Reflection

 

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. (1 Kings 19:3 [NIV])

For now, we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. (1 Corinthians 13:12a [NIV]) 

If you are like me, you would never consider saying you are like Elijah. He was the great prophet of God who told the king that God was sending a drought, then it happened. Elijah was the man who challenged the 850 prophets of Israel to burn sacrifices to their god, Baal, so God would show them He is real and almighty. He was the man who promised a widow she would not run out of oil and flour during the drought; God kept His promise. Elijah, along with Moses, stood with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:3). God took Elijah and Moses to heaven without them first being buried. Both men pleased God and received the reward of their faith in God. Who of us even dares to consider ourselves equal to this great man of God? How can we say we are like Elijah?

We can say we are like Elijah the prophet in several ways, though we would not like to acknowledge them. We would rather say we have his faith, steadfastness, and obedience to the Lord. Yet, when we consider a person to emulate, we should consider that person’s characteristics, actions, and words. Elijah obeyed God. He did each of the above listed things. Still, he had his weaknesses.

Elijah feared Jezebel, King Ahab’s wife, would kill him because he had killed her priests, the ones who proclaimed what she wanted. He isolated himself from people who could encourage him as he walked with the Lord, including his servant. No person can work with God in reaching unsaved people without growing weary, needing encouragement, rest, nourishment, and counsel, and needing solitary time with God. For several reasons, each person needs other people who will walk with him or her-to encourage, teach, console, and correct him or her. Elijah became tired and had no one to remind him to rest and eat. God did this for him. He experienced depression because of obeying God while serving God; he chose isolation. God led him toward people.

This prophet of God had his mountain top experiences, literally, with God. In obeying God’s commands, he needed great faith and people to encourage him to go into the valley. Many of us cannot truthfully say we go into the valley when God tells us, but we read in the Bible that Elijah did. We might have a mountain top experience with God, but sometimes we refuse to serve God in the valleys. If we are truthful with ourselves, our commonalities with Elijah are more in his humanness. We fear, tire, isolate ourselves, and get depressed. We challenge God like Elijah did when the widow’s son died after God provided oil and flour to sustain them. We rail at Him asking, “Why”. Our faith in God is shallow. Our humanness is more comfortable to us.

Yes, we are more like Elijah in these ways than the others. We would love to say we are like him in his spiritual faithfulness to God, but honestly, that would not be the truth. The good news is that Elijah was not always close to God. He began his walk with Him like we do, with a step of faith. That step that takes us from promise to assurance, knowing without doubt that Almighty God is our God, and we have a hope and future with Him (Joshua 29:11). To perceive God’s voice, Elijah had to grow in his faith so he would learn how He sounds as a still, quiet voice, a voice like the roar of a storm, and the voice like the crashing and shaking of an earthquake. Elijah’s steps of faith continued. He wanted to follow God’s will for his life. Elijah desired to pursue God’s purposes. Though he faltered in his life’s purpose because of his human weakness, he continued to seek God and to love Him through obedience to Him. Elijah bravely faced 850 prophets and Almighty God showed He is real. When Elijah ran away in fear, God took him to a quiet cave beside a still brook so he could rest and replenish with sleep and the food and drink God sent.

Each time Elijah’s human weaknesses arose, God showed him He provides for the needs of those who follow Him with their whole being-heart, soul, mind, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:4-7 & Matthew 22:37). Elijah understood and related to God in the way Paul expressed when he wrote Romans about a thousand years after Elijah’s time. Paul said in Romans 8:26a & 28, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness…And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” (NLT) Elijah’s spirit cried out to God in his weaknesses-tiredness, isolation, fear, and depression. Though he mentally and physically felt beaten and his heart fainted at the task, Elijah trusted God and relied on Him.

As humans, we are very much like Elijah. We can have hope, like him, if we take a step of faith. We can do like Elijah did and cry out to God. God can remake us in His image for His purposes. He makes us more than we could ever make our own selves. God made Elijah into the man who was His great prophet. Through Elijah, the Lord did great things to remind the Israelites He is one true God. He did that with each of His prophets and servants. He equipped, trained, and remade them for His purposes, to be people who would seek Him above everything and everyone. Just as Oswald Chambers notes in the title of His devotional book, God remade and remakes people to be the utmost for His highest, so that each person will come to hear about Him, trust in Him, and receive salvation from their sins and death through Him.

Elijah had a mother who delivered him into this world. He was a man. Just like any other person, Elijah had human weaknesses. He learned about Almighty God and believed in Him. Elijah believed God and determined to serve His purposes for his life by being obedient to His plans. God took this life offered wholly to Him for His use and remade it into who He wanted him to be. This enabled Elijah to do His will-telling and reminding the people of Israel about Him. Elijah, because of his love for God, willingly sacrificed his life to God for His purposes. He allowed God to direct His paths.

Are you like Elijah? Consider his life. Elijah was born, raised, heard about God, desired to know Him more, loved and obeyed Him, had human responses of fear, tiredness, isolation, and depression, learned to trust God more each day, and received God’s promise in full when He took him to His kingdom. We are like Elijah in our humanness and can be like Elijah in his faith in Almighty God. Our greater calling is to be as relationally close to God as possible. Through Jesus, His Son, God made that closeness to Him available to each person who believes in Jesus Christ. Consider, you are already partly like Elijah; you are human. Elijah became more than just a man. He had faith in God. Because of Elijah’s growing faith in God over the years, God called and trained him to be His prophet. His growth in faith and obedience to God grew him toward being perfect, toward being like Jesus, though he had not seen Him. Elijah saw Jesus in the glass darkly (1 Corinthians 13:12) but saw Him clearly, face to face, when God took him on His chariot of fire to heaven (2 Kings 2:11).

We are each like Elijah; we are humans. But God can remake us into His image, like at creation.

How much like Elijah are you?

·       Will you admit your human weaknesses of tiredness, fear, despair, depression, etc.?

·       Will you take the step of faith and move from promise to assurance of salvation?

·       Will you listen to God’s voice and obey Him by taking another step of faith, like Elijah?

·       Will you allow Him to train, encourage, correct, and lead you?

We can be more than like Elijah. We can be like the One he hoped for, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who came to earth and now sits on His throne in heaven.

Be more than one who sees his reflection in the mirror.

Begin to see Jesus as you allow God to renew you. 

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now, we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:11-12 [NIV])