M-G: 6.28.14 // What Are You Doing Here, 1 Kings 19:9, Part 11 of 17

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I think Elijah, coming into Samaria to deal with this whole Baal mess, thought that there was going to be some major house cleaning from God in the Northern Kingdom. The prophets of Baal were slain and that was just for starters, but it looked as if God let Ahab off the hook by repentance of convenience, and Elijah was not aware of any plans in the foreseeable future to address Jezebel’s sins against Yahweh. She was the very culture that allowed this Baal bacterium to rapidly grow and propagate. Their death, at that time, in conjunction with idol worship, probably would have created a chaotic, volatile, and dangerous political vacuum, but their time was coming. For Elijah, the deaths of Ahab and Jezebel could not come quick enough!

The people were covenant-breakers, the altars were desecrated, the prophets of Yahweh were massacred by the hands of Jezebel, and why in the world did God allow the notorious and nefarious Ahab and Jezebel to come out of this still breathing with only their pride and purse taking a hit? I think Elijah did not agree with Yahweh on this outcome before he ever reached Jezreel. 

Elijah's eyes were already going horizontal, and here he was, arriving before King Ahab at the entrance of Jezreel ahead of the rain as if this very wicked ruler was worthy of this symbolic gesture from Yahweh (1 Kgs 18:46). Elijah could have very well taken his eyes off the LORD at this juncture. He really didn’t agree with the LORD on this move though nothing is mentioned in Scripture. Remember, he gave the same answer twice on Mt Horeb! His answer came across as emphatic, contentious, and bordered on questioning the sovereignty of God in these matters.

“I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life” (1 Kgs 19:10, 14, emphasis mine).

God never responded to these reasons because Elijah was giving why answers to a what question – “What are you doing here, Elijah.” When asked again, he gave the same answer indicating that this was his official stance. This is how he truly felt about the situation in Samaria as a prophet of Yahweh sent to the Northern Kingdom. Notice how he described his level of service to the LORD, “I have been very zealous.” On a scale of cold to hot, he was very hot, in more ways than one. The verb “zealous,” depending on the context, can mean to be jealous, envious, or zealous. It expresses “a strong emotion in which the subject is desirous of some aspect or possession of the object” (The Complete Word Study Dictionary, Zodhiates). Elijah had been very zealous on behalf of God. He cared.

His answer started out with “I have been very zealous” and ended with “they seek to take my life.” It comes across as “I cared and this is where it got me?” This answer to Yahweh’s question is latent with implications. It could be perceived in some manner as accusative in nature. “I went on this mission for You and nothing came of it except for people wanting to kill me. The circumstances brought me here; it wasn’t by choice; You are God! What are You going to do about it? I sought spiritual reformation on Your behalf but ended up running for my life because I feared You were not going to protect me from Jezebel.” Recall, I warned you early on that I was going to be tough on Elijah? Except for his taking responsibility, while under the broom tree, for failing, it almost appears that he is coming across as a victim, not a volunteer of having fled the scene if my speculation on Elijah’s attitude is correct.

Note the negative actions reported, “forsaken,” “torn down,”  “killed,” and “seek to take.” Elijah felt he was sent into Samaria on Yahweh’s behalf to reestablish compliance with the Law, true worship, and respect for the prophets of Yahweh. Notice the three usages of “Your” in his answer: “Your covenant,” “Your altars,” and “Your prophets.” “I” sticks out like a sore thumb, “I alone am left.” He is the only one remaining with any kind of zeal for the LORD God of hosts in the Northern Kingdom! And here is the worst part of being the last man standing, “they seek to take my life!” “Hey, LORD, once I’m gone who do you have?” Are you tracking?

Sometimes we ascribe to others our own value and importance in kingdom matters with heavy usage of the personal pronoun “I,” don’t we! We are all important, but none of us are indispensable. He may have thought, “I did my part; so why didn’t God do His part and protect me from the likes of Jezebel to carry out the mission (Maybe Elijah didn’t give Him a chance, duh!)? When God sends us into the fray, it is not only for the benefit of others but also for our faith to be stretched for growth for His glory. No one arrives spiritually, not even a spiritual giant like Elijah. If we are not careful, we start challenging God’s Sovereign right when things don’t go like we think they should. How could a God of love and justice (1) go too far, (2) not go far enough, or (3) do nothing?

Admittedly, I am reading into this, but the threat on Elijah’s life was the capstone of giving up on any notion of reformation in the Northern Kingdom; after all, he thought he was the only true prophet of Yahweh remaining in the Northern Kingdom – “I alone am left;” he said as much thrice (1 Kgs 18:22; 19:10, 14). With everything else that had transpired, I think the threat to his life totally blindsided him and caught him off guard. 

