Transitions sometime catch us unawares, by surprise. At that point, it is too late to prepare for them, you just have to ride them out with the resources that are available to you. Sometimes we do this well, sometimes they become opportunities for us to learn how we might have prepared better.
This week, Pastor Ken talks about one of these moments from the experience of the prophet Elijah. After experiencing years of God's care and provision, culminating in the famous showdown on Mt. Carmel, suddenly, everything falls apart for Elijah. In a short span of time, Elijah goes from watching the fire fall from heaven, to running for his life into the wilderness, wishing that he might die.
Fortunately for Elijah, and for us, the same God Who is capable of doing fire from heaven is also quite willing to pursue us into desert places when we lose our focus and run away. On the same mountain where Moses had both received the law, and, more importantly glimpsed the character of God as God passed before him while he watched from the cleft in the rock, Elijah experiences huge forces, but finds God's presence and guidance in a still quiet place. Because of this, he goes away changed. Perhaps, we can too!
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Pastor Ken suggests that part of what we might be observing in this story, is what happens when we become to focused on what is going on around us, or how things look, without taking seriously enough the inner life out of which our outer life is to flow. What do you think about this?
Do you give as much attention to developing deep, solid roots as to trimming and shaping the foliage?
Reflect for a few moments on the way God responds to Elijah's crisis. What insights do you find here?
What parts of this story speak to you the most powerfully or directly? Why?
1 Kings 19 (TNIV)
1 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, "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 them."
3 Elijah was afraid [a] and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." 5 Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep.
All at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." 6 He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.
7 The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you." 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.
And the word of the LORD came to him: "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
10 He replied, "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."
11 The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by."
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. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
14 He replied, "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."
15 The LORD said to him, "Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17 Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. 18 Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him."