A Man of like Passions with Us

Introduction: Elijah's Humanity Revealed

0:03 No longer will I be saying 1 Kings 18, for we move tonight into the 19th chapter. 1 Kings chapter 19.

0:16 I'll ask you to follow as I read verses 1 through 4. 1 Kings 19, verses 1 through 4. And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.

1:02 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. 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. But he himself went 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.

1:47 Take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers.

1:56 God's name has been wonderfully vindicated in the conflict on the top of Mount Carmel. These wicked, prophets, the prophets of Baal, have been slain. And now that the sin has been, as it were, at least on the surface, purged from the nation, God once again has opened the heavens and sent the much-needed refreshing rain upon the land of Israel. The focus of the latter part, or almost the entire part of the 18th chapter, is Mount Carmel and the nation.

2:34 But now that God has vindicated his name before the nation, the focus once again comes back upon the prophet as an individual and as a servant of Jehovah. Up until now, there has been very little in the narrative which focuses on the life of the prophet to really indicate that what James said was true. Elias was a man of like passions with us. Up till now, most of us have found it hard to see much comparison between Elijah and us.

3:08 It's been more contrast. His perseverance in faith with our quitting.

3:16 His perseverance in boldness with our cowardice. His fearlessness with our timidity. There have been many contrasts. I, frankly, have found it very hard to see much of myself reflected in the prophet up until now.

3:32 But when we come to the 19th chapter, we see that James was not at all overstating the case when he said, Elias was a man... of like passions.

3:43 For here in this chapter, we see the prophet when all the supports of grace are removed and we behold this man like us. The contrast is very marked for the 18th chapter closes with these words, And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. What a summary of all that's happened up till now. Here he is, animated by supernatural power, for a supernatural feat to run a distance of probably around 12 miles or so in a blinding rainstorm, keeping up with well-trained steeds.

Why Study Elijah's Dejection?

4:24 And yet, we come to verse 4, this same man, now no longer supported by the hand of God, under a broom tree in a wilderness, praying, Lord, end the whole business and take me out of it. But a marked contrast, between the Elijah of the 18th of Kings and the Elijah of the 19th of Kings. Now, why should we study in detail this account? Well, the most obvious reason is God put it here, and all things are profitable, the word of God says, for doctrine, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

4:59 But at the outset, let me say, we are not studying this because misery loves company. I fear sometimes when you come to a passage like this, the people of God breathe easy because we feel, well, misery loves company, and Elijah was in a mess, and I get myself in a mess, so we'll have a little union of the messed up Christians. No, this is not the reason for studying the passage, because misery loves company. In fact, I'm always amazed that the Holy Spirit has recorded passages like this, for God, who is omniscient, knows that portions like this are the very seedbed of the skeptic.

5:36 Oh, how the skeptic loves to come to a passage like this, and say, huh, that's your God? Is that all he can do for his servant? How could he be a man of God when he's there under a juniper tree praying that he'll die? Not only will skeptics take a passage like this, antinomians will take passages like this, and like the sin of David and the sin of Peter, and they will make it their pattern.

5:58 And they'll say, well, since it's obvious that he was still a child of God, I can do what they did and get away with it. Now, God foreseeing that skeptics and those who would use the scriptures and excuse themselves, for sin would take passages like this, why did God still include them in his word?

6:17 May I suggest, for the simple reason that men of God and women of God will still be men and women at an imperfect state of sanctification until the Lord comes back again. And we desperately need not only the precepts of God to tell us that the Lord is patient with his children, even in their times of sin and defeat, but we need living examples and in that sense, one picture of an Elijah in a state of dejection, ready to die, is worth more than a thousand words, particularly when you see how the Lord dealt with him. I'm convinced that this passage, we can't get to that part tonight, that begins with verse 5, but from verse 5 on is one of the most beautiful illustrations of the truth of Psalm 103, anywhere to be found in scripture, that the Lord knoweth our frame. That we are but dust. And his tender, his tender loving care, for the sake of you nurses, of all of his children. Here we have a beautiful picture of it in this passage.

7:26 So it's set before us, not that misery might have company, but that we might be admonished and warned lest we walk down the same path that Elijah walked and end up in the same state of dejection. And on the other hand, that we might be consoled if we've gone down that path, see, you ought to see how Elijah went down that path and say, Lord, help me not to go down it. But suppose you've been down it, what do you do? Well, this passage tells you what to do and how the Lord will deal with you as you see in the life of Elijah God's dealings with him.

Ahab's Report and Jezebel's Reaction

7:58 All right, then now to think our way through these first four verses, consider in the first place the report of Ahab, and in the second place we have in verse 2 the response or the reaction of Jezebel, and then in verses 3 and 4, we have the retreat of the prophet. Now we happen to have three R's tonight, and for the sake of visitors, that is in par for the course. That's unusual. I don't want you to go away with false impressions.

