Mon 3rd August – 1 Kings 19:9-10:

Mon 3^rd August – Read 1 Kings 19:9-10:

V9:  Elijah – who has been brought to Mount Horeb by God, with no such intention of his own, remember, comes to a cave on the mountainside, where ” the word of the Lord came to him”. Whether an audible voice or an inner conviction, we don’t know, but surely the source was the One who is the eternal Word of God (John 1:1.) The question ” what are you doing here Elijah?”, does not mean what are you doing in this place – he is only there because God has brought him there – but what are you doing in this current condition of spiritual lowness, this state of despair? What has brought you to this?

V10:  And Elijah pours out the burden of his heart – He alone has stood firm for God, he has faced and challenged the whole apostate nation for the Lord, and now “they seek my life”. Here surely is the aftermath of a hard and lonely ministry, and God’s servants do have such low times, when everything seems suddenly to overwhelm them. For Elijah, it seems that Jezebel’s threat has convinced him that despite the victory on Mount Carmel, in reality ” nothing has changed.” Do we ever feel like that? I know I do. Yet look how much “I” occurs in this verse – Elijah is for a moment focussed on himself rather than his Lord – and it may be like that for us sometimes too. We will go on to see how God deals with His servant’s low condition.