1 Kings 19:1-15, Psalm 42, Psalm 43, Isaiah 65:1-9, Psalm 22:19-28, Galatians 3:23-29, Luke 8:26-39.
A). THE WILDERNESS AND THE CAVE.
1 Kings 19:1-15a.
I. The Wilderness of Dissent (1 Kings 19:1-8).
It is hard when we stand out in the crowd, but Christians are different. The Bible names us a ‘peculiar people’ - called out of darkness into His marvellous light (1 Peter 2:9). Privileges carry responsibility. Dissent is a lonely wilderness.
Sometimes we are most vulnerable in the full blush and head-rush of perceived victory. It was just at such a time that another ‘man of God’ let his guard down, disobeyed the LORD, and lost his life (1 Kings 13). Similarly, no sooner had Jesus pronounced the blessing over Peter’s famous confession of faith, than Peter had to be sternly rebuked for trying to divert Jesus from His destiny (Matthew 16:16-23). WE MUST REMAIN ALERT, EVEN AFTER BENEDICTION.
After the LORD’s victory on Mount Carmel, and Elijah’s slaying of the Baal prophets (1 Kings 18:40), Elijah may now have let his guard down. Queen Jezebel was furious! She swore under oath to her imaginary ‘gods’ that she would have Elijah slain by the very next day (1 Kings 19:1-2).
What Elijah needed to learn, and what we all need to learn, is that victory belongs to the LORD (Proverbs 21:31). TO HIM BE THE GLORY! Instead, Elijah turned flight, and ran (1 Kings 19:3).
Is it not strange that, a day later, having escaped the wrath of the Queen, Elijah prayed that the LORD would take his life (1 Kings 19:4)? Elijah had plummeted from triumph to despondency, oblivious to the fact that the day had passed without the Queen fulfilling her vow. This is a classic case of burn-out, known to many involved in the spiritual warfare.
Exhausted, and sitting under a juniper tree, Elijah was overwhelmed with a sense of inadequacy: ‘I am not better than my fathers’ (1 Kings 19:4). Yet Elijah was in two minds. Both earlier (1 Kings 18:22), and later (1 Kings 19:10; 1 Kings 19:14), Elijah insisted that he was the only faithful one left.
This might be a good point in which to mention Obadiah. This man is like one of those unsung heroes of the church, quietly doing the LORD’s work without any fuss or drama. While Obadiah was caring for others in the land (1 Kings 18:4) - a thing known to Elijah (1 Kings 18:13) - Elijah was experiencing God’s presence and provision in the midst of the wilderness (1 Kings 19:5-8). While Obadiah was hiding others in a cave, Elijah hid himself in a cave (1 Kings 19:9; 1 Kings 19:13).
II. The Cave of Doubt (1 Kings 19:9-14).
Why are YOU here?
Indignant self-righteousness.
Wind, earthquake,
and fire -
and a thin, barely perceptible voice in the midst of the silence.
Why are you HERE?
Indignant self-righteousness.
We might insert here some comparisons and contrasts between Moses and Elijah.
1. The LORD passed by Moses (Exodus 33:19; Exodus 33:22; Exodus 34:6), just as he later passed by Elijah (1 Kings 19:11). But whereas Moses interceded for an idolatrous people (Exodus 32:11-14), Elijah was here wallowing in self pity (1 Kings 19:4; 1 Kings 19:10; 1 Kings 19:14).
2. This was the same wilderness, and the same mountain - but Elijah was going backward, not forward. However, both appeared later, with Jesus, in another mountain (Luke 9:28-31).
III. "Go, Return on Your Way" (1 Kings 19:15a).
The LORD’s practical response to His despondent servant was to recall him to duty, and to send him away from that cave.
We can draw strength from the fact that the LORD has not deserted us. He is still with us in the wilderness of dissent. He is still with us in the cave of doubt. He is with us in the recall to duty. WE ARE NEVER ALONE.
B). THE PANTING DEER.
Psalm 42:1-11; Psalm 43:1-5.
There is such a thing as speaking truth into raw emotion. Imagine a situation where you are one of the worship team in the Temple at Jerusalem, and you are taken hostage to Samaria (cf. 2 Kings 14:14). On the way your heart identifies with a deer panting for water as you find yourself yearning for the things of God from which you have been so recently, so suddenly, and so violently dragged away (Psalm 42:1-3).
