I'm sure you’ve seen quiz shows where they stop the action and ask ‘What happens next?’ Sometimes it’s helpful to do that with the Bible.
In 1 Kings 19 God’s people are ruled by evil King Ahab, ignore God and worship idols. God has disciplined them by withholding rain for 3 years so they turn back to him. But Ahab and the people have refused. So God through Elijah calls for a show down on Mount Carmel. In one corner is Elijah representing Yahweh. In the other; 450 prophets of Baal. Each builds an altar, puts wood and an offering on it but mustn’t light it. They’re to pray to their God and the one who sends fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice is the real God.
The priests of Baal go first, they pray, plead, shout, cut themselves, and dance from morning till evening but nothing happens. Why? Because Baal isn’t God. Then it’s Elijah’s turn, he rebuilds God’s altar, sets up the wood, cuts up the bull, then has 12 large jars of water poured over it all. Then he prays to God. And fire falls on the offering burning up the sacrifice, wood, stones, soil, and water. Israel fall down and say “The LORD, he is God!” and put the prophets of Baal to death, then Elijah prays and for the first time in 3 years there’s rain.
What happens next? You’d expect everything to change wouldn’t you? Ahab and Israel will turn back to God and Elijah and Ahab lead God’s people to live enjoying his rule.
But that’s not what happens. Ch19 focuses on Elijah. In a one on one with God we see God’s love and plans for his people and in dealing with his servants when we’re discouraged.
Be Passionate about God and his People
A survey of pastors asked; ‘what the best thing about their job was?’ The results were put into a top ten. What do you think was number 1? Seeing people change. My hunch is that’s why you do what you do; we love to see people trust Jesus, we love seeing people go on and grow as they’re changed by the gospel. It’s thrilling.
That was Elijah’s big hope and what he expected as he left Mount Carmel. Israel will change, things will be different. It’s what he’s been longing for, preaching for, praying for. His name means ‘Yahweh is God’ and that’s what Israel have just declared. Surely now everything will change, God is going to be glorified as Israel live serving and praising him.
But look at(1-2). Ahab tells Jezebel everything that happened, but she isn’t repentant, she doesn’t weigh the evidence and think wow Baal isn’t God and Yahweh is I better change. No, she ignores the evidence and sets out to kill Elijah. And that’s not a one off in the Bible, some people just won’t accept that God is God. And will do anything to crush those who say he is. Just think of North Korea or part of India right now where Christians are being killed for exactly that reason. We mustn’t be surprised when some people just won’t accept or even look at the evidence but react to it with aggression.
(3)Elijah sees what’s happening and runs away to Beersheeba, and then goes a further day’s journey into the desert. There he sits under a broom tree and prays “I have had enough, LORD... Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” That ought to shock us! God’s prophets aren’t meant to pray like this, I’m done, I’m finished, Lord kill me now. What’s going on?
Elijah isn’t despairing because Jezebel wants to kill him, he’s not afraid of dying or why would he ask God to kill him? Elijah’s in despair because Israel haven’t turned back to God. After Carmel Israel should’ve turned back to God, Baal should be finished, God’s people should be God’s people, revival should have broken out. But, Jezebel has just ignored it and Ahab and therefore Israel are just going to be led back into idolatry. ‘God, my ministry is a failure, just like every other judge, leader and prophet of your people, nothing changes, take away my life.’
Don’t read this through the filter of psychology, some people do, looking for signs of depression and diagnosing Elijah with all sorts of disorders. He doesn’t have our self-esteem hang ups. His name is his mission, and he’s devastated because even when it’s blindingly obvious to everyone that Yahweh is God Israel aren’t going to change. He thought Carmel was the key turning point but it was just a temporary high, nothing and no-one has changed.
Elijah is passionate for God’s glory and for his people, that’s what we’re meant to see, and he feels like his whole ministry is a failure. If they didn’t change at Carmel when will they?
We need not just to see Elijah’s passion for God and his people but to share it, the danger is discouragment saps that passion.
Have you ever felt like this? You share the gospel with a friend and they begin to respond, to see Jesus, to recognise their sin and they can’t make themselves right with God. They’re amazed at Jesus love in dying for them. But then something or someone holds them back from trusting him.
