June 24, 2007 Fourth Sunday After Pentecost
Sermon Title: “Broom Tree Blues”
Series: None
Text: 1 Kings 19:1-5
Dr. Steve Jackson
Delivered on June 24, 2007
“Then Elijah lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep.” 1 Kings 19:5
Broom Tree Blues
As we move closer to the fourth of July and
the birth of our nation I’ve been thinking a lot about “all things American.” I
did some reading this past week about our nation, our history and our people,
and I must say that I’m proud to be an American. One of the articles I read
talked about all the things Americans have given to the world. And what a
smorgasbord it has been! For instance, most people know that Americans invented
basketball, baseball, the airplane, the sewing machine, the telephone, and Coca
Cola. But did you know that Americans are also responsible for such diverse things
as chewing gum, the banjo,
One of the most fascinating things to
originate here, one that has to do with what we’re going to talk about this
morning, is the type music known as the blues. The blues are uniquely
American, emerging from the Mississippi Delta around the turn of the 20th
century. Blues music is very emotional—very gritty. One commentator said
listening to the blues is like looking through the window of a tenement shack
at the actual experiences the people inside are having. Hardscrabble times to
pay the rent and put food on the table. Themes of death and dying, movement,
work, floods and broken relationships dominate the blues. All of it a very deep
expression of personal, and collective feelings. The Delta blues spread to
Well, where I’m
going with all this is to say that even though the blues originated in the good
old
The Bible—big parts of it at least—is about people who have the blues—people battling discouragement. We get several glimpses of that in Scripture, and few are more obvious than our story today from the life of Elijah. Elijah didn’t have the Delta Blues or the Chicago Blues—Elijah had what I call the “Broom Tree Blues.” And so this morning I’d like us to get a biblical perspective on discouragement from this great story. We’re going to talk about why Elijah found himself lying under that broom tree singing the blues, how he felt while laying there, what God did about it, and what all that has to do with us.
The CONTEXT of the Story
Let me begin by
putting the story we read this morning in context.
It actually begins in a few chapters earlier in 1 Kings. Elijah is one of the
greatest prophets of all. He appeared on the scene at a critical moment in
Discouragement is COMMON to All
People
First let me point out that discouragement is common to all people. Everyone gets the blues from time to time. What’s more, discouragement can strike at any time, even when things are going great—even at the moment of our greatest triumph. I mean look at Elijah, if he can get discouraged enough to ask God to “take him out,” and if that can happen right after he’s taken part in the greatest God-miracle since the parting of the Red Sea, imagine how easy it is for “ordinary mortals” like you and me to get discouraged.
I did a little research on Elijah, do you remember the miracles he was able to do? Among other things, at his word it didn’t rain for 3 ½ years, he prayed over a small vessel of oil and grain and it never went empty or dried up, he raised a widow’s son from the dead, he prayed and the rain came back, and he made the Jordan River stop flowing so it could be crossed. If Elijah can get discouraged than anyone can. I mean, we’re not talking your “ordinary Joe” here when it comes to Elijah…or are we? If you have your Bibles, turn over to the New Testament, to James 5:17. Look what that verse says. For those who don’t have Bibles, let me read it—it says, “Elijah was a man just like us.”
When the New Testament reaches back into the Old Testament to teach us it tells us that we really need to get this lesson—that God has been trying to get something through to us for a long, long time. And so when we come to James 5:17 and we read Elijah was a man just like us. We need to hear that word. You may be thinking, “He’s not like me, I’ve never done the kinds of things he did nor had the kind of experiences he had. His life isn’t anything like mine.” But when we read the account of his life here in 1 Kings 19:4 and see that he came to a broom tree and he sat down under it and he prayed that he might die. Listening to that and knowing your life, would you have to reconsider saying he’s nothing like you? Have you ever had such overwhelming experiences in your life, times when you’re down in the dumps, depressed, empty, distressed, and you’ve got this huge case of the blues. Honestly, haven’t you been there?
And so the first lesson we learn about discouragement from this story is that discouragement is common to us all—everybody gets discouraged—even when you least think you would. Discouragement isn’t the mark of a spiritual flaw; it doesn’t indicate a weak faith. It’s okay—it’s normal—to get the blues.
