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Swimming Against the Current
Have you ever tried to swim against a current?
It is difficult, exhausting, overwhelming, and disappointing.
As you battle so hard to make progress, but seem to make little to no headway and maybe even just get pushed back even further.
That is where Elijah is in 1 Kings 19, at least that is where he ends up.
He had just confronted 450 prophets of Baal, taking on the powerful king Ahab and his evil wife Jezabel, and he won, at least God did through him.
At the end of chapter 18, after God has brought rain for the first time in 3 years, Elijah runs to Jezreel to confront his adversaries, expecting them to cower and beg to be spared.
But that isn’t what happens.
1 kings 19:1-4
Ahab goes to the Queen and, like a spineless coward, reports to her all that has happened.
Surely she will surrender
At least Ahab will put her in her place, right?
No...
Jezabel send a messenger with a threat to kill Elijah by the next day.
There is no relenting...
Not repentance...
She refuses to give in.
Elijah had had a challenging 3 years, but now he had seen victory.
Life was supposed to get better right?
Easier?
More victorious?
Imagine his disappointment when he received the messenger.
We don’t really have to imagine, we can read it
He fled to Beer-Sheda, a down way down south, far from Jezreel and far from Jezabel.
I was an unlikely place, and really, an unnecessary place.
But it is telling, he was overwhelmed, dejected, and depressed.
His words are even more telling
Here we find our first lesson for the journey.
Remember, the way is HARD and we are HUMAN.
Elijah is given a hard time in this passage.
In some ways I get it.
He is a bit whiny.
He does run away after God has proven how powerful He is.
But I think preachers and commentators give him too hard of a time here.
hundreds of years later, the apostle James helps us understand this whole section a bit more clearly I think.
What’s his point?
Elijah was a flesh and blood human just like us.
Yeah he stood up to the most powerful couple of his time and “prayed” for no rain to come.
Yes he obeyed God in the wilderness and at the widow’s house.
And yes he went head to head with the prophets of Baal, showing them how weak and worthless their god was.
Sure his story is pretty incredible, but don’t ever forget, he was a man JUST LIKE US.
And just like us, Elijah had a breaking point.
3 years of trusting God to provide every day.
3 years of waiting for God to speak and make His next move.
All the while knowing that Jezabel seemed to be winning, seemed to be dominating God and His people.
And then when he thinks the tables have finally turned and the battle is finely won, he is punched in the face with a death threat.
I think there is something embedded deep in our minds and hearts when we read this chapter as if Elijah is weak, whiny, and faithless here.
I think Russell Moore captures what is embedded in us in his book on Elijah:
When it comes to courage, Mount Carmel is not the hinge point of the Elijah story, but a prelude to something else.
The way of courage, as defined by the gospel, is not the pagan virtue of steeliness and fearlessness, much less our ambient culture’s picture of winning and displaying, or strength and swagger.
Getting the climax point of the Elijah story right is important because, if we don’t, we will follow him somewhere other than where he ultimately was led: to the crucified glory of Jesus Christ.
Without this piece of the story, we will conclude that Elijah was the picture of courage we think we need and that we pretend to have.
1 Kings 19 is follows 1 Kings 18 for the same reason that the great and faithful Noah, right after he gets off the ark is found drunk and naked by his son.
It is there for the same reason we are told about Abraham risking the safety and purity of his wife in order to protect himself from Pharaoh in Egypt.
It is the same reason David, the man after God’s heart, the greatest King in Israel is also remembered as the one who took advantage of a married woman and murdered her husband to cover up his sin.
It is the same reason not one disciple stays by Jesus as He is brought to the cross, not even Peter.
What we see in 1 Kings 19 is Elijah coming to terms with the reality of his limits as a “human just like us.”
If you were here last week, we talked about how challenging it is to live as a follower of Jesus in our world.
It really is like swimming up stream or like a bird flying against the wind.
If we are going to stand up and live faithfully in this world, the first thing we have to come to terms with is that the life we are called to live is not an easy life and we can’t do it by ourselves.
Like Elijah, we must come to terms with our humanity and our desperate need for God’s help.
Remember, we are WEAK and NEEDY, but God is our REFUGE and STRENGTH.
This passage is often used as a framework for caring for someone who is dealing with burnout or depression.
Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely important principles here that are easily and helpfully applied to those situations in our lives.
We need to sleep, eat, and work through our emotions.
But the context of this passage isn’t just the practical lessons on self-care or caring for those who are struggling.
What happens here I think further shows the need for having sympathy and empathy for Elijah in this account.
Some read the words of the angel in verse 5 as a rebuke, “Hey Elijah, stop being lazy, get up and eat you bum!”
But perhaps the angel wakes up Elijah because he needed to eat, just like we wake up our sick kids at night in order to get them to drink some fluids so they don’t get dehydrated.
Plus the moment he wakes up there was bread and water right there waiting for him.
He didn’t have to go out and forage or kill in order to eat.
God provided for him.
I have also heard preachers scold Elijah for falling back to sleep, as some rebellious shunning of the angels command to get up.
But the next time the angel comes is at another meal time, perhaps because God let him sleep because he needed to rest.
Elijah had been faithfully following the Lord’s commands for 3 years and it had not been an easy road, perhaps this was God’s graciousness to let him sleep.
Then when he wakes up a second time and eats, God sends him on a long journey, to a place every Jewish boy would have been quite familiar with, mount Horeb, the very same mountain where Moses met the Lord.
There is something deeply comforting about this passage when you consider the simplicity of what happens.
God feeds the weary Elijah, lets him sleep, and then sends him to a place where He can meet with him.
Every one of us go through seasons of struggle, where life seems to be too much, where worries and problems seem to stack up on us like weights on our backs, too heavy for us to carry.
And in these seasons we often struggle to see how God is helping us, where God is providing for us, and to what God is leading us.
Rather, our response is most often to worry more, do everything we can think of to try and figure out or fix our problems ourselves, and/or to curse God for not doing what we think He ought to do.
Perhaps what we need to do more than anything in season like this is to STOP, EAT some food, take a nap, and, most importantly, watch and listen for the Lord.
Elijah didn’t run to Beer-sheba to find the Lord, but to save his butt.
But when he Got there, the Lord was already there to meet him.
And He is here to meet you too friends.
Not with judgement and scorn, but with kindness and care.
To faithfully follow Jesus we must come to terms with our neediness and, like David, run to the one who is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble.
Remember, we were not promised an EASY ROAD, but a FAITHFUL GOD.
God asks Elijah a question that He already knew the answer to.
He knows why Elijah is there, but He wants to give Elijah an opportunity speak.
Elijah’s words are honest, he has been zealous for the Lord, but it seems like it has all been for nought.
Now he is facing, what seems to him as sure death.
He doesn’t answer the question really, if there really even is a good answer to the question, but at least he is honest.
Then God does something that He has done before, He calls Elijah to come out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord just like Moses had done many years before.
(Exodus 19:20)
This whole next section is intended to be a reflection of God’s meeting with Moses in Exodus as He is giving Moses the law and the Mosaic covenant.
Interestingly, that is exactly what Elijah was pointing to in his answer to God’s question.
He is saying, “the people have not kept your commandments Lord.
I have done all I can do, but it seems they are too far gone.
Jezabel is too strong.
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