1 Kings 19 and I'm going to be continuing to preach about Elijah.
Now last Sunday we talked about in the morning sort of the beginning of Elijah's ministry
and career and his pronouncement that it wasn't going to rain and then he goes to the widow
woman and so forth.
And then last Sunday night we talked about the big famous story in 1 Kings 18 where Elijah
faces off with the prophets of Baal and God sends down fire from heaven and it consumes
the altar and the sacrifice and all the children of Israel are kind of blown away by that and
they fall on their faces and declare the Lord to be the true God and so forth.
But 1 Kings 19 is actually one of my very favorite chapters in the book of 1 Kings because
it's so real and it covers the aftermath of that great event where Elijah calls down
fire from heaven.
See a lot of times we would just think of that story and the end, they live happily
ever after type of a thing but in reality often in the Bible a great victory is followed
by defeat.
Also what you have to understand is that the people in the Bible are human and the Bible
tells in the New Testament in James chapter 5 that Elijah was a man of like passions as
we are.
So he went through the same type of emotions and feelings that we go through.
He wasn't some kind of a superman or any kind of an extraordinary person necessarily.
He's human like the rest of us but God used him in an extraordinary way.
But what's interesting about Elijah is that he goes through this really low point right
after he has this great victory with the prophets of Baal.
He goes into this really dark place for well over a month and probably longer than that
but he goes into this really dark place, he's depressed, he's down, he's upset and yet he's
able to get through that and continue serving God and then later he's going to come back
toward the end of the book and at the beginning of 2 Kings and he's really going to finish
strong and here's the thing about the Christian life is that it's not measured in years, it's
measured in decades and the people who actually end up doing great things for God, it's not
because they just have some flash in the pan moment where they do something great but rather
it's the people who can push through those dark times and go through those low points
and come out the other side still serving God.
Now every single person is going to go through low points in their life and I love the fact
that the Bible shows us a glimpse of that instead of just only showing us the successes.
Every single person is going to go through periods where they're not necessarily excited
about going to church, they're not excited about reading the Bible, they're not excited
about soul winning, maybe they're down, depressed, whatever, you're going to go through those
low points but the difference is between those who wash up during those low points
and those who actually just grind it out and push through and come out the other side and
they're still serving God.
You know weeping may endure for the night but joy cometh in the morning and if you push
through those dark times there will be brighter days that will come once again.
And so let's look at this chapter together beginning in chapter 19 verse 1 of 1 Kings
it says, and Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and withal how he had slain all the
prophets with the sword.
Because remember at the showdown with the prophets of Baal, once Elijah won the showdown,
he kills all the prophets of Baal, they kill 850 false prophets.
I mean it sounds like a win but yet Ahab goes and tells Jezebel his wife what was done and
look what the Bible says in verse 2, then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah saying
so let the gods do to me and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of
them by tomorrow about this time.
So she's swearing and laying an oath upon herself, putting a curse upon herself if she
does not kill Elijah in the next 24 hours.
So she's saying I am for sure going to kill you, you're not going to get away.
So it says in verse 3 and when he saw that he arose and went for his life and came to
Beersheba which belongeth to Judah and left his servant there.
So he's running for his life, there's a warrant for his arrest, a death warrant and he runs
away and he goes to Beersheba which is the very edge of the land of Israel.
So a lot of times when you're reading the Old Testament it'll talk about from Dan to
Beersheba because Dan is the northernmost point and Beersheba is the southernmost point.
And so he gets to this southernmost point of Beersheba and it stops there because after
that it's just wilderness, just desert and it's a very difficult desert to cross.
The children of Israel wandered in the wilderness but they were supernaturally fed with manna
from heaven and water out of a rock because it's not a hospitable climate.
And so he comes to Beersheba and he leaves his servant there.
So he ditches his servant and he just goes by himself out into the desert.
When the Bible says wilderness it's usually referring to desert and he used those words
interchangeably.
And so he goes down into that desert about a day's journey into the wilderness and came
and sat down under a juniper tree and he requested for himself that he might die and said it
is enough now, O Lord, take away my life for I'm not better than my fathers.
He basically goes a day into the wilderness and just said, okay God, just let me die.
I'm out in the middle of the desert, I'm by myself, I don't have any resources, I'm sick
of it, you know, just kill me now.
He prays to God today.
Now that's pretty low.
That's a low point right there when you're feeling that way, when you're praying that
kind of a prayer to God, when you're going out in the middle of nowhere and just laying
under a tree and asking God to take your life.
And you wouldn't really expect this, would you, because in chapter 18 it was such a victory,
it was so exciting, and he had basically the greatest moment of his life, the greatest
event of his life, the greatest peak of his ministry.
