OUR LORD LIFTS UP THE DOWNCAST
1 KINGS 19:3-8 - July 31, 2005 - Pentecost 11
Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
How was your week this past week? At times some days are better than others, and at other times the days seem to be worse. Of course, we all had to struggle with the oppressive summer heat this past and will struggle with the heat next week too. That is part of summer. It is a blessing to see that the Lord doesn’t forsake us or forget us. We will learn that from Elijah this morning. Though he felt forsaken and forgotten, he even fell down into the depths of despair. Sometimes we may feel that way. There are days when nothing works out. We start one project and it leads to one, two or three hours and we are ready to throw up our hands in despair. The Lord says he lifts us up from despair.
This week our congregation will have Vacation Bible School, Built on the Rock. We praise the Lord that we may have 15 to 20 children. Some will hear for the first time that God is the Rock. He is the fortress. This is something we have known for a very long time for most of us, maybe from little on. That the Lord is our Rock is something very important to us. When Isaiah the prophet spoke to the peo-ple, he reminded them of all the things the Lord had done for the children of Israel. The Lord God al-mighty led them out of Egypt, guided them, protected them, and delivered them because he cared for them. In chapter 63, he writes: "In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old" (Isaiah 63:9). The same Lord God almighty also lifts us up.
OUR LORD LIFTS UP THE DOWNCAST
I. In the midst of despair
II. God’s strength delivers.
I. IN THE MIDST OF DESPAIR
We have only a few verses in chapter 19 of 1 Kings for our text to study. We will need to know the rest of the story. We are going to have the rest of the story at the beginning and end about Elijah, the prophet of God. We should read the whole chapter. Very briefly though, Elijah thought he was alone. The prophets of Baal were numerous in the land. So Elijah went to the prophets of Baal, and he chal-lenged them to a sacrifice duel. Elijah said, "Come on prophets of Baal. We will build an altar and put our sacrifices on them. You can pray to your gods to consume the sacrifice." They accepted this chal-lenge. The prophets came and danced, worshiped and prayed, cutting themselves, hoping that Baal would answer. All day they did this. Finally, Elijah said, "Let me call on my God." Before Elijah called on the Lord God, he said to soak the sacrifice with water. The people dumped gallons of water, and it ran down around the altar. They thought nothing is going to happen now. Elijah prayed and we know what hap-pened. The Lord God consumed the sacrifice. The Lord God consumed the altar. He consumed the wa-ter that was there. The rest of the story is that the prophets of Baal were put to death. Close to 1,000 prophets were put to death. One would think Elijah would be on top of the world, but sadly during this time the children of Israel had a wicked king, Ahab and his wife Jezebel. Jezebel and Ahab were not happy that their prophets were killed. They were not happy with Elijah, this man of God, who stood up and opposed them and won.
So they threatened to put him to death. This is where our text begins: "Elijah was afraid and ran for his life." We can imagine how Elijah must have felt. Not long before this, he stood before the altar of God who consumed it in a flame showing his power. Now after Elijah hears about Jezebel and Ahab wanting to put him to death, he is scared, so he runs away. Once again, he feels all alone. Elijah feels there are no believers left. "When Elijah came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there (He was going to face the end of his life alone), while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree and sat down under it and prayed that he might die." Elijah comes to a city and leaves his servant there and goes on a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree and sat down under it and prayed that he might die. Those are the depths of despair. These are the words of despair: "’I have had enough, LORD,’ he said. ’Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.’"
We notice a number of things here. First of all, Elijah realized that he was just a sinner, no better than anyone else. Elijah also felt had had enough. The Lord had defeated the prophets of Baal, but still in power were the king and queen, Ahab and Jezebel, who cared not for the word of the Lord. As the rulers went so did the nation. Elijah said, "Enough is enough is enough!" "Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep." Elijah is in the midst of despair. Elijah is depressed, distressed and downcast. But we are soon going to see that the Lord does not leave him there.