Or you’re studying the bible with someone and they are grasping it, it’s exciting watching them grow and change. Then suddenly the shutters come down and they make excuses as to why they can’t meet, and grow cold.
Or someone in leadership begins to drift; they close up, get into an unhelpful relationship, become distant, then irregular, then just disappear.
Or maybe it’s a low after a high. The term looked so good and promising; there is growth, people are engaging, unbelievers hearing the gospel, but then comes your Jezebel moment – your opposition that threatens to derail everything, and it can come from an unusual source can’t it. It can be a church or a leader or a Christian organisation, or even internal.
In each case we find our hearts breaking, we find ourselves discouraged, and yes sometimes we can find ourselves like Elijah saying ‘that’s it Lord I’m done, that’s enough.’ We don’t go as far as take my life. In fact we often don’t verbalise it at all, we just withdraw from sharing the gospel with people, from discipling, from relationships. Every disappointment, every person that drifts, every contentious issue seems to take a scalpel to our heart and cut it open a little more and the danger is we wall off our hearts so we don’t get hurt, don’t feel the disappointment.
The danger is a slow bleed of gospel joy from our lives. We’ve got a small leak in our central heating system. It’s nothing major, you just lose a little bit of pressure every day. It’s barely even noticeable. But if you leave it then the system will break, there will be nothing to pump round to keep the system going. Disappointment and discouragement is like that small leak.
We need to realise this if we’re to be sustained in gospel ministry: God doesn’t rebuke Elijah for his discouragement, rather as we’ll see God lovingly, graciously ministers to him in it.
Have you ever felt like this? You share the gospel with a friend and they begin to respond, to see Jesus, to recognise their sin and they can’t make themselves right with God. They’re amazed at Jesus love in dying for them. But then something or someone holds them back from trusting him.
Or you’re studying the bible with someone and they are grasping it, it’s exciting watching them grow and change. Then suddenly the shutters come down and they make excuses as to why they can’t meet, and grow cold.
Or someone in leadership begins to drift; they close up, get into an unhelpful relationship, become distant, then irregular, then just disappear.
Or maybe it’s a low after a high. The term looked so good and promising; there is growth, people are engaging, unbelievers hearing the gospel, but then comes your Jezebel moment – your opposition that threatens to derail everything, and it can come from an unusual source can’t it. It can be a church or a leader or a Christian organisation, or even internal.
In each case we find our hearts breaking, we find ourselves discouraged, and yes sometimes we can find ourselves like Elijah saying ‘that’s it Lord I’m done, that’s enough.’ We don’t go as far as take my life. In fact we often don’t verbalise it at all, we just withdraw from sharing the gospel with people, from discipling, from relationships. Every disappointment, every person that drifts, every contentious issue seems to take a scalpel to our heart and cut it open a little more and the danger is we wall off our hearts so we don’t get hurt, don’t feel the disappointment.
The danger is a slow bleed of gospel joy from our lives. We’ve got a small leak in our central heating system. It’s nothing major, you just lose a little bit of pressure every day. It’s barely even noticeable. But if you leave it then the system will break, there will be nothing to pump round to keep the system going. Disappointment and discouragement is like that small leak.
We need to realise this if we’re to be sustained in gospel ministry: God doesn’t rebuke Elijah for his discouragement, rather as we’ll see God lovingly, graciously ministers to him in it.
But before we get to that can I ask; do we share Elijah’s passion for God’s glory and his people? And have discouragement and disappointment begun to do their deadly work of hardening you one slow leak of joy at a time?
Trust God and his plans
(5-8)God doesn’t tell Elijah off for running away, twice God provides food and allows him to sleep. It’s vital we get this; God is concerned with Elijah’s physical needs. God doesn’t want Elijah burning the candle at both ends to try to right the situation! He mustn't develop a 'Mini-Messiah complex'. God provides physical rest and refreshment. Notice the food is described in detail, why? Because the angel prepares the same food(6) the widow prepared when Elijah was on the run from Ahab and Jezebel before. God provides and has a track record of protecting Elijah. God’s previous faithfulness and protection is supposed to provide a positive feedback loop to fuel Elijah’s bold ministry. And (7-9)the Angel feeds Elijah enough for a journey to Mount Horeb, God provides for his physical needs and leads him to where he’ll teach him about his plans and purposes.
