[Elijah] said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” (1 Kings 19:10)

“Be careful” is the phrase that comes to mind when reading passages like this one, where people proclaim their fidelity to God and at the same time complain about their situation to God. Clearly the Lord knows whether we are faithful or not. Job, in his wrestling with God, strenuously asserted what God already knew about him, that he was “blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil” (Job 1:1). Habakkuk asserted his fidelity to the purity of God and even challenged God with it: “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You cannot look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor on those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they?” (Hab 1:13).

Elijah had the temerity to claim he was the only one of all Israel who had stayed true to God. God had called upon him to warn the people of Israel about His impending judgment if they didn’t correct their ways. Instead, he lost his bearings by focusing on his own struggles. In his thinking, why wasn’t God faithful to Israel? Why wasn’t God turning people around? Despite Elijah’s commissioning, he feared the worst: not only that Israel would be a lost cause, but that because of his ministry, he would die. He was without hope.

How ironic, then, that he should address God as Yahweh Elohim Sabaoth, the LORD God of Hosts (or Almighty)! In his own mouth was the answer to his hopelessness. The God who called him to service was THE God of Israel; Yahweh was His name. He has at His service the armies of heaven, and He can turn the armies of men to do His will. How can one be hopeless when one believes in a God like that, as Elijah confesses with his own mouth? He seemed to be appealing to God: “Do something, God! That’s what You do, but that doesn’t seem to be what You are doing now. And now I’m going to die as a result.”

Today, we know God through “the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” His full title, if you will. The words can form easily in our mouths, but do we really believe here and now, in this situation, that He is Lord? That He is the Christ, God’s Messiah, to free us from all kinds of slavery? That He is God in the flesh, Jesus, the second person of the Trinity? If we do, there is hope!

Lord Jesus Christ, I believe in You, here and now. There is no power on earth that can circumvent Your plan. In You I place my hope.