We find four personalities involved in this sad segment of Elijah’s life: Ahab, Jezebel, Elijah, and God.

   First, we have Ahab, the king, who was dominated by his wife, Jezebel.

Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had

killed all the prophets with the sword.

                                                                                                1 Kings 19:1

   Ahab fell apart under pressure. When that happened, he relied on his wife to get him through and to give him the strength that he needed to survive. Ahab’s insecurity would have been unhealthy enough if Jezebel had been a good woman, but she was anything but that. Ahab also leaned on his wife to carry out his responsibilities as a monarch. Theirs was more a needy child/mother relationship than a mature husband/wife relationship.

   And when Ahab turned to Jezebel, she loved it. In fact, she took over.

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.”

                                                                                                            1 Kings 19:2

Jezebel fits to a T the image of a domineering wife. First, she quickly took matters into her own hands. Second, she did her husband’s job her own way. Third, she turned to intimidation and schemes when she saw her weak-willed husband crumbling under pressure.

   We see the latter in the threatening message Jezebel sent 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.” That’s classic intimidation. In effects, Jezebel was saying to Elijah, “By this time tomorrow I’m going to have you killed.”

   But look at the one she is threatening. This is Elijah, man of heroism - the prophet of  God who has been to Cherith, the man of God who has been to Zarephath, the hero of faith who has faced down the prophets of Baal and called down fire from heaven. This is Elijah, man of humility, who trusted when God gave a promise, who prayed when he needed God to give strength. Surely, this man would never fall for that wicked woman’s scheme of intimidation. Or would he? Well, in this case, he did.

   He’s a man, he’s human, just like us, remember. Since this is true, we shouldn’t be shocked to read that…

He was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba,

which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

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.”

                                                                                                           1 Kings 19:3-4

Elijah couldn’t have run farther. Beersheba was the southern limit of the land. And once there, he bored deeply into the wilderness another full day’s walk until he stumbled and fell in exhaustion under a tree.

   Now, the question is, why? Why did Elijah fear Jezebel’s intimidating threats? Why did he run away from his longstanding priority of serving God and hide in fear under the shadow of that solitary tree, deep in the wilderness?

    First, Elijah was not thinking realistically or clearly.

    Elijah was so shortsighted that he failed to consider the source of his threat. Think about it. The threat hadn’t come from God; it had come from an unbelieving, carnal human being who lived her godless life light years from the things of God. If Elijah had been thinking clearly and realistically, he would have realized this. His good judgment, as well as his faith, would have provided this kind of self-talk: “Hey, God is in control here, not Jezebel. Don’t give a second thought to her threats. Trust God as you’ve done for years.”

   When a mule kicks you, don’t let it bother you. Just consider the source.” When you are kicked by a carnal person, just consider the source. Elijah could have and should have, but he didn’t. He wasn’t thinking clearly and realistically.

   Instead of praying, “Lord, I’m feeling myself drawn into this fearful thing; I ask You for strength right now,” he caved in and ran for cover.

    Second, Elijah separated himself from strengthening relationships.

    The Scripture says he “left his servant,” and “he himself” went alone “a day’s journey into the wilderness.”

    Discouraged people are lonely people. A juniper tree deep in the wilderness has room for only one underneath it. Beneath the barren branches of discouragement and loneliness there is little shade.

   Elijah should have stayed with a trusted friend or comrade who could have pumped encouragement, strength, and objectivity into him. That is one of the best things he could have done. That courage transfusion would have kept him strong. But it’s interesting how human nature works. When we get discouraged, the first thing we tend to do is to get alone. And that’s often the worst thing we can do.

   Third, Elijah was caught in the backwash of a great victory.

   Our most vulnerable moments usually come after a great victory, especially if that victory is a mountaintop experience with God. Those are the times when we need to set up a defense against the enemy.

   I’m not a rock climber, nor do I enjoy heights. But I find those who are, fascinating to watch. I’ve had several of them tell me that climbing to the peak is often a grueling, exhausting experience, but the anticipation connected with  reaching the top gives you incredible determination and heightens your motivation. And once you’ve arrived, words cannot describe the elation. But then comes the greatest challenge: descending the slope. You tend to be a little deflated emotionally, vulnerable to risks, and even a bit careless in unguarded moments.

   All this provides an analogy worth remembering in the spiritual realm, which I’m convinced partly explains Elijah’s vulnerability. The big battle on Carmel was past. The great victory was only a memory. His energy and emotions had peaked and begun to slide. Had he set in motion a plan to meet any counter-assault (surely he knew that the wholesale slaughter of all those prophets and priests would incite the rage of Ahab and Jezebel), Elijah would have been ready for anything. But since he didn’t do that, he was vulnerable and he got caught in the backwash.

   Fourth, Elijah was physically exhausted and emotionally spent.

