Elijah Fainting

We may learn much from the lives of others. Elijah himself is not only a prophet but a prophecy. His experience is our instruction. Sometimes we enter into a strange and mysterious state of depression, and it is well to learn from Scripture that another has been in that Valley of Deathshade. Weary, and sick at heart, sorely tried ones are apt to faint. At such a time they imagine that some strange thing has happened unto them; but, indeed, it is not so. Looking down upon the sands of time they may see the print of a man’s foot, and it ought to comfort them when they learn that he was no mean man, but a mighty servant of the Lord. Let us study—

I. ELIJAH’S WEAKNESS. “He requested for himself that he might die.”

1. He was a man of like passions with us. James 5:17.

   • He failed in the point wherein he was strongest; as many other saints have done. Abraham, Job, Moses, Peter, etc.
   • This proved that he was strong not by nature, but in divine strength. He was no unfeeling man of iron, with nerves of steel. The wonder is not that he fainted, but that he ever stood up in the fierce heat which beat upon him.

2. He suffered from a terrible reaction. Those who go up go down. The depth of depression is equal to the height of rapture.

3. He suffered grievous disappointment, for Ahab was still under Jezebel’s sway, and Israel was not won to Jehovah.

4. He was sadly weary with the excitement of Carmel, and the unwonted run by the side of Ahab’s chariot.

5. His wish was folly. “O Lord, take away my life.”

   • He fled from death. If he wished to die, Jezebel would have obliged him, and he needed not to have fled.
   • He was more needed than ever to maintain the good cause.
   • That cause was also more than ordinarily hopeful, and he ought to have wished to live to see better times.
   • He was never to die. Strange that he who was to escape death should cry, “Take away my life!” How unwise are our prayers when our spirits sink!

6. His reason was untrue. It was not enough: and the Lord had made him, in some respects, better than his fathers.

   • He had more to do than they, and he was stronger, more bold, more lonely in witness, and more terrible in majesty.
   • He had more to enjoy than most of the other prophets, for he had greater power with God, and had wrought miracles surpassed by none.
   • He had been more favored by special providence and peculiar grace, and was yet to rise above all others in the manner of his departure: the chariots of God were to wait upon him.

II. GOD’S TENDERNESS TO HIM.

1. He allowed him to sleep: this was better than medicine, or inward rebuke, or spiritual instruction.

2. He fed him with food convenient and miraculously nourishing.

3. He made him perceive angelic care. “An angel touched him.”

4. He allowed him to tell his grief (see verse 10): this is often the readiest relief. He stated his case, and in so doing eased his mind.

5. He revealed himself and his ways. The wind, earthquake, fire, and still small voice were voices from God. When we know what God is we are less troubled about other matters.

6. He told him good news: “Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel”: verse 18. His sense of loneliness was thus removed.

7. He gave him more to do—to anoint others by whom the Lord’s purposes of chastisement and instruction should be carried on.

Let us learn some useful lessons.

It is seldom right to pray to die; that matter is best left with God; we may not destroy our own lives, nor ask the Lord to do so.

To the sinner it is never right to seek to die; for death to him is Hell. The willful suicide seals his own sure condemnation.

To the saint such a wish is allowable, only within bounds. He may long for Heaven, but not for the mere sake of getting away from service or suffering, disappointment or dishonor.

To desire death may be proper under some aspects; but not to pray for it with eagerness.

When we do wish to die, the reason must not be impatient, passionate, petulant, proud, or indolent.

We have no idea of what is in store for us in this life. We may yet see the cause prosper and ourselves successful.

In any case let us trust in the Lord and do good, and we need never be afraid.

Selections

What is this we hear? Elijah fainting and giving up! that heroic spirit dejected and prostrate! He who dared say to Ahab’s face, “It is you and your father’s house that trouble Israel”; he that could raise the dead, open and shut the heavens, fetch down both fire and water with his prayers; he who dared chide and contest with all Israel; that dared kill the four hundred and fifty Baalites with the sword,—does he shrink at the frowns and threats of a woman? Does he wish to be rid of his life, because he feared to lose it? Who can expect an undaunted constancy from flesh and blood when Elijah fails? The strongest and holiest saint upon earth is subject to some qualms of fear and infirmity: to be always and unchangeably good is proper only to the glorious spirits in Heaven. Thus the wise and holy God will have his power perfected in our weakness. It is in vain for us, while we carry this flesh about us, to hope for so exact health as not to be cast down sometimes with fits of spiritual distemper. It is no new thing for holy men to wish for death: who can either marvel at or blame the desire of advantage? For the weary traveler to long for rest, the prisoner for liberty, the banished for home, it is so natural, that the contrary disposition were monstrous. The benefit of the change is a just motive to our appetition; but to call for death out of a satiety of life, out of an impatience of suffering, is a weakness unbecoming a saint. It is not enough, O Elijah! God has more work yet for you: your God has more honored you than your fathers, and you shall live to honor him.