8:23 If it happens to come real quick-like in the space of three minutes, it'll be there. Otherwise, I don't waste my time fishing for R's or P's or S's. But we have tonight, very conveniently, without any twisting, the report that Ahab brings, verse 1, the response or reaction of Jezebel to that report, and then in verses 3 and 4, the retreat of the prophet. All right, the report that Ahab brings.

8:49 Try to project yourself back into that scene. Ahab comes home one day, and he says to Jezebel, guess whom I've seen. Who?

9:03 Elijah. In the very mention of that name, I can just picture the blood creeping up the back of her neck and her eyes becoming black with a flash of hatred. Elijah, she says, with all the venom of her wicked disposition, what does he want? And then he tells her.

9:21 He's summoned the entire nation to Mount Carmel. There's going to be a showdown, and he's asked, as the original request says, that the 450 prophets of Baal and the prophets of Asherah go. And apparently they must have had a family tiff, because the narrative seems to indicate that they only ended up with the 450 prophets of Baal, and she kept her prophets of Asherah with her. I wonder if she had a sneaking suspicion of what might have happened.

9:42 I don't know. But she apparently held back. Her 400 prophets of the Asherah and the 450 prophets of Baal go. And there she is to watch the nation gathering together to Mount Carmel.

9:54 And the period of time passes, perhaps a couple of days, and she wonders what is happening, hoping against hope that somehow her gods will be vindicated in this conflict and showdown on Carmel. And then toward that evening, when all of that transpired upon Mount Carmel, she could see the clouds blackening. She could see, she could see the lightning flashing, and then the thundershower begins to break upon her area as well as there upon Mount Carmel. And she looks out of her window and she sees her husband coming, driven by a chariot, the horses' bodies soaked and possibly steaming as the heat of their bodies there in that warm climate.

10:34 And her husband drenched, and he comes running in, and before he can open his mouth, she meets him with a barrage of questions his wives are wont to do to their husbands. Well, what's happened? What happened upon the mountain? Where is Elijah?

10:46 Where are the prophets? And after you can get her quiet long enough, Scripture tells us that Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done.

10:58 Now can you see her reaction? As she saw the clouds gathering, wondering if possibly Baal has vindicated himself, wondering and hoping against hope that perhaps the word of this terrible man, Elijah, will come to naught, for she had heard his words, there shall be no dew nor rain, but according to my word,

11:21 then he tells her. But it's interesting that Scripture tells us that Ahab reported all that Elijah had done. Nothing about what God had done through the prophet or using the instrumentality of the prophet. Here is Ahab, true to his own character, who looks upon everything from a purely naturalistic standpoint, in the 18th chapter when he met Elijah after the drought had begun to take its terrible effects upon the land, he met him with these words.

12:00 Is it thou, thou troubler of Israel? Elijah wasn't troubling Israel. It was God who was withholding rain. But Elijah, this man Ahab, could not see beyond Elijah.

12:12 Is it thou, the troubler of Israel? And now he reports to Jezebel all that Elijah has done and he climaxes it. Apparently with a detailed, gory account of how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. And if Jezebel's anger began to rise at the account of the mocking of the prophets of Baal, if her anger was stirred at the account of the things that happened, surely it came to its most feverish pitch when the darlings of the court, those whom she nursed and cared for at her own table, were reported.

12:50 As all slain. Now what does this report of Ahab tell us? Very briefly, it reminds us of a principle that we've enunciated time and time again through this series of messages that temporal mercies and temporal judgments are incapable of themselves to soften hardened hearts and to bring men to repent.

13:17 Three and a half years of the most severe judgment and the most severe judgment Ahab goes to Carmel with a heart as hard as the parched, cracked ground.

13:29 Now that ground is made soft with a gracious rain of heaven, a token from the hand of the Almighty that this time of chastisement nationally is turned aside. And though the entire nation should have been slain, as we saw according to the clear teaching of Deuteronomy, anyone who went and worshipped a false god was to be slain. Ahab and the entire nation of Baal worshippers, should have been slain, except the 7,000 who had not bowed the knee. And now God, as it were, comes hard on the heels of judgment with a great outpouring of mercy.

14:05 Ahab's heart is left as hard as the nether storm. What's it tell us? It tells us what Scripture affirms from cover to cover, that sin has so blinded men and the devil has so deluded us and so held us captive that no amount of temporal judgments or mercies of themselves will soften the heart of the sinner. Think of Pharaoh.

14:35 All of those judgments, yet he hardened his heart. Think of the statement of Romans 2. After the hardness and impenitence of thy heart, treasure us up unto thyself, wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. And in what context is that said?

14:54 The previous verse says, And knowest not that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.

15:01 As you pray for loved ones,

15:05 as you think of God's dealings with them, and at times you say, Certainly, certainly they'll hear the voice of God. Now? How often have we said that? And our hopes have been raised when we've seen some stroke of judgment or some unusual manifestation of mercy upon unconverted loved ones and friends.

