Elijah. One of the greatest heroes of the
Bible. Ranks right up there with Moses as one of the people who saved,
not just the people of Israel, but the very worship of Yahweh. In fact,
it was he and Moses who appeared with Jesus at Jesus’ transfiguration. There are very few people in the Bible more
important than Elijah.
And in our Bible reading for today, he is running for his
life. The king, Ahab, and the queen, Jezebel, want to kill him.
To understand why, we need to go back a little bit.
Ahab became king of Israel, and we’re told that he “did more evil in the
eyes of the Lord than any of those before him.” In other words, the kings
before Ahab had been no great prize, but Ahab was worse than any of them. He also was influenced by his wife, Jezebel,
to start worshiping the false god Baal. And so finally, God says,
“Enough!” God tells Elijah to announce
that there will be a drought in Israel.
And there is.
Now, of course, when that happened, Ahab could’ve changed
his ways. He could’ve said, you know what, I messed up. I brought this on myself and on the whole
country because of the things I’ve done. I’ve been worshiping this false
god, Baal, instead of the one true God.
I’d better change my ways.”
Ahab could’ve done that. But you know, people in
power really don’t like to admit they’re wrong. What do they usually
do? They find someone to blame it on,
right? So Ahab blames Elijah for the
drought. And Elijah goes on the run.
But then Elijah comes back. And Elijah proposes a
contest between God and Baal to see who’s the one true god. Some of you
probably remember this story. The
prophets of Baal and of God are to prepare an offering but not to light the
wood for the fire. Instead, they’re supposed to pray to their god to set
the wood on fire. Whichever one does it
is the one true god. And of course, Baal
cannot do it and God can, so God is proved to be the one true god.
Now, here’s another chance for both Ahab and Jezebel to
admit they were wrong. But if there’s one thing people in power dislike
even more than being proved wrong, it’s being made to look foolish. And
by winning this contest, Elijah made both Ahab and Jezebel look foolish. So, Jezebel swears to kill Elijah, and that’s
where our reading for today starts.
Now, at this point, Elijah has a decision to make. He
could stay right where he is. He could
trust God to protect him and to save him. Or, he can get scared and run
away.
As you heard, he chose to run. He goes to Mount
Horeb, which is referred to as the mountain of God. And he stayed there
forty days.
We’ll pick up the rest of the story in a little bit.
But first, let me just ask you: is
there any way you can relate to how Elijah felt at this point in the story?
I don’t mean that you necessarily had to run for your life.
But what I mean is, have you ever had a time when you thought you were
doing everything right, and yet everything turned out wrong? Have you
ever had a time when you really believed you were doing what you were supposed
to do, like you were doing your best to do your job well and to be a good
person and to be a good Christian? And yet, the thanks you got for it
were to get blamed for everything and to have everyone accuse you of being
responsible for everything that went wrong?
Can you kind of relate to that a little bit?
If so, what did you do? Did you feel like just
walking away from everything? Like just going off by yourself, getting
away from all these people who were dumping all this stuff on you? And if
you could’ve, maybe you’d have just left everything behind and gone off to live
in a cabin in the mountains or something? I mean, you probably did not
actually do that, but did you feel like you’d like to?
That’s how Elijah felt. And you know, that’s a
feeling we can get in a lot of situations. I think we all have times when
we just get fed up. We get totally
frustrated and fed up with everything. We just feel like we want to go
somewhere where no one is blaming us for anything, where no one is demanding
anything from us, where no one is holding us responsible for anything. We
may feel like quitting, but what we really want is just a time out, right? We want a time out where we can just get away
from everything for a while.
If you’ve felt that way, if you’re feeling that way now,
know that God understands. Because look at what God does for Elijah when
he ran away. First, God sent an angel to
help him. The angel made sure Elijah had enough to eat and enough to
drink. And God gave Elijah some time by
himself. God gave Elijah a time out.
God waited forty days before God called to Elijah.
And then, what happens? God comes to Elijah, and God
simply asks Elijah a question. God asks him, “What are you doing here,
Elijah?”
Now, this is where the printed word leaves itself open to
interpretation. Because you can hear God saying that in a few different
ways. You can hear God saying it angrily,
“What are you doing here, Elijah!” You can hear God asking it without
much emotion at all, “What are you doing here, Elijah.” Or, you can hear God asking it gently, even
kindly, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
I cannot prove it, but I hear God asking it that last way.
Because Elijah does not sound at all scared or upset when he answers the
question. He tells God what has happened, and God says He’s going to pass
by. And there’s a wind, and an earthquake,
and a fire, but God is not in any of those. God is in a gentle
whisper. Elijah answers, and God asks
him again, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
And again, of course, Elijah tells him.
Elijah may have felt like quitting, but God knows that what
Elijah really needs is a time out. And God gives it to him. But God has more for Elijah to do. So what does God do? He sends Elijah back into the game, and in
effect he tells him what plays to run. He tells Elijah to go back the way
he came, to go back to Israel, and he gives him instructions for what to do and
how to do it when he gets there.
I think that’s the message God gives us, too. When we
get tired, when we get fed up, when we feel like we’ve just had enough of
everything, God understands. God does not get upset or angry with
us. God understands that we might just
need to get away from things for a little while. If we cannot take a
physical break from things, we can take a mental break from things. God understands that. God’s okay with it. God will allow us a
time out once in a while, when we need one.
But after a while, God is going to say the same thing God
said to Elijah. “What are you doing here?” Now, we don’t have to be afraid when God asks
that question. We can answer God honestly, just like Elijah asked God
honestly. But when we do, we need to
listen for God’s response. And God’s response often comes in a gentle
whisper, just as it did for Elijah.
And when God answers, what God
is likely to do is let us know that the time out is over. It’s time for
us to get back into the game. And God
will, in effect, tell us what plays to run. God will tell us where we’re
supposed to go, what we’re supposed to do, and how we’re supposed to do it.
I’ve said before that we don’t
get to retire from being Christians, and we don’t get to take a vacation from
being Christians, and that’s still true. I still believe that. But God knows that life can get really hard
for a sometimes. And God knows that once
in a while we just need a break, a time out. And God is okay with it if
we take one. After all, even Jesus got
away from everything and went off by himself once in a while. It’s okay if you and I do it, too.
But only once in a while, and
only for so long. Because God has more for you and me to do. The game is still going on. And if we
don’t get back into it on our own, God is going to come to us and ask us, “What
are you doing here?” The game’s over there. And I need you to get back into it.
It’s always a good thing to try
to hear what God has to say to us. But if you’re feeling frustrated, if
you’re feeling fed up, if you’re feeling like you just need to get away from
things, listen even harder for what God is saying. God may be giving you
a time out. But he may be about to ask,
“What are you doing here?” And when God
does, it’s time to get back in the game.
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