“Lord, I can’t go on. My life is pointless. Please, just take it from me.” The prayer of someone in the midst of chemotherapy? Perhaps. The cry of an adolescent who doesn’t feel she fits in? Maybe. The plea of God’s champion prophet? Surprisingly. Last week in Episode II of our sermon series “Seer Wars”, God worked a great victory on top of Mt. Carmel through his prophet Elijah. The idol Baal was shown to be a fake god. Baal’s prophets were put to the sword. And the Israelites who had witnessed the showdown confessed: “The LORD—he is God!” (1 Kings 18:39). So why would Elijah offer a desperate prayer asking God to take his life when everything was going his way? Jezebel. She was the reason for Elijah’s plea. Today in Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith, Queen Jezebel steps out of the shadows as the Phantom Menace to threaten the prophet Elijah. How did God deal with the affect that threat had on his servant? How does he care for us when we become disheartened and think that life is not worth living? Let’s find out.
By the time the credits rolled for the Star Wars version of Episode III, I was exhausted. Not because the movie was boring but because it was so action-packed. Perhaps the most active character in the movie was the Jedi, Obi-Wan. If he wasn’t leading military campaigns on the other side of the galaxy, he was duelling it out with the best the enemy could throw at him. The prophet Elijah was no less active the day of the showdown on Mt. Carmel. He had not only spent the day climbing a mountain, building an altar in the hot sun, and supervising the execution of Baal’s prophets, he finished the day by running 25 km to Jezreel at chariot-speed through wind and rain (1 Kings 18:46). At the end of it all I’m sure Elijah just wanted to collapse in bed and sleep but that didn’t happen. When King Ahab returned home he told his wife Jezebel everything that had happened, especially how Elijah had ordered the death of the 450 prophets of Baal. Jezebel was furious. No longer content to work behind the scenes, Jezebel herself sent a message to Elijah saying: “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of [the prophets of Baal]” (1 Kings 19:2b).
How serious was Jezebel’s threat? Had she really wanted to kill Elijah she would have sent an assassin, not a messenger. So it seems that all she wanted to do was scare Elijah into leaving Israel so that he wouldn’t further influence her husband and the rest of the Israelites (Jeske). Her plan worked. Elijah fled south leaving Israel behind and went to Beersheba, 120 km away at the southern tip of Judah. Although the God-fearing king Jehoshaphat ruled Judah, Elijah still didn’t feel safe there from Jezebel’s assassins so he left his servant in Beersheba and kept going south into the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula. This was the same area the Children of Israel had wandered forty years on their way to the Promised Land. It’s a land without food or water. A land inhabited by scorpions and snakes. A land that is suicidal to venture into alone or without provisions (Jeske). Elijah did both. The fact that Elijah didn’t care if he lost his life was confirmed when he finally stopped running, curled up under a tree, and prayed: “I have had enough, LORD. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors” (1 Kings 19:4b).
Have you ever said a prayer like that? What Christian hasn’t? Life is not easy, especially for followers of Christ. We not only have the usual challenges of sickness and the everyday rat race to put up with, we also have to deal with Satan’s attacks. Now I’m not suggesting that Satan doesn’t attack unbelievers, he does, but not as intensely as Christians who are not yet in his clutches. He especially goes after believers who are eager to share their faith because Satan knows that the words they share with others will cost him subjects. This is the same reason the Sith in the movie version of Episode III sought to destroy the Jedi. He knew that if they remained, they would continue to rally others against his oppression.
One way Satan attacks Christians is to get us to think, as he got Elijah to think, that a believer’s life is pointless. Sure Elijah won the showdown at Mt. Carmel but did it change things in Israel? It obviously hadn’t changed Jezebel’s attitude towards the true God. In the same way Satan may have gotten us to think that it was great having all those visitors from soccer camp in church last Sunday, but where are they now? Was the camp worth the effort? Why bother with outreach programs if they don’t seem to bear fruit?
How does God answer prayers of frustration and anguish? God could have, should have rebuked Elijah. After all he had abandoned his post. Elijah should have been pounding the pavement of Israel’s population centers and solidifying the faith God had worked in his people on top of Mt. Carmel, not selfishly running for his life (Jeske). God also could have chastised Elijah for failing to trust that he would protect him from Jezebel as he had protected him from Ahab earlier in his ministry. In the same way God should rebuke us when we complain about life, for in essence we are saying that God has broken his promise not to give us more than we can handle. When we complain we’re also implying that God has somehow abandoned us.
Instead of issuing a rebuke, however, and granting the death Elijah wanted, God simply listened to his servant pour out his heart and then gave his prophet what he needed - the peaceful relief of sleep (Jeske). Not only that, while Elijah slept God sent an angel who baked bread and set out water so that Elijah could be strengthened when he awoke. Friends, this is how God deals with our prayers of anguish. He doesn’t tell us to buck up as we often tell our children to do when they complain about hardship. God patiently listens to our cries. Then he strengthens us by giving us what we need, which isn’t always what we want. One way he encourages us is through the work of angels. Yes, those spirit beings God created to do his bidding are still employed for our benefit (Hebrews 1:14). Have I ever seen an angel? I don’t think so but then again angels can take any form they choose. That kind stranger who stopped to help when I had car trouble, or the person who gave me money to pay for groceries when I forgot my wallet may have really been an angel.
God uses other means to strengthen and encourage us too. While Elijah received an angel-prepared meal in the middle of the desert to lift his spirits, God himself provides a special meal in Holy Communion that literally lifts our spirits up to heaven. It’s through the bread and wine of Communion that we receive the body and blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and the assurance that we are dearly loved children of God. Make faithful use of this Sacrament because it does provide strengthen and comfort. Despising it, thinking we can take it or leave is worse than what Elijah would have done had he refused to eat the meal the angel had made for him.
After the angel provided a second meal for Elijah he said to the prophet: “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you” (1 Kings 19:7b). The journey the angel meant was the trip to Mt. Horeb at the southern end of Sinai (in all Elijah traveled 480 km on foot from Jezreel to Horeb). This was the place God had met with Moses and given him the Ten Commandments. There God himself would appear to Elijah and reenergize him for service. How did God do that? You’ll have to come back next week for Episode IV: A New Hope to find out.
In the meanwhile let’s take to heart what Episode III has taught us. We’ve learned that our foe Satan won’t fold easily. Just as Jezebel lashed out at Elijah, Satan will double his efforts to attack when he feels threatened by the Word we share with others. But we’ve also learned that God is even more relentless in his support of us. When Elijah thought he couldn’t go on, God patiently listened to his servant and answered his prayer of desperation by giving him what he really needed: rest and strength, not death. In the same way God continues to give us what we need, not what we want. May God give us the faith to trust his choices for us – whether that’s sickness, or a life without an earthly companion, or life without riches. And until God calls us home to heaven, may we fulfill his purpose for us here on earth. That purpose is to glorify God with our words and actions, no matter what our lot in life. We will do this because God is with us, as he was with Elijah. Amen.
