Text: 1Kings 19:3-8
This is the season of garage sales. Well the story is told that the devil decided to have one. On the day of his sale is tools were all marked with the sale price. It was an ugly lot: hatred, envy, jealousy, deceit, greed and so on.
Off on its own was a harmless looking tool. It was very old and very worn from much use. Yet its price was very high.
What is the name of that tool, one customer inquired. That is discouragement Satan answered. Why such a high price? Sir, that tool us more useful than all these others. When all those tools don’t work, this one I can usually count on to get inside someone’s heart.
This morning, we meet a man sifted by discouragement. He is the Lord’s own prophet, Elijah. Yet the Lord lifted his prophet from that deep pit of discouragement. He gave him the strength he needed to go on and serve.
It’s not hard to see ourselves here. For as James wrote; Elijah was a man just like us. (5:17) He wasn’t immune to discouragement. But the likeness does not end there. We have the same Lord who as the psalmist says: rescues me from the slimy pit. He lifts us up so we can say:
THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH
I. He knows the journey can be hard and long
II. He feeds me with the Bread I need to go on.
Think about this journey we call life. You might compare it to a ride through the country side or a long hike. There are hills and valleys, joys and sorrows. And those sorrows can get to us. They can pull us down when everything seemed to be going just fine.
Look at Elijah. Just before this Elijah had been the point man for God’s amazing victory on Mount Carmel. He had stood toe to toe with 450 prophets of Baal and watched the Lord show them to be false and their god to be a dumb worthless statue. As fire from heaven came down with Elijah’s prayer, there could be no doubt. The Lord is God.
Just imagine how Elijah must have felt. The hope he must have had that now things would turn around. Wait till people hear about this day. There would be a great revival. Imagine how he must have felt. Elijah was standing on more than a mountain called Carmel. He was standing on a mountaintop of faith.
But Elijah hardly had time to smell the roses when word came. Queen Jezebel, a wicked woman and queen, wanted his head. And now Elijah is truck with something he had not recently known. Fear, fear for his life. So he fled. He fled south, left his land of Israel and traveled about 75 miles, all the way to the southern end of Judah. There he left his servant behind and fled even further, another 20 miles into the desert.
But now something more than fear had gripped him. Dog tired from the journey, he sits down under a broom tree that rarely gave much shade. And here we meet a man terribly discouraged. He’s discouraged that the damning religion of Baal is still stealing his people’s souls. He’s discouraged that he, the Lord’s prophet ran away like a coward. Down in that pit of discouragement Elijah prays to the Lord. I’ve had enough. Take my life. I am no better than my ancestors.
Pastors can and do experience such times. There can be great joy in seeing the victories of God’s Word in people’s lives. To hear surprising words of faith come from a heart that did not know or care about Jesus. To hear about works of Christian love and kindness. To listen as two Christian young people promise their love to one another in the Lord. But then like Elijah there are those discouraging times. When someone who has tasted the goodness of the gospel, turns away from the Lord and refuses to come back.
But the pastor is not alone. Each of us can find ourselves in a pit of discouragement. The journey of life can be hard and long for us all. Some of us struggle with crippling pain in backs or knees or hips. Some of us struggle with mental pain that can be even harder on us. And now we think about our congregation where so many efforts have been expended over the years with so little to show for it. What will the future bring?
Sometimes it’s not hard to feel like Elijah. We are tempted to despair, to give up, to throw in the towel. But dear friends, the Lord knows what we are up against. He knows our hearts. And he knows what lies ahead. And as he told Elijah, he knows this: the journey is too much for you.
For Elijah that journey meant traveling another 200 miles across the hot, dry barren desert to Mount Horeb. Most of us know it as Mount Sinai where the Lord gave the covenant to Moses. That journey was too much for Elijah. But not just the trip across the desert. Also his journey as God’s prophet. It was too much to go it alone, depending on his own strength. And it’s too much for us. It’s too much for us to make this journey through life as his people on our own. And the Lord knows that. He knows the journey can be hard and long.
But notice something here. The Lord allowed Elijah to stumble. He allowed him to trip and fall into that pit of discouragement. And sometimes he allows us as well. Why? So we can see. We can see that our own strength will not carry us through. We need the Lord to strengthen us. And he does. He feeds us with the Bread we need to go on.
In the Old Testament, when something remarkable happened, a certain Hebrew word was used. The word is Hineh Our version translates it: All at once. I like the King James better here. Behold. Elijah was asleep. He was sleeping the sleep of a beaten, depressed man and behold!
Behold an angel of the Lord touched Elijah to wake him. Get up and eat, he told him. Elijah found a meal set before him. Nothing fancy. Just a bread cake and a jar of water. But read on. The Lord endowed that simple meal with supernatural power. This bread would empower Elijah to walk 40 days and 40 nights until he reached the mountain of God. Talk about power bars! But the best was yet to come. For there on that mountain the Lord would speak to him and give him the strength and courage he needed to go on as his prophet.
What about us? Elijah ate this bread served up by an angel and was able to go on for 40 days. The Israelites ate the Manna God gave from heaven which kept them alive for 40 years. What about us? Behold- God sets a meal before us today.
But this Bread is so much more. Do you remember Jesus’ words today? Here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. For Jesus is that bread. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
This is the bread we need to carry us through-Jesus Christ, God’s own Son. He is the bread we need for our journey to another Mountain of God, the Holy City, God’s heaven. To eat this bread is nothing more than to put our trust in Him who lived and died for us. It’s to look at his cross and see God’s Son die for you. It’s to look at his empty Easter tomb and recognize his victory over our death. For then we partake of something we need so much. Forgiveness for our many sins. Peace with God and the blessed assurance of God’s enduring love every day of our lives until he takes us home.
So our Lord comes to us today like his angel came to Elijah. Get up and eat, he says. Get up from that bed of discouragement. Get out from under that pathetic broom tree. Come find in me what you need to go on. To not give up but to go forward with hope. For I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
So here today in his Church, Jesus sets before us a marvelous meal. In His Word, in his Sacrament, Jesus, the Bread of Life comes to us and feeds us with that bread we need to go on. So that we can go out from here and say to whatever comes: The Lord is my strength. Amen.