1 Kings 19:1-8
Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the 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.” Elijah was afraid and 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 wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the bush 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 some 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 traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

After the Jewish kingdom split, the northern kingdom had eight kings in its first 58 years as a nation. The story of the prophet Elijah occurred during the reign of King Ahab, 874-853 B.C. Ahab married Jezebel, daughter of the king of Sidon, a woman who worshiped Baal, who Ahab built a temple to, consecrating priests to serve Baal. 1 Kings 18 reveals an encounter between Elijah and King Ahab, Elijah challenged him to bring the prophets of Baal to Mount Carmel to see whose god, Baal or Yahweh, would answer. So 450 prophets of Baal, 400 prophets of Asherah, along with many of the people from all over Israel were summoned to met Elijah on Mount Carmel. Baal’s prophets placed a cut up bull on their altar, calling to Baal to ignite the sacrifice. While the people watched them worship, despite their desperate and relentlessly ritual, calling on Baal from morning till evening, even slashing themselves with knives, nothing happened. Their sacrifice didn’t catch fire and the only thing the people witness was worthless worship. Then Elijah asked, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing. He repaired the altar of God which had fallen apart from disuse and neglect. Then he arranged the wood and sacrifice, pouring on massive amounts of water, and coving it with pray, asking God to light the fire. Immediately, fire consumed the sacrifice, and the people fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord, he is God! The Lord, he is God!” 1 Kings 18:39. When King Ahab told Queen Jezebel what had happened she sent a messenger to Elijah, telling him that she would have him killed by that time tomorrow. Elijah had expectations, he assumed after Mount Carmel that things would change, that revival and spiritual renewal would replace religion. But it didn’t work out according to his expectations, triumph turned to terror, success turned to survival. As his faith was replaced by fear he fled to Samaria, running over 100 miles to an area south of Beersheba in Judah. When our expectations are run over by reality, leaving us ragged and run down, we often become dissolutioned with God’s plan, choosing instead to run away. Once there Elijah then parted ways with his servant, choosing to go it alone. One of the great dangers of depression and despondence is our tendency to turn inward and isolate ourselves. When we are hurting, we often hold back and hide. Instead of reaching out for relationship we withdraw, pulling into our shells, and then wondering why we feel so alone. Why in our greatest times of emotional need do we run from relationship? Despondency is a signal that something is wrong, that we need help and hope, when we need relationship more than ever. Coming upon a broom tree, he sinks down, it is here we find the prophet deep in depression praying to die. Most have heard of the dramatic encounter between the great Old Testament prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal. We teach about his triumph, but many are not familiar with the story of sorrow that follows. We love to shout about success, we trumpet the triumph, but, discouragement, depression and despair we dare not share about that. Surely despair to the point of death is not for the faithful, after all, this is the victorious Christian life right? But depression knows no boundaries, you can experience success one day and sorrow the next. Like Elijah our mountain top high can soon dissipate, leaving us in a desert of despair. But this is not the end, under the broom tree Elijah discovers rest. Although called a tree, in reality the broom tree is really a shrub with a broad canopy. In Israel, when the white broom tree flowers it is covered in a myriad of beautiful white blossoms that emit a honey fragrance. Could it be that Elijah slumped under its succulent scent? We don’t know but the broom tree has come to symbolize renewal. Reminding us that when reality runs over our expectations, living us rundown, we need to give ourself permission to rest. It is here that we discover a great mystery, both deep and profound, God loves losers. Even in our fears and failures our Father still loves us. The Fathers love is the sweet fragrance we breath, under the brokenness of the broom tree. His unconditional and unfailing love is the one simple lesson Elijah needed to learn. Even in retreating to the desert to die Elijah encounters the reality of the Lord’s love. Notice God’s response wasn’t to chastise, or tell Elijah to get over it, God didn’t shake a disapproving finger at him. Instead of condemning there was compassion, all Elijah was required to do was rest and recuperate. The broom tree becomes the place where we learn to surrender our will to God, to rest in His redemptive love. Elijah surrender to the voice of God, even though reluctant at first, it shows us a pattern. It reminds us that we can hear the voice of God in those difficult times in our own lives. Like Elijah, when we reach the end of ourselves, we often find the beginning of authentic faith. This time of complete fatigue becomes an invitation to deeper faith. We will all find ourselves under the broom tree at some point in our lives, dare I say, often more than once. Many of us despise the brokenness of the broom tree with its discouragement and despair. Yet this is a holy place, a place of invitation, in the unfolding loving plan of God for our lives. It is under these “broom trees”, when we feel the least able to continue the struggle that we finally surrender ourselves to the Savior. Often, it takes the depletion of all of our own efforts and resources before we are willing to give up, and give over to God.
Why does it take desperate times for us to depend on Savior? because we are a stubborn people. When you find yourself in the pits of despondence give yourself permission to rest. Sometimes the first step to healing your soul is stopping, getting off the treadmill of life, and getting rest. Only then can we experience renewal and restoration. Today God is still searching for those who will surrender their lives in love to Him. What if we would learn to embrace the “broom trees” in your life, as we lie down and listen to the leading of the Lord.

