God Will Pass By

Are you running because you think you have no one to help you?

Are you tired of the enemy’s attacks and you feel as if you are the only one standing for the LORD?

Is your life being threatened? Either by some health issue or literally someone wants to kill you?

Have you looked for God but you can’t hear him through all the noise and chaos in your world?

Are you sleeping? Are you afraid? Do you want to just give up?

That’s how Elijah felt because of evil Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, King of Israel. She said she was going to kill him. So Elijah ran and hid in a cave.

God knows right we are and what we are dealing with even when we run away and are so exhausted on the journey that we seek a hiding place to fall asleep.

We can’t hide from God!

An angel came to Elijah shook him and said, “Get up and eat.” So Elijah saw bread that was baked on some hot coals and there was a jug of water left for him. He ate some of the bread and drank some of the water and went back to sleep. God always gives us what we need, but what do we do? We go back to sleep. (Spiritually speaking) But God doesn’t leave us asleep. It’s interesting to me that Elijah ate and just went back to sleep. God doesn’t give up on us. We want answers from God, but it’s God who seeks us out. God will shake us awake to get our attention. He gives us provisions and He will tell us exactly what to do if we will just, WAKE UP!

So the angel came back again and said, “Get up and eat some more, you’ve got a long journey ahead of you.” Then Elijah gets up, eats, and is able to run 40 days and nights until he comes to the mountain of God, to Horeb. He got there and what did he do? He went to sleep. God didn’t let him sleep long.

The word of God came to him and said, “So Elijah, what are you doing here?” As if God didn’t know. I guess he wanted Elijah to tell him.

I  can just see Elijah after running all those days and nights…he’s sweaty and he needs a bath. He’s tired but he says to God…“I’ve been working my heart out for the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,” said Elijah. “The people of Israel have abandoned your covenant, destroyed the places of worship, and murdered your prophets. I’m the only one left, and now they’re trying to kill me.”

Poor Elijah. O woe is me…I’m the only one…and now they’re trying to kill me. It wasn’t to many days before that, that Elijah called down fire from heaven…and God sent fire and lapped all the water and the sacrifice…to show the Baal worshippers that He is God. Elijah must have had  some kind of temporary short-term memory loss…because when Jezebel told him she was going to kill him, he ran away like a chicken with his tail-feathers on fire…What? Wait a minute, didn’t he know  that God would help him? Sure he did but fear got the best of him…and fear does the same to us all the time. That’s one reason we need our brothers and sisters in Christ, when we are weak another will lift us up.

So Elijah was told, “Go, stand on the mountain at attention before God. God will pass by.”

Stand at attention sounds like a military command. God wanted him alert and listening and watching.

Are we willing to stand at attention on top of the mountain and wait on God? Would you believe God when He says He’s going to pass by? I’ll give it to Elijah, he did do as God said.

And will we know Him when He does? When we hear the voice of God will we recognize it?

A hurricane wind ripped through the mountains and shattered the rocks before God, but God wasn’t to be found in the wind; after the wind an earthquake, but God wasn’t in the earthquake; and after the earthquake fire, but God wasn’t in the fire; and after the fire a gentle and quiet whisper.

God asked, “Why are you Here, Elijah?”

When Elijah heard the quiet voice, he muffled his face with his great cloak, ( I think it finally dawned on him what he had done. He was ashamed so he covered his face.) He went to the mouth of the cave, and stood there. A quiet voice asked, “So Elijah, now tell me, what are you doing here?” 

Did God not hear Elijah when he told him the first time? Yes he did hear him, but he wanted Elijah to tell him again. Maybe because he wanted to reinforce why he ran in the first place. At any rate God was getting reading to tell him to go back the way he came. Go back to Damascus.

He may have thought, “Really God? Didn’t you hear what I said? Didn’t you listen to my story? They want to kill me. They’ve killed all your prophets and I’m the only one left!”

But Elijah didn’t say that, he knew the still, quiet, voice of God, and when God said I have reserved seven thousand souls whose knees haven’t bowed to the god of Baal, the mouths who haven’t kissed his image. He knew then that God was with him.

Is God with you? If you are born again, if you’ve asked Jesus to come into your heart and be the Lord of your life and you are seeking Him with all your heart, all your strength and all your mind…God is with you!

