I'd like us to turn in God's Word this morning to 1 Kings chapter 18. I just want to read these verses again and then going on into chapter 19. Chapter 18 then of 1 Kings and we'll commence at verse 41. And of course it is that time that we dealt with last week where Elijah was to command the people to gather up the false prophets and to go down. to the brook Kishon where they were slain. Verse 41 then of 1 Kings chapter 18, And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and to drink, and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, and said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up and looked and said, there's nothing. And he said, go again seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time that he said, behold, there rises a little cloud out of the sea like a man's hand. And he said, go up, say unto Ahab, prepare thy chariot, and get thee down that the rain stop thee not. And it came to pass in the meanwhile that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. And the hand of the LORD was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and with all how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness. and came and sat down under a juniper tree. And he requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my father's. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and behold, there was a cake baking on the coals, and a cruise of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the mount of God. Amen. Ending our reading at the end of verse 8 of chapter 19, and we know the Lord will add His own divine blessing upon the readings of His own precious and infallible Word. I'd like us to turn back to 1 Kings chapter 19, really just dealing with the first eight verses that we have read earlier on today. We have entitled our message, Depression. Depression. And let's just unite our hearts together, please, as we come to the preaching of God's Word. Father in heaven, we thank Thee for Thy presence. Thank the Lord for the truth of the hymns we've been singing. God will take care of us. Lord, we bless Thee for the pictures we have in the Scriptures of God's care. It is like the nurse that cherisheth. It is like the mother that loves the child. O God, we thank Thee for Thy care, for Thy people. And we pray that Thou would bless us even as we come to this passage. Lord, we have to confess it's a familiar passage, as in many respects is the life of Elijah. And yet, Lord, there's so much to learn. And we pray that Thou would take away every distraction. Every distracting thought, thou it closes in with thyself. O God, that thou might give us that spirit of Samuel, where he cried, Speak for thy servant heareth. Lord, help us to hear thy word. Lord, help us to be attentive to it even this morning. I pray that thou would fill me with thy spirit and with power. Give me words that must and shall prevail. O God, give us those prevailing words. And we pray that that will be glorified, and all that will be said. Hear this our prayer, for we ask it in our Savior's name. Amen. Elijah with heaving chest, after his lengthy run, he arrives at the entrance of Jezreel. And to the only time where Ahab in his chariot is able to overtake him, as he makes his way down to his palatial residence. I suspect that this morning that both Elijah and Ahab could see the lights go on in the queen's chamber. And soon the feet of Ahab will soon be standing in the devil's bedroom. I suspect that's the case. How could Elijah run before Ahab? Well, we have the answer at the end of chapter 18, because the hand of the Lord was upon him. And as is so often in the Scriptures, it denotes that power and that blessing that God alone can give. And in this instance, it meant that supernatural strength and that fleetness of foot to be given to Elijah to run the distance. And in the doing of it, God was honoring the man who honored Him. He had a blessed day. It had been a blessed day for Elijah on Mount Carmel, for God had shown himself to be God as the fire fell in the sacrifice, and God had shown himself to be faithful to his word as he gave the ream. But it must have been a long and it must have been a trying day for old Jezebel. For many hours she hadn't heard tell of or seen Ahab, or she knew where he had been. She understood the importance of what was to take place there on that mount. She would therefore be most anxious to know how things went. Her hope, of course, was that the prophets of Baal had triumphed and that the darkened sky and that the rain that was now falling had meant the intervention of Baal in the proceedings. And if that was the outcome, then Jezebel knew that the worship of Baal would prevail now unhindered. and that the last doubters would be won over to her religion of idolatry. It would also mean that the last remnants of the worship of Jehovah would be gone. And so she's waiting to want to hear what took place that day. But what follows in the narrative is totally unexpected. The contrast couldn't be greater to what happened in Carmel to that which was to follow it. And that contrast is noted in the greatest measure when it has to do with Elijah himself. And the very fact that the Scriptures tell us in graphic detail of this change and of the contrast with Elijah is further proof of the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. For we well assured that if the Bible was of human origin and it was penned by uninspired men, then its characters would be faithfully depicted and their failures would be