The message on which this article is based was originally preached in the early 1980s. Subsequently it was reproduced in booklet form in the mid-1990s, and incorporated into Harry’s book, “When the Road is Rough and Steep”, published in 2006.
It is my prayer that, by making the trilogy of articles on the subject of Depression, taken from the life of the prophet Elijah, available on the Kilbride ministry website, there may be others who will be blessed and helped by the reading of them in 2025, and until such time as this website is closed.
June Kilbride, July 2025
“ALL AT ONCE AN ANGEL TOUCHED HIM”
This precious little sentence in 1 Kings 19, verse 5, is one of my favorites in all of Scripture. It beautifully describes the tender kindness of God.
The “him” is the prophet Elijah. Elijah was, without question, a very great man. He was a byword in courage, faith, and prayer. He was one of only two men allowed to go to Heaven without passing through the experience of death. As the Lord Jesus Christ prepared to go to the Cross, God chose two Old Testament heroes to meet with him on the Mount of Transfiguration. To represent the Law, Moses was chosen, and to represent the Prophets, Elijah.
But James tells us Elijah was “a man like us” (James 5:17) and nowhere is that more clearly seen than in 1 Kings 19. Here we find him fleeing for his life from the murderous threats of Queen Jezebel, until, in disillusionment, exhaustion, and with a deep sense of personal failure, he sinks down under the paltry shade of a little desert tree. Here, alone and despairing, he begs his Lord to end his misery and take his life.
In Part One of this trilogy on Depression I considered what factors may have contributed to bring this great servant of God to such a low point of despondency and how we might diagnose the causes of our depressions. (See: I’ve had enough, Lord) We now go on to examine the response of the Lord to Elijah’s condition and request. We will see how God met his immediate need through the ministry of an angel before confronting him directly in an unforgettable Divine encounter amongst the rocks and pinnacles of Mount Horeb.
The encounter on Mount Horeb will be our study in Part Three. In this article we will consider “The Touch of the Angel.”
He came to a broom tree, 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 fathers.” Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep.
All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.
The angel of the Lord came back a second time and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he travelled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.
1 Kings 19:4-8
What kind of a touch was this touch of the angel?
It was, firstly:
A GRACIOUS TOUCH
This was not a touch of anger or punishment, but a touch of grace. Grace is mercy to the undeserving. Grace is being treated better than we deserve. Grace is to be forgiven when we deserve to be condemned. The Gospel is a gospel of grace. The truths of the gospel are the “Doctrines of Grace.” Not one of us deserves to be saved. God does not owe us salvation as if it were a right but He offers it to us in Jesus Christ. That is grace.
Now God had been remarkably good to Elijah. He had protected him for three and a half years from the wrath of Ahab and Jezebel when they hunted for him high and low. He had provided for him, first by ravens at the brook Kerith, then through a widow in Zarephath. God had answered Elijah’s prayers in dramatic ways. Prayers for the life of the widow’s boy, prayers for fire to fall on the Mount Carmel sacrifice, prayers for rain, had all been miraculously granted. Elijah’s ministry had been vindicated in the sight of all Israel. Elijah had seen miracles.
Yet here we find God’s servant behaving more out of fear than faith. He has left his post without permission and will eventually have to be sent back. His suicidally depressive claim that he is no better than his fathers, and his request that he might die sounds awfully like self-pity. When he eventually arrives at Horeb he does not come into God’s courts with praise and thanksgiving but with self-righteousness and complaint. He has a complaint not only it seems with Israel, but with God Himself.
We are not judging him as if we have not been just the same or even worse. At least this behaviour was uncharacteristic of Elijah which is probably more than can be said of some of us. Nevertheless, God might well have dispatched an angel to chastise him – to snap him out of this despondency with a wallop from the proverbial “two-by-four.” The touch could have been a touch of discipline – but it was not. It was a gracious touch for, as the Psalmist tells us,
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love…He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities…as far as the east is from the west so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed and remembers that we are dust (Psalm 103:8-14).
A Personal Example
O how lovely it is when someone deals with you in grace. I recall as if it were yesterday an incident from my schooldays long ago.
