Tag Archives: Elijah

Waiting for the Whirlwind

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Waiting for the Whirlwind.2 Kings 2: 11-14–June 30, 2019—DBC. Dr. Denny

Introduction:  I’m going to start with a question and I don’t want you to stretch the truth (like fish stories—I caught one this. Big).   Just be honest.  Ready?  How long did it take you to run your last marathon?  The fastest marathon was set in 2018 at 2 hours, 1 min and 39 seconds by a Kenyan.  The slowest marathon was set in 2003 by Lloyd Scott who took 6 days, 30 min and 56 seconds. (He was wearing a 130 lb. deep-sea diving suit and he said he got food poising and so he had to keep stopping to go the bathroom and it took him forever to get out the suit etc.).
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Background and commentary:  This morning we will follow Elijah who walks a marathon to his whirlwind departure from this world.  The distance he travels from Gilgal to the Jordan River is about 26 miles so I wanted to put it into perspective so you could understand how this amazing story unfolded.  This is a tale of life and death and since we all only have so many years and days allotted to us by God we want to make the most of the days we have.  But make no mistake:  we will all do what Elijah did on this last day of his life.  We will walk one day to the very edge of life and then we will be gone, swept up in a final exit to eternity. 

  1. Gilgal to Bethel—8 miles. Elijah lived such an incredible life.  He was a man of enormous spiritual power.  He had command of nature like Jesus did.     *Once after years of famine, he stood on the edge of Mt Carmel that looked out over the Mediterranean sea and called for rain.  He bowed his face to the ground between his knees and prayed for rain.  After each prayer, he sent his servant to the edge of the cliff to peer out over the sea scanning the horizon for a cloud.  7 times Elijah bowed and prayed and on the seventh time the servant reported back.  “I see a cloud, so tiny, so distant, like a small hand.”  Run for your life shouted Elijah and before they knew it the clouds were black and torrent fell from the heavens.  Elijah sprinted the 17 miles back to safety in Jezreel.

But in our story today God has whispered an electrifying statement into his ear—“Elijah.  Today is your final day.”  Just as He will whisper to you one day. When Elijah hears this private message from the Lord, he sets in motion his final activities.  He calls Elisha his prophet in training and asks him politely to remain while he travels to Bethel about 8 miles southeast.  It is as I see it an act of profound kindness to the younger prophet.  He doesn’t want to alarm him or frighten him by telling him that today he will die.  He simply asks to remain at Gilgal while he makes a quick trip to town.  It is difficult to watch a loved one fade away and often little is said in the last hours. Elijah too feels a sense of solitude and silence and he wants to walk alone.  But Elisha will have none of it.  He won’t leave the prophet’s side who makes no objection to the young man following him.

When Elijah arrives at Bethel the school of prophets in the town run out to see him for somehow they know what is about to happen.  They don’t approach the venerable Elijah for his a man you don’t confront without permission.  Instead, they run to Elisha with their chatter and speculation.  But Elisha refuses to entertain them.    It is a solemn day and he won’t have it disturbed by gossiping students.  “Quiet!” he shouts to them.  “Hush!” says the Hebrew text.

  1. Bethel to Jericho—Our final day is often a journey revealed only in moments. Elijah stood in Bethel awaiting direction.  Then God says to him:  “Go down to Jericho.”12 miles down the mountain—a descent of nearly 3000 feet to the Jordan valley.  But once again he urges Elisha to remain behind.  Again the young man refuses and shares the journey with the dying man.  *So many times I have been the young man walking to the brink with an older person. So many times I have been by the bedside or said a final prayer not long before the whirlwind came and took them away.  It is a sacred time and Elisha wanted to share it and Elijah was happy for the company.  And once again when they arrived at the town of Jericho flocks of religious students rushed to see the prophet chattering and squawking.  Elisha told them to “Hush!”  It is a quiet time.  Be silent.”  And so once again Elijah waited for God to guide him on for even a journey’s end is often unclear. We don’t know if we will leave in the morning or at noon or in the long night’s reverie.  But then as always, God whispers the words we need.  He is there with us on in our last hours and He shows us the way.
  2. Jericho to Jordan–And so he says to Elijah, go down to the Jordan. And Elijah one last time tried to spare the young prophet of the sorrow of the final departure.  But Elisha says no.  I will not leave you.  And so the final 6 miles down to the Jordan commences.  The two prophets walk alone until their feet wriggle in the river’s edge. Off to the right in the distance, they see Mt. Nebo where Moses stood and glanced longingly oat the promised land and then died, forbidden to cross over.  They remembered that it was at this very place the Ark of the Covenant had parted the river as the Israelites crossed into the Promised land led by Joshua. But now the journey takes them back across into Gilead where Elijah was born.  He is going home.  He knows the mountains in the distance and he remembers the history of this very place.

