| 1 Kings 19 is one of the most remarkable | | | | From sinking sand He lifted me, |
| chapters in the Bible. For the depressed and lonely | | | | With tender hand He lifted me; |
| it is a necessary chapter, for it encourages a | | | | From shades of night to plains of light, |
| view of God as a Presence who loves in spite of | | | | O praise His name, He lifted me. |
| what we do and what we are. It is a display of | | | | (Hymn, He Lifted Me, Charles H. Gabriel, |
| God's power, as well, and is similar to the rebuke | | | | 1856-1932). |
| God gave to Job when Job questioned and | | | | "So he [Jesus] went to her, took her hand and |
| murmured (although given similar circumstances, | | | | helped her up" (Mark 1:31). He does no less for all |
| how well would we have endured?). God | | | | his helpless children. But Jesus came and touched |
| answered Job out of the whirlwind (Job 38:1) as | | | | them. 'Get up,' he said, 'Don't be afraid'" (Matthew |
| he sat on the dunghill with his friends, and He | | | | 17:7). "People were also bringing babies to Jesus to |
| answered Elijah in the still small voice on Mount | | | | have him touch them" (Luke 18:15). "For though a |
| Horeb, as Elijah peeked out from the cave in | | | | righteous man falls seven times, he rises again" |
| which he sought to hide from the world in which | | | | (Proverbs 24:16). Seven times; seventy times |
| he was so disappointed (1 Kings 19:12). | | | | seven times; whenever we fall! The secret is in |
| Even in discouragement God meets us where we | | | | getting up again. What a great comfort this verse |
| are, whether we have unwillingly and unwittingly | | | | is to the discouraged who grope for strength and |
| landed on the heap of the rubbish and wreckage | | | | find they do not even have the strength to |
| of life or we are hiding in a cave, away from | | | | gather strength. "Being confident of this, that he |
| what we perceive to be an inhumane humanity. | | | | who began a good work in you will carry it on to |
| He knows whether we need the whirlwind or the | | | | completion until the day of Christ Jesus" |
| soft breeze to get us back on His track. God | | | | (Philippians 1:6). "For it is God who works in you to |
| knows that we damage our compass of life now | | | | will and to act according to his good purpose" |
| and then with the heat of our passions and the | | | | (Philippians 2:14). The good man's fall is an event; |
| cold of our indifference. Our "sense of | | | | the bent of the good man's life is goodness. This |
| instrumentation" becomes faulty and we head in | | | | was so with Elijah. It was so with Peter, too. One |
| the direction of a living death. We need to regain | | | | look from our Lord and we weep bitterly over |
| the sense of "mission and submission." | | | | our fall from His grace and graciousness (Matthew |
| It is interesting that Elijah, Moses and Jonah all | | | | 26:75). |
| requested that they be allowed to die. Listen to | | | | "The eternal God is your refuge, (not a cave!), |
| Jonah: "Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is | | | | and underneath are the everlasting arms" |
| better for me to die than to live" (Jonah 4:3); | | | | (Deuteronomy 33:27). Underneath our sorrow are |
| Moses: "If this is how you [Lord] are going to | | | | arms that lift us to the shore of serenity. |
| treat me, put me to death right now" (Numbers | | | | "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" (Mark |
| 11:15); Elijah: "I have had enough, Lord, take my | | | | 4:38). He said to their storm as He says to our |
| life; I am no better than my ancestors" (1 Kings | | | | chaos, "Quiet! Be still!" (v.39). "Then the wind died |
| 19:4c). Job's troubles drove him to cursing the day | | | | and it was completely calm" (v.39b). "Come to |
| he was born: "May the day of my birth perish..." | | | | me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I |
| (Job 3:3a). His existence which was a joy before | | | | will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). |
| has now become his intolerable burden. It is good | | | | "I have made you and I will carry you" (Isaiah |
| for us to know that God's greatest heroes had | | | | 46:4). Because He created us, He will carry us! |
| their moments of despair--and that there are | | | | What a sublime thought this is to the |
| some prayers God does not answer the way we | | | | brokenhearted. "`For I know the plans I have for |
| would like. | | | | you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and |
| It is also good to know that one of God's great | | | | not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a |
| heroes, Paul, said, "It is more necessary for you | | | | future'" (Jeremiah 29:11). It isn't God's plan for us |
| that I remain in the body. Convinced of this...I will | | | | to be defeated and to run away. He will even |
| continue with all of you for your progress and joy | | | | carry us to the designated place He has for us, |