He is saying to you today, Get up and go…In the days of Elijah the Holy Ghost would come on the prophets and they would tell the people what God was saying…but today the Holy Ghost lives inside you and He is telling you how to live for HIM, how to serve HIM, how to follow HIM. He tells you in reading HIS word. He tells you by His Spirit and Truth and He leads and guides you all the way. We are not born into this world simply to do “our own thing.” No, we are born to serve the LORD! As the Church, the called out ones, the ones Jesus has called His own and has put His Holy Spirit inside of…you are the ones to serve the LORD…

How do you serve HIM? When you love others more than yourselves…when you talk to the LORD and He answers you in that quite voice…when you deny your flesh and you take up your cross and follow Him…not man, not religion, not self, not ego, not each other in the fleshly desires…But when you say, Yes LORD, I’ll live my life for You! I’ll love like you love. I’ll return good for evil. I’ll give and not take. I’ll surrender my dreams to your dreams. Jesus make me more like you. To build your kingdom so that peace and joy and gentleness and meekness and faith and long-suffering and self-control is given to others. I will not lie or steal or covet…I will not kill. I will not commit adultery or worship other gods. I’ll remember your Sabbath day and keep it Holy. . I will love you first with all my heart, mind, body and soul. And I’ll love my neighbor as myself. These are your commandments. I will obey You Lord!

If you’re running today, stop running. If you’re playing, church; stop playing, church. If you’re anxious and confused and full of doubt…stop it! Humble your heart before the Living God and ask him to forgive you.

That is, if you want to serve the LORD.

God is saying to us today, by His Spirit, “So, John/Mary Doe, what are you doing here?”

“Go, stand on the mountain at attention before God. God will pass by.”

He has seven thousand in reserve that will not bow the knee to the god of Baal, or kiss the image.

Will you be one of the seven thousand? I pray you will.

See the following Scripture regarding Elijah the Prophet, The King of Israel, Ahab and the Evil Jezebel.

1 Kings 19:1-18 The Message (MSG)

Revenge from Jezebel 

Ahab reported to Jezebel everything that Elijah had done, including the massacre of the prophets. Jezebel immediately sent a messenger to Elijah with her threat: “The gods will get you for this and I’ll get even with you! By this time tomorrow you’ll be as dead as any one of those prophets.”

When Elijah saw how things were, he ran for dear life to Beersheba, far in the south of Judah. He left his young servant there and then went on into the desert another day’s journey. He came to a lone broom bush and collapsed in its shade, wanting in the worst way to be done with it all—to just die: “Enough of this, God! Take my life—I’m ready to join my ancestors in the grave!” Exhausted, he fell asleep under the lone broom bush.

Suddenly an angel shook him awake and said, “Get up and eat!”

He looked around and, to his surprise, right by his head were a loaf of bread baked on some coals and a jug of water. He ate the meal and went back to sleep.

The angel of God came back, shook him awake again, and said, “Get up and eat some more—you’ve got a long journey ahead of you.

He got up, ate and drank his fill, and set out. Nourished by that meal, he walked forty days and nights, all the way to the mountain of God, to Horeb. When he got there, he crawled into a cave and went to sleep.

Then the word of God came to him: “So Elijah, what are you doing here?”

“I’ve been working my heart out for the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,” said Elijah. “The people of Israel have abandoned your covenant, destroyed the places of worship, and murdered your prophets. I’m the only one left, and now they’re trying to kill me.”

Then he was told, “Go, stand on the mountain at attention before God. God will pass by.”

A hurricane wind ripped through the mountains and shattered the rocks before God, but God wasn’t to be found in the wind; after the wind an earthquake, but God wasn’t in the earthquake; and after the earthquake fire, but God wasn’t in the fire; and after the fire a gentle and quiet whisper.

When Elijah heard the quiet voice, he muffled his face with his great cloak, went to the mouth of the cave, and stood there. A quiet voice asked, “So Elijah, now tell me, what are you doing here?” Elijah said it again, “I’ve been working my heart out for God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, because the people of Israel have abandoned your covenant, destroyed your places of worship, and murdered your prophets. I’m the only one left, and now they’re trying to kill me.”

God said, “Go back the way you came through the desert to Damascus. When you get there anoint Hazael; make him king over Aram. Then anoint Jehu son of Nimshi; make him king over Israel. Finally, anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Anyone who escapes death by Hazael will be killed by Jehu; and anyone who escapes death by Jehu will be killed by Elisha. Meanwhile, I’m preserving for myself seven thousand souls: the knees that haven’t bowed to the god Baal, the mouths that haven’t kissed his image.”

A bit of Jezebel’s back story…

(According to the Hebrew Bible, Jezebel incited her husband King Ahab to abandon the worship of Yahweh and encourage worship of the deities Baal and Asherah instead. Jezebel persecuted the prophets of Yahweh, and fabricated evidence of blasphemy against an innocent landowner who refused to sell his property to King Ahab, causing the landowner to be put to death. For these transgressions against the God and people of Israel, Jezebel met a gruesome death – thrown out of a window by members of her own court retinue, and the flesh of her corpse eaten by stray dogs. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.)

–Marla Shaw O’Neill April 5, 2017