Scripture: 1 Kings 19:1-18
On this All Saints Sunday, I think there is no more fitting story one could tell than the story of Elijah. An important prophet of God, revered throughout the scriptures as one of the most important prophets that ever lived… is one of the two prophets who appear at Jesus’ transfiguration… and at this moment in his story…
He says, “It’s enough. Take my life away.” I have done enough – and it’s over.
He’s lying under a broom tree, begging God to kill him. He’s given up. He doesn’t want to be the prophet anymore. He’s sick of it. He did what was asked of him – now he just wants to die in peace. How can God continue to ask him to keep going when the battle is a futile battle?
Not quite what we expect when we think of one of the greatest of all prophets.
To help set the scene of why Elijah is so despondent, the Northern Kingdom (remember from last week how the tribes of Israel split into two different kingdoms of the north and the south) led by King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, have strayed from the covenant they had made with God and are now promoting other worship, to other gods and are in the process killing off all the prophets of the Lord.
In particular, they’re promoting Baal worship. Worship of the god of thunder and rain. So, Elijah challenges this deity that the Israelites have started to worship by challenging Baal’s particular domain.
At Elijah’s word – the sky is shut up and no rain falls for three years. So who is really the God of rain? Baal? Or God?
Then – he has one final showdown with these priests of Baal. He summons all the priests of Baal to Mount Carmel for a showdown, where God comes down in a raging fire and burns up all the water-soaked wood while Baal… well, Baal does nothing. After this, Elijah kills the priests of Baal and then the drought comes to an end…proving that God is actually the one in control.
Well, Queen Jezebel gets a little ticked off because those had been her priests. So, in retribution, she sends orders to have Elijah killed.
It’s the Sopranos, Biblical style.
When Elijah hears about the death threat – he flees out into the wilderness to hide. He may have just proven that God is the one that is control – but now that his life is being threatened he turns tail and runs. He runs to Mt. Horeb - way down on the tip of the Sinai Peninsula, which is about as far as you can get from anywhere.
Talk about your pastoral burn-out. He’s exhausted. He’s feeling sorry for himself. He lies down to die. “Just kill me!”
But God won’t let him. God keeps feeding him and prodding him along until Elijah finally finds a cave on Mount Horeb he can hide in and God asks him, for the second time, “what are you doing here?”
Elijah says: “I’ve been very zealous for the Lord, but the Israelites are no longer faithful – I alone am left. Just me. And now – they want to kill me, too. Really… what else are you going to throw at me God?”
Despondent, alone, and exhausted. Elijah’s done. He’s fought the good fight, he’s done everything that God has told him to do… and for what? To wind up on the run in the middle of the wilderness hiding out in a cave?
To say Elijah has hit a low point is an understatement.
Elijah’s gone to that “bad place” we sometimes all go, too. That place that is as far away as you can get from anywhere, trying to hole yourself up and not deal with the disappointments, stresses, and fears of the world that lie outside that cave. Elijah has abandoned his calling because he feels he’s fighting this battle for the Lord all by himself. That it all rests on him, and what’s the result? What’s his thanks?
He’s got a hit out on his life.
I think this is an especially poignant illustration when we think about “saints,” and those people who are doing God’s work in the world. To remember, even the most faithful of prophets and saints have those moments of emptiness and despair. To be a saint is to not always be overflowing with bounty and grace at every moment.
The story of Elijah shows us the realities of emptiness and isolation, of how even he can wind up at the wrong place.
Shows us the realities of how we humans react when things are NOT going the way we think they should be going. Yeah, there was a great triumph back on Mount Carmel – but well, what have you done for me lately, God? Jezebel’s coming back. The battle isn’t really over – it just keeps going and going… and Elijah says, “I can’t do it anymore.”
Now, we have to also take note of where exactly Elijah chose to go when he fled the world. He went to Mount Horeb – probably more familiar to you as Mount Sinai. They were the same mountain. It’s this same mountain where God gave Moses his law, where God made His covenant with His people. It’s where God appeared as a burning bush, a pillar of fire, had a thunderous voice, and shook the mountain with a great earthquake when he discovered his people had rebelled.