I was, I am sorry to say, a very bad student. I did not do my homework and in fact was frequently absent from school without my father’s knowledge. I was a rebellious boy. Consequently, I failed my final exams. I was sixteen, and in order to progress one was supposed to pass what was called the “School Certificate.” I failed miserably and was in disgrace. Of course, everyone was giving me a telling off and justifiably so. My father was a pastor and pastors’ children are, for some unaccountable reason, not only supposed never to fail at anything, but to get straight “A”s and be, in every way, paragons of virtue.
On Sunday, therefore, everyone was telling me, “You ought to be ashamed of yourself.” They were in huddles glancing and glowering in my direction and “tut-tutting.” I could hear them. “Oh, his poor father! Failed at every subject. Everyone else has passed except Harry Kilbride….oh, tut, tut, tut, tut.”
I was very depressed.
Then I saw my uncle heading my way. “Oh,” I thought, “here comes another one.”
He said to me, “I hear you have failed your School Certificate.” I mumbled an admission.
I thought, “Go on, then, have your money’s worth. Put the boot in.”
He asked me, “Is everyone telling you off?”
“Yes.”
Then he put his arm around my shoulder and said, “Well, never you mind them, son. Just ignore them. They are not so perfect. There will come another day. You might surprise them yet!”
Then he gave me a big hug – and I began to cry. Sixteen-year-old rebels do not cry. Justice had not made me cry but grace did. Let me tell you something: I loved that man until the day he died and I always revere his memory.
How could he be so gracious? Because he knew that he had himself received grace, and because God was in his heart. Friend and reader; how do you touch the undeserving and the sinner? With grace? Or with self-righteous judgment?
First, the angel’s touch was a gracious touch, but secondly it was:
A TENDER TOUCH
Poor Elijah was burnt out, preached out, stressed out, Jezebel-ed out, prayed out, and journeyed out. “I’ve had enough, Lord.” He needed tender understanding and there is no one with such a supply and readiness to give it as our Heavenly Father.“All at once an angel touched him,” and it was a tender touch.
Not long after June and I were married in 1958 my young bride became seriously ill. Not only was there the shock of finding herself married to me, but it was also discovered that she had a problem needing emergency surgery. Our doctor, who was also our closest friend, counseled me concerning her recovery.
“Harry,” he said, “you know with all the stress of being newly-wed, plus her very demanding teaching job, your youth work at the church, and this internal problem, June has become very run down. She is overstrained and exhausted. What she needs now more than anything else is a great deal of TLC – Tender Loving Care. Give her several doses every day.”
Ah, yes, do we ever cease to need it? How frail we are. Elijah needed it. And his loving Lord gave it to him
I could fill pages quoting you verses which speak to us of God’s kindness, gentleness, and love. But I will forbear. You can read them in the Psalms (for example) as we have seen. They are my constant comfort. I would prefer, however, just to turn your eyes upon Jesus for he reveals the heart of God in a human life.
If you ever doubt that God is gentle and tender and caring, just think of Jesus. Jesus came to show us God as well as to reconcile us to God. God is spirit. We find it difficult to take in the character of God from statements in the Bible – however plain. We need to see it fleshed out. That is the Incarnation. God became man. Jesus said, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father” (John 14:9). Was there ever a man so kind? Again and again, we read of him “moved with compassion” to the widow, the prostitute, the leper, the outcast, the child.
A Story
At the 1987 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC I heard Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia tell this story. Some years ago, a young executive was hurrying through the fore-court of a busy city railway station. It was rush hour and the station was crowded and he was late for an appointment. As he pushed and hurried through the crowd trying to make his train he accidentally knocked over the fruit stall of a blind boy. Apples, oranges and the like scattered all over the place.
The young executive hesitated but then hurried on. However, he had second thoughts, and with a sigh he returned, resigned to missing both his train and his meeting. He began to help the boy collect up his dispersed merchandise and re-erect his stall. It took many minutes. At last, it was done. As the boy thanked him, he slipped a banknote into the boy’s hand. “You have lost business through my clumsiness,” he told him,”…here is twenty dollars.”
The astonished boy was speechless for a moment but then, as his benefactor moved away he caught hold of his sleeve. “Sir,” said the boy, “Are you Jesus?”
