Despair and Deliverance: 1 Kings 19:4-8 - Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
[Elijah] went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.”5Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” 6He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. 7The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” 8He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. (NRSV)
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| Broom trees by Filipe Ramos on flickr. CC BY 2.0 |
There are few human feats that can compare to winning an Olympic gold medal.
You’ve worked hard your entire life. You trained for hours every day, pushing your mind and body beyond its limits. You persevered through aches, pains, injuries, and competitions that didn’t go as you had hoped. But now, having competed against the world’s top athletes, you come out on top. There’s no one in the world who’s faster, stronger, and more capable than you. You are the champion.
Then comes the fame and fortune of victory. Soon, your face will grace the Wheaties box, and all kinds of products and advertisements.
In today’s Old Testament reading, the prophet Elijah has just scored a bigger victory against 850 false prophets. With all Israel watching, there can be no denying that only the Lord is God. So why do we now find Elijah in a state of utter despair?
It all begins when King Ahab and Queen Jezebel become fanatical in their worship of the rain god Ba’al and its wife, Asherah. Soon, they turn the entire nation of Israel away from their God. Then, a drought strikes, and God sends Elijah to King Ahab to declare that there would be no rain unless God says so.
Three years into the famine, Jezebel is so desperate to compel Ba’al and Asherah to end the drought that she’s killing God’s prophets. Soon, Elijah rises to the top of her hit list, as she and Ahab puts the blame for the famine directly upon his shoulders.
So Elijah confronts Ahab and throws the gauntlet down: he challenges Ahab to assemble 450 prophets of Ba’al and 400 prophets of Asherah on Mount Carmel. Ahab was to get two bulls: one for God, and the other for Ba’al. Whichever god sent fire down to consume the offering would be the true God—and all Israel will be watching.
Sure enough, God sends down fire at Elijah’s word, whereas Ba’al and Asherah are exposed as frauds. Elijah is vindicated, and Ahab and Jezebel are humiliated. The people then seize the false prophets and kill them.
But Jezebel vows revenge. Elijah is forced to flee to the desert, and that’s where we find him today—sitting beneath a broom tree, in full meltdown. He has reached and passed his breaking point.
I must say, you would not expect to see one of the Old Testament’s greatest heroes in such a despondent state. Elijah, who stood before an entire nation in what was God’s grandest miracle since the parting of the Red Sea, is now begging God to let him die!
But Elijah is human, just like you and me. And that dramatic victory didn’t erase the fact that he’d lived the last three years on the brink of death—either from starvation amid the famine, or execution by Jezebel. And now, he is in greater danger than he has ever been.
You may be all too familiar with the despair that has overtaken Elijah.
Despair is what happens when fear, exhaustion, frustration, grief, guilt, shame, anger, doubt, and every negative emotion unite into one giant parasite that devours your soul. Your mind, body, and emotions turn against you. Death seems preferable to living.
But God refuses to answer Elijah’s prayer to let him die. And what does God do to turn the tide against Elijah’s despair? An angel tells him to eat something. Elijah eats, quickly falls asleep, and the angel tells him to eat again.
Isn’t it often the case that when you are in a state of despair, like Elijah, you lose your appetite? Your mind sees fit to deprive your body of what it needs most? You can’t sleep? You shut everyone out who cares about you; you lose the motivation to just about everything except for dwelling on the crisis. But God uses basic nourishment—food and water—to break the cycle of despair. Even though Elijah is not out of danger, he nonetheless goes forward by the grace of God given in that simple food.
What we see here is that God doesn’t eliminate all the danger, but instead ministers to Elijah in the simplest of ways. When you find yourself in such a despairing state, where it feels like the world is caving in around you, it is essential that you stop, take time to rest, take time to eat and drink, and welcome those who care about you. Once you see God’s hand in those simple gifts, your eyes will soon be opened to the many ways that God is being good to you, both big and small, despite all that’s going wrong.
One of the best ways to fight despair is to be ready for it when it comes. What gifts has God given you that feed your soul? Is it music, enjoying nature, or a relationship with a friend or family member? What about prayer, Scripture reading, coming to worship, or helping others? And what ways has God been faithful in the past? When did you experience God’s mightiness to save?
As the body of Christ, we must understand that people everywhere are living in the suffocating grip of despair. A listening ear, a helping hand, a simple act of kindness may be all that it takes to free that person from that despair—or disrupt it enough for that person to see that God’s back has not been turned on them, and that their situation is not hopeless. That little bit of grace in that most desperate moment may mean the difference between life and death. It’s important that we see that Christian witness is greater than just sharing our faith. It’s about saving lives.
Despair is inevitable in life. And when it does, it can make life unlivable. But God is mighty to save from the worst pains and the fiercest enemies. God’s presence, God’s simple gifts are what save lives. Feeding others and being fed. So when your head is bowed down in sorrow, take heart—your Deliverer is near—and there is more of life to be lived in him.
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