“He Remembers That We Are Dust”: Encouragement for a New Year

PLEASE NOTE: All verses are quoted from the New International Version unless otherwise noted. Any quotations given without a verse reference are my own interpretation.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the Old Testament prophet Elijah. His life is filled with astonishing, unique events, one of which I can relate to all too well.

Elijah’s origins are a mystery. He shows up for the first time in 1 Kings 17:1: “Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.’”

Where was Tishbe? No one knows for sure. What else do we know about Tishbe and Tishbites? Nothing. Elijah is the only person identified as such in the Bible.

Elijah shows amazing confidence in the face of a wicked ruler who could easily have put him to death. I used to think that God had spoken to Elijah suddenly, in a dream perhaps, and told him out of the blue to go to Ahab with this message. But that’s not accurate, according to the New Testament: “Elijah … prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years” (James 5:17). It sounds as though the impetus for the warning to Ahab had its inception in Elijah’s heart, and after much prayer, he believed God wanted him to give the message to Ahab. So he did.

Birds and a Brook, a Widow and a King

God gives Elijah more directions after his confrontation with Ahab: he’s to go “hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan.” God says He will miraculously provide for him during the upcoming drought—“You’ll have the brook to drink, and birds will bring you bread and meat.” And Elijah obeys this strange directive.

He stays there until the brook dries up and God gives him his next assignment. He’s to stay with a widow in Zarephath in Sidon. Off Elijah goes, and he meets the woman before he even enters the town—at its gate. God continues to miraculously bless and empower Elijah during his stay in Zarephath, providing food for the prophet, the widow, and her son, and even enabling Elijah to restore life to the son.

Then, “after a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: ‘Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.’ So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab” (1 Kings 18:1). And here begins the spiritual battle for which Elijah is most remembered: his confrontation with 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. (By the way, there were 400 prophets of Asherah there too [1 Kings 18:19]!)

I will briefly relay those events below. But I first want to point out just one statement that Elijah makes that reveals the start of a problem: “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left” (1 Kings 18:22).

Now, that statement was simply not true, and Elijah knew it. Obadiah had told him that he, Obadiah, had hidden a hundred prophets in caves to keep them safe from Queen Jezebel (1 Kings 18:13–14). Thus, for the first time we see a flaw in Elijah’s character.

The Contest

Nonetheless, God achieves an immense victory in the day’s contest. It must have been an exhausting experience for Elijah, though. The events started in the morning, with Baal’s prophets preparing a bull for sacrifice and dancing and calling and praying and cutting themselves—all day long “until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention” (1 Kings 18:29).

Now Elijah’s work begins. He restacks twelve stones to fix the broken-down altar. He digs a large trench around the altar and puts wood on the altar. He cuts the bull into pieces (no small task, that!) and places it on the altar. False prophets, per his order, drench the sacrifice with water, making it impossible for the wood and bull to ignite. Then he prays a simple, short prayer of faith, and God answers in a powerfully dramatic way.

“And Miles to Go Before I Sleep”

Wow! It’s been quite a day—what a great victory for the Lord! Time to go home and rest, right?

Nope. “They seized [the prophets of Baal], and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there” (1 Kings 18:40). The King James Version makes it sound as though Elijah himself slew them all (“Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there,” 1 Kings 18:40), but it’s more likely that Elijah organized and participated in the slaughter, not that he killed 450 prophets by himself.

How far is it, by the way, from Mount Carmel to the Kishon Valley? Google Maps says it’s roughly 25 miles, which is at least an eight-hour trip by foot. Why go there? Why not kill the prophets right there on the mountain? We aren’t told why, but the only other time Kishon is mentioned in Scripture (other than a passing reference in Psalm 83:9) is in Judges 4 and 5: it was the location of Israel’s victory over Sisera and his army. Perhaps the valley’s history was of symbolic importance. Regardless, Elijah organized this trek, either overnight or on the next day—another physically exhausting experience.

After this, Elijah tells Ahab that the drought is coming to an end soon, “for there is the sound of a heavy rain” (1 Kings 18:41). And where does Elijah go? Back up Mt. Carmel, 25 miles away! And then, as the rainstorm begins, “the power of the Lord [comes] on Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he [runs] ahead of Ahab [who was in a chariot] all the way to Jezreel” (1 Kings 18:46)—a distance of 24 miles!

The events of the past few days were unprecedented in Elijah’s life. He had done everything God wanted him to do, and he had done it the way God wanted him to. And now he was exhausted. But surely, surely life would calm down now.

A knock at the door. It’s a messenger from Queen Jezebel. The message: “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of [my prophets]” (1 Kings 19:2).

“I Have Had Enough!”

And suddenly, Elijah reaches his limit—he was already physically exhausted, emotionally drained, and spiritually empty, and Jezebel’s threat breaks his spirit. He “[runs] for his life” to Beersheba (1 Kings 19:3). For those of you who are still interested in this story from a geographical standpoint, Jezreel to Beersheba is roughly 116 miles and would take over 40 hours to traverse. So, once again, he ran a long, long way.

But he doesn’t stop there. He leaves his servant in Beersheba and then takes off into the wilderness, completely alone.

This is something I can relate to. I’m exhausted by life, I’m emotionally down, and, frankly, I’m not too happy with God’s plans right now. And I want to be left alone!