You reflect on the past which seems now lost to you (Psalm 42:4), but you also ask questions of God. You summon up courage to hope in the midst of affliction (Psalm 42:5). You are still downcast, but you will yourself to keep your God in mind (Psalm 42:6).
You reassure yourself of the LORD’s unfailing covenant love; and even in the night, the dark night of your soul, you continue to praise Him (Psalm 42:8; cf. Acts 16:25). You call out to the Rock of your salvation - Jesus- but it seems that there is no answer (Psalm 42:9-10). Yet still you persist, and dare to hope for a restoration to the familiar place of His closeness (Psalm 42:11).
You cry out to God again in your pain. You seek vindication against those who taunt you, who are questioning your faith (Psalm 43:1-2). You gain courage as you reflect on the light, truth, and covenant faithfulness of your God, and you dare to envisage an end to your exile (Psalm 43:3-5).
C). THE NEARNESS OF GOD.
Isaiah 65:1-9.
People sometimes talk about somebody who ‘found God.’ God was never lost; it is people who are lost. When the prodigal son returned to his father, the father said, ‘this my son was lost, but now is found’ (cf. Luke 15:24).
Yet, in their distress, people will call upon a God in whom they do not believe, have not trusted. ‘This calamity,’ they ask, ‘where is God in it?’
The fact of the matter is, that God is never far away. He constantly speaks into our situations saying, “Behold me, behold me” (Isaiah 65:1). ‘Where art THOU, Adam?’ (Genesis 3:9).
He calls a people who are not, after all, His people, and spreads out His hands toward those who are walking “in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts” (Isaiah 65:2; cf. Romans 10:20-21).
Yes, Jesus stretched out his hands upon the Cross (cf. Romans 5:6-10). This, this is the way of salvation!
‘Come unto Me,’ said Jesus (Matthew 11:28). ‘I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Me’ (John 14:6).
The LORD says, ‘Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else’ (Isaiah 45:22).
‘This is the way, walk ye in it,’ says our prophet elsewhere (Isaiah 30:21).
The prophets pointed to the LORD, but the people, even His own covenant people, went merrily on their own way, sacrificing in gardens, dwelling amongst graves, eating pig flesh and all (Isaiah 65:3-5a). Even today people seek God in all the wrong places and all the wrong ways, telling God to His face that their way is better than His.
All this excites the indignation of the LORD (Isaiah 65:5b). The separation between God and man is not of His making, but ours. There must be a day of reckoning, even for His own covenant people (Isaiah 65:6-7; cf. Jeremiah 16:18).
There is, after all, such a thing as a generational curse (cf. Exodus 20:5). Even Jesus says (to the scribes and Pharisees), ‘Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers’ (Matthew 23:32).
Yet even in judgment, the LORD is merciful. He is still reaching out to a people within His people - a remnant if you will (cf. Romans 11:5). He will not destroy the whole bunch of grapes on account of a few bad ones - what farmer would? There is yet “a blessing in it;” “I will not destroy them all” (Isaiah 65:8; cf. Zechariah 13:8-9; Mark 13:20).
The Lord is ‘long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish’ (2 Peter 3:9). He names His “elect,” “My servants,” and they begin to possess the promised land (Isaiah 65:9).
Those who were 'not My people' are now called 'My people' (Hosea 2:23), including both Jews and Gentiles (Romans 9:25).
The prospect ahead for those who are His is ‘a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness’ (2 Peter 3:13; cf. Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:1).
D). THOU HAST HEARD ME.
Psalm 22:19-28.
Whatever deep sense of desolation rocked David into penning these words, his God-inspired prophetic insight reaches far beyond the limits of his own time and experience to the Cross of Jesus – and beyond.
In the midst of His sufferings, and despite His sense of desolation, Jesus continued to make His appeal to His God (Psalm 22:19). No matter how bleak our situation, nor whether we can ‘feel’ the presence of God or not, faith will persist: the object of our hope will not fail us. The LORD is our strength.
In His direst need, He casts His soul upon God. “Deliver me” (Psalm 22:20). “Save me” (Psalm 22:21). Then, out of the desolation, the triumph of a prayer breakthrough: “THOU HAST HEARD ME!” (Psalm 22:21b, K.J.V.)