Then, in an explosive moment in time, Elijah took off his mantle and struck the river which shuddered at the command and split apart instantly.  The two men walked across the dry river bed as their ancestors had done.  And then Elijah turns to Elisha and makes a profound statement.  “Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you.”  This profound moment brimming with intimate generosity displays for us the heart of the old prophet.  Such love and kindness he offers to the young man.  Ask me for something.  Anything. And it shall be yours., he said to him.   What would you ask for in such a rarified hour?  Elisha doesn’t hesitate for a second.  His request comes from a heart of gold who only intent is to honor the prophet and God.  “I want to like you, he says.  Just give me a double portion of your spirit.”  And the old man was shocked but pleased.  “If God wills it when I am gone it will be so.

  1. The Whirlwind—Suddenly as they were considering the request, walking casually along away from the Jordan, a chariot of fire pulled by a team of fiery horses separates the two men. Elisha falls back enraptured at the sight before him.  The great whirlwind spins the chariot of fire heavenward and within seconds it is gone and Elisha is left behind hearing only the sounds of the desert wind blowing softly against the mantle that lay at his feet.

Conclusion:  One day your whirlwind will come for you.  Will you be ready?  Will your final day be filled with kindness, generosity, happy remembrances?  This can only be so if you have faith in Christ who died for you on the cross.  Don’t let your whirlwind catch you by surprise. Make your peace with God now.

Despair beneath a Juniper

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Despair beneath a Juniper-–1 Kings 19:1-15.  June 23, 2019–Drummondtown Baptist Church–Accomac Virginia 23301–David R. Denny. Ph.D.

I want to take you, this morning, to a poignant and desperate scene in the life of one of the greatest men in the OT (the prophet Elijah).    I don’t want to disturb him for he is in deep despair and I’m sure he would not appreciate a group of tourists gawking at him.  But if you are quiet we can see him off in the distance lying beneath a Juniper tree in the wilderness of Beersheba (about an hour and a half southwest of Jerusalem—44 miles).

     (The Juniper tree is not the tree we know of by that name.  This is really the white broom tree of Palestine, a beautiful bushy shrub that grows about 10-12 feet tall and puts out the most gorgeous white blossoms that cast a welcoming shade for travelers through the desert).
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      It is beneath this pleasant and friendly three that the great prophet lies exhausted.  He is dispirited and drained.  His will to live has vanished with the hot winds of the desert and he sees no future, no way forward.  As we peer at him from a distance we see a once vibrant man at life’s end.  And it is in the wake of utter despair that we see him.  It is a sad spectacle.  It’s like watching Superman cringing and shivering in the shadow of a chunk of kryptonite.

If you cup your hand around your ear you might be able to hear him. His death words are given to us in 1 Kings 19:4.  Have you read them?  Have you heard them stumble from his cracked and parched lips as he lies crumpled beneath the broom tree?  “It is enough: now, O LORD, take my life.”

  *I read an interesting article a few days about a CEO of a Washington think tank who was on a plane.  This highly accomplished man was getting older and had been thinking of his life. He had decided to quit his position and do something simpler in a search for life’s meaning.  But as he thought about this he heard a man in the seat ahead of him moaning.  He couldn’t see him because the cabin was dark but him speaking in quiet tones to the passenger beside him.  “I wish I was dead,” said the voice in the seat before him.  Nobody remembers me.  I am irrelevant now.  I wish I was dead.”  When the plane landed and the lights came on he was curious to see who this was.  And to his shock when the elderly man stood he immediately recognized him as a famous celebrity known worldwide for great accomplishments.  Once the other passengers saw him they began to seek his autographs the man smiled and his demeanor changed.  But those words of death haunted the CEO.

