Elijah — We Run by
Choice
Dear Lord,
I was just beginning to enjoy this when the worst thing happened. I reread what I have written about depression, and it has made me so depressed I want to quit!
I want to run ahead of each reader and say, "Look, if you don't like this I can do it over." Oh, Lord, I really thought I was well of that. Maybe I'm learning to apply a lesson that I learned on the stage. It's not how sick you are that matters, but how well you are. Even if you're sick with fear,you can still be well enough to keep on going.
Thank You, Lord, for interrupting me before I finished writing out my resignation. I'm ready to stay in the race.
I pray in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
The background of Elijah's great day on the mountaintop is given to us in 1 Kings. Israel was suffering a dearth of rain and an abundance of weak kings. The two were quite related: The weak kings had adopted pagan practices to such an extent that seven hundred pagan priests were fed with the king's kitchen budget!
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... and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.
1 Kings 16:33
King Ahab had forsaken the commandments of the Lord. In the midst of this is tough, God-honoring Elijah. He delivered a message to the king from God.
.... there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
1 Kings 17:1
Elijah then went his way, to be miraculously fed by ravens and a penniless widow. The drought got so bad that famine befell even the king's cattle. When the palace feels the pinch, you can imagine how badly the people are hurting.
Elijah told the king it was time to see whose God could deliver Israel from the famine.
Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty....
1 Kings 18:19
So Ahab scheduled a massive faith-at-work conference, to learn what kind of faith it is that works. The people were watching with fascination as the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal lined up against the one prophet of the Lord God.
Elijah started the program with a statement so significant it still echoes down the mountain, across the
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oceans, and over the generations until it knocks at the doors of our own hearing.
How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.
See 1 Kings 18:21
What a shockingly relevant question! Halt? Yes, limping with ankles sprained by indecisions, back and forth between two different opinions.
Notice he was very specific about the difference of the two opinions. It does matter what you believe. God said He would not be worshiped with the other gods! Jehovah God is the great One God. Beside Him there is no other!
Elijah began the show, setting down the rules.
Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God....
1 Kings 18:23, 24
Well, the prophets of Baal whooped it up all day with chantings, screamings, and all the nonsense that accompanies beseechings unto gods who are not there.
"But there was no voice, not any that answered'
(see 1 Kings 18:26).
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Elijah's turn came at long last. If he had any followers, they must have felt like parents at a dance recital when their child is last. They had to be polite and watch all the performances, but by the time their favorite's turn came, they were too tired to applaud.
Elijah followed the procedure of the others, but added a little flourish of water around the wood, to give God's team a handicap.
.... Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God.
1 Kings 18:36 - 39
Wowee! A five-star feature! But that's not all. Elijah said to Ahab, "... Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain" (1 Kings 18:41). The certainty of faith! The sound of abundance. Everything Elijah said and did that day was right. He was dutiful, he was daring, and he defeated the enemy
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... and he was right! It rained!
Down the mountain he ran, a hero returning from battle. Except for the fact that no one treated him as a hero. Instead of waiting for the confetti, Elijah ran for his life. That's when he pitched his little tent of despairing depression under the juniper tree.
If you ever camp under that tree, look for Elijah's initials. You'll find mine, because I have sat there.
A few hours ago, I went to pick up my mother. After she was settled in the car, I stepped back into the house to lock the back door. As I moved through the back porch, I was suddenly touched by an unexpected wave of nostalgia.
I spent my high-school years in that house. On that porch I had played many games of Ping-Pong with teenage friends, and my mother had served countless hamburger suppers. In that green-pillowed chair by the porch door, my father had read the Bible every night. And from that same chair, he had given all my dates such a thorough interview that they must have found job applications a snap. This had been home, and from this back door I had left for my wedding.
For just a moment my throat constricted as I was touched by a second of grieving for times so very, very past. It left as abruptly as it came, but the whole afternoon carried the scent of that one fleeting teardrop of nostalgia.
That was a form of depression, a longing for times that cannot come again; times that enfolded people no longer with me. A lot of things were not what I expected
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them to be. I didn't know that doctors would stop making house calls, that banks would close on Saturdays, and that downtown would be filled with strangers who never knew my father.
My life has turned out so much better than I thought it would, and I am happy with things as they are, but there are times when we do not make the return to reasonable affirmatives.
I think a lot of the sadness at Christmastime is hostility because we are no longer allowed the irresponsible holidays of our childhood. A lot of times we dream up childish expectations that reality cannot match. We find we are not appreciated, honored, or treated in any way as we had hoped.
Elijah was so tired, so hungry, so hurt, so disappointed, he scarcely had the strength to fill out his resignation. "I quit, Lord. I have had it. No more for me, thanks. I can't handle things as they really are, so I'd rather die. I didn't do any better that anyone else!" (See 1 Kings 19:4.)
Does that sound familiar? Three times Elijah resigned his commission and closed his eyes to die. Each time God woke him up to eat.
Elijah had a whole monologue of woes ready for his second resignation. "I've done the best I can. I've worked my heart out. I've put up with all kinds of indignities, but this is too much. Just let me die. The great work can't be done. I'm the only one You've got left, and I'm not long for this world. Even I only am left." (See 1 Kings 19:14).
Elijah didn't linger there long. God dealt with him
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lovingly. God knew Elijah's heart. He knew Elijah had stayed true. God knew Elijah's body. He knew Elijah was worn out. God knew the future. He knew that it was still good. And He knew a way to get Elijah into the hope for the future.
In the first place, God dealt with the matter of quitting. We don't. We tell people, "Hold on, keep going, you can't quit." God did an interesting thing with Elijah' resignation: He accepted it!
As for the hopelessness of the task, God said, "Elijah, don't ever underestimate the believing community. It's still there. I've got 7,000 in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal." (See Kings 19:18).
If you are heavy with loneliness in the ministry of your assignment, hear God speak to Elijah: "I have others." Sometimes that's a blow to our pride! Others? Could that possibly mean that God has not put His whole weight down on me? Is God implying that my personal despair will not destroy the whole plan of salvation? More often, it means the relief of discovering kinship in the assignment of God. He has others!
God accepted Elijah's resignation and honored him with a final round of active assignments. He gave him three things to do: anoint Hazael to be king of Syria, anoint Jehu to be king of Israel, and anoint his own successor to be the prophet in his place.
God gave Elijah three specific principles to get him back running again. Elijah resigned, and God accepted that. You can always quit. Remember, you run by choice. The Sovereign plan of God includes our free will. I don't understand it, but then I don't understand vitamins! God heard Elijah and loved him and
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let him quit with honor. Then God said, "You are not alone, Elijah. There are others."
The third principle can be the most painful of all.
God said to Elijah, "On your way out, Elijah, anoint and prepare your successor, because even if the minister quit, I don't plan to close the ministry." God completes what God begins — with or without us! (See Philippians 1:6.)
When I get tired and hurt and disgusted with things being the way they are, I'll probably quit, too. But please, God, don't pay attention to that! Don't give my job to somebody else. You see, if it can be done, I want to be in the doing of it. Even with my feet of clay.
