What Doest Thou Here?

Introduction and Review of Elijah's Dejection

0:05 Let us turn again this evening to 1 Kings, chapter 19, 1 Kings, chapter 19.

0:28 In the interest of trying to spare what little voice I have left, I shall be as brief as possible in our introduction and review, and then unusually brief in the exposition of the word tonight, but I trust the Lord will speak to us with freshness and with power from the words of his own dealings with the prophet Elijah. God has vindicated in his name, his name and his cause publicly before the nation of Israel through his servant, the prophet Elijah.

1:05 On the heels of that great vindication, the prophet receives word from the king's palace that this wicked, apostate Jezebel has taken a vow by her false gods that by this time tomorrow, he will be like those prophets whose blood was mingled in the brook down at the base of Mount Carmel. The prophet turns in dejection and fear and runs and goes to the southernmost part of the kingdom of Judah. There he leaves his servants and takes another journey of some 15 or 20 miles into the wilderness,

1:45 parks himself beneath what scripture calls a juniper tree, a broom tree, one of the few oases from the burning desert. In that area of the wilderness, and there he prays that God would take his life. There's no sense living anymore. He's ministered for naught.

2:05 There's no purpose yet to live. Apostasy reigns. Jezebel sits entrenched in the palace. Ahab, this weak, vacillating, unprincipled man, is just a servant of the whims of this wicked woman.

2:17 The nation still seems to be wedded to its idolatry. What's the sense of ministering anymore? Might as well quit. And so he prays that God would let him get out of the whole mess.

Causes of Elijah's Dejection

2:28 And then we see how God graciously begins to deal with this, his dejected, despondent, discouraged, and possibly even disobedient servant here on the backside of a lonely wilderness as he finds him beneath that juniper tree. We tried to ask and ascertain from scripture an answer to the question, what brought Elijah to this terrible state of dejection? And we suggested that scripture hints at at least four things. His physical condition.

3:01 There was weariness, the drain of the ministry of the past days. There was loneliness. There was the blurring of his spiritual perspective. And then there was this disappointed hope, this disillusionment, having expected great things after the vindication of Mount Carmel.

God's Initial Gracious Dealings: Love and Physical Needs

3:18 He now sees that what he expected did not come to pass. He's ready to quit. Now, how does the Lord deal with one of his servants who gets in that particular condition? Well, we saw last week, according to chapter 19 and verse 5, that the Lord first of all assured him of his love and his concern.

3:42 And he did this by sending an angel to minister personally and directly to the prophet Elijah. If a stranger had come by, he might have mistaken the origin of that stranger's visit. And called it just a happenstance, just a coincidence. But when an angel appears and lightly touches him and awakens him from his sleep, he knows that God is saying through the visit of the angel, Elijah, you've not gotten beyond the sphere of my concern or out of the circle of my love.

4:16 I see you here. I'm concerned for you. And I'm going to undertake to meet your needs. And then the second thing.

4:24 God did was to meet the immediate physical needs of the prophet. Those two most basic physiological, biological needs, the holiest of all men can't minister without them. And if he's not been getting an adequate measure of either of them over a period of time, he'll begin to have great problems that may not be directly rooted in spiritual causes, but in physical causes. And those two physiological needs are food and sleep.

4:51 And so the angel prepares food for him. And then he lets him go back to sleep, prepares some more food, and then sends him on his way. And we tried to glean from this some of the principles that we can discern in God's dealings with his dejected, despondent servants, and then perhaps gain somewhat of an idea of how we should seek to deal with one another when we find each other in this state. Now tonight, we shall just look at two other principles of how God dealt with his servant.

God's Gracious Dealings: Tokens of Presence and Power

5:22 One of them. I'll jump on very briefly. And the other will be the main focal point of our study for the rest of the time together. After the angel came to him the second time, I'm reading from verse seven, he touched him and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee.