either ignored completely or else glossed over. And for certain, this passage would not have been included. For one chapter ends with the hand of the Lord upon Elijah. And the very next words, the very next chapter begins with him running for his life. And yet it's included in the Word of God. In the former chapter, he's found on the mountaintop, but now he is to be found in the wilderness of despair. These are depressing days. It's why I've simply entitled our message this morning, Depression. Let me bring you to see, first of all, Ahab's report. We have it here in these words, Ahab's report. It's easy to imagine Ahab arriving home with all the haste that he made his way to his residence because of the great rain. And with that same haste, he enters into the presence of his notorious wife. The suspense for her was over. She's going to hear now of what happened at Mount Carmel. As verse 1 describes it to us, she wants to hear it. It says, Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done. He begins to announce to her of all the wonderful occurrences that he had witnessed that day. Can you imagine with what emotions he would have told it? But as he does so, I want you to notice some things about his report. And the first thing you notice is, it's notable for the omission that he makes. It's not merely what he says or what he doesn't say. And often what a person doesn't say tells us as much about them as what they do say. And please look at verse 1 again. And that there is no mention in it all is this, that Ahab, he makes no mention of God. You see it. And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done with all how he had slain all the prophets with the sword." There's no mention of God. Ahab had been on the mount. He's giving a firsthand account of all that had taken place. This is not hearsay. This is not from a third party. He was there himself. And yet there's not a word of the wonders that God had wrought that day, of how He had caused the fire to fall and the sacrifice from heaven above, and how He consumed it along with the stones that were gathered around it, and how the water was licked up and the very dust as well on that sacrifice. There's nothing of that. He makes no reference to how God had answered in response to the praying of a servant and of the abundance of rain after those years of drought and famine. You see men and women, Psalm 10 and verse 4 says, God is not in all the thoughts of the wicked. They would rather cast every last vestige of God from their thinking and from their minds. And that oftentimes is found to then infiltrate society at large and to work itself out amongst the people. And so they don't want to be reminded of God in the courtroom. And so in the U.S., the Ten Commandments has been removed. Any reference to God on the walls is taken down. They don't want to have any semblance of God in the council chambers, and so objections are raised to meetings beginning with prayer in their own land. They don't want a thing about God in any way. They don't want certainly the children to be thinking of God in the school assemblies, and so an attack is on religious worship of any kind, and it's ongoing. That's how it works itself out. The wicked don't want to think about God in any one way. God is not in all their thoughts, and maybe even with some churchgoing people who have a form of godliness. The last topic of conversation around your dinner table today will be of the Lord or of His wonders. You'll talk about everything else, but the Lord's name is never mentioned. The Lord is omitted from many a home to this very day, not just in the home of Ahab and Jezebel. But you'll notice also the objective of Ahab in his report. Where God is omitted, then the secondary instrument is often the focus of attention. And so it was with Ahab. For while there is no mention of God, the object in his report is Elijah. And nothing has changed. For remember that it was Elijah who was first blamed for the famine and for the drought by Ahab. You turn back to chapter 18 and look at verse 17 again. Came to pass. This is the time where Ahab hadn't seen Elijah for three years. Came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? You're the one to blame for this drought. You're the one to blame for this rain not coming. Instead of acknowledging that it was the Lord who had withheld the rain because of the sin of the nation, Ahab ascribed the trouble to Elijah, and his objective is still the same. You look again at verse 1 of our chapter. He spoke to Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had slain the prophets. No doubt he would have related of how, of all that Elijah had done in carnage. of how he mocked and scorned the false prophets when there was no answer and when none regarded. He must have reported of how the fire came upon the sacrifice when Elijah started to pray, and how all the people fell on their faces and they cried, the Lord, He is God. Jezebel, your priests of Baal are slain. Their blood is running in Bruchishah. For Elijah slew the Their authority and their worship is gone forever. I want to tell you, Jezebel, Elijah is the prophet of the Lord. And his objective in speaking so much about Elijah was to incense Jezebel against God's servant. For it wasn't enough to merely speak of all that he had done, but also of how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. You see the judgment of the Lord in sending a drought. It hadn't returned him on to God, and neither had the divine mercy of the Lord in