Find Hope When You Are Alone

1 Kings 19:9-10 NIV 

[9] There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” [10] He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn 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.” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.19.9-10.NIV)

Have you ever felt hopelessly alone? 

Maybe on that first day in school. Or solo travelling to a place you have never been to before. Or in a party where you don’t really know anyone and no-one is talking to you. 

Or perhaps you live alone and long for someone to talk to you, to spend time with you. 

Nineties garage rock band Soul Asylum wrote about the loneliness and isolation of old age in some powerful lyrics that still resonate: 

Grandfather watches the grandfather clock 

And the phone hasn’t rang for so long 

And the time flies by like a vulture in the sky 

Suddenly breaks into song: 

‘I’m waiting by the phone, 

Waiting for you to call me up and tell me I'm not alone 

Loneliness can be among the most crushing of human emotions. 

And the worst kind of loneliness can come right after a huge success. 

Elijah knew it. He knew it full well. Moments earlier, he’d had the greatest of triumphs as a prophet of God (1 Kings 18:16-39). It ended with the ruthless dismantling of the official religion: Baal worship (1 Kings 18:40) and the ending of a famine that had brought the country to its knees (1 Kings 18:41-46). 

It had been proven without any shadow of a doubt that the Lord was the One True God, that Baal was nothing but a fake and a sham and the people had proclaimed it loudly and without reservation (1 Kings 18:39). 

Surely this would be the end of it. Surely Baal worship was finished. Surely the people would all turn to God now. 

How much more did they need? 

Yet one threat from just one person sent this successful prophet into a wild tailspin: 

1 Kings 19:1-2 NIV 

[1] Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. [2] So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.19.1-2.NIV)

Because this one person happened to be the queen, and the likely source of Baal worship as the official religion. 

Elijah had made a very serious enemy. She wanted him dead. 

So Elijah ran away. He isolated himself from those who were closest to him (1 Kings 19:3-4).

He sunk into a mire of deep depression. He even talked of ending it all (1 Kings 19:4). 

Despite his massive success, he felt deep loneliness and fear. 

Is this how you feel right now? 

What follows are three commands that God says to all of us who find ourselves sinking into the depression and fear that comes with loneliness. They might not sound very comforting, but they are enough to bring us round and find joy and hope once more. 

The first of these is Get Up. 

Get Up 

1 Kings 19:5-8 NIV 

[5] Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” [6] He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. [7] 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.” [8] So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.19.5-8.NIV)

Have you ever been so beaten down by stress and depression that all you want to do is go to bed, pull the covers over your head and somehow hope that tomorrow will be a better day, even if you know that it probably won’t? 

I have. I’ve been there at least twice. 

Or how about reaching the point of utter exhaustion so much that you despair of life? 

Or feeling that all your hard work and efforts have all been in vain? 

Elijah felt all that. His life was at risk. I want you to follow the three stages of his angst at how things had turned out for him. 

Firstly, he fled. He had stared down eight hundred and fifty false prophets. In God’s power, he had proven them all to be liars and fools. 

Yet the word of one woman had him on his heels. 

And no, she wasn’t his wife. Or his mother-in-law. 

Queen Jezebel’s threats freaked him out. So he ran. He ran for his life. 

Now, that might seem like the prudent thing to do. After all, she was the queen. But take a look at these verses: 

Psalms 18:29-33 NIV 

[29] With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall. [30] As for God, his way is perfect: The Lord’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him. [31] For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? [32] It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure. [33] He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he causes me to stand on the heights. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.18.29-33.NIV)

Elijah had proved the greatness of God time and again. He had just overcome four hundred and fifty false prophets. Taking on one angry queen should have been child’s play by comparison. 

But the fact that he lost his composure when threatened by Jezebel tells us that something was profoundly wrong. 

Secondly, we see that He abandoned. 

1 Kings 19:3-4 NIV 

[3] Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, [4] while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.19.3-4.NIV)

Elijah left his servant behind him and travelled on alone into the wilderness. He faced this deep pit of depression alone. 

That was a mistake. Human beings were not created to be alone (Genesis 2:18). Community and fellowship are essential for our strengthening and survival (Ecclesiastes 4:7-12; Hebrews 10:23-25). Leaving even his closest servant like this showed the darkness of Elijah’s mentality. 

But – and this is important – Elijah is not alone, as we will see later. He has made himself be alone, and that is not a healthy thing to do. 

Whenever we are in a dark place –  particularly if people are the reason why we are in that dark place – we will be tempted to withdraw from others and be alone. That is such a bad idea. Alone we have no responses to our often paranoid inner voice. There is no-one there to bring us back to reason and reality. We are hopelessly exposed to the vagaries of our own wild temperament. 

We need other people around us then more than ever. 

Thirdly we see that He lay down. 

1 Kings 19:3-5 NIV 

[3] Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, [4] while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, 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.” [5] Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.19.3-5.NIV)

This is not just the action of a tired man. A tired man sleeps like this: 

Psalms 4:8 NIV 

[8] In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.4.8.NIV)

No, this is the action of an exhausted man, a depressed man. 