Now some reader might say to me, “Harry, aren’t you being sentimental?” To which I reply, “No. I am being biblical.” I say again, read one of the Gospels. Pick any one. Was there ever kinder shepherd?
When I was ordained to be a pastor (an under-shepherd) in 1969, I pledged myself to seek to be like Jesus. I have failed many times and have a long, long way to go, but it still remains my deepest longing. He was so kind and full of compassion. Jesus was not weak; he was not a wimp. He was powerful and strong. Gentleness is not the opposite of strength but of brutality, and kindness is the opposite of cruelty, not power.
Let us be Gentle and Kind
God could have chastised Elijah. Or he could have ignored him or dismissed him (“No more service for you, Elijah!”), or granted his wish – requested from a distraught heart. But no, an angel touched him … and it was a tender touch. I imagine that angel lovingly placing a pillow under his head, a cup to his mouth, and, as the blistering heat of the desert day turned to the chilling cold of a desert night, carefully covering him with a cloak and keeping vigil.
O, my friends, let us all be kind and gentle as God is. The fruit of the spirit is kindness, and gentleness (Gal 5:22). What a shame that Christians so often have the reputation of being harsh and judgmental. Husbands and wives let us be kind towards one-another. Parents, be kind and gentle with your children. Fathers are not to spoil their children, I know, and good discipline is an aspect of love. But please remember to be kind. After all, your Heavenly Father is kind to you.
Pastors be tender with your church members. How unkind some are to those in our own community who fall. I have known of church leaders so brutal towards a young unmarried girl who became pregnant that you would never think they were disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. Galatians 6:1 says, “If someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently...” Instead, we often do the very opposite.
Churches be kind to your pastor. He may sometimes feel like Elijah and you do not even know it.
Is someone reading this who is depressed and hurting? Like Elijah you too have had enough. Are you broken? Are you burnt out? Have you cried out to God in your pain? Of course you have. He hears you. Yes, Jesus loves you. You will find he is far, far kinder than men. He will not turn away.
The Bible says of Jesus, “The bruised reed he will not break, the smoking flax he will not quench” (Matthew 12:20). That means he is gentle. He restores that which is broken (he does not discard it) and he revives that which is burnt out (he does not trash it for another). He will send an angel to touch you. It will be a tender touch. Just remember this, however, the angel might be in disguise. The angel will not have wings.
Thirdly the touch of the angel was:
A PRACTICAL TOUCH
Angels are messengers. In the Bible they frequently come from God bearing a message such as when angels appeared to Mary and to Joseph, or to the women at the tomb of our risen Lord. Here, however, it was more what the angel did than what he said which is significant. The grace and the tenderness took a very practical form. For one thing he saw to it that Elijah had a good long sleep for Elijah was exhausted and needed rest.
If you are overtired, and especially if you are not receiving enough sleep, you may have a tendency towards depression. Some of us need more sleep than others just as some get more tired than others. When faced with a fellow Christian who suffers from insomnia some say, rather glibly, “Well, don’t count sheep, dear, just think of the Shepherd.” Others, “Start to pray and the devil will put you to sleep.” So he might. However, the devil might prefer to have you anxious during the night, drowsy during the day and almost driven mad by the unfeeling comments of your fellow believers who have obviously never themselves had to suffer this problem. I say, “Go and see your doctor.”
Some years ago, when I was very, very overworked, very tired, and unable to sleep my doctor gave me a little medication to help me get off to sleep. O, how I thanked God for it. No, I did not have to keep increasing the dose. No, I did not become permanently dependent. God has granted us these “angels” and provided they cause us no harm, they are a God-send. We need sleep. Elijah needed sleep. In this modern world of stress and noise it is not always forthcoming.
He also needed some food and drink. I have no doubt he had neglected such things in his distress. Often the greater our distress the less our appetite. We consequently grow weaker. We read, “All at once an angel touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat.’ He looked around and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again” (1 Kings 19:5-6).
Sometimes we can have mood changes because of other dietary problems. Maybe we eat too much, get over-weight, and then feel guilty, embarrassed, and frustrated. Others can be enslaved by the current fad of thinness. Some diet to an unhealthy degree.
