Elijah’s epic showdown on Mount Carmel, against almost 900 priests of Baal and Asherah, is the standout episode of Elijah’s life story, a children’s classic that we learned early on. Its message is simple. Stand up for God and God will show up. He is real, and He is more powerful than other false gods.
Yet recently, I’ve been able to relate to another, less flashy episode of his life, that has made a big impact on me. To understand that episode however, we start on Mount Carmel.
For hours, the pagan priests parade around screaming and cutting themselves, and nothing happens. With some next level “trash talk”—what cricketers would call sledging—Elijah confronts them. “Is your god having a nap? Perhaps he’s on the loo?”
Finally, Elijah pours water all over his offering and sends a simple prayer to heaven. Fire comes down and consumes the altar and the stones—everything, in the blink of an eye.
He has held the faith, withstood the trials and when everything is done, he can finally breathe again. He has won. Then suddenly, with a death threat from a Disney villain-style queen, his world crumbles.
Sometimes, when we experience spiritual highs and mountain-top experiences, we are left drained and depleted when the hype wears off. Especially if we’ve facilitated the experience through our service or ministry in some way and we are physically and mentally spent in the aftermath. It is an uncomfortable reality of life.
Before the showdown, Elijah makes a telling comment. “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left.” We find out later in Elijah’s story that this is not true, but this is how Elijah feels at the time, alone, battling against the current. And maybe it is a clue to explaining his later actions.
Elijah has waited through years of drought with only his reliance on God.
He is even fed by God in the wilderness via ravens. Then he returns to civilisation and challenges the king to a showdown of priests. His reliance on God is verified.
Yet, we speak critically of Elijah. “He did so much and then he lost faith” we say, nodding to ourselves that it can happen to the best of us.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been there. Close to burnout. Questioning everything. Ready to throw in the towel.
The pandemic was wild, but for me and my little family, we made it through, happy to see more of each other, blessed to be at home for the first six months of my daughter’s life. Yet as things started to get “back to normal” it became harder. Many of my colleagues transitioned to new roles, which meant we were training and starting from scratch with everyone all at once. For a period of six months or more, we were one key staff member down. I was overloaded and overwhelmed, and then we were blessed with a second baby. But it meant less sleep, and everything felt so much harder than it did with the first (as we were no longer locked in together and life was a lot busier).
The whole period lasted for some time. I was stressed, resentful, comparative of others and I was questioning a lot of things. It’s not that I lost faith in God, just that things seemed overwhelming.
Maybe that’s why this part of Elijah’s story has been speaking to me lately.
If Elijah, one of God’s chosen prophets, can go through a season of doubt and still hold onto his faith, there is hope for all of us.
Let’s pick up the story again.
Elijah runs into the wilderness and lies down, praying that he might die. He wants to give up. He’s fulfilled the calling God placed on him and feels alone and isolated. After trying to see revival in Israel, nothing has changed. So, he’s ready to give up.
There an angel ministers to him. When he had eaten and napped, he travelled 40 days to the mountain of the Lord. In this way, Elijah did the right thing. In his depleted state, he still sought God.
When Elijah gets to the mountain of God, we get a fascinating interaction between God and Elijah.
The story is thick with parallels to Moses’ visit with God on the same mountain. There is earthquake, wind and fire, but the biblical account says that God is not in them. Then Elijah hears a still, small voice. We don’t know what the voice says but it causes Elijah to cover his face and go to the mouth of the cave he has been sheltering in.
Twice, God asks Elijah what he is doing there. God already knows the answer but he wants to hear it from Elijah. Twice Elijah gives the same answer. In Elijah’s answer you can hear his despondency, his disappointment and his loneliness. Elijah has remained true and faithful but not felt affirmed in that calling. He has felt isolated and threatened. He thought he had facilitated a great victory for God and yet nothing in his life changed.
“I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn 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”
(1 Kings 19:14).
God’s response to Elijah is telling. Like so often when God is recorded answering His people, He doesn’t directly tackle the question.
Instead, God gives Elijah a plan of action—one that allows him to pass on his legacy and offers hope for change in the future. Elijah’s focus can now shift to specific work that needs to be done. God still uses Elijah—the man who felt spent, alone and ineffective; the prophet suffering from burnout and doubt. God calls Elijah and gives him the opportunity to anoint his successor, Elisha, one of the clearest examples of mentorship and (non-hereditary) succession planning in the Bible.
And God gently assures Elijah that he is not actually alone—“Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:18).
It’s easy to feel alone, especially if you believe you’re doing the right thing or have made sacrifices for the cause. But God often goes before us in ways we don’t see or understand right away.
Even after Elijah’s detour, God gives him one last task—to pass his faith on to another who ends up asking for a “double portion” of his spirit. And Elijah is still taken to heaven in a fiery chariot.
Elijah did not fail. He fulfilled his duties faithfully. His doubts and depression are only speed humps in his legacy.
You and I are not Bible heroes, but we can still seek God in difficult times. We can pour into others. The antidote to doubt and burnout in my life was tenaciously clinging to God, who eventually showed me what He was doing in me and others—slowly answering my prayers and reframing my perspective.
Another thing that helps us survive the hardest times of life is remembering the miracles God has done and the ways He has led us in the past.
The contemporary Christian song “Remember the miracles” by Brandon Lake and Hank Bentley, captures this feeling:
“When the doubt creeps in and my faith grows thin
And I’m questioning, I’ll remember the miracles
When the lights go out, I feel more lost than found
Stuck on shaky ground, I’ll remember the miracles”
In the midst of burnout, I remembered God’s leading in my life and it helped me hold on for a better day. I pray that if you trust God even in the tough times, you will see His hand at work and He will lead you out of your cave and into His glorious legacy.
Jarrod Stackelroth is the managing editor for Adventist Record and Signs of the Times.