   For years Elijah had lived on the edge. He was a wanted and hunted man, considered by the king to be Public Enemy Number One. Furthermore, for many of those years he had been roughing it in the wilderness, close to starvation. On the heels of that, he’d had an unbelievable confrontation with the people of Israel, the priests of Asherah, and the prophets of Baal. There is little doubt that Elijah had come to the end of his rope physically and, for sure, emotionally – all of which couldn’t help but weaken him spiritually.

   There is an old Greek saying: “You will break the bow if you keep it always bent.” In other words, if you’re living under constant, relentless stress, you’ll finally break under the pressure. You have to give yourself some time for rest and refreshment.

   For years I’ve seen evidence of this in my own life and the lives of others. You shouldn’t be surprised to discover that pastors tend to get discouraged on Mondays. All week long they are building toward Sunday; it is usually the high point of their week. They have studied and prayed and prepared our sermons. They have counseled and dealt with the needs of our congregation. Sunday comes and it’s like an emotional climax where everything comes together. It is wonderful (well, usually). Then comes Monday, the down slope of the spiritual mountain, when they are weary and vulnerable to discouragement. (Especially since Monday is also the day when people tend to call about all the things they didn’t like on Sunday. Why do you think they usually take Mondays off?)

  There is some encouragement in knowing that our battle with the blues is not just a present–day malady. Despite our struggles with the problems of discouragement… sometimes even depression.

[The times most favorable to fits of depression, so far as I have experienced, may be summed up in a brief catalogue. First among them I must mention the hour of great success.

When at last a long-cherished desire is fulfilled, when God has been glorified greatly by our means, and a great triumph achieved, then we are apt to faint. It might be imagined that amid special favors our soul would soar to heights of ecstasy, and rejoice with joy unspeakable, but it is generally the reverse. The Lord seldom exposes His warriors to the perils of exultation over victory; he knows that few of them can endure such a test, and therefore dashes their cup with bitterness…

Excess of joy or excitement must be paid for by subsequent depressions. While the trial lasts, the strength is equal to the emergency; but when it is over, natural weakness claims the right to show itself…

Before any great achievement, some measure of the same depression is very usual. Surveying the difficulties before us, our hearts sink within us… Such was my experience when I first became successful. My success appalled me; and the thought of the career which it seemed to open up, so far from elating me, cast me into the lowest depth, out of which I uttered my miserere and found no room for a Gloria in Excelsis. Who was I that I should continue to lead so great a multitude? I would betake me to my village obscurity, and go from the country America that I emigrated to and find a solitary nest in the backwoods, where I might be sufficient for the things which would be demanded of me. It was just then that the curtain was rising upon my life’s–work, and I dreaded what it might reveal…

Let no man who looks for ease of mind and seeks the quietude of life enter the ministry of Almighty God; if he does so he will flee from it in disgust.]

I don’t know if Elijah was disgusted, but I can tell you he was exhausted. You can hear it in his words: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my father.”

Fifth, Elijah got lost in self–pity.

  Self–pity is a pathetic emotion. It will lie to you.  It will exaggerate. It will drive you to tears. It will cultivate a “victim mentality” in your head. And, in the worst – case scenario, it can bring you to the point of wishing to die, which is exactly where Elijah was.

  He said, “For I am not better than my father.”

  Who ever said he had to be? Nobody told him that he had to be better than his fathers. He told himself that!

  We open the door for that pathetic liar, self–pity, when we establish an unrealistic standard and then can’t live up to it. Self–pity mauls its way inside our minds like a beast and claws us to shreds.

  Let’s allow God to set our standard. He is always loving, always affirming, always accepting, and always faithful to uphold us.

  And it was the faithful Jehovah God who now stepped on the scene after Ahab, Jezebel, and Elijah had played their parts in the unfolding drama.

And he lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was

an Angel touching him, and he said to him, “Arise, eat.”

 

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.

 

And 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.”

 

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.

                                                                                                            1 Kings 19:5-8 

God met his servant, Elijah, in his desperate moment of discouragement and despair. This is mercy at its best, beautifully portrayed by the Master Himself.

   First, God allowed Elijah a time of rest and refreshment. No sermon. No rebuke. No blame. No shame. No lightning bolt from heaven, saying, “Look at you! Get up, you worthless ingrate! Get on your feet! Quickly, back on the job!”

Instead, God said, “Take it easy, my son. Relax. You haven’t had a good meal in a long time.” Then He catered a meal of freshly baked bread and cool, refreshing water. That must have brought back sweet memories of those simple days by the brook at Cherith. How gracious of God!

  Exhaustion can make you turn emotional cartwheels. Fatigue can lead to all sorts of strange imaginations. It’ll make you believe a lie. Elijah was believing a lie, partly because he was exhausted. So God gave him rest and refreshment, and afterward Elijah went on forty days and nights in the strength of it.

Second, God communicated wisely with Elijah.

