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Shabbat Shalom. Last week, we saw one man of God, Elijah, confront 450 false prophets of Baal. In a contest for the ages, the Lord answered Elijah’s simple prayer and demonstrated His infinite power to everyone present. 1 Kings 18 ended with all 450 prophets dead, our people repenting of their sins, and the countrywide drought over. We ended with King Ahab back in Jezreel with his pagan wife Jezebel, and Elijah also in the city after God’s power allowed him to arrive before Ahab’s chariot. It was an amazing and uplifting story teaching us how we must follow the Lord, the only true source of salvation and power in this world.

Elijah has experienced an amazing supernatural victory, and you would expect another victory to immediately follow with Ahab and Jezebel. But that is not what happens. In 1 Kings 19, we will see Elijah on the run again, alone, depressed, and praying for the Lord to kill him.

The story we find in this chapter of 1 Kings is even more important for us than the miracle of God’s fire last week. 1 Kings 19 teaches us what it means to experience the power of God when our power is completely exhausted. What does walking with God look like when we are at the point of physical and emotional exhaustion?

I don’t think you need me to tell you that life in this world is full of suffering. We experience profound and numerous forms of physical and mental pain. If I asked you, I am sure you could tell me of many times you have suffered in your life, and I could as well. You might even be suffering right now, and maybe even wondering if the Lord sees and cares about it.

The Lord does care, and the Bible is full of examples of righteous men and women suffering for various reasons. One important example of suffering is found in 2 Corinthians 12, where Rabbi Paul relates how he prayed to the Lord three times to remove some type of physical pain in his life. Three times he prayed, and eventually the Lord answered in 2 Corinthians 12:9, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. This verse is often quoted, but what does God’s power in our weakness look like? What does this mean when we are dealing with chronic pain, grief, depression, or even suicidal thoughts?

We find an answer in 1 Kings 19, in the life of Elijah. We will learn how the Lord’s power provides everything we need, especially when we’re at our weakest. Let’s pick up in 1 Kings 19 and see the Lord’s power at work when Elijah is at his lowest.

When Ahab got home, he told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including the way he had killed all the prophets of Baal. 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.” Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there.

Arriving in Jezreel through the speed of God, Elijah must have thought everything was going to change. But instead, Jezebel is still in control, Ahab has refused to repent, and now Elijah is once again being hunted by the government. Imagine a president, or king, or maybe the governor of Michigan, sending you a text saying, “Hey, great work defeating my supporters, wonderful job. Oh, by the way, I’m going to kill you by this time tomorrow, I promise you on my own life.” Then realize they have the backing of the entire Michigan National Guard and every police force. This is the type of power Jezebel was threatening Elijah with.

As you read these verses, you might be thinking, “Why doesn’t Elijah just call down fire again? God is with him, look at what happened yesterday!” But notice what we read here. Elijah, who previously ran to Jezreel by God’s power to serve the Lord, now does the opposite. He is afraid, runs for his life through his own strength, and literally leaves the country, traveling 100 miles to Beersheba. So even after his amazing victory on the mountain through God’s power, Elijah is afraid and is deeply suffering. Elijah’s experience on Mount Carmel did not permanently take away his fear, and the same is true for us. Our past mountaintop victories do not erase our present valleys of suffering. As we continue, we see how deep the valley is for Elijah in verse 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.”

Elijah no longer has crowds of people listening to him, or even his servant. Elijah feels he is alone. Alone and fearing for his life. Alone and incredibly depressed. So as a man of God, he correctly turns to the Lord in prayer. But what a prayer! Elijah prays and asks God to let him die. Elijah has gone through years of suffering; he’s done. Elijah just can’t take it anymore.

Perhaps you can identify with Elijah in this story. I certainly can. Maybe having a moment or moments where you wanted it all to end. Maybe not to the point where you were contemplating suicide, though that can certainly be true. But having the thought deep inside yourself of, “I can’t do it anymore, I am done.” Elijah’s depression is severe, the kind of depression that keeps you in bed and feeling totally hopeless.

On the outside looking in, you might feel that things aren’t that bad for Elijah. Sure, he is being hunted again, but God is clearly on Elijah’s side. He just saw fire fall from heaven yesterday. We want to tell Elijah to get up and pull himself together. We wouldn’t be wrong to say, ‘Elijah, God will protect you. Yes, Jezebel can take your life, but she can’t take your soul.’ All of that is true.

But if you have ever walked through a season of real depression, you know this experience from the other side. People who love you, and they really do love you, try to give you perspective. And here’s the hard truth: intellectually, they are often right.

But Elijah is depressed. He is deep in his emotions. Being told the truth doesn’t always make us feel the truth. And sometimes the most loving response for someone who is suffering isn’t to correct their perspective, it’s to sit with them in it. As we continue, God now enters the scene. Adonai’s response to Elijah teaches us how He meets us when we are at our weakest.

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!” 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. 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.” 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.

