J. Alec Motyer
3. Failure -- Its Cause and Cure. 1 Kings 19
MEMORY is the key factor in living for God. "The children of Ephraim, being armed bowmen, turned back in the day of battle ... they forgot ..." (Psalm 78:9-11). No equipment would suffice against their enemies if they failed in the matter of memory. "How often did they rebel against him in the wilderness ... they turned back ... they remembered not his hand ..." (Psalm 78:40-42). Whether we are thinking of buoyancy in the face of outward adversity or of inconsistency in the face of inner temptation, the Bible will say to us over and over again: 'How is your memory?'
Then there was the experience of the psalmist which is very germane to our study of Elijah: "Why are you cast down, my soul, and why are you disquieted to my disadvantage?" (Psalm 42:5). There is no reason for a believer to be cast down, but there is a wonderful realism about the Bible so the man concerned has to confess, "O my God, my soul is downcast". What can I do about it? "Therefore do I remember thee ..." (v.6). I will find my way back out of this pit through the divine avenue of memory. This is a very fruitful seam of Bible understanding -- the place of memory in facing the adversities of life and conflicts within. It cannot be accidental that the one command of Jesus as a continuing factor in His Church was what they should do: "in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11:24-25).
So when we come to Elijah's experience as recounted in 1 Kings 19, we wonder if the root of his failure is not to be found in forgetfulness. We are obliged to read between the lines but I put it as a question in order to be as fair and unassertive as possible: 'Was the root of his failure in forgetfulness?' I ask the question throughout. If he had been living in the light of a fresh awareness of the Lord; if he had remembered who the Lord is and what He had shown Himself to be; if he had been in full possession of a clear memory of the Lord's promises and power, would he have come into this black pit of despair? Despair it was, for he asked that he might die (v.4). Would he have done that if he had remembered the Lord? I do not think so.
1. Did he forget the lessons of experience?
It all began, you see, when "Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done" (v.1). Of course he did. There she was waiting behind the door with a rolling pin when he got back to Jezreel! She was all agog to know what had happened on Mount Carmel. When he told her, she sent her threat to Elijah, and he in his turn ran for his life. Would he have done that if he had remembered the lessons of experience? For three years he had been hidden away from all the wrath of the royal family. Ahab had hunted high up and down low [63/64] in every surrounding kingdom, and yet Elijah was kept safe. During this time, as we learn in chapter 18, Obadiah had hidden many prophets of the Lord away in caves so that Jezebel could not put them to death. Elijah had been kept safe, safe from Ahab and safe from Jezebel. He had even lived a few miles away from Jezebel's father when he was in Zarephath. Had he forgotten all that?
2. Did he forget the sovereignty of the Lord?
He had seen that the Lord could control ravens. He could see that He could control fire and water. He had proved God's sovereignty over circumstances and people. How wonderfully He had masterminded events so that when He told Elijah to show himself to Ahab it was in fact Ahab who showed himself to Elijah. If he had remembered those years of proving the Lord's absolute sovereignty over things and people, would he have been afraid of Jezebel or her threats? Did he forget? He must have done.
3. Did he forget the rule of guidance?
The rule of guidance is that any person at the centre of God's will is untouchable and absolutely safe. Elijah had hitherto only moved when told to do so by the Lord. The word of the Lord came to him saying, Go ... "so he went and did according to the word of the Lord" (17:5). "The word of the Lord came to him saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath ... So he arose and went to Zarephath" (vv.9-10). "The word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show thyself to Ahab ..." (18:1), so he did so. That was always the story. There was nothing else in his diary. Every move was documented. Why did you go there? Because God told me. Why did you stay there? Because God had not yet told me to go elsewhere. It was all a matter of guidance. And while he walked under the rule of guidance, he walked in total safety.
Now we find a great contrast: "When he saw that, he arose and went for his life ..." (19:3). Who told him to go? Nobody. It is possible to translate the phrase, "he went for his life" by 'he went at his own whim' or 'he went at his own volition'. How true that would be! Who told you to go, Elijah? I went at my own will. He had forgotten the rule of guidance.
4. Did he forget the work of grace in the heart?
He later complained to God: "The children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars ... and I, even I only, am left" (v.10). This was not the case. Not a word of it was true. The children of Israel were the object of his prayers on Mount Carmel when he asked that they might recognise the work of grace in their hearts: "Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou Lord art God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again" (18:37). What a marvellous prayer. He asked that they might recognise a work of grace turning their heart and he immediately had proof that his prayer had been answered as the whole people bowed down and said, "The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God". Now however, Elijah complains that the children of Israel are after his life. He had forgotten the crowds and crowds of those children of Israel who had had their hearts changed by the grace of God. We must never forget the power of God's grace.
