But You, O Lord, be kind to me so others will know You are good. Because Your love is good, save me. I am poor and helpless and very sad. I am dying like an evening shadow. I am shaken off like a locust. My knees are weak from hunger, and I have grown thin. My enemies insult me. They look at me and shake their heads. (Verses 21-25)
Understand this: If the enemy is trying to fight you, he's also trying to fight your God. So stand firm. You are not alone in this. Pastor T. D. Jakes
Elijah had just seen the Almighty God reveal Himself in fire, consuming not only the sacrifice before Him, but the wood, stones and dust as well as "licking up the water that was in the trench." The prophets of Baal tried for hours to persuade their gods to show themselves. To no avail. But Elijah's God answered immediately when Elijah prayed: "Let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant!" Whoosh! The absolute obliteration of the water-soaked altar and all that was around it. Drought was the issue. No rain for years. And nothing in that moment still but clear blue skies. Elijah declared to King Ahab that there would be rain soon, then the prophet took his servant to the top of Mount Carmel where he bowed down with his face between his knees and prayed for rain. To his servant he said, "Go look out toward the sea and tell me what is there." Nothing. Seven times Elijah repeated this. Finally, "There is a little cloud the size of a man's hand rising from the sea, sir." And the sky grew black with clouds and wind and a deluge followed. God was faithful to do what He said. Elijah, a mighty man of faith. So why did he find himself running scared into the desert?
Mad that her prophets of Baal were slaughtered on Mount Carmel, Queen Jezebel swore to kill Elijah. He was afraid of her and ran. Even after what he'd just seen God do. Surely Elijah was weary, emotionally drained and just not up for one more battle. A day's journey out into the wilderness, he sat down under a big tree and prayed to die. "I've had enough, Lord. Just kill me." Then he fell asleep. An angel fed him. And he slept some more. When he awoke, the angel was there with more food and the message, "Get up and eat because you have a long journey." Yeah. Forty days and forty nights to Mount Horeb where God wanted a tete a tete. A hard journey. Almost too great for him.
"What are you doing here, Elijah?" God's question to the wiry prophet holed up in a mountain top cave.
"I'm so sick of the people who crush Your altars and kill the prophets! They've forsaken You and I'm the only one left...the only prophet in Israel, and now they are going to kill me, too!"
"Go out and stand on the mountain before Me," said the Lord. A terrifying wind tore the mountain and broke the rocks around Elijah. But God wasn't in it. After that the mountain began shaking violently, the ground beneath the prophets feet shifting and perilous. But God wasn't in that, either. Fire erupted, shooting flames very near Elijah on the broken rocks. But God wasn't there, either. It was the sound of a low whisper that finally caused the prophet to cover his face in terror and stand trembling at the entrance of his hiding place. "What are you doing here, Elijah?" The low-toned whisper of His God.
Again the whining response. I think as I write that surely I wouldn't be giving God the same answer to a question He asks me the second time. I'd have understood the massive display of His power, not only on Mount Horeb, but also on Mount Carmel. And angels feeding, me! I mean, really! But Elijah knew his God. Answered once more, "I'm all alone here."
God didn't address the whining. If Elijah didn't know what he was doing in the cave, God did. Instead of saying, "You poor thing. So sorry I put you into such a harrowing position," He said, "You're not done." And God told Elijah what to do next. Including giving Elisha to him as an apprentice. The prophet who would take his place. "And, by the way, Elijah," continued the Lord. "There are seven thousand people in Israel who haven't bowed down to Baal or kissed his statue."
I have been crushed by life. Many of us have. Skinny from the warfare. Barely able to stand. Once confident and lively, I have also felt that I was thrown off in shame as if I were a grasshopper whose legs had attached irritatingly to someone's blouse. Heartbroken, poor and needy. Emptied of former joy. Seeing life as a shadow, vacuous and thin. And I ran, too. Whining my misery. Self-talk that aided my ability to feel sorry for myself. Isolated me. Here's the thing. I'd seen God do the miraculous. Knew Him to be faithful. I'd seen the impossibly blue sky turn to the rain for which I'd prayed. Led many people from the feet of their Baals to the throne of my God. So what was I doing in despair?
Perhaps Elijah was growing accustomed to God showing up in the big showy miracles. Fire from heaven and the raising of a widow's son from the dead. Called to bring the people of God to a place of repentance, which didn't even happen after the fiery altar was consumed, Elijah thought he'd failed. No big revival. No mass conviction of sin. Only he loved God anymore. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how much God did to prove Himself, the people just wouldn't listen. But God...not always in the fire, earthquake or wind...speaks the whisper that makes us tremble. The reminder He is there speaking, and He doesn't need the show. He simply needs our ear.
Perhaps in the desert in which I found myself, running off my desolation, always beating my path to nowhere with my God running in step along with me, it would have been prudent to pause away from the trembling mountains and blazing fires to contemplate how powerful He is and always has been. To stop. Dead still. And listen to Him. To realize it's not my battles I'm fighting, but His. To understand that I'm not responsible for the victories or for the results. He is. And if I'm weary and despondent, I've forgotten that God doesn't want to be about shaking mountains and licking up fire from the altars of my righteousness. He wants relationship. To whisper His will and confirm His presence. I will grow weary thinking how I will live day to day in this world that's so difficult to navigate if I think God's counting on me to do it in my own power. On Mount Horeb, the only truly awesome thing Elijah experienced, what made him hide his face, was the whisper of His God. More powerful, more ominous, more awe-inspiring than the fiercest storm. The God of All gently asking, "What are you doing here?"
