Everyone gets caught watching the clock ahead of “quitting time”. Yet, only a few people sadly do this with their whole life. They conclude that they have failed and quit! Our passage today addresses the issue of behavioral depression. Behavioral depression is not a chemical imbalance, though if untreated it can result in one. Behavioral depression is a spiritual issue. It is, in essence, “Man insisting that God has failed in his life!”
According to Minrith & Meier, the majority of Americans suffer from a serious, clinical depression at some point in their lives. Most of these people never get help….they just fight this battle on their own. They don’t have to. The Word offers the key to getting better. God gives us a case study in behavioral depression in I Kings 19. This is a case where the spiritual bled into the emotional and physical in a believer’s life. Even though his story is found in the Bible, it doesn’t mean he had it all together. In fact, he experienced a wide range of emotions, from ecstatic exhilaration to the depths of despair. James 5:17 describes him as a person just like us. Before we dig into this story, notice that Elijah experienced four of the classic symptoms…Fear, Suicidal thoughts, excessive lethargy and tiredness, Sense of rejection.
- Fear – “Elijah was afraid and ran for his life….” 1 Kings 19:3
- Suicidal thoughts – “(Elijah) prayed that he might die. ‘I have had enough, LORD,’ he said. ‘Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.’ 1 Kings 19:4
- Excessive tiredness – “Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep…” 1 Kings 19:5 slept for a couple of days… maybe longer…
- Feelings of rejection – “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken 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.” 19:10, AND he experienced this depression for a long time – nearly 2 months
What is strange is this: It came on the back of a string of private lessons and a moment of public triumph! Elijah confronted 400 prophets of Baal on the Mt.Carmel and exposed them as the false prophets they really were. His faith & obedience was used of God to call down fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice he’d placed on the altar, and then a few hours later sent a downpour of rain on a land that hadn’t had rain for 3 years.
Why would a man who experienced some of the most powerful displays of God’s power… Why would he suddenly be crippled by fear, hopelessness and despair? Why would he run away to a desolate corner of the world and seek to die? Because he had a way HE thought things should have worked out. He thought that Jezebel would submit to the Lord, and that God would use HIM to turn the tide in the land. When Jezebel threatened him, he didn’t see HIS PLAN coming to be, so he wanted out! He betrayed that thinking on 19:4, “I am not better than my fathers.” He thought his ministry would do what others had not done!
Key Principle: When our plans become larger than God’s plan in our eyes, we set ourselves up for disappointment and depression. Depression is man saying the God failed to deliver on HIS expectations for life. We cannot always see how God is at work, but we are called to follow Him on the path where He leads. Trust in His personal, loving and infinite knowledge is the key.
Before we move to the solution, let’s ask more about the problem. How did he get there? Ahab went home and told his wife about the slaughter of Elijah, but obviously didn’t get the point of the lightning… GOD WAS AT WORK (19:1)
- Elijah was depleted by victory (19:1).
- Elijah was decimated by fear (19:2-3a).
- Elijah was disabled by isolation (3b-4a).
- Elijah was defeated by self-pity (4b).
But that’s not where God left him.. God didn’t say: “well sorry Elijah – you have behavioral depression and medications haven’t been invented yet – so I can’t help you!”
I want you to notice what God did to heal Elijah:
Step One: God let him rest and get quiet for a bit (19:5-6)
The first prescription may surprise you. Instead of telling him to suck it up and snap out of it, God knew that the most important medicine Elijah needed was rest. God didn’t give him a sermon or shower him with shame. Elijah had collapsed under the tree and fallen asleep in utter exhaustion.God recognized that Elijah’s depression was not an imaginary problem. Elijah’s depression was real. God did not say – “get a hold of yourself Elijah. God didn’t treat Elijah roughly. God just let him rest.
1 Kings 19:5 says that God then sent an angel to Elijah who said, “Arise and eat.” When he looked around, he found food and drink. He ate and went back to sleep. After more sleep, the divine messenger returned and told him to get up again and eat again. Our bodies were designed to need rest. You can either wait until you’re totally maxed out like Elijah was and collapse in total exhaustion, or, you can take the healthier approach and begin to incorporate rest into your life. In all that time, God doesn’t say a word… God doesn’t offer any counsel. God doesn’t set Elijah down and have a face to face talk. In all that time, Elijah is left alone – Elijah’s given time to rest and to think…. No sermons, no long counseling sessions… just love and rest.
Step Two: God let him know that there was a future (19:7-8)
God sent him to Horeb, the Mt. Of God (where the Law given to Moses). He let Elijah know his case would be heard by God. It wasn’t immediate, it would take a journey. When we’re emotionally strung out, it’s easy to think that everyone is against us, even God seems distant. The angel let him know that God hadn’t left the scene.
After regaining his strength, verse 8 tells us that Elijah traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Mount Horeb. While this mountain was several hundred miles away, there’s no way it should have taken him 40 days to get there. This just shows that fear forced Elijah to go through more than he needed to. The same is true for us. When we’re afraid or discouraged, we tend to wander aimlessly and take much longer to get where God wants us to be.