sending the rain caused him to repent. Neither the judgment nor the mercies of God did it for Ahab. He's incensed, and that's his objective as he speaks so much about Elijah. And with such a rapport, you will appreciate that there was always going to be an outcome. Let's look at that. Here's the outcome of his report, and that was the fiery, ferocious temper of Jezebel, whose pride was hurt and who thirsted for the avenging of the blood of the prophets of Baal with the death of God's servant. Verse 2, Then Jezebel sent the messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods… You see, she hasn't learned the lesson. She still hasn't learned the lesson that there's only one true and living God. Elijah has given, Ahab has given his report, a first-hand account of how God answered by fire, but she still hasn't got it in her. It's not in her heart to say it. She says, so let the gods do to me and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. That's the language of a soul that has been abandoned by God. You understand that? She's a wicked woman. I've said that before, I'll probably say it again. She's an evil, wicked woman. She's a soul abandoned by God. She's unable to hurt God Himself, and so she vents her anger against His servant. The fire of hell has kindled within her breast, and in her judgment, better would have been if the whole nation were to perish with drought and with hunger than such a triumph be enjoyed by Elijah, God's servant. And so often is the case. The triumph of the gospel increases the opposition of the devil's crowd, but woe unto them. And that is from the Lord Himself. You turn over with me to Revelation chapter 2. Revelation chapter 2, you will know it's one of the letters to the churches that happens to be Thyatira. You look at the words of verse 20 just to get you the name that's mentioned here. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel. who callest herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto God." You look at verse 22, "'Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts, and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.'" It's no coincidence. that the Holy Ghost has taken Jezebel, the name of it, and the name of her, and the name of this woman, as a foreshadowing of the woman that will yet ride the scarlet-colored beast that we read of in Revelation 17. And the woe of heaven is upon this Jezebel. The one that we read of in Revelation 2, and the woe of heaven will be upon this one as And if there's a warning, men and women, it is this, and I particularly speak to the unconverted. It's a warning against resisting God and rejecting His Word. Lest, sinner, that you would be abandoned by God, and you hasten on, therefore, to your destruction. This woman has been abandoned by the Lord. This woman is not saved. She's the very opposite to it. And the outcome of this report that she hears is to take the life of Elijah within twenty-four hours. But while Jezebel, I beg your pardon, made her intentions known, And she sent a messenger to convey that message to Elijah himself in the form of the threat upon his life. And why she didn't commission that servant to kill him there and then, we can only explain in terms of the restraining grace of God and the overruling hand of God. You might have thought that that would have been the natural outworking of her fierce anger, go and kill Elijah and I. But she doesn't. She gives him a warning. She issues a threat. Jezebel may never have thought of Elijah escaping from Jezreel, but in this she was wrong. And how often God takes the wise in their own craftiness. Remember Herod. Herod had plans to kill the infant child Christ, but yet being warned in a dream his parents were to take him down into Egypt. Or you can think of the apostle Paul. They were lying in wait to kill the apostle, but the disciples delivered him out of their hands. And so it was here, Elijah was giving warning before Jezebel is able to carry out her threat. Well, that was the outcome of Ahab's report. We must go on, because I want you to see Elijah's response here. Elijah reacted to the message from Jezebel confirms to us what James records of Elijah. He was a man subject to like passions as we are. He's not some super prophet, super human. He's just a man. And here we see a man in a weak For the man who had seen the great victory that day in Mount Carmel, and had seen the power of God demonstrated, and had dispensed with the false prophets of Baal fearlessly, and had seen the heavens opened again that they gave forth their refreshing showers, is now a man who takes to his heels, and he flees at the word of one woman." How unexpected that is. or on previous occasions, he never moved apart from the Word of the Lord. It was the Word of the Lord that came unto him and that sent him in before Ahab. It was the Word of the Lord that brought him to the brook Cherub. It was the Word of the Lord that came again to him, and he was to go across the country to that widow of Zarephath. He only moved at the Word of the Lord. But here we don't read of the Word of the Lord coming. Here we don't read of Elijah getting before God and seeking direction. But with a weary and worn out and fainting spirit, he doesn't wait for the Word of the Lord, he instead runs. Instead of spreading the case before the Lord, he takes the matter into his own hands, and he flees as far away as Beersheba. And Beersheba is the very southernmost part of the land of Judah, right down at the temple. And I want you