The Journey is Too Much

Happy Wednesday!

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear about the Biblical guy Elijah? The guy from 1 Kings in the Old Testament? I have a feeling that most people think of the stories where he performed miracles or where God spoke through him. Or you know, the time where God sent down a chariot for him to be lifted up into Heaven. He’s the guy that didn’t die. The guy that found such favor in the eyes of God that he got to skip the whole death thing and go straight to Heaven. 

I’ve been reading through the Old Testament very slowly throughout last year and this year and while I’m now in 2 Kings hanging out with Elijah’s friend Elisha, there’s one Elijah story in particular that’s stuck with me… It’s the story in chapter 19 of 1 Kings verses 1-9. That’s probably become one of my favorite stories of the Old Testament. Before this Elijah has done some pretty spectacular and miraculous things. Not only is he a prophet of God with a deep and personal relationship with God himself, but God has worked through him in so many amazing ways. Through God he provided for a widow and her son who took him in. He then raised the widow’s son from the dead when he died. There’s that famous story where he showed up the worshippers of Baal. And then in the very next chapter Jezebel sent a messenger to threaten him. What did Elijah do? Up until this point he stood firm and found peace, strength and provision in God. And yet, right here he ran. It said, “Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.” Once he thought he was safe he sat down and prayed to God that he would die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 

This guy who is a prophet of God and who - after this by the way - is brought up to heaven, ran in fear and begged God to take his life because he couldn’t deal with it anymore. Handling the wickedness of Jezebel and Ahab were too much for him. After he prayed that he fell asleep and woke up to an angel who provided bread and water for him. When he woke up an angel was there with bread and water. The angel told him to “get up and eat.” Elijah fell back asleep after he had eaten and drank and a second time the angel woke him up and said “get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” Elijah got up and ate yet again. I love how God knows our human needs as much as our spiritual needs. He saw how tired and worn out Elijah was and what did he do? He gave him some yummy bread and some water and not just one nap, but two! Instead of telling him to pull himself up by the bootstraps and get back to work, there’s no time for laying around moping! He sent down an angel to provide for his human needs and was patient with him. God gave him rest in the middle of a turbulent time. 

Funny story, on Sunday I was feeling pretty worn out… Depressed and doubtful, tired and unmotivated. I sat downstairs being pretty mopey and stuff as my mom was making bread. I literally was going to start spiraling into all my doubts and was just so tired and could feel depression settling in. And I’m not even kidding the minute I had a bite of that yummy, fresh, warm bread my spirits lifted. Maybe I was just hungry or maybe my mom’s bread is magical, but either way it legitimately helped. I smiled the entire time I was devouring that bread and just felt better, uplifted. That may sound crazy, but I don’t know how else to explain it. As I was eating the story of Elijah came to mind of him feeling worn out and tired (and for good reason!) and eating fresh, warm bread and drinking water from the angel and taking that time to rest. I may not be on the run from a crazy person who had just threatened me, but in that moment I was like, yeah I get you Elijah. I get it… bread can work wonders. 

But really though, this story speaks to his humanness… I don’t think I’ve ever really seen myself in any Biblical characters, not like this. I’ve never really emphasized with them the way I do with Elijah in this story. He was tired and hungry and worn down and so over it all. He couldn’t go any further. All he had left was to fall on his knees and tell God to just take it all away because it was too much. This great prophet of God, the guy who went up to heaven in a chariot… he ran in fear and was tired and hungry and had nothing left. And even then what did he do? Even when he wanted to die he still turned to God and put it in God’s hands. He still had such faith in God. He was a human being who felt hunger and tiredness and discouragement, but he still trusted God in everything he did even when he ran away in fear, he never turned his back on God. And what did God do? He gave him rest and nourishment when he needed it. Something about what the angel said, “for the journey is too much for you” really hit me. The journey is too much for you… God saw that and he gave him grace and love in that. He saw the journey would have been too much for him if he didn’t take a much needed break. 

I haven’t really done any in depth study on this story (I’d like to one of these days though), so these are just my initial, surface level thoughts without knowing a whole lot of context or anything. Honestly, I don’t know where I’m going with this other than this little story of Elijah’s interaction with God encouraged me and gave me hope. It made me love God even more than I already did.

So, I guess I’ll leave you with this, God will still provide for you and be there for you even when you run away scared, even when you’re tired and point blank tell him you can’t do it anymore. He knows what you need, whether it’s a nap and some yummy food or a word of encouragement or a change. He won’t condemn you for feeling defeated and worn out. He won’t leave you when you’re scared and lost. He’ll provide what you need and give you the strength to keep going. The journey is too much for us, but it is not too much for Him.