What did you dream serving God where you are would look like? For some of us where we are doesn’t look like we imagined. We rarely dream of serving God in the ordinary and the mundane, or in the small and slow to change, or in the difficult and the opposed. We long for significance, we don’t dream of the slow, the hard and the steady.
But God teaches Elijah to trust him and his plans even if they don’t look like he imagined.
Elijah is led to Mount Horeb, or Sinai, as it’s sometimes called, his journey of 40 days and nights mirrors Israel’s journey to the Mountain where the covenant was made. His experience there also mirrors Moses seeing God pass by. It’s a deliberate leading by God to the Mountain of the LORD. And when Elijah gets there God asks (9) “What are you doing here, Elijah?” It seems an odd question, some argue it’s a rebuke, but it can’t be if God has led him there can it. It’s not a rebuke it’s an invitation; ‘Elijah share with me your disappointment and despair.’ Isn’t that encouraging, the Almighty God of the universe who knows asks Elijah to share what is on his heart, he doesn’t want any less from us. That is gracious loving care.
And Elijah does, he pours out his heart about how Israel have broken the covenant on the Mountain where the covenant was made, and how his ministry is a failure. His words(10) are primarily about God’s glory and Israel’s breaking of the covenant – they’ve torn down God’s altar, put God’s prophets to death, and rejected God’s covenant. And we hear the pain and despair Elijah feels in each charge.
And God listens. God doesn’t tell him to ‘Man-up!’ God graciously, tenderly and lovingly teaches and encourages him to see God’s plan. God appears not in the hurricane force winds, or the earthquake or the fire. But in the gentle whisper.
And God invites him to repeat his charge against Israel again. And just as God was in the gentle whisper, the quiet word, so God reassures Elijah that he is at work through his word, and that change will come as he keeps his word(15-19). It won’t be the spectacular that sees Israel judged for breaking the covenant, it won’t be the spectacular that leads the people to repent. But as God’s word works in ordinary ways. God tells Elijah to appoint Hazael, Jehu and Elisha who will act in judgement. And promises that there will be a faithful remnant who follow him.
Israel may not have turned at Carmel but God isn’t done with them yet. Elijah be encouraged and trust me.
But I want you to notice something else too Elijah is told to go back to where ministry is hard and keep going, to be link in the chain in God’s gospel project to the world he has called him to be. The revival he longs for won’t come through his ministry but through Elisha’s – whose name means God saves. Elijah is to prepare the way for those who will lead Israel back to God.
Don’t despair, don’t think you care more about God’s glory than he does. Don’t think you know what your role in God’s kingdom looks like better than he does. God has put you where he has put you to serve him. Don’t mortgage the present by longing for something more significant in your eyes, be the link in the gospel chain God has called you to be.
Where you are may not be as you imagined it but God has put you there to serve his kingdom and is working his purposes out. It may not look glorious and significant as you dreamed it would. And the temptation is to despair in the unspectacular, slow, steady, and opposed or maybe even to think of going somewhere else. You long for God’s glory and salvation to be known and realised but it doesn’t seem to be. God knows your longing for what he longs for, but he is working.
Elijah lived his whole life longing to see God bring salvation, to see his glory, he never did in his lifetime, the temporary high on Carmel was as good as it got. But years later at the transfiguration he saw Jesus – the word made flesh, the Saviour of the world who would bring millions from every nation back to him, he sees the importance of his link in the chain. And the wonder of God’s salvation plan through the ages. God will fulfil every longing one day, we will see his glory, we will see the significance of our ministry, our link in the chain, in hard places for his glory and it will all seem worth it.
But as we labour, God provides, he doesn’t want us to burn out but to take time to be refreshed, he wants us to trust in what he is doing, to serve trusting, to serve reliant, and to come and speak to him about how we feel. Be it that we are at the top of Mount Carmel, or feel like we’re running from or facing down a Jezebel.
