reasons for Elijah's Spiritual Depression...and Mine
1 Kings 19:1-10 ~ Ted Phillips
October 21, 2018
Over the last number of months, not exactly sure how long it has been even now, I’ve lost count. We’ve been given the privilege to look into the life of Elijah. In this study, I think that we have been given really unique view of a righteous man. A righteous man, we’ve seen him in action and faced with certainly a great difficulty. Scripture tells us that the righteous are as bold as a lion, and if you think back in what we studied – that is Elijah, that is Elijah. At the beginning of chapter 17, you know, when he confronted King Ahab face-to-face with the coming drought, and of course it was a drought that was ushered in by the Lord because of his unfaithfulness and because of the unfaithfulness of the people of Israel.
This is not an easy thing to do. Elijah, indeed was bold to do so. And as a righteous man he also was an example of one who trusted the Lord. This certainly is a characteristic that we have seen. At the brook Cherith, he trusted the Lord to supply every one of his needs and he did so without question, we saw him wait upon the Lord as Zarephath as the Lord sustained him there with the widow. In both of these circumstances Elijah humbled himself as the Lord prepared him and perfected him for Mount Caramel.
He was also a man who was a servant of God. In fact, he was an example of servant hood. On Mount Caramel, if you remember, we’re told that he did all that the Lord had commanded him to do. That’s what a servant does, in fact, if you remember Elijah wanted it to be known that he himself was a servant of God, that he was not acting on his own. He was a man of courage as he stood before the 400 profits of baal, challenging them to test the veracity of their God, and he did this standing alone. There was nobody who stood with him. And Elijah was certainly a man of prayer. We talked about this and have seen this extensively. This is one of the things that he is noted for in Scripture. Through his prayer the Lord accomplished much. He prayed that it might not rain, and it did not rain for 3 1/2 years. And we’re told that Elijah prayed again to the Lord, and the Lord sent rain. Not only that, through Elijah's prayer, the Lord made His glory known. He caused the fire to fall from heaven to consume the sacrifice that was laid upon the altar, that fire consumed the altar itself and it consumed everything around it. God proved Himself to be the only Sovereign God. and He did this in response to the prayer of a righteous man.
In all of this we have seen that Elijah had a reverence for the name of the Lord. He had a zeal for the glory of the Lord, the God of Israel. And these things, of course were evident as he entreated the Lord in prayer and really in everything he did. And then we come to chapter 19, and here we are faced with something very, very different. Perhaps we can say that it’s even something alarming, as we look at Elijah's life in chapter 19.
We are told in this chapter about – or I should say - what we are told in this chapter about Elijah runs contrary to everything that we have seen so far in chapters 17 and 18. Is this even the same man? Is even the same man? There’s a very strange and abrupt transition that takes place here.
I want to follow along with me as I read chapter 19, I’m just going to read verses one through 10, it says:
“Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a message to Elijah, “saying so may the gods do to me and even more if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time”. And he was afraid and arose and he ran for his life and he came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and he left his servant there. But he himself whet a day's journey into the wilderness. And he came, and he sat down under a juniper tree and requested for himself that he might die and he said, “it is enough now, O Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” He lay down and slept under the juniper tree, and behold, there was an angel touching him and he said to him, “arise eat.” Then he looked, and behold, there was at his head a bread cake, baked on hot stones and a jar of water. So, he ate and drank and he lay down again. The angel of the Lord came again a second time and he touched him he said, “arise, eat. Because of the journey is too great for you.” So, he arose and ate and drank and he went in the strength of that food for 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. Then he came there to a cave, and he lodged there. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him and He said to him, “what are you doing here, Elijah?” And he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away.”
There's two things that stand out here in this passage to me. The first is that, Elijah turns from being courageous to being fearful. Elijah turns from being very courageous to being gripped with fear. He no longer is bold and unflinching like we saw him back in chapter 17 and 18. After Jezebel makes her threat to take his life, to have them killed, in verse three, says, that Elijah was afraid. And because of that fear then, he runs for his life.
This is the same man who stood face-to-face with King Ahab and told him that because of his sin and because of the sin of his people, God was going to judge him. Right to his face he told him that. Something had changed in Elijah, and as that fear overwhelmed him – as fear oftentimes does – it then led to hopelessness. This is the second thing that stands out. In verse four, we see that Elijah had really – for all intents and purposes – he had given up. He was in despair, he goes a day's journey into the wilderness, he sits down under a juniper tree and he requested for himself that he might die. “It is enough now, O Lord, take my life for I am not better than my fathers”. Sounds a lot like Jonah, doesn't it? Remember, he basically said the same thing. Jonah went out and found tree to sit underneath and he wanted to die. Just like Jonah, Elijah was depressed. He's depressed to the point where he feels like life is worth not living anymore. The man who had been moved from one difficult circumstance to another by the hand of the Lord without wavering. He is now consumed with the hopelessness that defies the pattern of his life. And again, I would ask, what has changed in this man? What has changed?