He sits under a tree and prays to die—which is ironic, since if he really wanted to die, he could have stayed in Jezreel where Jezebel would have gladly accommodated him. “I have had enough,” he says (1 Kings 19:4).

“I have had enough!” Have you ever said that to yourself or to God? I certainly have. From his perspective, he is through. Done. Kaput. “Find someone else to do Your dirty work, Lord. From here on, I’m sitting on the sidelines by myself. I want You and everyone else to just leave me alone.”

And he lies down and sleeps.

Later, an angel wakes him, telling him to “get up and eat” (1 Kings 19:5b). Eat!? Eat what?

Eat the warm bread and drink the cool water provided by his heavenly visitor. No doubt that bread was the best he’d ever had, and the water was like none he’d ever enjoyed before. Elijah may even have forgotten his irritation for a couple of seconds. And, blissfully, he falls asleep again.

Sometime later he is again awakened by the angel. “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you” (1 Kings 19:7).

What!? Another journey? Yes. Still alone, he travels to Mt. Horeb, far south on the Sinai Peninsula.

You can walk from Beersheba to Horeb in twelve eight-hour days. It takes Elijah forty days to make the trip—we don’t know why. My suspicions are he was still grumped up and was taking his time: “I’m not running another marathon in a rainstorm, I’ll tell you that much!” Miraculously, the heavenly food he had received staved off his hunger for the entire forty-day trip.

Finally, he reaches his destination, “Horeb, the mountain of God” (1 Kings 19:8). “The mountain of God”? What does that mean?

It means that Horeb is Mount Sinai, where God met with Moses over 400 years earlier. Had Elijah traveled here not only to escape Jezebel but also in the hope that he might meet with God? We don’t know.

“I Am the Only One Left!”

The next morning Elijah awakens to a voice, a tender but probing question: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:9b).

And Elijah, who had been waiting for just such an opportunity, has his answer ready: “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too” (1 Kings 19:10).

In response, God has another unprecedented experience in store: Elijah is to “stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by” (1 Kings 19:11).

A bizarre series of catastrophic, frightening events follows:

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. (1 Kings 19:11b –12a)

What is the meaning of all this? I can only surmise, but my assumption is that they are a startling and memorable demonstration of God’s power: “I make tornados. I make earthquakes. I make volcanoes. Do you doubt that I have the power to protect you?”

God’s Gentle Whisper

Then something beautiful happens: “And after the fire came a gentle whisper” (1 Kings 19:12). “Gentle whisper” can be translated as “the sound of a gentle blowing” or “a still small voice” or “a thin whisper.” It is the quiet, loving voice of Elijah’s heavenly Father. “I am all powerful,” the message seems to be, “but I deal gently with My own.”

God repeats His question from earlier: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

And Elijah stubbornly repeats his previous answer word-for-word: “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too” (1 Kings 19:13–14).

Now, this response always strikes me as funny: God has just shown Elijah His great power and then asked him a simple question. Elijah stubbornly refuses to admit he has learned anything. He is still in an angry pout: “Everything I just saw doesn’t fix the problem, Lord! All Israel has rejected You, I’m standing alone, and Jezebel and her cohorts want to kill me! You haven’t addressed the problem! And, yes, I’m still mad!”

God then gives Elijah several tasks to fulfill, and He gives him a helper, Elisha. He reassures Elijah by telling him, “I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:18). In other words, “Be encouraged—you’re not alone, son.”

There’s much more to the story of Elijah, but this much will suffice for our purposes here. Let me wind this up by making some observations.

Some Observations

Many people say, “I like the God of the New Testament, but not the God of the Old Testament—all that killing, wiping people out, even women and children and animals sometimes! The New Testament shows a God of grace and mercy.” The truth is that God’s grace and mercy are on full display throughout the Old Testament as well. Let’s look for them in the passage we’ve just studied.

·       When Elijah runs away and ends up under the broom tree thinking about suicide, the angel doesn’t rebuke Elijah (“Get up! Shame on you! Get back to work!”); instead, he demonstrates mercy. What did Elijah need at that moment—a lecture? a rebuke? guilt piled on his shoulders? No. He needed to eat, and he needed to sleep. Our spiritual lows can be caused by physical needs, and it’s not unspiritual to attend to those first.

·       The God of the universe quietly asks Elijah a gentle, probing question—twice! “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:9b). He doesn’t yell at him. He doesn’t scold him and call him a sinner. He doesn’t order him back into the spiritual battles he’s been facing. He simply asks a legitimate question, which Elijah will not directly answer.

·       Elijah responds to God honestly but insolently twice, giving his litany of complaints. Again, there is no rebuke. The Lord gives Elijah clear directions for the future and reassures him.

·      When, after his great victories, Elijah finds himself exhausted and depressed—a typical human reaction—God does not tell him to

§  Have more faith!

§  Trust Me more!

§  Spend more time in Bible reading and prayer!

§  Get rid of the sin in your life and live a victorious life of joy!

No. He says, “My dear, choice servant—rest. Eat. Then rest some more and then eat again. The root of your problem isn’t spiritual weakness—it is physical weakness, and I understand that too.”

You see, our God is not “unable to empathize with our weaknesses” (Hebrews 4:15). Instead, He is a father who “has compassion on his children … for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14).

Copyright 2024 by Steven Nyle Skaggs

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