Step Three: God let him explain what HE thought about the situation (19:9-10)
God had Elijah come to a cave and lodge there. Then, He asked Elijah to tell Him what the problem was. God asked Elijah: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Didn’t God know? Of course He knew, He’d fed Elijah to reach this mountain. But Elijah needed to vocalize what was wrong in his life. Elijah needed to explain what HE thought the problem was. And once Elijah verbalized his belief of what was wrong, then…
Elijah replied to God (19:10) and said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken 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.”
Hidden in the midst of that statement was this accusation:”I’ve been beating my head against the wall serving you Lord. And everything seems to just be falling apart around me… What have YOU been doing God??? Elijah’s reply to God revealed what Elijah had wrong. ELIJAH DIDN’T THINK THAT GOD WAS DOING THE RIGHT THINGS, and Elijah thought HE was alone in truly understanding the best way to handle things.
Here is the key: WRONG THINKING ABOUT GOD’S ABILITY AND GOD’S GOODNESS IS SIN, and sin IS at the core of the behavioral depression.
Step Four: A New Encounter with God (19:11-14)
God answered the false beliefs and ideas that were fueling Elijah’s depression. Jesus said, “The truth shall set you free.” Why is that? Because false ideas, false beliefs (especially false ideas about God) have power put us in bondage. Our lives are built around what we think is true about life. And if the foundations of that reasoning are based on wrong information or impressions, the result can be devastating. How did God answer? He told Elijah to observe as the Lord passed by. A STRONG WIND broke into the rocks – but the Lord was not in the wind. AN EARTHQUAKE shook the mountain, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Finally, a GENTLE BLOW breezed by, and in it was God’s voice.
The point was clear: I AM NOT WHERE YOU THINK I AM. I come where I choose to come, how I choose to come. You do not understand ME.
If we want to rediscover God, it’s important to emotionally downshift. We need to remove some of the noise and clutter from our lives. God is hard to hear when we’re so inundated with other things. We have to be quiet enough to hear Him. When a believer is not thinking clearly about God, the Lord encounters him in a new way. He doesn’t toss him away, He patiently shows Himself anew. God wants us to know Him. He isn’t in the hurry we think He is in.
**19:13 reviews the question: “What are you doing here?” The answer revealed that Elijah JUST WASN’T GETTING THE POINT at all. (19:14).
When our allied troops were making their way across Europe to cross Hitler’s forces, they came across a bombed out building that had this inscription scrawled on a basement wall: “I believe in the sun even when it’s not shining. I believe in love even when it is not shown. And I believe in God even He doesn’t speak.” When a person is depressed, they don’t think God is doing right. They have no hope, no confidence, and God isn’t easily seen by them. A person in depression needs to realize that – just like Elijah – God IS working in their lives… even when they can’t see Him.
Step Five: Corrected Thinking from the Source of Truth (19:15-18)
God reassigned Elijah to a new task (19:15), He set him to finish his job by training his replacement (something Elijah didn’t believe existed), and this corrected Elijah’s thinking. God was telling him “Elijah – you’re not the only one left” (19:16)
Later God told Elijah: “I have reserved seven thousand in Israel — all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.” “Elijah, I’ve not been doing nothing (God seems to be saying)… in fact, I’m just getting started”. In other words, don’t worry about it Elijah… I’ve got it all under control. I AM doing something.
“Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu … king over Israel, and anoint Elisha …to succeed you as prophet. 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. (I Kings 19:15-17)
Step Six: God got him busy in the lives of others (19:19-21)
God gave Elijah something to do! When God finished His counseling session with Elijah, Elijah was still in his complaining mood, but God basically tells him: “Get back to work. I’ve got a job for you to do… make yourself useful”. 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. Also, anoint Jehu … king over
Israel,
and anoint Elisha … to succeed you as prophet.” (I Kings 19:15-16).
During a lecture on mental health someone once asked Dr. Carl Menninger: “What would you advise a person to do if that person felt a nervous breakdown coming on?” Most people thought he would say, “Go see a psychiatrist immediately,” but he didn’t. Much to everyone’s astonishment, Dr. Menninger replied, “Lock up your house, go across the railroad tracks, find somebody in need, and help that person.” To overcome discouragement, “Don’t focus on yourself, get involved in the lives of other people.”
There you have it! If you are depleted by life, drawn down by fear, if you’ve pulled back from those around you and you are walking with the limp of self-pity… here is God’s prescription:
Get some rest and get quite for a spell. Listen for God’s voice about the future. You are still here, so you have one. If you know Him as Savior, you have nothing but future ahead! Tell God what YOU think is going on. Moan out loud if you have to. He can handle in. But, be ready… an encounter with God is at hand! He will correct your heart by His Word and put you back in the service line up. Maybe that’s what you need most. He’ll let you know! We cannot always see how God is at work, but we are called to follow Him on the path where He leads. Trust in His personal, loving and infinite knowledge is the key.
