Wanna Get Away?
Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” 3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. 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 ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. (1 Kings 19:1-5)
Elijah had been relentlessly faithful to God in the face of persecution and the dissent of his own people, and now Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab, wanted him dead - again. Elijah had had enough, and he asked God to end his life. Elijah longed for peace. God would go on to strengthen Elijah, encourage him, and enable him to anoint his successor, as well as two new kings (v. 5b-17).
When Jesus healed a Gerasene man possessed by a "legion" of demons, the townspeople became afraid of Jesus and asked him to leave. The no-longer-demon-possessed man begged to go with Jesus. He wanted to be truly free from his past, and the people who might try to keep him bound to it. But Jesus refused his request - instructing the man to stay and be a witness for all God had done for him.
It's normal to want to escape, or avoid all together, the stress of discord and challenge. We may be tempted to opt out of volunteering or working with others whose ideologies or methodologies differ from our own. We prize an imaginary place of calm, where we are unaffected by the trials of life. But we can take lessons from the examples of Elijah and the Gerasene man. We can call on God! We can trust God to open our eyes to those who will help and support us as we journey to do what God calls us to. We can be intentional about training those who come behind us, and we can be exuberant witnesses to all that God is doing in and through us. The joy of the Lord is our strength, and we can run to Him whenever we want to get away!
36 Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. 37 Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. (Luke 8:36-39)
