God's Therapy for Troubled Christians

A young man is, I think, he is 25. He had a heart attack on the first day of the show, and he died. You know, there was an inquest and they immediately cancelled the show, the producers did. And in the wake of media and public accusation and scrutiny, the field doctor who was involved on the show, who sort of looked after everyone's health, he committed suicide. He wrote in his suicide note, which he asked to be made public, that he had made the decision to commit suicide because his name had been smeared by the media, and he felt that he had done everything in his power to make sure that the contestants were healthy.

Now, it's such a tragedy. It is really a double tragedy. Two lives were lost. And reflecting on this tragedy this week, I thought that not only the unexpected death of a young man who was in the prime of his life, but especially this doctor's suicide just indicated to me again how destructive suicide is. You might think that you might also reflect or remember about the nurse who had been looking after the queen and had been tricked by radio announcers also, because of shame, decided to take her own life.

These individuals were suffering from depression and anxiety and their situations were pretty hard, pretty tough, you can imagine. I can't even imagine how much scrutiny the media can bring on someone. But what I really struggled to answer was, is suicide really the best way to deal? This morning, in fact, I woke to the news that pastor Rick Warren's son, you know, pastor Rick Warren is the guy who writes Purpose Driven Life, a very popular book. He's pastor of Saddleback Church, which is a huge megachurch in Southern California.

His son actually committed suicide as well, aged 27. Is suicide really the best way to deal with our issues? Have you battled with depression before? Have you ever been at that low point where you have considered taking your own life? Perhaps you're dealing with chronic depression right now, you're battling with that, you're on medication, you're seeing professionals about it.

How do we, as Christians, face depression? How do we handle that? Is there anything in the Bible that teaches us how to react or how to treat this very prevalent issue in our society? This morning we come to a very honest account of Elijah's life. It's a very honest stage in his story.

It's candid, it's raw, it's warts and all. We've seen last week or two weeks ago, the hero side of Elijah, the courageous man of God, calling down fire, drawing people back to God. And this morning, we see something that's far more vulnerable. It's a time when Elijah wanted to commit suicide. A time when Elijah wanted to die.

We're going to have a look at that. If you have your Bibles with you, let's open to First Kings 19. We're going to be doing a bit of reading from verses 1 to 21. First Kings 19, verse 1: Now Ahab, the king of Israel, told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed the prophets with a sword.

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. In other words, to kill you. Elijah was afraid and he ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat under it and prayed that he might die.

I've had enough, Lord, he said. Take my life. I am no better than my ancestors. Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. All at once, an angel touched him and said, get up and eat.

He looked around and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. 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. So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he travelled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

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? He replied, I've been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected Your covenant, broken down Your altars, and put Your prophets to death with a sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.

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. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

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? He replied, I've been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected Your covenant, broken 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.

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. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat, from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death anyone who escaped the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escaped the sword of Jehu. Yet I reserved 7,000 in Israel, all whose knees were not bowed down to Baal, and all whose mouths have not kissed him.

So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him, threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, he said, and then I will come with you.

Go back, Elijah replied. What have I done to you? So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the ploughing equipment to cook the meat, and he gave it to the people, and they ate.

Then he set out to follow Elijah, and obtained his assistance. So far, our reading. We come to this story right after the end of a huge battle on Mount Carmel. In chapter 18, verse 41, Elijah tells Ahab to get ready to go back home because the storm is coming. Elijah climbs Mount Carmel.

He asks his servant to go and look towards the west out to the sea, which you can see from Mount Carmel. The servant comes back and he says, I see nothing over the ocean. Elijah says, go back again. Seven times he goes back and forth and reports that he doesn't see anything. And the seventh time he goes back, he sees a little cloud coming out from the ocean.

Rain was on its way. God's promise had come true. Elijah told Ahab that he needs to get ready to leave the area because the storm is about to hit. Ahab gets into his chariot and his entourage heads back home. Then a massive storm hits Israel.