| in the faith..." (Philippians 1:24,25). Paul wanted | | | | but if we are running in the wrong direction, we |
| Paradise where the weary find rest, the sad find | | | | will run by ourselves. |
| joy, the lonely find kindred spirits, the fearful find | | | | "So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my |
| safe harbor, and the doubting Thomases and | | | | helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to |
| Thomasenas find assurance and reassurance. | | | | me?'" (Hebrews 13:6); "If God is for us, who can |
| But earthly claims checked Paul's desire, and | | | | be against us?" (Romans 8:31); "I will not die but |
| check ours, also. He wanted to dissolve but | | | | live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done" |
| instead resolved against his own wishes. Paul | | | | (Psalm 118:17). People are often in danger: Joseph |
| obviously had no fear of dying, but his eye and | | | | in the pit, Moses in the ark of bulrushes, Job on |
| heart were single to the glory of God and that | | | | the dunghill, David's narrow escapes from Saul, |
| meant staying in his earthly vessel for a while | | | | Paul who was let down in the basket, and Jesus |
| longer. In 2 Corinthians 4:16, Paul says, "Therefore | | | | who "hid himself, slipping away from the temple |
| we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are | | | | grounds" (John 8:59) for His time had not yet |
| wasting away, yet inwardly we are being | | | | come. "But they were furious and began to |
| renewed day by day." We are "treasures in jars | | | | discuss with one another what they might do to |
| of clay." | | | | Jesus" (Luke 6:11); "If the world hates you, keep |
| Paul also pleaded with God through earnest and | | | | in mind that it hated me first...But this is to fulfill |
| prolonged prayer that an irritation be removed | | | | what is written in their Law: 'They hated me |
| from his life. Paul did not take a fatalistic attitude | | | | without reason'" (John 15:18,25). They hated |
| about pain and suffering; he knew it was all right | | | | without reason, only with emotion that is |
| to ask God for its removal. "Three times I | | | | prejudiced. Jezebel hated Elijah because of |
| pleaded with the Lord to take [the thorn] away | | | | emotion, and Elijah ran away from this |
| from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is | | | | unreasonable woman. |
| sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect | | | | The extraordinary message of 1 Kings 19 is that |
| in weakness'" (2 Corinthians 12:8,9). So it is not | | | | it is God's ordinary way of caring for us. Lest we |
| wrong for us to plead with God to remove a | | | | think God is neglecting us, let us remember that |
| sorrow or an annoyance from our life. Indeed, as | | | | He gives provisions and not visions when we are |
| our Friend, He expects us to ask Him so that we | | | | in distress. He uses the common means, rest and |
| may receive. In the meantime, "I [Jesus] have | | | | food: "Then he [Elijah] lay down under the tree |
| prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And | | | | and fell asleep ("I will lie down and sleep in peace, |
| when you have turned back, strengthen your | | | | for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety" |
| brothers [and sisters]" (Luke 22:32). His grace is | | | | Psalm 4:8). "All at once an angel touched him and |
| His prayer for us. And there is a condition which | | | | said, 'Get up and eat'" (1 Kings 19:5). In the depths |
| Paul understood, as well: after we are | | | | of despair we are to rest and then, bidden by |
| strengthened, we then are to encourage and | | | | God Himself, we are to get up and to eat. He |
| inspire others: "Praise be to the God and Father of | | | | asks us to do our part. We must not let the |
| our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion | | | | seeming facts of what is happening in our life to |
| and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all | | | | eclipse our faith and obscure our vision of God |
| our troubles, so that we can comfort those in | | | | and so keep us from going to Him as He comes |
| any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have | | | | to us. |
| received from God" (2 Corinthians 1:3,4). | | | | "The angel of the Lord came back a second time |
| Jesus asked His Father to be spared the cup | | | | and touched him and said, 'Get up and eat, for |
| when He knelt in agony in the Garden. He had told | | | | the journey is too much for you'" (1 Kings 19:7). |
| his disciples, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow | | | | Not once but twice he is bidden to arise from his |
| to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch | | | | lethargy of body and spirit and eat for strength |
| with me" (Matthew 26:38). He wanted company in | | | | so he might continue on his journey. God does |
