8/27/06 - Pentecost 12 - 1 Kings 19:3-8 - Get Up!

GET UP!
- When you're feeling down
- In order to eat

One of my all-time favorite characters in all of Scripture is Elijah. He has fascinated me ever since I was a little kid. He was fed by ravens, he raised a boy from the dead, he prayed to the Lord and fire rained down from heaven, and he was taken directly to heaven in a whirlwind! There are a lot of unique things that happened during his lifetime. But to me the miracles Elijah was involved with aren’t the most interesting thing about him. I think what captivates me about Elijah are his struggles. Because even though he was a prophet of God, he struggled with his faith. He struggled with doubt. He wasn’t always confident that the Lord would see him through. It always amazed me that such an esteemed individual of Scripture like Elijah could feel so down at times – that he could be so much like me: in a constant struggle with his faith.
Our text finds Elijah feeling down. Chapter 19 picks up right after the famous stand-off with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to a duel. They were to pray to their god and Elijah would pray to his to find out whose god was the true God. The prophets of Baal prayed to their false god all day long, but were not able to get a response from Baal – for obvious reasons, but when Elijah prayed to the true God, the Lord rained down fire from heaven and burned up the offering and the wood and the stones and the dirt and the water in the trench. After that decisive victory the Lord brought about Elijah had all of the prophets of Baal put to death. That should have left Elijah feeling pretty good. But Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab, sent a letter to Elijah and warned him that she was going to put him to death the very next day.
And so begins our text. Elijah has just received that letter, and he sees that not only is his life in danger, but that the people still were not worshiping the true God. And so he ran away. He went into the desert, sat down under a tree, and prayed that the Lord might take his life. He was depressed by the situation, he was overwhelmed with responsibility, and he felt like a complete failure at the task for which he had worked so long and so hard.
Sometimes we feel the same way, don’t we? We all feel down at certain points in our lives. And we can feel down for a variety of reasons. Some of us have had feelings of hopelessness, feelings of despair. Everything seems to be going wrong. No matter what you do it’s not turning out right. And the way things are going: nothing will ever turn out the way you want it too. Like Elijah you just want to give up. You want it all to be over with so you don’t have to deal with it any longer.
Some of us have had the feeling of being overwhelmed. You’ve got so many responsibilities right now that you can’t handle them all. And you keep getting more thrown on your shoulders every day! Work is stressful, your duties at home are unmanageable, and the bills keep going up when you paycheck doesn’t. How are you going to afford what you need to afford? How are you going to get done what you need to get done? How are you going to hold up under the pressures and responsibilities that are weighing you down? Like Elijah you just want all those weights to be lifted. You want to live without anything hanging over your head.
Some of us have felt like complete failures. Especially when it comes to someone else’s faith. You’ve tried and tried and tried to tell this person about Christ. For hours, for months, for years, you have been working on this person, speaking to them, praying for them – and they refuse to listen. And the worst part about it is: you care about this person. They are close to your heart. But you don’t know if you’ll ever see them in heaven. Like Elijah you just want their hearts to be opened. You want their stubbornness to be broken so that you can at least go to sleep at night with a clear conscience.
This is Elijah. These three situations that make us feel down are exactly what Elijah was going through. That’s why he asked the Lord that he might die. He didn’t want to deal with any of that any longer. He had had enough. But the Lord didn’t agree with Elijah’s assessment of the situation. He didn’t take Elijah’s life. In fact, it’s interesting to note that Elijah and Jonah are the only two people recorded in Scripture who actually prayed to the Lord to die. But God didn’t grant their requests in either situation. And in the case of Elijah – he never died. The Lord obviously had different plans for his prophet. The Lord didn’t think the situation was all that bad. And later in the chapter we see that the Lord was, in fact, a little upset about Elijah’s lack of faith. And so instead of taking Elijah’s life, the Lord renewed it. He sent an angel to tap him on the shoulder. And that angel wasn’t there to take him to heaven, he was there to give him these few words of chastisement and encourage: “Get up and eat.”
Are you feeling down? Get up and eat. These are the words of the Lord to you. These are the words of the Lord that I need to listen to on occasion also. Get up and eat. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Stop thinking that the situation is hopeless. Stop wondering if you are a complete failure in preaching the Word. Get up and eat. Now, you’re not obviously going to eat physical bread like Elijah did. But like Elijah you will eat bread from heaven that will revive you. And that bread, of course, is exactly what we heard in our gospel lesson today: the Bread of Life – our Savior himself. Where can you eat this bread? Right here, in Scripture. This is the heavenly bread. This is the bread that will revive you. This is the bread that clarifies what God thinks about the situation you’re dealing with.
Feeling down because a situation is hopeless? Get up and eat this bread from John 16: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” There is no hopeless situation! There is no moment in which things will not work out for your good! Here’s some more bread from Romans: God “will work out everything for the good of those who love him.” Your life is securely in the palm of your Savior’s hands. And everything that happens around you he will work out for your best interests. There is no reason to feel hopeless about any situation. But there’s every reason to find hope.
Feeling down because you are overwhelmed? Get up and eat this bread from Psalm 68, “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.” Nothing can overwhelm you. Nothing can weigh you down. Here’s some more bread from 1 Peter, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Stress, worry, exhaustion – thrown out the window. The Lord will take care of you and your problems as he always has.
Feeling down because your evangelism efforts to your relative have failed? Get up and eat this bread from Isaiah 55, “As the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth… so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” The words you speak are the words of God. And the outcome is always in line with the Lord’s will, whether or not you understand it at the time. But know your job is to plant the seed; God’s job is to make it grow. So if you do speak his words you are not a failure, you are a faithful messenger of the Lord himself.
So again, get up and eat. Go to Bible class and fill yourself up. Read your Bible at home and get that daily nutrition. Because a day in which you do not read your Bible is a wasted day. That might be a little bit of an overstatement, but it’s to make the point that the most important thing you could do during any given day is read the Word. And I know that it’s one thing to say it and another thing to actually do it. That’s why I have placed a sheet of daily Bible readings on the back counter near the bulletins. Each day about 4 chapters or so are scheduled for you to read. It takes about 10 minutes. It’s the one I use because if I didn’t have a schedule that told me what to read, I never would. And by using that schedule you will read through the entire Bible in a year every year. If you have a system already, great. If you don’t or you want a change, I encourage you to take advantage of this. After church, if you need one, pick one up. I won’t hand them out, I won’t watch to see who takes one. They are there for you and they always will be so that you can effectively feed yourself with the Bread of Life.
And may I make a suggestion? Write questions down. When you read your daily Bible readings or meditations or whatever, write down questions you have and bring them to Bible class. Or ask me personally if you’d like. That’s why I’m here. That’s why we are here. To grow in the faith and to eat the Bread of Life together – especially when we’re feeling down.
There will be times in which you will feel down. And when you do: get up and eat. Eat this Bread. Continue to feed yourself with this Bread of Life because in it your soul will be revived with forgiveness. Bread from Romans: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” There it is. That’s the good stuff. That’s your forgiveness for the sin of feeling down, for doubting God’s love and power. That’s the Bread you need to continue to go to, to eat, to have your fill. Because that’s the Bread that you can take with you all the way to your grave and beyond.
Looking at our text, Elijah didn’t know God’s plan for him, but God gave him bread from heaven to renew his strength so that he could continue on his journey, carrying out God’s will. The Lord does the same for us. Thank the Lord that he taps us on the shoulder and gives us what we need to really live: the Bread of Life. And with that Bread of Life filling our souls we will live like no one can on this earth. Because although we may some day die, we really never will.

Amen.

“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death.”
- Psalm 68:19-20