Nourishment in Famine, Strength for the Journey (9/10/23)

You would think that it would be a great moment for Elijah. He had just had a showdown competition with the prophets of Baal and Elijah had won (1 Kings 18:38-40). (Charles Wesley wrote a hymn about the follow-up celebration—1 Kings 18:41-46—541 in The United Methodist Hymnal).  But things turned sour for Elijah. When Queen Jezebel found out that Elijah had humiliated her favorites and indeed that Elijah had done them in (1 Kings 18:40), she sent a messenger to tell Elijah that she was going to get revenge and have him killed. 
Even though Elijah had been blessed as a servant of God’s victory, now he was frightened so much that he fled out into the wilderness (1 Kings 19:3).  Doesn’t that sound a bit like us? God has been our strength and shield through all of life, but if life throws us a curve ball, we run for the dugout, not bothering to take a turn at bat. What happened to our confidence in God?
Things were so overwhelming for Elijah that he wished he were dead (v. 4). But food and drink showed up (v. 6) and thus it was for the forty days and forty nights it took Elijah to get to Horeb (v. 8)....There the word of the Lord came to him (1 Kings 19:9). 
I got to thinking about it. When life’s journey gets challenging, do I assume that God will desert me? How do I approach the hard moments? What is my “solitary broom tree” (1 Kings 19:4)?
Elijah discovered that the gifts of God sometimes come one day at a time. Elijah discovered that God does not let go of us even when we let go of God. Elijah discovered what the hymn writer Thomas Chisholm expressed as “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow” (140, The United Methodist Hymnal).
Elijah was one of the “great ones.” He was a strong and effective prophet. Nevertheless, he also had the time of despair and uncertainty. God found a way to break through that emptiness and to restore Elijah’s meaning and purposefulness. Let us be encouraged that moments of despair do not mean that God is through with us. God is going to go with us to tomorrow and then to tomorrow’s tomorrow.
What Someone Else Has Said: Robert P. Jones (White too Long, Simon and Schuster) quotes a plaque at National Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama: “We will remember with hope because hopelessness is the enemy of justice, with courage because peace requires bravery, with persistence because justice is a constant struggle, with faith because we shall overcome.”
Prayer: As you prepare this lesson, let your prayer begin: “God of Yesterday, move with me this day, and point me toward Your tomorrow...”