Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
October 21, 1984
From the Peak to the Pits
1 Kings 18:44 - 19:8, KJV
In James 5:19 it says: "Elijah was a man just like us." Today's passage proves this beyond all doubt. If you remember from last week's sermon, Elijah experienced the greatest victory of his career on top of Mount Carmel. Although opposed by eight hundred and fifty false prophets, Elijah had triumphed because God had sent fire down to burn up the sacrificial bull and the water-soaked altar. In verse 45 Elijah triumphed again when God sent a heavy rain to end the drought that had scorched the ground for three and a half years. In the next verse Elijah escorted the king's chariot by running seventeen miles to the capital at full blast. Even King Ahab seemed to be impressed by all that had happened because he told Jezebel every last detail.
This is what I call a mountaintop experience. Each success leads to another one, till you think you've got it all wrapped up. It can happen when you get married. You have the expensive ceremony, lots of gifts, maybe a honeymoon in the Bahamas. Your wife thinks you're perfect.
Becoming a Christian can be another mountaintop experience. For me, it felt like a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Reading the Bible became a real delight. I found it easier to make friends and many people noticed a positive change in me. Even sin seemed to be a thing of the past. The only problem with mountaintop experiences is that someday you have to come down. Moses came down from Mt. Sinai and discovered the people were worshipping a golden calf. Jesus came down from the Mt. of Transfiguration where he had appeared with Moses and Elijah, only to find at the bottom that his disciples had botched up a simple healing. The husband comes home from the honeymoon only to find his wife can't cook.
It seems to be a fact of life that whenever things are really going well, instead of leveling off, they insist on crashing. We like to think that our success is due to our own talent so that we can control the direction of our lives. That's why slipping from the peak to the pit is more than just inconvenient - it can shatter our rosy image of ourselves.
Elijah was a man just like us. After a string of successes he came face to face with Queen Jezebel. She was not impressed. In a rage she said: "I swear I'm going to do to you what you've done to my prophets!" For some reason this ugly woman unnerved Elijah and he ran for his life. He took off all the way down to Beersheba (at the bottom of Israel) and kept on going into the wilderness. In the depths of depression he prayed, "Oh God, take away my life."
Like many of our failures, it's hard to figure out just what happened to Elijah. We know that fear played a big part. The King James Version isn't as clear on this because it translates verse 3 as "And when he saw that...." Most of the modern translations are more accurate with the Hebrew and say, "And he was afraid." He had good reason to be afraid. Throughout the Bible, Jezebel is portrayed as an ogre. If she made a promise to kill you, she kept it.
Many people who are very talented, nevertheless, are crippled by fear. Success may come easily to them but in the back of their minds there's always a little voice saying, "It's not going to last! Disaster is just around the corner." This is exactly what happens. Usually this fear can be traced to a low image of yourself. Other people may praise you and give you a promotion but in your heart you know you'll self-destruct. Some kind of fear was behind Elijah's failure but fear alone can't explain all of his actions. Physical exhaustion may also have played a part. Even if the hand of the Lord enables you to run seventeen miles, you will still feel tired. Doctors say that depression is due just as much to our physical state as our mental state. If you abuse your body there is going to be a drain on your emotions.
A Christian counselor named Archibald Hart has found that many Christians suffer from severe depression just like Elijah did. He finds that believers blame depression on weak faith or a neglected prayer life. These are often factors, he says, but it is damaging to say they are the only factors. We are not super-human. We need rest, a good diet and a healthy body if we're going to stay out of the pits.
One more factor contributed to the prophet's failure. In seminary we called it the Elijah Complex. The Elijah Complex is summed up in verse 10 which says,
"I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left...."
Isolation is one of the worst things that can happen to a person. It's unnatural to be alone. When the United States was being settled, the pioneer families were each given one hundred and sixty acres to call their own. Each family put up a house right in the middle of their allotment and proceeded to farm the land. Within a few generations this set-up fell apart. Soon each farm family was building a house in the corner of their allotment so they could be near their neighbors.
Elijah always felt he was alone and this played a major role in his depression. According to verse 3, part of it was his fault because it says he left his servant behind at Beersheba. And over in verse 18 God tells Elijah that seven thousand other Jews are still faithful believers.
Many Christians who seem to have a consuming desire to serve God are actually suffering from an Elijah Complex. By thinking they are the only pure believers left they end up cutting themselves off from the help and encouragement of others. It's a great way to set yourself up for failure.
Failure is one of the hardest things for a Christian to accept. All of our emphasis is on outward signs of success. Our churches have to have bigger budgets and greater attendance. Individual believers often judge their spiritual success on how well they do in the world. There is a subtle belief that if you're really following God, failure is impossible.
However, Christians do fail. Sometimes it's not their personal fault but is due to the messed up world we live in. Kids get into a habit of failure because their parents set them up for it. We also have to admit that our failure can be due to sin. Whether it's pride or lust or fear, believers can be defeated by sin and experience failure. Failure due to sin is the hardest to deal with. We have difficulty facing it ourselves and there's no way we're going to let others know about it. We just end-up under a juniper tree wishing we were dead.
Sometimes failures seem to be the norm rather than the exception. Consider this man - when he was seven years old his family was forced out of their home on a legal technicality and he had to work to support them. At age nine his mother died. At age twenty-two he lost his job as a store clerk. He wanted to go to law school but his education wasn't good enough. At twenty-three he went into debt to become a partner in a small store. At twenty-six his business partner died leaving him a huge debt that took years to repay. At twenty-eight after dating a girl for four years he asked her to marry him. She said no. At thirty-seven on his third try he was elected to Congress but two years later he failed to get re-elected. At forty-one his four-year-old son died. At forty-five he ran for the Senate and lost. At forty-seven he failed as the Vice-Presidential candidate. At forty-nine he ran for the Senate again and lost. At fifty-one he was elected President of the United States. His name was Abraham Lincoln, considered by many to be the greatest leader our country has ever had. Some people get all the breaks! [1]
The Bible is full of examples of failure but it also speaks of forgiveness and grace. When Elijah was alone in the desert, God sent an angel to him. God could have decided to zap him. Instead - he touched him - twice. He is willing to reach out to you right now, to tell you that you are not alone and that your work for him is not in vain.
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1. This illustration contains some inaccuracies or distortions, according to the Urban Legends page at Snopes.com. See http://www.snopes.com/glurge/lincoln.htm for an interesting discussion of the details.
Typed on December 8, 2005, by Sharon Lesko of Ledgewood Baptist Church, New Jersey
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