But what you have to understand is that a lot of times when we as human beings, when
we peak, it's not necessarily as satisfying as we thought it was going to be.
And we in life, we're always trying to achieve this goal or that goal, we're striving to
get to that point that we feel like is going to make us happy, but it usually doesn't satisfy.
So a lot of times, even at our most victorious moment, it can end up being a downer because
it wasn't necessarily as great as we thought it was going to be, or it's kind of like,
okay, where do we go from here?
You know, I've done my greatest work for God, it's all downhill from here, what now?
And so you can see that that's why Elijah is somewhat depressed.
He expected the whole nation to turn back to God, but now instead of that, there's a
warrant for his arrest and he's going to be killed and he's having to flee the country.
He doesn't even get to enjoy whatever revival he brought through his preaching.
And so he asked God that he would just die.
And so here's the thing, no matter how low you get, people in the Bible have been that low.
So you say, pastor, you don't understand how depressed I've been, how sad I am, upset
I am.
But here's the thing.
Look at Elijah.
He wishes he were dead.
Jonah wished he were dead after a great victory at Nineveh.
Jesus Christ was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.
We don't have a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
I mean, Jesus went through everything that we go through.
He had those same emotions.
Jesus wept.
And so the people in the Bible, they did great things for God.
They finished strong in the case of Elijah, but yet they still went through those low
points.
So just because you're going through a low point, just because you're depressed or upset
or even just weary of even living your life, just realize other people have been through
that same thing that you're going through and they've come out of it the other side
successfully.
And so can you if you just stay with it.
So look what the Bible says after he prays this prayer, God answers his prayer, but not
in the way that he asked.
Because whenever we pray to God, if we're one who does God's will and loves the Lord
and we pray to him, he listens, he answers us.
But a lot of times God kind of translates our prayer into not necessarily what we ask
for, but what we actually need.
So the Bible says that the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us.
You know, there are certain things that we don't know how to pray as we ought.
And so praying wrong is better than not praying at all.
Put it that way.
If you don't pray at all, you just didn't pray, nothing happens.
If you don't know what to pray, pray something.
Because even if you pray the wrong thing, the Holy Ghost is like a translator that takes
your stupid prayer and translates it into something good that you actually need.
So God doesn't always give you what you want or what you ask for, but he gives you what
you need.
But you have to pray to get those things.
And of course, we know Elijah is a great man of prayer.
He already prayed that it wouldn't rain for three and a half years and then he prayed
for it to rain again.
And we've already seen that in the last Sunday.
But here, the answer to his prayer comes, it says in verse five, as he lay and slept
under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him and said to him, arise and eat.
So an angel shows up and stirs him awake and says, all right, buddy, get up and have
something to eat.
And of course, typically an angel in the Bible is just in human form, just a man, just a
random dude out in the middle of nowhere, but it's actually an angel of God.
And that's why the Bible says that some have entertained angels unawares, because these
just look like normal guys.
And so this guy basically stirs him awake and says, all right, buddy, wake up, time
to eat.
And he looked, verse six, and behold, there was a cake bacon on the coals and a cruise
of water at his head and he did eat and drink and laid him down again.
So a lot of times when people are depressed, they end up sleeping a lot, just kind of laying
around, lethargic.
And so he's stressed out, he's upset, he just wants to lay there.
So the guy gets him to eat and drink, but then he just kind of lays down and goes back
to bed as it were.
And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, verse seven, and touched him and said,
arise and eat because the journey is too great for thee.
And he arose and did eat and drink and went in the strength of that meat 40 days and 40
nights unto Horeb the Mount of God.
So this is a special meal.
This is some kind of a supernatural food, which again is kind of reminiscent of the
children of Israel who wandered in this exact wilderness and were fed with manna from heaven.
So God sends this angel, gives him this meal whereby he eats and drinks and is able to
fast for 40 days and 40 nights going through the wilderness just on the strength of that
food that he fills up on with the angel.
And so he basically recreates the journey of the children of Israel because he goes
to Mount Horeb, the Mount of God, which is also called in the Bible Mount Sinai.
So Horeb and Sinai are used interchangeably.
So he basically hikes from Israel back to Mount Sinai where the children of Israel had
originally gotten the Ten Commandments and he came thither unto a cave, verse nine, and
lodged there and behold, the word of the Lord came to him and he said to him, what doest
thou here, Elijah?
What are you doing?
Mount Sinai?
What are we doing here?
Why did you come here?
Now this goes to show that it's not necessarily God's plan or God's will for him to have gone
to Mount Sinai.
This isn't necessarily plan A for Elijah's life because he's a prophet of God.
He wasn't told to go to Mount Sinai.
He's probably supposed to be preaching in Israel or doing whatever.
He's the one who just ditched his servant and just went on this insane hike out into
the wilderness.
