glorious display of Gods power when Elijah calls down fire in a contest with the prophets of Baal.
36 At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and I have done all these things at Your word.
37 “Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that You, O Lord, are God, and that You have turned their heart back again.”
38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
39 When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God.”
40 Then Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.” So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.
So from this moment of great victory we find a place of even greater despair. So from text, the evil pagan Queen Jezabel (her name means Baal exalts) she has in effect put a “contract” out on Elijah. Notice verse 3.
3 And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
As a matter of fact Elijah was so afraid he ran all the way to Beersheba, about 100 miles south all on foot, Wow.
This is the feeling many are having right now, maybe even some here today! We just want to run and hide. But notice for the great Elijah it was worse than that,
4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.”
Have you ever felt like that. Maybe you feel like that right. You would be better off dead! Nothing is working, all seems to be bad. Well it comforts me to know that even the great Elijah felt that way as well.
But notice as a believer God knows where you are and has a plan if you will listen.
5 He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, “Arise, eat.”
6 Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again.
7 The angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.”
8 So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.
So you wonder what was in that cake that lasted him 40 day and nights. Talk about energy bars!
I have found it amazing that when I am at my end that God will find a way to meet my need. Whether emotionally or financially or whatever He just shows up. Notice what He did for Elijah; an Angel miraculously brings Him a meal. An then the next day does it again.
Have you noticed that when things are impossible that's when God shows up.
When Lord met with Abraham He told him that Sarah would deliver a son within a year. The story tells us that Sarah within herself laughed with unbelief. After all she was 90 years old and well beyond child bearing age.
See how God replies;
13 And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, when I am so old?’
14 “Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
So back to our story and Elijah is still on the run We pick up in verse 9;
9 Then he came there to a cave and lodged there; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
10 He said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
So here God comes to Elijah, now hiding in a cave way down in Saudi Arabia at Mt Horeb, 150 miles from where he has started. God has an important question for both Elijah and you and me when we are on the run and hiding.
What are you doing here?
We like Elijah can find ourselves in a cave of disappointment with God and self pity. God has done things in a way different than you thought He should have. You are mad at Him. In your mind you are the only one left. On this Jon Courson writes;
Therefore, perhaps Elijah expected the Lord to work in big ways in his situation, as well. Surely the Lord would do something to stop Ahab and Jezebel, he thought. Maybe He would zap Jezebel with lightning and swallow Ahab with an earthquake.
One of the reasons we get depressed is because the Lord doesn’t seem to be doing something big. He’s not shaking us up with experiences. He’s not firing us up with the miraculous. “Lord, where are You?” we cry. “Why aren’t You doing anything?”
Thus some crawl into a cave of depression and self pity and hide.
In verse 10, Elijah gives his reason hiding but notice his reasoning is flawed due to lack of information. Elijah, exclaims I am alone. I am the last one there’s no one left. But is that really true?
We need to consider that we rarely have access to the whole story. Much of our problems come from who it is we are listening to. Fake news and propaganda can make things very confusing. Not to mention that we have an enemy who is the father of lies.
So the Lord brings a solution that applies so well for us today. So here what God tells Elijah to do;
1 Kings 19:11–14 (NASB95)
11 So He said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
12 After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing (or better translated a calm small voice).
13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
14 Then he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
We like Elijah need to get to a place where we can hear Gods voice. But when the walls are closing in on us and we feel confused we need to tune out all other voices and tune into the Lord.
Regarding hearing the voice of the Lord, Jesus said;
2 “But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.
3 “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
4 “When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
5 “A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”
You see if you know Jesus, he is trying to talk with you. Our problem is that sometimes we have so much interference we can’t here Him or have forgot how.
My advice if you are having a problem hearing His voice is go back to the first things as is written in Rev 2 to the Ephesian church;
Revelation 2:5 (NASB95)
5 ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.
So in our story, Elijah hears what is described as a gentle blowing, or a still small voice. The Hebrew word here is a calm voice like a whisper. That’s what you should expect to hear when you are listening for God’s voice.
So as soon as God knows Elijah can hear Him, He again asks, what are you doing here? Elijah in verse 14 pours out his reason as he had done previously.
14 Then he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
And now finally, Elijah is in a place to be able to hear what the truth really is. Have you noticed that until God opens the door of someones heart that what ever we share with them about the things of the Lord just falls on deaf ears. We have no power to save within us. Only the HS can brings a soul to repentance. Jesus said;
44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
That doesn’t mean we stop sharing but just that only those who are drawn by the HS will hear, and we don’t know who that may be.
So God now tells Elijah what’s really going on.
1 Kings 19:15–18 (NASB95)
15 The Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have arrived, you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram;
16 and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place.
17 “It shall come about, the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death.
18 “Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
God gives
So to close, we must understand that God has purposes and plans we are not privy to and that seldom if ever do we have the whole story. Though we can find ourselves in confusing circumstances running from our problems will not help and hiding in a cave of self-pity accomplishes nothing. Return to the first things, prayer and the word, and listen for His still small voice and we will receive peace that passes understanding and direction for the next steps God has planned for us.
Pray