A Christian’s body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and we should take care of it. It is not wrong to want to look our best. Nevertheless, we can become obsessed with the body to the point of idolatry and especially how we look. “Man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).
Maybe you think this all very unspiritual. Be patient, the spiritual will come. In the next article we will concentrate upon the spiritual as we consider “A Fresh Encounter with God.” Sometimes, however, we need the practical first.
The Good Samaritan did not give the man who had been beaten up and left for dead a copy of “The Heavenly Thoughts of Matthias the Mystic!” He bound up his wounds and poured in oil and wine, laid him on his donkey, took him to an inn, and paid for his keep until he recovered. And the first thing God did for Elijah – battered, bruised, and broken and lying under this little broom tree – was to send an angel to give him a good dinner and a good sleep. It was a practical touch.
Could you be a practical angel to someone who is tired and maybe depressed? It could make such a difference if you could do something for them. Could you do some gardening for an older person, do their shopping (it might be even better to help them do their own) or decorate their place?
Little children are very, very exhausting. Could you take them for a couple of hours one afternoon and give that young mother a break? Could you baby-sit (for free!) for that couple one evening so they can go together to the service or to the concert or restaurant.
Our Angels
When we had a thriving college and career youth ministry which we called “Young Disciples” a wonderful older couple called Sam and Jessie came to our home every Friday evening to look after our babies so that we could exercise this ministry together. What a blessing! They laid up treasure in heaven.
I am also reminded how, when we were raising our children, the angels were their grandparents. June’s father and mother used to take them sometimes for a whole week or even longer. Those breaks from the children were wonderful times of refreshing for us. They winced a bit when number three arrived. Once it was four, they said, “If you have any more, we can’t do it again.” So, we quit at four!
Sometimes it is through dark periods, like this one of Elijah’s, that the practical angels come. One brings a bowl of fruit as a love-token, another writes a treasured letter. One sends groceries or prepares a casserole while another gives professional advice free of charge. One invites you to their home whilst another offers you the key to their country cottage or beach house. Where appropriate monetary gifts arrive.
Reader, do you not remember such practical angels during some dark period of your life? Of course you do. You will never forget them. They were the hands of the Lord. “Angels,” says Hebrews 1:14, “are ministering spirits sent to serve God’s elect.” So, this angel came to serve Elijah and the service was very practical.
The “angel” may be a member of your family or a neighbor; someone in your church or a total stranger. Don’t reject them, will you? Abraham, in welcoming strangers, “entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2). The form of help may not be what you think you need nor the instrument who you would have preferred.
Earlier in his life and ministry Elijah had been fed by ravens. Ravens were (ritualistically) unclean birds. Nevertheless, they brought good food and were the carriers of God’s love. Then he was directed to a widow in Zarephath of Sidon. I am sure this was a surprise to him for Sidon was Jezebel country. Maybe he hoped she would be a rich widow who would keep him in luxury for the rest of his life. Actually, she was a starving widow with just enough for herself, her son, and Elijah. But she was God’s angel and God renewed the supply every day. Do not reject God’s messenger or despise him/her will you?
Not only was this a practical touch but it was also:
A PERSONAL TOUCH
There was really somebody there. As he was sleeping, he felt someone shaking his arm and saying “Rise and eat.” He thought he was alone but there was this stranger who had obviously been hard at work as Elijah slept. Coals had been assembled and a fire ignited. A meal had then been cooked. God could have created this meal out of thin air at a word, but he wanted Elijah to have companionship and conversation.
We not only need rest and good food we need friendship.
We were not meant to go through this world alone. Depression is often caused by loneliness. Elijah did not have many friends anyway but he had an assistant. This servant and companion, however, he had left behind at Beersheba and had gone on alone into the desert. We do not know why. Perhaps he was so low he just wanted to hug his depression to himself. Perhaps he felt it inappropriate for the servant to see him this way and to hear this despairing prayer. There are times when we need to be alone.
Nevertheless, God said to Adam, even in Paradise, “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). Eve was created primarily to be his friend and partner. Marriage is God’s primary answer to loneliness. Companionship should be the basis of marriage.
