Transcript
Elijah God Over gods: Elijah and Depression
Text; 1 kings 19:1-18
Intro: I enjoy watching Hallmark movies and the Great American Channel movies. One of the many reasons why I enjoy these movies is that you can depend on a solid ending. The guy and the girl kiss, and they walk off into a great life. Sometimes I will watch a Lifetime movie, and rarely will one of their movies end completely unresolved. This drives me crazy. I enjoy happy ending movies. That’s what should have happened after Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal and after his prayer; fire came down from heaven to reveal that the Lord is God. The prophets of Baal outnumbered Elijah, and God revealed his power in great glory. The people responded, saying, “The Lord, He is God!” - Elijah. As we have seen repeatedly, the author allows us to view a broader scope of Elijah’s life, and then he reveals a narrower, more private picture of Elijah’s life. Elijah should have enjoyed the victory, but instead, he experienced a spiritual attack. Today’s passage reveals Elijah’s struggle with turning inward and experiencing depression. Depression happens for many reasons: extreme discouragement in those with chemical imbalances. The passage does not address the types of depression, but it does reveal how the Lord handles Elijah’s depression.
- Set the Scene
- Elijah outran Ahab’s chariot to Jezreel in the middle of the thunderstorm. He expected a revival of the people, desiring them to rise in unified commitment to the Lord, and hopes that he’ll find Ahab in sackcloth and ashes after God has revealed His great power. Instead, he’s greeted with a threat from Jezebel. 19:2-3 Elijah goes on a wanted picture.
- Elijah’s Depression and Discouragement
- He is afraid. On the heels of God revealing fire from Heaven and killing the 850 false prophets, He is afraid of the queen. His eyes moved from God to man. 19:1-3
- He was a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel, and now he has run to Beersheba in the southern kingdom of Judah. Elijah is running away from God.
- He’s running for his life because he believed that she was in control, not because God told him to run away as God told him to go to the brook Cherith, or to Zarephath, where a widow would care for him. Elijah is in charge of his own fear.
- Only a few months after Charles Spurgeon became pastor at Park Street Chapel in London, the church experienced explosive growth. Crowds numbering 10,000 or more came to hear him in a day when churches were never that big. Spurgeon had many enemies, which is not uncommon, some said that he was a fundamentalist, a cult leader, and that churches shouldn’t be that big, etc. They attacked him in many mean-spirited ways. One day, while preaching to a vast crowd, someone came in and yelled, “Fire,” which caused a stampede, and seven people were trampled to death. This moment devastated Spurgeon, and he spiraled into a depression that some say he never got over. He would later say, “My spirits were sunken so low, that I could weep by the hour like a child and yet I knew not what I wept for.”
- Anyone can experience depression. 19:4
- God had used Elijah to speak truth to a king, call fire down from heaven, kill false prophets, and raise a boy to life; yet now he is depressed. Don’t believe that because you are a believer that you can’t get depressed. James 5:17a
- Jeremiah said he wished he had been killed in his mother’s womb, Job said his worst day was the day of his birth, as it should have never happened, and Paul’s struggle 2 Cor. 1:8.
- The last twenty years has seen a dramatic increase in the suicides of white, middle-aged men in the western half of the United States, primarily in rural areas. Poverty and isolation are key factors. The Centers for Disease Control recorded 1.5 million total attempts and 46,900 suicides nationally in 2023. White men account for 70 percent of all cases. The highest rates are in Montana, Alaska, Wyoming, New Mexico, Idaho, and Utah.
- Causes of depression
- Dealing with difficult people.
- Ahab is the most wicked king Israel had ever experienced, and his wife had just pronounced a death threat on Elijah’s life. These were challenging people.
- People are all around you.
- Physically Exhausted
- He has not slept in days and ran over 100 miles when he outran Ahab to Jezreel.
- We are physical beings and our bodies have limits that if not listened to will take us to exhaustion. We are emotional beings that if not listened to will take our bodies to shut down, and we are spiritual beings that if neglected will never know the joy that can be found in Christ. When any of these areas are out of kilter, it affects you.
- Feeling alone
- 1 Kings 18:22, 19:10, when you feel alone, or as if no one understands you, we isolate ourselves from others.
- He left his servant in Beersheba, and what he thought about being alone became more and more true.
- Feeling like a failure 19:10
- Elijah experienced a short-term victory and misunderstood it as a sign that the war had been won.
- I have been zealous for the Lord. He is a prophet called to speak truth to the people of God so that they would follow God.
- Leadership feels like a weight jacket that you can’t get off of you. Sabbatical.
- When you speak the truth and witness miracles, but they have no effect on those around you, and everyone returns to idol worship, it is discouraging.
- Dealing with difficult people.
- (Ipad) Expectations and reality rarely meet each other, and what is in the middle is pain. What do you do with that pain? Blame others, government, etc., ultimately blame God, and do you take the pain and turn it inward because when you do, you end up under a broom tree wanting to die. The pain is always worth talking to the one who took our pain of sin on the cross.
- God’s Recovery Plan for Elijah: 19:5-9
- God gave a messenger 19:5-6
- God sent an angel. Angels are always on assignment from God. They never go for casual walks.
- The angel doesn’t give a message of exhortation, saying, “Why don’t you show some faith?” But instead, it states, "Arise and eat." Notice the progression in Elijah’s life: ravens, a desperate widow, and now an angel have all fed him.