15:22 And we say, Certainly now they'll see. Now they'll understand. And we've been disappointed time and time again, haven't we? It's because we've put too much stock in the supposed effects of external judgments and temporal mercies.

15:42 These of themselves have no power to subdue the heart. And Ahab, who could come through those great judgments and be a first-hand eyewitness of this manifestation of the power and glory of God that brought a nation to its face and then this opening to the heavens, his heart apparently left indifferent and hard throughout it. Well, now move on to verse 2. What is the reaction of Jezebel to this report?

The Prophet's Retreat: Disobedience to God's Directive Will

16:12 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. This report acted as fuel to her fiery rage, and she takes an oath by her falsehood and false gods that by the same time tomorrow, Elijah himself will be dead. And so she sends a messenger to announce to Elijah this fact, that she has taken an oath. In other words, she wants the prophet to know she's dead in earnest.

16:50 She's not playing games. Let the gods do to me, and more also. She is binding herself with an oath in the name of her gods to show that she's serious about her intent to slay the prophet. Now, why did she do this?

17:06 You'd say if she was smart, she wouldn't have sent a messenger. She'd have sent the band of soldiers or anybody else to do the dirty job. Well, why did she send a messenger? Well, one possible suggestion is that she really was scared of the man of God, and all she did was, all she really wanted was to get him out of the kingdom.

17:25 And so she sends this threat in order to move him out of the kingdom. That's one possibility. But I'd rather like to think it's the second possibility. That in her fit of rage, God was illustrating the principle stated in Psalm 76.10, The wrath of man shall praise thee, and the residue of wrath thou shalt restrain. That God was allowing her to act irrationally in order that he might frustrate her designs. And how often God has done this. Herod in a rage, when he's frustrated by the wise men, the Magi, and they are warned of God to return a different way.

18:10 Herod sends out, you see, this decree that all the babes two years and under shall be slain. But the Lord warns Joseph, and he goes down into Egypt. And then when this Herod is dead, God brings him back. You find this in the life of the Apostle Paul.

18:26 The plot is being laid to slay him. And men giving bent to their rage speak too loud. And one of Paul's nephews overhears, and word is passed on to the guard, and in Acts 9 there's the record of how he is delivered by an escape. But in either case, whether it was Jezebel just wanting to get him out of the kingdom and fearful in that sense to lay hold of him, or whether it was the latter, and I lean to the latter, because this woman didn't seem to have an ounce of any fear of God.

18:56 None whatsoever. God allows her rage to be frustrated. And how comforting for us as the children of God to know that. That no matter what human instrument is raised up against us, God can frustrate the rage of men and restrain the wrath of men.

19:15 Now when the prophet hears this, what is his reaction to it? Well, he immediately makes a retreat. And we have the record of his retreat in verses 3 and 4. 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.

19:37 He himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree and requested for himself that he might die. Get the facts of this retreat as set before us in Scripture. At the first report of Jezebel's rage, he takes off on a journey of some 90 to 95 miles away to the southern borders of Judah. If you have a map in the back of your Bible, don't look at it now because you won't hear what I'm going to say, but look at it afterwards, and you'll see that from Carmel, that little niche over here on the western coast of Palestine, down to Beersheba is the southernmost part of Judah, and a trip of about 90 to 95 miles. And he didn't hop in his Rolls Royce or even his Volkswagen. He took off on foot, apparently with his servant with him, on this great journey to get as far as he could from the rage of this woman. Then when he comes to Beersheba, he leaves his servant there, whoever this servant was.

20:45 It's interesting that secular history conjectures that it might have been the man who later came to be known as the prophet Jonah. And if that's true, there's some very interesting parallels in the lives of these men and contrast as well. But whoever he was, he leaves his servant at Beersheba, and then for another day's journey, possibly about 20 miles, he goes off into the wilderness of that area. And if you look on your maps, if it's a topographical map you call, it gives a relief map that shows where the mountains are, you'll see that the mountain range that comes right down through that area begins to pan out and level out at Beersheba.

21:25 And if you move another 20 miles south or southwest, you move into a desert, into an area where there was nothing to be attractive, nothing to be eye. And in fact, apart from these occasional broom trees called here a juniper tree, there was nothing but the burning sand to blister the feet of the prophet, nothing but the glare of that oriental sun beating upon the sand to cause his eyes to squint and cause mirages to rise up before him. And leaving his servant and going off, almost like a dazed man, he wanders off into this wilderness until he finds one of these places, to be an oasis amidst the burning heat of the desert. And he sits down under that tree and begins to commiserate. And as he does, he says unto God, Lord, it's enough. Take away my life. Let me die.

