Elijah Part 3
"Lord, I’ve Had Enough"
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.
It was evident for all to see that Elijah most definitely had connections in very “high places.” At the time, he was the only active servant of God left, yet the Lord was making tremendous reforms in Israel through this lone prophet. As you may recall, when we last left Elijah, he had just won a major battle for the Lord against Baal and he had all the prophets and priests of the false deity killed. The people had witnessed for themselves the awesome power of Yahweh when He answered Elijah’s prayer with both fire….and then with much needed rain. Yes, the drought was finally over and it seemed as though Elijah’s work was nearly completed for the people on the mount had unanimously vowed to once again exclusively serve the Lord.
I can almost picture Elijah falling back into his Lazy Boy recliner, exhaling a deep sigh of relief after a hard day’s work. Much too often, we don’t realize that these men of faith that we read about in the bible were merely human and just as spiritually vulnerable as we are today. In his letter to the churches, the apostle James states that Elijah was a man “just like us”—that is to say that he was subject to the same weaknesses and temptations as we are. And let me tell you, at this point in time, Elijah was both physically and emotionally exhausted.
But with this major victory behind him, he just knew that his running and hiding days were over. Surely he was no longer the most wanted man in Israel for everyone had seen for themselves the remarkable power of his God. And they, along with the king, greatly welcomed His mercy falling abundantly upon the land in the form of life-giving rain. Yes, Elijah was now a hero. He had been faithfully obedient to God and now he looked forward to a well-deserved rest from his enemies.
Shortly after, just as the stressed-out prophet was beginning to catch his breath, a servant of the king’s palace arrives with a message. I’m sure Elijah must have thought to himself that the messenger was coming to express words of sincere gratitude from Ahab. And maybe even to officially proclaim the enactment of the verbal agreement they made on Mount Carmel stating that Yahweh was to be the only God worshipped in Israel.
But as the weary-eyed prophet listened to the servant’s message, he couldn’t believe his ears. This messenger came not to convey heartfelt thanks on behalf of the king and his subjects, but rather he came relaying a threat on his life from queen Jezebel! Put yourself in Elijah’s sandals for a minute. Just when he thought he was making progress, just as he was beginning to see the light at the end of the long dark tunnel of apostasy…… it happened. All of a sudden Elijah felt the weight of the world coming down upon him. In 1Kings 19:3 when Elijah was faced with this “promise” from the queen that he would be killed within 24hrs, we are told that the prophet “ran for his life.”
This same man who dared rebuke the king of Israel with a prophesy of doom; this same man who stood alone against a multitude of idol worshippers and emerged victorious.. now turns tail and runs like a scared rabbit at the threat of one woman! Why? Because, for reasons we are not told, Elijah had somehow lost his spiritual edge. Before, at the brook and in Zarapheth, he had waited on the Lord—he had sought instructions from On High as to what he should do. But now, fear had driven him to impatience, and impatience had driven him to disobedience.
He ran from Jezreel through Judah to the southernmost town of Beersheba. But even after he had put so much distance between him and Jezebel, he still didn’t feel safe. So he left his servant there and continued by himself on another day’s journey into the desert. The bible tells us that, after he had gone as far as his exhausted body would allow him, he sat down underneath a juniper tree to rest. And before he drifted off to sleep, Elijah uttered a very strange bedtime prayer. While most of us pray that we might wake to see another day, Elijah prayed, “Lord, I’ve had enough, take my life.” (1Kings 19:4)
Remember, here is a man who was running to preserve his life and yet now he prays to the Lord that he might die! Fear makes us do very strange things! I don’t know why but we seem to lose all rationalizing capabilities when we submit to it’s hold. Brothers and sisters, fear is one of Satan’s favorite and most effective weapons against the children of God. It tends to disorient us and cause us to take our eyes off of Him who alone is able to save us “to the uttermost.”
Think about it, queen Jezebel and her imaginary god, Baal were all but defeated after the showdown on Mount Carmel. But the wicked queen had one last card to play, and she played it well… you see, she knew that if she were to kill Elijah, then all the people who witnessed the power of his God would no doubt rebel against her. So she did the next best thing, she used the element of fear to get rid of him for a while. And she used that time to regroup, do some damage control and once again deceive the people. If, when Elijah received that threatening message from Jezebel, he would have sent that messenger back with a bold declaration of his God’s power and a warning to her to repent and convert, things would have turned out a lot differently. But his running away did a tremendous amount of damage to Israel’s newfound reformation and greatly offset the progress that was made on Carmel.
