“I, even I only, am left”


Prayer: Dear Lord God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You are awesome and mighty. You are worthy of praise and adoration. It is my joy to worship You every single day. Please join me in this time of study and prayer. Let me hear Your voice as You teach me that which You have prepared for me today. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

Read: 1 Kings 19:1-18
http://www.esvbible.org/1 Kings 19:1-18

Think about It: We’ve all read, heard, (or maybe even lived) stories of prisoners of war who have been completely isolated from other people as a part of the torture that goes with such a dire circumstance.         Alexander Dumas wrote a novel in the late 1840’s called The Man in the Iron Mask supposedly based on a true story (that cannot be confirmed) of an aristocrat who was imprisoned by Louis XIV. This  prisoner was isolated from all of society even to the extent that his jailers could never see his face. His isolation was absolute. What we know about the human spirit is that isolation crushes us and could be labeled with the word anguish.

Anguish can be caused by isolation; anguish can be the result of isolation. Today, we examine an event from the life of Elijah where he experienced the extreme pain and distress that accompany anguish. His life was threatened by the evil Queen Jezebel. If she said she was going to kill you, she had all kinds of resources with which to make that happen! Even after seeing God’s mighty hand at work in the battle with the Baal worshipers (see chapter 18), Elijah is suddenly terrified and runs for his life. And in his anguish, he isolates himself first under a broom tree and then in a cave, and believes that he is only one on the planet left who worships the True God. As it turns out, this wasn’t true, but when we are in that much emotional pain, sometimes we don’t see the world as it truly is.

God does two things for Elijah in his pain. First, He sends an angel to take care of Elijah’s physical needs. Food, water, and sleep; a very simple formula for restoration. Second, he comes to Elijah in silence, the polar opposite of the chaos that Elijah thought he saw in the rest of the world and probably felt raging within himself. God appeals to Elijah’s inner self and that gets Elijah back up on his feet. Even in our anguish and pain, God can break through and heal our wounded hearts. He has the balm that soothes a weary soul and brings peace where once there was strife. Did Queen Jezebel suddenly decided not to hate Elijah? No. She still rages against him. But now the peace of God resides where once there was fear and Elijah is able to move on with the ministry God gives him. That same peace can be ours, we need only listen to the whisper of God.

Prayer: Dear Lord, please come to me when I am in anguish. When I am feeling isolated and in pain, please speak to me in a way that breaks through my pain and draws me into Your care. You know what it means to suffer anguish and I beg for Your comfort when it happens to me. Help me to remember that I am never truly isolated because You are always there. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

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