Toil and sorrow have lulled the prophet asleep under this juniper tree; that wholesome shade was well chosen for his repose. While death was called for, the cozen of death comes unbidden; the angel of God waits on him in that hard lodging. No wilderness is too solitary for the attendance of those blessed spirits. As he is guarded, so is he awaked by that messenger of God, and stirred up from his rest to his repast; while he slept, his breakfast is made ready for him by those spiritual hands: “There was a cake baked on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head.” Oh, the never-ceasing care and providence of the Almighty, not to be barred by any place, by any condition! When means are wanting to us, when we are wanting to ourselves, when to God, even then does he follow us with his mercy, and cast favor upon us, beyond, against expectation! What variety of purveyance does he make for his servant! One while the ravens, then the Sareptan, now the angel, shall be his caterer; none of them without a miracle: those other provided for him waking, this sleeping. O God! the eye of your providence is not dimmer, the hand of your power is not shorter: only teach you us to serve you, to trust thee.—Bp. Hall.

Elijah “arose and went for his life.” But better he had stood to his task as a prophet, and answered as Chrysostom did when Eudoxia the empress threatened him. “Go tell her,” said he, “I fear nothing but sin”; or as Basil did, when Valens, the Arian emperor, sent him word that he would be the death of him: “I would he would,” said he: “I shall but go to Heaven the sooner.” Luther had his fits of fear, though ordinarily he could say, “I care neither for the Pope’s favor nor fury.” Gregory doubted not to say, that because Elijah began to be tickled with high conceits of himself for the great acts which he had done, he was suffered thus to fear, and to fall beneath himself, for his humiliation. The like we see in Peter, scared by a silly wench: to show us how weak, even as water, we are, when left a little to ourselves.—John Trapp.

Who told Elijah it was “enough”? God did not; he knew what was enough for Elijah to do and to suffer. It was not enough. God had more to teach him, and had more work for him to do. If the Lord had taken him at his word, and had also said “it is enough,” Elijah’s history would have wanted its crowning glory.—Kitto.

It cannot be denied, that in the expression “it is enough!” we behold the anguish of a soul which, disappointed in its fairest expectations, seems to despair of God and of the world, and is impatient and weary of the cross; a soul which, like Jonah, is dissatisfied with the dealings of the Almighty, and by desiring death, seeks, as it were, to give him to understand, that it is come to such an extremity, that nothing is left but the melancholy wish to escape by death from its sufferings. Nevertheless, a Divine and believing longing accompanied even this carnal excitement in the soul of Elijah, which, thirsting after God, struck its pinions upwards to the eternal light; yes, the key-note of this mournful lamentation was the filial thought that the heart of his Father in Heaven would be moved towards him, that his merciful God would again shine forth upon his darkness, and comfort the soul of his servant. Thus we see, in the prayer of our prophet, the elements of the natural and of the spiritual life fermenting together in strange intermixture. The sparks of nature and of grace, mutually opposing each other, blaze up together in one flame. The metal is in the furnace, the heat of which brings impurity to light; but who does not forget the scum and the dross at the sight of the fine gold?—F. W. Krummacher.

I. The cause of Elijah’s despondency. 1. Relaxation of physical strength. 2. Second cause—Want of sympathy. “I, even I only, am left” Lay the stress on only. The loneliness of his position was shocking to Elijah. 3. Want of occupation. As long as Elijah had a prophet’s work to do, severe as that work was, all went on healthily: but his occupation was gone. Tomorrow and the day after, what has he left on earth to do? The misery of having nothing to do proceeds from causes voluntary or involuntary in their nature. 4. Fourth cause—Disappointment in his expectations of success. On Carmel the great object for which Elijah had lived seemed on the point of being realized. Baal’s prophets were slain—Jehovah acknowledged with one voice: false worship put down. Elijah’s life-aim—the transformation of Israel into a kingdom of God, was all but accomplished. In a single day all this bright picture was annihilated. II. God’s treatment of it. 1. First, he recruited his servant’s exhausted strength. Read the history. Miraculous meals are given—then Elijah sleeps, wakes, and eats: on the strength of that, he goes forty days’ journey. 2. Next, Jehovah calmed his stormy mind by the healing influences of nature. He commanded the hurricane to sweep the sky, and the earthquake to shake the ground. He lighted up the heavens until they were one mass of fire. All this expressed and reflected Elijah’s feelings. The mode in which nature soothes us is by finding more fit and nobler utterances for our feelings than we can find in words—by expressing and exalting them. In expression there is relief. 3. Besides, God made him feel the earnestness of life. What do you here Elijah? Life is for doing. A prophet’s life for nobler doing—and the prophet was not doing, but moaning. Such a voice repeats itself to all of us, rousing us from our lethargy, or our despondency, or our protracted leisure, “What do you here?” here in this short life. 4. He completed the cure by the assurance of victory. “Yet have I left me seven thousand in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So, then, Elijah’s life had no failure after all.—F. W. Robertson.