August 11, 2024 1 Kings 19:1-8
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who loves you with his very life. Amen.
It’s not every year that the text for Sunday is one of the stories that we shared with the kids at VBS last week, but that’s how it is today! Last Sunday, on the first night of VBS we were able to share with the kids how God is a friend who’s real. We did this by looking at the story of Elijah as he had his “competition” with the prophets of Baal.
Allow me to quickly tell you the story. Don’t worry, I won’t make you run around the room and dig trenches and fetch water like the kids did last week. Back in the days of the kings of Israel, much of the kingdom had followed their king, Ahaz, and his wife, Jezebel, in their worship of the false god Baal. In fact, the wicked queen had persuaded her husband to put to death priests and prophets of the true God.
Elijah was one of the few left. So he challenged the prophets of baal to a duel. Winner takes all. They went to the top of a mountain and prepared altars and sacrifices. Which ever God sent fire from heaven to burn up the sacrifice, won, proving he was real. The day started out and for hours and hours the false prophets prayed to their false god, and unsurprisingly, nothing happened. They just kinda stared at the altar all day and nothing happened. They tried lots of ways to get baals attention, but nothing worked. After a while, Elijah joins the fun and starts openly mocking them.
Once they give up, Elijah digs a trench around his altar. He covers the sacrifice with bunches of gallons of water, enough water that the runoff fills up the trench, and he says one prayer. Just one, and God sends a blast of fire from heaven. Picture this, like, beam of lightning just coming down and flowing into the altar. Not only does God burn up the sacrifice, he burns up the stone altar, he burns off the water in the trench, and all that’s left is this smoldering crater.
It’s pretty clear who the real God is. The people gathered see this too. And they chase after the false prophets and “put them to the sword” if you know, you know. And over 100 false prophets die.
The wicked queen hears of this, apparently she wasn’t there, and she sends a message to Elijah. That’s where our text picks up today. This is what she says, “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.” Now, God is a friend who’s real, “Thanks God!”
Put yourself in Elijah’s shoes. What would you do? You just saw God send fire down from heaven and destroy the altar, lead the people into destroying the false prophets, and now you get hate mail, what do you do? Well, Elijah ran, he ran away and hid.
And, like, I resonate with what he says. He goes into the wilderness, goes into the desert a days journey, finds this shrubby tree thing, and he lays down and says, “I’m done, I’ve had enough. I can’t do this anymore. I’m so done.” Just this language of exhaustion and being overwhelmed, and anxiety, it’s all there. I’m done he says, I'm done. Lord, take me home to heaven, I’m done.
And I think that we have all been there. We’ve all had the “I’m done” moments. Sometimes they even come after something amazing happens to us. When was the last time it happened to you? I saw a post on the internet following the storms last week and it was a picture of snow, of downtown being, just buried in snow, probably from the Halloween blizzard, and it was like, “well we have this to look forward to. “I’m so done with snow” and it’s like, August.
Or maybe you had a long day at work. The boss was riding you pretty hard about something or another. You get in your car to go home and that light flashes on the dash, time for gas! And so you sit and try to figure if you have enough fuel to get home or not. And when you finally get home, there is dinner to make, dishes to do, kids to play with, a dog to walk, a cat to ignore you, bills to pay, and a million other things. I’m done, I’m so done.
Or maybe your sick, or a loved one is sick. It’s not the first time and this time it’s looking like it’s going to be a long road to recovery: I’m done. I’m done.
And so God sent a messenger to Elijah, verse 7, “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.” God knew Elijah’s distress. He knew how hard the journey was and how hard it would get in the days and weeks to come. And he came down in compassion. Get some rest he says. Have some food. It is too much for you, but not for me. I will sustain you. I will comfort you. I will be with you. I will not abandon you to Jezebel. And God goes with him. This meal lasts him and sustains him for 40 days on his journey.
And God comes to you too. Not a messenger, but through his Son. As the author of Hebrews writes, “In many and various ways God spoke to his people of old by the prophets, but now in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son.”
Jesus comes to you and says in the midst of your feelings of overwhelmed and flooded, of anxieties and fears, he comes to you and says, “You’re right. It is too much for you. But not for me. Cast your burdens on me. Come to me all of you who are weary and heaven laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
This is more than and empty saying or a metaphor. This is God speaking comfort to you, words that can change you and sustain you. What burdens do we have when we are in Jesus? Not very many, for Jesus comes to bring peace, forgiveness and life everlasting with him, his father, and the holy ghost in paradise.
And he gives us food for the journey. Today we will share in that food again, the true bread come down from heaven. Bread that sustains in our journey. Bread that brings comfort and hope. The very bread of life. Take and eat. Jesus says to you. Take and eat. Be filled and restored. The journey is too much for you. I will come with you. It’s my journey too. I am with you. I will guide you. I will bring you to life everlasting.
To be sure, while we aren’t fighting against false prophets of Baal, we stand against other false prophets. There are false religions and other ideologies that stand against what the Bible teaches us. And it can certainly be draining to stand for what God teaches us. But we aren't alone. God is a friend who’s real! Sometimes we will want to run and hide, run to the wilderness away from everyone, from society, from people who are so attached and devoted to their false gods that they would do us harm.
But you are not alone. God is with you. He will always be with you. God is here giving you a meal to strengthen you and he goes with you every step of the way. And the Lord will bless your coming in and your going out from this time forward and forevermore. Amen.
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