This morning, we turn once again to 1 Kings chapter 19. 1 Kings chapter 19. Recall that last week we considered that Elijah had, again, Elijah's fleeing and running into the wilderness, praying that the Lord would take his life. This morning, we consider the Lord's answer to that request. And in connection with that, I would like to read from 1 Corinthians chapter 10, the first 13 verses, before we turn to our text. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. In my Bible, the heading that's inserted before verse 1 of 1 Corinthians 10 says warnings from Israel's history, which is indeed fitting for Elijah this morning. 1 Corinthians 10, beginning at verse 1, as we give our attention to the Word of God. For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud, and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them. Their bodies were scattered over the desert. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry. We should not commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in one day 23,000 of them died. We should not test the Lord as some of them did and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble as some of them did and were killed by the destroying angel. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. 1 Kings chapter 19. And we'll begin at verse 3. So we consider verses 5-8. Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there while he himself went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it, and prayed that he might die. I have had enough, Lord, he said. Take my life. I am no better than my ancestors. Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, Get up and eat. He looked around and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you. So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled 40 days and 40 nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There ends the reading of God's Word. May He add His blessing to our consideration of it this morning. O beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, when another betrays your confidence or misuses your trust, what do you do? Not asking what we should do, but what do we often do? Most likely, we pull away from them. Most likely, we disassociate ourselves from them. We no longer enjoy, as we ought to, a peaceful and trustworthy relationship with them, and rarely do we give them a second chance. However, that's not how God deals with His people who are often rebellious and at times regularly betray Him, especially those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must confess that we are often rebellious. We oftentimes regularly betray Him. Yet He teaches His rebellious servants a lesson and in doing so, He draws His people nearer to Himself. And that is the blessing that Elijah would experience. That is the lesson that Elijah would learn. As we know full well, Elijah had closed the eye of faith and instead he had focused his physical sight on his own circumstances and not on the Lord's work. He had yielded to Satan's temptation that came to him through Jezebel and he gave up his position in the Lord's battle. He ran for his life. He begged for a discharge. And to top it all off, like us at times, he probably believed at that moment that no one had ever had it as bad as he was having it at that moment. Certainly, he was facing a temptation uncommon to man. He was no longer risking his life for the Lord's glory, but instead he was trying to save his life for his own sake, as we are told earlier, that he ran for his life. Yet, ironically, his bedtime prayer as we considered last week was, I have had enough, Lord. Take my life. As I mentioned a moment ago, this text is God's answer to Elijah's faithless request. And it would prepare him. What takes place in this text and this episode would prepare him for the ultimate answer that he would receive on Mount Horeb. We have here, I believe, a demonstration of what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10.13 when he says, No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. Either He will lighten the burden or He will give increased strength to endure it. And as the psalmist says in Psalm 89, the Lord says to the psalmist, speaking of His Son Israel, I will punish their sin with the rod, their iniquity with flogging, but I will not take My love from Him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness. Here, God does not remove the burden. Jezebel is not taken out of the picture, and God does not perform some mighty work of grace in the heart of Israel. But instead, Elijah is given a fresh supply of grace, we might say, in order to stand up under the burden. He's given renewed strength. He would experience, as the Lord would say to Paul many, many years later, My grace is sufficient for you. Elijah went AWOL, absent without leave. He deserted the battle. He deserted the Lord. Yet the Lord did not desert him. Because as Paul says in 2 Timothy 2.13, if we are faithless, he remains faithful. In this episode, we have a beautiful picture of the sovereign mercy and grace and compassion of God in Elijah's life as the Lord prepares Elijah to meet the Lord face to face. And we have a vivid reminder of the faithfulness of God to His covenant promises which only He can keep as Jehovah strengthens Elijah to return to duty. And He strengthens him first of all with provision for the body. It's a picture here of tender care, not harsh rebuke, which may be necessary at times for God's people. But here it's a picture of tender care. And I believe we are to understand that Elijah had no provisions with him as he is already a day into the wilderness. And the only physical comfort that he seemed to sense at this time was a little bit of shade from the broom tree. But notice what God does. He turns this place of death as Elijah requested it to be, He turns it into an oasis. Instead of a deathbed, Elijah experienced, as someone has said, a convalescent home where he receives refreshment for the task ahead. And Elijah really experiences the reality, again, of what David says in Psalm 103, verse 10 of the Lord, that He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. Elijah had become faithless. God might have said to him, when you come to your senses, then we'll talk. Or you made your bed, now