And please turn in your Bibles to the gospel according to Luke. Our New Testament reading tonight will also be from Luke just as it was this morning. But we’ll turn to Luke chapter 12. And our reading will be verses one through seven. Luke 12. 1 through 7. Listen to this. This is the very Word of God.
In the meantime, when so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.
I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies, and not one of them is forgotten before God? Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, you are of more value than many sparrows. And then our Old Testament reading. It takes us back to 1 Kings as we continue on through that book, 1 Kings, and we come to chapter 19 this evening. And our text will be verses 1 through 8. 1 Kings 19, verses 1 through 8.
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 more also if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.
Then he was afraid, and he rose 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 came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my father’s. And he lay down and slept under a broom tree.
And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, Arise and eat. And he looked and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you. And he rose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mount of God.
That’s the reading of God’s word. Let’s pray once again for his blessing upon it. Our Father in heaven, we do thank you for this reading of the Holy Scriptures. And we pray now for your blessing upon the word as it is expounded. We pray that you’d get glory for yourself, for your son, our savior, Jesus Christ, that you would instruct us and edify us, build us up in our most holy faith. And we commit the ministry of the word to you now in Jesus name. Amen.
How do you define success in ministry? What does it mean to have a successful ministry? I remember a senior minister and seminary professor reflecting on the ministries of two of his students. And these two men were both engaged in very similar ministries in that they were both strongly committed to the ordinary means of grace, no bells and whistles, no frills, no fancy gimmicks, just faithfully preaching the word of God.
And God in his providence chose to bless the ministry of one of them much more extensively than the ministry of the other. In fact, the other was mostly, I would say, frustrated. His church wasn’t growing the way he’d hoped it might. So if you think of those two examples, would it be fair to say that one of those ministers was successful and one was not?
It’s an important question. And we want to say, no, it’s not fair to say that, and that this man whose church didn’t grow was unsuccessful. And yet we have a tendency to think along those lines, don’t we? And even to think, well, maybe he was doing something wrong or we. The point is that one church grows and another church doesn’t grow. And that can be very. Very disappointing. For a church and for a minister.
And it made me think of a comment that I heard John MacArthur make one time. And we all know and love John MacArthur. You’ve got to appreciate his faithfulness. We don’t agree with all of his doctrine. Eschatology is a little wacky. And that bleeds into other things. But he’s been such a faithful servant of the Lord, a mighty servant of the Lord. And I remember him talking about burnout. And I bring that up because there have been people who, reflecting on this passage about Elijah and this chapter in his life, they kind of describe what he was experiencing, feelings that he was having as burnout, ministerial burnout.
He had worked hard. And John MacArthur made this point, and I thought it was very insightful. He said, hard work doesn’t cause burnout. Hard work does not cause burnout. He said, ditch diggers work hard, but you never hear about a ditch digger getting burned out.
He said, what causes burnout is unmet expectations, failed expectations. And the reason I bring that up is because in ministry, as in anything else, our definition of success will shape our expectations because we all want to succeed. And we expect to succeed, to some extent or another, as far as that expectation might go. Our definition of success will shape our expectations. And so was Elijah suffering burnout? And if he was, it’s because his expectations were unmet. Think about what he’s been through, what he’s experienced.
God’s glorious triumph over these prophets of Baal, how they screamed and shrieked and called out to Baal for hours and hours and hours and cut themselves and there was nothing. And then Elijah prayed and God, the true and living God answered by fire from heaven.
And as a result, then the Israelites who were there to witness this big event, they fell on their faces and they proclaimed that the Lord is God, Yahweh is God. And then, of course, Elijah went on to slaughter all those prophets of Baal. And all that was followed after Ahab got to eat and drink, the rain that had been promised finally came. Elijah was able to accompany Ahab back to his palace, leading him all that way back to Jezreel in kind of what we could call a triumphal entry.
He’d experienced all this grand success. But maybe he expected, as a result of all that, that there would be revival in Israel, and that the people would all turn back and wholesale cast off all of their idols and worship the true and living God and worship Him alone.
But that isn’t what happened. And not only did that not happen, but there’s a threat against Elijah’s life by this wicked queen. And so Elijah became despondent. as a result of his perception that his ministry had failed. He succumbs to fear, as well as to fatigue. And he thinks there’s no use going on.
But what he learns is, and I think he learns in this passage, is that the Lord shows compassion and provides for his weary and discouraged people. The Lord shows compassion and provides for his weary and discouraged people. Just a two point sermon tonight. First point is our God has compassion on us. So I’m going to bring it back to us. Our God has compassion on us and number two, our God provides for us. Because that’s what he does. He shows compassion and he provides for his people even when and especially when.
