Please turn to 1 Kings 19. I'm going to read verses 1-10. And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, so let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die and said, it is enough. Now, Lord, take my life, for I'm no better than my father's. Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, arise and eat. Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came back the second time and touched him and said, arise and eat, because a journey is too great for you. So he arose and ate and drank, and he went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God. And there he went into a cave and spent the night in that place, and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? So he said, I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with a sword. I alone am left and they seek to take my life. Let's pray one more time. Father God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your Holy Spirit who is here with us. We pray that you would meet with us, that you would help us. We are a needy people. We need your word. We need your spirit here with us. We need to be fed by you. We need to know that you are here with us. We pray that you would help us to grow in our faith. Those in here who don't know you, we pray for their salvation. that they would trust in Jesus Christ and see him as their all-in-all, more worthy to be followed and worshipped in the world. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So the last time we saw that Elijah was there at Mount Carmel and he opposed the 450 false prophets and he had them all executed there at the Brook Kitchen for their Baal worship. Then he prayed for the Lord to send fire upon the sacrifice that he had drenched with water. And the Lord sent fire to such an extent that the Lord obliterated the stones. He consumed the stones that were underneath the sacrifice. Then he liked to pray for the Lord to send rain after a three and a half long drought. And the Lord sent rain so much so that there was a downpour, there was a storm. The Israelites went from defiant silence to falling on their faces and proclaiming, what did they say? The Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. After that, Ahab rode in his chariot to go and tell Jezebel everything that happened, and Elijah, in his excitement, he ran on foot while Ahab was in his chariot, and Elijah beat him there. Elijah really had no reason to go to Jezreel. But he was so excited about what happened at Carmel, he wanted to know the verdict. He wanted to know what was going to happen next with Israel. And he expected there to be a national revival. But we know, of course, there was nothing like that. That didn't happen. What happened next was a very bad domino effect for Elijah. Ahab went and told Jezebel something, and then Jezebel went and sent a messenger to tell Elijah something. And then Elijah panicked, and then he ran. Ahab didn't tell Jezebel what Elijah wanted her to hear. Remember when Elijah prayed there at Mount Carmel, the previous chapter, chapter 18, in verse 36, Elijah said this. He said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Elijah didn't want it to be Elijah against the false prophets. He wanted it to be seen for what it really was. It was the Lord God against the false prophets and Elijah as the Lord's servant. And he wanted it to be known that everything that happened at Carmel, the sacrifices, the preparation of the sacrifices and the fire coming upon the sacrifice, he wanted it to be known that this wasn't his radical idea. He wanted to be known that this was the Lord's doing. But Ahab didn't convey it that way to Jezebel. What Ahab said, the way he relayed everything, was according to what we read in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14. In that verse it says, The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. So what is a natural man? A natural man is an unbeliever. Now we know there are times where people who are not believers, they can understand spiritual things. They can read the scriptures and understand truths from the Lord. And with God's help, they can understand things that the Lord reveals to them. But Ahab had no interest in spiritual things. He wasn't interested in what the Lord was doing. He just wanted to be king in Israel, and he wanted things his way, and he was a wicked man. And this is the way he conveyed things to Jezebel. We have a summary of what Ahab said to Jezebel in the very first verse of what we read. It says, Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. So according to Ahab, Elijah was the problem. And Jezebel had no spiritual understanding either, so according to Jezebel, also Elijah was the problem. So Jezebel got angry, She sent a death threat to Elijah. And basically, within 24 hours of time, he was going to be dead, just like those 450 prophets of Baal that he had killed, how they were. So we do see who's running their marriage, Ahab and Jezebel. And it's not Ahab. And also, by default, who was running the kingdom of Israel. Ahab was a weak man. He was a wicked man. But Jezebel was much more wicked than than Ahab was, and because he wasn't strong, well, what Jezebel wanted to happen was what happened. And Elijah, of course, he got the response. It was not what he wanted to hear, and he panicked, and then he ran. So we're