22:24 Now, as we try to understand why the prophet acted this way, the most crucial issue is this. Was the prophet in this situation, under the smile of God, or was he in this situation in disobedience? If he had some clear reason to retreat as he did, in the manner that he did, then we dare not throw stones at the prophet, nor dare we infer that he was in a state of disobedience. But if there is biblical evidence to indicate that he never should have been here, as far as the revealed will of God was concerned, then there are great lessons for us to learn.

23:06 And I would submit to you, that there is biblical evidence to indicate that the prophet is here, not outside the circle of the concern and love and care of God, but he is here outside of the directive will of God. How do we know that? Well, the writer of Kings is clear to indicate that every crucial step in the life of the prophet, where he had to move from one place to another, he had an express word from God to do so. Look at these instances very briefly.

23:39 In chapter 17, after he delivers his announcement to the king, verse 2 says, And the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Get thee hence, turn thee eastward, hide thyself by the brook Kirith. Is there anything wrong with a prophet or a man or woman of God hiding himself from apparent or real danger? Not at all. Here God commanded him to hide himself.

24:07 And we looked at some of the reasons. There are other places where defensive retreat is commanded to the people of God. Later on, it's time for him to move. So what does Scripture say?

24:20 Verse 8, same chapter, chapter 17, The word of the Lord came to him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. Now when it's time to leave there, what happens? Chapter 18 and verse 1, It came to pass after many days, the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahab. Now you see, at each point where there was to be a major geographical shift, he had a clear word from God to indicate he was to make it.

24:54 But here, that which prompts him to move is not the record that the word of the Lord came to him, but the word of a servant came from the queen, giving this expression of her rage and her oath. And when he saw that, he retreats. No indication. No word from God.

25:13 No indication but that Elijah moved out, gripped in carnal fear, and in some other attitudes which we will see here in the narrative. And then another indication that he was not here in the directive will of God is later on, as God begins to deal with him. He asks this question, What doest thou here? Well, the implication is obvious.

25:40 He was there by divine directive. If God had come to him by the brook Kirith and said, What doest thou here? He'd say, Just obeying orders, Lord. Obeying orders.

25:50 Later on, when he's living with that widow, What doest thou here? Obeying orders, Lord. Later on, when he makes his way up to see Ahab, What are you doing here? Obeying orders, Lord.

26:00 When God comes to him to awaken his conscience there in the 18th chapter, What doest thou here? He can't say, Obeying orders. He has to say, Lord, I'm the only one left. No use living anymore.

26:13 And then he tells the Lord why he's there. So I submit that these things, to my own thinking, clearly indicate, and I trust to yours, that we're dealing with the man of God at a low period of spiritual experience. To state it more bluntly, we're dealing with a great servant of God who at this point is disobedient to the revealed will of God. Now, that being established, in our remaining time tonight, I want us to address the question, to address ourselves to this question.

Reason 1: Physical Drain of Ministry

26:48 Having looked at the report of Ahab, the reaction of Jezebel, the retreat of the prophet, the nature of that retreat, here's our question. What are the reasons for that retreat and the prophet's present state of mind? What brought him to this? And it's in this area that there is the core of the doctrine, the reproof, the correction, the instruction in righteousness that I trust will be helpful to us as the people of God.

27:17 First of all, one of the factors which led to this present condition was the physical drain of the past days of ministry. One of the servants of God who has written most ably upon this section of Holy Scripture comments in this fashion, and I quote, In our complex humanity there is a mysterious sympathy between the body and the spirit. When the mind is earnestly engaged, it gives for the time its vigor and energy to the body. Any man who's preached with the help of God knows what this is.

27:56 When the spirit and mind earnestly engage, it gives for a period of time some of its vigor. The vigor of the mind and spirit gives energy to the body so that we're not surprised to hear of John Knox that in his last days he had to be supported into the pulpit by a servant each side of him. Get the picture. The old decrepit man of God carried up into the pulpit.

28:19 And he takes hold of the pulpit. But someone who wrote of what happened afterwards said this. But as James Melville says, Ere he had done with his sermon, he was so active and so vigorous that he was like to ding the pulpit in blads not the pulpit to pieces and to fly out of it. Well, here is an old man carried into the pulpit, but before he's done, he'll ding the pulpit to blads and fly out of it.

28:46 But after he's done, he needs to be helped back to his seat. Well, what is it? Was the man faking? No, no.

28:54 There was an animation that came as the mind and spirit were gripped with truth. There was a transference of the life and energy of the mind into the very physical frame. But when that ceases, the frame goes back to its normal state and feels its inherent weakness. There's a sense in which only a preacher understands this.

29:15 Perhaps this is why this chapter is meant so much to me. To know what it is to come at times to where one feels he can hardly, physically stand to preach and begin to speak the truth of God and feel a quickening that comes that is better than ten hours of dead sleep. But, oh, what comes after? When, as you were, you're let down again and you feel your weakness and your frailty.

29:42 And there's one verse in the Bible then you don't need to take by faith anymore. We have this treasure in earth in vessels. That's what happened to the prophet. Think of what he'd been through.

