Christopher Wright
Elijah was a godly man of God used by God mightily. In looking at his example, one sees the experiences of brokenness, depression, despair and failure. At the same time, one also sees the personal way that God met them where they are.
This abridged version of the Bible study was delivered during the Korean Global Mission Leadership Forum by Dr. Christopher Wright and documented in Bonk, J.J., Jennings, J.N.,Kim, J., & Lee, J.H. (Eds.). (2019). Missionaries, Mental Health and Accountability Support Systems in Churches and Agencies Willan Carey Publishing. It is republished with permission given by the author on the occasion of the World Mental Health day. May we all be encouraged by the story of Elijah.
Let us meet Elijah. The story of his collapse and restoration can be read in 1 Kings 19. It comes as quite a surprise to us as readers. For, in 1 Kings 18, we see Elijah at the pinnacle of his ministry. There he is on Mt. Carmel taking on the whole army of the prophets of Baal single-handedly in the name of the living God of Israel, and achieving a stunning, fiery victory. We see a man in the prime of his strength and the peak of his success as a prophet of the true God. It is a high point of his mission, in leading a national turning back to Yahweh by the whole people, and it is a personal vindication by God of his calling and ministry. But here in chapter 19, we find what seems like a different man altogether. Here he is in the depths of suicidal despair, defeat and fear, literally running for his life and actually praying to die. Let us consider first the ingredients of Elijah’s despair and, then, the ingredients of God’s therapy.
A. THE INGREDIENTS OF ELIJAH’S DEPRESSION
Emotional factors
Shock (vv 1-20). After Mt. Carmel, Elijah probably had high expectations. Such a signal defeat of the god Baal must surely lead to a full-blown national revival. After all, the people had shouted out for hours, “The Lord, he is God!” Elijah himself had been vindicated. Elijah was back. Instead, the next day, he received news of this terrible threat to his life from Queen Jezebel. It must have been a severe and unexpected shock, going from being the hero of the moment to being a wanted man with a death-threat hanging over him. It was the ruin of all his hopes and plans. What if he did get killed? Who, then, would carry on the essential mission to bring the people back to the Lord?
Fear (v. 3a). This too is unexpected. We think of Elijah as an incredibly courageous man – a man who could walk into the palace of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel and announce God’s judgment on them and their whole system of government (and walk out again alive!), a man who could survive in solitary hiding for months, fed by the miraculous generosity of ravens. Yet, here he drops into the very opposite: “Elijah was afraid and ran for his life!” Whatever plans he had been considering, whatever God had told him to do next, whatever the next phase of his mission was supposed to have been – he dropped it all and ran away in sheer panic.
Satanic attack. Now this is not mentioned explicitly of course. However, the worship of Baal and the whole system of Canaanite idolatry was unquestionably bound up with the work of the one whom the Bible calls the devil or Satan. Its worship of nature, its immorality and sexual depravity, its callous oppression and injustice (as typified in the behavior of Jezebel) – all these things bear the fingerprints of the dark kingdom of the evil one. And Elijah had challenged it! Elijah had made a laughing stock of Baal and his prophets. He had taunted the futility of Baal’s claim to be some kind of god. He insisted that the law of Deuteronomy 13:1-5 should be carried out: that false prophets who led the people away from the worship of their living, redeemer God should be executed. And Satan fought back. Satan is a defeated enemy but never accepts defeat (until the time he will finally be destroyed).
Physical factors
Isolation (v 3b). Perhaps it was out of kindness to his servant that Elijah left him behind at Beersheba. Perhaps it was just that his emotional state was such that he needed to get away from all human company. Perhaps it was to spare his servant’s life, in case Elijah got caught. We do not really know, but the result was that Elijah was on his own in his present frame of mind, his isolation became in insidious thing.
Exhaustion (vv 4-5). Just think for a moment of that long, tense day on Mt. Carmel, followed by his marathon run to Jezreel (18:46). Then, immediately, he decides to head south to Beersheba, which is in the extreme south of Judah. He spends yet another whole day of lonely hiking farther into the wilderness in the scorching heat. We do not hear of him taking any food or drink in this whole time. The man was physically shattered. In such circumstances, with the added fear for his life at the hands of Jezebel’s possibly pursuing thugs, it is not at all surprising that Elijah sinks into deep despair.