And that is what I hear as I listen from a distance.  Elijah wants to die.  Known worldwide for his miracles and brilliance, we see him now as a wreck of a man whose only wish in life is to perish in the desert beneath the broom tree.

Elijah was a man of action who got things done.  He reminds me of Julius Caesar who preferred to ride out into battle conquering whole countries rather than sitting in the palace at Rome.  Elijah was a dynamic man who headed up a school of prophets.  He had stature and prominence in Israel.

Elijah hated what was happening to his country.  Ahab the king of Israel had married a Phoenician queen, Jezebel, who worshipped Baal, the god of rain and lightning and dew.  Temples of Baal were sprouting up all over the place eclipsing the worship of Jehovah, the one true God.  Elijah decided to take on mighty Baal and the prophets who worshipped him. He challenged the god to duel.  Come to Mt Carmel and let’s fight it out he said to the followers of Baal.  The prophets of Baal were angry and agreed.  They came and built a huge altar upon the mountain and sacrificed an ox and then called for fire from heaven.  Nothing happened.  The prophets shouted louder and cut themselves and danced around the altar but nothing happened. Elijah stood and mocked them.  “Maybe your god is asleep.  Shout a little louder.”  After hours of this, Elijah stepped in and said it was his turn.  He too built a huge altar and sacrificed an ox.  He dug ditches around the altar and poured water over the altar not once but three times drenching it all and filled the trenches. (Baal was the god of water so Elijah was making a bold statement here).    Then he called upon God to consume the altar with fire.    (Read I Kings 18:38)— 

Such faith!  Such confidence in God.  Elijah was so powerful and yet look at him now.  He moans beneath a bush and looks a lot like you and me when life gets hard.

Joke:  Sitting by the window of her convent, Sister Barbara opened a letter from home one evening. Inside the letter was a $100 bill her parents had sent.  Sister Barbara smiled at the gesture. As she read the letter by the window, she noticed a shabbily dressed stranger leaning against the lamp post below.  Quickly, she wrote, “Don’t despair. Sister Barbara,” on a piece of paper, wrapped the $100 bill in it, got the man’s attention and tossed it out the window to him. The stranger picked it up, and with a puzzled expression and a tip of his hat, went off down the street.  The next day, Sister Barbara was told that a man was at the door, insisting on seeing her. She went down and found the stranger waiting.  Without a word, he handed her a huge wad of $100 bills.  “What’s this?” she asked.  “That’s the $8,000 you have coming Sister,” he replied. “Don’t Despair paid 80-to-1.”

The Solution to Despair

Elijah did not die beneath the Juniper tree.  He did what you and I can do when we find ourselves beneath the Juniper.  Let’s see how he recovered and found joy and happiness again. Maybe we too can find renewal when life gets hard.

 

  1.   He lay down and slept. So simple. Just a little rest.  I think sometimes when exhaustion sets in we need to find a time to just lie down a little beneath the Juniper and sleep awhile. *I remember that Alexander the Great would take a quick nap when he was weary.  He would take a small ball in his hand and then close his eyes and drift off. When sleep came and his hands relaxed and the ball hit the ground, he would wake refreshed.
  2. He conversed with an angel. Now that one might be a problem but remember that angels are all around us.  They ministered to Jesus in the garden and they will help you as well in your hard times.  Just be open to the divine and seek the angel’s touch when you feel yourself in despair.
  3. He ate some hot bread and drank some cool water. A little refreshment can sometimes lift your spirits.  Next time you feel yourself going under, run down the Island House and get hot fried flounder and some sweet potato fries.
  4. Listen for the still small voice of God(1 Kings 19:12). Elijah left the Juniper tree and journeyed on to Mt. Horeb and there he tucked himself away in a cave.  But when he stepped out on the ledge of the cave he heard the still small voice of God in the gentle breeze.

Conclusion:

God wants you to be happy and successful. But we are not immune from hard times and feelings of despair.  So when they come, remember Elijah and how he recovered by taking a few simple steps and drawing nearer to God.