The God of Contrasting Seasons
I love how our God is the God of contrasts.
He is the God of the old and the new.
The winter and the spring.
The loud and the quiet.
The unfaithful and the faithful.
The dead and the alive.
I love how our God demonstrates these contrasts to us in many ways—including inspiring the prophet Jeremiah to pen 1 Kings 18 and 19 side by side.
Because in 1 Kings 18, we see how God is this spectacular, sovereign, mighty King Who uses His power to rain down fire from heaven and turn His people’s hearts back to Him.
But in 1 Kings 19, we see how God is also this tender, quiet, loving Father Who knows the needs of His sons and daughters. Who takes care of them so faithfully and graciously.
Separately, each story showcases a new facet of God. Each story features one aspect of His character, as well as the power behind His strength and love.
But together? They demonstrate how God walks with us through each season of our lives . . . even the seasons that so grimly contrast each other.
Through the old and the new, the winter and the spring, the spiritually alive and spiritually exhausted seasons . . . The Lord is still God!
And He is worthy of our praise regardless.
Grab your Bible with me, friend! Let’s read and study together 1 Kings 18-19 to learn more about who God is in these chapters and what He wants us to learn. Make sure to grab your favorite pen, a steaming mug of coffee, and a cozy blanket, too—and let’s get started!
The God of the Spectacular Miracles
When the prophet Jeremiah pens the historical account of 1 Kings 18, Israel is in a gigantic state of disrepair.
I’m talking about a king and queen who turned their back on God to worship other idols. I’m talking about the unfaithful hearts of God’s people, slaughtered prophets, and religiopolitical chaos. I’m talking about a land whose dirt had not seen rain in a long time.
But then God sends Elijah.
Elijah is the only remaining prophet of God who has not been tucked away into hiding or slaughtered. Really, it’s no surprise that God sends Elijah to perform yet another miracle for His people. Elijah is the only one willing to take a stand for God in this tense, sacrilegious atmosphere.
Let’s be honest: God didn’t have to. Time and time and time again in the Bible, God didn’t have to send yet another prophet to turn yet another generation of Israelites back to Him.
But He did.
Because He loved the Israelites unconditionally (just like He does us).
But today, it’s not the Israelites we’re focusing on in this chapter (although if you want a more detailed account of 1 Kings 18, read this in-depth study).
We’re focusing on Elijah.
You see, in 1 Kings 18, God sends Elijah into a spiritual battle against false prophets. This happens when Elijah instructs Ahab (again, the king of Israel) to gather all of Israel and all of the 850 prophets of foreign gods on Mount Carmel. While we don’t know how long it takes to gather that many people on a mountain, we do know that Elijah, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, declares, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions?” (1 Kings 18:21).
That day on the mountain, Elijah took a stand for God. He issued an ultimatum to the false prophets: choose a bull, prepare an altar, and ask your god to send the fire to light the altar. Elijah stated he would do the same.
What we read in the rest of the story is predictable: the false prophets spend all day asking their idol to rain down fire on their prepared altar, but there’s nothing. There “was no voice” and “no one paid attention” (1 Kings 18:29). Then, after Elijah carefully repairs the altar of the Lord, prepares a bull for the offering, and then pours twelve (yes, you read right—twelve) jars of water on the altar, he calls out to God:
“O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” (1 Kings 18:36-37)
Instantly, God rains down a fire so intensely hot that it consumes everything on that altar—the bull, the wood, the stones, the water, and even the dust.
Let us never forget, my friend, that our God is a miraculous, sovereign, and mighty God!
That day on the mountain, He showcased His power and will when He rained a fire down hot enough to consume water. Through Elijah, He turned the heart of His people back!
After God’s miraculous display, Elijah proceeds to hunt and slaughter the false gods who failed to get their powerless idol to bring down fire. From there, he goes back on top of Mount Carmel to ask God to send rain on the dry and famished land, which He does.
So, 1 Kings 18 shows us a prophet who is so on fire for God that he stands up for Him when no one else does and allows God to reveal miracles and messages through him.
But as always with God . . . the story doesn’t stop there.
The God of the Quiet Whispers
When we catch up with Elijah in 1 Kings 19, he is running for his life.
