Sunday, June 20th thoughts going in

1Kings 19:1 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them." 3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." 5 Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." 6 He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. 7 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." 8 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. 9 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?" 10 He replied, "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." 11 The LORD said, "Go out 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. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" 14 He replied, "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." 15 The LORD said to him, "Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus.

This passage from 1Kings 19 is fascinating, coming as it does, on the heals of one of the most exciting and dramatic stories of the whole Bible—the confrontation of the prophets of Baal/Ashtorah on top of Mt. Carmel in 1Kings 18.
A variety of thoughts come to mind in terms of how to characterize it all: “the thrill of victory, followed by the agony of defeat,” to name just one. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out Elijah’s problem in 1Kings 19. In the most awesome display of God’s mighty power since the days of Moses, Elijah’s water-drenched sacrifice is divinely obliterated. As I try to imagine the scene, all I can think of is the ark of the covenant scene in “Raiders of the lost Ark” where a tornado of fire comes down from heaven completely obliterating and ‘sucking up’ everything in its path (except Indy & Marion—“don’t look Marion!”). Then in zealous fervor, Elijah seizes the moment and commands the onlookers to grab the false prophets, and he puts them all to death.
The million dollar question as I see it, is what was Elijah EXPECTING to happen after that? The reason why this is THE QUESTION is because clearly in 1Kings 19, Elijah did not expect to be running for his life. I can only think of a couple of options. (1) Maybe Elijah was thinking that the display of power would be SO AWESOME that King Ahab (who was present that day) would come over clearly to the side of Yahweh and, at the very least, clip Jezebel’s wings of power/authority. Perhaps he even thought that hearing of the grand showdown would be enough to convert Jezebel herself. Failing either of these two possibilities, perhaps (2) Elijah thought that the people—now inspired by the mighty power of the one true God—may revolt in such a way so as to force either a change in the monarchy’s approach, or perhaps even bring an end to the House of Ahab’s rule. Option 2 seems more like something that would happen these days (popular uprisings), and hence less likely. Elijah felt that Ahab was FAR from the ideal as king of Israel, but king he was. For now I’m going with the first option—Elijah may fully have expected that the display atop Mt. Carmel witnessed by Ahab would be enough to “bring him around” as king.
Well, regardless, this did not happen. Ahab went back to his palace and merely “reported” what happened to Jezebel—who, still very much vested with power and authority, swore revenge against Elijah.
This is the 3rd of our three-week study of the prophet of Elijah, a study that I have entitled: “Elijah, prophet of trust.” In this week’s reading, however, we see that Elijah is, after all, only human. In his way he has been faithful to God. The way he puts it (repeatedly) is: "I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." AND “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.”
From these statements, we might paraphrase Elijah’s complaint in our terms as follows:

---I have had ENOUGH, Lord
---Serving you today is a lot harder, more work, less-rewarding than it was back in the good old days of my parents or grand-parents.
---I’m not going to try anymore, I’m just going to punch out.
---In the past, I used to be very “on fire” for God, but God…or being engaged in the work of Christ hasn’t done anything for me lately
---Supposedly “Christian” people have disappointed me, and/or acted in ways that have let me down.
---Nothing I’ve done has been properly appreciated by them
---I just don’t feel like trying anymore.

What follows is a passage of Scripture almost as famous as the grand scene atop Mt. Carmel: 11 The LORD said, "Go out 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. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
The point seems to be that while God COULD HAVE BEEN in any of those spectacular items—the powerful wind, the earthquake, and the fire—and indeed God HAD BEEN actively involved recently in something like that on Mt. Carmel, yet God doesn’t need the hugely spectacular in order to be present and involved. In this passage, he’s found in the “gentle whisper,” or what the KJV called the “still small voice.” The passage then ends with God essentially telling Elijah to get back to work.
My own application of this passage is that we very often DESIRE to see God working in our lives or through our lives in very spectacular ways—and when we don’t see this happening, we become discouraged. Perhaps it’s simply a matter of becoming discouraged about the fact that at this stage of our life of faith, the “newness” has worn off. This passage encourages us to believe that even when the newness wears off, even when there’s nothing outwardly spectacular happening, God is STILL IN THE GENTLE WHISPER of steady every-day faithfulness. Elijah, as a prophet of trust, needed to learn to trust God even when things don’t quite work out the way he thought they would.

Cheers,

TM