Lord, I’ve Had Enough! Series

Elijah Part 3

"Lord, I’ve Had Enough!"

Text: I King 19:1-15

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

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

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

4 But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, "It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers."

5 And he lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, "Arise, eat."

6 Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake {baked on} hot stones, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again.

7 And the angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, "Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you."

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

9 Then he came there to a cave, and lodged there; and behold, the word of the LORD {came} to him, and He said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

10 And he said, "I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, torn down Thine altars and killed Thy prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away."

11 So He said, "Go forth, and stand on the mountain before the LORD." And behold, the LORD was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces 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.

12 And after the earthquake a fire, {but} the LORD {was} not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.

13 And it came about when Elijah heard {it,} that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice {came} to him and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

14 Then he said, "I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, torn down Thine altars and killed Thy prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away."

15 And the LORD said to him, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have arrived, you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram;

(NAS)

Have you ever had that kind of day or week where you just felt as though it couldn’t possibly get any worse? Maybe it seemed that only a short while before, everything was going fine. But then something happened to send your entire world spinning out of control. Perhaps you’ve experienced such a time in your life when you simply could not endure any more—it could have been so grim in fact that you actually prayed, “Lord, I’ve had enough.”

Well, this morning we are going to look back on a certain prophet who most definitely experienced just such a time in his life. And as we open the Word this morning to his story, it is my hope that, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we will gain new spiritual strength and wisdom that will serve to encourage us in our unavoidable times of crisis.

So far, in our study of the prophet Elijah’s life and ministry, we have found him to be extraordinarily faithful to the Lord. Wherever God sent him, he went. Whatever God told him to do, he did. And up to this point in his ministry, he has been exceedingly successful in his mission to turn the hearts of the people away from Baal and back to God.

Along the way, the Lord performed many miracles through Elijah; his prayer closed up the heavens so that it didn’t rain for three and a half years, he was fed by ravens in the wilderness, and he was miraculously supplied with flour and oil in the midst of a very severe famine. It was also the faith behind Elijah’s prayer that caused fire to descend upon Mount Carmel in the sight of all the people and it was this same faith that even raised the widow’s son from the dead.