Pastor Jeff Anders continues Elijah — God’s Praying Prophet on Sunday morning, and the series takes a turn. The same man who prayed down fire and rain on Mount Carmel is now sitting under a juniper tree in the wilderness, praying that God would take his life. Pastor Anders asks two questions: how did a real man of God get to that point, and why did a sovereign God let him get there? His answer this morning is the first of several things God gives His people in the desperate places: rest. The text is 1 Kings 19:1–10, with help from Psalm 3, Psalm 4, Matthew 8, Acts 12, and Matthew 11:28–30.
When Elijah Prayed, God Showed Up
Pastor Anders began by reminding the church what happened when Elijah prayed.
- The rain dried up (1 Kings 17:1).
- The provision showed up — the brook Cherith with its little stream and the ravens bringing food, then the widow of Zarephath, whose meal and oil never ran out (1 Kings 17:2–16).
- The dead rose up — Elijah carried the widow’s son up to his chamber, laid him on his bed, and prayed, and God raised him (1 Kings 17:17–24).
- The sacrifice burned up — one man against 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. They prayed all day and got nothing. Elijah prayed, the fire of God fell, and the prophets of Baal were shown to be false and were slain (1 Kings 18:20–40).
- The clouds opened up — he prayed seven times until the rain came and broke the drought (1 Kings 18:41–45).
Under the Juniper Tree (1 Kings 19:1–4)
Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, how the fire fell and the prophets of Baal were killed with the sword. Jezebel sent a messenger with a vow: by this time tomorrow, Elijah, you will be just like them (1 Kings 19:1–2). Elijah ran for his life to Beersheba in Judah, left his servant there, went a day’s journey into the wilderness, sat down under a juniper tree, and asked to die. It is enough, he said; take my life (1 Kings 19:3–4).
Notice what God’s praying prophet is praying now. The man who stood alone against 450 false prophets until the fire fell is praying, “God, would you just please take me home? I’ve had enough. I’m at the end of my rope.” Pastor Anders stressed that this is not a fake. Elijah has already shown he is the real deal. He knows God, walks with God, prays, and the fire falls. And still he ended up here. Men of God and people of God can get to this place too. God had His reasons for allowing it, and Pastor Anders said he would come to those. First, he looked at how Elijah got there, because some of us know what it feels like.
How Did He Get There?
1. He Was Exhausted
Not a little tired at the end of the day, the kind you sleep off. Elijah was completely exhausted, physically and emotionally, and it is not hard to see why.
- The sacrifice — all day long on Mount Carmel, the prophets of Baal cried out to their god while Elijah mocked them: maybe he is napping, on vacation, or hard of hearing. Then at the evening sacrifice Elijah rebuilt the old altar, laid out the wood and the sacrifice, and prayed. Imagine the tension of one man against the king, the queen behind him, the prophets of Baal, and a whole nation, trusting God to send the fire.
- The slaughter — at the end of that raging day he gave the order, and the 450 prophets of Baal were put to death (1 Kings 18:40).
- The supplication — then he climbed back to the top of Carmel and prayed, and prayed, and prayed, seven times. He was not just saying prayers. He was laboring in prayer.
- The storm — the rain finally came pouring down everywhere.
- The sprint — Elijah girded up his loins and ran before Ahab’s chariot all the way to Jezreel, outran it, and was waiting when the king arrived (1 Kings 18:46). Pastor Anders said that if he ran very far he would be tired pretty quickly, and he doubted many in the room could do what Elijah did.
- The scare — then Jezebel’s message came: you will be dead by this time tomorrow. This was one mean woman. So he took off and ran again, out of her territory, to hide under that juniper tree.
It is no wonder this man is exhausted. People today get to the place of praying “I just can’t go on” for the same reason. They have been fighting a battle and struggling for a long time. It may not be a mean woman threatening your life. It could be a disease, a financial collapse, a struggling marriage, or relationships that are problematic. You have battled and battled and tried and tried, and you are emotionally worn out. Elijah was filled with the Spirit and the power of God, and exhaustion still put him under that tree.