Yet God sends him the angel to feed him.
Yet God actually gives him enough food and drink to get him through the entire 40-day
journey even though this isn't necessarily God's idea because when he gets there, God's
not like, okay, good, you came.
I'm glad you're here, you know.
I wanted to meet with you here at Mount Sinai.
No.
He's like, what are you doing here?
Why did you come here, Elijah?
Why would you go?
Obviously, he's just kind of wandering in the wilderness and he just goes to Mount Sinai,
just, why not?
You know, he's just hiking.
He's just trying to get away from Israel, trying to get away from Jezebel, just trying
to get away from everything and maybe he'll just die in the wilderness and that's okay
with him.
And so what we can learn from this is that even when we are not necessarily doing exactly
what we're supposed to be doing, even if we get a little bit out of God's will, even if
we get a little bit down and depressed and we're not serving God at our peak performance,
you know, God still loves us and cares about us and isn't just going to forsake us.
So we shouldn't just think like, oh, I might as well throw in the towel because I messed
up a little bit.
I got into sin a little bit.
I'm a little backslidden.
I've been out of church.
I've been, you know, not soul winning or whatever.
I haven't been reading my Bible.
You know what?
Arizona is a man who in general loves the Lord and is serving God.
And if you're a person who in general loves God and has served God and you get backslidden
or get a little off track or a little off course in your life, you know, God's not going
to just kick you to the curb and just throw you in the trash and get rid of you.
You know, he still cares about you and he's still going to help you out and he still doesn't
want you to just die out in the middle of the desert and be like those Arizona postcards
where it's just like a guy leaned up against a cactus and he's just a skeleton and he said,
hey, it's a dry heat, right?
Which isn't even true this year because it's been like the wettest summer ever.
But anyway, God's not going to just leave you high and dry.
God still loves Elijah.
Not only does God still meet Elijah's needs, he's still feeding him, he's still giving
him something to drink, but he's still also communicating with him.
You know, he still is talking to him.
He still wants to use him as a prophet.
And so don't think to yourself that God has forsaken you because here's the thing, as
long as you're saved, he said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you.
Now our unsaved people forsaken by God all the time, all the time, every single day somebody's
being forsaken by God, but it's not one of his children because if you are saved, Jesus
has promised us, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
And so Elijah is not forsaken.
Jesus was forsaken on the cross so that we would never be forsaken.
He went through that for us.
He who knew no sin became sin for us that he might, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him.
You know, he took upon himself the sins of the world.
He died on the cross for us.
He took our punishment for us and he said, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?
But you know what?
We can never really say that truly because we're saved through Jesus.
We'll never be forsaken.
He was forsaken so that we don't have to be okay.
And so Elijah is still someone that God cares about and wants to use.
And so he says, you know, what, what do is that here, Elijah, showing it's not God's
idea for him to be there, but he's just asking him, what are you doing here?
Verse 10 and he said, I've been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts.
We in 2022 would use the word zealous, right?
Meaning the same thing.
You know, we would say, I've been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts for the children
of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars and slain thy prophets with
the sword.
And I, even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away.
You know, I'm the last prophet of God, they already killed all these other prophets.
I'm the last one and now they're trying to kill me.
And here I've been so zealous, I've been serving God.
You know, when am I going to catch a break?
When am I going to turn the corner here?
I mean, I thought after three and a half years of hiding out and after confronting the prophets
of Baal and killing 850 false prophets, calling down fire from heaven, I thought we could
finally relax a little.
You know, I thought we could kind of enjoy.
I mean, this guy's been on the land for the last three and a half years.
He was kind of excited to get back to Israel.
And now all of a sudden it's like, oh, you're going to die.
You're going to be killed.
Now obviously if he would have had more faith, he could have just known that God's going
to protect him and he could have just waited to see what God wants him to do.
He doesn't have to flee out in the wilderness, but he's human.
Like all of us, he's human.
He's not a perfect person.
And so he fled.
That's what he did.
It wasn't right, wasn't God's plan, but that's what he did.
And so he's explaining his rationale.
You know what?
Why haven't we turned the corner spiritually?
Why is there not revival?
Why are they trying to kill me now after I defeated the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel?
Verse 11, and he said, this is basically God speaking to him, go forth and stand upon
the Mount before the Lord and behold the Lord passed by and a great and strong wind
rent the mountain and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord.
So Elijah is standing out there and just this massive wind comes and just ends up just even
breaking rock formations.
You know, the wind blows and rock formations are breaking apart and crashing down just
due to the extreme wind and it says, but the Lord was not in the wind.
Okay, so the wind comes crashing through rocks are smashing and crashing, but the Lord was
not in the wind and after the wind, an earthquake.
