A Slight Miscalculation 

If I asked you to make a list of great men of the Bible, how long would it take before the name Elijah would appear? One of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament, Elijah prophesied for God in a very ungodly time during the reign of Ahab and Jezebel. On the mount of transfiguration, he was the representative from the prophets who appeared with Moses to speak with Jesus. His place is among the greatest of men and is an incredible example of faith for all to emulate. 

Because of all of the above, 1 Kings 19:4 becomes a troubling verse as this great man of faith prays to God and says, "It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for 1 am not better than my fathers." He basically is saying to God that he is ready to die, that he just can't handle it anymore. Why? Some insight is given by what he says to an angel in verse 10: "I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away." In other words, he was depressed that he alone was fighting the battle, a battle that he no longer felt he could adequately carry on as he knew he was supposed to. What brought this great man of faith to this point of depression and how did God respond? 

What makes all of this even more interesting is where this story begins. It begins not with some great defeat or with some depressing event in the life of Elijah. It actually is quite the opposite. This story begins with an overwhelming victory for God. You may recall the challenge that took place on Mt. Carmel between the priests of Baal and Elijah. If you recall, they were to call upon their gods to burn up the offering that was on the altar. Obviously, Baal never did answer the calling of his priests, even after they cut themselves to get his attention. But when it was Elijah's turn, God responded immediately with a fire that consumed not only the sacrifice, but the entire altar including the wood and the stones and the dust and all of the water that was there from when Elijah had them pour water on the altar. At this, Elijah instructed the people to round up the priests of Baal and he killed them all in the brook nearby. This was a glorious victory for God and demonstrated to all the people who the true God was.  

As a result of the great victory, the queen was angry with Elijah and warned Elijah that she was coming after him to do to him what he had done to the prophets of Baal. This caused him to be afraid and he was on the run when he made this request. And so it was directly after this great victory Elijah offers up his prayer before God to end his life. This raises a very important question: How could such a great man find himself so depressed that he makes such a request to God? I believe the reason is because he was too exhausted to find the courage to continue in the face of adversity. His exhaustion had clouded his mind and his judgment. 

Great things that are accomplished are exhaustive. Elijah had just gone through the challenge at Carmel and that experience must have been draining for him. Not only that, but after that experience, according to 18:46, he then proceeded to run so fast that he outran a chariot back to the city. Then, once he heard Jezebel was after him, he had to flee again. At this point in his exhaustion, his mind began losing its ability to focus clearly the way it needed to. Because of this, he felt he was all alone, that there was nobody else out there who was trying to stand up to Jezebel as he was, and he felt that perhaps it would be best to quit trying. The easy road out would be simply to have God take his life. 

What was God's response? Forty days later, after the angel had given Elijah some food and he had fled to Mt. Horeb and was living in a cave there, the Lord came to him to talk to him. And it was at this point that Elijah pointed out that he was all alone trying to serve God and that it was only a matter of time before Jezebel got him too. God replied, "Yet 1 shall leave 7000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him." Elijah had a slight miscalculation regarding how many there were who still served God as they should. What Elijah failed to understand in his limited reasoning in his exhausted state was that God was not going to let His people be obliterated. God would always keep a remnant of His people to carry on. Paul refers to this remnant in Romans 11 applying it even to the church with those who had not turned away from where they needed to be. 

Written by Chris Huntley for the Hazlewood Church of Christ Bulletin