5:40 And he arose and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the mountain of God. Now, what was the Lord doing here? it suggests that he was giving to his servant a token of his presence and his power. Having assured him of his love and his concern in the visit of the angel, having then met his immediate physical needs of food and of rest, he now gives him an unusual token of his manifest presence and power. For notice, he has a journey before him. Who has planned this journey we

6:22 do not know. Whether the Lord, through the angel, has told him that he's to journey to Mount Horeb, or whether Elijah has already made up his mind that I'm going to go on to Mount Horeb, this place where God revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush, where God revealed his law, whether the angel directed him to go, or whether Elijah had already made up his mind, and I incline to the second, because later on God says, what are you doing here? Indicating that I didn't send you here. You're here on your own.

6:53 You're here on your own charge. But in either case, he has this journey before him that normally should only take three or four days. But it's a journey that's going to take him forty days. And he's going to cover the very area where the children of God, the children of Israel, wandered in the wilderness and where God so wonderfully displayed his patience and his grace to them for forty years. Now, God says, arise and eat, because the journey is too

7:21 great for thee. In other words, what will be demanded of you physically you don't have. So he eats this meal that God has prepared, and then, wonder of wonders, this one meal lasts for forty days of unusual physical exertion. For he moves forty days and forty nights through that wilderness, expending great amounts of energy, exposed to all the elements of that wilderness. The burning sun by day and the cool air by night—he's at the mountain.

7:51 p. полез to the longest AM from his history. His journey is not long, even if it takes over time and energy, and if it takes an enormous amount of time. But when he, he is Gewand, by night, no evidence that he has any physical protection, and yet God wonderfully sustains him during this whole period. Now, why did the Lord do this? Well, if you remember, the

8:03 18th chapter closed with the prophet running before the chariot of Ahab in the strength and power of God for a distance of 18 to 20 miles. Verse 46 of chapter 18, the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. Here he's conscious of the unusual presence and power of the Lord resting upon him, enabling him to accomplish this great feat of a marathon race in the midst of a blinding thunderstorm, keeping up with the steeds of the king. Now the same prophet experiences

8:44 that same surge of divine enablement and power that has brought him to the entrance of Jezreel. Now the same prophet experiences that same surge of divine enablement and power that has brought him to the entrance of Jezreel. Now the same prophet experiences that same surge of divine enablement and power that has brought him to the entrance of Jezreel. Now the same surge of divine enablement and power that has brought him to the entrance of Jezreel. Now

8:51 the same prophet experiences that same surge of divine enablement and power that has brought him to the entrance of Jezreel. Now the same prophet experiences that same surge of divine enablement and power that has brought him to the entrance of Jezreel. Now the same prophet experiences that same surge of divine enablement and power that has brought him to the entrance of Jezreel. Now the same prophet experiences that same surge of divine enablement and power that has brought him to the entrance of Jezreel. Now the same prophet experiences that same

8:57 surge of divine enablement and power that has brought him to the entrance of Jezreel. Now He's himself day by day strengthened for this journey to Mount Horeb, the mount of God. And the prophet is forced to acknowledge there is no explanation for the quickening sense of strength that I have, but that God is giving me a pledge of his presence and of his power.

9:19 And again, I don't know how this strikes you, but I'm amazed at the graciousness of God. He hasn't yet probed his conscience. He hasn't yet dealt with him about the area of his irresponsibility in leaving the post of duty at Jezreel. He hasn't yet given him a broadside for his misinterpretation of God's dealings with him and with the nation.

9:40 But having manifested his love and his concern, having manifested his desire to meet his physical needs, now God adds to this this token of his presence and his power as the prophet moves in a course that we're not even sure was directly ordered of God.

10:02 Now, if that isn't grace, I don't know what is.

10:06 And how often, though God has perhaps not given us such tokens as these that are so dramatic, when you and I have been in a situation of spiritual barrenness and spiritual poverty, God has sustained us in life and in strength. God has, as it were, given us the very fuel with which we have run the wheels of our, our lives in a direction for which we had no warrant from Scripture and has, as it were, broken us with the sight of his grace and his kindness. And so the third principle that I see in the passage in God's dealings with his servant

10:46 is that he gave him tokens of his presence and his power even in this state of disobedience, the strongest word perhaps we could use, and at best a state of unbelief and dejection. Now, when he comes to Horeb, the mount of God, with his mind no doubt having run over the whole course of Israel's history, a course that in forty years was a little picture of these dealings with God's servant in forty days. There seems to be a parallel, for Elijah knew well the history of the people of God. He knew well the great rich heritage of God's dealings with the people whom he brought out of Egypt.

