What Are You Doing Here?
1 Kings 19:9-13
• Questions. Important Questions. Life-Changing questions. In our first message of this series, we heard Elijah ask, “How long will you limp between two opinions?” To confront this question is to recall that ‘no one can serve two masters – he has to make a choice.’ What is of interest to us is that Elijah, God’s fiery prophet, asks the people who were wearing God’s name this question; while the question we ask tonight is a question God asked Elijah. This should remind every one of us in this place, that every time we ask questions of others, God has His own questions for us.
• Before reading our text, let’s be reminded of this back story. Elijah had asked the people ‘How long’ and then set up the contest between the Baals and Jehovah in a manner which, in human terms, put Jehovah at a disadvantage. I mean, to pour water on an altar which you were hoping to be consumed with fire doesn’t make much sense to the human being. Most of us, might build an altar or even repair our altar to God, but more than likely, we’d be glad to pour some accelerant on the sacrifice so that God would not be held back by this world. (You get what I’m saying?)
• The false prophets called, cried, & even cut themselves trying to get their gods to respond. Honestly, we won’t go back and read the scripture which tells how bad Elijah was to the false prophets (so as not to offend the offendable), but he didn’t hold back in his words. Suffice to say, nothing happened which brings about one of the saddest truths for mankind. We hear that ‘it doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere.’ On Mt. Carmel, the false prophets were sincere enough to spend time crying out to their god in the sight of thousands of people.
• They even cut themselves to make the case for their sincerity. I Kings 18:29 says, “No one answered & no one paid attention.” Interestingly, we give ourselves to the beliefs & ideas of this world, thinking that someone is listening – and ‘no one answers or pays attention because there is no one to hear.’
• Elijah takes over the scene, prays a simple prayer, and the Jehovah God responds with fire which not only consumes the sacrifice & the altar but laps up all the water which drenched the altar. Immediately Elijah gathers the false prophets and kills them. This is a picture of our tenaciously we are to deal with sin. If you keep a ‘little sin’ in your life, it will infect the entire body.
• What a great victory, right?!? Elijah should be fired up, right?!? Come ‘hell or high water’, if God can handle 850 false prophets, Elijah has nothing to fear, right?!? Obviously, wrong.
• When King Ahab witnessed the happening on Mt. Carmel, he went & reported it to the Queen. Jezebel was the ‘wickedness behind the weakness’ & her wickedness possessed little weakness. When Jezebel heard the report, she sent a report of her own to Elijah which simply said, “You’re toast! You will be as dead as my friends that you killed before end of business tomorrow.”
• Elijah, who had just defeated 850 men (with Jehovah’s help), RAN FOR HIS LIFE. Why? Because he was afraid of this woman! He ran a day’s journey into the wilderness. Suffering from fatigue, food deprivation, and quite likely ‘depression’, Elijah prayed for God to take his life. After meeting Elijah’s physical need for nutrition, God sent him on a 40 day hike down to Horeb, God’s mount.
• He had prophesied for God, he had prayed to God, & he had prevailed with God, and now he had run to the mountain of God..why? Because of his fear. So two times, God asks the same question.
• (TEXT & Comment down to the second time the question is asked)
• Verse 9 – This is a simple & straight-forward question to which Elijah is setting on READY for.
• Verse 10 – Rarely does a person convey a story accurately. They normally will tell the story as truth from THEIR vantage point. There are always at least 2 views of the same story. Elijah took a great deal of liberty in relating this story to God. By the way, God knows the whole story.
• Verse 11 & 12 – In order to see life, God’s call, and reality, in true fashion, most of us need a fresh vision of God. Think: Why would Elijah need this, he had just witnessed God’s power 6 weeks ago.
• Verse 13 – So now Elijah is in the proper mindset to hear, respond, and then listen to God.
• Now – are you ready? Are you ready to deal with God’s question, respond to it, & then listen? This question offers us at least 4 pillars, columns, or supports to check out. Like a chair:
1) This question is pointed – “What?” Think about the ways this word is used. From disbelief to discovery, from exclamation to expectation, & from suspicion to sincerity. In this verse, we hear God asking Elijah for a little clarification – just like He asks us. “What?” Here’s the payoff for you and me: God is not asking ‘what’ for Himself because He already knows the answer to any question before He asks. God asked His prophet like He asks His people so that when we offer our answer, we can hear what we say. All too often we get like Elijah was at this point in his life, we’re having a pity party. Elijah has been in a funk (depressed) for over a month and this is after one of his greatest victories for Jehovah. He’s already ran away – ‘what?’, he’s already prayed to die – ‘what?’, & now he is spewing out to God his own pitiful condition, ‘what?’ God is pointed, ‘what’?