So here we are, with an obviously depressed, exhausted and emotionally spent prophet collapsing underneath a broom tree in the middle of a desert. In his mind, Elijah had done all he possibly could but yet had come up short in fulfilling his mission. Was God pleased that Elijah had not consulted Him before acting so rashly? Of course not. But as with us, God realized that Elijah was merely human and therefore subject to both weakness and lack of faith. That’s why He sent His distraught servant some much-needed encouragement and strength.
Let’s look at 1Kings 19:5-9
“All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.
7 The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.”
So you see, God didn’t abandon His servant because of this mistake that he should have known better than to make. Rather, God allows him to run—to give full vent to the desperation welling up inside of him. Along the way, the Lord sustained him.
Even though it appeared that Elijah was aimlessly running away from someone, he was actually running to Someone. He had a deep need to flee to Horeb (Sinai), the mountain of God. This was the very mountain where God met with Moses and it was there that Elijah so desperately wanted to commune with the Almighty himself. So many times we, like the befuddled prophet, think that our geographical location ( a church, Jerusalem, or the site of an apparition) is paramount to our spiritual connection with God. But friends, we serve a God Who meets us “where we are.” We don’t have to find Him because He always has His eyes on His children and is always poised to give full attention to our prayers—no matter where we are.
When the prophet awakened, he was greeted by the voice of the Lord which asked the question; “What are you doing here, Elijah?” God here gently rebukes him for going so far off course from the mission on which he was sent. Why did he flee from a fight that God was fighting for him? Why did he leave his post at such a critical juncture? Let’s read Elijah’s reply in 1 Kings 19:10
“10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
What a contrast between Elijah’s attitude towards his fellow Israelites and the stand that Moses took long before! Moses pled with God on behalf of his people even though they committed a terrible sin, going so far as to ask Him to blot his own name out of the book of life if God would not forgive his brothers. Elijah, on the other hand, seems to be saying; look Lord, these people are hopeless! They want nothing to do with you, they have already killed the other prophets and now they are after me! I have tried my best but they are as stubborn as a whole herd of mules.
But Elijah had yet to answer the Lord’s question; “what are you doing here?” Neither his frustration, his fear, nor his desperation were valid reasons for going AWOL. But as any good Commander and Chief will often visit his troops to encourage, instruct and inspire them, so God came to Elijah.
1 Kings 19:11-14
11 The LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
The whole reason Elijah made this grueling journey to the mountain was because he desperately wanted a special audience with the Lord—one that he thought only to be possible on Horeb, the Mountain of God. So the Lord presented Elijah with three awesome displays of natural power: wind, earthquake and fire. But the Lord was not in either of these manifestations, rather He was in the gentle whisper. And again, God asked Elijah; “What are you doing here?”
Although his reply was the same as the first time he was asked, perhaps Elijah now said it with a different tone realizing that although God works mighty miracles and brings down exact judgment, His most effective work is done much more intimately and personally. And even though he had lost patience with his brother Israelites, God had not yet given up on them but rather was beginning the next phase of His plan to turn the hearts of many back to Him.
The miraculous sign on Mount Carmel was the “wind, earthquake and fire” in that it was successful in capturing the people’s attention. It was now time for the “gentle whisper.” It is only through this phase are people truly saved—through that personal relationship rather than through fear or even awe.
Notice how, except for one little “glitch” (the death threat from the queen), everything was going exceptionally well. After all, the people vowed to serve the Lord and Him only, the rain came bringing an end to the famine, and the prophets and priests of Baal were dead. But somehow Elijah couldn’t seem to see the good through the bad! That’s what happens when we allow fear to override our faith. Just like Peter and his water-walking debut; he was doing fine as long as his eyes were on the Lord but when he became distracted by the wind and the waves, he began to sink.
Brothers and sisters, our ministry in this world is much like Elijah’s. Sometimes we feel like “we’re the only ones left” and that everyone else is out to get us. Much too often we long to say with the distressed prophet; “Lord, I’ve had enough!” But take comfort in the fact that when Satan increases the intensity with which he inflicts us, it could very well be a good sign that we are stepping on his toes! In fact Jesus tells us to rejoice when we are persecuted for His name’s sake. And as we learned from the Reformation, persecution seems to breed faith in amazing volume.
Elijah felt the need to make a long journey to find that faith, along with comfort and reassurance. As with an exhausted, bruised and bleeding boxer, he longed for the bell to ring so he could “go to his corner.” In this world in which we live, we all desperately need a lot of “corner time” where our Father can quench our thirst, wipe our brow, and mend our wounds. But we need not make a difficult journey to some far away place because God is as close to us as a prayer and is as easy to find as our bible. And when we are finally reassured, encouraged and strengthened, God will tell us as he told Elijah; “now go back…” because, until the Lord returns, it is our responsibility to help draw attention to that “gentle whisper."
God bless