God enters the story in a way that probably shocked Elijah and many of us. The Lord sends an angel, which is not the cute little creatures or babies we see in gift shops. Real angels are powerful, imposing, and incredibly frightening. Often, when an angel appears in God’s Word, the first thing that happens is that the person falls and starts to worship them. Then the angel must respond and say to only worship the Lord. But notice how, in the depths of Elijah’s depression, he is numb to the presence of an angel.

This angel does not shake, lecture, preach, or try to persuade Elijah that things will get better. He doesn’t “fix” the situation. The angel simply touches Elijah on the shoulder, comforting him, then says to eat. A good meal can help us when we are suffering. Even when we really don’t feel like eating, it is good for our bodies and our minds.

This is God’s power when we are at our weakest, lowest, or suffering. Sometimes His power is spectacular, fire from heaven, people being raised from the dead. But God knows exactly what we need, and often what we need is a good meal and a nice nap. The Lord is our provider. He provides everything we need, especially when we are so weak that we cannot provide for ourselves. When we’re weak, He is strong.

So, the angel cooked for Elijah, no angel food cake here, but I am sure it was good and clearly nourishing. This was needed because Elijah would have been physically exhausted from his journey. Elijah is encouraged to eat a second time, because he is going to need strength for what will happen next, a journey to Mount Sinai. The Lord has miraculously provided the strength Elijah needs for this journey. This journey does not normally take 40 days, but 40 is significant in God’s Word. It is a number associated with testing and trials. Elijah is about to experience a trial, one very different than any he has ever faced.

Elijah, after some good food and sleep, begins his 40-day journey to Mount Sinai. Is Elijah still depressed? Absolutely. Does he have no idea what God is doing or wants him to do? Absolutely. Does Elijah, even in the middle of a deep depression, still follow the Lord? Absolutely.

Elijah makes the journey, through God’s strength, to Mount Sinai. The same mountain where Moses encountered the Lord through the burning bush and was given the Torah. The same mountain where our people heard the powerful and overwhelming voice of God in smoke and fire. The same mountain where Moses took refuge in a type of cave, a cleft of a rock, to experience the glory, the power of Adonai. But Elijah is alone, no Joshua waiting for him, with the leadership of Israel having abandoned him. Verse 9:

There he came to a cave, where he spent the night. But the Lord said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

The Lord knows why Elijah is here in this cave. The question is inviting Elijah to express to the Lord how he is feeling, to express his pain, depression, and thoughts of death. God is asking Elijah, “So here we are in this cave, on another mountain, but one special to me and you Elijah, are you ready to tell me everything you are feeling?” And Elijah is finally ready. Ready to stop running and share years of his pain with Adonai.

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.”

This is Elijah’s burden, the pain he has carried for years. He has served God faithfully, but when he looks around, he just sees failure. For all his effort, the people of Israel have abandoned the Lord and even killed the prophets. They have tried to kill him for years, and now Elijah feels he is the only one alive.

Elijah knows that the Lord is aware of all this. But Elijah is suffering, suffering in the depths of his heart, saying, “God, I’m all that’s left. It’s just you and me. There’s no one else.” In his suffering and limited power, Elijah believes everything is lost, everything is terrible, and will continue to be terrible. He doesn’t want to be alone anymore, doesn’t want to keep living.

How does the Lord respond to Elijah? Does God immediately tell Elijah he needs to get over himself? Does He instantly explain in detail why Elijah is wrong? No. Here is what God does in verses 11-13:

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. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

With clear parallels to Moses, the Lord reveals His power and glory to Elijah. When God revealed Himself to Moses, it was overwhelming and Moses had to be shielded. So as Elijah hides in the cave, the Lord forcefully passes by in a great wind, likely a hurricane-level wind. But God is not in the wind.

Then there was a terrible earthquake. An earthquake strong enough to knock you off your feet and destroy buildings. But God is not in the earthquake.

Finally, there was a fire. Not a small flame, but likely a huge fire. Maybe a fire like the pillar that God sent down from heaven after Elijah’s prayer. Surely God would be in the fire, especially after Mount Carmel. But the Lord was not in the fire. All three of these events show the overwhelming power of Adonai. How Elijah might be helpless, but the Lord never is. That might be a message we need to hear today, but Elijah needed something more.

Elijah’s had these powerful experiences. He had an angel cook for him. He’s been sustained for forty days. He’s performed amazing miracles through the power of God, calling down fire from heaven and having rain stop for over three years. Elijah knows God is powerful and real. What Elijah needs to experience is something quieter but as powerful as a hurricane, earthquake, or fire.

And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And a voice said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Elijah, a prophet of the Lord, recognized the presence of the Lord. He didn’t leave the cave during the wind, earthquake, or fire. But he does leave at this whisper. A whisper, which is exactly what Elijah needs in this moment, even if he doesn’t understand yet. So Elijah wraps his face to shield himself from God’s glory, as Moses did in the cleft of the rock. The NLT translates God’s voice as the sound of a gentle whisper; another way to translate it is a “still small voice”. The Hebrew is difficult, and more literally translates into “the sound of a delicate silence”.