So there's actually an earthquake in the mountain, but the Lord was not in the earthquake after
the earthquake, a fire.
So basically a wildfire breaks out in the wilderness and there's a wildfire and is burning,
but the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire, a still small voice.
And notice that there's no statement that, you know, God wasn't in the still small voice
because God was in the still small voice.
He was not in the wind, he wasn't in the earthquake, he wasn't in the fire, he was in the still
small voice.
And this goes back to what I was preaching last Sunday night about how these great big
grandiose events where God brings down fire from heaven aren't really necessarily going
to be the transformative events that lead to people being saved.
It's more just the day in, day out, one on one talking to people about Christ, showing
them from the Bible.
You know, this is that same lesson that I was giving last Sunday night.
God's basically giving this lesson to Elijah, showing him, look, it's not always going to
be the big bombastic victory of, it's not going to rain for three and a half years and
calling down fire from God and killing 850 false prophets with the sword.
It's a still small voice.
You know, it's God's word.
It's the Bible, okay?
You know, everybody wants to see all the miracles and all the grandiose exciting things, but
really it's getting up every morning and reading your Bible quietly where you hear
from God.
He's not going to necessarily speak to you in an earthquake, a fire or a hurricane.
And it was so when Elijah heard it, so Elijah heard the small voice and he knew that it
was God.
And it was so when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out
and stood in the entering in of the cave and behold, there came a voice unto him and said,
What doest thou here Elijah?
And he said, I've been very jealous, again, our word zealous for the Lord God of hosts
because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars and
slain thy prophets with the sword.
And I, even I only am left and they seek my life to take it away.
So there's a little bit of stubbornness here on the part of Elijah because God asked him
a question and he gives God the answer.
And then God asked him again, apparently God's not really satisfied with the first
answer that Elijah gave him.
Otherwise he wouldn't be asking him a second time, but he sort of just stubbornly verbatim
just repeats the same answer, which is sort of like Jonah.
God came to Jonah and God's merciful to Jonah after Jonah has a bad attitude and Jonah wants
to die.
Kind of a similar story in a sense.
And God comes to Jonah and he's like, doest thou well to be angry?
Like come on, Jonah, should you really be getting mad right now?
And he yells out to God, I do well to be angry, even unto death, go and kill me God,
but I'm still mad.
You're not going to stop me from being mad God, go ahead and kill me.
And again, Jonah is not an atheist shaking his fist at God.
Jonah's not agnostic.
Jonah's not worshiping Baal.
Jonah was a great man of God, a spirit filled man of God who'd been serving God for most
of his life, okay, or all of his life.
We don't know, but we know he'd been serving God for a long time and doing great things
for God, but yet he'd reached sort of just a breaking point or a limit.
He's upset, he's human.
And so we see Elijah kind of stubbornly spouting off the same answer to God again.
He's not as messed up as Jonah.
He's a better guy, but you know, he's still a little bit stubborn and upset here.
So verse 11 says this, or no, I'm sorry, not verse 11, good night.
Verse 14 is where we got that answer again.
Verse 15, the Lord said unto him, so God's not going to ask him a third time.
He's like, okay, buddy, fine.
So he said, go return on the way to the wilderness of Damascus.
And when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria, and Jehu the son of Nimshai
shall thou anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel, Mahola
shall thou anoint to be prophet in thy room.
And it shall come to pass that him that escape at the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay, and
him that escape at the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay.
Yet have I left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal,
and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
So he gives them these instructions about what he's supposed to do.
And then he just says, and by the way, you're wrong.
You're wrong when you say you're the only one who's still serving God, because I've
reserved to myself 7000 men who haven't bowed the knee to Baal.
And so I'm just saying you're wrong.
And he gives them some stuff to do.
So I think what we see here is kind of almost a recipe for what to do when we're kind of
in these low points or we're depressed or upset or don't feel like serving God, and
we're struggling to do what we're supposed to do, because that's pretty much where Elijah
finds himself.
And obviously we need to listen to the word of God.
That's the first thing you know, God speaking to him.
And so when you get in this position, keep reading your Bible.
Even if you don't feel like reading your Bible, even if you feel like you're not getting anything
out of it, even if you're backslidden in other areas, even if you're out of church or not
sold or whatever.
You know what?
At least crack open the Bible and read it just a little bit just to give God a chance
to say something to you.
Give God a chance on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday to speak to you and crack open your Bible
and read it no matter how you're feeling.
And you know what?
There are times when I just can't get enough of reading my Bible and I'm reading a bunch
of Bible and I'm loving it and I'm enjoying it and I can't put it down.
But you know, there are other times when I don't feel like reading my Bible at all, but
you know, I just I just get it out.
I just grind out, you know, a chapter.
I just grind out something.
And I've done that my whole life because I knew you're supposed to read your Bible every
day.
