Elijah: The Problem of Rushing

The showdown on top of Mount Carmel had ended (1 Kings 18).

Fire had come out of heaven, all the people had acknowledged the

true God, and the false prophets had been put to death. God had been

vindicated. You would have thought that Elijah had been growing in

spiritual strength as the day went on, but suddenly he heard something

that terrified him so much that he wanted to die. Read the rest of the

story in 1 Kings 19:1–9. The last words in the text are worrisome: “And

the word of the Lord came to him: ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ ”

(1 Kings 19:9, NIV). Evidently, Elijah’s fear caused him to run and find

himself in the wrong place.

After such a powerful intervention by the Lord on Mount Carmel,

Elijah should have been full of faith and trust; instead, he ran in

fear for his life. What lesson can we learn from this bad example?

This story illustrates something important: when we rush, we can

very easily find ourselves in the wrong place. In Elijah’s case, it was

his fear that caused him to be overwhelmed and rush into the desert,

wishing that he had never been born. But there are other things that

cause us to rush outside of God’s plan for us.

Read the following texts. What things caused the characters depicted

here to rush outside of God’s will? Gen. 16:1–3; Num. 20:10–12;

Judg. 14:1–3; Matt. 20:20, 21; Luke 9:52–56; Acts 9:1.

How easy it is to let such things as ambition, anger, passion, lack

of faith, or a supposed “zeal” for the Lord cause us to rush ahead to

where we shouldn’t be. No one is immune to this danger. The key is

to cultivate a trusting faith in the goodness and mercy of God, who we

know loves us and wants what’s best for us. This doesn’t happen auto-

matically. Faith might be a gift, but it’s a gift that needs to be cultivated,

nurtured, and jealously guarded.