| His agony. He asks them later, "Could you...not | | | | not give up on us! "So [Elijah] got up and ate and |
| keep watch with me for one hour?" (v.40). What | | | | drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled..." (1 |
| a loving rebuke! Yes, Jesus, the Man of Sorrows, | | | | Kings 19:8). God prepared a table in the wilderness |
| was acquainted with grief. He even prayed, "My | | | | for His beloved Elijah who thought he had failed |
| Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken | | | | God. What a glorious lesson! Surely He prepares a |
| from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will" (v.39). | | | | table for us in our wilderness and provides for us |
| Jesus prayed to be spared death but He willingly | | | | a satisfying Bread of Life. We are to feed on Him |
| died. It appears that His prayer was not | | | | that we may have the strength to live in and for |
| answered and yet it was, for Jesus fulfilled His | | | | Him. |
| mission. God did not answer the prayers of | | | | "The spirit is willing, but the body is weak" (Mark |
| Moses, Elijah, Jonah or Job, for their missions | | | | 14:38b). Christ Jesus could say this to His beloved |
| were not yet fulfilled. All prayers were and are | | | | disciples who slept through His lonely hour because |
| answered because strength was and is given to | | | | He, too, knew rejection and sorrow and hunger |
| meet the trials; finally, God's will was and is done | | | | and weariness to the extreme degree. God |
| in all lives. What we wish does not determine | | | | understands that we are not willfully weak. On the |
| God's will, whether we wish the release of death | | | | one hand, we have sins of infirmity; on the other, |
| or the pleasures of life. It is God who determines | | | | we have infirmities that are not sins: fatigue, |
| the courses and discourses of our lives. | | | | natural consequences of growing older, hunger, |
| In our fears and griefs of life, and the seeming | | | | thirst, environment and heredity. This does not |
| unfairness of what others do, we run away just | | | | excuse us from overcoming, but it helps to know |
| as quickly as Elijah from Jezebel and Jonah from | | | | that God empathizes with us because "He took |
| Nineveh and Moses from Egypt. We, too, would | | | | up our infirmities and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah |
| like to shed the skin, the lien--the terrible | | | | 53:4). "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our |
| obligation--of our life. We, too, feel that we are no | | | | weakness. We do not know what we ought to |
| better than our predecessors; in fact, we may be | | | | pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us |
| making a huge mess of life. "But I said, 'I have | | | | with groans that words cannot express" (Romans |
| labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength | | | | 8:26). |
| in vain and for nothing...'" (Isaiah 49:4). When Keats | | | | It is after we are strengthened that He deals with |
| was dying, he said, "I have written my name on | | | | the immediate problem: "What are you doing here, |
| water." Later, Keats' name was written on marble. | | | | Elijah?" (1 Kings 19:9b); "But the Lord God called to |
| Christ Himself would be perceived as a total | | | | the man, 'Where are you?'" (Genesis 3:9); "Then |
| failure on earth--and Christ's name is written on | | | | the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is your brother |
| hearts and for eternity. | | | | Abel?'" (Genesis 4:9). God asks us, too, why are |
| The good news is that God is there in the | | | | we where we are and what are we doing with |
| whirlwind of tragedy and failure and He's in the still | | | | our lives. We are our brothers' and sisters' |
| small voice of conscience, too. He knows our | | | | keepers, and this means being responsible and |
| frame, that we are made of dust and fragile | | | | acting responsibly: both a willing and a doing. |
| hearts; He redeems our life and crowns us with | | | | Elijah ran away from his responsibilities. Adam and |
| His love and compassion. Praise the Lord, O my | | | | Eve ran away from responsibility for their actions. |
| soul! (Psalm 103). | | | | Elijah's circumstances did not add up to reasons to |
| Some have condemned Elijah for running away | | | | run away and neither do ours, much as we long |
| from Jezebel and for requesting that God take his | | | | to do so at times. "I can do everything through |
| life. But there is another side--certainly a more | | | | him who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13). |
| humane view--of what Elijah experienced. Elijah's | | | | Only God knows our quiet and pervasive influence |
| fire on Carmel became a more gentle breeze on | | | | in the lives of those with whom we endure, and |
| Mount Horeb and he learned treasured lessons | | | | that is what it is at times in our lives. If we are |