And so even if you're at a low point like Elijah, grind out a chapter of the Bible and
give God a chance to speak to you.
Always have some kind of a Bible reading plan going.
Always have something where you're chipping away.
You know, you should be reading your Bible cover to cover like once a year.
But you know what?
At least if you're not going to do that, at least grind out a chapter because then at
least you could read it every three years or before years is better than nothing.
So at least give God a chance to speak to you through his word to get you out of the
doldrums that you're in.
OK, so that's the first thing that we see here.
Number two is you need work to do for God, right?
You need to get busy for God.
You need to do something for God, because a lot of times we get the focus on ourself
and we get depressed because things aren't going the way that we want them to go for
ourselves and anybody who's focused on themselves will eventually be pretty depressed, whether
things are going good or things are going bad.
I mean, think about the most unhappy children in this world are spoiled little brats.
If you see a kid crying and sad and down all the time, I guarantee you he's probably spoiled
and being given what he wants all the time, ironically, because you'd think that if he
were given everything he wanted, he'd be happy.
But it's the reverse that's true.
Actually parents who tell their kids no and who expect their kids to be good and don't
give them everything they want are the happy and smiley kids.
And ironically, it's the kids who get what they want that are just down and depressed
and because their parents gave them everything they want, they're spoiled.
Why?
Because the kid who gets everything he wants becomes self-centered and self-focused.
This can be the danger sometimes with an only child of being spoiled.
Now when you have 10 kids or 12 kids or something, it's like, take a number buddy, right?
Because it's like you're not going to get everything you want.
You have to learn to share.
So those who have an only child, you want to make sure you don't just say, oh, we just
have this one child so we can just give them everything.
Well, you're going to create a monster if you do that.
So you need to make sure and find a way to make sure that that child doesn't think that
the universe revolves around them.
You know, people will say, oh, so and so, so and so, my child, he's my world.
Hey, God is our world.
The Lord is our world.
You're not doing that child a favor by telling him that the world revolves around him or
that he even is the world.
Because you know what you're teaching him is that basically, you know, the world owes
him a living and he should just expect to be deferred to everywhere he goes for the
rest of his life.
Folks, no, that's not the way the world works.
That's not the way God works either.
And so we need to make sure that we don't raise our kids to be spoiled brats.
We need to make sure that they go through some hardship.
They go through some difficulty.
They go through some challenges, not like, oh, well, I had it hard growing up.
I want to make sure they have it easy.
Oh, basically, you just want them to turn out nothing like you.
You're who you are because you had challenges.
Make sure your kids have some challenges.
Don't just give it all to them on a silver platter.
And so we need to have work to do for the Lord for other people.
We need to get the emphasis off of ourself.
When you're down in the dumps and depressed, you know, why don't you start thinking about
what you can do for other people, what you need to help other people?
Because if you just focus on making yourself happy, you might even just get sadder because
selfishness leads inevitably to being depressed.
Whether you get what you want or whether you don't get what you want, you get depressed
as a selfish person.
The happiest people are people that are thinking about other people, reaching out to other
people.
You know, there's great joy in doing stuff for other people.
It's more blessed to give than to receive.
And so when you emphasize other people and help other people out and make sure that they
succeed, make sure that they win, it can take the emphasis off of yourself.
You know, we were just talking about this the other day, you know, we're in these long
running races and, you know, you're going through a lot of pain and suffering.
But sometimes if you have someone that you're kind of helping, like maybe somebody else
is doing worse than you and you're kind of giving them some of your water, you're giving
them some salt tabs or gels or whatever, and you're kind of talking to them about like
helping them succeed and hit their goals, you know, you kind of forget that you're struggling.
You kind of forget that you're suffering because you're helping somebody else get through.
And that's how life is, you know, when you start helping other people and thinking about
other people, you're not depressed.
Elijah is depressed.
And so what does God do to cure his depression?
He basically tells them, okay, here's what you're going to do for other people.
You're going to raise up some other leaders instead of you.
You're not going to be necessarily the star now.
You're going to be helping other people.
You're going to be lifting up other people.
You're going to anoint Hazeel, you're going to anoint Jehu, you're going to anoint Elijah.
These are other men of God that I'm going to be using now, obviously, in varying degrees
of godliness here.
But these are other men that are going to be used by God.
And so you need to get back to work, you need to go back to the promised land, and you need
to start thinking about other people.
Think about Hazeel, Jehu, Elijah, get the emphasis on other people.
So when you're down in the doldrums, number one, read the Bible anyway, grind out what
you can, force yourself to read a little bit, even if you're not in the mood for a biblical
marathon, right?
Read a little bit.
Number two, get the emphasis off yourself and emphasize other people.
Think about other people.
What can you do?