sleep in it. But the Lord doesn't say that to him. He gently brings Elijah to his senses as God provides for him bodily, first of all through sleep. Notice the beginning of verse 5, Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. And you and I know how remarkable that is when you are completely despondent and discouraged about something. This sleep wasn't the sleep of death that he had asked for, but it was physical sleep that each one of us needs to refresh a tired body when we are drained physically and mentally. And it provides such benefit also for one's mind, especially when one is stressed out. It renews one's mind. When we are facing frustration or a multitude of decisions or uncontrollable busyness or when we are simply beside ourselves with difficulties of some sort, a night of sleep often helps one awake with a clear mind and a clear perspective. Being able to sort things out. I remember and I think I've shared with some of you when I was receiving chemotherapy many years ago that I was wiped out. I felt terrible for the four days following. It felt absolutely terrible. And I slept away most of those four days. But the point is, I was able to sleep by the grace of God. I was able to sleep off as it were the effects of the chemotherapy. And to wake up refreshed. Sleep is a blessing of God for our refreshment. But God also provides for Elijah bodily through food. All at once an angel touched him and said, Get up and eat. He looked around and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. And we know that he also did that a second time. We cannot live without physical food. We know that. Elijah was given the necessary staples of physical life. He was given bread and water. The evidence of God's faithfulness was right before his eyes. Yet, we know that this food didn't cure his faithlessness at that particular time because later on at Horeb, we might say that he was still singing the wicked Jezebel and the apostate Israel blues. And this was not the first time we know that Elijah was miraculously fed as he was also through the raven and with the widow, with the flour and the oil that didn't run out. Yet those times, he was in the way of obedience. But this time, he was not. And we must confess that when all is going well, when we have plenty, In those times, it's easy to believe that God loves us. But when we are stranded, when we are destitute like a rudderless ship, when life is difficult and everything seems against us, then it's more difficult to believe that God loves us. And instead, we want to blame Him and cry out, why have you let this happen? But notice, with Elijah, God demonstrates His unchanging love. Though Elijah did not deserve it, God demonstrates His unchanging love and provides for him the basic necessities. He doesn't reprimand him here. That's not what Elijah needed. But he strengthens and refreshes him in order to meet with God and in order that he might once again see things clearly. And God provides for him through the means of an angel. Hebrews 1 verse 14 says, angels are ministering spirits of God for God's people. And I believe this angel was sent as revelation for Elijah, to reveal something to him. At Horeb, a bit later, two times, Elijah would say, as he does in verse 10, I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. Also translated, the Lord God of hosts, Yahweh Sabaoth. Pointing to God's power that God is a God of war with His heavenly hosts, His heavenly army of angels ready to do His will. Twice, Elijah confesses him as the Lord God of hosts. Yet, he will also say two times that he was the only one left. In other words, there are no hosts as far as he could see. This angel should have been a reminder and encouragement, proof to Elijah that Jehovah had not forsaken his faithless servant. And that indeed he has a host of obedient servants ready and willing to do His will. To Elijah it appeared that at this time God was overpowered by Ahab and Jezebel. And this angel was used by God to spread the table of the Lord before Elijah in order to provide for and strengthen him for the journey. Verse 7, the last part, Get up and eat, the angel said, for the journey is too much for you. God's blessings, whatever form, whether little or much, are to be used for strength in the service of the obedience of the Lord. However, Elijah did not yet realize that he was being called to return to active duty. He did not yet realize that he was not being released. Instead of death, which he prayed for, the Lord, through this bodily provision, renews him to life. He strengthens him. Even though Elijah had said, I've had enough. I have no more to give. I will take no more commands, in essence. Yet He has His obedience tested in a very simple way as He has commanded to take and eat. If not, He would die at His own hands. He would die because of His own stubbornness. The same is true of those who refuse to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They will die eternally because of their own refusal, because of their own stubbornness. The Lord did not condone Elijah's AWOL actions, but He makes it clear to Elijah that He was not accepting Elijah's resignation. He was making it clear that Elijah still has work to do and he was being called upon to trust in the Lord who manifests His continual love for Elijah through provision for the body, as Jesus would do many years later with His disciples on the beach after His resurrection. As He prepared that fish over the fire for them, in essence, a reinstatement ceremony for His disciples who had fled from Him on the night He was betrayed, and especially Peter who had denied Him. He provides nourishment for them for the task, pointing to the fact that He alone is our nourishment throughout this life. Beloved, as those who profess Jesus Christ by grace through faith, we are called to be active in the Lord's army throughout this life. Quitting, giving up is not an option because that would be to abandon the victory that Jesus Christ has already secured. Indeed, as long as we still live in this sin-soaked world, as long as we still struggle with sin day by day, we do become weak, we do become weary, yet we have a great provider who gives us physical strength and wisdom to His people. all that we need for body