Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 18-19.

I love today’s passage, there is so much to write about in it.  It starts with Elijah approaching Obadiah, King Ahab’s palace administrator to take word to Ahab that Elijah wanted to meet with him.  We are told that Obadiah was a devout follower of the Lord who had protected 100 prophets of the Lord from Jezebel’s campaign to kill them all.  Obadiah reminds Elijah that he had done this.  Yet when Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, he claims that he is the only prophet of God left.  Perhaps something had happened to those 100 prophets in between Obadiah protecting them and Elijah’s speech on Mount Carmel, or, perhaps Elijah was referring to himself as the only prophet of God willing to appear before King Ahab by that point.  While he was on Mount Carmel Elijah was the perfect example of the boisterous showman, playing to the crowd and capturing its attention.  A few days later, when he was fleeing from Jezebel’s threat to kill him, he exhibits the symptoms of someone experiencing depression, he had had enough and wanted to die.

Elijah flees through the wilderness for forty days and forty nights until he ends up at Mount Horeb.  When he gets there. God asks him why he is there.  To which he replies that he has been zealous for the Lord, but the people have not responded and now he is the only one left and they are trying to kill him.  Then God tells him, “Stand up for I am about to pass by.”  So Elijah stood up while God sent a fierce wind, an earthquake, and a mighty fire before arriving as a gentle whisper.  Once more God asked Elijah why he is there.  Elijah replies with the same answer he had just given.  Which leads God to tell Elijah, “Get over yourself.  You are still alive because I still have work for you to do.  And you are not alone.  I have reserved a multitude who have been just as faithful as you.”  Elijah had become depressed because he had exhausted himself and he thought he was alone in this world in being faithful to God.  He felt like it was all pointless, like he was useless.  God’s answer was that until you are dead, you are not useless, and none of us are alone.  The best treatment for depression is to seek, and perform, what tasks God has for you, and the company of those who love the Lord.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.