WHERE ELIJAH ENDS
AND GOD BEGINS
Jess Connolly
When I hit the edge of my own strength, I found comfort in another exhausted leader: Elijah. I’ ve spent a lot of time with Elijah over the last few years. I’ ve read, studied, and taught the following passage so frequently that I could almost recount it to you in my sleep. I’ m fairly certain I’ ve dreamed about Elijah at some point. But still, there’ s a lesson in this passage that my soul is desperately trying to grasp.
I’ d love for us to trace a series of events in Elijah’ s perilous ministry together, beginning in 1 Kings
19, then working backward to 1 Kings 17. Before we get there, let’ s do a little refresher on Elijah and the ministry God called him to. Elijah was a prophet called by God to minister in the ninth century BC, during the reign of the very evil King Ahab and his wife, Jezebel. Elijah’ s job was to call out the idol worship of God’ s people, to call them back to covenant faithfulness with God, and as you can imagine, people don’ t really like when you mess with their idols.
Ahab and Jezebel sure didn’ t like it, and they
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