We look at Elijah in chapter 19, and what has become of him, and it raises a question within us – and I think it should. Here is a man whose life has been given to us as an example by the Lord for our instruction, and he has now, for all practical purposes become a failure. It’s hard not to think that way. I don't know about you, but when I read chapter 14, or chapter 19, I felt letdown. I felt discouraged and disappointed in him. But I think we need to be reminded of something. James chapter 5 verse 17 we’re told something very, very important. It says, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.” We’ve looked at this before and we need to look at it again. We need to be reminded of this over and over in fact. It's needful for us to be keenly aware of this as we look at Elijah's current situation. Each one of us, each one of us – to one degree or another – has been in the same place as Elijah was in, in chapter 19. And I would guess we've been in that place more than once, multiple times. We are no different than Elijah, we’re flesh and blood. We are mortal, we’re susceptible to temptations, we’re susceptible to weaknesses, to fear, to discouragement, and even despair and depression. If each of us are honest, there must have been times when we have come before the Lord, perhaps in the quietness of our own home and said, take me now! Life’s not worth living anymore. I don’t want to deal with this life anymore, It's too hard or too many discouragements. There's too many things that let me down. Things are not the way they should be Lord.
Now in saying this, I'm not justifying this kind of condition or implying that this is to be our expectation as God's people. This is not what the Lord wants for us. God gives a greater grace, right? You can say amen to that in fact, If you want. But the Lord does allow us at times for a season to fall into this this kind of condition that Elijah fell into. And it’s a condition, in Elijah's case, it was a condition of his own making and the same thing is true with you and I. God does not force this upon us, this is of our own making.
And of course, then, the all-important question is: what is the cause of this? What is the cause of it? How did Elijah, who was a righteous man, a man who had been faithful to the Lord and used as an instrument in his hand – how did he fall into this kind of condition? How did this man who was fearless, how did he become fearful? How did this man who was zealous for the glory of God, how did he become depressed and despairing, even of life? How is it that you and I can and have been in the same, very same condition? The Lord in His mercy gives us the answer to this question, so I want us to turn our attention to that this morning. There are a number of things, I think that contribute to this, that are behind it. In many ways, there are all interconnected and hopefully we’ll see that.
The first one is really very simple and very practical, and that is – that the first cause of this is fatigue. it's fatigue. I want you to consider for a moment, all that Elijah has gone through in the last 3 1/2 years as we followed him through chapter 17 and 18, and now in chapter 19. From his first confrontation with King Ahab, to the encounter with the 400 false prophets of baal, physically and mentally and emotionally, Elijah had been operating at a high speed, a high level. And in all of this he had without question expended a great deal of energy. And we can be certain that the Lord sustained him. In fact, we know that He did, but at some point exhaustion starts to set in. That is the natural limitation that you and I have. Fatigue begins to take its toll on these mortal bodies of ours and we know, each one of us knows with this is like, we've all experienced this before.
As I was thinking about this, there is a saying that I remember from sometime back and it goes like this, It says – ‘Do not doubt in the dark, what you know to be true in the light.’ I don’t know if you ever heard that before. There's a great deal of truth in this. ‘Do not doubt in the dark, what you know to be true in the light’. Exhaustion and fatigue can cloud our thinking, in fact they can distorted a great deal. In some cases, a prolonged period of weariness can cause us to doubt and perhaps even to question things that we have had deep convictions about. Spiritual truths that have been implanted within us by the Spirit of God, foundational things, truths and principles that have been the bedrock of our lives. Physical and mental exhaustion can shake us for a time. I think at the very least they can be a significant factor in our perception of what is true and what is not true. This is especially true at the time when we are faced with a difficult trial like Elijah was.
David was a man I think, who faced this very, very same thing that were talking about. In Psalms chapter 94 in verse 19, he speaks about how “his anxious thoughts have multiplied within him.” One thought giving rise to another and then to another and then to another, and it grew to a point where, one’s thinking no longer connects with reality and no longer connects with truth. This is a dangerous place to be and especially when the stakes are very high. I think David realized this, and knowing Elijah circumstances and the fact that he was a man with a nature like ours, it’s a safe and easy assumption that this was likely a very contributing factor to his failure.
I want to give you just one example of this. If you notice the threat that was made by Jezebel in verse two. Again, she says, “May the gods do to me and even more if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.” Now you look at her threat here, Jezebel bases her threat, at least in part on the power of her gods. Baal being of course, the chief among them. But Baal had just been defeated, hadn’t he? I mean, in fact, he had proven to be impotent, powerless. And Elijah, of all people knew this to be true. Jezebel and her gods were not a danger to him. The Lord God had made that abundantly clear, He had proven that on Mount caramel in a very decisive way. And yet, this fact seems to be lost on Elijah's. It’s like he cannot, he doesn't connect with it at this point in time. This is a truth that had been demonstrated to him. In fact, have been demonstrated to him by God Himself.
