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1 Kings 19:11-21

¹¹ And [the Lord] said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lordpassed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lordwas not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lordwas not in the earthquake. ¹² And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lordwas not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. ¹³ And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” ¹⁴ He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” ¹⁵ And the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. ¹⁶ And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. ¹⁷ And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. ¹⁸ Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

¹⁹ So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him. ²⁰ And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” ²¹ And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

When was the last time you felt like a total failure? You labored and worked and toiled and strived to complete that one monumental task. All your effort comes to an end, and the task is finished. But before you can pat yourself on the back, you look around and there is still so much to do. More to accomplish. More things that need your attention. And all you want to do is crawl into a cave and give up.

That’s where we find Elijah this morning. Fleeing, alone, scared, and hiding in a cave at Mt. Horeb (which is the same as Mt. Sinai) God asks in a low whisper, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Elijah had had a busy month. But even before we consider what had just happened, we have to go back even further.

Elijah first came on the scene while Ahab was king in Israel. Ahab’s wife, Queen Jezebel, had introduced worship of Baal to God’s people. They were sacrificing their own children to Baal and praising themselves for it. The people were tearing down the true God’s altars and replacing them with temple prostitutes, and they would worship their false god by fornicating with them. All the while Jezebel was ruthlessly persecuting Yahweh’s faithful prophets by murdering them.

So, God sends the prophet Elijah to King Ahab to tell him that there would be neither dew nor rain (1 Kgs. 17:1). And for three and a half years (Jam. 5:17-18), Israel had no precipitation. Finally, God sent Elijah back to Ahab and the people of Israel saying, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If Yahweh is God, follow Him; but if Baal is god, follow him.”

After this, Elijah challenges Baal’s prophets to a duel – mano-e-450-manos. The 450 prophets of Baal would sacrifice a bull, lay it on an altar, and call down fire from heaven, and Elijah would do the same. The prophets of Baal call out all morning to their pagan god while Elijah taunts them because there was, of course, no answer (1 Kgs. 18:27-29). Elijah prepares his bull, places it on the altar, and Yahweh, the true God, answers by completely consuming the sacrifice. Afterward, the people of Israel confess, “Yahweh is God.” Elijah took the 450 pagan prophets and slaughters them, and God, sent rain once again.

However, Queen Jezebel wasn’t pleased. She sends a messenger to Elijah swearing by her defeated, pagan gods that she will kill Elijah by the same time tomorrow (1 Kgs. 19:2). That is why Elijah is on the run here in our text. God sends an angel to give Elijah food and water. That meal provided Elijah with the strength to travel forty days to Horeb (1 Kgs. 19:3-8) where he crawls into a cave.

So, after this great victory over the pagan prophets, after God’s provision of rain, after God’s provision of food, there is Elijah standing in a cave feeling very alone and very abandoned. God rightly asks, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Listen again to Elijah’s response, “Listen God, I’ve been very jealous for You. I’ve done what You have commanded. But Your people have forsaken Your covenant. They have thrown down Your altars. And they have killed Your prophets with the sword. I’m the only faithful one left, and they are out to kill me as well.” Elijah’s response makes it sound like God had lost and that Baal had won. His answer makes it seem like no rain had fallen, and as though God had failed.

God won’t have it. Yahweh patiently but sternly whispers in Elijah’s ear, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He sends Elijah back with work to do. “Go anoint two kings and your successor as prophet.” And God promises that He will keep and preserve not just Elijah but another seven thousand faithful people for God who have neither bowed down nor kissed Baal. And Elijah goes.

Our society isn’t so different than Israel was in the days of Elijah. We live in a society that sacrifices our children on the altars of convenience and choice. Instead of cult prostitutes, we have every deviant sexual practice imaginable being tolerated and even promoted in our schools. Jezebel isn’t threatening our lives, but we have political leaders who might as well be Jezebel. They say that if we speak out against any of the prevailing sins in our culture, we are backwards and old-fashioned Bible thumpers. They threaten that our morals and the Scripture that teaches them will be forgotten and thrown in the corner of history to gather dust.

With all those voices against us, we might be tempted to be like Elijah and flee to our cave. But what is happening in our nation now is nothing new. We are saddened that the world is driving us to the cave, but, by our silence and fear of speaking out against sin, we have voluntarily walked halfway there in the first place.

Dear Christians, repent. We cannot retreat. We cannot have the defeatist attitude that Elijah had. God still has work for us to do. God has called you to be His salt and light in this world. He desires that you be His faithful witnesses proclaiming that Christ Jesus is the Savior of the world. The world does genuinely want to destroy us, but never forget that God is faithful.

Even if it looks like the Jezebels of our day have won, they haven’t. God defeats Jezebel both physically and spiritually. God told Elijah to anoint Jehu to be king of Israel in place of Ahab and his sons. A little while later Jehu overthrows Ahab’s son who was king. Then, Jehu marches into the city and has Jezebel thrown out of a window where the dogs tear her apart and eat her flesh (2 Kgs. 9:30-37). In her life Jezebel loses in spectacular fashion physically. But even more importantly, Jezebel loses spiritually.

Jezebel had a daughter named Athaliah who married Jehoram, king of Judah. Athaliah and her husband had a son, who had a son, who had a son, and so on and so forth, who eventually a boy named Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Despite Jezebel’s hatred and animosity of Yahweh, God made her the many times over great-grandmother of Christ Jesus, the Savior of the world.

Jezebel tried to defeat God by hating Him. But God defeated Jezebel by loving her. With Jezebel’s blood coursing through His veins, Christ shed His holy and precious blood to forgive even the sins of Jezebel. On the cross, Jesus’ foot, which was formed from Jezebel’s genetic material, crushed the head of the devil and of Baal.

So, stop worrying about how things are going in this world. God is able, and has already, defeated your enemies because they are also His enemies.

“What are you doing here, Elijah?” With words that are stern yet compassionate, God calls Elijah out of his cave and gives him work to do for the kingdom of God. And today, God calls you out of your cave because He has work for you to do as well.

God hasn’t called you to go anoint kings and prophets. But He has called you to raise up your children in the faith. God has called you to proclaim and confess that He has called you out of the darkness of your caves and into His marvelous light.

And when you do crawl into your cave, God calls you through His Word, “What are you doing here?” God will continue to defeat His enemies by raising up faithful believers from the offspring of His enemies. Scripture doesn’t promise that the Jezebels of our day will fall before our eyes. In fact, it is very likely that the voices of Jezebel will continue to grow stronger in our culture and society.

But Scripture does promise that Baal is dead and Christ is living. Jezebel has lost, and you have already won. And, you, Christian, are called to remain faithful.

“What are you doing here?” Come out of your cave, and do the work that God has called you to do. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds inChrist Jesus. Amen.