They’re weary and discouraged. There’s a lot you can try to get out of this passage, a lot of different trails you could go down, a lot of emphases to find. But I want to emphasize those things, the compassion of God, and the provision of God, and particularly those things for you.
So we’ll We’ll take as a given that Elijah was not acting in faith when he fled from Jezebel. I guess if we’re going to find fault with him, we would say that. He was not acting in faith when he ran after her death threats. Elijah was a man of great faith.
There’s no doubting that. But in the words of a hymn we sing from time to time, sometimes faith burns low, doesn’t it? Mine does. Yours does. And even someone of the stature of Elijah, who had great faith, his faith was burning low at this point. Matthew Henry graciously points out that great faith is not always alike strong.
And here in Elijah’s experience, the truth of James 5.17 is on display.
He had a nature like ours. And when he was discouraged, and when he was weary, physically weary, he could become despondent, just like we can, you can become depressed, become discouraged. And those things interact, you know, it’s I won’t try to unpack this at all, really, but But if you’re experiencing difficult circumstances, your emotional response to that is going to be amplified if you’re tired. Fatigue makes cowards of us all. I think that statement is attributed to Churchill.
But he had a nature like ours. And so when this messenger came from Jezebel with the threat against Elijah’s life, Elijah was responding. As I said, he’s responding in a carnal way. And it seems that maybe the Lord was testing Elijah by withdrawing from him a certain sense of his the sense of his presence, a certain sense of Holy Spirit wrought courage to show Elijah how strong he is in and of himself, to show Elijah his own weakness.
In our Confession of Faith, Chapter 5 on Providence, we’re taught that God sometimes, for a season, leaves his children to the corruption of their own hearts. Why would he do that? And our confession teaches us that God will sometimes do that for a little while to discover unto us the hidden strength of our corruptions and the deceitfulness of our hearts. And perhaps after these tremendous triumphs that Elijah had the blessing of being able to participate in with the Lord God, there was a chance that he might become little bit puffed up.
So perhaps God did withdraw himself in that sense that our confession speaks of maybe God was teaching Elijah, but whatever the case, God left Elijah to himself to show him how courageous he is by himself without God’s help without the spirit And so Elijah feared Jezebel’s threat and the text says in verse three that he ran for his life.
And what’s interestingly absent from this passage and continues for the most part to remain absent in the passage that follows is some kind of reproof from the Lord God to Elijah. We don’t see God scolding him. criticizing him. Where’s your faith? God didn’t reprove Elijah, he had compassion.
And I don’t know if we would say that’s contrary to the way he was dealing with Jeremiah. When he commissioned Jeremiah, remember when God sent Jeremiah to, to speak words of warning words of condemnation against the covenant people. Jeremiah got a warning from God. God said to Jeremiah, don’t you be dismayed by them. Don’t fear their faces. Don’t be intimidated or cowed by them. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. Be strong, be courageous for me, because if you’re not, I’ll give you a reason to be fearful.
That’s kind of what he was saying. obviously paraphrasing, but that’s, you know, and in Jeremiah’s ministry at the outset of his prophetic commission, that may have been exactly what, obviously it was exactly what Jeremiah needed to hear, but it’s not what God gave to Elijah in his time of fear and of retreat. Christ exhorts us in ways that are somewhat similar to the way Jeremiah was warned. In fact, we read it in Luke.
I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body and have nothing more that they can do after that. But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear him who, after he is killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. But Christ is compassionate towards his fearful people. Even when he knows and sees their fear, he’s compassionate. He comforts and reassures us. In fact, later on in that same chapter of Luke is one of my favorite verses from Luke’s gospel. Jesus says, fear not little flock. It is your father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. What else does Jesus say?
He says, I’ll give you rest. And we describes himself. He says, I’m gentle. I’m lowly in heart. And let me caution you not to think that Jesus in that sense is any different than the father. And let’s let’s resist the inclination to think of Jesus as compassionate and welcoming and forgiving and the Father is stern and disapproving. That’s not how we ought to think of the Father. Jesus says the Father himself loves you. He even said, if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father. All three persons of the Godhead are alike, compassionate and gracious.
You know, when the Lord brought Moses up onto the mountain, Moses wanted to see the Lord’s glory. God said, I’ll pass by you and I’ll declare my name. And he hid Moses in the cleft of the rock, covered him graciously, protectively with his hand. And he passed by and he declared his name to Moses. And you know what the first thing he said was?
