1 Kings 19 - Running on Empty

We do study through through books of the Bible.

If you'd like a paper copy, I'd invite you to lift your hand if you don't have one or pull one up on your phone if you would.

It'd be good to have a copy in front of us this morning as we break open God's word together.

What a gift.

What a privilege it is to do that.

Always want to welcome those who are worshiping with us online.

In particular, grace to all of you who are worshiping with us from Germany, from India, and the Pacific Northwest, up in the Seattle area, in particular, my friend up there, Matt.

So glad you guys are worshiping with us today.

As you get the Bible in front of you, I invite you to turn to 1 Kings chapter 19.

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

If you recall from our study last week, the great prophet of God had just climbed down from Mount Carmel.

After a decisive victory over the prophets of Baal, Yahweh had revealed himself, had revealed himself in power with a consuming fire.

And he displays command of the heavens by bringing rain to a drought-stricken land.

King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, rulers of the northern kingdom of Israel, had instituted their own national religion.

And their so-called storm god, Baal, had been proven to be powerless.

Do you remember the text last week?

The writer tells us that from the mouth of Baal there was no voice.

Yet after this climactic mountaintop experience of Elijah, in our text this morning, we'll witness one of the most vulnerable moments in the life and ministry of Elijah.

I think it's often after a season of intense battle, even a battle that we've decisively won, that we're particularly vulnerable to the schemes of the evil one or the frailties of our own flesh.

Have you found that to be true in your life?

Despair, melancholy, ennui, depression, doubt, or simply a loss of your spiritual bearings, looking for an anchor to hold on to.

Those seasons often follow great triumphs or sometimes great failures.

Sometimes they come for seemingly no reason at all, like a fog that won't lift.

I suspect that there are those in this room who know that vulnerability all too well.

And I stand up here as one of them this morning.

If that hasn't been something you've experienced, and I'm so grateful that that is the case, it may be someday.

But I believe God's word has something for us today for all of us to learn and how to understand and to care for all those who are in that season where the fog just simply won't lift, and the season of sorrow that we just sang about, looking for an anchor.

So let me pray for us before we open up God's word this morning, if you'd allow me to.

And lead us to your Son, Jesus.

And we all said, Amen.

Well, 1 Kings chapter 19.

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

Actually, if you just go one verse before that, I'm gonna lead us in that way.

So Ahab rode and went to Jezreel, 46 of chapter 18, and the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

Verse 1 of chapter 19.

Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, So may the gods do to me, and more also if I do not make your life as the one as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.

Here's a threat to Elijah's life.

Verse three, then he was afraid.

And he arose and he ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and he left his servant there.

Now Beersheba is about a hundred miles south of Jezreel.

Jezreel is the de facto capital, or this, at least where a palace was, where Ahab and Jezebel were.

I'm going to put up a map here so we can see where we are geographically in this story.

If we could put the map up there on the screen.

So you can see Mount Carmel in the top left-hand corner, down to Jezreel, that's where we find ourselves at the beginning of this story.

And now all the way down, about a hundred miles, Elijah travels to Beersheba.

Now there's significance there, if you remember your Bible.

Solomon, as a shorthand, would say, from Dan, that's the far north, to Beersheba, that's all of the promised land.

And here Elijah flees from Jezebel to the very edge of the promised land there in Beersheba.

He's afraid.

And he left his servant there.

What does that mean?

Well, that's an interesting thing.

We don't know exactly.

I'll speculate here a little bit.

First of all, someone in fear, someone in crisis, often the first thing that you do is you go into isolation.

He leaves his community behind and he goes on his own to Beersheba.

I think it's also very possible that Elijah, as we'll see a little bit, is essentially resigning the ministry.

He's done.

He's leaving his servant, he's let his servant go, and he's gonna move on to Beersheba to see what the Lord will do next.

We'll keep reading at verse 4.

But he himself, okay, so he's isolated, went a day's journey into the wilderness.