going to look at Elijah's problem, and we're going to look at the Lord's remedy to Elijah's problem. Elijah's problem was multifaceted, and so was the Lord's remedy. We're not going to be able to see everything that the Lord does in restoring Elijah because more of it happens when later on in the chapter, which we're not going to be able to cover today. But as far as Elijah's problem, I would say this, I would say that he didn't guard his emotions. He didn't deal with his inner desires, his inner emotions that were not under obedience to the Lord. He didn't properly deal with them. Look at Elijah's response there in verse 3, his response to the death threat. It says, when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. Other translations where it says, when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, other translations will say, he was afraid and got up and ran for his life. And it is true, Elijah was afraid. But I wouldn't say that this is the true Elijah that we're seeing, or by nature he was a coward. Remember, this is the same man who confronted all the false prophets at Carmel. Of course, he was in a place where he was very strong, trusting in the Lord, right? But he was also the one who went into the inner throne room of Ahab and confronted him and told him that the drought was coming. And then later on, when he meets with Ahab and he tells him about Carmel and about the plan that he has for the false prophets to come and have a challenge against Elijah, he meets with Ahab again, it's in chapter 18, verses 17 and 18. And there it says, then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, is that you, O troubler of Israel. So Ahab's coming, he's telling Elijah, you're a troubler of Israel. What is Elijah's response there in verse 18? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have, and that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the veil. So he's basically saying, it's not me that's troubled Israel, it's you that have troubled Israel and those before you, the kings before you, because of your worship of false gods. And even with King Ahaziah, the king that came after Ahab. After Ahab died, the next king was Ahaziah. And Ahaziah sent 50 soldiers with their captain to go and bring Elijah to him. And what did Elijah do? He called fire down upon them. Then he sent another 50 soldiers with their captain. Same thing happened. And then a third 50 soldiers came with their captain. And the Lord told Elijah at that time, go with them. So Elijah wasn't someone who was afraid of confrontation. This wasn't the kind of man he was. The problem with Jezebel was the timing. Jezebel was one of many enemies that Elijah had, and he dealt with those enemies, and he dealt with them in a way that was right, that was biblical. But with Jezebel, the timing was wrong. It was right after Mount Carmel. If she had come to him during that event, I think Elijah would have handled it right. If she came to him as he was getting ready for that event, I think he would have handled it right. But she came to him after he was, we could say, winding down from the events at Mount Karma the next day, and when that message came to him, he still He's still kind of dwelling upon, he's still being mentally and emotionally fixed upon that event at Mount Carmel. And he wasn't ready to adjust to this new threat, this new enemy that he was dealing with. His problem with Jezebel was timing. He wasn't ready to have another fight so soon. And we see that Elijah was discouraged. We remember when he was out running Ahab on the way to Jezreel, he was encouraged. He was excited to hear what he thought he should have heard, that there was repentance, that there was some kind of change. But when he found out that Ahab and Jezreel didn't respond the way that he expected them to, he was discouraged. So he was afraid. He was discouraged. Things didn't go the way he expected them to go. He was living what we read in Proverbs 13, verse 12. Hope deferred does what? Makes the heart sick. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. There's a reality to that. When we're expecting something to happen because we see the way things are going, we expect something good coming, and it doesn't come, we're just deflated. And we can even get to a place where we felt sick. Things are just utterly discouraging for us because we were expecting entirely different results. We weren't ready for the results that happened. This was Elijah's situation. And we can look at Mount Carmel, the events there, and we can say, that looks like a very emotional event. That's very intense. You can make a movie about what happened there, right? The thing with it is it was very emotional of an event, and Elijah lived it. And he was the one man at the center of it all. And the way I see Elijah, I see him as a very emotional man. I think he was the kind of guy that when things were good for Elijah, they were really good. And if anybody around him didn't realize how good they were, he was going to be sure to let them know how good things are and that they should follow suit and see that. But at the same time, the way he was, even though he was usually strong, and he was usually ready to oppose things that were not right, when things got bad for Elijah, they got really bad. He even got himself overwhelmed