29:54 Just in the immediate days, preceding this, there had been the intense intercession prior to Carmel after the announcement went out and the nation was being gathered together. And the prophet is pleading with God for the vindication of his name as he indicates in his prayer. Let the people know that I've done all these things according to thy word. He's shut up with God in the intense concentration of intercessory prayer, the labor of intercessory prayer.

30:19 He's getting his direction from heaven. Then the day comes when they're gathered upon Mount Carmel and from early morning till late at night, the prophet is there. Apparently he doesn't eat at all during that period. There's no record of it.

30:30 Ahab eats after it's all over, but he goes up to do what? To pray some more. And after the emotional strain of that day, the drama of that day, when the name of God is vindicated, he doesn't retire to eat and refresh himself, but he goes back to intercessory prayer. Then when the rain comes, what does he do?

30:50 Find a little tent and take a nap? No. He runs for at least 12 miles. Oh yes, the hand of the Lord was upon him.

30:57 But listen, when God comes upon his servants in supernatural strength to give them supernatural ability for a task, it's not as though he bypasses the draining influence of their physical train. For our Lord himself had the Spirit given to him without measure, and yet he knew what it was to be weary, so weary that at noontime he had to prop himself up on a well in Samaria. And so there's been this tremendous drain. Now add to that a journey of 90 to 95 miles, and now another day's journey into the wilderness, and he's not involved, you see, in spiritual conflict.

31:35 He doesn't need to rise to the occasion. He's in absolute solitude. There isn't a challenge of the vindication of the name of God and the purpose of God before a nation. All of that is gone, and all of the drain upon his physical frame comes home and creates this circumstance in which he finds himself dejected, and ready to quit.

32:00 Also, the fact that when God began to deal with him, to restore him, the first thing he did was to give him some good sleep. This indicates to me that this is not a mere psychological approach to this. It's the biblical approach to it. The God who made us body and spirit does not neglect the way in which he's made with us, made us, and we, in living the Christian life, if we do not accept ourselves the way God has made us, we're going to get hung up time and time again in our spiritual experience, and we'll be laying at the feet of spiritual problems, what is really physical.

32:38 And one of the problems which led to the present state of the prophet was the tremendous drain upon his physical frame. And now he's left without those divine supports, and he's dejected and ready to quit. I trust I need not say much by way of application. Some of you have come for me for counseling, and know what I've told you.

33:02 I remember someone came with some problems a while ago, and I was so convinced that much of it was physical that I said, I don't want to hear a thing about your spiritual problems until you've had at least three or four weeks with some decent seven or eight-hour nights of sleep. And I said, then you come on back, and I think your list of problems will be shrunk about 90%. I'm convinced of that. Others of you know I've told you the same thing in similar situations.

33:28 You cannot deny the body its legitimate needs, and then expect that you can get away with it. And even at times when we're involved in the ministry, and there are drains upon us in ministering to others, let's beware, and when we sense dejection and depression coming, let's remember Elijah. And perhaps the problem is not so much spiritual as it is physical, and a night's sleep will make a tremendous difference in the whole picture. You know, there are times when I've thought I was just getting carnal as a goat, when I was losing my appetite to pray, and I couldn't sit down and study for longer than an hour or two without getting twitchy and restless and just...

34:11 And I've just wondered, Lord, what's wrong? And a couple of nights of getting to bed before midnight and getting a solid eight has just changed the whole complexion. Changed the whole complexion. And you say, that's very unspiritual.

34:25 Yes, I know it is. Very unspiritual. But it's amazing that it works, because that's the way God's made it. And so we should learn from the lesson of the prophet that after great involvements where the mind and spirit and the emotions and energies are engaged, beware of the letdown that can come in terms of the physical drain.

Reason 2: Profound Loneliness

34:46 And the second factor which led, apparently, to this state of dejection is what we would call just plain old loneliness. You know the cry that came out both times when the Lord said, What are you doing here, Elijah? What are the first words? I, even I, own only am left.

35:06 We find that in chapter 19 and verse 10. And then we find it again in verse 14. Verse 10 and verse 14. I, even I, only am left.

35:21 The sense of being alone in this tremendous spiritual conflict. Granted, the Lord had reserved him 7,000. Whether they were there before Carmel or whether they got converted on Mount Carmel, I don't think the Scripture indicates very clearly. He apparently had forgotten about that fellow Obadiah that we considered, who certainly was not a Baal worship and a true servant of God.

35:43 But this sense of loneliness, involved in this great spiritual conflict, longing for the vindication of the name of Jehovah. If ever there was an illustration of the principle of Ecclesiastes 4, 6, Two are better than one if one falls, the other stands. We see it in this whole area of the ministry. We have one to another.