And he came and sat down under a broom tree, and he asked that he might die, saying, It is enough.

Now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my father's.

And he lay down and he slept under a broom tree.

And behold, an angel touched him.

Underline that.

Circle that.

He touched him, and he said, Arise and eat.

And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water, the first angel food cake.

And he ate and he drank and he lay down again.

And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him.

And he said, Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.

So I take this to mean that God, through this messenger, is sending Elijah on another journey.

You're not done yet, Elijah.

There's another journey yet to come.

Verse 8, and he arose and he ate and he drank and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.

Another way of saying Sinai.

If you know the story of your Bible.

In one sense, it's a reminder that our scriptures are trustworthy and reliable.

They tell us the truth.

God's word always tells us the truth.

Amen.

If we wanted to craft our own made-up religion, we would not go out of our way to write about the weakness of our most influential prophet.

But the Bible gives us the unvarnished truth of what's really going on physically, emotionally, spiritually in this man.

The writer tells us in the previous chapter that the hand of God was on Elijah.

Elijah was a remarkable man of God.

But he was human.

I heard a story this week about the famous heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali.

In his heyday, he was on a flight and the airplane was about to descend, and the flight attendant pulls up next to him and he notices that Muhammad Ali doesn't have a seatbelt on.

And he says, Sir, you need to put your seatbelt on, we're about to land.

And Muhammad Ali looks up at him and says, Superman doesn't need a seatbelt.

The flight attendant looks at him and says, Superman doesn't need an airplane to fly either.

Put on your seatbelt.

Superman, Muhammad Ali was not him.

The Bible gives us the truth.

Elijah was not Superman.

He was human.

And the fact that this story is in the Bible should give great comfort to those in this room who have ever found themselves in the fog of despair.

Has it been you?

The fog of despondency, the grip perhaps of paralyzing fear or anxiety.

Maybe you're there now.

I have been there myself.

It's true, God had been working in remarkable ways through Elijah's faithful life.

Let's don't miss that.

But as the text tells us here clearly, Elijah was exhausted.

He sat under a tree for shade, depleted to the point of despair.

Not simply tired, he was that, but he was depleted.

Even the New Testament writer James, when we look in the New Testament, James says this, in the context of talking about sickness, he says, Elijah was a human being.

Even as we are.

Perhaps James had this story in mind.

Look with me, if you would, at the end of verse 4 there, in chapter 19 of 1 Kings.

It is enough.

Now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my father's.

Translated another way, it is too much for me.

Have your prayers ever sounded like that?

You're not alone.

So let's go back to the beginning of this account for a moment.

After Elijah climbs down from Mount Carmel, he laces up his hokas and he runs to Jezreel, where King Ahab and Jezebel ruled the kingdom.

Why did Elijah go to Jezreel in the first place, the de facto capital, where Ahab and Jezebel were?

Why did he go there?

I think it's likely that after this victory, he expected that Ahab and Jezebel would have been run out of town.

Perhaps even come to repentance after this great victory over their so-called storm god, but that's not what he found.

Instead, he found Jezebel, the real power broker in the royal palace.

She had only intensified her wickedness.

And Elijah sees what's happening and he runs to Beersheba in fear.

Put another way, I think it's likely that Elijah expected a great revival, a reversal of the idolatry that had consumed the northern kingdom, and instead, instead of this great victory, it seemed largely fruitless, at least from his human perspective.

I think that's why he says there, if you look at verse 4 again, I'm no better than my father's.

Those who had come before him weren't able to turn the kingdom back to God, and neither now has Elijah, at least from his perspective.

Even with the most dramatic display of God's power on Mount Carmel.

So Elijah is seeing his ministry, his life's work as ineffective, perhaps meaningless.

And he's in despair.

Now let's not read into the text what's not there.

He does not presume to take his own life.

But he cries out in an exasperation that the Lord might take him then and there.

He has lost his will to continue the path that God had him on.

That's what we see here in this text.

He was running on empty.

