Thoughts on 1 Kings 19

Today’s reading: 1 Kings 19; 2 Timothy 2-3

I don’t have much to say about our chapter this morning other than to point out Elijah’s needs for rest, food, and time to work through and come out of his spiritual depression.

It would be easy to assume, after the great victory of 1 Kings 18, that Elijah should be riding a great spiritual high, more assured of the Lord’s power and presence than ever before. And maybe he was for a moment, but when he hears Jezebel’s threat against his life, he flees into the wilderness and asks God to just end it there. Hasn’t he already done enough? Hasn’t he already shown Israel who the God of gods is? Ahab has already been hunting him for the last three and a half years, and now Jezebel is hunting him down. How long should he be expected to continue on under that?? Physically, mentally, and spiritually, this would just be a lot…

After asking God to just let him die then and there, Elijah lays down and sleeps. After letting him sleep a while, the angel of the Lord wakes him up with some food for him to eat. The angel doesn’t tell him he’s wrong to be afraid or despondent, or tell him anything at all for that matter, other than to eat. After he eats something, Elijah goes back to sleep and again, eventually, the angel of the Lord wakes him up with more food to strengthen him for the journey ahead. Once again, the angel doesn’t rebuke his fear, tell him to “buck up,” or try to get him to “snap out of it,” he just gives him a meal and sends him off to Mount Horeb. 

Elijah spends 40 days traveling to Mount Horeb, still depressed and ready to be done the whole way. God provided what he needed for the journey, but didn’t take away the depression or “fix” his circumstances that whole time. Even when Elijah arrives at the mountain, God doesn’t immediately engage with him as we are told that he found a cave and lodged in it. It is only after all that that God engages Elijah and even then He doesn’t tell him he is wrong for his fear or depression. Instead, God listens to Elijah’s complaint, reveals Himself to Elijah in a new way, and then sends him off on the next leg of the work He has for him to do.

I point all this out because I think this can be helpful, and maybe corrective, for a lot of Christians.

On the one hand, I have heard Christians talk as though being anxious or depressed or struggling with anxiety or depression is a sin issue of some kind. Some people will frame it as a lack of trust or faith in God, some will frame it as selfish indulgence or too much self-focus, etc. But is that how God treats Elijah here? Not at all! God cares for Elijah and makes sure he is taken care of physically to be in the best place mentally and emotionally, but there is no rebuke or disdain for Elijah’s struggle. If this was some great issue of discrediting sin, don’t you think God would have more directly addressed that with His prophet? So if God doesn’t see this as a sin that Elijah needs to deal with, who are we to treat others with similar struggles today as though this is a sin they need to “get past”?

But on the other hand, I think this story can help helpful and corrective for the Christian more in Elijah’s shoes as well. It is easy, when things aren’t going the way we would expect, and we are struggling more and more, to feel like God is uninvolved or unconcerned when He isn’t resolving the situation or taking away the anxiety or the depression, but what happened in 1 Kings 19? God was involved, and He clearly cared about Elijah and what he was going through, and yet God didn’t resolve the issue that was plaguing him, nor did He take away the emotions Elijah was struggling under. God gave him the space and time he needed, and provided for him along the way, but He didn’t just miraculously zap any of it away, and not zapping it away was not an indication that He didn’t care.

The last thing I want to point out in this story this morning is that Elijah didn’t need God to resolve everything before he would follow Him. Like I already said, God gave him the space and time he needed to work through some of it, but at some point, God expected Elijah to be willing to keep moving forward despite his emotional state. When God sends Elijah off to Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha, it is not because Elijah isn’t struggling anymore, it is because He expects Elijah to keep going while he continues to struggle through things emotionally. And Elijah, for his part, listens to the Lord and goes, despite his internal struggles. God knew what Elijah needed, and He gave him the time he needed, not expecting him to just jump from one thing to the next whether he was ready or not, but that also didn’t mean He waited until Elijah was in peak mental, physical, and emotional condition before He expected him to be ready to listen and obey. So while it’s not wrong to struggle, and it’s not wrong to need time and space to work through those struggles, and God will not push us harder or farther than we are capable of, there may very well come points where He is calling us to trust Him and step out under the power of His Holy Spirit, even when we do not feel like we are in a place to step out.