NOTE: apologies for delay in developing this blog. It has been a greater challenge than expected.
What began as Elijah’s sprint to escape an angry queen continued as a multiple-marathon to elude himself. Excepting two brief occasions he stopped running only when reaching Horeb/Sinai, some 250 miles from Jezreel. There he found both refuge from the viscerally-satanic Jezebel and accusing personal discomfiture, the latter far more exhausting than the former. If the vast distance eliminated physical danger it ballooned his self-doubt. If leaving his geographic responsibility dealt no other blow to his confidence, it left him a classic manic/depressive. The manic of Carmel because God had triumphed gloriously; the depressive of Sinai because he had failed God by choosing flight from danger TO safety, not fight for God IN safety! A problem endemic to all disciples serving Jesus, the inevitable result of God’s sovereignty working through human instruments. Instead of a wave of revival in Israel with the destruction of Ahab’s minions, Elijah discovered a supine King describing God’s Glory at Carmel to an ever-more enraged queen who clamped hands over ears. Instead of excitement and courage when we lead people, tradition, spiritual sloth and personal cowardice splashes ice water. Elijah didn’t at once ask God to protect or hide him as he had previously for 3 ½ years I Kings 17. He instead surrendered to fear of a woman who wanted him dead: not for the first time, mind you, but with a direct death-sentence-letter pressed into his hands. But God would have sent him to safety or hidden him in plain sight if necessary. Like Elijah, we cringe when opposed, then shrink away, like a full-flesh body vanishing into a skeletal mockery. Instead of hearing the Spirit urge us onward and forward, our small fear grows into a shouting behemoth-coward, and we follow it out of the contest. It’s a problem endemic to all disciples in both Testaments, even then, especially now. And even when our expedients give us initial comfort, and others justifiable reasons, our conscience isn’t easily dismissed. In quiet of day, or silence of night, it continually beats on our mind a tattoo of guilt for fearing circumstances or people instead of trusting our God! It’s all part of the ongoing struggle between flesh and spirit that Paul deftly profiled in II Corinthians 4:7-14. Our spirit delights in the treasure we embrace and regrets the limited capacity of vessels of clay holding it. Indeed, the struggle Christians fail every day is our DESIRE to GLORIFY Christ in a flesh diminishing its success Romans 7:14-24. Even there, however, as Paul wrote in Romans 7:25-8:17 and II Corinthians 4:16-5:10, God’s grace compensates our frailties with his omnipotent merit. He knows he must win for us through his Spirit the battle for Christ-likeness we will always admire without rising to the excellence such admiration should inspire. End Part II
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