Welcome back to Part II of my perusings on my friend, Elijah. As I wrote in my first blog, I have had my cupboard filled so many times with the oil and flour that only the Lord can provide. I can’t even count the times HE has shown up when I was scared, tired, lonely, frightened, at loss for words or wisdom or broken. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has chased us since the Garden fiasco to redeem us. I have seen HIM, I have felt HIM and I have seen HIS Hands in my life in others. I feel like Elijah calling fire on the mountain on those priests of Baal. I have seen the fireball, folks!
I can testify and shout to the world of HIS greatness and great compassion. And yet I have high-tailed it back to my personal broom tree faster than you can say ‘Jezebel’ in my drawn-out southern accent. Let’s look at I Kings 19 to refresh the story in our mind.
1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3 Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” 5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” 8 And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God. (ESV)
Jezebel goes off on Elijah and threatens him with death. He was afraid and ran to the nearest broom tree. My Pharisee-self wants to snub my nose at him and remind him of what he had just done with the priests of Baal. Come on Elijah, look at what God has done for you! Don’t you trust God to take care of you? You got the power of God, Elijah, use it! But in all honesty, I am so much like Elijah. I told you a couple of paragraphs ago about the great victories in my life. I know GOD. I am redeemed. I am HIS child. And yet…sometimes with little provocation at all (definitely not the level of a death threat) I get scared and run to the broom tree.
I feel like I get a case of spiritual ADHD. I seem to forget quickly what GOD has done for me and embrace the fear. I start to rely on myself. When I studied this story as an adult, I kept dwelling on what he (I) did in fear and doubt. Then the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to the text. The angel of the Lord was there with the same oil/flour/water he had provided in the earlier chapters. He fed Elijah. He feeds me under the tree. The very same GOD on the mountaintop destroying the priests of Baal, the same GOD providing oil and flour for the widow and her son is the same GOD of the broom tree. He’s sustaining me despite my weakness and despair. The oil and the flour are in the cupboard. I am so thankful that Mark preserves the words of the father of the boy with the unclean spirit in verses 9:23-24
But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (ESV)
Those words become mine. LORD, I believe. Help my unbelief under my broom tree. Help me get to the cupboard full of oil and flour, LORD. I know it’s there. I can’t wait to meet Elijah one day.
Maranatha!
Jayme
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