A beaten man. 

Elijah has had enough. He has given up.  

As far as he was concerned, it was over. 

But in reality, it wasn’t. Look what happened next: 

1 Kings 19:3-8 NIV 

[3] Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, [4] while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, 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.” [5] Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” [6] He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. [7] 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.” [8] So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.19.3-8.NIV)

The angel told him to get up: to get up and eat so he could prepare for a long journey. 

This was the first supernatural event in this encounter that tells us a very important truth when we are depressed and deflated: 

God wasn’t done with Elijah yet. He isn’t done with you either. 

So when you are down – regardless of what put you there – the message of this passage is that you need to get up. You cannot lie down to this problem. You must eat. You must drink. You must get adequate rest. You must prepare yourself each day for the long journey to where God is leading you. 

It’s not over. Not yet. 

God is not done with you. 

So we see that despite the outward reality of the threats against Elijah and the inner reality of his own depression, God had not cast Elijah aside. Apart from the command to get up, we also see a command to Go Out. 

Go Out 

1 Kings 19:8-13 NIV 

[8] So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. [9] There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” [10] He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn 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.” [11] The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. [12] After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. [13] When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.19.8-13.NIV)

Living in Scotland, and having endured two tropical storms in the Philippines, I am well used to the concept of taking shelter. When the weather turns in those countries, it really can turn quite sharply. In fact, in Scotland, as in many countries with high mountains and changeable weather, there are cabins that are free to use and equipped with emergency equipment to allow walkers and mountaineers to take temporary shelter until the bad weather has passed.

When Elijah took refuge in the cave at Mount Horeb, he was likely sheltering for different reasons. 

The weather conditions are profoundly different there. Mount Horeb is a desert peak. The weather would likely be very hot and very dry during the day with rapidly decreasing temperatures at night, along with tbe possibility of mountain winds. A cave would be the ideal place to shelter. It would be cooler during the day and warmer at night. A cave system could also provide the ideal hiding place, as David did when he was on the run from Saul (1 Samuel 22:1). 

So we see Elijah, one on the run from Queen Jezebel, now cowering in an apparent place of safety on Mount Horeb. 

Now, this is where things get interesting.

Because, from one perspective, Mount Horeb is not where you would normally flee to for ‘safety’. Its other name was Mount Sinai. It was the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments in a spectacular and terrifying display of the Lord’s power (Exodus 19:16-19). 

Elijah may have thought that the same thing would happen again. After all, compare these verses: 

Exodus 33:18-23 NIV 

[18] Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” [19] And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. [20] But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” [21] Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. [22] When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. [23] Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/exo.33.18-23.NIV)

1 Kings 19:11 NIV 

[11] The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”  

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.19.11.NIV)

And that’s the way things seemed to have been going: 

1 Kings 19:11-12 NIV 

[11] The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. [12] After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.19.11-12.NIV)

God called Elijah to come out from his safe refuge, where he was hiding from the vicious storms of his life, to come and meet with God. He wanted Elijah to give up the security, to surrender the stability, to stop hiding and come meet with Him. 

Let me tell you: when you are down and depressed and just feel like hiding, meeting with God is sometimes the last thing on your mind. It ought to be the first. Because only then will your situation move towards a solution. 

When we are afraid and depressed and feel like giving up, we feel like God will probably condemn us because we have disappointed Him. We have let Him down. 

I want to reassure you right now that it isn’t possible to disappoint God. He already knows you inside out and back to front (Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18; John 2:25). To be disappointed in us, God would have to expect good things from us and receive bad things in return. God has no such expectations: 

Psalms 103:13-14 NIV 

[13] As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; [14] for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.103.13-14.NIV)

In a way, Elijah had failed God. But God was not disappointed in him. Neither is He disappointed in us. He can’t be because He knows what to expect from us. 

I also want you to see the Name the Lord proclaimed in front of Moses: 

Exodus 34:5-7 NIV 

[5] Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. [6] And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, [7] maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/exo.34.5-7.NIV)

The Lord is a compassionate God! Look what Isaiah later prophesied about Jesus: 

Isaiah 42:1-4 NIV 

[1] “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. [2] He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. [3] A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; [4] he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/isa.42.1-4.NIV)

So how does God deal with His depressed prophet Elijah? 

1 Kings 19:11-14 NIV 

[11] The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. [12] After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. [13] When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” [14] He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn 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.” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.19.11-14.NIV)

He came to Elijah gently, in a whisper. He questioned Elijah – not as an inquisition, but to get Elijah to admit something God already knew. And then He listened to Elijah: not rejecting what he had to say, but giving him the time to say it. 

All this happened to this broken prophet because he obeyed God’s call to leave his place of safety and solitude and control and go out to where God was waiting. 

And this is the problem. Very often when life had dealt us a very tough hand and we are depressed, we retreat into ourselves and we allow no-one in – not even God. We shut everyone out. We retreat to our bedroom, or even our bed. We are done with life. 

That’s where Elijah was. 