By God's grace we are able to endure a great deal and I think perhaps more than sometimes we even realize that we can endure. Like David, there comes a time when we need to be able to recognize that we’ve hit our limit. We need to recognize that exhaustion and fatigue have caused our thinking to deteriorate, and that perhaps our thinking can no longer even be trusted. And again, I would emphasize, that this is a dangerous place to be. David’s answer to this was the unfailing word of God. I remind you of that verse again, it says – “When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Thy word, O God, is my consolation.” One additional thing that I want to add here is, this is a time for God's people to bear one another's burdens. It’s the perfect time for God's people to bear one another's burdens to come alongside and to speak the truth in love. I look back over my life and I am so thankful for those times when a brother or sister in Christ came alongside me willingly and in love spoke the truth to me. And literally cleared my mind, so to speak. To remind me of what I had known to be true, in the light.
That brings me to a second cause of Elijah's fear and despair, and that is – the schemes of the devil. I’m not going to spend a great deal of time on this, but this is a reality in the life of every one of us. It’s a reality that we face every day, and we cannot underestimate the influence of the evil one. First Peter chapter 5 verse eight, tells us that, “Satan prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Satan is a predator, he hunts and he seeks out prey and that is perhaps the one thing that we need to realize about Satan more than anything else. He is constantly on the hunt, always seeking somebody to consume, somebody to destroy. That is why the warning that Peter gives at the beginning of verse eight is so important. He says, “Be sober minded”. Be sober minded. More than anything else, Satan targets the mind and he seeks to fill it with falsehood and doubt and confusion. What better mind to target than the one that is exhausted.
I think there can be little doubt that this is one of the things that happened to Elijah. It was not only Jezebel and the prophets of baal that suffered defeat at the hands of Elijah and God, the God of Israel. It was Satan himself. The prophets of baal that suffered defeat at the hands of Elijah, they were nothing more than Satan servants. I think what is true and always has been true, is that when the Lord is pleased to work in and through His people, there will be opposition from the evil one. You and I can be guaranteed of that. The apostle Paul was well aware of the schemes of the devil, especially in regards to his serving the Lord. In first Corinthians chapter 16 in verse nine, Paul stated that, “A great ineffectual door has been opened unto me.” There’s an opportunity to serve the Lord, but then notice what he adds, he said, “And there are many adversaries.” There are many adversaries. Satan does not back down after a defeat. We should never think that. He takes advantage of every vulnerability that we have, every weakness that we have and he took advantage, no doubt, he took advantage of the weaknesses of Elijah.
That brings me to third cause and this also is an area of vulnerability that Satan can take advantage of. This third cause of spiritual despair is – A spiritual victory. Spiritual victory. we see in great detail that Elijah had been an integral part in the Lord's victory over Satan and the false prophets of baal on Mount Caramel. As we move into chapter 19, this obviously was very fresh on Elijah's mind. He had been faithful to the Lord. He had preserved in prayer or persevered in prayer. He had been bold in the strength of the Lord. He had been all of these things as an instrument in God's hand, and this was a great privilege to be used of the Lord in this way. But it is easy to see then, how Elijah would come away from this with an increased confidence. That often goes hand-in-hand with spiritual victory, spiritual success, but how easily that confidence turns to pride.
I want you to listen, once again, how Elijah responds to the Lord and in chapter 19 in verse 10, he says, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, they’ve torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword and I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away.” Then if you go down further in the chapter, same chapter, verse 19 just a few verses farther down verse 14, he repeats the exact same thing. “I have been very zealous for the Lord. I alone, am the one who is left.” It seems very clear that Elijah had come to have a high regard of his own importance. He was overly occupied with his own service for the Lord. That is to say he had become occupied with himself. You remember in second Corinthians chapter 12, that Paul had been given a thorn in the flesh. I think it's interesting that Paul himself tells us that this thorn was given to him in order to keep him from exalting himself. The quickness and the ease with which this can happen as we serve the Lord, It's alarming. Really, if you think about it, it's alarming. Humble service turning into a prideful heart. It's almost as if there is a default switch within us that is clicked. Spiritual caution and a guarding of our hearts needs to take place at all times, but especially after a time when the Lord has brought about spiritual success through us, and involved us in that.
The stakes are so very high. Elijah's expectations of a complete turnaround of the nation of Israel obviously had not been met. And you cannot help but feel the bitterness in Elijah's words in verse 10. “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of Israel.” And what have the sons of Israel done Lord? “They’ve forsaken You, they’ve torn down your altars, they’ve killed your prophets, and I alone left.” Bitterness is so often the result of our pride. In fact, I would venture to say that bitterness can be traced to our pride almost always. And the bitterness that we see here with Elijah, this is a bitterness towards the Lord. This is bitterness toward the Lord God of Israel. How quickly we see Elijah moving from seeking the Lord to harboring a bitterness towards Him. And again, we cannot dismiss the hand of Satan in this. Constantly on the prowl. Constantly looking for somebody to seek and destroy. Oh, how we need to guard our hearts from this.