He had the kind of deep emotional, physical, spiritual weariness that touches every part of the human person.

And perhaps that's you today, or perhaps you know someone who's there.

You are not alone.

Zach Eswine says it this way: Though our bodily gloom allows us no feeling of his tender touch, he holds on to us still.

Our feelings of him do not save us.

He does.

Our hope, therefore, does not reside in our ability to preserve a good mood, but in his ability to bear us up.

Jesus will never abandon us with our downcast heart.

So true.

And by the way, that book he wrote, Spurgeon's Sorrows, we're going to put a few books on our resources page.

The QR code that we had there at the beginning will have all of our notes as well as a few books that I'm going to mention here.

Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, who Zach's writing about in that book, actually struggled with likely clinical depression, melancholy, is what they called it back then.

And he was very open about it.

Even as one of the first megachurch pastors, Charles Spurgeon, this faithful preacher, just as Elijah, this faithful prophet, dealt with something similar.

So I commend that book to you and a few others as well.

But do you see how gentle and kind the Lord is to Elijah in this vulnerable state?

Remember, one of the great themes of the story of Elijah is God's faithful provision for his every need.

We saw it with the ravens at the brook, we saw it with the never-ending oil in the poor widow's home.

We saw it on Mount Carmel as he brings fire and rain at just the right moment.

And here, in this moment of Elijah's despair, God attends to his need in the way that he needed it.

This morning I'd love for us to consider a few ways in which we see this tender care of the Lord for this broken man.

First, we see the steadfast pursuit of God.

In Elijah's flight to the edge of the promised land, Beersheba, God follows and he sends some messengers, these angels, to bake a cake and to give him some water in the desert.

Did you notice that the writer twice mentioned that the angel touched Elijah?

One of the most basic of human needs.

And I think the touch from the angel was more than a simple tap to wake Elijah up, but rather the timely, compassionate touch that communicated to Elijah, you are not alone.

Sinclair Ferguson was commenting on this passage, and I love how he said it.

Elijah was living as if Psalm 23 was not true.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, that's where Elijah was.

I will fear no evil.

Why?

Because you are with me.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me, pursue me all my days.

How can that be true?

Except that he promised his presence.

Russ Masterson, in his book, Searching for Grace, another one I'd recommend, says, We need presence in pain.

We need the constant God, that sure and steady anchor that we sing about.

We need the constant God who comforts those who have been broken just as he was broken.

God never promises explanation, but he does promise his presence.

Oh, and that's good news for us today.

I think it's also telling that before God speaks a word to Elijah, he gives him food and water and sleep.

Practical wisdom for those caught in the fog of despair.

Don't disregard that practical wisdom.

Food and water and sleep.

Sometimes the most godly thing that you can do is take a nap.

You're not Superman.

You're not superwoman.

Yes, it's true that God does give us supernatural strength in order for us to accomplish the task He's given us.

Those are true things.

He certainly did with Elijah, but Elijah was still human.

And God made Elijah, he knew his limitations, and he knows yours and he knows mine.

And perhaps somebody in this place today needed to hear that this morning.

You're caught in a kind of sorrow that stubbornly will not lift.

Many other brothers and sisters have been through the very same thing, just as our brother here Elijah has as well.

So we start here.

The Lord is in pursuit.

That's good news.

If you hear nothing this morning, hear that.

His presence is here.

His nearness is to the brokenhearted, the psalmist says.

You can outrun his presence.

You can't outrun his grace.

And sometimes that presence is experienced through a meal, through some water, and through a touch.

That's not all there is to say about a season like that, but I think it's a good place for us to start.

Let's keep reading, if you would, with me.

There's light at the end of this story.

So he travels forty days and forty nights to Sinai, the Mount of God.

Verse 9.

There he came to a cave, and he lodged in it.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him.

This is the first time we've seen this in this section here.

The word of the Lord brings life.

And the word of the Lord said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah?

He called him by name.

Did you notice that?