He had experienced God’s protection all along up to this point. He never anticipated that Yahweh would allow this to happen to him, the “last” prophet of Yahweh (cf. 1 Kgs 18:22); it was unthinkable, untenable, irrational! This was a striking blow to his confidence and very disturbing! From his vantage point, it was a hopeless situation now; the bad guys win, and they are coming after him. He decided if he hung around his name would be included on the list of Yahweh’s prophets killed by the hand of Jezebel. The LORD God of hosts allowed all of this to happen! And now, the prophets of Yahweh were on the verge of “extinction!” Elijah didn’t let the door hit him on the way out.

When we take our eyes off the LORD nobody can see that; it is a spiritual condition of the heart that only the LORD can see (Jer 17:9, 10). What we do see is the behavior of taking the eyes off the LORD. Elijah’s flight into the desert makes sense on the surface. We wouldn’t know it was the wrong thing for him to do until he got to Mt Horeb and got the question twice! At that moment to run or stay, he took matters into his own hands and made the decision to leave. It looked as if Jezebel might make good on her threat. He headed on out of there because He didn’t think God was going to protect him from her goons; Yahweh had let her off the hook or so it seemed. There was a trust issue.

When our trust in Yahweh becomes an issue our vision goes like a falling tree from vertical to horizontal. Elijah’s tree fell in the direction of Beersheba! When a worldview goes flat from vertical to horizontal, living above the sun to living under the sun, eternal to temporal, it is because we have taken our eyes off God. Now we are running on our authority, not His. It usually is the result of being circumstance-oriented. When our eyes are off the LORD trust issues inevitably come into play. Whenever we are catapulted into an undesirable circumstance (by Divine providence of course), the condition of our heart is revealed. If we become self-aware and make the proper adjustments, unlike the tree that had fallen, we can return to being upright! The tree was pointing toward Beersheba; Elijah fell that way.

“Elijah had a trust problem? Poppycock!” You say. Yeah, he did. Ahab and Jezebel were still at the helm in the Northern Kingdom. Again, he became the number one most wanted man in the kingdom. Surely, Ahab had realized Yahweh was God on Mt Carmel? A blind man could pick up on that! He was henpecked by the most wicked woman in all of the Bible. You might complain, “Well, I don’t read anywhere in the Bible that Elijah had any trust issues; so you are just making this up!” You would be correct; we will not read in the Bible that Elijah had a trust issue, but the fact remains he ran for his life, and the LORD questioned him on it. Yes, there was a spiritual issue of trust; it’s called sin.

I realize none of us had done this kind of thing, but let’s theorize that we did. Suppose that we had found ourselves catapulted into a circumstance that took hold of us, refusing to release its grip, and keeping our undivided attention pinned against the wall? We didn’t know whether to run or crawl, stand or sit, talk or just be silent, go forward or backward, fight or flee. It became so relentless that we eventually succumbed to the pressure and took matters into our own hands rather than waiting on the LORD, and we regretted that decision ever since. 

Now, if we had to do it all over again, we would have done things differently, yes? Has that ever happened to you? We’ve all been there; you know! The fundamental problem was trust and still is (Prov 3:5-6). If Elijah had already taken his eyes off the LORD before getting the death note, what is driving that behavior? Will pause on that and look at the way the Apostle Paul interpreted Elijah’s answer to Yahweh. 

We gain some insight as to the intensity of Elijah’s answer to Yahweh on Horeb from the New Testament. Paul stated that Elijah “pleads with God against Israel” (Rom 11:2, emphasis mine). Elijah is not a happy camper with Ahab, Jezebel, and the Northern Kingdom. And I'm thinking he doesn't like the outcome of his visit to Samaria. This series is not about Elijah; he’s in heaven and what a great man of God he was while on earth! It’s about us! This story is for us (Rom 15:4); we should never forget that. We all have heart issues; trust is only one of many issues; issues start with the letter I, yes? What we are about to see next is what I believe to be the real driver behind taking our eyes off Yahweh.

I’ve hinted a time or two, but you may not have picked up on it for I avoided developing it. It is so obvious that when you read it you might even say, “I knew that!” It’s sin for sure, but it is another way of saying it and gaining a deeper perspective on when we decide to see things from a horizontal point of view. I believe that we really relate to that word and not just negatively like the word sin. Oh, I am not suggesting this word as a replacement for the word sin! God forbid! It is sin when we do this thing, but the word is insightful in helping us to understand living a purposeful life for the LORD.

As I said way back in the beginning, there are no blessings to be found in being in the wrong place, none whatsoever. But the question you have to ask yourself when I finally let the cat out of the bag is this; would you have understood it that way if I had not told you? If, and this is a big, if, we put this mysterious word at the forefront of our consciousness in the daily routines of life, might it serve to make us more aware when we are heading toward a tree falling event of taking our eyes off the LORD? It just may buy us enough time to slam on the brakes of doing a foolish thing and keeping our mindset in a vertical orientation in spite of the circumstances. The blessing is being in the right place, serving a purpose in the will of God, and not winding up in the wrong place serving no purpose outside the will of God. “What are you doing here, _______?” <><

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