But God called him out of there. He called him to leave the comfort and solitude of his cave and take the risk of meeting with God. Because only in meeting with God could Elijah’s pain be dealt with and his wounds healed and his perspective corrected. 

If you are in this position, if you are depressed and withdrawn into your own narrow little world because that is where you feel in control and safe, then take a look at Elijah. Only by being willing to leave that cave could he have this glorious experience with God. Only by being willing to leave that cave could his life be set straight.  

And so, with all the compassion I can muster, I would ask you to go out and meet with the Lord your God. 

So we see then the command to get up, because life is not over yet, and to go out to meet with God. The third command is something we always struggle with: Go Back. 

Go Back 

1 Kings 19:15-18 NIV 

[15] 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. [16] Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. [17] 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. [18] Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.19.15-18.NIV)

Every mountaintop has a valley. If it didn’t, it would not be a mountaintop. We have stood on top of some stunning mountain and seen views so ridiculously beautiful that you would be sure they were not real. 

But we couldn’t live there in that Alpine splendour. We had to descend to the valley below. 

That experience is common throughout Scripture. Moses descended Mount Horeb to find that his brother had let the people run amok and they were committing idolatry (Exodus 32).

The disciples descended the Mount of Olives after the Transfiguration to find a demon-possessed boy they were unable to heal (Matthew 17:14-20; Mark 9:14-29). 

And Elijah was sent back down into the valley from where he had came: back into the risk, back into the danger, back into the aggravation. 

But there was a good reason for his return. 

That reason was to make changes. Huge changes. 

Hazael, who was to be anointed king of Aram, was anointed by Elijah’s successor, Elisha (2 Kings 8:7-15). He was a violent ruler who not only killed his own king, but inflicted punishment on Israel and her rulers too (2 Kings 13:3). 

Jehu son of Nimshi was also a sharp weapon in God’s hand, who inflicted the prophesied punishment on Ahab, his family and his religion (2 Kings 9 and 10). 

And Elisha? He took over from Elijah and also became a renowned prophet. 

These people would mete out the discipline that Israel and Judah deserved at the time for their rampant idolatry. 

But perhaps the most amazing part of the message Elijah received is this: 

1 Kings 19:18 NIV 

[18] Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.19.18.NIV)

Elijah had felt isolated and alone. But he wasn’t. There were others who, like him, despised the sin and corruption of the rulers of Israel, who rejected idolatry and worshipped God. 

In that one sentence, God had eliminated the cause of Elijah’s depression. 

He was not alone. 

And now he had the strength to make the forty-day journey back to Samaria. 

Everything had changed. 

Conclusion  

1 Kings 19:13-14 NIV 

[13] When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” [14] He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn 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.” 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.19.13-14.NIV)

Human beings are entirely wasteful. We constantly fret about things that aren’t real and either have not happened or will not happen. We get ourselves into a lather over nothing.

And we never learn. 

We also prone to overreacting and panicking when situations don’t go in our favour. 

As we saw earlier, Elijah had seen a huge blessing on Mount Carmel. There could not have been a clearer statement of the absolute folly of worshipping Baal, particularly as the years of famine prior to this miraculous event had mocked and discredited Baal’s credentials as a god of fertility. 

But the victory on the mountain led to a huge crash in the valley, as it often does. The man who took on those four hundred and fifty false prophets, mocking them so mercilessly before demonstrating the pointless folly of their religion, then ran away in terror from it’s most powerful proponent: Queen Jezebel. 

We have seen the three commands that God gave Elijah to lift him from his depression and send him back into his work and ministry: get up, go out and go back. 

Carrying out these commands is not easy. They require us to have faith in the righteousness and goodness of God even as our circumstances might say otherwise. But obedience to these commands brings us blessings beyond belief: 

We experience God’s sustaining, like Elijah did, in special, specific ways that we would have otherwise experienced. 

We experience the blessing of His presence and His grace in special ways that would otherwise be beyond us. 

And we experience the joy of knowing that no matter what we have done or how we have reacted, God is not done with is yet and can still use us to shape the world. 

Even more precious, we realise more than ever that we are not alone. 

There have been many, many times when I have felt this depression and wondered if I should just pack it all in. Each time I have felt God drawing close to me and telling me that He is not done with me yet. 

And if He isn’t done with me, then I can tell you for sure that He isn’t done with you either. 

So don’t despair, Christian. Don’t give up. 

It’s not over yet. 

Prayer 

Lord Jesus, You know precisely how I feel. You know my depression, my anxiety, my fear for the future. I come to You because You understand it all. Help me to see my situation through Your eyes. I know You are not done with me. Show me Your plan. I pray. Amen. 

Questions for Contemplation 

• Why did Elijah run away? Should he have ran away? What evidence is there that he would have been able to face his fears? 

• Look at what he said to God at Horeb. What parts of this turned out to be true and what parts were exaggerated? What does this show us about how we see life when we are depressed? 

• How did God respond to Elijah’s fear and resignation? What does this teach us about how God will handle our fear and resignation? Will you take them to Him?