- God gave a messenger 19:5-6
- If God can make His birds to whistle in drenched and stormy darkness, if He can make His butterflies able to bear up under rain, what can He not do for the heart that trusts Him?
- We need God, is an understatement. When we are in pain, we need to turn to the Lord and experience Him. What area of pain is between your expectation and your reality that you need God to touch, to help you live in reality until He determines to change it? Ps. 34:4-5, 8
- God gave him rest. 19:5-6
- The angel gave him food so he would be prepared for the next step.
- God’s plan for Elijah was physical rest. Sometimes the godliest thing you can do is take a nap.
- The angel sent him to a place of spiritual retreat and protection. He ate a cake - Praise the Lord!
- The Lord sent Elijah to Mt. Horeb, which is also Mt. Sinai.
- Moses met with God on Mt. Sinai twice to receive the Ten Commandments and encountered God in the midst of lightning and earthquakes. Ex. 20:18-22
- Mt. Horeb/Sinai is the most important place in Israel’s history.
- This journey took 40 days and 40 nights. Elijah arrives in Mt. Horeb and is still depressed. Often, depression doesn’t go away in a moment, but it takes time.
- God gave a listening ear.
- God never asks a question because he lacks information 19:9. God asks questions so that we can express our feelings and so that He can give us information.
- Notice that in vs. 3, Elijah pushed away those closest to him, which is the worst possible thing to do.
- The Psalms include people venting to God as they express their pains and frustrations in life.
- Our emotions are not inherently good or bad; instead, they reveal what is going on in our hearts. We should always ask ourselves, "Why do I feel this way?"
- Demi Lovato has been transparent about her battles with depression and addiction. At the 2020 Grammys, Demi Lovato gave her first performance in a year and a half. In July 2018, Lovato was treated for an apparent overdose after six years of sobriety. Just four days before her overdose, she wrote the words:
I tried to talk to my piano, I tried to talk to my guitar. Talk to my imagination, Confided into alcohol. I tried and tried and tried some more, Told secrets 'til my voice was sore. Tired of empty conversation, 'Cause no one hears me anymore. A hundred million stories, And a hundred million songs. I feel stupid when I sing, Nobody's listening to me. Nobody's listening, I talk to shooting stars. But they always get it wrong, I feel stupid when I pray. So, why am I praying anyway? If nobody's listening
Viscerally she cries into the microphone:
Anyone, please send me anyone, Lord, is there anyone? I need someone, oh, Anyone, please send me anyone Lord, is there anyone?, I need someone.
- Bring people around you who will help you through your pain, even when every instinct you have tells you to be alone. 19:9
- God gave His word - in a few moments, we will address the word God gives.
- Every believer needs the word of God. The Lord gave His word, which addresses the spiritual, and don’t underestimate the connection between your spiritual life and your emotions.
- The word of the Lord came to Elijah at Mt. Horeb. 19:11 When we are where God wants us, with a heart open to hearing from Him, we will hear from Him, even if this means we do not like what we hear and are slow to listen. The word of the Lord came…
- Elijah is afraid of a crazy, evil woman after killing 850 prophets and seeing God bring fire from heaven, revealing that the Lord is God.
- Elijah knew the story of God meeting with Moses on the same mountain in the midst of thunder, lightning, and earthquake, and God’s voice was not in these elements; more importantly, Elijah had not even moved to hear from God. 19:12
- Compared to lightning, thunder, and an earthquake, God spoke to Elijah in a still, small voice, asking, “What are you doing?” 19:13
- The Lord does not always work in our lives in spectacular ways or even in the same ways he has in the past. Sometimes God works in the simple, mundane tasks of life, reminding us of His faithfulness.
- When God asks us why we are in a specific location, we probably shouldn’t be there. Think Adam and Eve.
- God gave His plan
- God sends Elijah back to work. He’s called to go back to speaking truth to those in authority, anointing new kings, and the next prophet who would replace him.
- Whatever God has called you to do, when you are done with your nap and receiving renewal from the Lord, get back to work for Him.
- Elijah has twice mentioned that he is the only one standing up for the Lord. 18:22, 19:14 The Lord reveals that Elijah is not alone and that 7,000 prophets have been faithful to him. 19:18
- For Elijah to know that he was not alone was a major source of encouragement.
- Elijah would be given Elisha to do ministry alongside for a period to time.
- Sometimes, not always, but sometimes God removes us from doing one thing for Him and gives us a new direction to address our inner pain. Always, not sometimes, always God is at work in our lives, whether we see it or not.
Conclusion: Later in life, doctors found that part of Spurgeon’s depression came from gout and some other physical issues. He decided to see depression not as the absence of God but as a word from God. He opted to use it as a source of encouragement. He once said, “I find myself frequently depressed, perhaps more so than anyone here. I find no better cure for that depression than to trust in the lord with all of my heart, and seek to realize afresh the power of the peace-seeking blood of Jesus, and his infinite love in dying upon the cross to put away all of my transgressions.”
Elijah had just witnessed God’s fire fall on Mount Carmel, yet in the very next chapter we find him weary, afraid, and deeply discouraged. In 1 Kings 19:1–18, we see that even God’s prophet wrestled with depression—but more importantly, we see how God met Elijah with compassion, rest, and renewal. Join us as we discover how the same God draws near to us in our weakness and restores us with His presence.
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