I’m compassionate. I’m gracious. That God who thundered from the top of Sinai, proclaiming his law as a God who’s compassionate and gracious, and so is God the Son, and so is God the Spirit. And God was gracious. He has compassion on us, and he had compassion on Elijah by the very fact that he sent his messenger to Elijah.
Look with me at the text again. There are actually two messengers that come to Elijah in this text. Jezebel sent a messenger in verse 2 with the announcement of her death threat. But there’s another messenger that comes to Elijah in verse 6, as mentioned again in verse 7.
The angel of the Lord. sorry, 5 and 7. But the reason I bring that up is because the word there that’s translated in verses 5 and 7, angel, is the same word that’s translated messenger in verse 2. That word in Hebrew does double duty the same way angelos does double duty in Greek, because the word can mean angel and often does, and by context we determine that.
But it’s just a word that means messenger. And so Jezebel sent a messenger, but so did God. God sent a gracious, comforting messenger, not to scold him, but to comfort. And the messenger the first time said, arise and eat. And the second time, arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.
So yes, in one sense, the fact that Elijah retreated from Jezebel, he went down to Beersheba, and if you know your ancient Israelite geography. He’d been ministering in the northern kingdom to Ahab and to the Israelites. He fled out of Israel into Judah and all the way down to the southernmost reaches of Judah. That’s where Beersheba was. Left his servant there and then proceeds further into the wilderness.
And that retreat was, in one sense, an act of unbelief. In one sense, on Elijah’s part, it was an act of fear. But at the same time, it was part of Yahweh’s sovereign plan. It’s part of God’s plan. The journey was sovereignly ordained, and God supported him in it by giving him this food so that he could make the journey.
So in God’s sovereign plan, Elijah went to, as the text tells us, to Horeb, the Mount of God. Horeb is the place where Moses met with God. That’s where Moses met with God and fasted 40 days. That was the mountain that he was on when God covered him with his hand and proclaimed his name. That was the mountain where the Ten Commandments were given. That’s where the Book of the Law was given. Horeb, in other words, is Sinai. It’s the same mountain. Two different names for the same mountain.
Moses didn’t eat for 40 days and 40 nights when he was up there on the mountain. And similarly, as Elijah is traveling through the wilderness, perhaps wandering to some extent, He, too, for 40 days went without food and ends up at that same mountain where Moses met with God.
And in that sense, and in that way, he’s set forth for us as a kind of a new Moses. And so we have Moses and the law And Elijah and the prophets, and so as Moses is to the law, Elijah is to the prophets. That’s why on the Mount of Transfiguration there are two men standing there. With Jesus. And the three that were on the mountain with Jesus knew that those men were Moses and Elijah. They those two appeared to Jesus to to speak with him.
So. Our God has compassion on us. Our God had compassion on Elijah and Elijah’s experience show that both the compassion of the shows the compassion of God, but also shows God’s provision. The two are merged together. In fact, and they’re inseparable, really. And that brings us to our second point. Our God provides for us.
Elijah had experienced. God’s provision continuously. He’d never been without God’s provision. But God provided by various means. And he’s able to do that. And that’s part of the point of this passage and the text in larger context. God has various ways of providing for his people.
At first, when God told Elijah to go hide himself, God sent ravens to bring Elijah bread. And he was able to drink water from the brook as long as the brook was still flowing. Later on, God sent him to the widow of Zarephath, and while he dwelt with her under her care, her flour and oil were miraculously sustained so that they could live on that for, evidently, about three years. And then here in chapter 19, while Elijah slept, God provided this cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And I can’t help thinking of Lembas bread in the Lord of the Rings. But this cake, this food that God provided for Elijah sustained him, or God sustained him after he ate that food, for 40 days.
And the lesson for us in that is that the Lord God Almighty has more than one way to provide for those who trust in Him. Do you ever catch yourself when you’re praying to God and you’re pouring out your heart to Him about some problem or some concern or care that you have? Do you ever catch yourself informing God of His options? Lord, you’re going to have to either do this or if not, then you’ll have to do that. Don’t do that. He’s got more options than we can possibly imagine. Sometimes he provides in surprising ways just to remind us of that. But as God provides for Elijah, he even provided that broom tree.
You know what a broom tree is? Broom tree is this medium-sized tree, I guess, that grows pretty much only in the most desolate and isolated places. And even to this day, even to modern times, trees like this, which are plentiful in the riverbeds and streambeds in the Near East, Even now, nomadic tribes will find shelter among them, shelter at night from the wind, shelter during the day from the sun. So they’re large enough and have enough foliage to provide that kind of shelter.
