Thoughts - August 27 - 1 Kings 19:4

"It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers."
1 Kings 19:4 ESV


If you open up your Bible and turn to the vicinity of our key verse, you'll probably recognize some of the events around this passage. Just before this is Elijah's famous battle with the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel, when Elijah and God set Israel straight on who was God and who wasn't in a rather clear and decisive manner. From there, Elijah declared an end to the long drought in the land, and saw it come to pass. Unfortunately, this was followed by the queen Jezebel, who wasn't particularly nice, sending some rather nasty threats to Elijah. And, in spite of the anticipated spiritual high at this point, Elijah got scared out of his wits and ran. After running for a day out into the wilderness, he stopped and uttered the cry that is our key verse.

There is a very traditional sermon that begins much like this. It's all about seeing things through God's eyes, or something like that. If you've been to church enough, you've heard it, and you know that Elijah gets a pretty bum rap for appearing to give up on God after everything that's happened. Let me submit to you that this interpretation is incorrect.

Why is that reading incorrect? For one simple reason: what Elijah did was absolutely correct! To see why, let's examine what he actually said. He makes two statements here, first, "It is enough", and, second, "I am no better than my fathers", and from that a conclusion and request, "now, O Lord, take away my life".

"It is enough" is kind of brief. For Elijah, it was even more so - in Hebrew, it's one word, rab. (More than you ever wanted to know about it here) But it was a simple and profound statement of his condition. Basically, what he's saying here is "I've had all I can take." It's the same phrase God uses in 2 Samuel 24:16, when He stops the destruction of Israel because He can't stand to see any more. And Elijah was definitely right - over the course of a couple of days, he'd challenged an entire nation, crippled a religion, outrun a chariot, and then topped it off with a day's trip in the desert. And now he was physically, emotionally, and spiritually spent, and he knew it.

He followed this with "I am no better than my fathers." "Fathers" here could refer to his physically ancestry, or it could refer to the prophets that had come before him. And there is truth in both sides. First, in the light of the acts of God he had just witnessed, his own imperfection and sinfulness was readily apparent. All the thing he had done for God, while good, hadn't made him significantly better than his countrymen - he too had sinned, so that it's easy to understand him saying, like Paul later would, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24) Second, at least from his view, he had accomplished his divine mission as well as the prophets of old had. Which, considering how deep into apostasy Israel was, wasn't particularly well. In spite of all he had done for God, all he still saw was rebellion (see v. 10). So, basically, he acknowledged his utter incompetence for the task he had been appointed to.

With these in mind, it's little wonder that his request to God was to let him die - he had given his all, and was found wanting still. He had utterly failed in his God-given task, and had nothing left with which to try again. Truly a depressing state to be in. But Elijah's wisdom was two-fold: he was completely, simply, and utterly honest about his condition, and in his honesty submitted himself to the will and care of the one Person who could address his needs.

What's truly interesting, beyond that, is what happened afterward. God didn't come and give Elijah a pep talk. Nor did He send a messenger come to cheer him with good tidings from Israel. In the face of absolute honesty, the Lord was quiet, for in fact He had nothing to add or correct. What He did do, however, was begin to provide Elijah with what he needed to be restored. God wasn't going to meet with His prophet in the middle of the wilderness. Instead, He gave Elijah what he needed to come to Him. And, thus strengthened by God's care, Elijah went, not north back to Israel, but south, "to Horeb, the mount of God." (v. 8)