I want to share one last cause with you this morning, the fourth cause of Elijah's despair. And that is – that Elijah had begun to walk by sight. Elijah had begun to walk by sight. The first three causes that we have looked at are not to be taken lightly, not by any means. But this is what really gets to the heart, I think, of Elijah's troubles. It gets to the very root cause of his despair. I think this in itself opens the door to all of the other causes that we’ve talked about. Again, if you look in verses one and two, after Ahab had gone to Jezebel and told her all that Elijah had done how he had killed all of the prophets with the sword, and after Jezebel makes her commitment to put Elijah to death by the sword, this is what becomes Elijah's obsession. From this point forward. This is all that he could see it's all that he could think about, it literally consumed him. This is the turning point for Elijah, this is where that awful transition that I spoke about earlier had begun to take place. It’s where the very seeds of his despair replanted. I think it is from here that Elijah was fixated on the things that he could see, that he can visually see. He was focused on how things appeared to him. This stands in stark contrast to the unwavering faith that he had demonstrated for the last 3 1/2 years.
What is described for us here, it is, that Elijah had become a creature of his circumstances. He’d become a creature of the circumstances, and more to the point, he had become a captive of those circumstances. I think what you and I need to see that to be occupied with the circumstances of our lives is to walk by sight and not by faith. And unfortunately, the one who walks by sight does not know that peace that surpasses all understanding. It’s obscured from his vision, because that's something that is apprehended by faith. One of the unique and remarkable things about the new life in Christ, is that we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. And the reason for this is because the things that are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. See, the things that have genuine value, the things it last forever, for all eternity, those are the things that are not seen. Those are the things, again, I would say that are apprehended by faith. Elijah was no longer looking at his circumstances through the eyes of faith. In fact, he was looking at the creature more than he was the Creator and as a result he was taken captive by fear.
I want you to listen to what Isaiah has to say about this, in chapter 12, and verse two, he says, “Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid.” See, living by faith and not by sight is the only thing that can deliver us from fear. The second half of this verse then, gives us this guarantee. Isaiah goes on, he says, “For the Lord God is my strength and my song that He has become my salvation.” Elijah's heart and mind was no longer fixed upon the God of his salvation and as a result, fear had taken possession of him and he runs off. He runs away. Never before have we ever seen Elijah run. Where Elijah had failed to understand, and I think, what we often ourselves fail to grasp is that God is not limited to what you and I can see. You ever thought about that? God is not limited by what you and I can see, and He certainly is not limited to what you and I can understand. Walking by sight, Elijah was convinced that he was the only one left in Israel who had remained faithful to the Lord. The only one who had not bowed his knee to baal. “I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away.” See, the Lord was not limited to the perceptions of a mere man. If you look later on in the chapter and verse 18, the Lord reveals to Elijah that he was not the only one. Verse 18, the Lord says, “Yet I will leave 7000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.” Wow, what a statement. Unknown to Elijah, the Lord had preserved for Himself a remnant, and He always has. He always has. Unknown to you and I the Lord is right now working in ways that we cannot see and He's working in ways that we could not even comprehend. That is why our faith is to look to the One who orders our circumstances, every one of them. And we are to take hold of the living hope that we have been given, that hope which looks beyond the present, it looks to the promise of our future in the presence of the Lord of glory.
As you look back at Elijah in Chapter 17 and 18, you cannot help but realize that all that went on at Cherith and Zarephath with the widow, and then at Mount Caramel, all of that was by the hand of God. All of it. And what we see in chapter 19 is a man by himself. It’s a man all by himself. When we look at these chapters together and we compare what takes place, it’s a confirmation that any saint, no matter how gifted he or she might be, no matter how much experience they have had, no matter how much the Lord has used them in the past, if they are left to themselves they are nothing more than an earthen vessel. Once again, I want to turn to the apostle Paul is an example, he of all people understood this. In second Corinthians, he's talking about his ministry to God's people. In fact, he is defending his ministry. In verses five and six, he gets to the underlying truth of that ministry. Verse five, he says, “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant.” What a statement Paul makes. “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, our adequacy is in God.” He's the one who has made us adequate.
Whether you and I are involved in a particular kind of ministry or whether it's just day-to-day walking with the Lord, we can only stand as long as we are supported by His grace. Without it we fall. Without it, we are no different than the Elijah of chapter 19. As we look at the entirety of Elijah's life as we see all that the Lord accomplished through this man, it seems to me that this should create in us a zeal to serve the Lord. That cannot be overlooked, to be used of Him as an instrument in His hand. What a privilege that was. What grace and mercy that God showed to Elijah, and to use him that way. This should also cause us to be humbled. It should impress upon our hearts that our strength is found in Christ alone. He is our adequacy. Without Him we can literally do nothing. I think it should cause us to fall our knees before His throne and plead with Him to help our unbelief. To keep us from walking by sight. To give us the eyes of faith by which to behold that which is invisible to behold, He who is unseen. That needs to be our prayer. Let's bow our heads together in prayer.
