A Time in the Life of Elijah for a Time in Our Lives

A TIME IN THE LIFE OF ELIJAH FOR A TIME IN OUR LIVES
Sermon by Judy Turner
I Kings 19:1-18

A man of God named Elijah lived 850 years before Christ. He lived and spoke for God in the land of Israel, a nation formed by God’s own hand, people who were called to live in such a way that all the nations and peoples of the world could know the true God and live in His ways. Yet, the people of Israel were not only worshipping Yahweh, the true God, but all sorts of other gods through which they wanted to insure their prosperity. It was a time in the life of the people of God, where it not only seemed economically advantageous to worship false gods, but it was politically correct. The King of Israel, Ahab, had married a foreign queen, Jezebel, and she set up altars to the baals and asherah all over the land of Israel. She kept hundreds of prophets of these false gods and goddesses at the palace, and she persecuted and killed those narrow-minded prophets of Yahweh who insisted there was only one true God who wants and deserves our full devotion and worship, exclusively. Elijah thinks he is about the only true prophet left, and he issues a challenge to Ahab, Jezebel, the false prophets, and all in Israel who are worshipping false gods. It’s the spiritual Superbowl on Mt. Carmel, between Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal, and you can read about it in I Kings 18. The false prophets prepare a sacrifice and call on their god to consume it. Nothing happens. Elijah prepares a sacrifice and calls on Yahweh. Fire falls from heaven and consumes the sacrifice. Although terribly outnumbered, Elijah demonstrates the truth that even one faithful person and the true God are an unbeatable force. The people of Israel, who have been wavering between two opinions, kind of worshipping Yahweh, but also worshipping the gods of their culture, have a sudden realization of truth and are impressed. “The Lord He is God! The Lord he is God!” they cry. Elijah, seizing the moment, tells the people to round up all those false prophets and kill them, which they did. (This is the Old Testament- Jesus has not yet come and initiated the New Covenant, the new way of living for the true God, which includes loving enemies.)

The 19th Chapter of I Kings starts with Jezebel getting the word from Ahab about everything Elijah did. She was not pleased! She sent a message to Elijah, which essentially said, “If you’re not dead by this time tomorrow, my name’s not Jezebel.” When Elijah gets the message, he is afraid and runs for his life into the desert. Now, wait a minute! This isn’t how I expect this courageous prophet to respond- to cave in when he gets a message from the queen. Where is the courage and boldness he showed only day before yesterday? Where is his strong faith and trust in God? Yet, when I think about it, in light of my own experience, maybe I do understand. Maybe he thought the battle was won and he would get a rest. But here is a new threat. He doesn’t think he has what it takes for one more battle- and here is the battle at his doorstep. This is the last straw, and he breaks. He is at the end of his rope, sick of the constant struggle, and ready to just give up. He runs away to the desert, sits down to rest under a tree, and prays to die. “I’ve had enough, Lord,” he says. Then he falls asleep.

Elijah is at the end of his rope. But guess who is there at the end of his rope? God! I Kings 19 is the story of how God responds to his tired, burned-out, fed-up, servant and friend. This is first of all a story about God- God’s nature and power and provision. Although we may want to give up on life or give up on God, God never gives up on us. God still has a purpose for Elijah’s life. It’s not all over from God’s perspective. He’s just getting started with Elijah. But Elijah is going to have to come to a deeper understanding of who God is and how God works. Elijah is going to need to learn some different ways of working with God. Elijah needs his spirit strengthened and renewed, and God knows just how to go about restoring and re-shaping his child. First, he lets Elijah rest. God cares for us when we are down. He understands our exhaustion, our pain, and our discouragement. But he cares too much to let us just lie there in self-pity and die. He provides what is needed to get on our feet again and start going in the right direction.

I Kings 19:5b-9
All at once an angel touched Elijah and said, “Get up and eat.” He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night.

God calls his stressed-out servant to go on a spiritual journey. This is not only a story about who God is in His power and love and gentleness. It’s also a story about our choices. There are some choices we have to make if we’re going to get to a new and better place spiritually and to fulfill our God-given purpose. Let’s look at Elijah’s choices. First, he has to “get up” and “fill up”. God provided the wake-up call with an angel touching Elijah. God even provided breakfast. But Elijah had to choose to get up and partake of the food. Have you noticed how two people can go through similar difficult circumstances but with an entirely different approach? Two women have the same kind of cancer and undergo the same treatment. One prays continually and asks others to pray. She expressed gratitude that there is hope with the treatment, gratitude for the medical professionals, gratitude for the support of the church family. The other expresses bitterness toward God for letting this happen, complains about the doctors, and says nobody cares about her. Possibly one is choosing to “get up and fill up” on the resources God is providing for the difficult journey of illness, and the other is not. God has not promised that our journey through life will be easy. What he has promised is His presence with us and His provision of everything we truly need to make the journey and arrive at the destination He has for us.