36:06 It was God who came to Adam and said, It's not good for man to be alone. Adam wasn't sitting on a log somewhere there in the garden, scratching his beard or the side of his cheek, whatever he had on that. I don't know. I wonder if Adam had a beard.

36:22 I've never had anyone ask me that. It's strange the weird things that will come into your mind while you're preaching sometimes to distract you. But he didn't come to this conclusion. You know, things are kind of lonely around here.

36:39 I wonder what's wrong with me. No, it was God who came and said, It's not good for the man to be alone. He brought in help, meat for him, answering to his needs. It was God who gave Aaron to Moses.

36:52 And what would David be without Jonathan? And Peter without John? And Paul without Timothy? And Luther without Melanchthon?

36:59 And Calvin without Beza? And as you see the history of God's dealings with men in Scripture and in the history of the Church, that principle that we need each other, it's rare that a man is called upon to serve God in a solitary manner. And apparently the prophet either was indifferent to this area of need or in the providence of God was denied this. And now in this hour of crisis, his loneliness brings him into a situation where he is prey to a terrible spirit of dejection and despondency which leads to these thoughts of wanting to die.

37:38 Not out of longing to be with the Lord. That's a perfectly healthy idea. That attitude, we'll discuss that next week. Is it wrong to want to die?

37:45 Well, it all depends why you want to die. If it's like Paul, I want to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. That's a good one. But if it's like Elijah, then what's the use of living?

37:58 No sense going ahead. Let me slip out. No, that's not a scriptural attitude. But this matter of loneliness.

38:05 And had he had someone of sympathetic mind and spirit, you say, what about that servant? Well, I don't know. Apparently the very fact that he left him in the hour of his deepest dejection indicates something about the friendship because a friend is born for adversity, Scripture says. And a true friend is the one not from whom you run in your deepest hour of grief, but the one to whom you run.

38:27 Isn't that the test of the depth of friendship? How deep heart concerns will you share with this individual? That's the test of friendship. So apparently Elijah was a man without a friend in that sense.

38:42 And I hope we learn by this. How often some of our deep periods of depression and dejection and spiritual bondage could have been avoided if we had recognized the means of grace that would have been ours in establishing this kind of an intimate, deep level friendship. Every one of you as a husband or wife, ideally it ought to be in that relationship. But as in other areas, the ideal many times is not the real.

39:11 And I'm amazed how many husbands and wives live under the same roofs, eat at the same table, sleep in the same bed, but communicate with each other at a very surface level. A very surface level. And I don't know where or what I would be if I didn't have the kind of relationship that I could communicate at the deepest levels. There are times when the conflicts and the struggles and problems of the Christian ministry are such that I'd quit or lose my mind if I couldn't communicate at that deepest level.

39:46 Or the one that shares my table and my roof and my bed. You husbands and wives, if you're going to establish that kind of relationship, oftentimes it's difficult. It just doesn't happen. It's rare that a real deep level of communication between even a husband and wife just happens.

40:04 It has to be cultivated. It has to be worked at. And if you say, well, what's the use of working? I'm sort of happy the way things are going.

40:11 Remember, that'd be a means of grace. It may keep you from some broom-tree experiences. And those of you who do not have a husband, or wife, or if circumstances are such that you cannot have that relationship on that level, pray that God will give you someone with whom you may have that kind of deep level of friendship and communication, lest you come into an Elijah-like experience because of the effects of loneliness. And then the third thing, and this is perhaps the most obvious and the most important aspect of why and how the prophet came into this situation.

Reason 3: Blurred Spiritual Perspective

40:48 It's what I'm calling there was a blurring of his spiritual perspective. Up until this point, Elijah is a man in whom there is this obvious perspective that he sees the living God. What is said of Moses in Hebrews 11 was true of Elijah. He endured seeing him who was invisible.

41:11 If anyone thinks that, well, Elijah just got an overabundance of courage in his genes or something, you look at him here. A man who didn't even twitch before a king and a nation withers before a painted witch named Jezebel. Straight before a whole nation, 450 prophets of Baal, a king, and as we've seen him in that entire 18th chapter, he takes charge like a general. He tells the king what to do, tells the priest what to do, and now a woman goes, and he withers.

41:51 Now what happened? I submit to you, he had a blurring of his spiritual perspective. When he came out that day to stand before the king, he looked above and beyond the king and he saw him who was invisible and knowing that he stood before the living God as the servant of that God, he didn't fear a king. He saw beyond the 450 vested priests of Baal and all their pomp and ritual, and he saw the living God.

42:25 He saw beyond the doused altar. Soaked with the 12 barrels of water. He saw beyond the trench that held the water and he saw the God who could send fire from heaven and consume it. And as long as he had that perspective, he was invincible.

42:42 But the moment that perspective got blurred and he began to look at the situation pan, he showed himself to be a man made of the same stuff of which you and I are made. He lost his spiritual perspective. And it seems as though the wording of scripture is emphatic at this point, for it says in verse 3, And when he saw that, he arose and he went for his life. The servant comes and upon his lips are the oath, are the words of the oath of Jezebel.

