✠ Psalmody: Psalm 25:6, 2b, 22; 1–2a; Psalm 25:17-18; Psalm 25:17b–18, 1–3; Psalm 119:47–48a; Psalm 5:1b–2
✠ Lection: Exodus 24:12-18; 1 Kings 19:3b-8 ; Matthew 12:38-50
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
On this cold February evening, let us head south, south with the prophet Elijah. In 1 Kings 19, we hear that he went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah. He was coming from the northern kingdom of Israel, southward to Beersheba, which lay on the edge of the desert wilderness. Beersheba has much biblical significance in itself, but we shall first consider the frigid, dark north from whence Elijah was fleeing. He wasn’t vacationing, but running away as his faith and life were being put to the test, but only after God had done great things for him and against his enemies. In the chapter prior is the account of his famous and lauded battle on Mount Carmel against the men of false religion, the prophets of Baal. Recount how Elijah had acted there with great courage and certainty in the might and majesty of the one true God Whom he served; how he mocked the prophets asking if Baal was away relieving himself when the demon they worshiped failed to show up to the showdown; how Elijah stacked the deck, how he prepared an altar with heavy dousing of water many times over so that when holy fire did come down from heaven, there could be no doubt that is was the LORD his God showing that there is no other god like Him; how Elijah then executed all the false god’s prophets in accordance with the Holy One’s divine judgement, and by this cleansing how the LORD brought rain upon the dry and parched land.
In face of such great victory, one would imagine Elijah’s faith and courage to be significantly emboldened and rather immovable, yet when the evil queen Jezebel heard all that he had done, she sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of [the prophets of Baal] by tomorrow about this time.” And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, in the south. Jezebel speaks with the mouth of Satan as he casts doubt and aspersion upon God, tempting all who have seen His might to forget or distrust that He is willing and able to be mighty in our entire lives and circumstances. In our weakness, we succumb to temptation when we believe in any moment that God has forsaken us as we age, as we get ill in mind or body, as we try and fail either in keeping from doing bad or in striving to do good, and as we struggle over sins that we keep coming back to as we see in our hearts more deeply in these days of Lent. Oh, beloved of the Lord, let us not forget Him and what He has done and how He is our Hope in all these things. His promises hold true from womb to tomb and every tick of the clock in between. He covers thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
Doubt is the first step toward despair as Elijah’s words show. He prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!” Everyday that the LORD gives us life is in accordance with His good and perfect will. Everything in those days is of the same. There may come a point when we ask the LORD to just let us die, yet it is He Who knows and ordains the perfect time for that to happen. Just as many young years are spent gaining godly wisdom and living, in our latter years the Lord has given us the coming generations upon whom that wisdom is to be bestowed; wisdom that can be learned and taught in how we confess and believe the truth, in how we pray and worship, and, yes, in how we die. Much of God’s good is given to us to pass on to those who come next that they may also be firm in His word and faith until they die, for that is God’s good and gracious will.
But faith does not despair. It trusts in the Lord’s provision even if the fallen mind begins to succumb to temptation and wrestle with doubt. Elijah himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. His trust in God’s goodness wasn’t completely void for He sought out a provision in this life that was only there by the Lord’s divine will in creation. In the weight of this life, whether wisely fought against or foolishly fled from unto weakness, rest is found under a tree. Every Christian of now or of old finds rest under the tree of the cross of Christ where the Lord provides for Himself a Sacrifice, an everlasting Fruit that yields forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation infinitely more than a hundredfold for all who take, eat.
Elijah still had more life to live, more southerly travel to go, and that into a land harsher than the one that brought him to the broom tree. What awaits him after this provision under the tree is his encounter with God in the cave on His Mount Horeb. Since it is the Lord Who giveth and the Lord Who taketh away life, more was seen to be ordained for Elijah. Our days, too, are numbered, whether brief or extended, according to the will of the Lord Who has redeemed and purchased us with a Price. The strength we need comes from His hand, from His very touch, and it comes through simple yet profound means. As Elijah lay and slept under a broom tree, in clear sign of the toil and labor of enduring this life, whether for good or for ill, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. By his head was provision given by his Head and ours, that is, Christ our Lord, who is the Bread of Life come down from heaven and baked on the coals of God’s wrath for the propitiation of our sins. By his head was provision of water as what poured forth from our Savior’s spear-pierced side along with His precious Blood that washes away all our sins that would have us perish in this life and the next.
So he ate and drank, and lay down again. And the angel of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” The Lord faithfully returns to us, who are in need, to feed us with His food again, and again, and again. For, you see, this was no randomly picked messenger of God, but The Angel of the LORD, a title regularly used in the OT for the pre-incarnate Christ, the second Person of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. The Son of God tends to Elijah, The Son of God tends to you, by His gracious touch to awaken you to this truth; the same touch as He laid upon the lepers He cured, the blind He healed, the dead He raised; the same touch as He laid upon fearful and trembling Peter, James, and John at the Transfiguration when they beheld the glory of God in the splendid Son and in the voice from the cloud. Jesus comes to touch you with forgiveness and life that He bears in His nail-scarred hands. He says, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” Indeed, it is. This life is too much without Christ, your divine Messenger, Who speaks the words of God to you, telling you from whence you get your supernatural strength.
Elijah arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights; supernatural food. In the heavenly food that the Lord provides in the Eucharist, you receive far more than can be perceived. Arise and eat, for if it is strength that you want to go forth through these forty days, and for all days that follow, and unto the Eternal Day, then it comes in the place where the Lord provides rest under His tree as He feeds you the true Meat and Drink of Himself. Fear no Jezebel, no Satan, no trial, no temptation, no sin. Repent and flee to the cross for rest. Forget not that the Lord has shown Himself faithful here. Doubt not that He will never change. Keep not yourself from the fruit of the tree of the cross, but come at every opportunity for Holy Communion to eat what The Angel of the Lord gives to strengthen and preserve you in body and soul unto life everlasting.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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