Introduction: What a day it had been for Elijah… He had started the day by issuing a challenge to King Ahab to assemble the prophets of Baal up on Mt. Caramel. He had set up a test in which he and the 450 prophets of Baal would each get a sacrifice ready, they would each pray to their respective God… and the God who answered by fire would prove to be the real God.

He then issued a challenge to the assembled Children of Israel:

1Kings 18:21 Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, “How much longer will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!”

The idols of Baal sent (how much?) fire to the Baal boys sacrifice…but when evening came, a single prayer from Elijah brought (how much?) fire to Elijah’s sacrifice?

And suddenly the Children of Israel decided to worship the God of their fathers rather than the idols of Baal.

Then came the death of all the false prophets…

And then, finally, came the rain….. after the three years drought… The warning to King Ahab… Elijah's prayers from the top of Mt. Caramel. Seven trips of Elijah’s servant to look for clouds and finally the deluge of rain…we left Elijah last week with this picture in our minds…

1 Kings 18:5 Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. 46 The power of the LORD came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.

This is where the story takes a sharp turn… I’m not sure exactly what happened to Elijah…I don’t know whether he got caught up in the pure adrenalin rush of the moment after seeing God do so much through him… The fire from heaven… the killing of the prophets of Baal…the drenching rain…even the wild run back into town

He had done so many things for God with absolute precision and now suddenly he seems to misstep.

If he had just turned and walked down off Mt. Caramel into the blinding rain until he finally faded from view…it would have been a perfect movie ending to an amazing day.

If the last flip of his robe in the wind had been our last view of him…we would have all remembered a man who in his own emptiness… depended, entirely, on God who filled him and used him in amazing ways.

Instead we see those bare white prophet legs pumping their way past Ahab's chariot, into town, right into the teeth of trouble. Verse 46 did say that "the power of the Lord came upon him" when he ran past Ahab's chariot… it seems like God was in some way part of this wild run back into town…but it seems like God would surely have had a different plan than what unfolded next…

1 Kings 19:1 When Ahab got home, he told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including the way he had killed all the prophets of Baal. 2 So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: “May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them.”

1) That part is OK…Queen Jezebel is painted in Scripture as a mean, wicked woman.

2) Of course she is going to be furious…of course she is going to threaten Elijah.

3) But nobody doubts Elijah's ability to take care of himself…

4) He faced off with her husband.. also a mean and wicked and powerful guy

5) He faced off, made fools of, then killed the false prophets of Baal

6) He with God's power had shown the ability to control the weather, to stop and start the rain…

7) Surely nothing, in this world, could make John Elijah Wayne afraid…. Unless…perhaps a raging, mean old woman…

“May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them.”

Elijah doesn't even hear the message from her…some courier read it to him off from an Western Union telegram… "The queen is going to kiiill you"

At this point, we all have clear expectations from Elijah…

Come on lady, Make my day….I just faced off, and killed off, your most powerful spiritual advisors… My God sent fire down from heaven…My God stopped and restarted the rain after three years…You think I care, a hoot, what threats come from your squawky little voice….

What we, actually read in the Bible is shocking…

1 Kings 19:3 Elijah was afraid and fled for his life.

What could have gotten into him? This is not the hero we have come to know this last three weeks… Heroes are supposed to always be strong…that's the way it is on TV.

Do you remember what the James 5 passage we looked at last week said about him?...

James 5:17 Elijah was just as human as we are… (CEV)

Unlike T.V… the Bible gives us our spiritual heroes with all their faults included. A few months ago… we watched King David passionately follow God then fall into adultery with Bathsheba. God doesn't hide those things from us or we could never relate to the greats of the Bible. The great apostle Peter is given to us with all his warts and bumps. He accomplishes amazing things in his lifetime but not without stumbling repeatedly.

That part we do understand! the part where we get it right for a while and then stumble and fall on our face.

You remember Peter walking on the water, in the storm, to Jesus? Why did he suddenly stop walking on the water and start going under the waves.

Because, He took his eyes off Jesus and began to focus on the storm around him.

Why do we stumble in the storms of our lives? We take our eyes off God and begin to focus on the storm around us.