43:13 And when he sees that, that is that expression of her rage and her determination to slay him, no indication that he looked above and beyond that painted witch sent the servant back with perhaps the words that Chrysostom, one of the great preachers in the early history of the church, sent back to an empress who sends a threatening note to him. He said, You go on back and tell that empress I fear nothing but sin. You see Chrysostom had sharp spiritual vision. When Luther was summoned to the Diet of Worms to go and defend his cause and people warned him not to go.

43:58 They might lay a trap for him. He said, No, I'm going. And he said, Though every tile and every roof in the village of Worms was a devil, I'll still go. Why?

44:08 Because he saw God who stood above the devil and all his hosts. Don't you catch that note in his famous hymn? Almighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing. He says, And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for he has willed his truth to triumph.

44:31 The prince of darkness, grim weakling, tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure. One little world shall fell him. That's a man with proper 2020 spiritual vision and perspective.

44:49 And Elijah had it up until now. But he lost it in this moment of weakness. He lost it. He lost it.

44:55 And all he saw was the rage of this woman. And he retreats in defeat. In the past he had known the fulfillment of Isaiah 26.3.

45:04 Thou will keep him in perfect peace. Whose mind is stayed on thee. He had the perspective of Paul in 2 Corinthians 4.18.

45:13 We look not on the things that are seen, but on the things that are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporal, even the Jezebels. But the things that are not seen are eternal. Again, may I say by way of testimony, this is the only thing that will sustain a man in the Christian ministry who takes his responsibility seriously.

45:34 There are some Sundays when I stand to preach and I look out into your face, and I know situations that of themselves would cause me to just pack my bags and leave. You don't know how often when I sit here during the playing of the last hymn before the message, I'm pleading with God to get my perspective right. Lord, help me to see above those faces and above those situations and to endure as seeing Him who is invisible. If I don't have that, I've had it.

46:06 That's true of every child of God. Is your very vision blurred tonight? What are you dreading? What Jezebel has splashed her painted eyes at you and caused you to quail?

46:25 Hmm? Quake. You need to get your perspective right again. You're invincible in the purpose of God until your work is done.

Reason 4: Disappointed Hopes and Frustrated Expectations

46:37 You need not fear the face of man, for as God said to that timid young priest Jeremiah, be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee, saith the Lord to deliver thee. Well, let me suggest a fourth and last reason as to why the prophet was brought to this state of dejection. It's what I would call disappointed hopes and frustrated expectations. If you asked yourself, why did he run down in front of the chariot to the very entrance of Jezreel, the place where Ahab and Jezebel resided, Scripture doesn't give us a clear answer, but I would like to think that the Lord, one of the reasons that Elijah ran before Ahab, among others, was that he expected that having had the cooperation of Ahab in the slaying of the 450 prophets of Baal, perhaps Ahab would cooperate now in taking care of the 400 prophets of Asherah and carry out a reform that would purge Baal worship from the entire nation. And he wants to be there in his little tent outside the gate, so that as soon as Ahab says, Elijah, we're ready to get on with the job, he can say, let's get with it. He's full of expectations. He's just come from a situation in which he has seen the frustration of the God of Baal.

48:01 He's seen the vindication of the name of Jehovah. He has seen a whole nation bowed before some mighty wind, bend low and cry with their face to the dust, Jehovah, He is God. Well, that would do something for you, wouldn't it? You'd expect some great blessings around the corner and the heavens are open and the lightning flashes and the rain comes.

48:23 And here you're caught along in this crest of what seems to be the beginning of a mighty move of God that might really sweep through that entire nation. And in the midst of your expectations, a servant comes from the palace of the king not to announce, Elijah, Ahab calls for you. Ahab wants you to come and deal with the prophets of Asherah. Or Elijah, come, Jezebel has given some indication that she sees the folly of Baal worship.

48:51 No, but he comes and says, tomorrow this time your blood will be mixed with those Baal prophets. And all his hopes and expectations come dashing to the ground. The sense of dejection that sets in, frustrated hopes. Scripture says in Proverbs 13, 12, hope deferred maketh the heart sick.

49:19 That's true, isn't it? Hope deferred. You're waiting in expectation. And that expectation is not realized.

49:27 It maketh the heart sick. And so the heart of Elijah the prophet was made sick because hope was deferred. Elijah apparently failed to recognize that the work begun upon Mount Carmel would take time. And that what God was doing right now in preserving true worship in Israel did not pass before the sight of Elijah.

49:50 God was doing something and God was yet to do something for later on. God anoints, God commands Elijah to go and anoint Jehu who would carry out the work of reform, who would slay the last of the Baal worshipers. God's purposes for a time went from above ground to underground. Oh, it was easy to see what the Lord was doing when you could watch a whole nation with its face in the dust and you could hear their cry ringing in your ears, Jehovah, He is God.