2. He Was Hungry
Before he prayed for rain, Elijah told Ahab to go up, eat, and drink, because there was a sound of abundance of rain (1 Kings 18:41). While the king was eating, the prophet was praying. There is no record of Elijah eating anything that day, and no record of it the next day while he ran for his life. Pastor Anders did not mean a rumbly stomach a couple of hours after breakfast. He meant a man who had spent all that energy without replenishing it, to the point of being malnourished in some ways. Complete exhaustion combined with not eating right can be a root reason people end up under a juniper tree. Diet affects a lot more than we think.
3. He Was Disappointed
Mount Carmel was a high point. The fire fell, the people confessed that the Lord is God, and Elijah was excited about what God was doing. Pastor Anders suggested Elijah may have thought something like this: when Ahab gets back and tells Jezebel, she will realize Baal is not God and get saved before the day is over, and then this revival is going to sweep the country.
It went the opposite way. Jezebel did not get saved. She put her big foot down on the revival as fast as she could. That foot was big enough to put the prophet on the run and to stop everybody else from turning against Baal. “I fought this battle,” Elijah could have said, “and I thought revival was going to break out. I thought it was finally over.” No doubt he was extremely disappointed, and disappointment can bring you to this point.
4. He Was Afraid
Jezebel’s answer to Carmel was, in effect, “You thought I was going to repent of my idolatry and serve the living and true God? I am not. I’m putting the word out on you, and you will be dead by this time tomorrow” (1 Kings 19:2). That is scary, and Elijah was afraid.
5. He Was Anxious
Running out of Israel down to Beersheba in Judah, Elijah is a man full of anxiety. Fear has a twin, and that twin is anxiety. When something makes us afraid, anxiety usually comes along with it, and anxiety will lead you to this point too. You might say God’s people shouldn’t get anxious, but they do. That is why Paul wrote not to be anxious about anything (Philippians 4:6); he wouldn’t have needed to say it if believers did not struggle with it.
As is so often the case, Elijah’s anxiety was totally unnecessary. Jezebel was never going to kill him. In fact, this man of God was not even going to die. One of these days God would just send a chariot and take him home (2 Kings 2:11). Things rarely turn out as bad as our worry tells us they will.
6. He Was Lonely
Later Elijah told the Lord he had been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, jealous in a good way, because he loved the Lord and could not stand anyone else claiming to be God. Israel had forsaken the covenant, thrown down God’s altars, and killed His prophets, and “I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life” (1 Kings 19:10). God, I am all alone.
It was not altogether true. It was true that Elijah stood alone on Mount Carmel, that he stood up to Ahab and Jezebel, and that he was on the front line. But it was not true that he was the only one left. When you are exhausted, hungry, disappointed, afraid, and anxious, it is easy to think you are the only one. Our enemy wants us to think that. He works through people and systems, and one of his tactics is to isolate the people of God so he can keep attacking them.
Pastor Anders admitted it is a bleak picture. Your circumstances may not be the same as Elijah’s, but some may know exactly what he is talking about.
Why Did God Let Him Get There?
This is the question Pastor Anders said he wrestles with. There is a sovereign God in heaven who sent fire and consumed the sacrifice, who sent the rain, who dried up the heavens for three and a half years, who kept the widow’s meal and oil from running out, and who raised her son from the dead. Nothing is impossible with Him. He could have taken Jezebel out at any time and stopped all of this. Yet God allowed His man to get all the way to the juniper tree, praying, “I’ve had all I can take.”
His suggestion: there are some things God wants to provide. It may seem backwards and awkward, and it may not look like what we think the Christian life is all about, but God often brings us to a desperate, difficult place because there are things we are able to receive there that we don’t receive at other times. Over the next few messages he plans to show what Elijah received at the juniper tree and how God works the same way in our lives. He took up the first one this morning and said he would continue Sunday evening.
What Elijah Needed: Rest
Elijah was exhausted, and he needed rest. Not just sleep, but God’s kind of rest. As he lay and slept under the juniper tree, an angel touched him and told him to arise and eat. There was a cake baked on the coals and a jar of water at his head. He ate, drank, and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and fed him again, because the journey was too great for him (1 Kings 19:5–7). Before Elijah could get up, he had to lie down.