God's Probing Question: 'What Doest Thou Here, Elijah?'

11:30 And as he would come to place after place, where in Old Testament history we have the record of God manifesting himself in mercy to a grumbling, rebellious people, no doubt the mind of the prophet is being, as it were, plowed up and disposed for this very pointed dealing of God that we're going to find in the next segment of the narrative. Now, picking up the narrative at verse 9, what does the Lord do? And he came thither unto a cave and lodged there. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?

12:11 Later on in the narrative, he repeats that same question. The end of verse 13, Behold, there came a voice unto him and said, What doest thou here? What doest thou here, Elijah? This is the fourth principle of the things that God did with his servant, assuring him of his love and concern, meeting his immediate physical needs, giving him a token of his presence and power.

12:39 What is God doing when he confronts the prophet with this question? What doest thou here, Elijah? I would suggest to you that what he's doing is this. He is probing his conscience to self-reflection.

12:55 God comes. Taking the initiative, no evidence that Elijah begins to call upon the Lord and begins, as it were, to seek the Lord in earnest. But the word of the Lord comes to him, and apparently it comes again through a personal visit of an angel or some heavenly messenger. For scripture says, And he said unto him, not it said unto him, but he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?

13:26 What a searching, probing question. Here you are, Elijah, a great distance from the post of duty, having just come from a situation in which you prayed that your life would be ended. Has my word brought you here? Has your zeal for obedience to my revealed will brought you here?

13:47 You see, this question forced the prophet to retrace all of the steps, inwardly and outwardly, that had brought him to this cave, upon the mount of God. It forced the prophet to pull up the reins on his activity and say, Wait a minute, what am I doing here? How did I get here?

14:10 He had been so immersed in the grief and disappointment, dejection, loneliness, unbelief, blurred spiritual vision, that he was almost like a drunken man, just reeling to and fro, going here, going there, moving from place to place, but not really gathering about him his spiritual wisdom. And so the Lord, first of all, rests him, assures him of his love and his presence, and now he begins to zero in to the real issue and forces the prophet through self-reflection to begin to face his true spiritual condition. If God had asked that question at any other time prior to this instance,

14:53 Elijah would be able to snap back very quickly. What doest thou here, Elijah? What doest thou here, Elijah? If God had come to him when he was in seclusion by the brook Kirith,

15:07 no ministry, not preaching, not prophesying, not attacking the bastions of iniquity in the land of Israel, and God were to come and say, Elijah, what are you doing here? He'd be able to say, Lord, just obeying orders. You told me to come and dwell by the brook Kirith, and you haven't changed your orders. So I'm here by divine appointment.

15:25 Had the Lord come to him when he was taking it easy in the house of a widow, and said, Elijah, what are you doing here? The nation bound in this Baal worship, what are you doing here, enjoying the comforts of this home? He'd say, obeying orders, Lord. You told me to come and dwell with this widow.

15:43 Just obeying orders, Lord. But he couldn't say that now. What doest thou here, Elijah? And as he begins to reflect, do I have any word from God that brought me to this present state?

15:56 No. How did I get here? Then he begins to trace back. And he thinks back to his trip where he left his...

16:02 Well, why did I come there? Well, I was dwelling by the gate of Jezreel when that report came from Jezebel that she was to take my life. Why did I run? And as he begins to reflect, you see, there's the probing of his conscience and the bringing to the surface the sins of unbelief and all that flowed out of that cardinal sin that had brought him to his present place.

Application: Self-Reflection for Restored Fellowship

16:27 And I want to say by way of application tonight that very often the first step to restored fellowship with God is serious self-reflection of our present state in the light of the revealed Word of God. I want to be very personal tonight and pray that the Spirit of God will take this little question and burn it into the conscience of every single one of us. If God were to come to you tonight and say, What doest thou here? What would you say?