The CAUSE of Discouragement
The second thing I want to mention is the cause of discouragement. The cause is given to us in verse 3 of this story which says “Then he [Elijah] was afraid…” Fear can be terribly discouraging. Here’s Elijah who had just a few verses earlier had wagged his finger in King Ahab’s face and made the king tremble. Now Jezebel makes a threat against Elijah and he suddenly starts quaking in his own sandals. What’s going on?
What happened at that moment was Elijah took his eyes off God and instead let himself be overcome by his immediate circumstances. His faith in God wavered. It’s the same thing that happened to Peter who called out to Jesus as Jesus walked on the water and said, “Master command me to come to you on the water.” And when he did Peter climbed over the side of the boat and began walking on water just like Jesus. But then he began to look at the wind and the waves more than into Jesus’ eyes and he was afraid and he began to sink (cf Matt. 14:22-34). The same thing lies behind the failure and subsequent discouragement of Peter in that story in the New Testament and the failure of Elijah told in today’s passage—fear caused by taking your eyes off God and onto your own strength or onto the dangers around you will cause you to sink into discouragement.
You may be thinking, but in my life the biggest cause of discouragement is failure itself, or my children, or my job, or…(fill in the blank). But I would submit that your “whatever” is simply one further symptom down the road from the real root of discouragement, which is fear. Fear that God isn’t really who God says he is. Fear that there isn’t a God at all! Fear that God, or someone else, will find out what a fraud you are. Fear that you’ll look like a loser. Fear that we’re unloved. Fear that you’ll get hurt. Don’t believe me? Pray about that and let God himself teach you on that point.
The COURSE of Discouragement
The next thing I want to look at this morning is the course of discouragement. After the initial fear, how does discouragement unfold in our lives? Let’s look at how it unfolded in this story.
FEAR - FLEE
The first step away from God and into discouragement is fear as we just said. The next thing that happens is also given to us in verse 3: “[Elijah] got up and fled for his life.” When Elijah became afraid he ran away. Does that sound familiar? For many of us once we get afraid we retreat—we flee from the perceived danger. Some flee by literally running or moving away. Some flee by getting a divorce or by quitting a job. Some flee by changing churches. Some flee into drugs, alcohol, pornography, or some other escape. Some even flee into good things like church work. The point here is that after the initial blush of fear which begins the spiral of discouragement, many of us do our best to run away.
FEAR – FLEE - ISOLATION
Look at the next thing that happens in the course of discouragement. That same verse says Elijah left his servant and went out and sat down under a solitary broom tree. The next thing we do when headed towards discouragement is we isolate ourselves, we go off alone—we cut ties to the very people who could perhaps help us. We separate ourselves from others and push them away. We say things to ourselves like: “Nobody understands me,” or “Nobody has it as bad as me.” In fact if you read a little further down in verse 10 Elijah says, “I have been very zealous for the Lord…I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” Getting alone like this leads us to exaggerate. There’s no “they” after Elijah, it’s only Queen Jezebel! When there are no reasonable voices around to help us sort things out and to see that we’re really making things out to be worse than they are we usually find ourselves in a pity party.
FEAR – FLEE – ISOLATION - COMPARISON
There’s one more thing we do as we become more and more discouraged, and that is we begin playing the comparison game. Look at the end of verse 4, Elijah says, “O Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” Comparing yourself to others: other dads, other athletes, other preachers, other churches, other bosses, your neighbors…is one more step down that self-defeating road towards discouragement and the blues. When I get discouraged one of the first things I find myself doing is comparing myself to other preachers. I say stuff like, “I’ll bet Rick Warren never had to deal with this…”
Pretty soon we end up paralyzed in a puddle of despondency. We can’t do anything, we can’t function, we basically shut down. That’s the course of discouragement: we fear, we flee, we isolate ourselves, and then we begin comparing ourselves to others.
The CURE for Discouragement
But all is not lost. Remember, Elijah’s story also tells us how God treated his discouragement. By observing how God treated his prophet’s discouragement we can discover ways to help ourselves. There are four parts to God’s cure in this story.
