Honest Conversations with Elijah - Episode 26

Episode 26 - Scroll down to read, or listen here!

Hey friends, we’re back!  After quite a long break, I’m back at podcasting today.  We’re done with our one another series — which I loved — and I’ve made an executive decision to get rid of seasons and just do whatever I want for a while.  This is the 26th episode so I’m still figuring a lot of things out - I know that I want this podcast to be a place where all of us can have honest conversations around the intersection of mental health and faith, and so I’m still learning what exactly that looks like.  Thanks for joining me on this crazy journey. 

Speaking of honest conversations, that is what we’re going to talk about here for a while.  Most of my life I have avoided honesty like the plague.  Not that I went around lying, I’m way too much of a rule follower for that.  But for many years I avoided telling God how I really felt about anything, thinking that who I was as a person was too much for God.  That He would be perpetually angry with me and at some point, would probably strike me with lightening for saying the wrong thing or being sacrilegious.

After the last few years of practicing honest prayer with God, I can tell you that I have never felt His anger or been struck by lightening.  The area I still struggle with honest conversation in is with other people.  Almost every time I reach out and am honest with others, I’m so glad I did, even if the conversation was hard, but it’s still so so hard to let people in to see the deep and hard parts of me.  And maybe we’ll talk some about that along the way.  But for now, I want to lead you through a series of honest conversations in the Bible.  I’ve been on the look out for and have been studying these conversations for a few years now and what I’ve found has been so fascinating and encouraging.  So let’s dive into our first one and get started.

I want to start this off with Elijah.  If you’ve been around here any length of time, you’re probably not surprised this is the first character that we’re starting with, if you’re new, you should probably know that I talk about Elijah all the time.  I’m not sure I have a very favourite Bible character, but I think I’m definitely the most like Elijah.  Mountain top to valley in one day describes me well.  Elijah’s series of conversations with God are rich and have so much to teach us.

What comes to your mind first when you think of Elijah?  I think for most people it’s his mountain experience with the prophets of Baal.  The one where he challenges them to a sort of sacrificial duel.  The prophets of Baal spend the whole day calling out to their god just to be met with silence.  Well, except from Elijah.  He liked to be a little sarcastic.  Elijah started off that day so strong and so sure in his God.  And God came through, burning the sacrifice with fire from heaven including all the water that Elijah poured over his sacrifice.  The prophets of Baal are defeated, God’s glory is shown and Elijah should be elated.  If being a prophet was a career with a pinnacle, this would be it.

Instead, Elijah starts running in fear.  Jezebel is out for revenge and Elijah runs for his life.  How could he be scared of what Jezebel could do after he just saw what God can do?  Looking at Elijah from our perspective, this seems like a valid question, and we can find ourselves in the same boat all the time.  We so quickly forget what God has done and can do.

So here is Elijah, running through the wilderness until he comes to a juniper tree.  He sits under the tree and asks something of God.  He has one of the most honest conversations with God recorded in Scripture.  He asks God to take away his life.

The great Elijah is sitting under a tree, suicidal.  He wants to die.  Not only does he want to die, he wants God to do it.

This is where a lot of us would expect to see an angry God, one who would grant this request.  We might expect Him to say, fine!  You want to die, I’ll take your life right now.  But the exact opposite happens.  

Elijah lays down to sleep and God sends an angel.  Not an angel of death, but one who will take care of Elijah’s physical needs.  Twice Elijah sleeps and is woken up to food and compassion.  The second meal is supernatural.  Elijah is able to go on the strength of that meal for 40 days.

40 days of energy from one meal, but still Elijah is not magically “fixed”.  He’s still suicidal and depressed.  He still wants to die.  He finds a cave and this is where the conversation becomes a real back and forth between God and His prophet.  Elijah tells God that he is alone, that everyone else has forsaken God he’s the only one left.  Haven’t you found in your own life that depression often feels that way?  As if we are all alone?

Then this famous conversation continues with Elijah hearing and seeing a wind so strong it broke the mountain and rocks into pieces.  But it did not harm Elijah.  Then an earthquake, still Elijah is safe.  Then a fire but Elijah is not burned.

All of these destructive forces that show the power a greatness of our God, but these are not the things God uses to teach Elijah.  Instead he comes to Elijah in a still, small voice.  Not in destruction, but in comfort.  And when you really analyze what God says to him, there is such beauty in God’s response.

God tells him to anoint a new king.  This brings comfort to Elijah’s fear of Ahab and Jezebel.  Remember that Elijah is running for his life and so a new king is of great comfort and shows Elijah that God is taking care of him.  So first God speaks to Elijah’s fear.

Then he tells him that he needs to find Elisha, that Elisha is to be a prophet with him.  God is saying to Elijah, I know that things are heavy right now so I’m going to give you a partner, someone to carry the load with you.  And Elijah and Elisha would become partners for the rest of Elijah’s life.  God could have said to Elijah that God should be enough for him, and that would have been true.  But God is so gracious to us to give us human partners here on earth, to send us the help we need when we most desperately need it.  

Lastly in this honest and beautiful conversation, God tells Elijah that there are still seven thousand people who have not bowed to Baal and still follow God.  Whether Elijah truly thought he was the only one, or more likely, just felt as though he were the only one, God comforted this great fear also.  Elijah was not alone and God sent a still small voice to tell him that instead of whipping it into him with the wind.  God cared enough about Elijah’s fears to give him the information that he needed to get over them.

Elijah goes on to find Elisha and have many more cool stories before he eventually gets taken up into heaven in a chariot and horses of fire in a whirlwind.  Kind of a harkening back to the cave.  This time God used his power to take Elijah home, not because he was mad at him or because Elijah asked for it, but because it was time for a faithful servant to come home.

This honest conversation with God is one of the first that really stuck out to me because it really drives home the point that God not only wants us to be honest with Him, He will also address our fears and send the help we need right when we need it.  Elijah was suicidal and the first thing God did was take care of his physical needs.  That’s a whole other lesson right there, but then he also goes on to give him a partner and help him to finish his course well.  In the end, God did take Elijah’s life, but not in a suicidal way, in a triumphant and glorious way.  Elijah teaches us that our God is loving, compassionate, and safe.

If you’re feeling like Elijah today, reach out to God first - honest conversations will change your life!  And then reach out to someone else.  Elijah and Elisha’s story teaches us that we need partners in life.

I hope you enjoyed looking at Elijah’s story this way and that you will read it with fresh eyes.  If you would like to study it further for yourself, you can find this part of his story in I Kings 18 and forward.  I challenge you to take time to read it and let this amazing story sink into your soul.

I’d love to hear from you - let me know what you think about this story of Elijah and my take on it.