Grace Lutheran Church Weekly Devotion - 1 Kings 19:1–8 (ESV)
1 Kings 19:1–8 (ESV)
1Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
4But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” 5And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. 7And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” 8And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.
Despite all of the faithfulness and power God had demonstrated through Elijah, the prophet turned tail and ran at the angry words of Israel’s pagan Queen Jezebel. The real problem is that because of sin, Elijah turned in on himself, shutting God out of his life. One of the effects of sin is that it separates us from God and turns our attention to ourselves. There we discover our weakness, our inability to save ourselves. Losing sight of all that God is and does for us brings us to despair, and we want to curl up and whine, “Nobody likes me. Everybody hates me! I’m going to eat some worms! God, just take my life!”
God did not let Elijah “go and eat worms.” God’s solution was to send an angel to sustain Elijah for his journey. God turned Elijah out from himself and back toward Him, assuring the prophet he was not abandoned. God will not leave us turned inward on ourselves either. God turns us toward Himself by proving that He has not abandoned us at all. Out of His love, God sent His Son, Jesus, to be abandoned in our place. Christ’s abandonment became painfully obvious in His terrifying cry from the cross: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). Through His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, Christ Jesus destroyed sin’s power to “curl” us.
God’s answer for our discouragement is always Christ, the true Bread of Life (cf. John 6:35). In Christ Jesus, He speaks to us saying: “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you” (7; NIV). He continues to feed and nourish His people through His Word and Sacraments. With the strength our Lord provides through hearing and teaching, He prepares all who look upon His Son and believe in Him “to put off our old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4: 22-24 ESV) .
825 North 1st West
Cheyenne Wells, CO, 80810-0728
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