Psalm 132:13-14 – “For the Lord has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling, saying, “This is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it.”

Psalm 132 is divided into two sections: verses 1–10 is David’s vow and prayer to the Lord where he swears an oath to bring the ark back to Jerusalem, a story told more fully in 2 Samuel 6, and verses 11–18 God’s response of promise to David’s prayer. This dual prayer and promise reveals something about the nature of their relationship, one that includes responsibilities, promises, and blessings. At the heart of this psalm is something that lies at the heart of our relationship with God and how He has chosen to relate to us, the idea of covenant. In order to understand a covenant we first have to discuss what it is not. Lots of people lump the idea of covenant together with that of a contract, yet in reality the two ideas, while related and similar, are very different. Especially when it comes to the kind of relationship they each reveal. In a contract, the focus is on the individual, its underlying principle is individualistic, you make a contract with someone else so that your life will benefit. Contracts are formed out of questions like: how will this benefit me? How will this improve my life? How can I get out of this what I need to? Contracts tend to have built in exit clauses, they can be bent broken. The kind of relationship envisioned in a contract is completely utilitarian, based on my needs, where the other person becomes a means to an end. Unfortunately today many are treating marriage simply as a business contract, founded on the same kinds of questions and priorities. So I have to ask what kind of relationship is envisioned when an engaged couple agree to a pre-nuptial contract? Many in our culture have contract marriages, thinking primarily of themselves, while lots don’t even both with marriage, choosing instead just to live together. We believe that we are a smarter society, more emotionally evolved, so we say, “we can try the relationship out first, just live together and see if we are compatible, if it doesn’t work, that’s ok, no harm done.” Sounds logical right? Wrong, its not logical its ludicrous. If it was so brilliant and really worked, then why can’t I try out that new truck or car that “might” work for me? Why is it that they wont just let me drive it for a year and see if its a fit before I make a commitment? If it doesn’t work economically why would it work emotionally? Today we have a culture that is ok with commitment to riches just not relationship? Taking a temperature of our times reveals the dysfunction of a fevered people, who in their delusion have traded the true riches relationship for trinkets. A selfish society devoid of commitment, desperately trying to deny the costs of their choice, while their children try to deal with the disaster of divorce. We have traded commitment for a contract and now we have traded that for convenience, and all in the name of choice! A covenant is different, it is about our willingness to enter fully into a relationship with someone else. Where a contract is self-centered, a covenant is other-centered, a contract focuses on convenience where a covenant sees commitment. In the Bible we discover that God has made several, overlapping covenants throughout history. He made a covenant with Noah that he would never again flood the earth and destroy all life. He made a covenant with Abraham to bless him and make him a great nation and give him many descendants. He made a covenant with Moses in the form of the Law. He made a covenant with David that there would always be a descendant on David’s throne. All of these covenants tell us at least two things. First, all of the covenants are rooted in God’s character not our capability. While all other covenants in the ancient world were carried out between two equal parties, this is never the case when it comes to a covenant between God and His people, because His covenants are never based on the merit of us. It is God that has chosen to covenant, He has chosen to establish the relationship. They are based solely on God’s grace, founded on His faithfulness, on who He is and not on who we are. Second, God’s covenants show His unconditional commitment to His people, and while God’s people also have responsibilities and commitments, such covenants are not conditional. Yes his people were called to worship the Lord alone and be loyal to Him in every sphere of life, but at the heart these covenants are not based on Israel’s response to God. In Isaiah 49:15, the Lord asks: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you” God’s covenant paints a picture of a parent and a child, where the child’s failure does not destroy the relationship. A covenant puts no conditions on faithfulness, rather it is the unconditional commitment to love and serve. Today I wonder how many see Christianity as a contract, with Christ as a contract-god, that if they live up to their end of the bargain, then they will get into heaven? How many people believe that because they’re not living lives pleasing to God, they can never come into His church, that to come they have to clean themselves up first. But we don’t have a contract-God, we have a covenant God, establishing a relationship with us based on who He is. Based on His grace, His steadfast, unconditional love that we could never hope to earn, nowhere do we see this more clearly than on the cross. Reading the bible it doesn’t take long to discover that God’s people never fully responded to God through relationship, choosing instead to rebel. But God persisted, our faithful Father continued to pursue, giving us these words in Jeremiah 31:31–34: “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the last of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” Psalm 132:11 reminds us that, “The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back.” Even if we have not kept our promises as God’s people, God keeps His promises, revealed through our Redeemer Jesus Christ. In Christ alone, on the cross, is the culmination and completion of every covenant. God promised Noah that He would never again destroy all life; Jesus is the source of all life. God promised Abraham that all nations would be blessed through him; through Jesus’ blood God is ransoming saints from every tribe, nation, language and people. God gave Moses and Israel the Law; in Jesus the Law is fulfilled. In our Psalm God promised David that “one of the sons of your body I will set on your throne”; to Jesus God gave the throne of his ancestor David. Every promise, every pledge, that God ever made has come true in Jesus Christ. Through covenant God has promised to provide and bless His people, so today will you rest in His covenant relationship?