The skies are absolutely dark. The wind came up, the Bible says, and it just hosed down. It was raining cats and dogs, or in those days, camels and donkeys. God said that He would make it rain by His word and in His timing, and when the people had come back to Him, He had kept His promise, and water started flowing back into the country. Water started falling back onto the parched land.

Meanwhile, Elijah got out of the area because the heavy storms were going to make it difficult, and he headed back towards Jezreel as well. In fact, the Bible says that he was empowered by the Spirit of God and actually outran Ahab, outran his chariot to get to Jezreel first. And then when we start our reading in chapter one, we see this character of Ahab and what a weak little man he was. He goes back to Jezebel and he spills his guts. Elijah, he says, he killed all my prophets and my priests.

And we see the character of Jezebel. We see what a domineering, scheming woman she was. Like the Americans would say, she was a fine piece of work. She immediately takes matters into her own hands. She begins with intimidation tactics.

She gets one of her messengers, sends them out to Elijah to go and tell him, I promise you that by this time tomorrow, I will make you like you made our prophets and priests. I will kill you. Right about now, we think, try your best, Jezebel. We know Elijah. He's a man who stood against 850 prophets and priests.

Do your worst. Elijah's the man. He is the man of God. He is a prophet who knows God's voice, who speaks on behalf of God. He's been to the Kerith Valley.

He's been through the basic training of Zarephath. He's the hero who faced 850 prophets, and he called fire down from heaven. Do your worst. He's not going to fall for this lame intimidation act. Wait a minute.

He does. Verse 3 says, Elijah was afraid. He ran for his life. Not only that, he ran to the farthest point of Israel. The nation of Israel that had split from Judah was the Northern Kingdom.

Israel was up north. He runs to Beersheba of Judah, which is the southernmost part of the kingdom. He runs as far away as he can. Not only does he get to Beersheba, when he gets there, he leaves his servant there, and then he goes another day's journey into the wilderness. This was a guy that did not want to be found.

This was a guy that wanted to run away from anything and everything that was threatening him. Was this guy scared? I think so. He comes to a tree, he sits under it, and the Bible says he prays that he might die. I've had enough, Lord, he says, take my life.

I am no better than my forefathers. If this is not depression, then I don't know what is. If this is not clinical depression, a psychologist wouldn't read this and say, That's depression. I don't know what is. Just end it.

Just end it, God, he says. I cannot deal with it anymore. I don't want to go on living anymore. How could Elijah get to this point? How could this man of God, who so powerfully acted, get to this point where he wants to die?

There's actually three things to notice about this, and I hope that we can use some of these principles for ourselves. I'm not saying that this is a textbook on dealing with depression, because I don't think it is, but there are some really fundamental principles that God's Word teaches us about this issue. There are three causes we see that cause Elijah's depression. The first is that Elijah was caught up in the aftermath of a great victory. He was caught up in the absolute elation of something that was truly magnificent to behold.

It was mission accomplished for him. Our most vulnerable moments often come after a very high mountaintop experience. The big battle on Mount Carmel had passed. The great victory had now become a memory. He had trained for years for this moment.

Everything he did was leading up to this event. He achieved it. But now what? Now what? It's the same for us.

We work very hard to get a new job, to get qualified or educated. Once we get there, we think, wow, this is going to make me happy, this is going to make me successful. Once we get there, now what? We make an investment and think, oh, this is going to be fantastic. Once we get there, now what?

That's one cause for this particular situation that Elijah was facing. The second one is that Elijah was both physically and emotionally exhausted. Elijah had been hunted for years, so this wasn't new. He was a man always living on the edge, constantly aware of his surroundings, constantly aware that the king was looking for his head. On top of that, he had just had the unbelievable confrontation with the people of Israel, the priests and the prophets of Baal and the Shearer.

And he had stood toe to toe with the king of his people. It's little wonder that Elijah had come to the end of his rope, physically at least, but definitely emotionally. There's an old Greek saying that says, You'll break the bow if you keep it always bent. In other words, if you're living under constant pressure, you're living under constant relentless pressure, you'll eventually break down. And that's what Elijah was facing.

