Elijah has just defeated the prophets of
Baal
in a God vs god competition. Yahweh, Israel’s God, completely humiliates the
foreign god Baal. Baal worship came into Israel when Israel’s King Ahab married
Jezebel, a cruel vicious princess from a nearby nation and made her his queen.
With the arrival of Jezebel came Baal’s prophets and worship. Jezebel has a
deep hatred for Israel’s God and is doing everything she can to make Yahweh
small and Baal big. But Yahweh is more powerful than she could ever imagine,
but that doesn’t stop her from threatening to kill Elijah and Elijah, knowing
Jezebel and the power of her anger, is afraid and he runs. Even though he’s
just seen Yahweh in action, Jezebel’s threat feels more real than Yahweh’s
power right now.
Elijah runs, he falls into a depression. Elijah’s fear now
is as deep as the high from his sense of joy and excitement for God was when he
defeated and killed the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. It feels as if life
has smacked him across the face to wake him up. It’s common after spiritual
highs to experience spiritual letdowns which is often deepened by fear and
doubt. I’ve seen and experienced this myself after mission trips or emotional
times where I’ve experienced God doing something really special. It’s not
uncommon that a few weeks afterwards that the pressure to keep your faith private
and not get so pushy about sharing our faith begins. On the mountaintop it
feels as if Jesus is everywhere, then you get home and the reality is that
there are so many who haven’t yet really accepted Jesus, and you can feel alone
and different.
The fall into sin is not just about doing
bad things, it’s
also about experiencing separation from God, the experience of being thrown out
of the Garden to Eden into a world where life has now become harder. This
creates emptiness, doubt and fear in people; barriers to experiencing the joy
and strength that comes from being close to Jesus. Jesus experiences this
separation from God on the cross for us, coming to a place where he cries out,
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus goes to the cross for the sin of the world so that we no longer need to
experience the feeling of aloneness from him anymore; giving us the gift of his
Spirit who makes our hearts his home now. Jesus invites you to accept the
presence and strength that comes from the Holy Spirit as we follow him. But the
reality is that many of us struggle with loss of hope, with feelings of not
measuring up, experiences of rejection and deep hurt and some of us have even
wondered, like Elijah if it’s worthwhile to carry on.
Elijah runs into the wilderness, a place the Jews
expect to meet God. Elijah is so depressed he sees no reason even to continue
on, he sees no future where God is powerful enough to draw Israel back to him.
God sends an angel to minister to Elijah twice and Elijah finds the strength to
continue on to Mount Horeb, formerly known as Mount Sinai where God met Israel
and spoke to Moses so many years earlier. This is God’s mountain, a place to go
to meet God, similar to what Jesus calls his church to be today, a place and a
people who allow Jesus to shine through them. God comes and asks Elijah, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Elijah answers God,
“I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty.
The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn 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’s cracks and nicks in his heart and
soul are
showing through. Elijah, even having accomplished amazing things for God, is
still a jar of clay and he’s being hard pressed now and the pressure is showing
through in his depression as he’s overwhelmed emotionally and spiritually. He’s
having a hard time seeing forward and so lashes out at God. God invites Elijah
to go out and stand on the mountain on the presence of
the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. On Mount Carmel, God sends
fire to consume the offerings on the altar in a spectacular way. It’s our
nature to expect God to show up in big ways, to save us in spectacular ways,
giving us a great faith story to share that will amaze everyone. God does
things his way; look at Jesus, he’s not the Saviour people were looking for.
“Then a great and powerful
wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an
earthquake, but the Lord was not
in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the
fire came a gentle whisper.” In the whisper comes the question, “What are
you doing here, Elijah?” It’s the same question asked gently and Elijah
gives the same answer, the cracks in his soul are large. I’m not sure what
Elijah is expecting here, but I’m sure he’s not expecting God to give him three
tasks that are going to lead to a new king in Israel and the downfall of
Jezebel and her reign of terror.
God reassures Elijah that he’s not alone, “Go to
the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also,
anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat
from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who
escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the
sword of Jehu. Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not
bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” God is going
to save his people. In anointing Elisha to succeed Elijah as prophet, God is
providing Elijah with someone to walk with him who can understand the pressure
of being called by God.
We’re not meant to walk alone, we are created for community so
that we can support, encourage and build each other up. One of the most
important things I’ve learnt in my own walk following Jesus is the importance
of having people who are close to you who understand what you’re going through
because they’ve know you. Our perception of what is going on may feel right but
it isn’t always so. Elijah feels he’s all alone, he feels that Jezebel is a
greater danger than God is able to handle and yet God already has plans in the
works to free his people and there are many more who follow God than Elijah
ever imagined. Elijah finds the hope and strength he needs in God’s tasks for
him.
Jesus comes into the world as a whisper, rejects Satan’s temptation to be
bold and noisy in establishing the kingdom of heaven here on earth. Jesus
creates community around himself as a source of strength and encouragement, and
while preparing for his death for our sin, he promises that he will not abandon
us or leave us alone but sends his Spirit to be with us always. Jesus
establishes the church, as fragile and cracked as it may be at times, to be a
place to find encouragement and strength, community, love and blessing,
especially through hard times of depression when life becomes overwhelming. Jesus
went to the cross for us so that we can be part of building a better, stronger,
healthier kingdom, a kingdom where Jesus is with his people always and we never
need feel alone or overwhelmed by life again.
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