17:10 What doest thou in your present spiritual condition? What's brought you there?

17:18 Whatever that condition is, what's brought you there?

17:22 We don't like to reflect, do we? For you see, it's this serious reflection upon our present state in the light of the revealed Will of God that becomes the first step to restored fellowship. This principle is seen throughout Scripture. Let me give several illustrations.

17:39 And then come back to applying it personally. The first question Adam was asked by God after his sin was, Adam, where art thou?

17:51 Reflect upon the place you now are.

17:57 The psalmist says in Psalm 119, verse 59, I fought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy statutes. The first indication of a return back to the presence of the Father and the fellowship of the Father in the instant, of the prodigal son is recorded in Luke 15 are these words and he came to himself you see there was this kind of reflection that finally brought everything into proper perspective and he saw what a fool he had been in Revelation 2 5 and in 3 3 God says to the church remember from whence thou art fallen remember and

Personal Application: Examining Your Spiritual Condition

18:41 do the first words and oh that the spirit of God would speak these words in a way that I cannot speak them to some of you here tonight what doest thou hear some of you sit here tonight whose hearts once burned with holy love for holy things as much as Elijah was a man marked by his courageous outspoken defense of the truth that Jehovah is God so your life was once marked by genuine sincere simple fervent love for Jesus

19:25 Christ and anyone who got within 10 feet of you was struck with the fact this person is abandoned to Jesus Christ and the question with which the spirit of God would probe your conscience tonight is what doest thou hear look where you are tonight people can be in intimate relationships with you now for days and weeks, and would get very little hint that there was any deep affection for the Savior. What doest thou here? How did you get to that place? Reflect. How did you get

20:09 to that place? What doest thou here? How did you come by this path? Was it the revealed word of God that led you there? Was it obedience to Scripture that has brought you to this

20:22 pleasant present place of waning affection for the Savior? Ah, no. It was the little areas of disobedience to the revealed will of God. It was cutting corners, first of all, on the private exercises of true piety, cutting corners on secret prayer, cutting corners on secret humbling and confession before God. Then it isn't long before you begin to cut

20:46 corners on the public means of grace, cutting corners on gathering with God's people to pray, cutting corners on gathering with God's people at every opportunity to have the springs of grace renewed, to have the springs of grace renewed, to have the springs of grace renewed, to have the vision of the world put behind you and the vision of eternity set before you. What doest thou here? What has brought you to this present state? God would have you reflect upon that question. What has brought you to this place of bondage to sin? Some

21:20 of you who knew what it was at one time to fly like a bird and to know something of the refreshing grace and strength of God, and now you find yourself in this place of bondage to sin. You find yourself ensnared in the pettiest kinds of sin. Once they were disgusting to you in yourself and in others, those subtle sins of jealousy and of suspicion and of skepticism, those sins of cynicism. What doest thou here? How did you come to this place? Again, was

22:02 it the revealed will of God that brought you to this place? No, but it was all of those steps. Once away from the place of divine appointment, away from the place of the revealed will of God until tonight, there you sit, and insensitive, and God says, what doest thou here? And he calls you by name. What doest thou here in this place of discouragement? What's the use?

22:34 Once you were the mark of holy scriptural optimism. No matter how black things seemed to be, you were always able to see. You could see behind or beneath or through or above or around the black cloud to the sunlight of the face of God, and you knew that no matter how black things were to this eye, everything was all right behind that cloud, and anyone who got near you was always refreshed by that holy biblical optimism that marked your life. It's not that way anymore, is it? You're a constant picture of dejection and unbelief and moroseness. What doest thou

23:16 here? How did you get there? What doest thou here? How did you get there? How did you get

23:18 What doest thou here?

23:21 What doest thou here?

23:24 Others of you, you were once marked by that wholesome, healthy, biblical involvement in the work of the kingdom of God. Everything in your plans, everything in the projection of your own life and your family and your own interest in the expenditure of energies had as its centrality the work of God's kingdom through the local church. It's not that way anymore. When it's convenient, you can give yourself to the work of God's kingdom in the local church.

