Sermons
Downcast In The Wilderness
Series: Days of Elijah: God’s Righteous Mountain ManDOWNCAST IN THE WILDERNESS
Sermon Outline By Terry Siverd
Cortland Church of Christ / March 04, 2018
Candor is one of the things we’ve come to known and love about the sacred Scriptures.
The Bible details for us great men and women of faith, but it doesn’t sugarcoat their weaknesses.
Noah / built the ark … but he also got drunk and exposed himself to his sons
Abraham / the “father of faith” … lied twice about his wife Sarah to save his own skin
Sarah / journeyed with Abraham … but directed him to her handmaiden Hagar to conceive a child
Jacob / displayed exploits of faith … but he cheated his brother Esau out of his birthright
Moses / parted the Red Sea … be he also defiantly struck the rock and was punished by God
Miriam / courageously aided baby Moses … wrongfully criticized Moses’ marriage and questioned his leadership
David / slayed the Philistine giant named Goliath … but he also committed adultery with Bathsheba
Peter / walked on water … but in a time of temptation also denied the Lord three times with an oath
Euodia & Syntyche / were true comrades and women of faith in Philippi … yet were sorely entangled in quarrels
John the Baptist / declared Jesus to be “the Lamb of God” … but later while imprisoned asked, are You the one?
We could go on and on with one Bible character after another but this brief enumeration illustrates the point.
What in previous sermon series we witnessed regarding both Jonah and Job, we now also seen concerning Elijah.
Yes, he was a prophet of heroic proportions and a man of deep humility, but he was a MAN.
Js.5:17 / Elijah was a man with a nature like ours
1Kgs.18 ends on a high note.
On the top of Mount Carmel God is victorious over Baal - - the fire of the Lord consumes the altar;
God answers the prayers of Elijah (for fire and rain); the prophets of Baal are slain; the people of Israel are humbled;
the drought has ceased and the rains have returned; and King Ahab had to be impressed;
Yet we come to 1Kgs.19:1-4 - -
Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.
Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, ‘So may the gods do to me and even more, if I do not
make your life as the life of one of them (the dead prophets of Baal) by tomorrow about this time.
And (Elijah) was AFRAID and arose and RAN for his life and came to Beersheba which belongs to Judah,
and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and sat
down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said,
‘It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.
We can’t help but be perplexed by this passage. How could Elijah go from being so HIGH to being so LOW so FAST?
In California the 400-mile long Sierra Nevada Mountain range is home to Mt Whitney, the summit of which is 14,505’.
It is the highest peak in the contiguous United States, the lower forty-eight (there are ten higher but they are in Alaska).
From Mount Whitney one can travel an hour or so (84 miles south by southeast) to the Dead Sea (282’ below sea level).
In the U.S. mainland one can travel from the highest of the highs to the lowest of the lows in a little over one hour.
Elijah’s swift run from Mt Carmel to Jezreel takes him metaphorically from the pinnacle to the pit.
While we might marvel at what has happened to Elijah, the truth is we have all experienced radical mood swings.
Times of discouragement and even depression (sometimes deep) seems to be part of our human experience.
Those of us who are baseball fans remember all too well that painful 2016 World Series: the tribe vs the Chicago Cubs.
It was game 7 of the series and the Indians possessed that all-important home field advantage.
“We” were tasting victory yet we went from such a high to such a low in a matter of three hours of so.
From upbeat to downcast in the blink of an eye.
You NASCAR fans can surely relate. One minute your guy (gal) is the lead car zipping toward the checkered flag,
and then comes one of those frequent home-stretch wrecks and your hopes are suddenly dashed by the crash.
WHAT’S UP WITH ELIJAH? or should we say, WHAT’S “DOWN” WITH ELIJAH?
In 1Kgs.17:1f, Elijah appears fearless, but two chapters later we read that he is AFRAID.
In 1Kgs.17 & 18, God is Elijah’s ever-present strength, but here in 1Kgs.19, Elijah wavers and RUNS FOR HIS LIFE.
How do we explain such a swift turn of events - - such a swing of the pendulum from a high point to a low point?
(1) Elijah is exhausted. He is physically worn out and emotionally spent.
1Kgs.19:5-7 / he lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold there was an angel touching him, and
said to him, ‘arise, eat.’ Then he looked and behold, there was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water.
So he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came a second time
and touched him and said, ‘Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.’
(2) Elijah is disappointed, discouraged and distraught.
Things had gone so well on Mount Carmel, it’s not unrealistic to imagine that he was expecting a full-scale revival.
Surely what began on the mountain top - - The Lord, He is God; The Lord, He is God (1Kgs.18:39) would reap a harvest.