Understand this: If the enemy is trying to fight you, he's also trying to fight your God. So stand firm. You are not alone in this. Pastor T. D. Jakes
Elijah had just seen the Almighty God reveal Himself in fire, consuming not only the sacrifice before Him, but the wood, stones and dust as well as "licking up the water that was in the trench." The prophets of Baal tried for hours to persuade their gods to show themselves. To no avail. But Elijah's God answered immediately when Elijah prayed: "Let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant!" Whoosh! The absolute obliteration of the water-soaked altar and all that was around it. Drought was the issue. No rain for years. And nothing in that moment still but clear blue skies. Elijah declared to King Ahab that there would be rain soon, then the prophet took his servant to the top of Mount Carmel where he bowed down with his face between his knees and prayed for rain. To his servant he said, "Go look out toward the sea and tell me what is there." Nothing. Seven times Elijah repeated this. Finally, "There is a little cloud the size of a man's hand rising from the sea, sir." And the sky grew black with clouds and wind and a deluge followed. God was faithful to do what He said. Elijah, a mighty man of faith. So why did he find himself running scared into the desert?
Mad that her prophets of Baal were slaughtered on Mount Carmel, Queen Jezebel swore to kill Elijah. He was afraid of her and ran. Even after what he'd just seen God do. Surely Elijah was weary, emotionally drained and just not up for one more battle. A day's journey out into the wilderness, he sat down under a big tree and prayed to die. "I've had enough, Lord. Just kill me." Then he fell asleep. An angel fed him. And he slept some more. When he awoke, the angel was there with more food and the message, "Get up and eat because you have a long journey." Yeah. Forty days and forty nights to Mount Horeb where God wanted a tete a tete. A hard journey. Almost too great for him.
"What are you doing here, Elijah?" God's question to the wiry prophet holed up in a mountain top cave.
"I'm so sick of the people who crush Your altars and kill the prophets! They've forsaken You and I'm the only one left...the only prophet in Israel, and now they are going to kill me, too!"
"Go out and stand on the mountain before Me," said the Lord. A terrifying wind tore the mountain and broke the rocks around Elijah. But God wasn't in it. After that the mountain began shaking violently, the ground beneath the prophets feet shifting and perilous. But God wasn't in that, either. Fire erupted, shooting flames very near Elijah on the broken rocks. But God wasn't there, either. It was the sound of a low whisper that finally caused the prophet to cover his face in terror and stand trembling at the entrance of his hiding place. "What are you doing here, Elijah?" The low-toned whisper of His God.
Again the whining response. I think as I write that surely I wouldn't be giving God the same answer to a question He asks me the second time. I'd have understood the massive display of His power, not only on Mount Horeb, but also on Mount Carmel. And angels feeding, me! I mean, really! But Elijah knew his God. Answered once more, "I'm all alone here."
God didn't address the whining. If Elijah didn't know what he was doing in the cave, God did. Instead of saying, "You poor thing. So sorry I put you into such a harrowing position," He said, "You're not done." And God told Elijah what to do next. Including giving Elisha to him as an apprentice. The prophet who would take his place. "And, by the way, Elijah," continued the Lord. "There are seven thousand people in Israel who haven't bowed down to Baal or kissed his statue."
I have been crushed by life. Many of us have. Skinny from the warfare. Barely able to stand. Once confident and lively, I have also felt that I was thrown off in shame as if I were a grasshopper whose legs had attached irritatingly to someone's blouse. Heartbroken, poor and needy. Emptied of former joy. Seeing life as a shadow, vacuous and thin. And I ran, too. Whining my misery. Self-talk that aided my ability to feel sorry for myself. Isolated me. Here's the thing. I'd seen God do the miraculous. Knew Him to be faithful. I'd seen the impossibly blue sky turn to the rain for which I'd prayed. Led many people from the feet of their Baals to the throne of my God. So what was I doing in despair?
Perhaps Elijah was growing accustomed to God showing up in the big showy miracles. Fire from heaven and the raising of a widow's son from the dead. Called to bring the people of God to a place of repentance, which didn't even happen after the fiery altar was consumed, Elijah thought he'd failed. No big revival. No mass conviction of sin. Only he loved God anymore. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how much God did to prove Himself, the people just wouldn't listen. But God...not always in the fire, earthquake or wind...speaks the whisper that makes us tremble. The reminder He is there speaking, and He doesn't need the show. He simply needs our ear.
Perhaps in the desert in which I found myself, running off my desolation, always beating my path to nowhere with my God running in step along with me, it would have been prudent to pause away from the trembling mountains and blazing fires to contemplate how powerful He is and always has been. To stop. Dead still. And listen to Him. To realize it's not my battles I'm fighting, but His. To understand that I'm not responsible for the victories or for the results. He is. And if I'm weary and despondent, I've forgotten that God doesn't want to be about shaking mountains and licking up fire from the altars of my righteousness. He wants relationship. To whisper His will and confirm His presence. I will grow weary thinking how I will live day to day in this world that's so difficult to navigate if I think God's counting on me to do it in my own power. On Mount Horeb, the only truly awesome thing Elijah experienced, what made him hide his face, was the whisper of His God. More powerful, more ominous, more awe-inspiring than the fiercest storm. The God of All gently asking, "What are you doing here?"
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