What are you doing here?

The mightiest of the prophets in the Old Testament is arguably Elijah the Tishbite. If you examine his life in the books of Kings you will see he is a very central character throughout 1Kings and the beginning of 2 Kings. The ungodly kings of the North, Israel, despise him because he speaks the truth to them whether they want to hear it or not. He even challenges the Queen, Jezebel, who is an extremely wicked woman (I kinda picture her like the wicked witch of the East) who institutes a state religion of Baalism...in the heart of the Land of Israel!! Elijah, going on the Word of God alone, goes before the King, Ahab, who calls him the "troubler of Israel." This is extremely ironic because the righteousness of the king determines, in large part, whether God's hand is for or against the country, which Elijah reminds him saying, "I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals." (1 Kings 18:19). Elijah then draws a line in the sand and tells Ahab to have his 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah meet him on Mount Carmel. Ahab does a step beyond this and "sends for all the children of Israel." I can imagine him doing this quite gleefully, happily imagining the days of Elijah to be numbered, for if he could make a fool out of Elijah in front of the entire nation then that pesky God Almighty might actually leave him alone to run his country the way he wants. Old boy was going to be disappointed though because Elijah ends up making the false prophets of Baal into fools and calling down fire from heaven to display the might of the Lord of All Creation. He then has the people of Israel kill every last one of the false prophets by the Brook Kishon, which I am sure ran red with blood. As if this was not enough of a display of the power and glory of YHWH, Elijah tells Ahab to go to the top of the mountain and look towards the sea and a small cloud was rising out of the sea and God ends the drought of three and a half years as "the sky became black with clouds and wind and there was a heavy rain."
Ahab goes whining to his evil wife, who sends a messenger to Elijah to tell him that what he did to her prophets she was going to do to him. He flees for a day into the wilderness. This brings us to a point of interest for we wait to see what is going to happen next-does Elijah call down fire upon Jezebel's head? Does he go into the city after praying full of faith that God will preserve his life? Is Israel going to turn back to the Lord? None of these. Elijah sits under a tree and prays to die. One does not usually calmly just pray a little quiet prayer of this topic. I can see Elijah with his face in the dirt sobbing uncontrollably and crying out as loud as he can for the Lord his God to take him from this place because there is no point for him to keep going. After such a mighty display of the majesty and strength of God; after a tremendous victory for the Good Guys, Elijah hits the lowest point of his recorded life. As far as he could see he could go no further, even to the point of just lying there on the ground and going to sleep.
What was God's response? Not anger. Not exasperation. Not impatience. He instead sends angels to minister to him and give him food. The first time an angel is sent to him he just lies back down and goes to sleep again, too hopeless to do anything else. The second time the angel tells him to eat and make a journey to Horeb, the mountain of God near where the Ten Commandments were given. God sustained him with this meal for 40 days so he could get to a place where He could hear God.
When he arrives at the mountain he finds a cave goes to sleep and God asks him a question: "What are you doing here, Elijah?" to which Elijah replies by unloading everything on his mind. "God I have done everything you have asked me to. More than anyone else. I mean, they have all forgotten you except me and the people who didn't turn away from you were killed by Jezebel, who, just in case you forgot, turn down Your stinkin' altars and now she wants to kill me!" God's response is marvelous, for He tells Elijah to go stand on the mountain before God. A mighty wind tore into the mountains and tore rocks from it, an earthquake shakes the mountain, and a fire roars past. God is not in any of these, though they are mighty manifestations of His glory and power, they are not in and of themselves, the Lord Almighty. After the fire, however, comes the still small voice and it calls out to Elijah's broken heart and tenderly asks him again, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
The response is not the important thing about this story. The important thing is that God asks each of us that same question: what are you doing here (insert name)? He knows our name and calls out to us using it, not some generalized one-size-fits-all response, but one tailored exactly to fit with our emotional needs of the moment. What are you doing here in this place of despair? What has you so wounded that you can't go on another step? What has convinced you that I, Who has drawn you to Me with lovingkindness, no longer cares about you? He asks us to verbalize our deepest, most painful thoughts and emotions. And we see that the response is not important. Because HE IS. In the face of the great I AM the lies we have been believing are no longer relevant to our lives. In the presence of the Most High God the impossible things become possible. The hopeless things are again filled with hope. The tormented heart is returned to peace.
Let us seek that still small voice this day and every day. It is there for all of us.