50:19 Didn't take any faith to believe God was working, standing in that city. You'd have to be a fool to say the Lord wasn't at work. But now, when a servant comes from the very palace of the king saying you've had it, to believe that the Lord is still working and defending His cause and vindicating His name, you don't believe that by what you see. There comes the point where the man has got to believe that God is doing His work simply because He says so.

50:47 And I would say by way of application if you and I would be kept from these Elijah-like experiences of dejection, whether it is in our labor with our children, whether it's in our concern for unsaved loved ones, whether it's in the advancement of the kingdom of Christ in our own assembly or in the larger circle of the work of God in our generation, we must remember that oft times God's work goes underground and much of it is being wrought outside the circle of what we can see. God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. He plants His footsteps on the sea and rides upon the storm. Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan His work in vain. That's what Elijah did. He scanned the work of God and he said nothing's happening anymore.

51:42 It's all come to a grinding halt with Ahab's chariot halting at the palace. Sure to err and scan His work in vain. But God is His own interpreter and He will make it plain. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take.

51:59 The clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head. Disappointed hopes and expectations. If only the prophets had been able to confess what Habakkuk confessed. And I read now from the third chapter of Habakkuk beginning with verse 17.

52:25 Although the fig tree shall not blossom neither shall the fruit be in the vines the labor of the olive shall fail and the field shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Yet will I rejoice in the Lord and I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength and He will make my feet like hinds feet and will make me to walk upon the earth and mine high places. You see, there comes a sense of exhilaration when you can see God working.

53:05 That is a thrilling thing. And I don't believe God wants us to be ascetics and not be thrilled when we can see what is obviously the work of God. Sure, was Elijah thrilled when there on Mount Carmel he saw what his holy heart had longed for for years a nation bowed repudiating Baal worship? He'd be less than human if he wasn't consciously, emotionally thrilled.

53:28 But if you begin to make your relationship to the Lord depend upon what you can see of His working what happens when you can't see what He's doing? You'll find yourself a broom tree somewhere and say, Lord, no sense remaining. Your source of joy must never be what you see of the work of God but of the living God Himself. And if you see something of His work let that be the whipped cream on your dessert but never let it be your meat and taters.

Conclusion: Lessons for Enduring Faith

54:02 You let your meat and taters be the fact that the Lord has promised to be with His people and never forsake them and that no labor in His name even the cup of cold water shall fail of its reward and in due season we shall reap if we faint not. And as you labor for the conversion of your children and loved ones and as we labor for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ in this assembly or whatever church you represent some of you young men preparing for the Christian ministry as you're involved up to the hilt and pouring yourself out and at times you say, what is the use? What returns am I getting for all this expenditure of energy and time and sweat and blood and tears? We've got to say with the prophet Habakkuk though I see no fruit on the vine I will joy in the God who has sent me to serve Him who has given me His word and His truth and has pledged His blessing upon every effort done in His will and in His name. Would you be spared? Some of these Elijah-like areas of despondency? Then beware of that physical letdown that can come after great spiritual endeavors and after great spiritual expenditure of spiritual energies.

55:20 Beware of being a loner. If you think you're strong enough to be alone God may have to prove to you in a very bitter experience that you aren't even as Elijah learned it. And it's interesting after this he had Elisha for a companion until he went home to be with the Lord. I wonder if that's significant.

55:39 It's right after this that he went and cast his mantle on Elisha and he had him with him until he went home in that blaze of glory. Then beware of losing your spiritual perspective. The only way we'll endure is as we see Him who's invisible. Then in the fourth place as we've considered beware of having your joy rooted in what you can see of the work of God.

56:04 The Lord willing next week we'll consider how the Lord dealt with His discouraged pouting, complaining servant. And if ever there's a demonstration as I mentioned earlier of the tenderness of God with His servants beautiful illustration of the truth of Psalm 37, 23 and 24 Though the righteous fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand. And I just can't wait if my voice would hold out and I was silly enough to presume on your ability to sit on those hard chairs I'd love to just launch into it. You used to ask yourself why did the Lord send an angel?

56:42 I think that's the most precious one of the most precious things in the whole question why did He send an angel? Couldn't a stranger, a wayfarer have come? God wanted to make it so clear to His servant that right out there pouting and wishing to die He hadn't moved three degrees from the center of the glance of God. So He sends an angel to prepare a celestial meal to let him know and I say it reverently I still love you my child and I'm concerned for you even in your disobedience and your dejection and as we see God's dealings with Him I trust we'll come to a new appreciation of the mercy of God to us and we'll learn some principles of how we're to deal with one another when we find each other in spiritual doldrums and in dejection. So much then for the report of Ahab the reaction of Jezebel the retreat of the prophet may God be pleased to use this for our profit as we seek to walk with Him. Let us look to the Lord in prayer together.