Even Elijah Had Bad Days

Had a bad day lately? I know I've had a few. Man, I have hardly posted at all in the last three or four weeks. I've just really lacked the thirty or so minutes of free time at night it takes to put up an intelligent post. But not tonight. I just finished reading the 25th chapter in A.W. Pink's book on the life of Elijah. So most of what I type tonight is fresh on my mind, with all credit going to Pink.

Elijah had a bad few days that I don't hear discussed in Bible studies or sermons or Christian circles at all really, probably because his bad couple of days (or perhaps much longer) take up so little of the Bible. Most of what we read on Elijah portrays a positive light on him as one saint definitely worth looking up to. But 1 Kings 19 paints a different story. After Elijah's great triumph over the prophets of Baal and after praying earnestly for rain, Elijah falls apart spiritually when threatened by Jezebel. Her threat scared him silly -- he didn't pray for guidance, didn't stand strong amongst adversity -- no he "was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life." Then he asked the Lord to take away his life. How distressed and downcast must his soul have been at this time to plead for the very death that he was afraid of in the first place! Pink does a wonderful job of expanding this and making a lot of sense of the situation, but it is truly remarkable that this is the same Elijah of 1 Kings 18.

What I want to make clear is not the fact that even the great Elijah had bad days -- and we should pat ourselves on the back and compare ourselves to him. Not at all. That's just not my style. What I want to make crystal clear is the mercy and love of God shown here in the rest of the story. God's anger could have burned against his servant for being so weak and running from danger. God could have granted Elijah his request for death. But what did God do instead? He sent an angel to Elijah's rescue and provided him with a freshly baked cake and a jar of water.

So Elijah immediately jumped up, worshiped God, and got back on the right track, right? Not quite. "And he ate and drank and lay down again." Ha! How often are we like that? We're a mess, God gives us mercy, we eat, we drink, and without thanksgiving, we just lay down again. So the angel of the Lord had to come a second time, this time with possibly the greatest chocolate cake ever made -- for whatever he fed Elijah with made him arise and kept him fed for forty days and forty nights.

What's the moral of the story? Sure, even God's best servants have bad days and do sinful things. And when we ourselves fall victim to temptation and fail to fight off the wicked flesh of our own bodies, let us turn back to God and not lose hope. For God's mercy is great and bigger than we can imagine. After all, it wasn't after Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal that an angel made him a cake, it was when he was out of the will of God, running for his life and asking for death at the same time. Let us seek the mercy of God when our souls our downcast, and let us receive his love and gifts and use them to strengthen us to go forth and do his will.