Elijah has just reaped enormous success: he has proven to the whole people of Israel that whoever the God is that he serves, he is more powerful than the gods of Baal: when it comes to a showdown on Mount Carmel, those prophets are not able to light their sacrifice without firelighters, whereas all Elijah needs to do is to call on his God, and fire comes from heaven. Unfortunately the powers at be, most notably queen Jezebel are convinced; in fact, this whole affair has only infuriated her and so she promises to kill Elijah, whatever the cost. So he flees to the desert, and there, under a broom tree, let’s off his complaint, made famous by Mendelssohn’s oratory (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Tei4iQh9Y&feature=related):
It is enough! O Lord, now take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers! I desire to live no longer: now let me die, for my days are but vanity. I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts, for the children of Israel have broken Thy covenant, and thrown down Thine altars, and slain all Thy prophets, slain them with the sword. And I, even I only am left: and they seek my life to take it away! It is enough!
A combination of genuine concern and fear, mixed with simple anger, frustration and despair. He has enough and is not interested in continuing. “I am the only one left, nobody seems to care except me, there is nobody to help, let alone to take my place.” But God is only marginally sympathetic to the prophets complaint, and does not immediately send the relief troops. Instead he lets Elijah stew for a while, before an impressive display of the powers of nature: storm, earthquake and fire. But none of those, as awesome as they are, convince Elijah of the presence of God as much as a still and quiet voice. Suddenly he understands how little he is; he snaps out of his depression and is ready to listen. And what God has to say is eminently surprising: “What are you doing here?” God asks. He then commands him to return to civilization and to appoint two kings, one for Israel and one for Aram, and a successor for himself. God does not share Elijah’s view that he is utterly alone and that nobody else can do his job or succeed him. There are others who are waiting to be enlisted, and this is what Elijah is commanded to do.
Do we not find ourselves ever so often “in the desert”, pitying ourselves for the lack of sympathy we are getting? We have slaved while others did not seem to care; nobody else evidently shares the same commitment to the cause, in fact, if you let them, they might sell off the family silver. A good thing we are there to make sure that does not happen. We are dead tired, but nothing will keep us from delegating responsibility to people less qualified than we are. And slowly but surely vision, energy and perspective seep out of us. It takes getting away from it all to realize what is really going on; in the desert, the very place we do not want to be in, allows us to hear God and like Elijah, Moses or Job remember rule number 6: “Don’t take yourself too seriously”. Ironically, once we do we become more useful again, because we do not hold things so tightly and because we look for allies and people to bring into whatever we are doing. Elijah could have been a one-man show, impressive but transient. As it was he managed to pass on to others what he had received. Who are the Elishas you and I are supposed to seek out and train?
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