5. Did he forget that the costly way of identification unto death is the way of fruitfulness?
Was this not the final lesson in Zarephath where, by some divine intuition, he knew that he must get down and identify closely with the dead child so that life could come out of that identification and prayer? The costly way of identification brought new life to the child and spiritual life for the believing mother, who cried "... now I know". We remember it. Has Elijah forgotten? Well, can we blame him for trying to forget? But when Jezebel threatened death, it seems that the great Elijah, who had entered in with such courage and commitment into that intimate contact with death at Zarephath, had forgotten the lesson learned there.
He left all those needy professing believers to the tender mercies of Jezebel. He left them to themselves instead of waiting with them in the place of death and so proving it to be the place of resurrection. Did it ever occur to you that when Elijah led the people back to the Lord in this way and slew the prophets of Baal that all those hundred true prophets who had been hiding in caves probably came out and were immediately marked down by Jezebel's secret police? And the man who led them out of their hiding place was not there to help them when the knock came on their door! He had not been willing to tarry in the place of death.
6. Did he forget that strength lies in fellowship?
Unnecessary isolation breeds weakness. Elijah said to the people, "I, even I only, am left", but [64/65] it was not true! He felt that it was true, but it was not. Twice over in chapter 18 we are told of Obadiah. Once would have been enough, but we are told twice over as it relates to this matter of other servants of the Lord. At the beginning we are told the objective fact: "It was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah took one hundred prophets and hid them in a cave" (18:4). We come back to this with Obadiah's own testimony: "Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred men of the Lord's prophets in caves ..." (18:13). So Elijah knew it, and yet he had the affrontery to insist that he was the only one left. No, no! There were many more.
There is something about Elijah that has a determined individualism about it. "I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts ... I, even I only, am left" (19:10). No, Elijah, you are not! There are still Obadiah's prophets, and there is Obadiah himself, that is 101 and now there are the people who all responded with the testimony, "the Lord, He is God". You are not alone. "I, even I only, am left" (19:14). You see how determined he is to be the only one. When he came to Beersheba which belonged to Judah, he left his servant there (19:3). He dismissed the one bit of companionship he might have had. Don't you think that Jezebel's fury would mean nothing if Elijah had surrounded himself with all those new converts and the strength of fellowship from Obadiah and the hundred prophets?
7. Did he forget proper self-care?
Here is something very practical. "The heavens grew black with clouds and wind and there was great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah and he girded up his loins and ran to Jezreel" (18:46). He had had no food and he had expended an enormous amount of energy and it was in this condition that he received the shock of Jezebel's opposition. He was exhausted for want of food and tired because of his long run, but the Lord knew all about that and treated him accordingly. He was cared for because he was tired and what he needed was what the Lord gave him -- a good sleep and breakfast in bed! How practical the Bible is! It does not say a word about a spiritual ministry to a depressed man, but practical comfort to a weary and hungry man. We need to watch self-care. If we do not watch it, Satan will do so, for he knows that the time to attack is when our resistance is low because we are not properly nourished or rested.
8. Did he forget the facts?
When the Lord enquired as to the reason for Elijah's presence at Horeb, the prophet complained: "... the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, slain thy prophets, and I, even I only, am left" (v.10). As we have said, this was not true; he was living in a world of his own. The facts were not like that. It is true that this is how he felt, but it had nothing to do with the real world in which other people were living. The children of Israel had not thrown down the Lord's altars. On Mount Carmel they were only too ready to come back to the Lord. They set up no Baalistic opposition to Elijah; the Lord had turned their hearts back again.
Baalism was a royalist activity in the northern kingdom. The opposition to Elijah, the search for Elijah, was not carried on by the people as a whole: it was carried on by the royal family and the royal police. Why did he go on so about being alone? Why did he overlook the other prophets? Did he despise them? It is one of the great snares of being an isolationist, that you despise other people. How could he despise them for hiding away when the persecution was at its height, since he too was hiding in Zarephath? It was not as though he had been exposed while they were hiding in caves. He had been hidden away by the Lord's command; was it not the same for them? The Lord might have said to him: 'Did you despise them for hiding in a cave? What are you yourself now doing on Horeb but hiding in a cave?' He was not looking at the facts.
Beloved, we need to get our memories in order if we are going to live for God. By means of those memories and our drawing upon them, we can find the real world, instead of indulging in our world of fancy which leads us into depression.
We look back over this story and view it from the other side. This time there are no questions involved but positive affirmations. Let us look at God's tender care of failure. That appeals to our hearts. We enjoy afresh "the love that will not [65/66] let me go". What does the Lord do for His failures.