This is not an easy thing to do. Elijah, indeed was bold to do so. And as a righteous man he also was an example of one who trusted the Lord. This certainly is a characteristic that we have seen. At the brook Cherith, he trusted the Lord to supply every one of his needs and he did so without question, we saw him wait upon the Lord as Zarephath as the Lord sustained him there with the widow. In both of these circumstances Elijah humbled himself as the Lord prepared him and perfected him for Mount Caramel.
He was also a man who was a servant of God. In fact, he was an example of servant hood. On Mount Caramel, if you remember, we’re told that he did all that the Lord had commanded him to do. That’s what a servant does, in fact, if you remember Elijah wanted it to be known that he himself was a servant of God, that he was not acting on his own. He was a man of courage as he stood before the 400 profits of baal, challenging them to test the veracity of their God, and he did this standing alone. There was nobody who stood with him. And Elijah was certainly a man of prayer. We talked about this and have seen this extensively. This is one of the things that he is noted for in Scripture. Through his prayer the Lord accomplished much. He prayed that it might not rain, and it did not rain for 3 1/2 years. And we’re told that Elijah prayed again to the Lord, and the Lord sent rain. Not only that, through Elijah's prayer, the Lord made His glory known. He caused the fire to fall from heaven to consume the sacrifice that was laid upon the altar, that fire consumed the altar itself and it consumed everything around it. God proved Himself to be the only Sovereign God. and He did this in response to the prayer of a righteous man.
In all of this we have seen that Elijah had a reverence for the name of the Lord. He had a zeal for the glory of the Lord, the God of Israel. And these things, of course were evident as he entreated the Lord in prayer and really in everything he did. And then we come to chapter 19, and here we are faced with something very, very different. Perhaps we can say that it’s even something alarming, as we look at Elijah's life in chapter 19.
We are told in this chapter about – or I should say - what we are told in this chapter about Elijah runs contrary to everything that we have seen so far in chapters 17 and 18. Is this even the same man? Is even the same man? There’s a very strange and abrupt transition that takes place here.
I want to follow along with me as I read chapter 19, I’m just going to read verses one through 10, it says:
“Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a message to Elijah, “saying so may the gods do to me and even more if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time”. And he was afraid and arose and he ran for his life and he came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and he left his servant there. But he himself whet a day's journey into the wilderness. And he came, and he sat down under a juniper tree and requested for himself that he might die and he said, “it is enough now, O Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” He lay down and slept under the juniper tree, and behold, there was an angel touching him and he said to him, “arise eat.” Then he looked, and behold, there was at his head a bread cake, baked on hot stones and a jar of water. So, he ate and drank and he lay down again. The angel of the Lord came again a second time and he touched him he said, “arise, eat. Because of the journey is too great for you.” So, he arose and ate and drank and he went in the strength of that food for 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. Then he came there to a cave, and he lodged there. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him and He said to him, “what are you doing here, Elijah?” And he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away.”
There's two things that stand out here in this passage to me. The first is that, Elijah turns from being courageous to being fearful. Elijah turns from being very courageous to being gripped with fear. He no longer is bold and unflinching like we saw him back in chapter 17 and 18. After Jezebel makes her threat to take his life, to have them killed, in verse three, says, that Elijah was afraid. And because of that fear then, he runs for his life.
This is the same man who stood face-to-face with King Ahab and told him that because of his sin and because of the sin of his people, God was going to judge him. Right to his face he told him that. Something had changed in Elijah, and as that fear overwhelmed him – as fear oftentimes does – it then led to hopelessness. This is the second thing that stands out. In verse four, we see that Elijah had really – for all intents and purposes – he had given up. He was in despair, he goes a day's journey into the wilderness, he sits down under a juniper tree and he requested for himself that he might die. “It is enough now, O Lord, take my life for I am not better than my fathers”. Sounds a lot like Jonah, doesn't it? Remember, he basically said the same thing. Jonah went out and found tree to sit underneath and he wanted to die. Just like Jonah, Elijah was depressed. He's depressed to the point where he feels like life is worth not living anymore. The man who had been moved from one difficult circumstance to another by the hand of the Lord without wavering. He is now consumed with the hopelessness that defies the pattern of his life. And again, I would ask, what has changed in this man? What has changed?