Maybe you can go out and knock some doors and win someone to Christ.
Maybe you can be a blessing to someone in the church by helping them with a need that
you know that they have.
Maybe you can give someone a gift or do something nice for someone and think about other people
to get the emphasis off yourself.
And then lastly is you need fellowship, you need a friend.
Now a lot of times when we're down in the dumps, we withdraw from people.
And that's exactly what Elijah did.
What was the first thing Elijah did when he got depressed?
He sent his servant away.
He sent his buddy away.
He sent somebody away that provided companionship and fellowship.
He got rid of that guy so they can just all be his individual pity party all by himself.
We don't think we need fellowship, so we're pushing people away.
But God's saying, no, no, no, you do need fellowship.
You do need companionship.
You need a friend.
Because yeah, there's Hazeel and Jehu, but then there's Elisha who Elisha is going to
be his companion that never leaves his side.
So what does God do to help Elijah when he's down?
He gives him a friend.
He gives him a protege.
He gives him someone to train, somebody to be with him.
And so he's going to anoint Elisha.
But notice, he's going to anoint Elisha, the son of Shaphad of Abel-Meholah, look at the
end of verse 16, thou shalt anoint to be profit in thy room.
That means instead of you.
He's going to be profit instead of you.
Okay.
So again, taking the emphasis off himself and pretty much telling Elijah, you know,
your greatest days are probably over.
You know, your glory days are, you know, maybe behind you.
You peaked.
I mean, on Mount Carmel, that's as good as it gets for you, buddy.
That was your peak performance.
That was your peak sermon.
That was your peak miracle.
That was your peak endeavor for the Lord.
But that doesn't mean you stop serving God, you keep going.
You keep going and you train the next generation.
And you know what?
You're going to be replaced with Elisha.
Get over it.
And he does get over it.
And then he of course tells him, oh, and by the way, yet, by the way, you're wrong because
there are 7,000 other guys.
Look at verse 19.
So he departed thence and found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with 12 yoke
of oxen before him.
And he with the 12th and Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him.
And by the way, just a side note about who God chooses.
God chose Elisha.
This is not Elijah's choice.
Elijah doesn't even know who this guy is because God has to even tell him like where he's from.
He's like, it's Elisha.
It's the son of Shaphat.
He's from Abel Mahola.
God has to give him his address.
He doesn't even know who this guy is.
God chose Elisha and you know why he chose him because he's a hard worker.
Notice who God chooses.
Hard workers.
Right?
I mean, think about it.
Jacob was a hard worker.
And here we see Elisha getting in there and plowing the field, but he's not letting the
oxen do all the work.
He replaces one of the oxen.
He is an ox and he's basically pulling the plow.
I mean, that's hard, strenuous back break where he's a, he's a strong man who's working
hard.
See, back in those days you didn't get strong by going to the gym because there was no gym.
There wasn't like Tel Aviv fitness or something that you go to in those days.
It was, you got strong by working hard.
So he's out working hard.
He's getting strong.
This is his leg day, you know, pulling this giant plow with, with, with 11, you know,
with 12 yoke of oxen before him.
He's with the 12th.
And Elijah, by the way, is a pretty tough guy as well.
He's living out in the wilderness.
He outran the chariot 22 miles at the end of chapter 18.
He just, you know, hiked for 40 days through the wilderness and now he's going back.
So he's doing some serious physical feats of labor because a hard worker, you know,
God chooses people who work hard.
God doesn't use lazy people, right?
You don't necessarily have to be the smartest or the most talented or the best looking,
but God wants us to work hard.
And that's why, look at who he chooses in the New Testament, bunch of fishermen that
are out there working hard, doing fishing with nets.
I mean, that's hard physical labor and that's who he chose.
Not necessarily super highly educated people, but people who work hard.
And so he throws his mantle, he passes by him and cast his mantle upon him.
Now of course, Elijah instantly knows who Elijah is because everybody knows who Elijah
is because Elijah faced off with the prophets of Baal in first Kings 18 and it was legendary.
And so he's well known.
So Elijah is pretty happy about this.
This is a great privilege to have Elijah throw his mantle on him, basically saying like,
you're going to be the next Elijah.
I'm going to train you to be me.
And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, let me, I pray thee, kiss my father
and my mother and then I will follow thee.
And he said unto him, go back again for what have I done to thee?
Now let's compare this real quick to the story that's very similar to this in the four gospels
where somebody wants to follow Jesus and he says, oh, you know, let me go back and say
goodbye to the people back home.
And Jesus basically tells him, you know, well, any man having put his hand to the plow and
looking back is not fit for the kingdom of God.
He basically tells him, no, you need to follow me now.
We're leaving now.
I'm not waiting around.
We got to go.
