Elijah Reflections, Part III

The drought ends, but Jezebel is not finished with Elijah.  He escapes to the wilderness and for quite a while is in isolation.  What we see in chapter 19 is a man in depression.  Why? 

First, total, absolute physical exhaustion.  Who wouldn’t be burned out after that experience?  Second, he trusts God in the big and stupendous but not the small.  God nourishes him with menial and unclean birds.  Ravens were associated with death.  Nothing exciting about the way he is fed.  The same is true with the widow in Zarepath—each day there is provision, but it all doesn’t come down at once.  Why should it anyway?  It would spoil—no freezers! 

The most dramatic part of the story is the poetic repetition of “And God was not in the storm, God was not in the fire, God was not in the earthquake” followed by the still, small voice.  Again, Elijah, like us, needs to learn to listen and see God in the seemingly small and daily.  God speaks all the time; we just don’t listen.

Third, we see his biggest character flaw:  self-pity.  If you read the chapters carefully, we see that repeatedly Elijah says things like, “I’m the only one,” “No one else is faithful to God.”  19:14 is the pinnacle of this feeling.    He might have been a “do it yourself” kind of guy, but that never works out in the long run.  While we all have our individual jobs to do, we do them in the context of a community, a church, a cooperative.  I’ve seen a lot of people who want to go it alone, and they may accomplish something but it doesn’t outlast them because they did not engage other people to follow their vision.

God is very kind to Elijah in this time of depression.  He does four things (15-18):

1.     Shows him that He is more likely to work in the small and quiet ways than in the big, spectacular ways.

2.    Meets his physical needs and lets him rest as long as he needs to.

3.    Gives him a job to do, including finding a successor.

4.    Assures him he is not alone, in a gentle way saying, “Get over yourself.” 

As I often say, I am reluctant to make too much out of Old Testament (or even New Testament) narratives or from character studies.  They are not to be allegorized or applied without truly understanding them in their cultural and historical context.  I know there are a lot of big-name Bible teachers (including that cute little woman from Texas) who put a lot of emphasis on character studies in their teaching, and that’s not my style.  I think we mainly have to look at what they teach about God’s character and plan and dealings with us.  And this is what I would take away from it:

·         God does not judge us for our emotional struggles.  He ministers to us and sends others to minister if we are open to it and them.  Unfortunately, God is far kinder than we are to others or to ourselves. 

·         Even in clinical depression, we still have choice, and we must not assume the condition makes us incapable of intentional choice.   Perhaps the wisest thing to do in depression, as in grief, is not to make the big choices, but to focus on the small ones that just move you forward out of the pit.  Any action/choice that focuses on another rather than oneself may be the answer. 

·         Self-pity, whether endemic or occasional, is murderous to a balanced and joyful walk.  As Nell Mohney reminds us in her column today, “I complained I had no shoes until I saw a man with no feet.”  However, the answer to self-pity is not to look at people who have it worse than you or better.  It’s to see God’s blessings in everything, in every little thing. The Bible says a lot about comparisons, whining, and self-pity, and it’s always seen as sinful.

·         Daily, intentional choice—the ability and necessity of it—defines the Christian life.

·         Dr. Phil says, “The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.”  There is some truth there (this is not a knock on Dr. Phil, bless his heart—and Southerners will appreciate that phrase “bless his heart” which has several interpretations, almost all of them boiling down to a put-down).  Anyway, Dr. Phil is half right.  But from a spiritual point of view, past successes do not protect us from future failures.  Elijah had a great victory, and then went into the pit of despair.  That is not a failure, but it does show us the past success kept him in a state of success.      I think the belief that we have had successes in the past and therefore will inevitably in the future is a form of bondage that keeps us from realistic, conscious, careful, intentional living.