with how things were. And he made very bad decisions, and he did things that he would eventually learn to regret. Before this point of what we see here with Elijah, any big moves that he would make It looks like they were directed to him by the Lord, and he would follow what the Lord led him to do. He was a man who didn't move until the Lord told him to move. He'd stay at his post, and he'd do what he would be where he believed the Lord wanted him to be until the Lord directed him to do otherwise. In chapter 17 and verse 3, when the Lord told Elijah to go to Cherith, he went. In chapter 17 and verse 9, the Lord directed Elijah to go to Zarephath, and he went. And then in chapter 18 and verse 1, the Lord told Elijah to return to Ahab and he returned to Ahab. He did what the Lord told him to do. But this time he fled from Jezreel all the way to Beersheba over a hundred miles distance without the Lord's leading, without the Lord's direction. This is the first time that we come across Elijah in his life. Of course, all we see of him is just a summary, right? But the Lord is giving us what the Lord wants us to have of Elijah's life. This is the first time we see him out of the Lord's will, no longer following the Lord's direction. At least Elijah had the consideration to leave his servant in Beersheba. Beersheba says it was in Judah. Remember, Israel and Judah were a divided nation at this time. Israel was in the north, Judah was in the south, and there were two different governments, two different kings. All the kings in the north in Israel were all bad kings. Every king in Israel was a bad king. But there were some good kings in the south, in Judah. And the king at this time was Jehoshaphat. He was known as a righteous king, just like his father, King Asa. who is also known as a righteous king. So Elijah left his servant there in Beersheba and his servant was safe. So even though Elijah is consumed with discouragement and frustration and he's running, at least he's thinking about his servant. He didn't just leave his servant there. He got his servant to a safe place away from Jezebel and he kept on going. It would also have been safe if Elijah decided to stay in Beersheba too. He would have been safe, but he kept going. So looking at that tells me that Elijah wasn't just going to get away from Jezebel. He wasn't just running in order to be safe from her, or else he would have stayed in Beersheba, because that's a safe place. But he didn't. He continued going. Elijah was going somewhere. And eventually we can see that he was going to Hebron. Now I don't know when he decided to go to Hebron. I don't know if he decided that at this time or if he was still being irrational and he continued on running and he's not thinking right, but he's going somewhere. He's not just running for safety from Jezebel. So it is important to note that Elijah did leave his post in Israel. The Lord has had his true prophets in Israel and in Judah, and the prophets spoke for the Lord and spoke to the people and even rebuked kings and warned kings. Remember with King David, who's the one that came to him and warned him or rebuked him? The prophet Nathan. Who? Maybe that was another one. But the prophet Nathan. rebuked David. So the prophets were assigned to God's people in Israel and in Judah to oppose evil kings and to encourage kings in the way that they should go. Samuel did a lot of good encouraging the king. So he was supposed to be in Israel, but he left his post. He was no longer following the Lord. He was no longer where he should have been. So the way I see it is these bad emotions that he's dealing with, we can call them emotions, we can call them passions, as he's dealing with fear and discouragement, frustration, probably anger. As he's dealing with these, they're leading to bad decisions, bad actions that he's making. And that's why sin is, it gets worse and worse if we don't deal with it in the area of the mind, if we don't deal with our bad emotions. It would only get worse for us, brothers and sisters. as it got worse for Elijah. Because of his fear and his discouragement, he's no longer following the Lord. Look at verse 4. Verse 4 says, So after he left his servant in Beersheba, he continued on a day longer, and he sat under this broom tree, Because he couldn't go any further. I just see it as he went a day's journey and he just he just ran out of gas. He stopped under the nearest random tree. It's called a broom tree. And he gave up. He was so worn out. He couldn't go any further. And then it says, and he prayed. It's not a good prayer. But I do like that Elijah is still talking to the Lord. Even in his trial, even in his discouragement, his frustration, he's making bad decisions. He's sinning, but he's still praying. When we go to trials, don't stop praying. Now, I'm not saying don't stop praying and that's it. You know, there's a lot of people in the world who pray who don't know God. A lot of people in false religions, very devout in their praying, and they don't know God. But I'm saying, if you know the Lord, if you know that the Lord of the scriptures, the Bible, God's word, if you know the true God, Yahweh, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, when you're going through a trial, don't stop praying. Don't stop the communication between you and your