Elijah is hiding in a cave in the mountain where God has always shown up in some pretty spectacular and terrifying ways.
So think about that as we look at this next part…
Instead, God shows up in silence. In a still, small voice. Not in the dramatic ways we’ve grown accustomed to God showing up. Not the way he’s shown up in the past.
He shows up in an unexpected way – and he meets Elijah in the middle of his despair, where he’s removed from the threats of the world, in that place where God has met His people before.
And it is in that silence… Elijah is finally able to hear God’s word speaking to him.
Now let’s face it – this is not always where we want God to meet us.
We want God to meet us in the glory, the fire, the showdown – flexing his might and his power showing the world who’s boss. But the reality is - God doesn’t always meet us the same way every time. He’s not a God that’s interested in just entertainment value.
Rather, he’s a God that sustains, even when we’re at our low-points. It’s a God who meets us in our suffering… but doesn’t leave or abandon us in our suffering.
In that silence, in that still, small voice, God asks Elijah a question – you think this was about you? You think the future of God and the future of God’s people lies solely in your hands? You’re wrong Elijah.
God tells Elijah – there are still 7000 people that have not bowed down to Baal. There are 7000 other people out there who are still faithful to me. He tells Elijah in verse 18: “Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
You are NOT, in fact, alone.
God’s faithful people are not going to die with you and your ancestors.
God’s future is actually…not in your hands, but in God’s hands.
And that’s the part that can be difficult for us at times to acknowledge. It isn’t always about us. Not about our abilities or particular ministries that we think need to somehow succeed. It may sometimes seem like the world around us is crashing down, that Christianity is dwindling and dying – and what can we do? Are we fighting this battle alone?
God’s future is not wrapped up in all the saints and ancestors that came before us – but God is moving us forward in new directions that allow us to remember the saints of the past – but to move on from the saints of the past and look toward the saints of the future.
Elijah’s story reminds us that the future God has in mind is still ultimately in HIS hands. He calls us to persevere in the face of set-backs, in the face of difficulty, and in the face of seeming defeat. We may feel deflated and like our efforts are of no value – but God reminds us, just like he reminds Elijah – God still has a future. His people have a future. Which means WE have a future.
He says, “It’s enough. Take my life away.” I have done enough – and it’s over.
He’s lying under a broom tree, begging God to kill him. He’s given up. He doesn’t want to be the prophet anymore. He’s sick of it. He did what was asked of him – now he just wants to die in peace. How can God continue to ask him to keep going when the battle is a futile battle?
Not quite what we expect when we think of one of the greatest of all prophets.
To help set the scene of why Elijah is so despondent, the Northern Kingdom (remember from last week how the tribes of Israel split into two different kingdoms of the north and the south) led by King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, have strayed from the covenant they had made with God and are now promoting other worship, to other gods and are in the process killing off all the prophets of the Lord.
 |
| Baal: Canaanite God of Thunder |
At Elijah’s word – the sky is shut up and no rain falls for three years. So who is really the God of rain? Baal? Or God?
Then – he has one final showdown with these priests of Baal. He summons all the priests of Baal to Mount Carmel for a showdown, where God comes down in a raging fire and burns up all the water-soaked wood while Baal… well, Baal does nothing. After this, Elijah kills the priests of Baal and then the drought comes to an end…proving that God is actually the one in control.
Well, Queen Jezebel gets a little ticked off because those had been her priests. So, in retribution, she sends orders to have Elijah killed.
It’s the Sopranos, Biblical style.
When Elijah hears about the death threat – he flees out into the wilderness to hide. He may have just proven that God is the one that is control – but now that his life is being threatened he turns tail and runs. He runs to Mt. Horeb - way down on the tip of the Sinai Peninsula, which is about as far as you can get from anywhere.
Talk about your pastoral burn-out. He’s exhausted. He’s feeling sorry for himself. He lies down to die. “Just kill me!”
But God won’t let him. God keeps feeding him and prodding him along until Elijah finally finds a cave on Mount Horeb he can hide in and God asks him, for the second time, “what are you doing here?”