The first person singular of Psalm 22:1-21 - ‘I’ – switches to persons plural from Psalm 22:22 onward, as the composer looks forward to the day when he will no longer be a stranger in the great congregation (Psalm 22:25). Have we the faith that sees beyond the affliction to its end (Job 23:10), beyond the fight to the victory (Psalm 22:22-24); to praise God in the midst of affliction like Paul and Silas (Acts 16:22-25)? David - and Jesus – envisaged an end to the present tribulation.
The Psalmist calls upon his brethren to join him in celebration of the victory wrought by God, who ‘has not despised the affliction of the afflicted’ (Psalm 22:23-24). The celebration takes the form of a testimonial feast, to which the whole congregation is invited (Psalm 22:25). Those who formerly shared his tears (cf. Romans 12:15), now have opportunity to rejoice with him.
The reference to “the meek” anticipates the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (cf. Matthew 5:5). Those who seek the LORD are told, “Your heart shall live for ever” (Psalm 22:26). This in turn points to the regeneration accomplished by Jesus: the making alive of those who were ‘dead in trespasses and sins’ (Ephesians 2:1).
Jesus eventually opened the doors of salvation to those outside the family: to the poor and afflicted, and even to strangers beyond the boundaries of Israel (Psalm 22:27-28). This universalisation of the gospel, rightly understood, is the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:3).
E). ACCORDING TO PROMISE HEIRS.
Galatians 3:23-29.
The closing paragraph of this chapter is leading to a triumphant conclusion: literally, “If ye are Christ’s, then Abraham’s seed ye are, and according to promise heirs” (Galatians 3:29). This explains the radical unity here: again literally, “There is not Jew nor Greek; there is not bondman nor free; there is not male and female” (Galatians 3:28). That is to say, all these distinctions are irrelevant to “as many as were baptised into Christ” (as an outward symbol of an inward reality) because “Christ ye” (all, without distinction) “did put on” (Galatians 3:27).
Paul has been speaking of the whole course of human history from the promise to Abraham (Galatians 3:16), through the giving of the law (Galatians 3:17), to the coming of Christ (Galatians 4:4). The Apostle’s emphasis is that ‘if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise’ (Galatians 3:18). ‘For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture shut up all things under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those that believe’ (Galatians 3:21-22).
As we enter into our text, the law is compared to a state of confinement (Galatians 3:23). First, we were kept in custody by the law, because all it could do was expose our sin (cf. Romans 7:7). Second, the law hemmed us in, enclosed us (cf. Luke 5:6), restrained us. This is how we were before faith came. Anyone who seeks to live by the law is shutting themselves off from the faith that is being revealed.
The law is also compared to the status of a child under a stern guardian (Galatians 3:24a; cf. Galatians 4:1-3). Until he is of age, he must be taken to school and his behaviour monitored by a rod-bearing slave (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:15; 1 Corinthians 4:21).
Moses (the Law) could only lead Israel as far as the River Jordan. Then he yielded reins of power to Joshua (who had the same name as Jesus). In like manner, the law was our disciplinarian up until the time of Christ, still with this object: “that by faith we might be justified” (Galatians 3:24b).
“But now faith having come we are no longer under that guardianship” (Galatians 3:25). This is described elsewhere as our having ‘died to the law by the body of Christ… who has been raised from the dead’ (Romans 7:4). Our graduation from the tutelage of the law occurs when we become “sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26).
I have pointed out before just how frequently Paul uses the expression ‘in Christ’, ‘in Him’, ‘in the Beloved’ in Ephesians 3:1-14. The same Apostle writes here in Galatians that we are sons of God through faith “in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26); that “as many as were baptised into Christ” did “put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27); that “ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28); and that “if ye are of Christ, then Abraham’s seed ye are” (Galatians 3:29).
We are “sons of God” only “through faith” and only “in Christ” (Galatians 3:26). We have “put on” Christ, likewise, just as the child puts on the garment of his manhood; and our baptism is the outward symbol, sign, or seal, of that inward faith (Galatians 3:27).
Then we read that “we are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Jews are still Jews and Gentiles are still Gentiles (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:13), but in Christ (and only in Him!) the old distinctions are done away (cf. Ephesians 2:15). Likewise, despite the fact that Paul addresses both slaves and freemen separately in 1 Corinthians 7:21-23, social and economic differences pale into insignificance when both are “in Christ Jesus” (cf. Colossians 3:11).
