Bible Passage: 1 Kings 19:3-8
Pastor: Michael Willitz
Sermon Date: August 15, 2021

Bulletin August 15, 2021

1 Kings 19:3-8

³Elijah was afraid, and he ran for his life. He went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and he left his servant there. ⁴But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. There he sat down under a broom tree, where he prayed that he would die. He said, “I’ve had enough, Lord. Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” ⁵Then he lay down and went to sleep under the broom tree.

Suddenly an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”

⁶Then he looked around, and near his head there was a loaf of bread baking on coals and a jar of water, so he ate and drank, and then he lay down again.

⁷Then the angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, because the journey is too much for you.”

⁸So he got up and ate and drank. Then, with the strength gained from that food he walked for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Bread for the Journey

1. The depleted need sustenance.
2. The LORD provides it.

Dear fellow redeemed in Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life from heaven,

If you have ever gone on a day hike in the mountains, then you know how important it is to pack some trail mix in your backpack. If you’ve ever run a marathon, then you know how essential it is to take some energy gels or energy gummies along with you on the race. And if you’ve ever worked a full morning out in the fields, then you know how necessary a good dinner is before heading out again for an afternoon of work. We need food to sustain our bodies when we work or when we travel. But what kind of food sustains our souls? What fills us with strength and endurance when we grow spiritually weary and depleted?

The holy prophet Elijah was at that state in today’s text. He was physically exhausted, on the one hand. He had just fled from Jezre’el in the north and hastily traveled to Beersheba, way in the south. And from Beersheba, he had traveled one-day’s journey into the wilderness. The refuge Elijah found for his weary body after all this travelling was the shade of a single broom tree. But Elijah was more than just physically depleted.

The prophet also found himself at a very low point spiritually. He was distressed; he was discouraged; he was disappointed. You see, just a few days earlier had been a high point in Elijah’s career. A showdown had occurred on Mt. Carmel in Israel, a showdown between the true God, the LORD, and a false god named Baal. No one answered when the prophets of Baal spent hours calling on their god to send down fire from heaven. But fire fell from heaven as soon as Elijah called upon the name of the LORD. The evidence was clear, the LORD was God, and Baal was not. Elijah must have had great expectations at that moment of victory. Maybe he thought that now things were going to go differently in Israel. Maybe he thought that this event would turn King Ahab and Queen Jezebel to reject all false gods and worship the LORD. But what actually happened next for the LORD’s faithful prophet? Wicked Queen Jezebel issued a death threat to the prophet.

In fear for his life, Elijah fled far away until he came under the shelter of that broom tree. There he lay down and asked the LORD to take away his life. Perhaps he judged his ministry as completely ineffective. Perhaps he judged the Israelites as having fallen beyond the possibility of salvation. Perhaps he judged himself a coward for running from the queen rather than staying and speaking God’s truth. Frustration, guilt, and disappointment churned within the prophet’s soul. Before falling asleep, he prayed, “I’ve had enough, LORD. Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers,” [4]. Ironically, Elijah would later join Enoch in that very exclusive club of men who were taken to heaven without experiencing bodily death, but that’s another text for another sermon.

What we see at the outset of this text is a man who is depleted: depleted physically and depleted spiritually, a man who needs sustenance, and only the sustenance that comes from the LORD will do. You and I are not Old Testament prophets, but we are like Elijah in this way that we rely on the LORD for sustenance. Nothing else but the bread which the LORD provides will keep our faith going as we travel through this life. Undoubtedly, you’ve faced disappointments before, times when you had great expectations, but things did not go as you thought they would. Perhaps at times you’ve concluded that your service was all for nothing. Perhaps at times you’ve realized that you haven’t fulfilled all that God commands you to do. Not one of us has. In our homes, in our church, in our society, God commands us to serve perfectly. But how often do we fall short? Elijah was right when he confessed, “I am no better than my fathers,” and we would be right in confessing the same thing.

Yet the same God who sustained the Israelites with manna from heaven for forty years in the wilderness, also sustains us with Bread for the Journey as many years as our lives in this world last. The same God who strengthened Elijah with bread and water so that he could travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Horeb, also strengthens us with Bread for the Journey to continue in faith each new day in this world.

Our text tells us that an angel came and touched the slumbering prophet, rousing him from his sleep. “Get up and eat,” [5], the angel said. Elijah saw a loaf of bread on hot coals and a flask filled with water. How those mouthfuls of warm bread must have quieted his groaning stomach. How those gulps of fresh water must have satisfied his thirst. Elijah slept a little longer, until the angel returned and woke him again. The prophet ate and drank a second time, and then proceeded to travel all the way to Mount Horeb. Some Bible scholars estimate that this journey required walking around 250 miles. Strengthened physically with that special bread and water, Elijah completed the journey to Mount Horeb, and there, the disappointed prophet would receive sustenance for his soul.

At Mount Horeb, the LORD gave Elijah promises that he could sink his spiritual teeth into. The LORD assured Elijah that he was not alone. A remnant of seven thousand remained faithful in Israel. And the LORD instructed Elijah that he would anoint another prophet and two kings. So the LORD’s Church would endure, and the LORD’s Word would be proclaimed, and the LORD’s purposes would be carried out on earth long after Elijah was taken to heaven. God had not forgotten his promises from long ago, and God had not forsaken his people. This world had not spun out of God’s gracious control. Even at that dismal hour in history, God was guiding all things to the culmination of his plan, when he would send his only-begotten Son to be our ultimate Prophet, Priest, and King.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the true Bread from Heaven. He is the one who truly sustains us and gives us life that will never end. We heard it from his own lips in our Gospel reading earlier, when Jesus said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh,” [John 6:51]. In Jesus, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness receive it. In his sinless life, he has provided for you a flawless record of righteousness that God counts as yours instead of your fault-filled record of sin. And in his innocent death on the cross, Jesus has put to death all of your sins in his own human flesh. In Jesus, there is life for all people, and all who partake of him by faith receive this life.

But how does our faith feed on Jesus and receive his blessings? We feed on him in the Word and in the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion. So when you listen to the Scriptures, you are feeding on Jesus, the Bread of Life. When you return to your Baptism by confessing your sins receiving forgiveness, like we did at the beginning of this service, you are feeding on Jesus and drawing life and strength from him. And when you approach this altar to take and eat Jesus’ true body and take and drink his true blood, you are feeding on Jesus and gaining sustenance that no earthly food will ever give you.

Jesus restores us and replenishes us, when we come weak and weary and depleted by the disappointments and discouragements of life in this world. And as he replenishes us, he also prepares us to go back out into the world and to serve in whatever earthly calling he has given to us. Just like Elijah ate the bread before him and then had strength enough to journey for forty days and forty nights, Jesus strengthens us in Word and Sacrament to go out and persevere until we return to his house once again. But don’t wait forty days and forty nights to come back to church and be fed by Jesus once more. Week after week, his table is set, and the hungry come and he fills them with good things.

So get up and eat! Partake of Jesus! The journey is too much for you without him, but anyone who eats of him will live forever! His blood has washed away all your sins, and his righteousness covers over you like a robe. Hidden in him by faith, you are pleasing in the Father’s sight, and your life will never end. So take this Bread for the Journey, trust in Jesus. Feed on him.

Amen.

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