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?”

                                                                                                            1Kings 19:9 

God didn’t come to Elijah and say, “You ought to be ashamed of yourself, young man.” He didn’t say, “Snap out of it, son. You shouldn’t feel like this.”

  Instead, God asked a question – a simple question of clarification: What are you doing here, Elijah?”

 And Elijah came back with his self–pitying whine.

 

And he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of

hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, torn down

Thine altars and killed Thy prophets with the sword. And I alone am

left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”

                                                                                                                        1 Kings 19:10

Elijah was believing the big lie: “I’m all alone here. I’m the only voice left for God. And they’re trying to kill me!”

   But God graciously listened to him. God didn’t say, “That’s dumb, Elijah. How stupid can you get?” God did not rebuke his despondent prophet.

   Instead, God said, “Elijah! Get up and walk out of this cave. Man, it’s dark in here. Go out there and stand in the light. Stand on the mountain before Me. That’s the place to be encouraged. Forget Jezebel. I want you to get your eyes on Me, Elijah. Come on, I’m here for you. l always will be.”

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 mountain 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.

And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire;…

                                                                                           1 Kings 19:11-12a 

Wind… earthquake… fire!  One right after another! And there stands Elijah in the midst of them, his stained old mantle wrapped around him, waiting before God. But God was not in any of those mighty upheavals.

Then, just as you might expect from the God of all mercy;

…After the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.

And it came about when Elijah heard it, that 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?”

                                                                                              1 Kings 19:12b-13 

God’s presence was not in wind or earthquake or fire. His voice came in the gentle breeze. Those sweet zephyrs were like windswept, invisible magnets, drawing Elijah out of the cave.

   Do you see what God did? He drew Elijah out of the cave of self–pity and discouragement and depression. And once Elijah was out of that cave, God asked him again, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

   Once more Elijah came back with that same self–pity explanation. But this time God gave His prophet some clarification on how matters really stood.

And 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; 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.

“And it shall come about, the one who escapes from the sword of

Hezael, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escapes from the

sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death.

“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.”

                                                                                               1 Kings 19:15-18

God showed Elijah that he still had a job to do – that there was still a place for him. Disillusioned and exhausted though he was, he was still God’s man and God’s choice for “such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). And, as far as this I’m–all–alone stuff went… “Well, Elijah, let Me set the record straight,” said God. “There are seven thousand faithful out there who have not bowed to Baal. You’re really not alone. At any given moment, with the snap of My divine fingers, I can bring to the forefront a whole fresh battalion of My troops.” What reassurance that brought.

   Third, God gave Elijah a close, personal friend.

   I love the end of this chapter!

So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, while

he was plowing with twelve pairs of oxen before him, and he with the

twelfth. And Elijah passed over to him and threw his mantle on him.

And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Please let me

kiss my father and my mother, then I will follow you.” And he said to

him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?”

So he returned from following him, and took the pair of oxen and

sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the implements of the oxen,

and gave it to the people and they ate. Then he arose and followed

Elijah and ministered to him.

                                                                                      1 Kings 19:19-21

Thanks to God’s kind and gentle dealing, Elijah crawled out of the cave. “He departed from there.” God graciously nurtured him through rest and refreshment, gave him some wise counsel, and made him feel significant again in His plan. Talk about compassion!

  Then God allowed Elijah to pass his mantle to Elisha, his successor. But God did more than that, abundantly more, “for Elisha “arose and followed Elijah and ministered to him.” God not only gave Elijah a successor; His also raised up a close, personal friend – someone who loved Elijah and understood him well enough to minister to him and encourage him.

   God has not designed us to live like hermits in a cave. He has designed us to live in friendship and fellowship and community with others. That’s why the church, the body of Christ, is so very important for it is there that we are drawn together in love and mutual encouragement. We’re meant to be a part of one another’s lives. Otherwise, we pull back, focusing on ourselves – thinking how hard we have it or how unfair others are.

   Elijah had to get his eyes back on the Lord. That was absolutely essential. He had been used mightily, but it was the Lord who made him mighty. He stood strong against the enemy, but it was the Lord who had given him the strength.

    Often we are more enamored with the gifts God gives us than with the Giver himself. When the Lord brings rest and refreshment, we become more grateful for the rest and refreshment than for the God who allows it. When God gives us a good friend, we become absorbed in that friendship and so preoccupied with the friend that we forget it was our gracious God who gave us the friend. We so easily focus on the wrong things.

   God gives us a verse of Scripture, and we worship the Bible rather than the One who gave it. He gives us a loving wife or husband or friend, and we fall more in love with the person than the One who gave us that important individual. He gives us a good job, and we love the job more than we love Him. And all the while He stands at the window and says, “Look up here. I gave that to you.” He longs to have us look up and say, “Oh, thank You, Father! I miss You. I want to be with you.”

FATHER AND SON