Now I know we cannot always choose whether to marry or not. Some have been married but have lost their loved one or been divorced. Then the loneliness may be worse and the pain harder to bear. God calls some to walk alone so far as marriage is concerned. He called his Son to walk that way. Our Lord Jesus had the same needs and feelings as you and me. He chose to remain single because (for one thing) his destiny was the Cross. Yet even Jesus needed companionship. Yes, there were times when he went off alone – especially to pray. But usually he was with his disciples and other friends. When the crowds were deserting him in droves, he poignantly asked the Twelve, “Will you also go away?” (John 6:67 KJV) In Gethsemane he admonished them, “Could you not watch with me one hour?” (Mark 14:37)
The apostle Paul also denied himself marriage for the sake of the Gospel. He was always on the road, traveling, and he usually ended up in jail. But he needed friends and he traveled with a team. He hated to be left alone for long. Once, when he was in Athens, he desired to return to Thessalonica to see how the infant church which he had planted was doing. Again, and again, he was thwarted by some obstacle he interpreted as Satanic. Eventually he dispatched his team being left “…at Athens alone” (1 Thess 2:17-3:5).
He clearly did not care for it but neither did he sit in his hotel bedroom wallowing in self-pity. He was out every day, sight-seeing, mingling with the people and especially sharing the Gospel. My, what an antidote to depression it is to see someone saved through your witness. If the opposite of depression is euphoria, then I will testify that I have never been so euphoric as when I have been involved in any way, in sinners coming to faith in Christ. It is the joy of the harvest. But if we do not sow how shall we reap?
Personal friendships need to be cultivated. We must not wait until we are in a crisis or under the broom tree and then expect a friend to show up – if we have never bothered to foster any friends. It is good to have more than one friend because sometimes erstwhile friends may desert us in our crisis – as they did the Apostle Paul.
Notice this about the angel, “The angel of the Lord came back a second time…” (v7). That is precious. It was not just a flash in the (proverbial) pan. When you hit rock bottom some will call or write once – and that is undoubtedly kind – but you never hear from them again. Others will come back a second time, and a third and so on. Like this angel, they keep vigil.
O what a blessing is a friend who remains loving and loyal no matter what. We need a friend who will still be our friend when we are behaving badly and may be a pain to be with. I know one such Friend “who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs18:24). Do you know him personally? His name is Jesus and he is the only Friend who can get you into Heaven.
Fellowship in the Church
No one should be lonely who is a member of a church, and yet churches can be extremely lonely. It is a tragedy. Some churches give visitors a hearty welcome at the door, have welcome cards for them to fill out, have a “greet-your-neighbor” session in the middle of the worship service, but it is all so mechanical and superficial. When the service is over no one speaks to you – even if you hang about until they lock the doors. But you see all the members gathering in their cliques and groups and you feel very left out. Do you know something? A crowded church entrance following a service can be more lonely than the moon.
The essential marks of the Early Church included “fellowship” (Acts 2:42). It comes from a word meaning “to share a common life.” The first Christians met together every day. They met in their homes. “Fellowship” is a missing element in many churches. Worship/celebration is there: the Apostles’ Teaching is there (though that too seems to be increasingly absent): the “breaking of bread” is there – but where is the fellowship? We are told to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. How can we do that if we never interact with our fellow Christians?
We are cells in a body, mutually dependent, and we should be continually ministering to one another. If not, we are missing one of the vital ingredients of New Testament Christianity. “Fellowship” is intended for you by God and is a “means of grace.” Lack of it can lead to spiritual malnourishment and — depression. Seek it, second only to sound and nourishing preaching.
Incidentally, this angel is only a temporary friend, a stranger sent by God to meet Elijah’s immediate and desperate needs, practical and personal. God has plans to give him a wonderful young friend and student who will serve him with devotion and be with him until the day he is taken home to Heaven. His name will be almost the same – Elisha. Here under the tree in his loneliness, exhaustion, and despair, Elijah, of course, did not know about this future provision. God had not yet told him.
So, trust God, my lonely friend, he may have some lovely surprise for you, later on. You cannot see his plans, single friend. Maybe – just when you had given up hope – he will send you a husband or a wife with whom to share your future. Some only find the right partner in middle or older life but then the remaining years are rich indeed. Do not give up hope. You never know.