God, because once that happens, well, what hope do you have if you don't know God? He continued praying. It says he prayed, it is enough. Now, Lord, take my life, for I'm no better than my father's. The Homan Christian standard says, I have had enough. There was another translation. I don't remember which one it was. But it just says, enough, exclamation mark. This is what Elijah is praying. I've had enough. He's tired. He's tired of the struggle. He's tired of being a prophet. He was tired of this struggle of the ministry where, you know, there's these highs and these lows and he knows his God and the Lord speaks to him and does things miraculously in his life. But when he deals with the people, they're the same. They're stubborn. They're resisting him. They don't like him. And there's a struggle. How can God be who he is, yet these people be so spiritually dark? His work conditions no longer met his expectations and he was ready to quit. Elijah prayed there in verse four that he might die. He knew that the ministry was so much about who he was, that if he was no longer going to be a prophet, well then he no longer needed to live. His ministry was who he was. Now, I don't think he reasoned that way. I don't think he deduced in his mind that way. I think he was just done with it all. He was so frustrated. His discouragement led to real depression. And as I studied this, I realized that I don't really understand all that Elijah experienced, all that he felt, all that he was going through. So there's a weakness in what I'm sharing with you this morning, because I can't enter into what he's going through as I'm seeing our brother here, who now, by God's grace, is in glory. But I don't understand the kind of, you know, I can look at it and just say, well, his emotions led to bad actions. His discouragement led to depression. But I wish I could really understand what he's going through because I know there's brothers and sisters today that are going through similar events, this hard and this difficult. But I just trust that what we see here with Elijah's life, we can gain some help from this. Elijah said, Lord, take my life for I'm no better than my father's. His father's, the prophets, the prophets of God were always rejected and they're always persecuted and even killed. The people didn't want to hear them because they convicted them. They just wanted their sin. They didn't want to hear what the Lord said to them in their sin. But with Elijah, things were so dramatic. Just read the previous chapters. Things were so dramatic in Elijah's life and in his ministry. He really thought things for him were going to be different than his father's. Now, I don't think this is just an utterly sinful thing he's saying, like a pripal thing. I think he really thought things were going to be different. He really thought there was going to be real repentance and restoration of the nation of Israel. And there wasn't. It was another time of a prophet of the Lord preaching against these wicked people and them not hearing and them rejecting. The dramatic events that he went to did not yield dramatic results. So Elijah was caught up in his faulty emotions, his faulty expectations. What he failed to do is what we read in Proverbs 4, verse 23. It says, keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. It's a reminder that we need to guard our hearts, guard our emotions, guard our thought lives. Keep them under the subjection of the Lord, under God's word, the scriptures. This is where Elijah messed up. This is where he went off the rails. He didn't guard his heart. He wasn't ready to deal with Jezebel when she came to oppose him. It's like with King David. Remember with King David when he fell? He wasn't ready to deal with what he was going to deal with. David was someone who opposed Goliath. He opposed wicked people. He was ready to deal with error, ready to deal with wrong for the Lord's glory. But when King David was supposed to be out at war, the scriptures say, he was bumbling around on the roof of his palace. And he wasn't spiritually prepared, emotionally prepared to see what he was going to see. And he fell. We need to always be ready, in season and out of season, it's a matter of timing. We can say, well, I'm usually ready, but we need to always be ready to deal with things in this evil and perverse generation, as our Lord said. Let's look at the Lord's provision there in verses 5-8, how the Lord helped Elijah in this sad situation that he got himself into. It says, then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, arise and eat. Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came back the second time and touched him and said, arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you. So he arose and ate and drank, and he went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights, as far as Horeb, the mountain of God. So after Elijah's frustrated and faithless prayer, he fell asleep, because he needed to sleep. He was tired. I hope everyone here is familiar with the verse in Psalm 127 and verse 2. It says, it is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows. The idea there is that it's vain, it's useless, it's worthless to get up early, to stay up late, chasing things that you should not chase. Chasing a career, chasing money, chasing sin, chasing entertainment, living for yourself in a way that you're running your body ragged. It says, to eat the bread of sorrows for so he gives his beloved sleep. God gives us sleep. God gives us rest because he loves us and he made us to need sleep. They say that eight hours is a good average of how much sleep we should get. Don't get too much sleep because I understand some people may need more sleep than that, but that can tend to just laziness where we're just getting too much sleep. Don't get too little sleep either. We make bad decisions when we get too little sleep. We make bad decisions with our families, bad decisions with work, bad decisions in our walk with the Lord. We fall asleep at the wheel when we're driving, when we're sleeping. So getting adequate sleep prevents all of these things. We're also more likely, now get this, we're more likely to spend time with the Lord in prayer and in the scriptures when we have adequate sleep. Because usually times when people come alone to have their devotions with the Lord, it's in the early morning hours or in the evening hours before bed. And if we're not getting enough sleep, those are times that we just lose. We get up late. We're too tired to seek the Lord. So when we have adequate sleep, we're more likely to spend time with the Lord in prayer and in the scriptures. Here's a good test for us. If you think that It's nighttime, and you should go to sleep. Well, that's when you should turn off the TV, turn off the computer, put away your phone, and pick up a book. Pick up a good book, a book that you like, not a boring book, and start to read that book. And if you fall asleep within 15 minutes of reading that book, you probably needed to go to sleep. So God made us to need sleep. It says in the scriptures, for so he gives his beloved sleep. After the Lord let Elijah sleep, the scriptures say an angel came to him. The angel touched Elijah and woke him up and told him, arise and eat. Elijah woke up, ate a humble meal with a jar of water, then he fell asleep again. So Elijah was tired and his body needed nourishment. He fell asleep again. He slept some time and then the angel of the Lord woke him up again and told him, arise and eat because a journey is too great for you. So by this time Elijah had already planned to go to Mount Horeb. It says Elijah ate and drank more water and fasted for 40 days and 40 nights on his way to Horeb, the mountain of God. So we must not forget that we need to take care of our physical bodies. There are some Christians who think that the important things in their Christianity are the spiritually sounding things, prayer, scripture reading, evangelism, going to church, the things that seem more spiritual. That's what matters to the Lord. And the Lord doesn't care so much with our physical bodies, with what we eat and drink and our rest. But the Lord does care about what we eat and drink. It says in Proverbs 23, verses 19 and 20, it says, hear my son and be wise and guide your heart in the way. There it is again, guide your heart, deal with your heart, deal with your inner desires, deal with your heart and be sure that it's trusting in the Lord and it's not everywhere else. Guide your heart in the way, do not mix with wine bibbers, so avoid alcohol because it leads to where it controls you and it leads you to do things that you should not do. Do not mix with winebibbers or with gluttonous eaters of meat. Avoid gluttony. Avoid overindulging in food, eating things that we should not eat, eating too much. The Lord does care about our physical bodies. We should not think that the things that are spiritual are what matter, but we neglect the bodies the Lord has given us to be stewards over. The Lord cares for our bodies. In Matthew chapter 14, we read about 5,000 men plus their wives and their children that the Lord Jesus fed. These were people who came away to a deserted place because Jesus was teaching them and preaching to them. And they didn't care about their food. They didn't care that the nearest place to eat was too far away. They didn't pack meals for them. They're there hearing Jesus. And Jesus cared for them. And he fed them. In the next chapter, in Matthew chapter 15, again, another event. The first time was with 5,000 men plus women and children. The second time was with 4,000 men plus women and children. An entirely other event where Jesus, again, is feeding these masses of people. The Lord cares for his people in every way, not just what we would call spiritually, but also about our physical bodies, things that seem just natural. The Lord cares about his people. In Matthew chapter 15 and verse 32, we read about when the Lord is talking to his disciples about feeding all the multitudes that are there. And right before he's going to feed them, this is what we read in that verse. Now, Jesus called his disciples to himself and said, I have compassion on the multitude because they have now continued with me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry lest they faint on the way. It says with seven loaves and it says a few little fish, Jesus fed them all. He had compassion on them. He thinks about them. It's another time where it says that Jesus looked at the people and he saw them as sheep without a shepherd. So he went and he healed them and he ministered to them. So Jesus cares about our physical condition. We are not to divide the spiritual with the physical in our lives, in our Christianity, in our worship of the Lord. Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote a book on spiritual depression. And he said this, he said, the ultimate cause of all spiritual depression is unbelief. Now he's specifying spiritual depression. This applies to Christians. Depression that will keep you from the Lord. They'll keep you from trusting in the Lord. You're just depressed and you don't see any hope and you're not trusting in God. You're not looking to the Lord. Christians can go through great trials where things can look utterly overwhelming to them, but they're still trusting in the Lord. And it may be hard for them to say that they are because the trial is so overwhelming, but they are. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, the greatest or the ultimate cause of all spiritual depression is unbelief, when the person is no longer trusting in the Lord. Then he said the second big cause of depression is, guess what the second big cause is? Physical conditions. Physical conditions in the person. And he emphasized, he said, tiredness, overstrain, sickness, these physical conditions in the believer are the second big cause of spiritual depression. He said, you cannot isolate the spiritual from the physical, for we are a body, mind, and spirit. The greatest and the best Christians, when they are physically weak, are more prone to an attack of spiritual depression than at any other time, and there are great illustrations of this in the scriptures. And Elijah was one case in point. And what we see here, with this time that the Lord took care of Elijah, that the Lord fed him and gave him water. This wasn't the first time that the Lord fed Elijah in this miraculous way. What was the first time? When was the first time? What did the Lord use? Ravens. Ravens. In Deuteronomy chapter 14 verse 14, the Israelites were not even supposed to be eating ravens. They were called unclean in God's law. But here the Lord used ravens, these unclean birds, bringing Elijah as prophet food in their beaks and in their claws to feed him. And then what was the second time? Through a Gentile widow. A Gentile widow who didn't have any food. Remember, she had her last meal that she was going to have for her and her son, and then they were going to eat it and die. So all the time that Elijah was there, remember, it was a three and a half year drought. I don't know how long he was actually there with that widow, because he was also at the brook cherith. But if he was there for months or years in her upstairs apartment, this Gentile widow was feeding Elijah, when she had no food to feed him with. The flour and the oil miraculously never ran out. And then here's this third time. This third time, it says, and the angel of the Lord fed him. The Lord could have used ravens again, like at the first time. But this time was different. Elijah was overwhelmed. He was consumed with discouragement, which even led to depression. He was afraid. He was frustrated. Things hadn't gone the way he expected them to go. He was in sin. He was out of line. He was no longer at his post in Israel where he should have been. Elijah was in sin. Did the Lord chastise him? Did the Lord punish him? The Lord could have been strict with Elijah and the Lord would have been entirely just and right to do so. But the Lord doesn't do that. We see the Lord's patience with Elijah. Elijah's planning on going to Mount Hermon. I don't believe that the Lord had called him there. I don't believe the Lord sent him there. I don't believe the Lord told him to go there, because I don't see that anywhere. I just see Elijah's doing what Elijah's doing, and the Lord is patiently caring for his servant. And by the way, we're not going to see Elijah fully restored by the time we get done today. But I think by the time we get done today, where we're at in the text, verse 9, 10, Elijah's better off than he was. But at this time, when Elijah is in sin, an angel came to Elijah when he was at his weakest. And the Lord didn't punish him, it says in Second Timothy, chapter two, verse 13. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. That doesn't mean the Lord doesn't chastise his people, we read about that in scriptures. That doesn't mean he doesn't discipline his people. Sometimes that's a good thing when his people think I need to follow the Lord. I need to stop doing this certain thing because the Lord is going to defend me. I think that's that's healthy for the Christian at times. But with Elijah, I don't read any of that. I just read about the Lord's patience in Elijah's life. And in his kindness in this situation. This last time the Lord sent the the angel of the Lord, it says there are times in the Old Testament when the angel of the Lord is Jesus Christ. They're called the pre-incarnate appearances of Christ, or the theophanies, the appearances of God. Scholars believe this because the angel of the Lord is called God, the angel of the Lord is given attributes of God, and the angel of the Lord is even worshipped as God. We don't worship angels, we don't worship people, we only worship God. And it's possible that at this time, the angel of the Lord is Jesus Christ. But whether it's the Lord Jesus himself or