| there, alone and friendless (so he thought) that he | | | | not where God wants us to be, then God calls us |
| could not learn in the heat of the so-called victory | | | | by name and lets us know through that still, small |
| over the false prophets of Baal. Even Elijah had to | | | | and effective voice of conscience: silent because |
| learn that great lesson we all must learn: "Wait for | | | | no sound is audible ("He will not shout or cry out, |
| the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for | | | | or raise his voice in the streets" Isaiah 42:2); small |
| the Lord" (Psalm 27:14). | | | | because it is simple and not portentous; effective |
| Sometimes, like Elijah, we have to be put in a | | | | because it is God who speaks: it is the Divine |
| cave to get out of a "cave mood," as one author | | | | Whisper of Mind to mind. |
| calls it. "There he went into a cave and spent the | | | | "Why are you here and not at your post of |
| night" (1 Kings 19:9). Elijah was shut into his | | | | duty?" Why are we elsewhere? "Why do you go |
| littleness so he might understand the largeness | | | | about so much, changing your ways?" (Jeremiah |
| that God was about to show him. God was | | | | 2:36). God wants us to stay at the post of |
| processing Elijah for a greater work. "He [God] | | | | purpose and service. We may have to tie |
| brought me into a spacious place" (Psalm 18:19a). | | | | ourselves to it when the storm and earthquake |
| There is a dichotomy here with Elijah: he fled to | | | | come, but how good if we can say with Paul at |
| save his life and then asks that it be taken away. | | | | life's end, "I have fought the good fight, I have |
| We are all dichotomous leaves waving with the | | | | finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 |
| winds of what we perceive to be misfortune | | | | Timothy 4:7). If the post crushes our heart and |
| when it might be the breath of the Lord trying to | | | | we feel at times that someone has driven a |
| bring breadth to our life. It was so with Elijah as | | | | stake into it, then let us remember that God |
| he swayed with the strong squall of Jezebel's | | | | chooses not to work in the earthquake but in our |
| threats. Moses, too, struck for God's cause but | | | | heartbreak, and we may take heart--and His |
| not in God's way: "One day [Moses] watched [his | | | | heart--in this thought. |
| own people] at their hard labor. He saw an | | | | "The Lord said, 'Go out and stand on the |
| Egyptian beating a Hebrew...He killed the Egyptian..." | | | | mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the |
| (Exodus 2:11,12). God sent Moses into the desert | | | | Lord is about to pass by'" (1 Kings 19:11a). After |
| to prepare his heart and body and mind for the | | | | we are refreshed and have strength enough to |
| more spacious place of saving his people. There | | | | get up, then we must go up: ascend the mountain |
| are times when we have to be "caved in" to | | | | to holiness of thought. God cannot feed a mind |
| gather strength and to learn valuable lessons so | | | | that is supine. There is a meeting of minds on the |
| we may be worthy to do God's work within the | | | | mountain. This is where we hear the Divine |
| greater plan which He has for us. | | | | Whisper. The mountain is a spiritual retreat and |
| But what about the discouragement and physical | | | | this is where God sent Elijah and where He sends |
| exhaustion we experience as human beings? Does | | | | us. "Leave your cave of despondency, and come |
| God really understand how frail we are? Yes! | | | | up to Me so I can give you a new song and a |
| When we fail and fall, He lifts us to even greater | | | | new trust--and a new thrust!" He says, "Come up |
| heights of work for Him. "The Lord upholds all | | | | to Me that I may give you rest of mind...but you |
| those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed | | | | must have the will to meet My will. As long as |
| down" (Psalm 145:14). Our Lord's life on earth was | | | | you make no effort, then I cannot make it for |
| spent in putting down the lofty and lifting the | | | | you." |
| lowly. "But many who are first will be last, and | | | | How ironic that two men who requested death |
| many who are last will be first" (Matthew 19:30). | | | | did not die but were translated! How fortunate for |
| If we think we are last in fame and fortune, we | | | | us that God does not answer every prayer! We |
| need to remind ourselves that it is the meek who | | | | ask amiss. If we ask contrary to God's will and |
| God calls His children. And when we are bowed | | | | for our ease of responsibility, then He in wisdom |
| down with infirmities of mind and body, He | | | | does not grant our request. But He will answer |
| reaches down to raise us from a living death. | | | | according to what is finally best for us. |