Be a Friend
You say, “Harry, I need a friend.” Then go and be a friend to someone in need. Ask your pastor if he can suggest someone who might be lonely. I will guarantee he will know. He should. There are people in prison who never, ever have a visitor or even receive a letter. There are people in Nursing Homes and Retirement Homes who are very lonely. There are people in their own homes who are very lonely. Elderly people are often lonely, yes, but sometimes so are young people, single people and divorced people.
You say, “But Harry, I need an angel to touch me.” Perhaps God is calling you to be an angel and minister someone else.
In my pastorates I would make it a practice to phone someone whom the Lord had laid on my heart just to say, “I am thinking of you right now. I care for you and I am praying for you.”
You have no idea the reaction. Some would immediately assume that I must want something! (Money? Teach a class? Serve on a Committee?) Others would cry because no one ever called them. I have called people on Christmas Day and Thanksgiving and found them alone.
Do not be put off if you reach out to someone and at first they seem a little cold or embarrassed or even rebuff you. Many of us are initially wary of an uninvited stranger. Perhaps their reflex reaction will be to imagine their “right-to-privacy” is about to be invaded! Do not give up. God will use you. I will guarantee it. They may be in a state of shock that some-one cares for them but they won’t forget. They will say, “An angel touched me today.”
I once read a true story in my daughter’s nursing journal. The writer – a nurse – worked in a very modern hospital with every technological aid. Beside each bed, built into the wall was a speaker and microphone. By pressing a button, a patient could communicate with the nursing station several yards away and out of sight. Little Johnny, aged about 8, was in hospital for the first time. After several hours he pressed his buzzer. “Yes?” asked the nurse on duty over the inter-com. “What do you want?”
“Please, wall, I want my mummy,” he replied.
Of course he did. What good is a wall when you are frightened and lonely and sick?
The touch God gave to his sick, frightened, and lonely servant Elijah was a personal touch.
It was also:
A PURPOSEFUL TOUCH
This gracious and tender touch of the angel was not to comfort him, provide for him, give him some personal care only then to leave him under the broom tree. It was to enable him to fulfil God’s immediate purpose which was to journey to Horeb for a new encounter with God.
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.” So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food he travelled for forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. (1 Kings 19:7,8)
There are many important and significant things here. First of all, isn’t the caring sequence beautiful? Let us go over it once again. I believe Elijah collapsed exhausted during the blistering heat of the desert day. That is why he sought out this meagre bit of shade. Having cried to God to take his life he fell asleep.
The angel came and carefully prepared dinner, then woke him to eat it. He slept again – all night. But the angel did not leave. He watched over God’s servant until morning. He woke him again and Elijah found breakfast all ready and prepared.
Did you notice that little word “journey.” “The journey is too much for you.” May I imagine a conversation.
“Journey? Did you say, journey? I’m going on no journey.”
“Oh yes you are.”
“But I have run away.”
“Yes, but now you are going to Horeb to meet God.”
“But I’m finished. I have no ministry left. I have nothing left to live for.”
“You are not finished and you do have a ministry. God will tell you.”
“But I want to die.”
“Well maybe you do, but God will decide that. He has not finished with you yet. You will see. Now eat up your cornflakes and your toast, get up and go. Do you hear me. GO!”
That is the word to some of us when we are depressed. We need to get up and go. We can become paralysed by pity – self-pity. Before we get our long-term instructions from God we may have to get out of this slough of despondency. Have some immediate goal or goals. Take a trip. Join the choir. Take a course. Write a book. Visit a friend. Volunteer at the local hospital, library, prison, county official’s office, church office. Tell your pastor you want to volunteer – you will do anything you can according to your ability and strength. May I suggest to anyone in this condition: consecrate each day to God and have assignments for that day. Do not stay in bed! Get up and GO!
Notice it was a long hard journey – this journey to Horeb. It took six weeks of very hard walking over rugged terrain. For toughness, the journey ahead was even worse than the journey before; much worse. The difference was that instead of running in a panic Elijah would now be walking with a purpose. That is what God wants. We have no record that the angel walked with him. He certainly did not carry him.