These things happen, don’t they? There are times when we might be in the midst of despair. We might be distressed and downcast. Hopefully, not as bad as this--where we walk out and say to the Lord, "Enough is enough." But that is our lot in life. As believers, the Lord reminds us this world is an evil world, that this world is full of sin. Our lives are filled with sin. All our actions, thoughts and words are tainted by sin. So from time to time the Lord has to remind us that this world and the place we live in is not to be our heaven on earth. Our heaven is yet to come. The world around us makes us seem like this life is all there is. If we live the good life, we don’t prepare for the future. Maybe once in awhile we are caught up into that type of thinking. We try to make a very, very good and comfortable life for ourselves and for our children. From time to time we recognize what is the use. The writer of Ecclesiastes says this: "What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaning-less"(Ecclesiastes 2:22,23). Doesn’t that describe us? We toil and strive, and yet our work is filled with pain and grief. At night we can’t sleep, because we are so wound up. Ecclesiastes says this too all mean-ingless.
Don’t be caught up in the things of this world. In this life we are reminded that moths and rust de-stroy the treasures of this world. They don’t last. Yet we know because of our sinful nature, we too are caught up in the materialism of this world. We too are caught up in thinking that our work is so valuable and so important that we can’t take time off. We cannot ever relax from it. Ecclesiastes says this too is meaningless, because this can drive us to despair, distress and to be downcast when we need not be down-cast. All of this happens when we look inward to ourselves and when we look to the advice of others. Proverbs reminds us: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5,6). That is a hard thing to do, not to lean on our understanding, not to lean on the advice and wisdom of others – experts. In this life, we are taught to fend for ourselves, to trust in ourselves and our wisdom and knowledge. But the Lord says, "But remember my wisdom and knowledge". How do we remember the wisdom and the knowledge of God’s word? How do we not get to the point of saying, "Lord, I have had enough; I no longer want to live?"
We can be like Paul coming to the Lord in prayer. You may remember the Apostle Paul had a thorn in his flesh and it inflicted and bothered him so much that he prayed more than once. Finally the Lord said, "No, you are going to have this thorn through your life. It will remind you what is important." What was important? Paul was weak and God was strong. Sometimes the Lord shows us our weaknesses so that we might see his strength. We realize that we cannot trust in our own understanding and realize that we cannot help ourselves. Then we understand how much the Lord does help us, how he lifts up those in the midst of despair. The answer to Paul’s prayer is in 2 Corinthians: "But he said to me, ’My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me"(2 Corinthians 12:9). People do not think about boasting in their weaknesses. We may not think about boasting in our tribulations. The Apos-tle Paul says that we are reminded how the Lord lifts up the downcast.
The Lord lifts us up who might from time to time be stressed out, filled with despair and be down-cast. In the midst of that despair is the Lord’s strength.
II. GOD’S STRENGTH DELIVERS
We go back to Elijah. Baal is defeated and the false prophets are put to death. Is he on top of the world? No. Ahab and Jezebel seek his death. Elijah takes his servant and leaves him behind in the city. Elijah travels a day’s journey and sits in the wilderness under a broom tree, an overgrown brush, and lies down and goes to sleep. He has had enough. The Lord is not done with Elijah. "All at once an angel touched him and said, ’Get up and eat.’" We can imagine that Elijah thought he was dreaming. "He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread over hot coals, and a jar of water." Not just food to eat but water to drink, a precious commodity in the wilderness. Elijah saw those things and could tell they were real. "Elijah ate and then he lay down again." Elijah was satisfied and went back to sleep figuring he still had had enough. Elijah was not going to move from that spot, the cool shade, the end of his life, all by himself. Who was going to bother him?
The Lord is going to bother him. The Lord is not going to let him die in the midst of despair. "The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, ’Get up and eat, for the jour-ney is too much for you.’" Now Elijah realized the Lord had plans for him. The angel said that the jour-ney is too much. There was yet a great struggle that Elijah would face. "Elijah got up and ate and drank." Elijah was satisfied. He listened to the angel. The Lord does that. Sometimes by very miracu-lous means the Lord preserves his saints.
What happens next? "Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God." Elijah went to Horeb, the place where God was. Elijah went to commune with God and speaks with God. He traveled for forty days and forty nights just like Moses traveled forty years in the wilderness.
Now the rest of the story, if you read the chapters following chapter 19, you find out that Elijah does speak with God. He goes on Mount Horeb and wants to see God. Elijah wanted to be reassured that the Lord is the true God that he worships and loves and serves. The Lord protects Elijah in a cleft of the rock on Mt. Horeb. There came a great wind, an earthquake and a fire. Then there was a still, small voice. It was the Lord.