2) This question is personal – What ‘are YOU’? This is like when Jesus said, “What do YOU say?” It is more than a little interesting how ready we are to give an answer or an account for someone else, and oh by the way, we’re just being HONEST about them. We can tell you their faults, their flaws, & their failures very quickly. That preacher, that deacon, that teacher, that church, & that class, are all just the starting point for many. Interestingly: God rarely come to us and asks us about someone else, (“How’s Jim, How’s John, or How’s Sue”) His questions are very personal.
• Personal questions demands personal answers which speaks of accountability. In the context of our passage, God asks Elijah this question the first time & Elijah seems to have his answer ready to spit out – and his answer, like ours, makes him look like the hero. “I am the only one left, I have done it all, & it is “I” who is holding this country (church) together. Without me, where would we be?” How many people seem to have Elijah’s attitude & how often does God have to allow them to crash & burn & crawl into a cave before their listen. “What are YOU?” What a question?
3) This question is practical – “Doing?” Now the noose around Elijah’s spiritual neck is tightening. “What are you doing – Elijah?” God didn’t need to hear this from Elijah, He knew exactly what Elijah was doing, hiding in a cave. Can you recall anytime, in the Bible, that God issued a call for one of His people to go into hiding? Certainly several times we can see righteous people ‘in hiding’ (I.E. Moses, Spies with Rahab etc) but like Elijah, too often too many are hiding from the very thing or the very work which God has called them to do. Instead of the ‘doing’ God has called us to, our doing is ‘hold up’ or ‘hiding out’ in a cave. The impact is far-reaching. If God’s people are ‘doing’ what Elijah is ‘doing’ here, then is it any wonder the world is ‘forsaking God’s covenant, tearing down the altars, and killing the spirit of Christ?” The answer is ‘no.’ “Doing” is an active word so let’s ask ourselves, “What are we (am I) doing for Christ?” “What am I doing to reach the next generation of people for Christ?” “What am I doing to show God’s love to a love-less & sin-sick world?” This question is indeed pointed, personal, and practical, but it is also:
4) This question is precise– The last word of this question is like a laser, “What are you doing, HERE?” The first time God asked this question, Elijah possibly spit out his answer without much thought. However, the reason this question is so precise is that Elijah just had a ‘fresh encounter’ with Jehovah God. What are you doing HERE?!?! That brings us to the most precise, practical, personal, & pointed question which we have to face, “What am I doing where I am?”
• Listen God had not misplaced Elijah and didn’t know his geographical location. He wasn’t even saying “What’s a nice guy like you doing in a place like this?” The issue was this: Elijah, why have you chosen, why have you made the decision to be where you are? Can I tell you why Elijah was ‘here?’ He was afraid & so he ran away. He was afraid of the wicked queen, he was afraid of the King, & he was afraid for his life; so he ran away.
• The thing which he did do was that he ran to the mountain of God, the Holy Place, and into a cave there (we call it a place of refuge). If you are going to run, run to our Lord, take refuge in Him. The Psalmist writes, “The Lord is my refuge and fortress.” When we run to Him, we can find hope, help, safety, security, and a renewed since of purpose.
• What are you doing here? Getting renewed, getting restore, and getting revived. When God asks this question, He always has a new mission in mind. If you read the end of this chapter, you discover that God was not through with Elijah because there was much for Him to do.
• One of those things was to make way for a new generation, become a mentor to Elisha so that Elisha would know how to serve God, and unite those followers into an army which would keep the faith with the Father.
• Living in the USA is a blessing and curse. Blessings are apparent while the curse is that the light of our God is growing dim. The oil which keeps the flame burning is not being replenished by the keepers of the flame.
• OUR call! What are we doing, here? There is much to be done. There is a generation to be won. What is YOUR part? What – are – you – doing – HERE?