And then of course there's the famous incident of, you know, Lord suffer me first to go and
bury my father.
And he said, follow me and let the dead bury their dead.
You know, so Jesus did not react the same way to this request as Elijah did.
Okay.
And Elisha says, you know, let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother and then
I'll follow thee.
And he said unto him, go back again.
What have I done to thee?
And he returned back from him.
He took a yoke of oxen and slew them and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen
and gave unto the people and they did eat.
Then he arose and went after Elijah and ministered unto him.
So he doesn't just go back and be like, okay, bye mom, bye dad, give him a kiss, hug, bye.
He actually kills two oxen and basically feeds the whole town.
You know, because we, if you're going to kill two of these big beasts, that's a lot of meat.
You know, when we, I don't know how often, cause when we buy beef, don't we buy like
half the cow at a time or something?
How long does that last us?
Do you, do you kids know my wife isn't here with a sick baby?
Long time.
That was very helpful.
Thank you for that.
I know.
I'm just kidding.
But anyway, it is, you know what, she's right.
It's a long time folks.
So we get like a half a cow and it lasts our big family a long time.
And it's not because we don't eat beef cause we do.
So you know, you're killing two of these full animals.
He basically, that's why it says he gave unto the people.
He's basically just feeding the whole town.
So it's kind of a big going away party.
We're going to slaughter a couple of oxen.
We're going to, you know, have a goodbye, Elisha.
We're going to miss you Elisha party and we're all going to eat all the beef and it's
going to be great.
The whole town says goodbye.
It's going to take a little time, isn't it?
It's probably taken, you know, most of the day or something, probably gonna leave tomorrow.
So what, what's the difference here?
You know, what's the difference?
Well, the difference is that Jesus Christ was only on this earth for a short time and
his ministry only lasted like three and a half years.
And he was very intense during that time.
And in fact, sometimes the disciples said of Jesus, he's beside himself, like he's nuts
because he was working so hard and he was just go, go, go a lot.
Now there were other times when Jesus said, hey, let's go rest for a while and take a
break.
And he did take breaks.
He's obviously human because Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man.
He was fully human folks.
Don't be a heretic, all right?
So Jesus Christ was God and man.
And so he took breaks, but, but he was intense about the fact that he only had a short time.
He said, you know, the night is coming when no man can work.
I have to work while it's yet day.
I've only got a little bit of time here.
I got to get this done.
He didn't have time to wait around for people.
He said, hey, get in or get out.
We got to go.
Elijah, on the other hand, he's got time.
This is the guy who just wasted like many, he wasted a couple months just hiking to Mount
Sinai and back.
I'm not faulting him because he's a great man of God and he's a greater man than I will
ever be.
So I'm not criticizing Elijah.
He's far greater than I will ever be as a person, but I'm just saying like, he's not
in a hurry.
If he just does a nature hike to Mount Sinai and back 40 days to get there, however long
to get back Elijah, I think we can see from the end of verse 20 is still a little bit
down.
He's still a little bit, cause, cause I mean, look at his answer, like, well, go back.
What, you know, what do I care?
I mean, think about the answer.
He's not like, oh yeah, you know, let's, let's have a party for you.
Let's say goodbye to mom and dad.
And in fact, you know, where's the beef?
Let's let's do this.
His answer is not a very nice answer.
He basically just says like, yeah, fine, go back.
What do I, I don't care, whatever.
What have I, you know, what have I done to you?
It's kind of like an answer.
Why?
Because here's the thing, just because you follow God's recipe for coming out of the
doldrums, it doesn't mean it's a silver bullet where you're just, you just, okay, I just
grind out some Bible, do something for someone else, show up at church and get some fellowship.
And then it's like, all right, I'm doing great now.
Woo.
Yeah.
It works, is it?
You're still going to be depressed.
You're still going to be down sometimes.
You're still going to be going through a hard time.
But the difference is, if you follow the recipe, you're going to get through it.
I didn't say you're going to get through it in five minutes.
I didn't say you're going to get through it in five days or even five weeks.
But you're going to get through it.
If you keep reading your Bible, keep thinking about others and keep fellowshipping.
That's why even just the act of dragging your butt to church Sunday morning, Sunday
night and Wednesday night is going to keep you on track to some degree, even if you're
lame in other areas spiritually.
Just dragging yourself down here is half the battle of the Christian life and people who
get out of church, that's where they really start to drift.
But if you can at least stay in church, there's only so far you can drift.
There's only so low you can go.
Okay, church is helpful.
And so what we see here is that it's not a silver bullet.
Everything isn't just automatically fixed and rainbows and unicorns.
See, the Bible is true.
The Bible is real.
And this is how life really is.
You know, you grind it out and you get to the other side, but it's still a dark tunnel
that you have to go through.