And so Elijah found one of these. But who provided the tree? Well, of course, it was God who did that. It’s not. I can understand why you might think of the parallel in the life of Jonah. That God provided a tree for Jonah to shade him from the heat of the sun. God provided Jonah with a miracle tree. God provided Elijah with an ordinary tree. Whether by ordinary means or extraordinary means, God always provides.
I was at a course that I had to take for my chaplain career. It was an advanced course that chaplain captains take in order to be promoted, or it’s part of one of the requirements to be promoted to the rank of major. And it was a two-week course. And each morning, one of the chaplains in our groups would bring a devotional at the start of the day.
And there’s one devotional that remains fixed in my memory, at least the introduction of it. Because this chaplain got up and began the devotional by asking the question, raise your hand if God has ever failed you. And no one could raise their hand. room full of chaplains, men of God, ministers, people have been walking with the Lord for a long time and nobody could nobody could raise their hand and say, Yeah, I can tell you about a time when God failed me. Nobody could say God has failed me. Simple fact is he never has and he never does.
Now we know this, But if we know it, then why is it that we fret? Why? Why are we anxious? I was reflecting on this pretty extensively over this past week, because I’ve been pretty anxious lately about this weekend. And as I mused on that, it dawned on me, you know, the reason, even though we know God never will fail us, never has, never does, never will, even though we know that up here, the reason we fret is because when we lapse into carnal reasoning, we think this way.
We think, I know God can provide, but what am I going to do if he doesn’t? I need a plan. If God doesn’t come through for me, I’ll need to figure something out. Now, it’s ridiculous, of course. But the reality is we do think that way. I need a plan in case God fails me. So I rebuke myself for thinking that way at times. And I want to encourage you, brothers and sisters, that your Heavenly Father loves you. Don’t dishonor him by that kind of thinking. Because even if he is chastening you in some way for a time, none of your plans can undo his. No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the Lord.
What was God doing in Elijah’s life at this time? this threat against his life came. We don’t really know. We can’t know the mind of God and the scriptures don’t reveal to us why God brought this particular experience into Elijah’s life. But I think maybe the commentators Kyle and Delitz were on the right track when they wrote this. They said, the Lord allowed his servant to pass through this conflict that he might not exalt himself, but being mindful of his own impotence, might rest content with the grace of God, whose strength is mighty in the weak, and who would refine and strengthen him for the further fulfillment of his calling. So in the following passage, the one that comes after the one we’re looking at tonight, what we’re going to find very clearly is that God still has use for Elijah. Elijah was not a failure in ministry and his ministry was not over.
It reminds me a lot of what Peter, what Jesus said to Peter. When he said, Simon, Satan has asked for you that he can sift you like wheat. But I’ve prayed for you.” And he told Peter that Peter’s going to deny him. Peter said, no, not me, Jesus. But Jesus, I love these words that the Lord spoke to Peter on this occasion, because he says, when you have turned, strengthen your brothers. Jesus is saying to Peter, you’re going to blow it, Peter. You’re going to fail me in a big, big way. I know that. But I’m not through with you. I still have work for you to do for my name’s sake.
And that’s what God is saying to Elijah here, too. And in token of that, God brought Elijah to himself. He brought Elijah to Horeb, the very same place he met with his servant Moses so many centuries prior. So God’s compassion and his provision go together. Think of another touching passage from Holy Scripture out of the prophecy of Isaiah. Can a woman forget her nursing child? Can a woman forget her nursing child that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget. Yet I will not forget you.
Our God provides for us. One reason the Lord God ordained Elijah’s 40-day journey into the wilderness is that in association with Moses’ 40 days on Horeb, these two, Moses and Elijah, point to the Lord Jesus Christ, who was in the wilderness for 40 days fasting and being tested. And this conveys to us that Christ is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. So as I alluded to earlier, modern scholars look at this incident in Elijah’s life and they diagnose him with depression or with burnout. Commentators criticize him for his disobedience, criticize him for his lack of faith, even for cowardice. And how much truth there is in any of that, I don’t know. I won’t venture to say. But none of that is really the point of this passage. God’s prophet was discouraged. God’s prophet was weary. But the Lord shows compassion and provides for his weary and discouraged people.
He’ll do that for you, too. Let’s pray. Father, we sympathize with Elijah, and we thank you for your tender, fatherly treatment of him. And we thank you for how you’ve treated us with fatherly tenderness so many times throughout our days. Thank you for the great hope that we have that your love never fails. And so you’ll continue to love us and have compassion on us, your poor children, and you’ll continue to provide for us. And we thank you for that. And we pray you’d help us to be more zealous and more careful to give you glory and thanks for it. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.