How do you judge success in your life? How do you react when you fail? As you trust God and walk by faith do you become discouraged by the situations that appear be complete failures? When we view our successes and failures through human eyes we are not seeing the whole picture because the our baseline measure of life resides in faulty human emotions that shift like the wind driven sands of the desert. In 1 Kings 17 and 18 the prophet Elijah made a stand for God against the the prophets of Baal and Asherah showing the people of Israel that the Lord, He is God. After seeing God work in such a mighty way Elijah was faced with the wrath of Queen Jezebel in 1 Kings 19.
Elijah fearing for his life flees from Jezebel into the wilderness saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.” 1 Kings 19:4 Elijah was basing his perspective and outlook for life on Jezebel’s anger and the lack of response from the people of Israel. After Elijah is ministered to by the angel of the Lord he travels forty days to Mount Sinai in Horeb.
Did Elijah have any expectations about what was going to happen to him? In a cave on Mount Sinai God asks, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” The response given by Elijah to God is egocentric, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your alters and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” 1 Kings 19:10 God is all knowing so why does he ask this questions? Did Elijah know what he was doing? Did Elijah have direction and purpose in this moment? In the midst of the moment Elijah couldn’t look beyond his own circumstances but all he can do is tell God what He already knows.
God tells Elijah to come out of the cave and stand before Him. “And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind and earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.” 1 Kings 19:11,12 Elijah covers himself as God approaches and again asks, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Elijah again gives the same egocentric answer to God but this time God gives direction to Elijah. In moments where we do not know what God is doing it can be difficult to look away from ourselves because we directly relate our ability to the outcome of our actions. We truly need to take our eyes off of ourselves and place them on God alone.
God tells Elijah that he is about to pass judgement upon the people of Israel who choose to worship Baal. Elijah was to anoint Hazael king over Aram, Jehu king over Israel, and Elisha as a prophet and his successor. Did Elijah have hope again because there was a definite purpose and plan to follow? What do we do when we continue day after day not knowing what God is doing in our lives? How can we have assurance to keep pressing on in life? A key is found in our experience of God. Do you spend time in the presence of God? After Elijah had been before God on Mount Sinai he again had purpose and direction in his life. When we spend time before God in His presence we lose our egocentric outlook as we focus on learning who He is from Scripture.
In 1 Kings 20 God starts to work His will over Israel through the nations around Israel. Aram attacks Israel and seeks to subdue the people but God sends men to Israel’s king Ahab giving instruction. The Israelites defeat the people of Aram but their king Ben-hadad is left alive by Ahab. Ahab was eager to accept God’s help but didn’t truly follow God. Ahab chose to do what ever he wanted instead of following God. He didn’t heed the words spoken by Elijah in 1 Kings 18:21 “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” His desire was to do what was profitable and right in his own eyes led to his downfall and the downfall of the Israelites. Don’t follow the example of Ahab by living an egocentric life but seek out God and live for Him.