Physical Rest Is a Gift (Psalm 3; Psalm 4)
That rest was physical, and the Lord wants to bless His people with physical rest. Pastor Anders read from Psalm 3, written when David fled from his son Absalom. Troubles were increasing, many rose up against him, and many said there was no help for him in God. But the Lord was his shield, his glory, and the lifter of his head. David cried to the Lord, the Lord heard him, and then David lay down, slept, and woke again, because the Lord sustained him (Psalm 3:1–5). In the middle of a rebellion against him, God gave him rest. Psalm 4 carries the same thought: God puts gladness in the heart and gives His people peace to lie down and sleep (Psalm 4:6–8).
The same thing happens with Elijah. Jezebel is hunting him and has predicted he will be dead within hours, and he lies down and goes to sleep. God feeds him and puts him right back to sleep a second time.
Rest That Comes by Faith
But it wasn’t just physical. There is a trust, a rest that comes by faith. God set aside the seventh day for rest after He created all things, and He wrote it into the law (Exodus 20:8–11). Everybody needs physical rest, but the Sabbath rest is more than physical. It is a spiritual rest that comes by faith.
- Jesus asleep in the storm — the storm raged, water came into the boat, and the disciples thought they would die. They woke Him, and He asked why they were so fearful, O ye of little faith (Matthew 8:23–26). Elijah, why are you so afraid? Disciples, why are you so afraid? Jesus could sleep because He knew they would make it to the other side. It is rough sailing right now, but it is going to be all right. Just rest by faith.
- Peter asleep in prison — after Herod killed James with the sword, he arrested Peter to execute him after Passover. Peter was chained between two soldiers, and when the angel came, he had to strike Peter on the side to wake him up (Acts 12:1–7). How can a man sleep that soundly when he may be executed the next day? He was trusting God by faith, and God gave him rest.
Change Yokes (Matthew 11:28–30)
Jesus said, Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). That means all of you who are battling and struggling, all of you sitting under a juniper tree. Take My yoke upon you (Matthew 11:29). A yoke joins two animals together to pull a load. Jesus is saying, un-yoke from this other stuff and yoke up with Me. I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. If you yoke up with Him, He carries the weight and you can rest.
Many times in life, God brings us to a point of desperation so that we can rest in Him: surrender to Him, yield to Him, abandon ourselves to Him, and experience rest in the middle of the storm. Not rest because everything is going right or because everything is done, but rest because of Him, because we have taken off the weight we were carrying and yoked up with Jesus, and now He is pulling the load.
Pastor Anders closed with a question: would you change yokes? Would you throw off the yoke that has you weighed down and come to Jesus and let Him carry the burden? If you are lost, He has already paid the price, carried the burden, and done it all, and you can trust what He did. If you are saved, He loves you and cares about every part of your life, and He will help you as you trust Him, yield to Him, and surrender to Him. You can find rest not only for your body but for your soul. He prayed that everyone carrying a load, everyone who finds themselves like Elijah, would surrender, yield, abandon themselves to the Lord, and take His yoke upon them.
Take-Homes
- When Elijah prayed, the rain dried up, the provision showed up, the dead rose up, the sacrifice burned up, and the clouds opened up (1 Kings 17–18).
- The same praying prophet ended up under a juniper tree asking God to take his life (1 Kings 19:1–4). Real men and women of God can get there too.
- How he got there: exhaustion (the sacrifice, the slaughter, the supplication, the storm, the sprint, and the scare), hunger, disappointment, fear, anxiety, and loneliness.
- Long battles with sickness, money, marriage, or relationships can wear us out emotionally. Not eating right makes it worse.
- Disappointment hits hard when the revival we expected gets stopped (1 Kings 19:2).
- Fear and anxiety travel together, and most of our anxiety turns out to be unnecessary. Elijah never died at all (Philippians 4:6; 2 Kings 2:11).
- “I only am left” felt true but wasn’t. The enemy works to isolate God’s people (1 Kings 19:10).
- A sovereign God could have stopped it all. He allows desperate places because there are things we receive there that we don’t receive anywhere else.
- The first thing Elijah needed was rest. God fed him and let him sleep, twice (1 Kings 19:5–7).
- God gives His people physical rest even in trouble (Psalm 3:1–5; Psalm 4:6–8).
- There is a deeper rest that comes by faith: Jesus asleep in the storm and Peter asleep in prison (Matthew 8:23–26; Acts 12:1–7).
- Come to Jesus, change yokes, and let Him carry the weight. He has already paid the price for the lost, and He gives rest to the soul (Matthew 11:28–30).