One aspect of this conversation is lost in translation when people read ‘neither male nor female’ where the Greek literally reads: “There is not Jew nor Greek; there is not bondman nor free; there is not male and female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). The ‘not/nor’ of the first two comparisons is replaced with ‘not/and’ in the third.
“Not male and female” seems to echo the Creation account: ‘God created man in His image; in the image of God made He him; male and female created He them’ (Genesis 1:27). How apt that, in the new Creation, in Christ Jesus, God should again establish the unity in diversity which had existed in the Garden before the Fall (cf. 1 Peter 3:7).
Thus we come full circle back to where we began: “If ye are Christ’s, then Abraham’s seed ye are, and according to promise heirs” (Galatians 3:29). The spiritual heirs of Abraham are in view here: all those who are found in Christ Jesus. Ours is a spiritual inheritance: ‘eternal in the heavens’ (2 Corinthians 5:1); ‘to be with God which is far better’ (Philippians 1:23); ‘and so shall we ever be with the Lord’ (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Alleluia. Amen.
F). A MISSIONARY TO THE GENTILES.
Luke 8:26-39.
The account of the man with the Legion of devils is a dramatic demonstration of the kind of spiritual warfare which is going on for the bodies, minds and souls of mankind.
We notice, first of all, that it is Jesus who initiated this particular confrontation. ‘Let us go over to the other side of the lake,’ Jesus instructed His boatmen (Luke 8:22). The journey turned out to involve life-threatening hazards to all in the boat, but in the end ‘He commanded even the winds and the water, and they obeyed Him’ (Luke 8:25).
Jesus stepped ashore in the Gentile territory opposite Galilee (Luke 8:26). The first to meet Him was a sorry figure of a man, naked and demon-possessed, who had been living alone in the tombs (Luke 8:27). The man’s neighbours had tried keeping him chained up, but he would break the fetters and would be driven by the devil into the wilderness (Luke 8:29).
Jesus had already defeated the devil in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-13). Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man (Luke 8:29). As on a previous occasion (Luke 4:34), the devils recognised Jesus, and sought to deter Him from His purpose (Luke 8:28).
It seems, sometimes, that defeated foes have the loudest voice (Luke 8:28). Jesus could see beyond the tormentors to the man, and asked his name (Luke 8:30). The many voices within the man answered on his behalf, “Legion” (a regiment of 6000 Roman soldiers, the term no doubt being used to represent their great number).
Jesus had previously proved Himself stronger than the devil (Luke 4:35), so now the devil gathered his minions – but even a multitude cannot stand against our Lord. The Legion of devils besought Jesus that He would not cast them into the abyss (Luke 8:31). They asked permission to enter the many swine feeding on the mountain (Luke 8:32).
Notice that Satan cannot do anything without the Lord’s permission (cf. Job 1:12; Job 2:6). The devil may be like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8) - but he is lion on a chain (cf. 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6). Jesus gave them permission to enter the swine - no doubt knowing what the outcome would be (Luke 8:32-33).
In the Old Testament, swine are listed as unclean animals (Leviticus 11:7; Deuteronomy 14:8). At Jesus’ command and permission, the devils left the man and entered the swine. In an ironic twist within the narrative, the whole herd ran headlong down a steep ravine into the lake, and were choked (Luke 8:33).
The swineherds gathered a posse against Jesus after the loss of their trade, and their fellow-countrymen found the patient whom they had known and feared “sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind” (Luke 8:34-35). The swineherds also told how the demon-possessed had been “healed” (Luke 8:36). The man had been restored, the devils had been cast out, and his soul had been saved.
The good citizens asked Jesus to leave their borders, as many a supposedly good person has done since (Luke 8:37). The healed man, understandably, wanted to go with Jesus. However, on this occasion Jesus sent him back to his home, wherever that may have been (Luke 8:38-39).
There the right-minded man could bear a fruitful testimony to Jesus. Having been instructed to “show what great things GOD has done for you”, the man “published throughout the whole city what great things JESUS had done for him” (Luke 8:39). To share the one is to declare the other (2 Corinthians 5:19).