Pastors know this really well. You might be surprised to know that pastors tend to get discouraged on Mondays. It's actually called the Monday blues. All week long, we are building towards Sunday. We're preparing, we're praying.

We're doing our pastoral visits and pastoral stuff. And then we get to Sunday, and it's an emotional climate. And everything you've been working on comes to that point. And hopefully, it all comes together. And hopefully, it all works out well.

But then Monday comes, and Mondays are the days where pastors are just a little bit vulnerable, a little bit weary. It also just so happens to be the day where the emails come in complaining about the bad sermon, or someone else singing behind them that just had a terrible voice, or the music that's not uplifting enough, or something. There's a reason many pastors take Monday off. They don't read email. They go and play golf.

Likewise, Elijah was physically and emotionally exhausted. The third reason Elijah found himself in this place of depression is that he entered into a spiral of self-pity. That feeling of self-pity is an absolute killer. It will lie to you. It will exaggerate your situation.

It will drive you to tears and cultivate a victim mentality in your head. Self-pity is a static emotion. In the worst case scenarios, it can bring you to the point of wishing to die. Let me die, Elijah says, because I am no better than my forefathers. But Elijah, who said that you have to be better than your forefathers?

Nowhere do we read God's calling on your life that you have to be better than anyone. Was it a part of God's calling? We don't read anything like that in the biblical account. God never told him that. The story doesn't even insinuate that he was being measured to anyone else.

He probably made that conclusion himself. He probably said, that's what I want to be. And that's the danger. When we open our minds to the sort of pride which says something like this, and we establish these standards for ourselves, these very proud standards, and when we fail that, that's when self-pity sneaks in. That's when self-pity sneaks in.

That's when we say, I don't deserve this. I don't deserve this. I deserve better than this. How can God do this to me? How can my boss do this to me?

How can my husband do this to me? I deserve better. Can you see the underlying issue of pride here? The larger had completely misplaced pride when he was going to ask or when he was going to strive to be better than his forefathers. And when things didn't pan out like he wanted to, woe is me, let me die.

I don't deserve this. I am better than this. And then we come to how God deals with Elijah's despair, how God deals with Elijah's depression. He does it so graciously and so mercifully. He doesn't rebuke.

He doesn't rebuke. He doesn't give a sermon. There's no blame. There's no shame. Instead, God does four things, four things for Elijah.

He gives him bread and water, and he provides for Elijah's physical needs. He gives him rest and allows him to sleep as well. Because he knows Elijah's exhausted. He knows he's absolutely at the end of himself physically and emotionally, and he knows what Elijah needs. You see, Jesus even said when He was around that God the Father knows our needs before we even ask Him.

God knows our needs before we even ask them, before we even feel the need to express them. God knows. Our needs, including our physical needs, are important to God. An angel of God comes and gives him food, lets him sleep, comes back a second time to wake Elijah, offers him more food and water. And then Elijah is strengthened by that, and he goes to Mount Horeb.

Now if you know your Bible, if you know your history, Mount Horeb is a special holy mountain for the people of Israel. This is where God met with the nation of Israel when they were wandering in the wilderness. This is where they heard the voice of God when they were absolutely terrified. This is where Moses climbed to receive the Ten Commandments for the second time. Now, Horeb is a special spiritual place.

When he gets there, we see God doing the second thing in this moment of depression. He provides for Elijah's spiritual need. Elijah reaches the cave and God asks him, What are you doing here, Elijah? What are you doing here? Elijah gives him the sob story.

I've been zealous for You, God. I've been in the Kerith Valley. I've been to Zarephath, but these Israelites and these prophets and these priests, you know, they're just doing this and that. And now I'm here, and I'm being pursued by Jezebel. I'm done for.

And now what's worse than that is, I'm the only one left. All the prophets have been killed. I'm the only one left. And again, God doesn't rebuke.

God doesn't give a sermon. God doesn't give a stern word of discipline. He simply accepts Elijah's frustration and tells him to go outside and wait. When he gets outside, Elijah witnesses some terrifying things. A huge wind rises up on the mountain, so strong that it tears the mountain apart.