And so that's why he gives this kind of, I don't really care answer to Elisha.
Do whatever you want.
Take whatever time.
What do I care?
That's a little different than Jesus answer because Jesus wasn't down and depressed and
dragging his way through the job.
Elijah is not necessarily that jazzed about the job.
You know, I mean, he just, he kind of throws his mantle on him.
He doesn't even really want to talk to him necessarily.
Takes off his jacket.
There you go.
Oh, great.
Wow.
You're Elijah.
Wow.
This is great.
Well, hey, I'm ready to forsake everything and follow you, but it's all right if I say
goodbye to my mom and dad.
Do whatever you want, man.
But he still gets it done.
What's interesting then, I'm almost done, but look at chapter 20 and what we'll see
in chapter 20 is that there's all these other people that God's using.
God's using all these other prophets because look at verse number 13 and behold, there
came a prophet unto Ahab, king of Israel.
Wait, isn't Elijah the one who normally confronts Ahab?
But it's just like a prophet, some guy.
And then look at verse 22 and the prophet came to the king of Israel again, just some
random dude.
Look at verse 28.
There came a man of God and spake unto the king of Israel, a different dude.
Then we go to verse 35 of chapter 20 and a certain man of the sons of the prophets,
yet a third dude, random people that God's using to do his work because Elijah is just
kind of a little messed up right now.
But you know what?
Elijah is still serving God.
He still loves God.
He's not forsaking the Lord.
He's training Elisha.
He's working with the next generation.
He's tutoring and mentoring Elisha.
He's doing something for God, even if he's not necessarily in the limelight, even if
he's not necessarily the main person God's using in chapter 20.
We know that behind the scenes he's working with Elisha and Elisha is going to be twice
the man of God that Elijah is.
He's working with Elisha, he's serving God, but you know what?
He's not necessarily in the limelight.
He's not necessarily the main focus of the story because he's getting through a tough
period.
He's going through a tough period so God's giving him a break and using some other people,
but he's still working.
He's still serving God, still training Elisha because then when we get to chapter 21, after
God's been using other people to deal with Ahab and so forth, chapter 21 verse 17, the
word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying, arise, go down to meet Ahab, king
of Israel.
That's where we see Elijah is back in commission.
He's back on the front lines serving God at his greatest capacity, full potential, confronting
Ahab and he's back.
Why?
Because the formula worked, because God's plan worked.
God's word, focusing on others, training others, and also just getting the emphasis
off of yourself, right, and getting to work for God, getting busy for God, just at least
getting some fellowship, even if it's just church, just showing up.
And by the way, when you come to church, say hi to somebody.
Talk to somebody.
Don't just bolt out of here all the time.
I mean, look, there's sometimes you bolt out because you're busy or because you're not
feeling well or you're just tired or you're not in the mood, whatever.
That's great.
But you know what?
Don't be that guy that just always bolts out.
You know, stop and stop and say hi to somebody.
Talk to some people.
Why?
Because you need more fellowship than you think.
You need to read your Bible every day.
You need fellowship.
You need to show up at church.
You need to think about other people.
You need to think about the next generation, train the next generation, and you will eventually
come out of your valley that you're in right now and be like Elijah, where you're back
as good as ever in chapter 17 or chapter 21 verse 17.
And you know, next thing we know, he's going to be, you know, torching some people with
fire from heaven.
I mean, he's going to be back to good old Elijah.
And so hang in there, you know, and then chapter chapter 22, you know, it focuses on a different
person.
Again, because you've got Micaiah, the son of Imlah.
You know why?
Because God's using other people.
You're not the only guy.
You're not the only one.
There's a whole world out there.
Okay.
You're just one person in God's plan.
So don't think too much of yourself because again, overemphasizing self, you get depressed.
You know what?
When Elijah is out of commission, the work of the Lord doesn't just stop.
It goes on with three unnamed men in chapter 21, or sorry, chapter 20.
And then in chapter 22, it's Micaiah, the son of Imlah that God's still using.
Even once Elijah is back in service, God's still using other people and still the work
goes on.
You know, Christianity was around before any of us were born.
It's going to be around after we're all gone, you know, but we are part of God's plan.
We're part of his program.
He's never going to leave us or forsake us.
He still loves us.
And when we go through those low points, not if, but when we go through those low points,
we've got to push through and get to the other side so we can be in Elijah and not just crash
and burn, wash up and go all the way off the cliff.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this great chapter, Lord, where we can see the reality
of the Christian life that it's not always going to be a mountaintop experience.
A lot of times we're going to be in those low points and valleys.
Lord God, please help everyone who's here to remember this sermon when the low point
comes.
Or if they're in the low point right now, Lord, I pray that they would just take this
to heart and stay with it and not quit.
And in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.