Psychological factors
A “total-failure” complex (v. 4b). Read between the lines of what Elijah says to God. “I’ve had enough, LORD. I’ve done everything I can, and it’s no use. Nothing has changed. I’m getting nowhere, in spite of what seemed like a great success. I’m a failure after all. And your mission is a failure too. Indeed, I’m not better than all the rest of the people for generations now. I’m no better than the people I condemn. So, I give up. You might as well let me die now, for all the good I’m doing. If you really love me, shoot me!”
Distortion of the facts (vv. 10, 14). Look at what Elijah says, and compare it with the real situation. He is selective and partial on some facts. For example, he makes much of his own zeal for the Lord. But there were others too who had not been unfaithful to Yahweh, and he not only knew it, he had met some of them, such as Obadiah (18:1-15).
Here, then, is another frequent ingredient in spiritual depression among hard-pressed, exhausted servants of God. We see only part of the whole picture – and usually the worst part. We make a wrong selection of facts, or we twist and exaggerate some facts. We get things out of perspective or out of proportion. What we think and say and imagine may well have elements of truth – but not the whole truth. And when we sink into that bog of damaging and depressing thoughts, sometimes God has to take us aside and bring us back to his view of reality – which is what God eventually did with Elijah.
Spiritual factors
Failure to believe God’s answer to his prayer. On Mt. Carmel, Elijah had prayed that God would give unmistakable proof that “these people will know that you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again” (18:37).
In other words, he wanted unmistakable evidence of national repentance. And that proof had come with the shouts of the people when the fire of the Lord fell on the restored altar and the sacrifice: “The LORD (not Baal!) – He is God.” Over and over again those words had rung in Elijah’s ears. But now, in his depression and fear, he cannot even believe that it had really happened or that they had really meant it. His complaint in verse 10 completely bypasses the events of Mt. Carmel and goes back to the state of the Israelites beforehand.
These, then, are some of the ingredients of Elijah’s depression. These were some of the things that were breaking into his relationship with God, destroying his confidence in the mission God had given him or in his own ability to carry it out.
Let us turn, with relief, to the Master Therapist – God the healer at work. How did God deal with his exhausted, despairing suicidal servant?
B. INGREDIENTS OF THE DIVINE THERAPY
God gives him sleep, food, and drink (vv.5-7)
God meets Elijah at the point of his most pressing and urgent need – his physical exhaustion, hunger, and thirst. God did not turn up demanding a serious spiritual counseling session. God did not rebuke him, call him out as a failure, or tell him to turn around and get back to work. On the contrary, not just once but twice, God refreshed Elijah with the gift of sleep and the provision of food and drink.
God had provided for Elijah in the days of his obedience. But now, here he is running away from his mission in disobedience and despair – and at such a time as that, God sends him an angel with fresh baked bread and a jar of clean, cold water. What a tender touch! Here is God effectively mothering his servant. We may notice with regret that there is no mention of Elijah saying even a word of thanks. He just ate, drank, and went back to sleep! And God let him. For that was his greatest need at that moment. It may well be yours too. If so, receive God’s permission, and let him care for you as his beloved in the simplest gifts of his grace – sleep, food, and drink.
God takes him back to the roots of his faith and his mission (vv. 8-9)
Refreshed by the sleep and food, Elijah sets off for Mt. Horeb, or Mt. Sinai (it was just an alternative name for the same place). That was another long journey farther south. But why did God take him to Sinai? Well, because it was a very appropriate place for God to put Elijah together again and restore him to his mission.
Sinai was the place where God had revealed himself to his people, with great power and many signs.
Sinai was, in a sense, the birthplace of Israel as a redeemed people with a mission for God, in relation to God’s ultimate purpose to bring a blessing to all nations on earth. For that reason, then, it was also the starting point of the mission of Elijah himself, since God had sent him precisely in order to bring Israel back to their true identity and mission and to their calling to worship Yahweh alone as their God. Israel itself needed to return to the God of Sinai.
