1 Kings 19:11-12. Stop Sitting Under the Broom Tree!

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May 9 1 Kings 19 11-12

God chooses to reveal Himself however He chooses to. In the Garden of Eden, He met Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. He spoke to Moses through a burning bush. He spoke to several people through dreams. To Mary and Joseph, he sent an angel to deliver a message. For us today, He speaks through the still small voice of the Holy Spirit’s promptings within us as we read the Bible and pray. 

For Elijah, He had just had the mountain top experience of God sending fire to consume a water-soaked sacrifice, proving to all of Israel that God is God and Baal is nothing. Elijah then rounded up all the prophets of Baal and executed them. When Queen Jezebel heard about it, she sent a messenger to Elijah to let him know she planed to have him killed by the next evening. Elijah allows his fear to take over and he forgets the powerful display of God’s might with the sacrifice and he runs and hides. He goes out to the wilderness and sits down under a broom tree and asks God to let him die. In this moment, Elijah is physically and emotionally exhausted and as a result his faith crumbles. He is in deep depression. He demonstrates apathy, emotional distancing, a cynical attitude and a desire to escape from it all. He also has a false sense of failure. Elijah is experiencing what we would call “burnout.”

Even in the midst of Elijah’s depression and burnout – God meets him where he’s at and He miraculously provides for Elijah’s needs. Elijah needs rest, food, and spiritual nourishment.  As Elijah slept under the broom tree, God sends and angel who tells Elijah to get up and eat. When he wakes up he finds a cake baked on coals and a jar of water. The ate and then laid down and went back to sleep. God sends he angel again with the same message. So Elijah gets up and eats and the Bible tells us that he went on the strength of that food for 40 days and 40 nights all the way to the mountain of God. God brings Elijah back to the place where the covenant had been give, the place where his personal faith would also be nourished. Elijah goes into a cave and spent the night there. During the night the “word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:9) Elijah replied: “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.” Read that again. Where is the emphases being placed? This verse is all about Elijah – Elijah was very zealous for the Lord. Elijah was all alone. Why? Because the children of Israel forsook God and killed all the other prophets – and now they want to kill Elijah too. We might say Elijah has the right to be depressed and to run away. He’s scared. He feels alone. And it almost sounds like he is whining about his predicament and maybe even blaming God that he’s in this predicament to start with. Don’t we do that too? We go all out for God – giving Him 100% of what we have to give – maybe even more. And then when we hit the point of exhaustion we forget all that God has been doing through us and we acquire tunnel vision so that all we can see the right now – this moment. Then we want to throw in the towel. Quit. Blame God that it didn’t work out. But God is not caught off guard by Queen Jezebel wanting to kill Elijah. And God still has work for Elijah to do. But Elijah is at a crossroad in His faith. So God meets him where he is – let’s see what happens next. 

God tells Elijah to go out and stand on the mountain before Him and there God reveals Himself to Elijah. Whenever we find ourselves under a broom tree, exhausted, depressed and feeling alone, God longs to reveal Himself to us. And this is what He does for Elijah. First, God reveals His greatness and power through wind, earthquake, fire – but in all of these God was not there – just his power. Then, when everything gets quiet, God speaks it a still small voice. He still speaks today in the same still, small voice. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.” It can be difficult in today’s fast paced world to just be still – and even if we sit still for five minutes, our minds are still going. 

If we are honest with ourselves, we’ve all been “under the broom tree” with Elijah. We have given all we have to serving God and it seems that all our efforts are in vain. We feel drained, broken, and have no idea what to do next. So we run from whatever God wants us to do and sit under the broom tree and have a pity party. We constantly want to see God move in big, powerful ways – after all He is a big, powerful God. But more often than not, God reveals Himself when we simply be still. It’s then we can hear His voice.

The still small voice of God reveals to Elijah that he was not the last prophet alive. God may 9 ctttold him there were still 7000 people alive that had not bowed down to Baal that He could choose to work through. And if you are sitting under a broom tree today – God wants you to know that you are not alone. It’s time for you to get up and eat – get re-nourished spiritually. Maybe you need to return to the place where God first called you. Maybe you need to take a weekend away and get alone with God and just be still. Whatever you need to do to breathe life back into the ministry God has called you to do – God will meet you there. What will He reveal to you? It’s time to find out – arise and eat! Be still in His presence. Listen for His still small voice. 

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