The Elijah Chronicles: All by Myself

SERIES BUILDER
The Elijah Chronicles: All by Myself
Here is our task: we must train our children. We must find our successors. Instead of greedily hanging on to power, we need to look for ways to pass our ministry on to people of every nation and generation.
Kenton C. Anderson

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When we serve God, we are part of that big thing God is doing across time to redeem the world to himself.

In 1 Kings 19 we see the passing of the torch, or in this case the mantle of leadership, from Elijah to Elisha. It follows upon Elijah's dramatic triumph on Mount Carmel over the prophets of Baal. The text is more personal, dealing with Elijah's own emotional response to the situation in Israel.

Elijah is afraid. Jezebel has threatened his life, and so now he is on the run. "Take my life," he says to the Lord, although if he were serious about that request he might just have stayed in Jezreel and let the Queen take care of that for him. But then, whether Jezebel was serious about her threat is uncertain as well; otherwise why would she give him warning? Perhaps she wanted to incite him to leave the kingdom, which he does, eventually traveling almost 500 kilometers to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Elijah is feeling sorry for himself. "I have been very zealous for the LORD," he complains. "The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too." You might want to criticize Elijah for this after all the acts of power from God that he has witnessed, but he was no different than the people of Israel who had promptly repented on Mount Carmel, but now have gone back to their old ways. Jezebel, also, ought to have repented at the sight of the miracles God did. Instead she chose to rebel. We like to think that miracles impress us, but they seldom have staying power in our lives.

God tells Elijah to stand by while he buffets the mountain with wind, earthquake, and fire. The Lord "wasn't in" any of those great forces. Instead, the Lord comes to Elijah through a gentle whisper, a still small voice. Unfortunately, the voice has little impact on Elijah, who doesn't express humility or respect, but simply repeats his earlier complaint.

You might expect that God would take Elijah out behind the heavenly woodshed to teach him something about faith. Instead, he recommissions him. Elijah is charged with the responsibility to anoint a series of successors that will honor the Lord God. God has also preserved a remnant of 7,000 faithful ones who are prepared to honor his will.

God has not left himself without a witness. Elijah obeys God and is shown anointing Elisha, who will carry on Elijah's ministry of prophecy and the affirmation of the presence and power of Yahweh in the world.

Unlike the previous chapters, this text focuses on Elijah himself. This is his pain and his frustration, coming out of the renewed threat. We get a sense of the prophet's humanity, his tendency toward depression and fear. We see familiar indications of waffling and almost irrational response. He compares himself to his fathers ("I am no better") and emphasizes his professional and personal loneliness ("I alone am left").

Jezebel shows a strong-minded determination to flaunt the power of Yahweh. Her reputation is at stake. It is a brazen thing for her to do, given all that Yahweh had just done. Of course, Yahweh is not the god of her fathers. But that matters little. She determines to kill Elijah. Somehow she is able to communicate her threat sufficiently to cause Elijah to run.

Elisha is God's answer to Elijah's complaint that he is alone in his task. Elisha will carry the mantel from here. The early chapters of Second Kings show him doing many of the same things as Elijah, raising the Shunamite's son, doing miracles with water and with a widow's jar of oil. The Naaman narrative in chapter five offers many echoes of Elijah's ministry. Elijah's throwing of the mantle over Elisha is a powerful picture of succession — of empowering the next generation of leadership.

Image: Describe a time when you felt lonely, perhaps even depressed. I chose to describe a time when I was a young student pastor in a distant rural city, feeling fearful and alone.

Story: Elijah's depression might seem irrational given his recent experiences of the power of God, yet we can probably understand how he felt. Instead of reprimanding Elijah for his lack of faith, God responds with what we recognize as common sense wisdom: he gives Elijah a job to do. The purpose of this job could be to encourage Elijah with the knowledge that, contrary to his feelings, he is not alone.

Image: Recent studies in leadership have emphasized team ministry over the old hierarchical style. It can be lonely at the top. Elijah needed to understand that this ministry was not about what he was doing but about what God was doing and that he was part of a team of many like-minded individuals who were a part of the unfolding of God's great plan.

Point: Appearances and our feelings to the contrary, God will never leave himself without a witness. God has always set aside those people who will be faithful to his call. When we are faithful to God, he will never leave us alone. Many have read this text as an encouragement to listen for the still small voice of God. In fact, the text is really about hope. God is on the job. He is working his plan. When we serve him, we are part of that big thing God is doing across time to redeem the world to himself. He will never leave us alone.

Problem: You may have heard it said that the church is always one generation away from extinction. Some believe that this could be that one last generation. The church seems to have become weak and flabby. Where once we saw ourselves as part of a nation under God, now it seems we have no memory of the God that we once served. As individuals or as churches who are striving to be faithful, it is easy for us to feel that no one else is as faithful as we are and that no one else understands or cares. And yet God continues to build his kingdom. We need to understand that the kingdom is bigger than our little circle of the world. If things don't seem promising where we are, we only need to look to other parts of the world, like Kenya or Korea, where God is raising up amazing numbers of people who will be faithful to his call.

Image: In Seoul, South Korea, every church is illumined by a small neon cross erected upon its roof. It might be a storefront church or a megachurch, but they all carry the cross. On a recent visit, I looked out the window of my hotel room and counted 36 of these red crosses, just in the limited view I had from my window. The future of the church is assured as God continues to raise up a witness for himself.

Image: One of the things I love about seminary teaching is that I get to watch students at graduation every year. We are investing in the future. Just as Elijah placed a mantle over Elisha's shoulders, we place a hood over the student's head. These students have made tremendous sacrifices to pursue their education because they have heard God's call. When I see these people pass by and when I shake their hands and say congratulations, I understand that God is still at work, preserving and promoting the kingdom that cannot fall.

Difference: Yahweh lifted Elijah from his depression by commissioning him to a task. Here is our task: we must train our children. We must find our successors. Instead of greedily hanging on to power, we need to look for ways to pass our ministry on to people of every nation and generation. This train cannot be derailed. The kingdom will come.