The God of Me Alone
Synopsis 1Kings 19:5-13 6/14/2019
Elijah was hiding. Queen Jezebel had threatened to kill him in retaliation for killing the prophets of Baal. And, although God had performed many miracles through Elijah, he remained afraid that Jezebel might be successful. This made him feel exhausted and downhearted.
So he ran away to the tribal lands of Judah, where Jezebel could not reach him. And there he went into the wilderness. After a little while, he laid down under a broom tree and fell asleep. But he was woken by an angel who twice gave him food and water. And afterward, Elijah began the forty-day pilgrimage back to God’s mountain.
Mount Horeb was the original place where the children of Israel met God. It was the place where Moses saw God in the form of a burning bush. And it seems that Elijah sought that kind of experience.
God asked Elijah why he had come. And Elijah replied that he alone, in all of Israel, had been faithful. And because of his faithfulness, his life was in danger. Then, as he remained on the mountain, Elijah experienced a terrifying wind, and then a fearful earthquake, and finally a raging fire. But he realized that God was in none of these.
Then he heard a light, silent, sound. So, he covered his face. And God spoke to him.
The God of Abraham
Elijah was looking for God. Somehow, he concluded that he needed to travel to Mount Horeb to find Him.
As a prophet, Elijah was exhausted. He had done everything asked of him – everything imaginable. But still, he had failed. The Israelites remained faithless. Even in the face of overwhelming miracles, King Ahab remained unchanged. And so, Elijah became hopeless and despondent. He gave up on the idea that the people might ever truly repent.
But Elijah’s running away is interesting. All the more because he sought refuge in the tribal lands of Judah in order to escape Jezebel. But he did not go to find God at the temple in Jerusalem. For, he did not perceive the priesthood of the southern kingdom, or the house of David, to be any better than the corrupted leadership of the north.
And so, he sought something entirely different – something original. Elijah went in search of the relationship of the patriarchs. He wanted to know God without mediation. He wanted to know God the way Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses had known God. And he wanted to speak with God face-to-face.
The God of Me Alone
It’s tempting to want to go somewhere to find God in some special way. I have dreamed of a mountain where it’s only me and God – no one else to get in the way – no one else to muddle the relationship – and no faithlessness to distract or disappoint.
It’s odd how easy it is to convince myself that I’d somehow be closer to God if I could only escape the people around me.
“The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth.” Psa 145:18