Elijah might have even been thinking that God’s fire from above would have caused King Ahab to “see the light”,
and he might have hoped that when Ahab told Jezebel about the mountain event, she would relent and repent.
But Ahab is a WEAK man and Jezebel remains her EVER EVIL self and immediately vows to kill Elijah by the next day.
At this year’s winter Olympics a female Canadian Hockey player stood on the awards platform to receive her medal.
The U.S. women had won the gold, handing a surprising defeat to the Canadians.
When the Silver Medal was placed around her neck, seconds later she removed it. She later apologized.
It appears to have been a case of being so severely disappointed that this player didn’t know how to cope with her loss.
(3) Elijah is not clear-headed. He’s not thinking straight.
In the Civil War battle of Chancellorsville, Stonewall Jackson’s brigade totally surprised a bullwark of Union soldiers.
In a lengthy fast-pasted march by the light of the moon, Jackson led his army of 33,000 through miles of wilderness
thicket on a path unknown to the Union Army that resulted in a flanking maneuver that ambushed the Union forces.
When the attack came the Yanks was totally caught off guard and they frantically tucked their tails and ran.
Later than night, Stonewall and a select group were spying out the enemy position anticipating round two.
When they returned to camp, Jackson’s recon team of 19 were pummeled with bullets by their own Army.
Jackson preferred to work in secret and his loyal confederates mistakenly thought his recon team were Union soldiers.
Jackson was shot in his right hand and left shoulder (wounds that would a few days later result in his death).
When General Jackson was finally brought to safety behind his own lines, a messenger was quickly dispatched from
General Jeb Stuart inquiring as to what the specific plans were. Jackson had failed to share his battle strategy with his staff.
In the fog of war and badly wounded, Jackson who was so meticulously in his planning, tried to concentrate his thoughts,
but ended up saying, “I don’t know, I can’t tell; say to General Stuart he must do what he thinks best.”
It is not a stretch to describe Elijah’s predicament as a kind of “fog of war”. Think what he has been through over the last three years: confronting King Ahab one on one; a year in hiding at the brook Cherith; two years in the home of
the poor widow of Zarephath; and now, most recently and perhaps most taxing, this confrontation on Mount Carmel.
Elijah had to be on the brink of exhaustion. Our text for this morning tells us that he slept and he slept (vs.5f).
Thankfully God nursed him in a time of deep despondency by sending an angel to minister to him.
Elijah had become so spent that he now uncharacteristically succumbs to the threat of the wicked queen Jezebel.
Elijah’s thinking is so fuzzy that he has forgotten WHO (God) has carried him throughout the last 3 ½ years.
So with fear and trepidation he runs for his life.
(4) Elijah is alone and is immersed in self-pity.
In truth he is NOT ALONE. He has never been alone.
In 1Kgs.18:22, even at the outset of the contest on Carmel, he claims, I am the only prophet of the Lord left.
Elijah seems to be fixated on his “aloneness”. cf. 1Kgs.19:10 & 14
A bit late God rebukes him, telling him there remained 7,000 in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1Kgs.19:18)
When he ran from Jezebel he finally came to Beersheba (the southernmost extremity of the promised land).
There he sat down under a juniper tree and had a pity party, requesting of God that he die (1Kgs.19:4).
Elijah compounds these “dark” days by instructing his servant (who had fled with him) to remain in
Beersheeba while he continued by himself traveling another day’s journey into the wilderness (1Kgs.19:3b-4).
When we experience severe down times, it is not good to be alone.
When we get discouraged and depressed we need to call a brother or sister or a dear friend or relative.
Someone has written of self-pity (Charles Swindoll, Elijah: A Man Of Heroism and Humility, pg.117).
“Self-pity is a pathetic emotion. It will lie to you. It will exaggerate. It will drive you to tears. It will cultivate a
‘victim mentality’ in your head. And, in the worst-case scenario, it can bring you to the point of wishing to die.”
God met his servant, Elijah, in his desperate moment of discouragement and despair.
This is mercy at its best, beautifully portrayed by the Master Himself. / Swindoll
Let me leave us with one of Keith Chopic’s most cherished verses (Heb.13:6).
This is noteworthy because we normally think of Keith as a tough guy (he’s a barrel-chested but soft-hearted).
He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you’, so that we can confidently say,
‘THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID. WHAT SHALL MAN DO TO ME?’
A couple hundred years earlier, King David, wrote numerous psalms from the pit of despair.
One of the most memorable lines from David’s most popular psalm (Ps.23:4) would have helped Elijah greatly - -
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I wlll not fear, for YOU are with me