the Lord sent an angel to help Elijah, this is still a demonstration of the Lord's kindness and the Lord's presence in Elijah's life. This time the Lord didn't send an animal, the Lord didn't send a person, the Lord sent, or it doesn't even say the Lord sent, it says the angel of the Lord came to him. When Elijah needed God the most. So where was Elijah going? It says after he was asleep twice and after he had two meals with water, he went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God. Elijah was going to Mount Horeb. And Mount Horeb is called the mountain of God. Why is it called the mountain of God? What do y'all think? Does anybody have any ideas why this location called Mount Horeb is called the mountain of God? Mount Carmel wasn't called the mountain of God. Say it again? That's where God gave the law, Mount Sinai. Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai are the same place. That's why it's called the Mountain of God. This is the same place where God gave the law, where God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses. This is a place where Moses fasted 40 days and 40 nights from food and water. We read about that in Deuteronomy chapter 9 and verse 9. And we also read about Elijah going in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights on his way to Mount Horeb. The same place. This is a place that burned with fire when God would meet with Moses there at Mount Sinai. This is a place where God first met with Moses. When Moses was a shepherd for his father-in-law and he wandered to this place in Exodus chapter 3, we read in Exodus 3 verse 2, the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses, there we see angel of the Lord again. The angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire in the midst of the bush and the Lord spoke to him from the midst of that bush. That's why this is called the mountain of God, Mount Horeb. And this is where Elijah was going. Elijah thought that everything in Israel had failed. And since things were not going the way they should, and things were just collapsing and not the way they should, he needed to flee to the headquarters. He needed to go to the Lord and bring to him the bad news, bring his complaint before the Lord. So in what we're seeing here, as bad as it is for Elijah and the bad decisions that he's making, I don't think Elijah was running from the Lord. Even in his sin, he wasn't running from the Lord. He was running to the Lord. And I don't think the Lord had called him to Mount Horeb. But I think Elijah thought this was what he needed to do. He knew Mount Horeb was famous for what the Lord had done in the past with Moses. And now he's running to the Lord for help. So the Lord could have been much more strict and much more harsh with Elijah, but he wasn't. There in verse 9, let me read verse 9, it says, And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah? That's one of the reasons why I think that the Lord didn't call him to Mount Horeb. He asked him that question in verse 9. He asked him the same question again in verse 13. What are you doing here, Elijah? It was Elijah's will to go there. We know the Lord is sovereign, but the Lord just allowed him to do what he was going to do. What are you doing here, Elijah? We see the Lord's patience and all that happened. Elijah made a lot of bad decisions. And in the 10 verses there, the 9, 10 verses, how did the Lord respond to Elijah? In verse 5, an angel came and said, arise and eat. In verse 7 again, that angel called the angel of the Lord said, arise and eat because a journey is too great for you. And I don't think Elijah got to the place of full restoration until, if you keep reading the rest of the chapter, things that the Lord does that bring Elijah to a place of full restoration. But Elijah is at a much better place right here where we're at than he was before the Lord came to him and cared for him. Elijah would have died under that broom tree. Just completely worn out. He couldn't go any further. Collapsed under that bridge. He would have died there. No one else would have seen him again. Alive, for sure. It would have been a terrible way for Elijah to go. Just overwhelmed with depression and discouragement. If he was the Lord's, he was the Lord's. He'd go to heaven. But what a terrible way for the servant of the Lord to go out. But the Lord in his compassion, We see the Lord being patient with him. We see the Lord feeding him, nourishing him, giving him water, letting him rest, ministering to him, dealing with his servant in a patient and a gentle way, helping him to get to where he thought he needed to get to, to Mount Horeb. Even when he got to the cave, what did Elijah do? Again, first thing, he fell asleep again. Poor guy. We just see the Lord's graciousness to his servant here. And at least he's not fully restored, but he's better than he was when he was under that broom tree. Well, let's pray. Father God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for what you did in Elijah's life. We thank you that you are faithful to your people. And we know that your people, when we go through great trials, you were there with us and you care for us and you love us. We thank you for your faithfulness that that will continue on. That's eternal. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.