Morning Service, 6 September 2009
A survey in WWII of 4,000 air crew about their feelings before a flight showed that the top six symptoms experienced were: a pounding of the heart; muscular tension; easily irritated or angry; dryness of mouth; perspiration; and butterflies in the stomach. The brain was causing hormones to be released in order to prepare them physically to deal with what they knew was a life-threatening situation.
Interestingly these are exactly the same symptoms described by those suffering stage fright. They are the symptoms of fear, which we all know all too well.
What are you afraid of? I can ask that question with confidence that you will have at least one but likely more than one response you could give.
Fear is an emotional reaction to imminent danger. It is not always bad or sinful. God gave us the capacity to fear for good reasons: to preserve us and others from injury; to develop a reverential attitude to Him; to develop in us faith and courage.
But since the Fall of Adam fear often finds sinful roots and sinful excesses. So the first evidence of sin in Adam and Eve was “fear” towards each other shown by clothing themselves; and then answering God’s searching question Adam said that when he heard Him coming “I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” Sin lies as the cause and expression of much of the fear we know.
And that is what we see unfolding here, Elijah the mighty prophet overcome and crippled by sinful fear, becoming but the shadow of the man we have seen.
Elijah comes down from Mt Carmel, no doubt full of confidence and anticipation, having been at the centre of God’s display of His glory, holiness and mercy. He enters the city ahead of Ahab as God’s representative fresh with the air of God’s victory, but suddenly he runs with the smell of fear.
We turn from “the hand of the Lord was upon him” to “he…ran for his life”; from seeing the prophet at his best, but now seeing him at his worst. There he had been strong in faith and the helper of his people, but here he is filled with fear and is the deserter of his nation. He had confronted 850 servants of Baal undaunted, but now he is panic stricken at the threats of one woman, indeed one woman whose hold over the people was severely broken by God’s self-revelation before them on Mt Carmel. From praying that the Lord would vindicate and glorify His great Name, here he begs Him to take away his life.
Who would have imagined such a tragic sequel? Even so it is not the stuff of Hollywood, but is true to life as all believers know to some degree. And that is why, though saddened for Elijah and its impact on the testimony he bore to God, yet I am thankful, shamefully so but thankful nonetheless that it is recorded here, for I too know something of the power of sinful fear once it has been given its head. As a result though this is a very sad chapter in the life of Elijah, it is one of the most helpful to believers in every age, indeed not only in understanding and battling fear, but also that to which this fear then led, depression.
What had happened? Two things we are told.
We are told firstly of Ahab that he had not changed in the least. In his report to Jezebel we see he is still addicted to his false religion for he speaks of “all the prophets, indicating as M Henry points out that he rejected all others. He was still holding on to these to be the true messengers of heaven. But even more, he gives no credit to God, not even referring to God at all. Neither the judgement of fire nor the blessing of rain had affected him at all. Instead it points to Elijah, attributes it all to him. He had seen enough to not take direct action himself against Elijah, but enmity still ruled his heart and so he stirs up Jezebel to make her an instrument to attack Elijah.
Secondly we are told that Jezebel was indeed stirred up with contempt and a violent rage against Elijah! But why did she give him 24 hours warning? Clearly she was afraid to put him to death because of the people who had responded under his ministry. So if she couldn’t kill Elijah she would get rid of him. So she threatened him with the hope that he would flee, which is what he did.
What contributed to this dramatic reversal in Elijah, this fear and resultant disobedience and even despondency with suicidal desire? I would suggest 3 things contributed to Elijah’s situation:
1. unclear vision
Elijah looked at the intimidation with clouded vision. He stopped looking at it in the way he had till then, in the light of God and His sovereign purpose.
How should Elijah have seen and responded to that threat?
a. He should’ve realised the state of a sinner’s heart and therefore not been surprised by her reaction despite the obvious display of God’s power and glory. This is a point we ought not to forget ourselves, we should not underestimate the hold sin has on the sinner. Yet how often we forget that sinners are not moved as believers are by evidences of God’s gracious dealings with us.
b. He should’ve seen the over-ruling hand of God even in the threat. He had the practical knowledge of this continually in his ministry until then, and he should have God’s over-ruling hand in the fact that Jezebel did not send her servants to kill him straight away, but only gave him a warning – thereby giving him time to get away? He should’ve seen that God was restraining and controlling her. We do well to remember this truth and discern the evidences of it.
c. He should’ve looked for a word from God as to what to do next. Had not God faithfully guided him? But now he relied instead on his own instincts. It is not the fleeing and isolating himself from danger that was the problem. He had done that before – but he was the servant of God and that had been done at God’s command. He did not wait to receive his next set of orders. How we need to act by the principles of God’s Word instead of being governed by instinct or human wisdom, let alone feelings and instinct.
As a result of his blurred vision and his failure to think in the light of what God had been teaching him so far, Elijah panicked in unbelief and gave no thought to God. But for God it would have destroyed him, and in the meantime it certainly robbed him of usefulness in what seemed to be a critical time, a time to capitalise on the new allegiance of the people – but where is their leader, their voice before Jezebel? Twice God indicates to Elijah that this flight was sinful (v.9, 13), asking him what was he doing there – probing his conscience as to where he should’ve been. How often have we found ourselves away from gospel usefulness because we have run from our post? Fear is one of the major causes for disobedience among Christians. The antidote to fear is faith.
2. unnoticed traps
We are not told these things so that we can hide behind them, but so that take note of the danger signals and seek to avoid falling into the same failures.