And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away.

And he that is God said, Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord, and behold, the Lord passed by.

Do you hear echoes of the Exodus in Moses in this?

The Lord passed by.

And a great and strong wind tore the mountain and broke it in pieces, and the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.

And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

Verse 12, and after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire, the sound of a low whisper.

The NIV says, a gentle whisper.

Many of us know the King James Version.

A still small voice.

Makes you lean in.

And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in a cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

And behold, there came a voice to him and said, same question, What are you doing here, Elijah?

And he said, same answer, I've been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword.

And I, even I only, am left.

They seek my life to take it away.

Verse 15, and the Lord said to him, Go.

Here's a recommissioning of Elijah.

Don't miss this.

Return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, which, by the way, is another 400 miles to the northeast of where he is right now in Sinai.

This is the Lord saying, You're not done yet.

Put on those hokus again, Elijah.

You have more to do.

And when you arrive, you shall anoint Haziel to be king over Syria, and Jehu, the son of Nimshi, you shall anoint to be king over Israel.

And Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abel Mechlah, you shall anoint to be prophet in your place.

And the one who escapes from the escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death.

And the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death.

Verse 18, underline this one.

Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.

Remember, Elijah said, I'm the only one left.

And God tenderly here corrects him.

No, no, no.

I'm working in ways that you can't even see.

Verse 19.

So he departed from there and found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth.

This tells us that Elisha was likely a part of a very wealthy family.

Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him.

This is a symbolic succession.

This is Elijah saying, You're now going to be the next prophet, Elisha.

And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.

And he said to him, Go back again, for what have I done to you?

Essentially Elijah's saying, Sure, go back to your family, tell them goodbye, but don't forget who you are now.

21.

And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yolks of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate.

Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.

Here we have a celebration.

Can you believe it?

Joy in this new season of ministry with Elijah and Elisha.

We should pay special attention, I think, to where God sends Elijah after feeding him and giving him sleep, Mount Sinai, Horeb.

From the triumph on Mount Carmel to the valley and now to another mountain.

Forty days and forty nights.

Can you see the connection to Moses here?

In this moment of despair in Elijah's ministry, God brings him back to where God had given his covenant promises to his people some 400 years prior.

Don't miss the significance of this in God's redemptive plan.

God brings Elijah back to God's word.

And God speaks, and he still does.

Another provision for the despairing soul, the gentle voice of God.

Now, this is far more than simply making Elijah feel better.

This is the voice of God that commands the heavens and the earth, the word that calls people to return to him, that directs history towards his purposes of restoring what sin has broken.

The word of God was what Elijah needed in his moment of need.

It's what the people of God needed at that moment, and it's what you and I need today.

Man does not live on bread alone.

We need bread.

We saw that earlier.

But we live, spiritually live, on every word that comes from the mouth of the Father.

The word of God read.

The word of God prayed, sung, preached.

It's life for us.

Do you know that?

God summons Elijah to a cave.

Is it the same cave that Moses was in, the cleft in the rock?

We don't know.

I think it probably was.

But God's voice was heard in a gentle whisper.

Why was his voice not in the wind, not in the earthquake, or the fire?

Volumes have been written to try to explain exactly what that text means.

But it seems to me from the grain of the story, we're meant to remember Moses.

And if you remember the story in Exodus, Moses goes up the mountain and he witnesses God moving through lightning and through earthquakes and thunder.

And remember, Elijah has just come from the mountain where fire and rain came.

God can and does move in spectacular ways in history.

That's true.

But I think Elijah's despair had led him to the conclusion that God's plans had been somehow interrupted by Jezebel or this idolatrous kingdom.

Elijah had seen God move in dramatic ways many times.

But I think God's voice shows up in this less than dramatic whisper to remind Elijah that he was working in a million ways he can't see.

Jesus taught it.

Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, the smallest of seeds.

It's such a tender correction for Elijah, and I can be guilty of the same thing.

