Beyond the Noise
Have you ever played the "telephone game" where everyone sits in a circle and whispers a message from person to person? By the time it reaches the last person, the message has usually transformed into something hilariously different from the original.
I was thinking about this recently while reading about Elijah in 1 Kings 19. Poor Elijah was having what we might call a spiritual breakdown. After his magnificent victory over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, Queen Jezebel threatened his life, and suddenly our brave prophet was running for the hills—literally.
He ended up at Mount Horeb (also known as Sinai), exhausted, depressed, and feeling completely alone. "I, even I only, am left," he lamented to God, "and they seek my life, to take it away" (1 Kings 19:10).
Finding Courage in Unseen Allies
Do you ever feel like the lone voice crying in the wilderness? In 1 Kings 19, the bold prophet Elijah despaired that despite his faithful efforts, rampant idolatry prevailed. With wicked queen Jezebel threatening his life after an intense showdown with her false prophets, Elijah fled in fear, feeling alone in the spiritual fight.
Exhausted and afraid for his life, Elijah collapsed under a desert tree, begging God to let him die. Right there, we see a mighty man of God reduced to hopeless tears by isolation and weariness in well-doing. Elijah lamented, “I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away” (v. 10).