Sunday August 12th, 2018, the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity
The Lessons: Psalm 34:1-8; 1 Kings 19:1-8; Ephesians 4:25 – 5:2; John 6:35, 41-51
Theme: Overcoming fear by receiving the love of God, and rejoicing in Him
Texts: 1 Kings 19:1-8; Psalm 34:1-8
INTRODUCTION
During a recent conflict in the Middle East, Ron and Joke Jones, who serve with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Israel, wrote in their prayer letter:
The result of the fighting and killing has left a profound sense of discouragement that hovers over the country. Several times we have come into closer contact with this conflict than our comfort zone allowed.
Yesterday a friend said she was watching a shepherd caring for his flock near the area where guns are fired. Every time the shots rang out, the sheep scattered in fright. The shepherd touched each of them with his staff and spoke calmly to them, and the sheep settled down because they trusted the shepherd. Then another shot sounded, and the same routine happened. Each time, the sheep needed the shepherd to orient them again and to reassure them they were safe.
We are like those sheep. When we are frightened, our Shepherd reaches out and touches us with his staff, speaking words of calm and comfort.
— Greg Asimakoupoulos,
Mercer Island, Washington [1]
1 KINGS 19:1-8: THE PROPHET ELIJAH FLEES FOR HIS LIFE
Why did the prophet Elijah fear for his life? Immediately after a great victory for the Lord over the cult of Baal worship, in which the Lord had consumed Elijah’s sacrifice with fire, showing His own power as the one true God, Elijah is threatened with death by Queen Jezebel (1 Kings 19:2).
In extreme fear and despondency at this threat, Elijah flees to Beersheba and goes a day’s journey into the wilderness, and rests under a juniper tree, where he requests the Lord to allow him to die, for he feels that he is no better than his fathers (1 Kings 19:4). Despite the great victory, and the heavy rain that followed, breaking a three year drought, Elijah felt he was a failure, and later in a cave on Mt. Horeb, he would say that he was the only one of God’s prophets left in Israel (1 Kings 19:10). Although in the wilderness he was safe from the reach of Jezebel, the fear that led to his journey into the wilderness, and to a longer, 40-day journey to Mt. Horeb, where Israel had received the Covenant and the Law, was accompanied by gloom and doubts about the value of his life in the face of so much opposition, and what seemed like so little loyalty to the Lord God of Israel.
THE LORD SUSTAINS THE PROPHET
After requesting the Lord to take away his life, Elijah fell asleep in the shade provided by the juniper tree. What was God’s answer to Elijah’s request? It certainly wasn’t to take his life! Instead, God gave him rest! Not only did God give him rest, but He also provided bread and water, although an angel had to wake him a second time to finish eating and drinking these divinely provided gifts. God gave him these gifts which supernaturally sustained him, although He later asked him twice why he had come to Mt. Horeb (1 Kings 19:9 & 19:13).
What can we learn from God’s treatment of Elijah in his time of fear, crisis and depression?
We can learn about God’s sustaining love for His people. There are vast spiritual resources open to all who love God. If God had fulfilled Elijah’s request to take away his life, Elijah’s ministry would have ended prematurely right then and there. But the Lord knew all the circumstances that led to Elijah’s request. He knew the heartache, the exhaustion, the frustration, and the despair. He would answer Elijah at the right time, but first He gave him three simple things: rest, bread and water. These gave him physical and spiritual strength to face the journey he had determined to undertake, even if God might not have deemed this journey necessary. What did Elijah have to do to receive this ministry from the Lord through the angel? He had to rest, eat and drink.
How do we receive the Lord’s ministry to us, in our times of difficulty and distress, or indeed at any time in our lives? We must rest in the Lord’s presence. Psalm 34:1 gives us a clue – “I will alway give thanks unto the Lord; His praise shall ever be in my mouth.” Another clue given in the same psalm is to seek the Lord (“I sought the Lord, and he heard me; yea, he delivered me out of all my fear” – Ps. 34:4). Praising and thanking God lifts us into his presence, as does quiet rest in Him (“For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; in returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength” – Isaiah 30:15).
CONCLUSION
This confidence, this faith, must accompany our praise of God and our thanksgiving, which must always be in our hearts and on our lips. Nicolas of Cusa (1400-1464) wrote:
When I look unto Thee alone with all my attention, nor ever turn aside the eyes of my mind, because Thou dost enfold me with Thy constant regard; when I direct my love toward Thee alone because Thou, who art Love’s self has turned Thee toward me alone. And what, Lord, is my life, save that embrace wherein Thy delightsome sweetness doth so lovingly enfold me?
(Nicholas of Cusa: Vision of God)
When we live like this, we also shall find that the angel of the Lord is at hand to deliver those that fear Him, who live their life in faith and obedience to Him. For us, then, praise, thanksgiving, prayer and faith, must be the means whereby we daily experience the life-giving presence of God who sets us free from fear and everything else which tries to ruin our lives. Then we, too, shall “taste and see how gracious the Lord is,” and how blessed the person who trusts in Him (Ps. 34:8)!
[1] p. 114, Craig Brian Larson & Phyllis Ten Elshof (General Editors): 1001 Illustrations that Connect. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, Christianity Today International, 2008.