“I’m So All Alone” by Steve Keeler
Elijah, in a contest between Jehovah God and Baal, had just shown that Baal, the god of Jezebel, was a false god and that Jehovah was the One True God! He had embarrassed the queen by proving that she and her idol god were liars and cheap imitations of the real thing. At the end of the contest, Elijah ordered the prophets of Baal be taken to the creek and be killed.
1 Kings 19:1-8
“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 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 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.” (N.A.S.B.)
Today we are going to catch up with Elijah and all the goings on. In our Scripture we find Elijah running away from Queen Jezebel. He is sitting under a broom tree (Juniper). It is really a shrub that he tried to use to get out of the desert sun. As we can tell from the text, he was not a happy camper.
Two weeks ago, we studied about the feud that Elijah setup between God and Baal. He began to preach to the folks there that they needed to make a choice as to who they would serve God or Baal. So he setup this test and challenged the prophets of Baal to see if their god was greater than the God of Israel.
When it was clear that Baal would not and could not answer the prophets, Elijah prayed and in dramatic fashion, God sent fine from the sky to totally consume Elijah’s sacrifice as well as the alter it sat on and all the water they had poured on it.
Imagine the look on the faces of Baal’s prophets as Elijah’s alter was completely consumed? And to top it off by the end of the day, all 450 of the prophets of Baal were dead at Elijah’s command.
You know Queen Jezebel was plenty ticked off, and when the queen’s not happy you can also bet that King Ahab wasn’t happy. So they ordered Elijah killed. Elijah thought the better part of valor was to run, so he took off and didn’t stop until he was way out into the desert. That’s where our Scripture finds him, sitting, trying to get some shade from a bush. He is crying out to the Lord. “I have had enough, LORD! Just kill me and get it over with.”
Now Elijah was pretty certain that he was in the center of God’s will yet here he was on the run again. He was all alone with no support, out in the desert. I’m sure he was feeling all those really uncomfortable things like disappointment, abandonment, disillusionment, despondency and so on.
He was likely feeling like that old kids song, “Nobody loves me, everybody hates me guess I’ll just eat worms!” Now I don’t know if any of you have ever felt this way but I can sure tell you that I have. Sometimes it’s our friends that can make us feel that way and sometimes it’s people that are much closer. Even family or spouses can sometimes make us feel this way. Well, Elijah was so upset that in his frustration he cried out to God and said, “why don’t you just kill me?” He was ready to be done with all this. He was done fighting to try to help the lost. He was discussed with the so called “children of God”. And this is what brought on this pity party.
Elijah had tried so hard to reach the people for God and he was feeling that his success rate was way less than it should be. I kind of can’t blame him for being depressed as I too have felt that way from time to time.
On top of that feeling that he just wasn’t getting through, he had a second worry, the king and queen were out to kill him. Oh and there was always that thing about being stuck out in the desert with no food or water and very little shade from a very hot sun.
His friend and servant was at least a days journey away and that’s if he was waiting for Elijah. Fact is, like everyone else, he likely headed back to town as soon as Elijah was out of sight.
Have you every thought that nobody cared if you lived or died? That’s how Elijah felt, he was sure that nobody cared if he lived or died as a matter of fact, he was pretty sure that most everyone wanted him dead.
Elijah began to doubt that God was indeed with him. He was beginning to think that just maybe God had forsaken him. Just listen to his own words as he cried out yet again to God in verst 14; “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
Now I know that you and I both have at some point felt the same way, we have felt as though God was far away from us. When things start to go bad for us in whatever situation, we all have the same tenancy as did Elijah, we all cry out to God much the same way as Elijah did. But what he was really saying is “You owe me God, haven’t I been faithful to You? Why are you not helping me now?”
Now the real problem with Elijah wasn’t all those bad things going on in his life and in this particular situation, his problem was he had lost focus and when he lost sight of God, he began to focus on himself.
Elijah’s faith was shaken by fear. Sometimes we tend to forget the everyday gifts God supplies to take care of our everyday needs. We tend to forget the special care He takes when we are in a particularly bad situation. This happens because fear blinds us. God took care of Elijah at the creek by providing bread and meat. He took care of Elijah during the famine by providing a food with the widow and her son.
It was miraculous when God sent Ravens to bring Elijah food and then when the creek went dry, God sent word ahead to have a widow women waiting to receive Elijah so he could be fed.
This too was miraculous as she didn’t even have enough food for her and her son yet when God says He will provide you can take it to the bank that there be enough. The little bit of wheat and the bottle of oil lasted the family and Elijah until the famine was over.
Now, all of God’s provision is being forgotten as Elijah is in the grip of fear as the queen is having him hunted like an animal.
And now, sitting here under this bush, he has lost sight of God and started focusing on himself and his pity party started.
All to often you and I are just like Elijah. We too have a real tendency to turn our vision to ourselves and loose focus on God. We can then easily forget all that God has done for us as we wonder “Where are You now God?” We forget our life is a wonderful gift from God. When times get hard we tend to go and whine to God and whoever else will listen. When we do that we are heading for the great disappointment. Because when we forget God’s provision, we loose focus on God, we start looking to ourselves for hope, for power, for strength, for holiness and self worth to no avail.
When we do that, our situation has no chance of getting better. Oh, we may think that we have the power we need and the strength, holiness and value within ourselves but time always shows that this is not the case.
Now I know there have been times in your life when you have felt like you have given more than you share. You felt as though you have done everything in your power and folks just didn’t seem to appreciate all that you’ve done. There may have even been times when you felt like God must not be paying any attention to you and has forsaken you.
When that happens, know this, Satan is fighting to blind you from seeing how God is working in your life. And if you allow him to do this, you could end up like Elijah, looking inward, wallowing in self-pity, crying out to God, “Why have you abandoned me, I deserve better, don’t you know how much I love You?”
Fact is, as sinners, what we deserve is death. It’s only by God’s grace that we live. By our very nature we look inward, and Satan just loves to try to use that against us. But I’ve got good news. God can fix this too! God can refocus our vision on Him.
God didn’t abandon Elijah and He will never abandon you either. If you ever start to question if God has abandoned you, simply start writing down the blessings He has brought into your life and very quickly you will find that the answer is no, He’s been there all the time.
You can start with God’s greatest blessing, He allowed His Son to hang on the cross and although He was without sin, He paid the sin debt you owed so that you might live.
God, rather than turning His back on you, allowed Jesus to take your sin upon Himself and He turned His face away from Jesus as Jesus cried out from the cross, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
This great sacrifice gave you a reason to live and a knowledge that the best is still to come. You, as a Christ follower, should know without a doubt that God loves you, that He is ever present and all powerful and He is our Provider! So you see, you never need to feel alone, abandoned, forgotten or unloved. There is always One that loves you so much that He gave His Son for you.
Just as God provided for Elijah by giving him the food and water he needed, Jesus provides for you by giving you Himself, The Bread Of Life, to sustain you. He gives you Himself, The Living Water so that you should never thirst again.
Jesus gave His very life for you so you could have salvation, forgiveness of sin and life everlasting.
God is calling to each of you today, reassuring us all that He is Jehovah Jireh our Provider, He is Jehovah Rapha our Healer, He is Jehovah Shalom our Enduring Peace, He is Jehovah Tsidkenu our Righteousness!
He reassures us that in Him, we will never be alone. He will never abandon us or forsake us. And best of all, He has prepared a place for us so that one day, we will live in His very presence for all eternity.
Amen!
