Tuesday, July 9

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This week, during 10 Minutes with God, we are looking at the the sufficiency of Christ through various passages in the Old Testament where there is an interaction with The Angel of the Lord.

As we begin this morning, let me start with a question.  For you personally, where are you in need of experiencing the sufficiency of Christ right now?  Do you have a relational need, a physical need, an emotional need, a need for healing, a need for grace or a simply a need to know that He is real, who He says he is?  Let me encourage you to present this need openly and honestly before God today.

Today we are going to focus on the interaction between Elijah and the Angel of the Lord.  Elijah had just defeated the prophets of Baal in an epic showdown (I Kings 18).  The people where proclaiming that Yahweh is God with shouts of praise.  If you were a prophet, this is exactly what you had hoped and prayed for.  The false gods had been revealed for what they were and God was being exalted.  Things could not have gone better.  Things changed quickly.  Almost immediately, Elijah finds himself fleeing for his life from King Ahab and Jezebel and the elation that he experienced in the great victory gave way to crippling depression.  It is in this moment that the Angel of the Lord shows up.

I Kings 19: 3-9

3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 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.” 5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6 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.

7 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.” 8 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. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.

I have always loved this portion of the Elijah story.  For one thing, it humanizes this man of incredible faith.  He had just experienced an incredible victory through God and yet founded himself overwhelmed and exhausted, even to the point of depression.  I think sometimes we need to be reminded that the men and women that we read about on the pages of the Bible were human like us and as such were susceptible to the same fluctuations of emotional and spiritual highs and lows that we experience.  I find it comforting.

However, what I find more comforting is the way the the Angel of the Lord (Jesus) tends to Elijah.  He provides him rest and makes him food.  This passage always reminds me that God is in the details.  Jesus knew Elijah and exactly what he needed, even to the point of a nap and a snack.  I think that we can experience the love of God in a lot of incredible ways, really bigs ways.  We see it in His creation or in an answered prayer and we stop in amazement at how much God loves us.  I think that Elijah experienced it in a loaf of bread.  It was in the details.  Jesus meets the need of his servant because only He knows what he needed.  It’s personal and individual, specifically for Elijah and Jesus does the same for us.  He know us and what we need.  Often times the greatest opportunities we have to experience the love of Jesus come through the small things that remind us that He knows us entirely and cares enough to meet those needs.  This was Elijah’s experience and if we pay attention, it can be ours as well.

Only a God of infinite knowledge would know our specific needs, only a God infinite resources would be able to meet those needs and only a God of infinite love would care to do it.  This is our all-sufficient Jesus.

Sterling Moore