to consider the words of verse 3, for I believe we see something therein of his reasoning and why he did that. He arose and went for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there." You'll see in verse 3 his focus. Take the words, and when he saw that, and these words give us a strong indication of the state of his mind. What did Elijah see? He didn't see any change in the palace as a result of the happenings of Mount Carmel. He didn't see any signs of repentance, either with Rahab or with Jezebel. The power and faithfulness of God had now faded into the background of his mind, and what occupies his focus in the foreground is very different. What he saw was a wicked and an infuriated Queen Jezebel. He saw visions of her threat being carried out with a most horrific death. His eyes were fixed on her fury, and therefore his heart was overcome with terror. His eyes, his gaze was no longer upon the Lord. and how disastrous that is and the consequences thereof, not only here as it is seen in this passage, but also throughout other Scriptures. You come and sit here with me, the nation of Israel. You come back with me and I'll show you in the book of Numbers chapter 13. Numbers 13, let's just read the words of verse 33. It's the last verse. And it's a time where they're at Kaddish Barnea and the spies have gone in to see the land of promise. And the report has come back. Look at verse 33. Here's the spies, the majority of them said, and there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Verse 1 of the next chapter, and all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole congregation said unto him, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt, would God we had died in this wilderness. When they heard the report of the majority of the spies, they saw the giants. That was their focus, but they failed to see the greatness of their God. Hence, they wandered in unbelief. They turned from Kadesh, Bernia, and they wandered for forty years in unbelief in the wilderness because they magnified their difficulties. Their focus was not on the Lord. Their focus was on the problems. Think of Peter. And you know Peter, he comes in for some unwarranted comments. I want to remind you that Peter was no card. You come to Matthew 14. It's that time where they're in the boat and the Lord comes to them walking in the water. He's anything but a card. For when the Lord called them to walk in the water, He doesn't hesitate to take a step out of that boat. Matthew 14 in the words of verse 29. And he said, come, that's the Lord. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, we wouldn't have got as far as that. But when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. What a step of faith. He had to get out of that boat. He had to put his foot on the surface of that ocean. And he's walking to Jesus. Verse 30, however. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. He got his focus off the Lord. He got his eyes off the Savior. And he started to put his eyes on the wind and on the boisterous waves and began to sink. I wonder am I preaching to one this morning? And that is why you've grown weary as a believer. That's why you've grown faint in your walk with God. Why? Because you've got your eyes off the Lord. You've got your eyes on the problems. You've got your eyes on the difficulties. You've got your eyes on the discouragements. And you've become depressive and disheartened and weary in well-doing. Is that where you are? You see, Elijah got his focus off the Lord just after the mountaintop experience, and he gets his focus on Jezebel and on the problem and on the threat. You see the far-off place that Elijah went to. You look at it in the words of verse 3 again, and when he saw that, he arose and went for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah. He's only thinking of self. He went for his life. He's thinking of self. The man who'd been faithful in the Lord's service now deserted his post. And getting to Beersheba doesn't seem to be far enough either, for we're going to read in verse 4 that he goes a further day's journey into the wilderness, and he gets to the juniper tree. But before we look at that, don't miss the end of verse 3. It says at Beersheba, he left his servant there. We don't know much about this, sir. We're not given his name. But we do know from late that he was a fellow laborer, and he was a great help to Elijah if reporting on the little cloud is anything to go by. For that servant was obedient. He went to the top of Carmel and he looked out on the horizon to see any sign of rain. And he went seven times, and his report was faithful every time. For six of them, there's nothing. The seventh one, there's a little cloud. It's just like a man's heart. He was a faithful servant. He was a good helper. But Elijah leaves his servant there in Beersheba. And I think there's a point there. It's this, that the man who's weary, and the man who's fainting, and the man or woman maybe who is depressive, is prone to go into isolation, and it's not a good place to be. Elijah is abandoning his servant at Beersheba, and that's a sign of weakness. Now, that's not to say that there are times when God's people ought to separate from the ungodly and from treacherous men. We know that. The Bible teaches that. But the opposite of weakness is strength, and that is to be had for the depressed and for the fainting spirit in the fellowship of God's people, in the fellowship of God's people. And the Lord has given us enough encouragement