"What Are You Doing Here, ?"

Although one of the messages from the devotional book, 365 Essential Questions from the Bible was rightly criticized a few weeks ago, another one, Day 262, presented an interesting and Biblical thought with respect to Elijah. The writer called attention to the fact that Elijah was a man of faith. Truly, the first time we meet him he is telling the king what will happen. "As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew or rain these years, except at my word" (1 Kings 17:1). Only a man of faith would be bold enough to speak to the King of Israel. The king might have thought him conceited as well—that rain would only come when he said so.

Elijah trusts God enough to wait for ravens to bring him food (1 Kings 17:4-6). When the brook that furnished his water dried up, Elijah further trusted God, Who brought him to a widow. After a taste of water, he asked the widow for "a morsel of bread" (v. 11). She has little, but Elijah asks her to fix him some first, which she has faith enough to do. In the next chapter, Elijah takes on the prophets of Baal—and wins; the contest was not even close. But he showed faith that God would send down fire from heaven (1 Kings 18:38). Victorious, Elijah had the false prophets seized and put to death at the Brook Kidron (v. 40). Next Elijah informs the king that rain is on its way; lo and behold, it was.

But an extremely adverse reaction came forth from Queen Jezebel. She said: "So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as one of them by tomorrow about this time" (1 Kings 19:2). Because of the severity of the oath, Elijah knew that she was deadly serious about her oath; he "ran for his life" (v. 3). But why? The same God who had brought the prophet safely to this point was still ruler in heaven and earth. He sat down under a broom tree (v. 5), but later he went into a cave. At this point God asked His prophet: "What are you doing here, Elijah?" (v. 9).

Reading the text shows us that Elijah had grown discouraged, but had his faith waned, also? The authors of the book mentioned above put it this way: "We all experience answered prayer. We see God work in our lives, we agree that He is powerful…and then we hide when unexpected confrontation arrives" (268). We probably have never shown the immense faith Elijah had at Mount Carmel and on other occasions; certainly, we have not had the fortitude to confront a king. But most of us live by faith continually. Have we not all had a moment like Elijah's, however, when we have confronted something bigger than ourselves? Are we hiding? Or are we overcoming?