24:00 If it's not, too bad.

24:04 What doest thou here? How'd you come here?

24:08 We don't like to reflect on that, do we? It's uncomfortable, isn't it? You see, this question forces us to reflect upon our present state, and we don't like that. And I'm sure the prophet's flesh, if it were not subdued by divine grace, it didn't like the question either.

24:26 But I... I would press it upon your conscience tonight.

24:30 What doest thou here? Look where you are. How'd you get there? What doest thou here?

24:38 The application of that question to the conscience by the grace of God, though our flesh would fight it, is another manifestation of divine grace. It was God who took the initiative to ask it. Why? Because he wanted to restore his servant to a place of usefulness.

24:55 He wanted to restore him to the place where he was walking in the light of... of his revealed will.

The Mercy of God in Probing Questions and Restoration

25:02 And the subsequent narrative reveals this. For after he's probed his conscience and taught him several other vital lessons that we'll not touch on tonight, he then, as it were, recommissions him and he gives him a task to do. Go, anoint so-and-so, and anoint so-and-so, and so-and-so. And the evidence is that the prophet springs to obedience and is back in the place of wholehearted involvement in the revealed will of God.

25:29 God in mercy has come to some of you tonight to probe your conscience in these few minutes with just those few words, What doest thou hear?

25:40 But left to yourself, you know what you'll do with that question? You'll seek to rip it from your mind like it was your enemy. When in reality, it's a messenger of mercy and of grace. Don't treat it that way.

25:54 It's God who's come in mercy saying, What doest thou hear? To you, his child whom he loves and longs to restore to a place of usefulness. But then there is...

Broader Application: Seeking God's Mercy (Unbelievers)

26:09 I trust a broader application that I be warranted in making.

26:16 There are some of you who are strangers to the grace of God to whom this might be a word to set you seeking his mercy. What doest thou hear? Here you are, sitting in this place tonight, exposed to divine truth, and yet horror of horrors resisting and rejecting,

26:39 exposed to God's saving message about his Son,

26:46 and yet not embracing that message. What doest thou hear in that state? Isn't that the most foolish thing in all the world? To be blessed by a sovereign God with the message of his mercy, calling you to repent and flee the wrath to come and find refuge in his dear Son,

27:07 and to turn one's back upon the prophets of mercy in a crucified Savior.

Personal Testimony and Conclusion

27:18 My earnest entreaty for all of us as God's people is that in the light of God's dealings with his servant, we might pray that the Lord will ever be with us. May the Lord be gracious to take the initiative with us and ask that question to us time and time again.

27:34 May I speak by way of personal testimony that I know of no spiritual exercise that has been more my salvation than God applying this question with power to my heart, what doest thou hear? When those periods will come when I find that several days can pass and I've not really met God at the throne of grace, when perhaps over a period of weeks, the word of God has grown increasingly dry and lifeless, and though I've been, quote, having my devotions, there hasn't been much devotion in my devotion.

28:11 Have the Lord come in mercy and arrest me and say, my son, my child, what doest thou hear in this wretched state of spiritual barrenness?

28:22 And then there's the awful pain of retracing my steps. How did I get here? You see, it was cutting corners here in the means of grace. Unwillingness to face an area of sin over here.

28:37 Unwillingness to make an issue right with God or with my fellow man over here. Shirking a duty over there. Skirting an issue over here. That's a painful process.

28:48 But oh, how sweet the other side. When once again the springs of grace are opened up and the Lord can say, what doest thou hear? And you can say, Lord, I'm here by divine appointment. Conscious of the springs of divine grace, springing up into everlasting life.

29:08 What a blessed thing. And it's worth all the pain of self-reflection. It's worth every bit of it. I said my message was going to brief tonight, and I'm done.

29:19 That's the only thing I have to say tonight. What doest thou hear? But if God will say it to your heart with power, perhaps more good will be done in these few minutes than has been done with hours of my preaching. May God be pleased to make it so.