This is still the Lord today. The Lord does not always use the obvious or powerful to deliver. With a still, small voice, our Lord still strengthens us. He delivers us from the midst of despair. Yes, at times the Lord uses miraculous things. Thankfully in this world we are able to look around us and look at the things that have happened that we know are miracles. We probably do not have to think too hard to remember miracles that have taken place in our lives. There are many close calls the Lord has protected us by the miracle and the power of his angels. Near accidents, life-threatening situations from which we have been rescued are the Lord’s miracles. Listen to these words of the Psalm: "For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone"(Psalm 91:11,12). You and I have a guardian angel. Now we do not want to go off the deep end and do like some who have. We do not talk to our angels. This does not hap-pen, except for very few instances in God’s Word. The angels of God are there to defend us against the demons that are all around us, which we cannot see. God’s angels are there to protect us and keep us out of harm’s way from time to time.
We are also reminded that the Lord God strengthens and delivers us with his voice, his word. God’s strength is in the power of his word that is living and active. You and I gather around the word of God every Sunday and hopefully every day as you read it. Our Synod had Convention last week. There were lots of things to talk about, and today when you go home read the summary on the back of the cal-endar. There were lots of things about finances. But there were no arguments about the Bible, no argu-ments about the word of God, no arguments about creation, the six days of creation, and the sinfulness of man; because our Synod walks together. Believers everywhere, here in the US and throughout the world in our Synod, agree that God’s Word is just that--God’s Word – without mistake. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for forty days. Satan offered him all kinds of things if Jesus would worship him. At the end Satan offered Jesus food, because Jesus was hungry. If you read that account, you find out that Satan was always misquoting Scripture, and the Lord Jesus Christ always quoted it correctly. So Jesus told him: "’It is written: ’Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’"(Matthew 4:4).
We know how much we need to eat each day and probably don’t miss too many meals. The Lord reminds us too that we don’t live on just bread alone. We live on the Word of God, which is the bread for our souls, which is the gift of life for eternity. Sometimes we cut ourselves short. We have opportunities that we miss by not studying God’s Word or reading God’s Word. These are all blessings. We are not going to fall short if we take time out and open up the Scriptures and read them. We are not going to fall short if we take the time and study what God has to say to us. It is hard though, isn’t it? Satan does not want us to ever get close to the Bible. The devil does not want us to come to church. There are more im-portant things to do. There are meetings, vacations, and all kinds of things that seem so appealing that sometimes God’s Word does not seem appealing. That is our sinful nature and our own flesh. It is not natural for us to open up the Bible. It is not natural for us to be in church. Our sinful nature is opposed to God, an enemy of God. But thankfully by God’s grace, the Lord has changed our hearts. God has given us a Christian nature, and now we realize the privilege and the joy that we get from hearing God’s Word and reading and studying it. Jeremiah says: "When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty" (Jeremiah15:16). Our church holds fast to that--that the Word of God is our joy and delight. This is the strength of God that delivers us. Our Lord who created the heavens and the earth lifts up the downcast, lifts us up especially in the midst of de-spair. God’s strength delivers us.
It is true from time to time we are going to struggle in this life, but for a reason. We might even stumble and fall. We are going to stumble so that we may fall into the hands of our loving Savior. He can hold us close so that in our weakness we see more clearly his power and strength. In our sinfulness we see God’s holiness. In our lost ness we see God’s salvation for us. God works all things out for our good. In today’s second lesson is listed all those things—height nor depth, angels nor demons—they can’t separate us from the love of God. Why is that? Paul says: "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). The Lord sacrificed his Son, Jesus, our Savior. With infinite care God will and does provide for us day-by-day right into eternity. Our Lord who loves us lifts up the downcast. So if you have those moments of despair and distress, sit down and talk to the Lord. God’s strength delivers from even the deepest depths of despair. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
Sunday radio broadcast @ 9:05am on KQNK 106.7FM or 1530AM + www.kqnk.com
Readings – Pentecost 11 (ILCW-A) = ISAIAH 55:1-5; ROMANS 8:35-39; MATTHEW 14:13-21