and soul. He calls us to cast our burden upon Him. He calls our souls to find rest in Him, as the psalmist says in Psalm 62. Elijah received provision of the body because the journey that he was about to take was still too great, yet this bodily provision was used to prepare him secondly for the necessary provision of the soul. As this journey had begun in selfishness, would be turned into a journey of instruction. Verse 8 says, So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled 40 days and 40 nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. You might wonder, what does that have to say to us this morning? Well, consider the place, first of all, Horeb. Now, to be fair, there's no agreement among the commentators if this was Elijah's destination all along, if he was determined to go there and just didn't quite make it at first. And I tend to believe not because of his actions before, that he had made it a day and he laid down and asked to die. Or maybe, as some say, the angel told him to go there, but we find no evidence of that either. However, it seems clear that God directed Elijah there to the mountain of God. We know that at that time God dwelt among His people in the Jerusalem temple, Yet Elijah had left the promised land because he did not feel safe there. God led him to Horeb, which was indeed known as the mountain of God as Moses writes. That's where God met with Moses. That's where God made a covenant with Moses. That's where God gave Moses His law for the people. Indeed, this was the proper place for Elijah to go as later Elijah would report there that Israel had forsaken God's covenant. And at this place, Elijah himself would receive covenantal instruction at the very mountain that symbolized the covenant. Yet, he would receive provision of soul along the path to get there. And that's what we want to consider in a particular way this morning. The path to get there, it was a trip of wandering, wandering through the wilderness. A trip of at the most 200 miles that would take maybe 14 or 15 days to get there, not 40. In Deuteronomy 1, verse 12, in fact, we are told that from Horeb to Beersheba, a distance about the same, it was an 11-day trip. So why 40? Well, 40 we know is a significant number in the Scriptures. Moses was with his father-in-law Jethro for 40 years. He was on the mountain of God with the Lord for 40 days and 40 nights. Jesus, we know, was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days and He remained on earth for 40 days following His resurrection. With regard to Elijah's 40-day journey, I agree with those who say that the significance is seen in Israel's 40 years of wandering. Elijah took the very same path as Israel through the wilderness, only he took it in reverse. Israel had gone from Horeb to the promised land, to the land of Canaan. But Elijah had traveled from the promised land back to Horeb. And by traveling through the wilderness where his forefathers had walked, Elijah was given a powerful pictorial answer to the problems that burned in his soul with regard to God's people, with regard to their rebellion and their wickedness. And as well, it was preparation for him to come face to face with the God of the covenant for reinstatement. Boys and girls, by backtracking, by going, in a sense, in the reverse direction through the wilderness, the reverse direction that Israel had taken, Elijah was given a real-life video of Israel's history there. Indeed, they had to fill in what happened from what they knew from Scripture, but they were given a real-life video of Israel's history there, and he would be taught a valuable lesson of God's faithfulness and grace as he was first of all to be reminded of Israel's sin. Israel's sin was the reason for their 40-year stay there. We know that they often complained, they often angered Jehovah. Paul says again in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 5, Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, Their bodies were scattered over the desert. And then he points out, not so specifically, but he points out from their history, he points out the golden calf incident. He points out worshiping Baal of Peor. He points out when God sent the fiery serpents among them. He was not pleased with them. He scattered many of their bodies. Many of them lost their lives. As Elijah traveled through the wilderness, there were no nicely organized cemeteries there. Really, the whole wilderness was a cemetery filled with the graves of Elijah's ancestors, of whom he was no better than, he says. Filled with their graves because of their rebellion and sin. Indeed, depressing. As mile after mile, Elijah was confronted with the stubbornness of God's people so many years before. And the harsh reality check was that, sadly, in Elijah's day, there was nothing much new. They were still rebellious. Yet the graves of his ancestors ought to remind him that the people would not get the best of God. That God was in control. That the people's evil would not go unchecked. However, with every mile, Elijah also was being confronted with God's faithfulness who keeps His covenant forever. Elijah was being confronted with God's patience as even though that generation was not allowed to enter the promised land, God still led them onto Canaan. God still preserved them generation after generation and from them He would bring forth the promised Messiah. In the wilderness, Elijah was to see that God's grace stands out against His judgment And therefore, it was not for Elijah to tell God that his people had been given enough opportunities. It was not for Elijah to determine how God ought to deal with His people. Elijah said, enough! They deserve no more. As he looked back over history, he was to remember that was not his call to make. With every step, history spoke to Elijah of the unfaithfulness of the people, but more so of God's faithfulness. And he was to be reminded that it wasn't because Israel was so deserving that God had preserved them from generation to generation. They broke covenant with God again and again and again, yet God remained faithful to His covenant of grace with Abraham. God had made that covenant with Abraham, you recall, when God Himself passed through the cut pieces and God promised to make of Abraham