Boulders are rolling down the slopes into the valley. It's absolutely terrifying. But interestingly, Elijah doesn't sense God in that moment. He doesn't sense God in that wind. Then an earthquake comes up and shakes this entire mountain.

And after that, fire passes through the valley, yet Elijah sensed that God was in neither of those events. But after the fire subsides, a gentle breeze, a gentle whisper comes and passes through. And Elijah senses God in the whisper. The NIV translates this word as whisper, but the Hebrew could just as well say breeze. And the funny, the interesting, the amazing thing about it is that the word is exactly the same.

The word is ruach, and ruach means spirit as well. It can mean whisper, sound, wind, breeze, or spirit. And in the Hebrew in the Old Testament, it's usually the Spirit of God. Ancient rabbis used to say that when they felt a breeze in the hot desert, God was present. Isn't that a great saying?

Just that very gentle breath that rushes over your eyes, over your body. God is present. God was in none of the mighty, terrifying forces. He was in the breeze. Elijah senses God's nearness and God's presence.

There are moments in our lives when this happens, isn't there? It's not a gigantic life-changing event. It's not the Mount Carmel experience where we see life come down. It's a moment where we're sitting on the back veranda, on a quiet afternoon, listening to the birds playing in the trees, and just sense, God is here. Everything is right in the world.

God is here. And that's what God offers Elijah. Everything is going to be okay. God provides for Elijah by giving him that moment. Elijah had seen God at His most powerful, at His most fear-inspiring at Mount Carmel.

He saw the fire of God fall and burn up saturated wood, burn up stones, swallow and evaporate water. He saw all that, but what he really needed was a quietness of God's presence in his heart. God provides for Elijah by providing a way out. God asked Elijah again after this, Elijah, what are you doing here? Elijah gives him the same spiel.

God says, okay, okay. Go and anoint new leaders for this country. They're going to help purify Israel. They're going to bring My people back to Me, but also go and anoint your replacement.

Go and anoint Elisha. He'll be taking over from you. And then God gives him this final bit of encouragement, which would have just also made Elijah feel so small for his lack of faith. God ends that by saying, I've reserved 7,000 people for Me in this country that have not bowed the knee. You keep saying, you keep believing that you are the only one.

It's that self-pity. It exaggerates. But I've reserved 7,000 people, faithful Jews, that still believe in Me, that still follow Me, that still love Me. See, the final provision of God for Elijah is an ally, an ally for Elijah. Elijah went out and he found Elisha son of Shaphat, ploughing in the field.

He's just a farm boy. Elijah meets him and he throws his cloak around him, which was a customary practice of saying, you are now under my care. You are now under my protection, and I will look after you. You are going to be my disciple. Elisha asked to go back home and to say goodbye to his parents.

After doing that, he comes back, he slaughters all his oxen, and he burns or cooks his oxen on his ploughing equipment. In other words, he's selling whatever he has. There's no returning back. There's no second option. He's going down this way.

He's doing God's mission. He has a huge banquet for the local people, gives all the food away, and he shows to all of them, especially Elijah, which would have been an amazing encouragement, that he's in this, roots and all. There's no coming back from this. Elijah's dramatic response would have been so encouraging. He was a young man who would fight the good fight that Elijah had started and that Elijah was really struggling with at that time.

In this story, we see that despite Elijah's warped perspective of his situation, God provides for him. God provides for him physically, emotionally, spiritually. God provides an ally for Elijah. He tells him to go and appoint his successor. He gives him a companion.

We cannot underestimate when we are in that dark moment of depression. We cannot underestimate the people around us. We cannot underestimate the people that God has put by your side. We have to believe that. We have to think that. We have to see that.

Depression made Elijah run away to be alone and die. God sends Elijah to go and fetch a man who is going to be his companion. Made Elijah pity himself, but God humbled Elijah by telling him there were 7,000 faithful believers still in Israel. Depression can lead you to become very selfish, very destructive, and lose perspective. Meanwhile, God is the source of all hope.

That is the crux of our faith. God is the source of all hope. Seek Him out. Let Him provide for your needs, and He will. That's the promise.