Walking With Christ

1 Kings 19:1-13  (1)Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.  (2)Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “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.”  (3)Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.  (4)But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree.  And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”  (5)And he lay down and slept under a broom tree.  And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.”  (6)And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water.  And he ate and drank and lay down again.  (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.”  (8)And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.  (9)There he came to a cave and lodged in it.  And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”  (10)He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts.  For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”  (11)And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.”  And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.  And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  (12)And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.  And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.  (13)And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.  And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”(ESV)

Elijah didn’t enter the wilderness because he had nothing left to do.

He entered it because fear, exhaustion, and disappointment had finally caught up with him.

Before God questioned Elijah, God allowed him to stop.

Elijah slept.  He ate.  He slept again.  He ate again.  God didn’t immediately demand productivity from a man who’d reached the end of his strength.

That matters.

Not every pause is laziness.  Not every stopped person is refusing to obey.  Sometimes the body needs rest before the mind can think clearly.  Sometimes fear must settle before the next instruction can be heard.  Sometimes a person needs enough distance from the crisis to recognize what it’s done to them.

The problem wasn’t that Elijah stopped.

The question was whether the stop had finished its work.

There’s a difference between resting in a cave and building a life inside one.

A pause can restore us.  It can also become a place where we avoid everything waiting outside.  We can become so comfortable explaining why we stopped that we never notice when the reason for remaining has expired.

This is where the question becomes uncomfortable:

What are we still doing here?

Are we recovering, or are we hiding?

Are we waiting for God, or waiting for the work to disappear?

Are we gaining strength, or simply becoming accustomed to inactivity?

Sometimes remaining is obedience.  There are delays we can’t control, wounds that need time, and seasons when God hasn’t yet released us to move.

But if we’re going to remain, we should know what remaining is accomplishing.

Elijah needed food, sleep, and shelter.  He also needed to hear from God.  The rest prepared him for the conversation, but it was never meant to replace the assignment.

The cave may have been the right place to recover.

That doesn’t make it the right place to remain.