The Lord knows Elijah needs to be handled gently and so this is how He chooses to appear. Not through His fearsome voice. Not in an amazing weather event. Not the booming voice of the Lord, resplendent in glory, declaring His nature to Moses. Instead, the Lord appears in a low whisper. Saying again to Elijah: ‘What are you doing here?’ Elijah, after seeing the power of God and hearing His voice, gives this response:

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.”

This is the same response as earlier, which really shouldn’t surprise us. Experiencing God’s power has not changed Elijah’s reality. He still feels he is the only person left and is being hunted. He still feels like everything is ruined. But now Elijah is finally ready to hear the Lord. Elijah has been fed, strengthened, listened to, and comforted. Now in the silence of God’s presence, he is ready to hear God’s response to his depression and suffering. Everything since Elijah was prayed for death under the tree has led to this moment. This is the moment when the Lord, in His power and love, reaches out to a broken and depressed Elijah.

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. Then anoint Jehu grandson 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. Anyone who escapes from Hazael will be killed by Jehu, and those who escape Jehu will be killed by Elisha! Yet I will preserve 7,000 others in Israel who have never bowed down to Baal or kissed him!”

The Lord tells Elijah that he is not alone, he is not going to die at the hands of Jezebel, and Ahab will be overthrown. This is what Elijah really needed to hear. He may have prayed for death, but this is what his heart truly desired. God, in His infinite power, has planned for this entire situation and has answered each point in Elijah’s prayer.

Elijah believes he is the only prophet left. God answers by saying He has prepared a servant and a successor in Elisha. Elijah believes that everyone in Israel has embraced Baal. The Lord answers that a remnant of 7,000 has been preserved. This righteous remnant stands with the Lord and with Elijah.

This last point is the most important. Elijah, in his depression, truly believed he was alone. There was no one else, no one understood his suffering, no one cared. But this was a lie, a lie of his depression, and a common lie of the enemy. Let me be clear, depression is real and it is also not a sign that your faith is weak. But our emotions, like depression, can lie to us. Depression can cloud our thinking like a fog that hides what is true from us. But the Lord reveals what is true. God shares the truth with Elijah that he is not alone. He had never been alone; he just couldn’t see everyone who was with him.

And maybe depression has told you the same lie? That everything is hopeless, that you alone are suffering, and that you are completely alone. No one else cares, and maybe it would even be better to be dead. God’s message to Elijah is the same for us.

We too are never alone. God is working in our lives and in our world, even if we cannot always see it. Sometimes it is dramatic like fire, but often it is not dramatic. Often it is the still small voice of the Lord with us in our weakness, with us when we are completely powerless. His message for Elijah is that now is not the time to give up, and we should not give up either.

So, what is Elijah’s response to this truth? He leaves the mountain and continues to serve the Lord. Elijah finds Elisha exactly where the Lord said he would. Elisha joins Elijah, and everything unfolds according to the will and power of the Lord, with Ahab and Jezebel eventually defeated.

So, what is the lesson for us? That the Lord’s power provides everything we need, especially when we’re at our weakest. The Lord’s power is shown in Elijah’s weakness. He perfectly provides for Elijah’s physical and emotional needs. The Lord reaches Elijah perfectly in the depths of his depression. God shares true hope in a way that Elijah not only understands but also transforms his heart.

God’s Word declares that Adonai is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The same God who worked His power through Elijah’s weakness can work His power through ours. He can give us strength, wisdom, and hope in the face of our suffering. He can do more than we can imagine, more than Elijah could imagine. Elijah couldn’t imagine 7,000 faithful Israelites, but they were already there.

I do not know what season you are in this morning. Maybe you are in the victory of chapter 18, experiencing closeness with God. Maybe you are in chapter 19, with someone wanting to see you suffer, a boss, a family member, your own thoughts, or the enemy himself. Maybe you are feeling like Elijah under the tree, hopeless, exhausted, and wondering why you should even go on.

If that is you, then hear the word of the Lord: you are not alone. You have never been alone. The Lord has people you cannot see, perhaps people around you today. And Adonai has not given up on you. He is faithful to His promises.

We must reject the lies that cloud our judgment and embrace the full truth of God found in His Word. The Good News is that Messiah Yeshua died for your sins and mine. So that we would not die in hopelessness, but live forever surrounded by the community of the Lord. Which let me tell you numbers much more than 7000.

As we finish, let me make one important final point. If you are struggling this morning, please reach out. Talk to me or talk to one of our Elders. Talk to a friend you trust in the Lord. Wherever you are today on your journey through life, you do not have to walk alone. Because the truth is, God has been with you the entire time, and there is a remnant of those who also walk with the Lord. Those who want to walk beside you. This is the power of God, providing us with the community we need for the mountaintops and the valleys of our lives.

May the Lord’s power be shown in every season of our lives. May each of us experience His perfect, gentle, and truthful power when we are at our lowest. May we believe in our hearts that when we are weak, He is strong.