This morning we are going to learn about hearing God during the midst of life’s difficult circumstances. How many of you have ever been through a difficult time in which you felt like God had abandoned you, or perhaps that He was nowhere to be found? I am sure a number of us have experienced times of silence from the Lord. Many of us have gone through what is often called a “valley experience” or a “spiritual dry spell,” and we felt like we were completely alone.
I am going to have us look at a situation in the life of the prophet Elijah in which he felt all alone, and by the end of the account we will come to realize that God is always with us and that He has our best interests in mind at all times, even though we may not immediately hear from Him. Let us now stand together at this time in honor of the reading of God’s Word, as we look at 1 Kings 19:1-18.
Elijah on the Run (1 Kings 19:1-18)
1 And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.”
3 And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went 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 broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”
5 Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the Lord came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” 8 So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.
9 And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 So he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”
11 Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces 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 still small voice.
13 So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 And he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”
15 Then the Lord said to him: “Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. 16 Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. 17 It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. 18 Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
All That Elijah Had Done
In verse 1 we read, “And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword.” What had Elijah done, and what prophets did he execute? What is this story all about, and what led to Elijah being caught in these difficult life circumstances that we read about here? Before we can begin to understand this passage, we need to go back a little further to chapter 18 where the story begins to unfold.
In chapter 18, we find an all too familiar story with Israel. The people had begun to bow down and worship foreign gods and idols. Elijah confronted Ahab, the King of Israel (which was the Northern Kingdom), and commanded him to gather all Israel along with the four-hundred fifty prophets of Baal to meet him on top of Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:17-19). He challenged the people to choose whom they would serve, either Baal or the Lord God of Israel (18:21).
Elijah then devised a test to prove which god was the real thing. Elijah told the prophets of Baal to prepare a bull for sacrifice and then place it on their altar, and call on Baal to rain down fire from heaven and burn it up (18:23-25). The prophets then cried out to Baal all day long, and there was no answer; and then Elijah mocked them. Listen to his sarcastic reply, as I read from the English Standard Version: “Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened” (18:27). Baal never consumed the sacrifice, because he was apparently on a bathroom break.
Elijah then prepared a bull to be sacrificed to the Lord God. He dug a trench around the altar “and he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, ‘Fill four water pots with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.’ Then he said, ‘Do it a second time,’ and they did it a second time; and he said, ‘Do it a third time,’ and they did it a third time. So water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water” (18:33-35).
Elijah then called on God to devour the sacrifice with fire, and the Lord immediately consumed every bit of the sacrifice, including the water. Afterwards, the people finally confessed: “The Lord, He is God!” (18:36-39). Elijah then commanded all the prophets of Baal to be seized and taken down to the Kishon River and be executed there (18:40). Now we know the full story of “all that Elijah had done, [and] how he had executed all the prophets [of Baal] with the sword” (19:1).
Elijah Had a Pity Party
In verse 2, we read about Jezebel. Queen Jezebel was King Ahab’s Phoenician wife who had led Ahab astray with her worship of Baal. She used money from the temple treasury to pay nine hundred fifty prophets of Baal and Asherah,(1) and she “massacred the prophets of the Lord” (1 Kings 18:4). If you have ever heard of a woman being referred to as “a Jezebel,” this expression means an evil and controlling woman, and this is exactly what Queen Jezebal was. Her heart was full of evil, and she ran her husband’s kingdom. Ahab may have been the head of the household; but Jezebel was truly the neck.
In verse 2, we learn that she put out a threat on Elijah; and in verse 3, we read that he “ran for his life.” He ran south to Beersheba, which is in Judah, and then he ran even further south to Mount Horeb. In case you didn’t know, Mount Horeb is also called Mount Sinai, and it’s the place way out in the middle of the wilderness where Moses received the Ten Commandments. Elijah went as far away as he could possibly go in order to flee from Jezebel.
What doesn’t make much sense is that Elijah had just witnessed a huge victory by the hand of the Lord, and had seen God’s power in all His glory over Jezebel’s prophets; and then right here, we find him running. Why didn’t he believe that God could win another victory and protect him? Instead of finding Elijah walking in the victory of the Lord, he was running away in fear and he was also feeling sorry for himself.
His self-pity can be seen in verses 10 and 14 when the angel of the Lord asked Elijah why he was hiding in a cave. Elijah replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.” Elijah basically said, “Woe is me, for I am the only one who cares about you Lord. I am the only one left who worships you, and these ungodly people are trying to drag me down. All I can do is run away, and live out the rest of my days alone.” In verse 4, we can see that Elijah pleaded for God to end his life. He said, “It is enough,” or in other words, “I just can’t go on.”
Elijah was likely suffering from burnout and depression. He had expended a great deal of energy in serving the Lord, especially during his last spiritual engagement with Jezebel’s prophets. He had been on a spiritual high, and then he crashed and fell into the depths of despair and self-pity. Battling for the Lord can lead to burnout. During these low times it is often difficult to look up and see God’s guidance and provision. The Lord is a God of deliverance, but Elijah could not see this through his state of darkness. The Lord is also one’s provider, for we read that an angel of the Lord provided Elijah with bread and water (1 Kings 19:5-6).
Elijah felt discouraged and all alone, but the Lord was still there for him. In fact, God still had a plan and purpose for his life, and He didn’t want Elijah to stay where he was. That’s why God kept asking him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (19:9, 13). Elijah wasn’t supposed to be hiding out in a cave, for God wanted to use him. In verse 15, the Lord commanded Elijah, “Go return on your way.” In other words, God said, “Get up and get going!” He also informed Elijah that he wasn’t the only follower of the Lord, for He had seven thousand others who were faithful to Him (19:18).
