Even his brothers betrayed and criticized him. His rebukes and reforms were rebuffed with defiance. Yet not long after Jeremiah embarked upon his mission, he met with fierce opposition. That unique ministerial call came wrapped up in powerful promises.
They will fight against you but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you" (Jer. I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down. "Be not afraid of them," the Lord guaranteed His prophet, ' 'for I am with you to deliver you. Jeremiah needed assurance of God's protection and support to back him up. Under these circumstances God appointed Jeremiah to deliver His warnings to the spiritually bankrupt country. Priests, king, and subjects had all gone their own way. Later in Israel's history the nation had again forsaken God. And mil lions of other faithful servants of God have gone to their graves. In fact, Scripture records this as happening only in Enoch's and Elijah's cases. Not all faithful servants of God, how ever, are taken to heaven without bowing to death. Enough of Jezebel's rudeness and death threats! He had but to anoint his successor, tour the schools of prophets, and then mount a VIP spaceship to heaven. He provided the food that strengthened Elijah for the marathon of 40 days and nights that took him away from the manslayer Jezebel.Įlijah left Mount Horeb a changed man. Our God is altogether different from human beings, praise His name. If you were God, what would you have done to Elijah? Lectured him on faith? Enrolled him in a course on the management of fear and stress? As a conference president, what line of action would you take toward a district pastor who has abandoned his responsibilities and is praying "It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life for I am no better than my fathers" (verse 4)? He wanted God to judge be tween his call for reformation and Ahab's idolatrous reign.
To Elijah, that place symbolized love and justice. Why Mount Horeb? Because that was where God gave the Decalogue. Feeling alone, he thought of Mount Horeb and headed there. The fear of death overtook the celebrated prophet. Jezebel quickly dispatched a message to Elijah: "So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow" (1 Kings 19:2).* News of the defeat soon reached the queen: Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including his killing of all Baal's priests. The great contest at Mount Carmel between God's prophet and Baal's worshipers had ended. When the enemy comes in like a flood, it pays to pause and contemplate the lives of fellow servants of God under similar circumstances. Many ministers and top church officials feel they are hard hit. The higher one climbs the spiritual ladder, the more oppressive and deadly Satan's attacks become.
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