We look at Elijah in chapter 19, and what has become of him, and it raises a question within us – and I think it should. Here is a man whose life has been given to us as an example by the Lord for our instruction, and he has now, for all practical purposes become a failure. It’s hard not to think that way. I don't know about you, but when I read chapter 14, or chapter 19, I felt letdown. I felt discouraged and disappointed in him. But I think we need to be reminded of something. James chapter 5 verse 17 we’re told something very, very important. It says, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.” We’ve looked at this before and we need to look at it again. We need to be reminded of this over and over in fact. It's needful for us to be keenly aware of this as we look at Elijah's current situation. Each one of us, each one of us – to one degree or another – has been in the same place as Elijah was in, in chapter 19. And I would guess we've been in that place more than once, multiple times. We are no different than Elijah, we’re flesh and blood. We are mortal, we’re susceptible to temptations, we’re susceptible to weaknesses, to fear, to discouragement, and even despair and depression. If each of us are honest, there must have been times when we have come before the Lord, perhaps in the quietness of our own home and said, take me now! Life’s not worth living anymore. I don’t want to deal with this life anymore, It's too hard or too many discouragements. There's too many things that let me down. Things are not the way they should be Lord.
Now in saying this, I'm not justifying this kind of condition or implying that this is to be our expectation as God's people. This is not what the Lord wants for us. God gives a greater grace, right? You can say amen to that in fact, If you want. But the Lord does allow us at times for a season to fall into this this kind of condition that Elijah fell into. And it’s a condition, in Elijah's case, it was a condition of his own making and the same thing is true with you and I. God does not force this upon us, this is of our own making.
And of course, then, the all-important question is: what is the cause of this? What is the cause of it? How did Elijah, who was a righteous man, a man who had been faithful to the Lord and used as an instrument in his hand – how did he fall into this kind of condition? How did this man who was fearless, how did he become fearful? How did this man who was zealous for the glory of God, how did he become depressed and despairing, even of life? How is it that you and I can and have been in the same, very same condition? The Lord in His mercy gives us the answer to this question, so I want us to turn our attention to that this morning. There are a number of things, I think that contribute to this, that are behind it. In many ways, there are all interconnected and hopefully we’ll see that.
The first one is really very simple and very practical, and that is – that the first cause of this is fatigue. it's fatigue. I want you to consider for a moment, all that Elijah has gone through in the last 3 1/2 years as we followed him through chapter 17 and 18, and now in chapter 19. From his first confrontation with King Ahab, to the encounter with the 400 false prophets of baal, physically and mentally and emotionally, Elijah had been operating at a high speed, a high level. And in all of this he had without question expended a great deal of energy. And we can be certain that the Lord sustained him. In fact, we know that He did, but at some point exhaustion starts to set in. That is the natural limitation that you and I have. Fatigue begins to take its toll on these mortal bodies of ours and we know, each one of us knows with this is like, we've all experienced this before.
As I was thinking about this, there is a saying that I remember from sometime back and it goes like this, It says – ‘Do not doubt in the dark, what you know to be true in the light.’ I don’t know if you ever heard that before. There's a great deal of truth in this. ‘Do not doubt in the dark, what you know to be true in the light’. Exhaustion and fatigue can cloud our thinking, in fact they can distorted a great deal. In some cases, a prolonged period of weariness can cause us to doubt and perhaps even to question things that we have had deep convictions about. Spiritual truths that have been implanted within us by the Spirit of God, foundational things, truths and principles that have been the bedrock of our lives. Physical and mental exhaustion can shake us for a time. I think at the very least they can be a significant factor in our perception of what is true and what is not true. This is especially true at the time when we are faced with a difficult trial like Elijah was.
David was a man I think, who faced this very, very same thing that were talking about. In Psalms chapter 94 in verse 19, he speaks about how “his anxious thoughts have multiplied within him.” One thought giving rise to another and then to another and then to another, and it grew to a point where, one’s thinking no longer connects with reality and no longer connects with truth. This is a dangerous place to be and especially when the stakes are very high. I think David realized this, and knowing Elijah circumstances and the fact that he was a man with a nature like ours, it’s a safe and easy assumption that this was likely a very contributing factor to his failure.
I want to give you just one example of this. If you notice the threat that was made by Jezebel in verse two. Again, she says, “May the gods do to me and even more if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.” Now you look at her threat here, Jezebel bases her threat, at least in part on the power of her gods. Baal being of course, the chief among them. But Baal had just been defeated, hadn’t he? I mean, in fact, he had proven to be impotent, powerless. And Elijah, of all people knew this to be true. Jezebel and her gods were not a danger to him. The Lord God had made that abundantly clear, He had proven that on Mount caramel in a very decisive way. And yet, this fact seems to be lost on Elijah's. It’s like he cannot, he doesn't connect with it at this point in time. This is a truth that had been demonstrated to him. In fact, have been demonstrated to him by God Himself.