Elijah Had a Misunderstanding
Elijah had a misunderstanding of God’s presence in his life. He believed that God was present if he could see His power revealed through mighty acts, such as what he had just witnessed with the consumption of the offering by fire from heaven. He felt that the Lord revealed Himself only through signs and wonders. If things were going right, then it meant that God was present. However, when things went wrong, such as Elijah being pursued to be put to death by Queen Jezebel, he felt that God was nowhere in sight. He reasoned that if he were going through such a difficult time that the Lord must have forsaken him, and that he was all alone and in big trouble.
Elijah was one who gloried in what we call “mountaintop experiences.” He was ready to serve the Lord when he could see God moving and when things were exciting; however, when he went through a “valley experience,” or a dry time, he stopped serving the Lord. He could not see Him and so he ran away, and he did not persevere through the hard times. All too often we will serve God when things are going great, but when hardship strikes we drop out of service. We feel like the Lord has abandoned us, and we fail to realize that He is still there beside us through it all, watching out for us and providing for our every need. Just because we can’t see or hear the Lord, it does not mean that He is not there.
Leonard Sweet shares a story that hits home the idea that God is with us even though we don’t see Him or hear Him. Sweet says,
Native Americans had a rite of passage for all boys when they turned thirteen. On the night of their first teenage birthday, they were blindfolded and taken several miles from camp. The warriors would leave this new teenager alone in a dense, dark forest. He would be forced to stay there and fend for himself throughout the night. The darkness seemed endless as wild animals would howl, the wind would make strange noises, and the rustling of leaves would sound like an approaching enemy.
After enduring a night without rest or sleep, the dawn would finally begin to break. The young teen would see the forest as it really was . . . flowers blooming, tall majestic trees swaying in the breeze, wildlife scurrying for food. To his utter surprise, though, he would come to see an imposing male figure just a few yards away. Unbeknownst to the scared warrior, his father had been there the whole time and he was ready to protect his son against any wiles of the forest. No matter what experience we undergo, God stands there with us, even when we’re unaware of His divine presence and protection.(2)
God Taught Elijah a Lesson
Elijah failed to see God in the little things, such as the provision of bread and water. God felt He needed to get Elijah’s attention and teach him a much-needed lesson about the Lord’s presence. Since Elijah was impressed only with the big things in life, the Lord got his attention through some really big things. The angel of the Lord commanded Elijah to go out and stand on the mountain, and we read in verses 11-12, “The Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces 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; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.”
We see that the Lord got his attention through His mighty deeds, but the Lord spoke nothing through these mighty forces of nature. Elijah must have been dumbfounded. He had expected to hear from God through His great displays of power, and yet he received no answer from Him. So then, when and how did Elijah hear from God? He heard the Lord through “a still small voice” (v. 12). God was not heard through great displays of power, but in the midst of the silence – in the moment in which Elijah thought He was nowhere around. I believe this scenario taught Elijah the lesson that the Lord is with us all the time and that He never abandons us.
He Is There If We Will Listen
Whether it is preaching, mission work, or just plain attending church, we can all become discouraged when we are worn out and God doesn’t seem to be moving much, or saying much to us. We tend to believe the Lord is only with us when we see Him working and moving in mighty ways, such as when we are touched by a meaningful worship service. When those dry times come, we want God’s “action” so badly that we sometimes attempt to make things happen. We might start going to church more, or serving the Lord more, hoping to force God to show His face.
Some of us will become discouraged and begin to complain to the Lord, saying, “Why are you not speaking to me anymore God?” or “Why have you abandoned me Lord?” We are either working so hard, or complaining so loudly during these times of silence, that we can neither see nor hear from the Lord, even though He is actually right there beside us the entire time. The worse thing we can do when we feel that God is nowhere around is to complain or occupy ourselves with busy work.
In those quiet times God will speak to us through “a still small voice.” How can we hear a still small voice if we don’t slow down or become quiet enough to listen? Remember that the Lord says, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). If we could simply rest in the assurance of knowing that God is always with us, then we would be able to hear the Lord during the quiet times.
Time of Reflection
I want to encourage you this morning by assuring you that God is always with us. In Hebrews 13:5 the Lord says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” If you are going through a valley experience right now, and you are discouraged, thinking that God is nowhere in sight, then take heart. The Lord is right there by your side, and if you will trust Him and be still while abiding in His peace, then you will hear His voice; and when the Lord speaks to you, then you will discover that He has a plan and a purpose for your life.
Just because you are going through the valley does not mean your life and your purpose have ended. We all go through these dry times. Sometimes the dry spells are for rest and recovery from a difficult ministry assignment, and at other times we go through valleys in order for God to shape and prepare us for a task that lies ahead. Please be still, and rest assured in God’s peace and presence, knowing that the Lord will never leave you nor forsake you.
The Lord never forsakes anyone who pursues Him, or who even has an inkling of following Him. In 2 Peter 2:9, the Bible says, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise . . . but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” If you have opened the tiniest space in your heart to make room for knowing Jesus, then He will pursue you until you let Him in; and when the Lord knocks on the door to your heart and speaks to you, then you will recognize Him as a still small voice; the inner voice of conviction telling you to repent of your sins, and to receive His gift of salvation and eternal life.
NOTES
(1) Dietrich Gruen, ed., “Jezebel,” Who’s Who in the Bible (Lincolnwood: Publications International, Ltd. 1998), p. 158.
(2) Leonard Sweet, Learn to Dance the Soul Salsa, 2000.
