Surprised Find

1st Kings 19:1-15; Luke 8:26-39; Galatians 3:23-29

Central Baptist Church, Lowesville, VA

24 June 2007

It seems to be a commonly human condition that we become discouraged without provocation, ready to give up for little to no reason at all. We battle a constantly changing flood of emotions. Too often we forget the victories and progress of the past because of momentary setbacks. Edgar A. Guest reported this, saying “often a goal is nearer than it seems to a faint and faltering man.”^[1] When we look back upon our struggles, they seem to pale in importance, yet looking to our present and future is often quite distressing. We have a choice to live with fear of the unknown or trust God before the uncertain. Do we allow for God’s working presence only when we feel up to the task at hand?

Jewish traditions hold up Elijah as the greatest of Old Testament prophets. On one level it seems a very strange designation. While Elijah stands out from the pack confronting 450 prophets of Ba’al at Mount Carmel, we find him high-tailing it in fear in the very next chapter. It seems the great success at showing Yahweh to be truly God and Ba’al an impotent imposter was somehow still theory when applied to the pressures and doubts of daily living. The great prophet who witnessed Yahweh’s provision amid three years of drought, including raising to life a widow’s son, is ready to lay down and die in the face of Jezebel’s threat.

What happened to the confidence Elijah displayed in confronting Ahab with his idolatry? What happened to the faith displayed on Mount Carmel as Elijah asked for water to be poured repeatedly on the wood of the altar? What good was it for Elijah to have experienced the hand of Yahweh working through him in such extraordinary ways, when now he is ready to lie down and give up on life?

God did not send Elijah to Mount Sinai, but reached out to guard and guide him along the way. He fled from Jezebel’s threat in fear, not in faith. He ran from a sense of worthless toil and effort that did not seem to make any impact on the public life of Israel. Depressed, disillusioned, disappointed, he fled into the wilderness, lay under a broom tree asking God to end his life. He saw no point left in going on. Elijah’s hopes, dreams, and desire to see Israel returned to the worship of Yahweh were dashed to the ground as the queen had threatened his life for having shown Ba’al up as impotent. The great show-down had apparently made no difference at all.

Yahweh does not seem threatened in the least. Yahweh does not seem concerned with how things were working out. As though completely detached from Elijah’s anguish, God’s messengers feed Elijah and prepare him for the journey he has begun. At the mountain amid a host of power demonstrations, Elijah finds Yahweh present in the stillness of a quiet voice. God has been present, active, and working all around Elijah without pause. Elijah was just looking for the wrong manifestation of God’s presence. Rather than the power structures of Israel, Yahweh was behind the scenes with seven thousand others who had never bowed to Ba’al. While Elijah felt himself alone and abandoned, God was working in ways he had just failed to notice. Am I surprised to find God working in my life?

The Gedarene demoniac had no hope. His life was completely ensnared by powers beyond his control. He was a danger to others and even the community could not subdue him, even with chains. His presence filled others with dread. He lived in isolation, repelled by the fear of the entire community, all of which had given up on him. He had no more family, friends, or support from anywhere. Despair increased his self-mutilation and desire to end his captivity once and for all, yet without success. If ever he had enjoyed hope, there was none left. There was no way out for him. Then Jesus entered the scene.

Amid utter hopelessness and despair, Jesus’ presence ushered in new possibilities. While all Gedara lived in fear of this man, Jesus approached in confident peace. With Jesus’ arrival, hope entered this man’s life for the first time. The only response he could apparently manage was to cast himself at Jesus’ feet. In that act of submission, it no longer mattered what kind of despair had reigned in his life. In casting his life before Jesus, what mattered now was God’s power and willingness to act in his life against all other obstacles.

With the release from demonic bondage, the man wanted to remain in Jesus’ presence. There was some concern that only when Jesus was physically near could he remain free of demonic oppression. Jesus wanted his release to be complete. He was to step beyond the fear of returning to his prior state by embarking upon a mission to proclaim throughout the region what God had done for him. Jesus freed him twice. He freed the man from the demons that had possessed him, then from the fear that he would not make it without Jesus’ physical presence. He had to learn to trust that God is not at a loss because we might not feel hopeful. Do we trust God in our sense of hopelessness?

In JK Rowling’s books, Harry Potter is often beset with the uncertainties of facing the unknown. He is often misunderstood and unjustly put upon, yet often he projects ill treatment where he simply does not know the whole story. He fears that the headmaster has abandoned him, that he is friendless, that all hope is gone. All the while, he has support of which he is unaware or ignores due to his doubts and fears. Too often we are little different. We believe ourselves hopeless and abandoned, simply because we rely more heavily on our emotions and fears than faith in Christ Jesus. Do we truly accept God’s sovereignty over all our demons and fears?

In Galatians chapter three, Paul continues discussing faith as free from the legalistic demands of those who would force legalistic Judaism upon Gentile believers. Circumcision had been the hallmark of identification with Abraham, to whom God’s promise and later covenant had been revealed. It was the first step in identification with God’s provision and becoming a part of the community of Israel. Paul’s words point to a higher reality as revealed in Christian baptism.

The circumcision party was trapped into the tradition of legal observance and circumcision as the only way to inherit Yahweh’s promise to Abraham. They looked on rites of conversion or identification as all important. Paul regards these initiation rituals as pointing to a much greater need—identification of our lives with Christ Jesus. This was a greater reality he recalls as being clothed with Christ. He had already mentioned Christ living within, now he speaks of our living within Christ Jesus—immersed and so joined into His life, such that Jesus shines forth. This, says Paul, is that reality to which the promise to Abraham pointed. Through Christ we have become descendents of Abraham and heirs with Christ Jesus of the promise. If we are immersed in Christ, what is there left to fear?

Elijah found God where he least expected. Throughout his despair, God had been present. God has promised to be found by those not even seeking. Should Christ’s presence take us by surprise?

—©2007 Christopher B. Harbin

¹ Edgar A. Guest, “You Mussn’t Quit”, http://www.godswork.org/enpoem157.htm.