Living anxiously because I'm not sure that the plans of God are working, because they don't look like my plans or my pace.

I heard a pastor once say that God is omniscient, he's omnipotent, he's omnipresent, and then he made up a word, he's omnicompetent.

God has power that you don't even know about yet.

I think that's so true.

But with a whisper, I imagine Elijah, he has to lean in.

God is asking him a question.

And God never asks a question so he can get some information.

Questions are always for our benefit, for our good.

It's an invitation for Elijah to bring his cares before the Father.

And that's the third way I think we see the Lord providing for Elijah in this moment.

He gives him his listening ear.

Elijah is given the gift of unburdening himself in prayer.

Do you remember 1 Peter 5?

Cast your cares upon him.

Why?

Because he cares for you.

Prayer allows me, this is from Philip Yancy, prayer allows me to admit my failures, my weaknesses and limitations to one who responds to human vulnerability with infinite mercy.

Now Elijah does say, if you look at those two prayers that he prays, he says some true things, but like most people who are in a crisis or in desperation, we can exaggerate.

We can lose grasp of reality, a sense of proportion.

And Elijah cries out to God, I am the only one left.

And it's true that the people of God had turned away, but with tenderness and clarity, the Lord corrects Elijah.

He was not the only one left.

He was not alone.

And that's the fourth provision of grace we see from God this morning.

He recovers for Elijah the truth of his unwavering promises.

God's promises would not be thwarted by Jezebel or anyone else.

If you look at verse 15 with me for a minute, Elijah is given the new task of anointing Hazael as king over Syria.

We have no indication that Hazael was a believer, yet God was going to work through this pagan king.

Elijah is told to anoint Jehu as king, and Elijah does not know it yet, but Jehu is the one who will finally put an end to the wickedness of Jezebel.

So, no, Elijah was not alone, and he was not done.

Elijah had left community.

He left his servant behind, but God restores it, revealing to him that 7,000 others won't bow the knee to Baal.

The promise of God to preserve his people has not been thwarted.

Quite the contrary, God's plans were in full force.

The worst fears of Elijah had been corrected by the Word of God.

I've often needed that in my own life.

If that's true for you, say amen.

The word of God often corrects.

The Lord's care for us is always merciful and kind, but he does tell us the truth.

What refreshment that must have been.

The fact that this story is in the Bible should be of great encouragement to us, both in the personal way that God cares for Elijah, but also for the larger story of God's plan in redemption history.

God is on the move, friends, and he still is.

Jesus told us that all the law and prophets point to him, and that includes Moses, that includes Elijah and Elisha.

And one day Elijah would stand next to King Jesus.

Remember the story in the New Testament on the Mount of Transfiguration, and he sees the fulfilled promise of God even more clearly.

And I can't wait to get to heaven to ask him what that day was like.

Friends, we are not as strong as we think we are.

Just one phone call from the doctor, one hurtful word from a friend.

One day you wake up in the fog of despair that you can't shake takes very little to confront us with the fact that we are not superhuman.

We're human.

Use the practical wisdom of God given at your disposal.

Take a nap.

Eat a meal, talk with a godly friend, mentor, or yes, even a counselor.

Immerse yourself in the Word of God.

Cast your cares on Him, and whatever you do, hold fast to the anchor.

The one in whom every promise is a yes, our Lord Jesus.

God is on pursuit of his children.

He pursues those who are crushed in spirit.

Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, I mentioned earlier, says this to comfort a desponding spirit is as difficult as to raise the dead.

But then we have a God who both raises the dead from their graves and his people from their despair.

This is a prayer from David based on Psalm 130.

Lord, this morning out of the depths we cry to you.

O Lord, hear our voices.

Let your ears be attentive to our pleas for mercy.

We wait for you, and in your word we hope our souls wait for you more than the watchman for the morning.

O Lord, give us the grace to find our hope in you alone, for with you there is steadfast love, and with you is plentiful redemption.

Through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we all said.

Amen.