A Time To Decompress

“And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?” (1Ki 19:13 AV)

 

This is the second time God asks Elijah this question.  Elijah had concluded a dramatic confrontation with Jezebel’s prophets of Baal.  He had called them to the top of mount Carmel and dared them to call upon Baal to rain down fire from heaven.  He would do the same with the one true God.  They built their altars.  They dressed their sacrifices.  Then the prophets of Baal called upon him for the majority of the day.  Nothing.  Elijah dug a trench around his altar and soaked his sacrifice with water.  One quick prayer and the fire came down.  To show God as the One and only Tyre God, Elisha then commanded all the prophets of Ball to be killed.  This angered Jezebel so much that she swore to take the life of Elijah before the conclusion of the next day.  This causes Elijah to flee into the wilderness and hide in a cave.  This is where we pick up the story.  God asks Elijah what he was doing in the cave.  He asks twice.  Both times, Elijah’s answer is the same.  He is burned out and he feels he is the only one who is fighting for God.  The question is asked twice.  What the question is meant to imply, we cannot tell.  What we do know is God’s response was to send help by way of a new king in Syria, and new king for Israel, and a replacement for his office.  Perhaps the question was more therapeutic than it was accusatory.   Maybe Elijah had to admit to himself just how used up he really was.

When going through very stressful events, we do not see, to take the time to decompress.  Recently, my wife and I sat with her oncologist and she told us there was nothing to worry about.  Her cancer was stable.  There were no new tumors.  There was no reason to believe in the short term, there would be anything of concern.  Her treatments were doing what they were designed to do and there was no indication this cancer would return.  At least in the foreseeable future.  At the same time, I was dealing with a church problem that had the potential of boiling over into a full-blown catastrophe.  I did not deal with the second because I needed to decompress from the first.  For ten months, we had been battling the heavy-handed monster called Cancer.  We went through the typical experience of all couples faced with this diagnosis.  We put our battle array on and faced the giant.  When the giant seemed to be dead, we went after our ten thousand.  Like David, Goliath, and the Philistines, I felt like I had committed to the bitter end.  With the sword of God in my hand, we faced down the oppositions of discouragement, fear, and hopelessness.  When the doctor said there is nothing to worry about and that do not foresee cancer returning anytime soon, I felt like David with a sword in hand, looking for another head to lop off.  There was no head.  There was no battle.  There was no enemy.  I had to decompress.

Many look at the question as a rebuke.  I don’t think that it was.  Otherwise, the LORD would not have sent help to Elijah.  Rather, I think the question was meant to help Elijah process the situation.  Elijah had to decompress.  He has to process the dramatic and extreme ways in which God used him and the consequences of being used.  I remember one time when the LORD asked me to switch from the message I had prepared and trust Him to extemporaneously preach Romans 6.  There were serious sin issues in the camp of which I was unaware.  God really came down.  The entire church came to the altar and serious sin was halted.  All glory to Him.  But I had to go straight to my office and I collapsed on the floor.  I had to decompress.  It is not good for anyone to go through hard times without stepping back into a cave and decompressing from what just happened.  In doing so, Elijah expressed a need he might not have any other way.  He was not whining.  What he was doing was coming to the end of himself and admitting he needed help and encouragement.  Next time the LORD gives you a deep trial of faith, don’t forget to take some time and process what you just went through.  Otherwise, it will eat you up inside and you will burn out.