There is a warning to us all here, and needs to be learnt by young Christians and remembered by mature ones: victory always makes us vulnerable. As Paul points out “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor 10:12). The Christian is so vulnerable at the very point he thinks he is the strongest. The enemy of our souls has a special design in producing in us a false sense of security so that he may assail and defeat you in the very point in which you think yourself to be impregnable. Look for his traps!
Here I see four such traps identified
a. exhaustion. He had been under great physical strain not to mention the emotional strain involved in what he did on Mt Carmel. Now the tension is suddenly relaxed. The lesson is the need to look after our bodies and minds, that the inner life is very sensitive to outer conditions.
b. presumption. It appears that Elijah in the light of the people’s response expected a total and widespread reformation. But by this message that hope was completely shattered. How often in times of blessing, as also in trials, we make assumptions as to what God is doing or about to do, only to be surprised by God’s different plan. Spiritual success can lead us into reading into God’s plans our own. In our spiritual excitement there is the trap of running ahead of God.
c. spiritual myopia. Instead of looking at God he looked only at the circumstances, evidencing a spiritual short-sightedness. Till then his vision had been filled with God’s glory and majesty. Suddenly he only saw Jezebel’s burning anger, and his perspective is totally distorted. Don’t we know something of this tendency? Like Peter we find ourselves looking at the ‘wave’ instead of our Lord.
d. Reactionism. He gave himself no time to think, but acted on the spur of the moment, without serious thought to his actions or its consequences, let alone if this is what God would have him do. We do things spontaneously, justifying it under feeling led by the Spirit (which of course gives other Christians little if any room to question or stop it). We must take time and turn to God and His Word.
3. unrealised dependence
What is missing here that we have seen elsewhere, up to this point? His dependence upon God. Up to this point he did not act without God, and when he did act he clearly depended on God. He was a man of faith and that linked him to God in a spirit of utter dependence. But that is not realised in this situation. He stands here as a mere fearful man, depending on his own wits and finding no courage.
It matters little what your history is, how mightily God has supported you in the past – if you do not look to Him in dependence in the present situation then you too will fall like Elijah. You too will be left in your mere humanity with all its emotional, physical and spiritual fragility. When you begin to rely on yourself you will find there is nothing to rely on. One by one our supposed strengths and supports will dissipate, and it will be quickly seen that they are indeed “earthen vessels” (1 Cor 4:7). Do we stand? It is only by divine grace, and that alone.
This passage then should humble us, and make us more distrustful about ourselves. It should impress upon us that our strength is only to be found in the Lord. How we should plead with the Lord in prayer to subdue any hint of pride and self-sufficiency. With the psalmist we should pray to God should be “Hold me up and then I shall be safe” (Ps 119:117).
What we are reminded here is that believers face two great enemies… from without: persecution; but the other is from within: fear, which is perhaps the more dangerous. Fear corrodes our confidence in God’s goodness and in God’s providential sovereignty. Fear also deadens our recall of God’s promises and of God’s track record.
We must learn to interpret the occasion of our fear in the light of God’s Word, God’s goodness and God’s sovereign providence. “In God (I will praise His word), in the Lord (I will praise His word), in God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid.” (Psalm 56:10-11a). “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1)
Jesus Christ is the answer to fear. To know Him, love Him, and follow Him is the ultimate solution to fear. Remember “perfect love casts our fear” (1 John 4:18) – both choosing to love God but also resting in the astounding love of God. We all know how a mother who might be afraid of snakes will find ways to overcome that fear if a snake is between her and her child and threatening it. In like fashion our love for the Lord will help us overcome our fear, but John’s point is even more striking than that as he reminds us that our love is a response to God’s love. The perfect love is not merely being filled with love for the lord but filled with amazement of the lord’s love for us from which our love for the Lord flows. This is the antidote to fear – love of God which we perceive through the eye of faith. Allow the love of Jesus push fear out, as David rightly says “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.” (Psalm 56:3). That takes faith. In the face of fear David trusted God. It was an act of faith, faith in the love of God.
In the gospels Jesus 21 times issued the imperative to us to “not be afraid” or “not fear” or “have courage” or “take heart” or “be of good cheer”. The second most common command, to love God and neighbour, appears only 8 times. On this Max Lucado comments on this observation: ‘If quantity is any indicator, Jesus takes our fears seriously. The one statement He made more than any other was this: don’t be afraid.’ Fear will always knock on your door. Just don’t invite it in. Is it in? Then show it the way out. How? Use the means God has given us to keep Jesus Christ central in our thoughts and lives: the Word, sacraments, worship, fellowship, and prayer. In this way we will be assured by the Scriptures and remember God’s love and providential care for us for Christ’s sake.
John Calvin wrote: ‘Doubt not that God has an eye on you, and that your tears and groaning are listened to by Him. For if we do not repose on His providence, the slightest distress will become an abyss to swallow us up.’
With this in mind, before we leave this sorry sight of Elijah let us remember the wider context so that we may not give up hope. While fear gripped and directed Elijah’s steps, and indeed as we will see next time that this became the root cause of spiralling depression with suicidal desires, yet we are also shown here the wonder of the continuing grace of our God.
In this think of Peter walking on the water – or rather sinking through the waves as his faith wavered. How did he get back into the boat after Jesus stopped him from sinking? I’m convinced Jesus didn’t carry him but that he walked back – on the waves. I’m equally confident that in this he kept his eyes on Jesus. Jesus was still there to encourage him. So too is God with Elijah as we will see as we return to this chapter later. The point is that to fall is not the end with Christ – for which we give Him praise! Have we stumbled? Let us return to our Lord. Amen.