By God's grace we are able to endure a great deal and I think perhaps more than sometimes we even realize that we can endure. Like David, there comes a time when we need to be able to recognize that we’ve hit our limit. We need to recognize that exhaustion and fatigue have caused our thinking to deteriorate, and that perhaps our thinking can no longer even be trusted. And again, I would emphasize, that this is a dangerous place to be. David’s answer to this was the unfailing word of God. I remind you of that verse again, it says – “When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Thy word, O God, is my consolation.” One additional thing that I want to add here is, this is a time for God's people to bear one another's burdens. It’s the perfect time for God's people to bear one another's burdens to come alongside and to speak the truth in love. I look back over my life and I am so thankful for those times when a brother or sister in Christ came alongside me willingly and in love spoke the truth to me. And literally cleared my mind, so to speak. To remind me of what I had known to be true, in the light.
That brings me to a second cause of Elijah's fear and despair, and that is – the schemes of the devil. I’m not going to spend a great deal of time on this, but this is a reality in the life of every one of us. It’s a reality that we face every day, and we cannot underestimate the influence of the evil one. First Peter chapter 5 verse eight, tells us that, “Satan prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Satan is a predator, he hunts and he seeks out prey and that is perhaps the one thing that we need to realize about Satan more than anything else. He is constantly on the hunt, always seeking somebody to consume, somebody to destroy. That is why the warning that Peter gives at the beginning of verse eight is so important. He says, “Be sober minded”. Be sober minded. More than anything else, Satan targets the mind and he seeks to fill it with falsehood and doubt and confusion. What better mind to target than the one that is exhausted.
I think there can be little doubt that this is one of the things that happened to Elijah. It was not only Jezebel and the prophets of baal that suffered defeat at the hands of Elijah and God, the God of Israel. It was Satan himself. The prophets of baal that suffered defeat at the hands of Elijah, they were nothing more than Satan servants. I think what is true and always has been true, is that when the Lord is pleased to work in and through His people, there will be opposition from the evil one. You and I can be guaranteed of that. The apostle Paul was well aware of the schemes of the devil, especially in regards to his serving the Lord. In first Corinthians chapter 16 in verse nine, Paul stated that, “A great ineffectual door has been opened unto me.” There’s an opportunity to serve the Lord, but then notice what he adds, he said, “And there are many adversaries.” There are many adversaries. Satan does not back down after a defeat. We should never think that. He takes advantage of every vulnerability that we have, every weakness that we have and he took advantage, no doubt, he took advantage of the weaknesses of Elijah.
That brings me to third cause and this also is an area of vulnerability that Satan can take advantage of. This third cause of spiritual despair is – A spiritual victory. Spiritual victory. we see in great detail that Elijah had been an integral part in the Lord's victory over Satan and the false prophets of baal on Mount Caramel. As we move into chapter 19, this obviously was very fresh on Elijah's mind. He had been faithful to the Lord. He had preserved in prayer or persevered in prayer. He had been bold in the strength of the Lord. He had been all of these things as an instrument in God's hand, and this was a great privilege to be used of the Lord in this way. But it is easy to see then, how Elijah would come away from this with an increased confidence. That often goes hand-in-hand with spiritual victory, spiritual success, but how easily that confidence turns to pride.
I want you to listen, once again, how Elijah responds to the Lord and in chapter 19 in verse 10, he says, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, they’ve torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword and I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away.” Then if you go down further in the chapter, same chapter, verse 19 just a few verses farther down verse 14, he repeats the exact same thing. “I have been very zealous for the Lord. I alone, am the one who is left.” It seems very clear that Elijah had come to have a high regard of his own importance. He was overly occupied with his own service for the Lord. That is to say he had become occupied with himself. You remember in second Corinthians chapter 12, that Paul had been given a thorn in the flesh. I think it's interesting that Paul himself tells us that this thorn was given to him in order to keep him from exalting himself. The quickness and the ease with which this can happen as we serve the Lord, It's alarming. Really, if you think about it, it's alarming. Humble service turning into a prideful heart. It's almost as if there is a default switch within us that is clicked. Spiritual caution and a guarding of our hearts needs to take place at all times, but especially after a time when the Lord has brought about spiritual success through us, and involved us in that.
The stakes are so very high. Elijah's expectations of a complete turnaround of the nation of Israel obviously had not been met. And you cannot help but feel the bitterness in Elijah's words in verse 10. “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of Israel.” And what have the sons of Israel done Lord? “They’ve forsaken You, they’ve torn down your altars, they’ve killed your prophets, and I alone left.” Bitterness is so often the result of our pride. In fact, I would venture to say that bitterness can be traced to our pride almost always. And the bitterness that we see here with Elijah, this is a bitterness towards the Lord. This is bitterness toward the Lord God of Israel. How quickly we see Elijah moving from seeking the Lord to harboring a bitterness towards Him. And again, we cannot dismiss the hand of Satan in this. Constantly on the prowl. Constantly looking for somebody to seek and destroy. Oh, how we need to guard our hearts from this.
