“The Journey Is Too Much for You”
1 Kings 19:1-8

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost—August 9, 2015

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Our text is today’s Old Testament reading from the nineteenth chapter of First Kings, especially these words spoken to the prophet Elijah by the Angel of the Lord:  “The Journey Is Too Much for You.”

You may recall the events which led up to our text.  Wicked King Ahab, and his even more wicked wife, Queen Jezebel, had turned the people of Israel away from the Lord and unto the false god Baal.  Elijah proposed a test to see which of these gods Israel should follow.  On Mount Carmel they assembled, with the true prophet Elijah on one side and hundreds of false prophets of Baal on the other. 

Elijah instructed that burnt offerings be prepared, two large piles of wood with a slaughtered oxen on top of each.  But, they would not light the fire; instead they would call upon their gods.  “The god who answers by fire,” said Elijah, “he is God.”  From morning till noon the prophets of Baal called out, “Hear and answer, Baal.”  They frantically danced around the altar and even cut themselves with knives.  But, still there was no response, no fire to ignite their offering.

Then Elijah ordered than a trench be dug around the offering to the Lord, and that the wood be doused with water until the trench was flooded.  And when Elijah called on the Lord, immediately fire fell from heaven and burned up the sacrifice and the wood and even licked up the water in the trench.  When the people saw this, they fell on their faces and cried out, “The Lord—he is God!  The Lord—he is God!”  Then they took the false prophets of Baal and executed them.

King Ahab and Queen Jezebel were furious at Elijah, for he had exposed the god they followed as a fake.  Now the people knew that the king and queen were leading them astray.  Wicked Queen Jezebel sent a message to Elijah: “By this time tomorrow you will be dead.”

Fearing for his life, Elijah fled south, planning to go all the way to Mount Sinai in the wilderness.  Altogether, the journey from Mount Carmel to Mount Sinai is about 400 miles through rugged mountains and scorching desert.  Yesterday, my wife Terry drove to Austin, Texas, to help our daughter Sarah move into her college apartment.  That drive in a modern vehicle on modern Interstates is bad enough.  Imagine walking from here to there, during the heat of the summer, through the desolate territory of what is called the great American desert. And all the time looking over your shoulder for the assassins you fear are right behind you.

In our text, Elijah stops at Beersheba, about a third of the way on his journey, like walking from here to Wichita.  No doubt he is physically and emotionally exhausted.  Going out into the desert and sitting under a broom tree, Elijah prays to the Lord that he might die:  “I have had enough, Lord,” he says.  “Take my life.”  We don’t know how old Elijah was at this time.  Most people picture a weary old man.  But, you don’t have to be old to feel like Elijah did; you don’t have to be old to be so despondent that you just want to die.

“The Journey Is Too Much for You.”  Herman Melville, the author of “Moby Dick,” wrote, “The world’s a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage [yet] complete.”  Your whole life is a voyage, a passage, a journey not yet complete.  A journey that can at times be a long struggle through the rugged mountains and scorching deserts of life in this world.  A journey that can make you—in more ways than one—weary, exhausted, like Elijah, ready to drop down and die.

“The Journey Is Too Much for You.”  Too much for you alone, but not too much for you with the help of the Lord.  The Angel of the Lord appears to Elijah, giving him food to eat and water to drink.  “Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Mount Sinai.”

Jesus declares in today’s Gospel Reading, “I am the Bread of Life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.”  Jesus Christ is the nourishment you need, spiritual nourishment to give you strength for the journey.  The journey is too much for you alone, but with Jesus Christ at your side, as your guide, you will have strength for the journey.  Because, you know that at the end of your journey through the rugged mountains and scorching deserts of life in this world, there awaits for you the green pastures and still waters of eternal life in the world to come.  “He makes me to lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside the still waters.  He restores my soul; he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me.”

 “I am the Good Shepherd,” Jesus says. “The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”  You are Jesus’ precious little lamb; he laid down his life for you.  With his perfect life, making up for all your imperfections.  With his sacrificial death on the cross, paying the penalty for your guilt.  With his blood shed on the cross, cleansing you from every sin and reconciling you to God.  With his resurrection from the dead, securing for you a place in everlasting life.  St. Paul puts it beautifully in today’s Epistle Reading: “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as an offering and sacrifice to God.”

“The Journey Is Too Much for You.”  As the Psalms say: “Look to the Lord and his strength”;  “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble”;  “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”  Or as St. Paul says in Ephesians, “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.”

“The Journey IS Too Much for You.”  Too much for you alone, but not too much for you and the Lord together.  Like Elijah, you are strengthened for the journey by the nourishment which the Lord provides.  You are strengthened for the journey by the spiritual nourishment of the Word of God.  As Jesus says, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”  You are strengthened for the journey by the spiritual nourishment of your Baptism, through which you were born again as God’s beloved child.  You are strengthened for the journey by the spiritual nourishment of Christ’s body and blood in the breaking of bread in the Lord’s Supper, to strengthen and preserve you steadfast in the true faith unto life everlasting.  You are strengthened for the journey by remembering the Sabbath, keeping it holy by worshiping the Lord here in his house.  You are strengthened for the journey by taking it to the Lord in prayer:  “Oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.”

The journey IS too much for you alone, but you are not alone.  “Fear not,” says the Lord in Isaiah.  “For I am with you.  Be not dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will hold you up with my mighty hand.” 

“The Journey Is Too Much for You.”  But, as Moses says to Joshua, “Be strong and of good courage. . . for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”