So, God brings Elijah back to Sinai, as if to say, “This is where you need to see things afresh. This is where you need to remember who I am, the Lord God of Israel, the I AM WHO I AM God. This is where you need to see your own people from my perspective and to understand my purpose for them, and through them, for all nations. This is where you need to see your own calling to as my prophet, in the light of what happened at this place centuries ago through my servant, the prophet Moses. Stand here with me, as he did. Let’s get back to the fundamental truths that were revealed here. Let’s get back to basics, Elijah.”
Sometimes this is also what depressed and broken Christians need to do, especially those called into frontline work in ministry and mission. Go back, with God. Perhaps go back to the Mount of Ascension, to hear again the authoritative words of Jesus, “All authority in heaven and earth is given to me, so go and make disciples…” Certainly, go back to those words of promise, spoken by God and then Jesus to so many of his servants, “Look, I am with you.” Perhaps go back to that point in your own life where you heard that specific calling of God to the work he has given you to do, and hear again the words that he spoke to you then, the vision he laid on your heart, the Scriptures that confirmed it in your mind, and the encouragement that you received from other believers.
God questions his behavior in the light of his mission (vv. 9, 13)
Only when he has got Elijah back to Sinai does God begin the real probing work of healing Elijah’s depression and restoring him to service. And God does so in a typically surprising way. We can be sure that Elijah was very familiar with the stories of what happened at Mt. Sinai and how God came down there with spectacular cosmic and creational effects (read Exodus 19). So, the God of Sinai lived up to his reputation and put on quite a nice show – wind, earthquake, and fire, such as Moses of old had witnessed. But “the Lord was not in” any of those phenomena. So, clearly God was not trying to scare Elijah back to work. God can certainly use and speak through such natural forces, but God has other ways of speaking also. The God of Sinai can be as quiet as “a gentle whisper” (though I do prefer the old translation, “a still small voice”).
But a whisper can be as penetrating as a thundering shout, when it is God asking the questions (which God is accustomed to doing rather often – starting in the third chapter of the Bible). So it is here: into Elijah’s brokenness, depression, fear, and negative self-pitying thoughts, God drops this persistent question. God forces Elijah to explain his behavior, in the light of the mission God had given him.
“What are you doing here, Elijah?” Every word counts.
It is a somewhat mysterious, probing, searching question. It may hold some implied rebuke, but mainly it seems to be inviting Elijah to explain himself, to articulate the thoughts in his mind. At least, that is how Elijah took it, for twice over he trots out his reason in verses 10 and 14 – without much apparent change of mood. But the question simply bounces back after the first time, and somehow Elijah’s mere repetition of his complaint sounds less convincing the second time around. Did he realize that himself? Did he get tired of playing the tape over and over again?
Sometimes this is how God deals with us also. Sometimes he uses the gentle rebuke, coupled with a question that allows us the freedom to express our inner thoughts (liked a skilled counselor). For sometimes it is only when God gets those thoughts out into the open, when we are willing to speak them aloud rather than burying them in the echo chamber of our internal conversation with ourselves, that God can break through that vicious cycle of repetitive complaint and negative thinking. But God does it so gently, in a gentle whisper. “What is all this about, my child? What are you doing in this place of in this mood? What happened to the task I gave you? Where is that clarity of vision and mission you once had?
God sends him back on his mission with reassurance (vv. 15-18)
God did not drop Elijah from his service just because of this collapse and failure. God puts Elijah back together again and sends him back to work. In fact, he sends him back with an even greater mission than the first (that is also typical of God). God gives Elijah three specific new tasks to accomplish – in relation to the international scene, the next phase of Israel’s history, and Elijah’s own successor. Each of the three anointings he was to perform would play a part in God’s plans for the purification of his people. It would be a ministry of judgment, for sure, but that in itself meant that God’s plans for Israel would continue. There would be purging but not total obliteration. God was preserving a faithful remnant.
And so, refreshed, rebuked, recommissioned, and reassured – Elijah sets off on the long road back to his mission for the living God.
And Elijah’s mission goes on, for Elijah’s God is our God – the God who centuries later, would send another “Elisha” – Jesus, whose name means the same, “The Lord is Salvation.” It is this God who knows our every weakness, who meets us in our frailty and sometimes in our failure and defeat, and who gently refreshes, restores, and reassures us too, with fresh work to do for him.
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