for that. For I remember, and I take you to recall it, Hebrews 10 and verse 25. It's not in the Bible for no reason. The instruction, the exhortation is, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching, as you see the day of the Lord's return. And we're to exhort one another. In other words, we're to encourage one another to fellowship. to fellowship in the house of God. It's not good that you would isolate yourself of a Sunday night and miss out on God's fellowship. That fellowship that God's people has with the Lord. The believer who stays away from the house of God will invariably not do well. I don't care who they are. And I start here with this heart and I go right down the congregation. Indeed, they are in danger of getting to the place where Elijah got to." What was that place? It was the juniper tree, and that was a place of despair. That was a place of darkness. That was a place of destitution. He abandoned his servant. He left his servant there in Bathsheba, and he went another day's journey. I know it's that sort of place. It's a place of darkness and destitution because I hear Elijah praying. And thank God, God doesn't answer all our prayers in the way that we would think He ought to. And it's evident here. For look at the words of verse 4. He requested for Himself that He might die. He's taken up with self. He's not thinking of others. It's no longer the honor of the Lord's name. It's no longer the good of the Lord's people as it was in Carmel, but as weariness and as fainting and as depressed spirit has caused him to look inwardly. His perception was one of failure, he says, for I'm not better than my father's. Therefore, his prayer is, it is enough, O Lord, take away my life. And the literal sense of that word is, take away my soul, for that's what happens in death, you know. The soul is separated from the body. Life ceases. He requested that he might die. This is the man that we've just looked at on Mount Carmel, on the mountaintop, and now he's in the valley of despair. He's under that juniper tree. He's praying that the Lord would take his life. But we have to ask this, if we're prone to be in that place, if we're prone even to pray something similar to those words, we've got to ask this question solemnly to our hearts. Has the Lord nothing better for us than what we should pray such a prayer? Our times are in the hand of the Lord, and we would wish them there. He knew the day of our birth. He knows the day of our death. It's not for us to intervene in between. That's the place to be, in the hand of the Lord, even in those times when despair and depression and darkness may descend upon the spirit because of the sorrows of this present evil world. We leave our life, we leave our hands in God's hands. This is Elijah's response. I want to show you finally, because I want to keep it together, it's God's provision. And men and women, I say this and I want you to appreciate what I'm about to say, that the subject of depression is not one to be taken lightly. And neither ought it to be dabbled upon by those who don't know what they're talking about. It's very real. And God's people, many of God's people are afflicted with this. So I'm not standing before you as an authority on depression. Yes, there's been those melancholy times that I have been in, but that's nothing to what some people suffer or have suffered. But all I want to show you this morning is what God did for Elijah who was cast down. And in his depressive state under that juniper tree, the Lord did some things for him. And I believe they are the answers for many in this day. And that's all I'm going to show you in closing. Firstly, God's provision meant that he had fellowship. Look at verse 5, And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, them an angel touched him and said unto him, Arise and eat. And when we read of the angel, we're reading of course of one of the Old Testament appearances of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He's the angel of the covenant. When the devil attacks in a most fiercest of manner, and I believe that's what this is, the devil attacked Elijah. When the soul is despondent, when the soul is depressed and the feelings are of being useless, then I tell you the need is for the Lord to draw near and for the Lord to touch us. Did you notice in verse 5 it was having suffered these things, having laid down to sleep, that then an angel touched The Lord didn't command them to go to Beersheba. The Lord didn't command them to go another day's journey into the wilderness, into that burning desert, please. The Lord didn't command them to be under that juniper tree, but the Lord knew where He was. And I'll tell you, that's a great comfort. Men and women, not one of us don't need a touch of the Lord upon our names. especially in depressive days when we don't see the power of God in the way in which we would like to see it, and when disappointments abound in every hand, and the false religionists, they would love to have it all their own way. It's not dissimilar, sure it's not, to the day of Elijah. We need a touch of the Lord upon our lives, and we need to dine with the Lord. For you see, that's what the command of the Lord of the angel to Elijah was. He was to arise and eat. Are you feeding upon the Lord? Are you feasting with Him on the occasions when the table is spread in the church sense? Aye, are you feasting on the Lord in your daily walk with Him? You see, I turn over to Revelation again, chapter 3, and this time