a great nation. He promised that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through Him and especially in those times when it seemed that that wouldn't come to pass, he preserved a remnant. And even now, he had preserved a remnant that Elijah was not yet aware of. And Elijah must be taught that just as God had been patient with and preserved His people throughout the generations, not because they had deserved it, but because of God's faithfulness, even now, he was being patient with and he was preserving his backslidden prophet. The provision of soul, beloved, was a spiritual lesson that indeed God was in control, not Jezebel, not Ahab. It was a lesson that Israel's apostasy was not a surprise to him, a lesson that God cannot and will not be defeated, a lesson that the battle will not be over until he says so, and it will not be over by God's surrender or God's defeat, but it will be over by God's victory. As Elijah wandered, he was to see the good pleasure of God's electing grace. God had chosen Israel as his own special people. And even though they were rebellious, and many of them lost their lives because of it, the people, Elijah too, had always been rebellious. They had always deserved to be deserted by God. But God's people continued to exist only because of God, only because he had been faithful to his promises. And Elijah was called to return to duty, to continue to remind them of this, to call them to repentance, just as we are called to continue to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, the one and only way of salvation, the one in whom God has fulfilled His promise and in whom one is preserved forever and ever. Beloved, as we travel this pilgrimage through this life, we too are called to look back. We are to look back through the theater of history and also through our own history. And even as those who call upon the name of the Lord, some of us, since we were children, we are called to look back and see our own history, our own rebellion day by day. The sin that we continue to struggle with day by day, but then we are to see it only in the shadow of the cross of Jesus where God's grace abounded as His promise was fulfilled where God's justice, His judgment and His love and mercy came together. And we are to know and remember that God preserves us. Not because we are so obedient or worthwhile to Him as Christians. We offend Him daily. We deserve that He would turn His back on us daily. But He preserves us because of His promises and work and provision in Christ Jesus. God has not and does not and will not treat His children as our sins deserve because He has done so in Jesus who kept the covenantal demands in our place. And therefore, too, we are to be reminded, especially in our day again, that we don't get saved by our works. We know that. Or stay saved by our works or by our faithfulness. There are some, even in our own day, who would have us to believe that while indeed we are saved by grace alone, there's no doubt about that, but we stay saved. We stay in the way of salvation by our faithfulness. By the works that we perform. Indeed, we are called to show our gratitude through obedience. But that's not how we stay in our salvation. It cannot be because we are not perfect. We still sin. God may and He does discipline us in our sin because of our sin, yet God preserves us as His grace is still at work. He still forgives those He elected to salvation and does save. And therefore, beloved, when we become weary of life and when we become weary of the circumstances and the hardships we might face, when we become weary of the wicked world, and especially when we become weary because of our own sin that we struggle with, like Paul did, and indeed become frustrated because of, He is tender. He holds on to us. He turns our eyes to Him again and again and again. And though He often lets us live with the consequences of sin in this life, He restores us gently. And therefore, in times of doubt and temptation and hopelessness, we are not to think that God has abandoned us. If we feel that we've been abandoned, it's because we have abandoned Him. But in those times, we are to remember His provision secured by Jesus Christ and demonstrated throughout the entire history of His church and demonstrated with each one of us in our personal history. As we look back in life and remember that He has restored us again and again, He has not forsaken us. As we remember that His mercies are new every morning. As we are able to confess that Jesus has led us all the way. When we face those doubts and temptations, He is the one who lightens our burden or strengthens and equips us to endure it. And as long as God provides for all those who are waiting for the return of Jesus, we are called to be on active duty for Him who actively cares for and preserves us, remembering that it's not we who hang on to God, but He hangs on to us and He will never let us go. That is the confidence and the comfort of only those, but all those, only those, but all those who put their trust in Jesus Christ by the grace of God. Because of whom God has not and will not turn away from us. And instead, with whom we will feast forever at the eternal banquet, even now being prepared for those who love Him. those whom He has promised belong to Him forever. Amen. Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, we so readily confess that our salvation comes from You from start to finish. Yet we must also confess that sometimes secretly in our hearts we do like to take a little bit of credit. But indeed, O Lord, You are the one who preserves us. For if left to ourselves, we would fall away from You again and again and again, over and over and over. But You are the one who is faithful to the people whom You have chosen, those whom You have called out of darkness into Your marvelous light, those whom You continue to call. throughout the history of this world as you build your church. Father, we pray that you would equip us, continue to equip us, to be ambassadors for you, to be soldiers in the army of God. Increase our faithfulness to you, for indeed you are faithful. Great is your faithfulness. O God, our Father, we praise you. We thank you for your goodness. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.