God wants Elijah to make a literal journey so God can work to renew and restore his spirit. Where does God invite Elijah to go? To Mt. Horeb, the mountain of God.
Now that mountain represented defining moments in the story of the people of God. That was where God made a covenant with the people He delivered from bondage in Egypt, where Moses went up to receive the 10 Commandments. It’s not surprising that God would call him to go there, but in order to keep headed toward his destination, Elijah must choose to "look up”. He chose to get up, fill up, now as he sets out, he must look up to keep heading in the right direction. The psalmist, beset with difficulties, said, “I will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence my help comes. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”

Looking up means we choose to focus on the presence and the promises of God, and not on the difficulties, and we continually ask for the grace to keep that focus. I once ordered a book on line titled, God’s Promises for Your Every Need. I got an e-mail from Amazon explaining that the order would not be shipped right away. In the subject line on the e-mail was “God’s Promises Delayed”. I had to laugh out loud when I saw that heading. “Isn’t that the way it often seems,” I thought. “God works in God’s time, and not ours.” Often we have to wait for God’s best time. One of the mysteries of God I have discovered in my life is the truth that “God is never late. God always arrives on time.” But it is only after the season of the difficulty is past, looking back, that I can see the rightness of God’s timing. Our job is to keep walking with God, keep moving in His direction, keep trusting. Elijah had to look up until he reached the mountain of God.

Once he had reached his destination, once he was there on the mountain, what happened?
Vs. 9b-13
There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken 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.”
The Lord said, “Go and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
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.

Elijah had to choose to “Listen up”. He had to pay attention, because God didn’t speak in the spectacular, the cataclysmic, but rather in “the still small voice”.
God is often like that in how He communicates. He doesn’t overwhelm us with razzle-dazzle. He won’t compete against all the racket and disturbance in our lives. He speaks in the still, small voice, and when we get quiet enough inside, we pick up on God’s communication. A very talkative young woman made a spiritual retreat at Christview. When she was invited to the spiritual discipline of silence, that felt hard for her. But at the end of two days of mostly silence she said, “I’ve never felt so close to God. I really felt like He was speaking right to me.”” But,” she added, “I never been still and quiet for that long before.” She went home and told her husband, “You wouldn’t believe how long I went without saying a word, and I think that gave God a chance to speak.” Her husband just smiled, and wisely, and didn’t say a word.

When Elijah listened up, what did God say? I summarize what God says in this way: “Elijah, you thought you were the only person left who is faithful to me in the whole land of Israel? Guess what? I have 7,000 faithful people. I want you to go back now and link up. I want you to annoint 2 kings and an assistant prophet who will succeed you. There is a new season to your ministry. No longer will you be doing single-handed combat with evil. Link up, link up with others, and especially train one who will continue my work after I take you home. Together you will do accomplish my purpose in your place and time.” If I were to put what God said to Elijah in two words, those words are Link Up.

Perhaps as you have been listening to this message so far, you have been able to make practical application to your individual life. Maybe you are beset with problems and struggles- in your family, with your finances, in your workplace, with your health. Maybe you are at the end of your rope, and I pray that God has already met you there and started speaking to you about how He will provide what is needed to walk faithfully and victoriously through your current difficulties.
One of the primary resources God provides is other Christians to walk with you, pray for you, support you, offer practical help. Receive the help. Ask for prayer. Link up. Don’t try to fight your battles in your own strength, but in the resources God provides, which includes the community of faith.

But Link Up speaks a word of challenge to us as a body together. We do not exist only or even primarily to take care of each other. We exist as a church to do the work of Jesus. We are His body, continuing His work in the world. We must link up around the mission of Jesus. What does that choice to link up involve?
1. Praying the same prayer. A critical step in linking up is all of us praying the same prayer: “God, unite us around carrying out your mission for us here in this time and place.” We tend to seek what we want rather than what God wants. We tend to be controlled more by our fears and by our personal desires and preferences than by faith. As long as we are each operating out of our fears of what will or won’t change in the church, we cannot unite. As long as we are set on our personal preferences being carried out, we cannot unite, because those preferences go in different directions. It must grieve the Lord to hear from different ones of us, “What can change in the church to make ME happier?” How it would delight the Lord to hear us pray for the direction and power to do the work of Jesus together!
2. Refusing to let our differences divide us. We are a miracle! We are from different places and backgrounds, different ways of life. But we are all here together, worshipping the same God. The reality we cannot see is what is most important- we are all in Christ. Each one of us who has committed his or her life to follow Christ is now In Christ. The spiritual reality of being “In Christ” is just as true as we are all in Berryville Arkansas. But while we can physically go somewhere else and no longer be in Berryville, we are forever together in Christ. So, it doesn’t ultimately matter if you are a Republican or a Democrat. If your heart beats in love for Jesus, then take my hand and we will serve the Lord together. It doesn’t ultimately matter if you live in Westridge or the trailer court. If your heart beats in love for Jesus, then take my hand and we will serve the Lord together. It doesn’t ultimately matter if you prefer tradition or spontaneity in worship. If your heart beats in love for Jesus, then take my hand and we serve the Lord together. It ultimately doesn’t matter if you have a Phd or not even a G.E.D. If your heart beats in love for Jesus, then take my hand and we will serve the Lord together. It doesn’t ultimately matter whether you are in your twilight years or you are a teenager. If your heart beats in love for Jesus, then take my hand and we will serve the Lord together. We will link up, and together we will make a difference, a God-difference in our time and place. Amen!