"Why are you here?"

A week ago I shared one of my favorite Bible stories, and explained how the story led to the name of this blog. However, the part of the story the really solidifies its correlation to my life is the next chapter of the saga. 1 Kings 19: 1-18 tells the story of what happens directly after the excitement of God’s presence in Elijah’s life gave him the ability to the chase down the chariots of the King.


Ahab gets back to his kingdom and shares with his wife, Jezebel, all of what Elijah had done on Mount Carmel, including him putting to death all of the prophets of Baal. She is furious, and sends a messenger to tell Elijah that she will make sure he faces the same fate of the prophets of Baal by that time the next day.

Before we look at how Elijah reacts to this message, let us remember all that God has done to ensure his well being up until now. During a drought of over three years, he has been fed by ravens and by a widow whose dwindling supplies of food continue to miraculously multiply. In order to stay in the widow’s good graces, God answers his prayer to bring the widow’s son back from the dead. God then brought Elijah out of the desert and showed his power to all of Israel by raining fire from the sky, and then ending the drought as Elijah had prophesied. So, you would suppose that Elijah’s confidence in God would be pretty strong at this point. He would probably mock Jezebel like he mocked the prophets of Baal, and ignore her threats because he knew God would protect him.

Elijah was afraid, and ran.

He wasn’t running to shout God’s wonder to the world this time. He was running from the idea that his calling from God would lead to his death by the hand of an evil Queen. He wasn’t running because of joy, he was running because of fear.

Elijah left his servant in Beersheba and walked into the desert for a day. He sat under a tree, prayed for the God who had saved him over and over again to take his life, and then he fell asleep. All of a sudden, and angel touches him and tells him to get up and eat. By his head was bread and water. He ate, drank and then fell back to sleep. The angel woke him up again and told him to eat and drink again because the journey was too much for him. This time, after he ate he traveled for 40 days and nights to Horeb, the Mountain of God, where he went into a cave and spent the night.

God said: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

He tells God how passionate he has been while the rest of the Israelites had broken their covenant with God, broken down the altars to Him, and killed all of His prophets. He says he is the only one left, and now they are trying to kill him.

God tells Elijah to go stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord because the Lord is about to pass by.

A great wind rips through the mountain shattering rocks in its path, but the Lord is not present in the wind.

An earthquake rocks the foundation of the mountain, but the Lord is not present in the earthquake.

A fire burns the face of the mountain, but the Lord is not in the fire.

Then came a gentle whisper.

When Eli heard the whisper, he hid his face with his cloak and went to the mouth of the cave.

The gentle voice of God said: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Elijah responds in the exact same way as he did the first time God asked, but this time God tells him how wrong he is. He tells him of four men who will put to death every Israelite who has turned from Him upon Elijah’s anointing, and of seven thousand Israelites who had not bowed down or kissed the false god, Baal.

I am struggling with which direction to go in my initial post about this section of Elijah’s story. There are so many parallels to my life and the lives of many Christian’s I know. In order to not make this post a book I am going to focus on one portion of the story that grabs my attention. However, be prepared for me to come back to this story over and over as I search for God in the world around me and share my findings with whoever is out there reading this blog.

I want to focus on the question God asks Elijah: “What are you doing here?”

Two precursors:

1. It is very easy to look at Elijah, the disciples, or other people in our lives and say, “I can’t believe they didn’t realize how much God had protected them and ran in fear at the first sign of trouble.” I want to challenge you to use the examples of others to examine your own decisions to run in fear instead of running because of the joy that God is with you.

2. If you are still hung up on this being an Old Testament story and feel like God isn’t as attainable as He is to Elijah, I challenge you to read my mom’s e-mail in this previous post and try to argue with me about whether God still shows up in our lives today.

So, “What are you doing here?”

First of all, I think we can agree that God was not asking about why Elijah was at the physical place of a cave in the side of Mount Horeb. I am assuming that although the Bible does not say that the angel gave Elijah specific instructions, that he was led by God to the cave in Mount Horeb.

I believe God is asking Elijah why he is at a place in his life where he feels like he no longer wants to live. After God has brought him through trial after trial, and showed himself to him in ways that are indescribably magnificent, how could he not want to live to chase the chariots he had once passed on the way to Jezreel? This may make you feel awkward when you see me next, but I have been exactly where Elijah was, and God asked me the same question. “What are you doing here?” Much like Elijah, my answers were selfish and wrong. It is easy for us to praise God in the times where we feel close to Him, when we see him so clearly working like he has been in my mom’s life, or in times where he is carrying us through marathons or the deaths of people closest to us. However, it is just as easy to be distracted by the temptations of this word and begin running away in fear.

C.S. Lewis, although most well known for the Chronicles of Narnia series, has written a large library of non-fiction and fiction works. Some of my favorite works of his are his space trilogy. The second book of the series, Perelandra, tells the story of Elwin Ransom who is sent to Perelandra, where a new Garden of Eden and a new Adam and Eve have been created. He is given the mission of stopping the serpentesque human physicist Professor Weston, who has been sent to corrupt the Eve figure. In one of the most powerful scenes, Weston, who does not require sleep, is attempting to wear Ransom down by constantly repeating his name in the night.

Weston: Ransom……Ransom……Ransom

Ransom: What?

Weston: Nothing…..Ransom…..Ransom…….Ransom

All night long

In the middle of the night, while Weston is constantly mocking his name, Ransom prays: “Father, what must I do?”

This is a picture of our lives. Satan, or the world, or society, which ever you feel comfortable saying at this point, is calling out to us constantly. They are asking us to remove our attention from God and float off into the loneliness and fear that comes from a separation from Him.

The answer is not to run in fear; it is to remember the joy of being close to God and turn to Him for help. Turn to the God who has shown His love to us over and over again and ask, “Father, what must I do?”

After I received the call from my mom about my father dying I called my brother. I remember him asking me, “What are we were supposed to do?” I told him we have two choices, but only one is an option. We can turn towards Him, or we can turn away from Him. If you read my mom’s words and were in awe at her strength, please realize that her strength comes from our family’s decision to run towards God in joy instead of running away from Him in fear. Remember the words of Jesus in Luke 11:9-10: “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”