Now if some of us had written this story we might have said, “And this beautiful angel lifted Elijah and carried him swiftly and easily, all the way to Horeb. It was as if a helicopter had picked him up and whisked him over the desert and the mountains to his rendezvous with destiny.” Maybe Elijah would have liked that. But that was not God’s plan.
God’s ways are not our ways. He touched Elijah with grace and gentleness, practical provision, and loving purpose but then he had to make this journey himself. Get up and go – and it was not an easy trip. The journey to Horeb is not unlike the journey to Heaven – tough! Sometimes the stones beneath our feet are sharp and the mountains steep and the miles long. Like toddlers, we would like to be carried but that is not always good for us or them.
Nevertheless, I perceive Elijah striding out with a new determination. Refreshed and renewed, he now knows where he is going. He has received a touch from God and it was a directed touch.
That leads me to the final point. This was:
A DIVINE TOUCH
I said there are some significant things in this passage. Perhaps there is one more. Did you notice that the writer changes from “an angel…” (v5) to “The angel of the Lord” (v7)? From the indefinite to the definite article. The expression “The angel of the Lord” in the Old Testament often refers to a temporary manifestation of the Lord himself. If this is the case here, then this “angel” (messenger) was none other than the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, making a pre-incarnation visit to someone in deep need (called by theologians a “theophany”- See Genesis 16:7-14, 21:17-19, 22:11, 31:11-13, Exodus 3:2, Judges 6:11). Sometimes he did that.
What does this say to us? I can only tell you what it says to me. It reminds me that there are times when the servants of the Lord become so depressed, so weak, and in such pain, that the Lord comes himself to us. Faithful and welcome though his emissaries are, this is an extreme situation which calls for something more. There is a gracious and tender touch needed here which even angels cannot supply. It is deep down inside. When we come to this, angels can help us, but they cannot heal us. We are too far gone. We have been crushed almost beyond repair.
I say “almost” because there is no condition which does not respond to the restorative touch of the Divine Physician. There is no pit into which we can sink but he will not reach down and pull us out. He will not let us be destroyed. He loves us too much. He comes to us, just where we are. We cannot explain it, we can only experience it. There in all our pain and fear, our darkness and despair; deep, deep down, in the innermost recesses of the soul there is a touch – a touch so powerful and yet O so tender. The touch is Divine. It is the Lord.
Never Forsaken
It is laid upon my heart to ask: Is there a pastor or missionary or Christian worker reading this article? Do you feel like Elijah, “no better than your fathers” – in other words a failure? Maybe you have not seen revival either. In fact the converts have been very few. And that one you felt sure was genuine has gone back. You are tired, disillusioned and ready to quit the field. Are the enemies against you overwhelming you? Are the Ahabs and the Jezebels getting you down? Do you feel depressed, deserted and alone? It might even seem that God himself has abandoned you.
NEVER! Did God not one time turn away from his Only Begotten Son so that he would never turn away from you or me? Every twice-born, blood-bought child of God will never, never, NEVER be forsaken. He has promised it. He has proved it. Sometimes it might seem that way but it is not. Look up, dear colleague, don’t despair. He is hastening down to touch you. You are HIS.
Perhaps you have forgotten who and what you are: a child of Almighty God. Your adoption papers were signed in the blood of God’s Son. If you are wounded and weary, why, then he loves you all the more.
Whatever the true identity of the angel, his mission was to enable and encourage Elijah to journey on. He must come to the holy mountain and confront afresh Him who called him into divine service, the Lord God Jehovah. So, Elijah is headed for Horeb, a fresh encounter with God – and a renewed call.
Thank God he did not miss the rendezvous with his Lord. Elijah might have said “No” to the journey, notwithstanding the ministry of the angel. How tragic that would have been. Thank God he woke up, ate up, packed up, buckled up – and journeyed on.
My prayer is that this article might be for someone the touch of an angel. A messenger sent from God to say “I love you, and you are not finished yet…come on …let’s go. We have eternal business to do together, you and me.”
Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed.
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I‘ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I will not, desert to its foes;
That soul, tho’ all hell should endeavor to shake,
I‘ll never, no, never, no, NEVER forsake!Richard Keene c.1787