Why did Elijah stumble after the biggest spiritual victory of his life? Because he took his eyes off the power of God and focused his attention on one squawking old woman.

And man when Elijah bailed... he bailed big time!

3 Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there. 4 Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died.”

Imagine that pendulum swing. From most used of God man on the face of the earth…to depressed and wanting to die…life's just not worth living…all in the space of a few hours?

That part, to one degree or another, many/most of us can relate to… This phrase has probably crossed all of our lips..

“I have had enough, Lord,” he said."

How many times have you said that?? This week??

Elijah was so worn out and depressed that he didn't even want to live any more.

He had certainly gotten his focus off of the God who had rained down fire from heaven just a day or two before. But God had not lost track of Elijah..

5 Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, “Get up and eat!” 6 He looked around and there beside his head was some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water! So he ate and drank and lay down again.

He needed sleep…lots of it. He needed to eat… perhaps he hadn't been…

Sometimes, in the Old Testament when the Bible says: "an angel came" it's actually talking about the pre-incarnate Jesus. I'd like to think this was one of those times when the yet to be born Jesus, ministered personally to Elijah….the same hands that baked fish on a fire for his disciples by the sea, baking bread for Elijah under the juniper tree.

7 Then the angel of the Lord came again and touched him and said, “Get up and eat some more, or the journey ahead will be too much for you.”

Journey what journey?? I just got here to the middle of nowhere. I'm going to just lay here and die in the desert under this juniper tree. God said , no you're not…get moving…I've got a special meeting set up for you.. I'm going to meet you and speak to you but the meeting is over on yonder mountain….over on Sinai mountain…a "fur piece" from here…

 8 So he got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God. 9 There he came to a cave, where he spent the night.

Why would God trek him 40 days across the wilderness back to the mountain where Moses received the ten commandments? … I don't know.

If you always have to know why God is doing what he is doing, before you follow him you're going to waste a lot of valuable time.

My son, Steve, and I were having this conversation about giving our children orders and having them ask, Why? The first thing you need to learn, child, is not why I want you to do it but that I want you to do it. One of the key lessons in life is learning to obey authority whether you understand it with your child-brain or not.

We, God's children, get caught up in the same children's ploy of telling God we want to understand everything he asks us to do before we will be willing to do it

God says: "No, you've got it backwards my child, Obey me… whether you understand the reason or not… Faith is all about trusting me… even when you don't understand all the reasons why.!

Finally, Elijah plops onto the floor of a cave at the foot of Mt. Sinai. He's had plenty of time to think… mulling over in his mind the great victories God has given him and why his attitude stinks so bad… He breathes in a couple of deep breathes and God is at his side again.

But the Lord said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

What am I doing here,,. sputter, sputter, but… but you told me…

10 Elijah replied, “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”

That's the same weak livered, garbage you spouted 40 days ago under the juniper tree. You need a one on one with the Almighty to regain your perspective.

11 “Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

Elijah… you stopped listening to me… You saw all this mighty stuff take place and then you closed your mind and stopped listening… Here let me show you more mighty stuff… listen…listen…listen… then came God's gentle whisper…

…And a voice said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Perhaps, now in a quieter, more awed voice Elijah repeats his memorized complaint…

 14 He replied again, “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”

1) Didn't I call you to be a prophet because Israel had broken their covenant? Yes, Yes you did.

2) Didn't I call you to be a prophet because Israel had torn down their altars? Yes, Yes you did.

3) You say they've killed all the prophets… are you a prophet? Have not Ahab and Jezebel been trying to kill you ever since you prophesied the drought? Yes, Yes they have!

4) Are you dead? No, No I'm not!

5) Then what are you doing here?

6) Then, what are you doing here? Can you be a prophet to rocks? Can you turn the spiritual tide of a nation from hundreds of miles away? No, No I can't.

7) All right, get up and go home…

15 Then the Lord told him, “Go back the same way you came, and travel to the wilderness of Damascus. When you arrive there, anoint Hazael to be king of Aram. 16 Then anoint Jehu son of Nimshi to be king of Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from the town of Abel-meholah to replace you as my prophet.

Hazeal would be a tool that would bring down Ahab

Jehu would oversee the death of Ahab and Jezabel

Elisha would allow Elijah's influence to go on long after his departure