1. He does not leave us.
Elijah went at whim; he followed his own panic impulse. He ran for his life, left his servant at Beersheba and then went into the wilderness, sat down under the juniper tree and requested for himself that he might die. He decided that it was enough, neither expecting nor wanting ever to awake from that sleep. But he did wake. It was an angel who wakened him. He may have run like the wind, but the Lord was there in good time, full of tender concern for His servant. He doesn't leave us. He stays alongside. He attends to every need. He was wakened the second time by "the angel of the Lord" (v.7), so it was more than an angel, it was the Lord Himself, the Lord accommodating Himself to the totality of Elijah's needy situation. It is always like this. The Angel of the Lord does not leave us; the Lord Himself comes alongside to bless.
Throughout this part of the story there is no word of command spoken. Elijah rose and went at his own volition, and in the end came to Horeb, the Mount of God. Not only does the Lord never leave us but He sovereignly governs the impulsive flittings of our own hearts to bring us to the very place where He will be found.
2. He answers our prayers.
He sometimes has to refuse our requests, but He answers our prayers. Elijah requested for himself that he might die. 'Oh dear no,' the Lord said to him, 'you are never going to die, not now nor at any time. That is the one thing which is not going to happen to you.' Deathbeds? Coffins? Graves? They are not for you. You are bound for the glory of the whirlwind. What grace God shows when He does not answer our foolish requests! What do you think that Elijah is doing in heaven now but praising the Lord for the mercy and glory that his request was not granted. It is foolish of us when we get involved in what we call 'unanswered prayer'. This is what God does for His failures: He refuses their requests, but He answers their prayers.
He knew what was at the heart of this prayer of Elijah's. The prophet felt that he could not stand any more and wanted to get away from it all. The Lord said to him, 'All right, you can get away from it all, but not in the way you think. Have a good meal. It will do you the world of good. You want to be alone. Well, go right on till you get to Horeb. Is that lonely enough for you? By all means get away from it all.' It reminds us of the words of Jesus: "Come ye yourselves apart and rest awhile". So Elijah was kept in isolation until he was put right and ready to return to the work.
3. He brings us back to fundamentals.
The Lord said, "Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord, for behold the Lord is about to pass by" (v.11). I love that translation, which comes from the New International Version. I had never noticed before that the Hebrew could be understood in this way, and it makes such sense in the passage, as we treat this last bit as part of what the Lord said to Elijah. "Behold the Lord is about to pass by", but neither the earthquake, the wind or the fire expressed the characteristic reality of the Lord's presence. And then, after them all, there came a voice which was hardly anything more than a shimmering in the air, a voice that was just a whisper of silence; and all the reality of God was in that, so much so that Elijah felt that he had to pull his hood down over his head for he was in the very presence of God. What did it mean? Well, it meant that the fireworks were only the heralds of His coming. Great as Mount Carmel was, it was only the herald of the fact that the Lord was on His way to do great things. If that was only the herald of His coming, what might not happen if His servants would stand fast and live according to His Word.
For the Lord is always in His Word. Perhaps the fireworks pointed back to Jezebel's great royal threatenings -- her sword and her pounding around the palace breathing out threats and slaughter. The Lord is not in that! The Lord is where His Word is. If only Elijah will continue to live by the Word of God he will find himself in the place of awesome reality. These are the fundamentals -- the Lord and His Word.
4. He restores.
"Go, return thy way" (v.15). Go back to where you came from. God does not leave Elijah languishing out on Horeb in blessed isolation. Elijah was a prophet. A prophet must be where the people are. There was a work to be done and Elijah was sent back to do it as soon as he had had his meeting with God. [66/67]
5. He commands fellowship.
Even this great 'Do-it-yourself' among the prophets was commanded to practise fellowship. He was sent to Elisha the son of Shaphat, so he went and threw his mantle about him. This was a prophetic mantle and Elijah knew what he was doing. Elisha also knew what it was all about, so he responded, "He arose and went after Elijah and ministered to him" (v.21). So the great isolationist became bound by divine command into an intimate fellowship. This is what God does with His failures!
6. He makes exceeding great and precious promises.
There are several promises here but we concentrate just on this one: "I will leave seven thousand in Israel ..." (v.18). Surely that must have been enough for the person who thought that he was the only one. What a magnificent promise -- seven thousand. That will surely satisfy you. We all praise God for His exceeding great and precious promises to a failure.
Perhaps the central factor in this restoration of Elijah's was that he never ceased praying. When he had really touched bottom and had lost all hope, he still prayed to the Lord. It was a daft prayer, but at least he prayed. That is surely the key to recovery from failure.
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