Deeper: Yeah, So What?

Ever feel all alone with the weight of the world on your shoulders?  Most of us can relate that feeling.  We’ve all endured circumstances that felt as if though they were our end.  We get whiny and complain.  Our laments are raised up before the Lord.

We expect God to look on us with compassion and to rain down upon us rays of sunshine and rainbows.  We expect Him to deliver us and come rushing into our rescue!

However, sometimes God is like, “Yeah, so what?”.

Elijah experienced exactly this:

1 Kings 19:9b-18
9b And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

It almost seems as if God just ignored Elijah.  I mean Elijah was running for his life away from Jezebel who had just sliced up all of the other prophets of the Lord with a sword!  Did God not care about those lives that were lost and the one that was about to be?  God simply said, check out my presence.

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

God just showed Elijah His presence and what He is capable of.  He’s then like, “Let me ask you again… WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!?!?”.  He tried to show Elijah that he had nothing to fear.  There was a bigger picture here that God could see.  Elijah was overwhelmed by his immediate circumstances, but God saw beyond them.  Elijah was basically being asked simply to trust in God and follow His plans because there was a far greater purpose that God had planned through this all.

15 The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17 Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. 18 Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”

Whenever we get feeling like Elijah, we may get that same response from God.  “Yeah, so what?”  It’s not that He doesn’t love us and care about us – it’s a question of whether we truly believe that He does.  God just essentially ignored Elijah’s concerns and told him to just keep moving forward.  God could handle Jezebel and He can handle our circumstances as well.  He is TRUSTWORTHY!