REST
The first step is to Take time to REST. What’s the first thing Elijah did when he got the blues? He lay down under a broom tree and he fell asleep! I’ve said this before, but sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap. One of the other things we Americans gave the world—an extension of our gift of the light bulb—is the 24/7, always “on” society that leaves us sleep deprived and vulnerable. We’ve got to rest! By the way, some of you probably heard that and nothing else I’ve said this morning. I can hear you in about an hour talking to your spouse, “Pastor Steve said the most spiritual thing I can do is to take a nap!” Others of you didn’t need that bit of pastoral encouragement to catnap at all because you’ve already been asleep this morning! So I won’t expound on that except to say that the first thing to do when you’re discouraged is to take time to rest.
RECEIVE
The second step in God’s cure for discouragement is to RECEIVE God’s nourishment. I want you to notice something in this story that you may not have noticed before. Did you notice that God wasn’t angry at Elijah when he became fearful and he chose to run? Instead God provided food and water to sustain him. God sent an angel to feed him—twice! It’s easy to get down on ourselves and to consider ourselves unworthy when we get discouraged That causes us to act in our own strength and feel unworthy of his help. When we get discouraged we need to remember that God isn’t angry at us for being that way. We need to remind ourselves that God is with us, bending to sustain us rather than rising to condemn us. Receive God’s nourishment, otherwise, as the angel says to Elijah, “the journey will be too much for you.” Of course in the story of Elijah the nourishment literally was food and water, and your nourishment may be too. But in the Bible “food and water” most often stand as metaphors for the Word of God. So I believe the way you and I will most often receive God’s nourishment is by reading Scripture to inspire, comfort, and guide us out of discouragement. I have a list of God’s promises taped in the front of my Bible that I frequently turn to when I feel discouraged. It’s just like eating a great meal when I review his promises to care for me and to never leave me.
RESPOND
The next part of
God’s cure for discouragement is I’ve labeled RESPOND. All I mean by that is to DO Something. After Elijah had rested up and God had nourished him
God gave his prophet a simple task to do, verse 15 says “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of
REACH OUT
The fourth and
final part of God’s cure calls for us to REACH
OUT. God did something for Elijah that falls just beyond where we read
today in verses 19-21. God sent Elijah a friend and companion to be with him, a
fellow prophet named Elisha. Remember, Elijah intentionally isolated himself
which led to him exaggerating the situation and having his pity party under the
broom tree. But Elijah wasn’t really alone. If you look at verse 18 God assures
Elijah there are “7000 others” in
As I close this morning it occurs to me that I’ve given you a lot of “pointers” in this sermon about how to deal with discouragement. As I thought about that yesterday when I was wrapping up this message I realized there’s a good reason for that. I’ve got a lot of personal experience in the area of discouragement. In fact, I’m convinced if I did not force myself to rest from time to time—to turn off my brain. If I didn’t have Scripture to read, and if I hadn’t spent a lifetime getting to know my Bible and the One who stands behind each page. I realized that if I didn’t I would have found myself under my own broom tree, picking the “Broom Tree Blues” a long time ago.
But I thank God he does remind me to rest, to receive from his Word, to respond by doing something and, perhaps most importantly in my life—he sent me a wonderful friend – my wife – to help me keep things in perspective and to be a living reminder of God’s love. And so I’ve made it this far.
What about you? Are you discouraged today? Do you have a biblical strategy to deal with discouragement in your life? Is there someone in your life you need to encourage today? Has God called you to be an Elisha to some Elijah sitting somewhere under a broom tree?
We’re going to close with a song this morning that I believe more than one person here today needs to hear and take to heart. It’s called “Don’t Give Up” and the words go like this:
Don’t Give Up
Don’t give up,
someone really loves you;
Don’t give up,
someone really cares.
Don’t give up,
someone really loves you;
And that
someone is the Lord.
Keep the faith
someone really loves you;
Keep the faith
someone really cares.
Keep the faith
someone really loves you;
And that
someone is the Lord.
Words and Music by Rich
Muchow © 1999 Encouraging Music CCLI 1757291
Let’s pray and then let’s sing this song together and remember…