verse 20. And I want to read you the words of this verse. I'll not need to because you'll probably know them, you'll memorize them. Here's a verse that is often preached with a gospel application, but the context, it's in the context of speaking to the church. The context is to God's people. And the Lord comes and He says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me." You see, the Lord was outside the church of Laodicea, and he had to send a letter to gain their attention. He said, behold, I stand at the door and knock. They went through the religion. They went through their order of service, if you like, and it was all without the Lord's presence. The Lord is outside the church. says, I will come in and I will sup with him and he with me. Are you feasting with the Lord every day? You'll see also that the provision was that he was fed. Fellowship feeding. Verse 6, And he looked, and behold, there was a cake baking on the coals and a cruise of water at his head. And he did eat and drink and let him down again. The word, behold, gives the surprise element. It gives the amazement for Elijah. When he woke up, there was a kickback. There was a cruise of oil. What a miracle. Now, that's the third time that God miraculously has fed Elijah. First time, He fed him with the ravens. The second time, He fed him at the house of the widow of Zarephath and to that barrel of meal that was replenished. And now, he's fed by the hand of the angel. And I tell you, that bread wouldn't have been half-baked. I tell you something else, the water wouldn't have been tepid that he couldn't have drank it. For the Lord doth all things well. And in an oppressed state, in a discouraged place, under that tree of juniper, the juniper tree in the wilderness, the Lord gave him fellowship and the Lord fed him, and the Lord caused him to sleep. Dear soul burdened down, maybe disheartened this morning, the Lord's provision is exactly what you need, what I need, both in the physical sense and especially in the spiritual, for Christ is the bread of heaven. and He gives that water from which we will never thirst. The Lord's provision, it meant one other thing, the faithfulness of God reflected upon. The Lord knew the journey that He was about to take. It was a great journey that would bring Him to Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai, as the other name of it is, the place where Moses met with God and where God had established His covenant with the people of Israel. And in the mind of Elijah, the battle was lost. And the best place to report that was the place where it all began. And he comes back to this place to tell God, the whole enterprise is failed. The battle's lost. I'm only left, I'm alone. But God graciously uses the wilderness experience to remind him of his faithfulness. For verse 8 instructs us, and he arose and did eat and drink and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God. It tells us that God saw to it that it took him forty days and forty nights to get to Sinai. That is a considerably longer time than would have been expected for a relatively short distance. But forty days and forty nights cast your mind and my mind back to the wilderness. back to the nation of Israel, forty years of traversing that wilderness. He did it that Elijah might reconnect with the journey that his forefathers made in that same wilderness. He would have counted the days. He would have walked past the graves and reflected on the fact that the cause of God back then, it also seemed to be gone. It also seemed to be lost. They had went right up to the borders of Canaan, and then in their unbelief, they turned back. But God, despite their sin and despite their waywardness, was faithful to His covenant. And finally, He brought them into that land of promise. It took 40 years, but yet God was faithful to His word. God was unfailing, and that was the same God that Elijah served. His past mercies, his past faithfulness was the antidote to his despondent and his fainting spirit. And I hazard to say so it is to the weary, depressed soul today. Savior is the one you need. And I trust and pray, child of God, for many who are afflicted in mind and in heart in these things, that you may rest on Him more. And it is my prayer for the unconverted, because Christ is the one you need, and the only one. His wonderful salvation. obtained on that cross where he entered into the darkness. The darkness veiled the whole earth for those three hours as he became sin and bore it away in his own body on that tree. Will you come this morning? Turn to Christ and be saved. Let's bow our heads in closing. I trust the Lord will bless His word. hearts this morning. Father in heaven, we thank Thee for Thy presence. We thank You, Lord, for the instruction that we glean from these verses. And, O God, we pray that we might glean the warnings especially, the warnings, O God, of what it is to be abandoned by God, the warnings, Lord, of the consequences of what it is to go out without having sought Thy face for the direction in which we should go. O God, we pray that Thou would teach us Lord, when times we maybe are something similar to where Elijah was under that juniper tree, Lord, help us to cast ourselves more and more and to rest upon the unweary one, even the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear this, our prayer. Part us with Thy blessings. Speak on to those without Christ. Bring them to the Savior this morning. For we ask these things in our Savior's precious name. Amen.