1 Kings 19:1-9
19 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3 Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there.
4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. 7 The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” 8 He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. 9 At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.
After all that Elijah had done Jezebel so frightened him that he ran and wanted to give up his life. When he was at his lowest (v7) an angel appeared and had him to eat. Listen to the second beckoning to Elijah “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.”
Elijah went on the strength of that food forty days and forty nights.
Everyone knows what happened next when Elijah was at the cave. But this got him there. He had to receive what he needed in order to carry on.
There are times that we are able to do great feats, get things done, move big things, make big ways . . . But with all of that - there comes a moment that we feel we have failed. Life so throws us off that we want to give up. Something so terrifies us that we think giving up - walking away is the only way.
So I’m pulling verse seven - get up and eat. Get up from where you are in your down moment, get up to receive what God has- that’s the nourishment you need. You don’t know what the journey looks like but you will make it.
It’s something about getting up from our misery to receive from God. It’s shifts our thought and undergirds us for the journey. And the journey is doable as receive that nourishment.
Listen, trust, follow. We continue watching what God is doing. We don’t do it alone. Enought for now.