I want to share one last cause with you this morning, the fourth cause of Elijah's despair. And that is – that Elijah had begun to walk by sight. Elijah had begun to walk by sight. The first three causes that we have looked at are not to be taken lightly, not by any means. But this is what really gets to the heart, I think, of Elijah's troubles. It gets to the very root cause of his despair. I think this in itself opens the door to all of the other causes that we’ve talked about. Again, if you look in verses one and two, after Ahab had gone to Jezebel and told her all that Elijah had done how he had killed all of the prophets with the sword, and after Jezebel makes her commitment to put Elijah to death by the sword, this is what becomes Elijah's obsession. From this point forward. This is all that he could see it's all that he could think about, it literally consumed him. This is the turning point for Elijah, this is where that awful transition that I spoke about earlier had begun to take place. It’s where the very seeds of his despair replanted. I think it is from here that Elijah was fixated on the things that he could see, that he can visually see. He was focused on how things appeared to him. This stands in stark contrast to the unwavering faith that he had demonstrated for the last 3 1/2 years.
What is described for us here, it is, that Elijah had become a creature of his circumstances. He’d become a creature of the circumstances, and more to the point, he had become a captive of those circumstances. I think what you and I need to see that to be occupied with the circumstances of our lives is to walk by sight and not by faith. And unfortunately, the one who walks by sight does not know that peace that surpasses all understanding. It’s obscured from his vision, because that's something that is apprehended by faith. One of the unique and remarkable things about the new life in Christ, is that we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. And the reason for this is because the things that are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. See, the things that have genuine value, the things it last forever, for all eternity, those are the things that are not seen. Those are the things, again, I would say that are apprehended by faith. Elijah was no longer looking at his circumstances through the eyes of faith. In fact, he was looking at the creature more than he was the Creator and as a result he was taken captive by fear.
I want you to listen to what Isaiah has to say about this, in chapter 12, and verse two, he says, “Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid.” See, living by faith and not by sight is the only thing that can deliver us from fear. The second half of this verse then, gives us this guarantee. Isaiah goes on, he says, “For the Lord God is my strength and my song that He has become my salvation.” Elijah's heart and mind was no longer fixed upon the God of his salvation and as a result, fear had taken possession of him and he runs off. He runs away. Never before have we ever seen Elijah run. Where Elijah had failed to understand, and I think, what we often ourselves fail to grasp is that God is not limited to what you and I can see. You ever thought about that? God is not limited by what you and I can see, and He certainly is not limited to what you and I can understand. Walking by sight, Elijah was convinced that he was the only one left in Israel who had remained faithful to the Lord. The only one who had not bowed his knee to baal. “I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away.” See, the Lord was not limited to the perceptions of a mere man. If you look later on in the chapter and verse 18, the Lord reveals to Elijah that he was not the only one. Verse 18, the Lord says, “Yet I will leave 7000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.” Wow, what a statement. Unknown to Elijah, the Lord had preserved for Himself a remnant, and He always has. He always has. Unknown to you and I the Lord is right now working in ways that we cannot see and He's working in ways that we could not even comprehend. That is why our faith is to look to the One who orders our circumstances, every one of them. And we are to take hold of the living hope that we have been given, that hope which looks beyond the present, it looks to the promise of our future in the presence of the Lord of glory.
As you look back at Elijah in Chapter 17 and 18, you cannot help but realize that all that went on at Cherith and Zarephath with the widow, and then at Mount Caramel, all of that was by the hand of God. All of it. And what we see in chapter 19 is a man by himself. It’s a man all by himself. When we look at these chapters together and we compare what takes place, it’s a confirmation that any saint, no matter how gifted he or she might be, no matter how much experience they have had, no matter how much the Lord has used them in the past, if they are left to themselves they are nothing more than an earthen vessel. Once again, I want to turn to the apostle Paul is an example, he of all people understood this. In second Corinthians, he's talking about his ministry to God's people. In fact, he is defending his ministry. In verses five and six, he gets to the underlying truth of that ministry. Verse five, he says, “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant.” What a statement Paul makes. “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, our adequacy is in God.” He's the one who has made us adequate.
Whether you and I are involved in a particular kind of ministry or whether it's just day-to-day walking with the Lord, we can only stand as long as we are supported by His grace. Without it we fall. Without it, we are no different than the Elijah of chapter 19. As we look at the entirety of Elijah's life as we see all that the Lord accomplished through this man, it seems to me that this should create in us a zeal to serve the Lord. That cannot be overlooked, to be used of Him as an instrument in His hand. What a privilege that was. What grace and mercy that God showed to Elijah, and to use him that way. This should also cause us to be humbled. It should impress upon our hearts that our strength is found in Christ alone. He is our adequacy. Without Him we can literally do nothing. I think it should cause us to fall our knees before His throne and plead with Him to help our unbelief. To keep us from walking by sight. To give us the eyes of faith by which to behold that which is invisible to behold, He who is unseen. That needs to be our prayer. Let's bow our heads together in prayer.