Elijah says: “I’ve been very zealous for the Lord, but the Israelites are no longer faithful – I alone am left. Just me. And now – they want to kill me, too. Really… what else are you going to throw at me God?”
Despondent, alone, and exhausted. Elijah’s done. He’s fought the good fight, he’s done everything that God has told him to do… and for what? To wind up on the run in the middle of the wilderness hiding out in a cave?
To say Elijah has hit a low point is an understatement.
Elijah’s gone to that “bad place” we sometimes all go, too. That place that is as far away as you can get from anywhere, trying to hole yourself up and not deal with the disappointments, stresses, and fears of the world that lie outside that cave. Elijah has abandoned his calling because he feels he’s fighting this battle for the Lord all by himself. That it all rests on him, and what’s the result? What’s his thanks?
He’s got a hit out on his life.
I think this is an especially poignant illustration when we think about “saints,” and those people who are doing God’s work in the world. To remember, even the most faithful of prophets and saints have those moments of emptiness and despair. To be a saint is to not always be overflowing with bounty and grace at every moment.
The story of Elijah shows us the realities of emptiness and isolation, of how even he can wind up at the wrong place.
Shows us the realities of how we humans react when things are NOT going the way we think they should be going. Yeah, there was a great triumph back on Mount Carmel – but well, what have you done for me lately, God? Jezebel’s coming back. The battle isn’t really over – it just keeps going and going… and Elijah says, “I can’t do it anymore.”
 |
| Mt. Horeb/Mt. Sinai |
Elijah is hiding in a cave in the mountain where God has always shown up in some pretty spectacular and terrifying ways.
So think about that as we look at this next part…
“Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces 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; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.”On this mountain – known for how God shows up in terrifying and awe-inspiring ways, on this mountain where God made a covenant with His people, on this mountain where the people of God experienced their ultimate mountain-top experience… we are told that is NOT how God shows up now, at this moment in time, for this beaten down prophet who is hiding in a cave afraid to face the world, who thinks there is no future for the people God made that covenant with.
Instead, God shows up in silence. In a still, small voice. Not in the dramatic ways we’ve grown accustomed to God showing up. Not the way he’s shown up in the past.
He shows up in an unexpected way – and he meets Elijah in the middle of his despair, where he’s removed from the threats of the world, in that place where God has met His people before.
And it is in that silence… Elijah is finally able to hear God’s word speaking to him.
Now let’s face it – this is not always where we want God to meet us.
We want God to meet us in the glory, the fire, the showdown – flexing his might and his power showing the world who’s boss. But the reality is - God doesn’t always meet us the same way every time. He’s not a God that’s interested in just entertainment value.
Rather, he’s a God that sustains, even when we’re at our low-points. It’s a God who meets us in our suffering… but doesn’t leave or abandon us in our suffering.
In that silence, in that still, small voice, God asks Elijah a question – you think this was about you? You think the future of God and the future of God’s people lies solely in your hands? You’re wrong Elijah.
God tells Elijah – there are still 7000 people that have not bowed down to Baal. There are 7000 other people out there who are still faithful to me. He tells Elijah in verse 18: “Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
You are NOT, in fact, alone.
God’s faithful people are not going to die with you and your ancestors.
God’s future is actually…not in your hands, but in God’s hands.
And that’s the part that can be difficult for us at times to acknowledge. It isn’t always about us. Not about our abilities or particular ministries that we think need to somehow succeed. It may sometimes seem like the world around us is crashing down, that Christianity is dwindling and dying – and what can we do? Are we fighting this battle alone?
God’s future is not wrapped up in all the saints and ancestors that came before us – but God is moving us forward in new directions that allow us to remember the saints of the past – but to move on from the saints of the past and look toward the saints of the future.
Elijah’s story reminds us that the future God has in mind is still ultimately in HIS hands. He calls us to persevere in the face of set-backs, in the face of difficulty, and in the face of seeming defeat. We may feel deflated and like our efforts are of no value – but God reminds us, just like he reminds Elijah – God still has a future. His people have a future. Which means WE have a future.
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