Jezebel, the evil queen who rules Israel alongside her husband, Ahab, has found out that Elijah has slaughtered all of her false prophets. And, as anybody with a vested interest in maintaining a religious hold over a nation would act, she threatens Elijah’s life. In pure rage, she sends word to him: “May the gods punish me and do so severely if I don’t make your life like the life of one of them by tomorrow!” (1 Kings 19:2).
Elijah, in his instinctual reaction to Jezebel’s threat, does several things:
Terrified for his life, he runs 120 miles away from Mount Carmel.
What he’s running from is the mountain where God had just used him to bring about a miraculous sign of fire and to deliver a message of loyalty and faithfulness to God’s people.
After finally reaching the wilderness, he sits down under a broom tree and prays that he would die. “I have had enough! Lord, take my life, for I’m no better than my fathers.” (1 Kings 19:4)
He falls asleep under the broom tree.
Here is a prophet who, in just the chapter before, was the vessel God used for spectacular displays and signs. Sleeping under this broom tree, is a prophet who–terrified for his life and praying that God would take it from him (maybe so Jezebel couldn’t)–had confidently stood before all of Israel on a mountain and spoke on behalf of the Lord.
But now, he’s had enough and doesn’t want to be here anymore.
God sees his beloved prophet Elijah under that tree, depressed and spiritually depleted, and shows him love and grace:
He sends an angel to encourage Elijah to get up and eat, leaving a loaf of bread baked over hot stones and a jug of water by him.
When Elijah eats and falls asleep again, God sends another angel. This time, the angel encourages him to get up and eat again, telling him that the journey God is about to send him on “will be too much for [him].” (1 Kings 19:7).
After God encourages and provides for Elijah, he follows the second command to get up and eat. He walks 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness to another mountain—Horeb—and enters a cave once there.
What happens next is a continued outpouring of God’s love and grace.
God meets Elijah in the cave. He asks, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Elijah, in his spiritual rock bottom moment, answers: “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of Hosts, but the Israelites have abandoned Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are looking for me to take my life.” (1 Kings 19:10).
God tells Elijah to go out and stand on the mountain. And even though Elijah disobeys and stays in the cave, God displays the same mighty and spectacular power He did in front of all the Israelites on Mount Carmel. God passes by the mountain Elijah hides in several times, each time showcasing a powerful force of nature: a mighty rushing wind, a shattering earthquake, and even a roaring fire again. In each of these forces of nature, the Bible says God was not to be found.
Elijah remained in the cave, stuck in his spiritual depletion and depression. But God passes by one more time—and He whispers.
And when He does, Elijah finally moves out from the cave, even though he doesn’t pass the mouth of the entrance.
The voice of God appears again, quiet: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Elijah responds with the same answer as before. God then sends Elijah on another mission. By the time God gives Elijah a new directive (and a new direction), it is clear that He has faithfully, gently, and lovingly taken care of Elijah in his moment of desperate need.
Elijah was spiritually and physically exhausted after performing many miracles for the Lord.
The Lord saw him. Even when Elijah was running away from his responsibilities, God saw him and took care of him. He gave him food and water, let him sleep, and drew him out deeper into the wilderness to meet with Him. God wanted to whisper softly to Elijah—to re-establish the intimacy and relationship He had with his prophet.
In other words, God re-kindled the spiritual embers Elijah felt after praying for God to rain down fire in a huge way in front of all the Israelites and false prophets.
And He took care of His beloved child.
So whereas in 1 Kings 18 God turned back the hearts of His people . . . in 1 Kings 19, God turned back the heart of Elijah.
The God of the Contrasting Seasons
You would think that because Elijah was a prominent prophet of God that he would be immune to mood swings and changing seasons. But he was still human.
I think there’s so many things we can learn from these two chapters nestled in the historical account of 1 Kings. But the best lesson we can walk away with after reading and studying these two passages is this:
God is still God, no matter what season we go through.
I bet Elijah sat under that broom tree and wondered what went wrong. I can almost hear the thoughts running through his head as he laid down and prayed to God, asking Him to take his life: How did my life come to this? How did I go from standing up for God on that mountain where He rained down fire to being depressed and spiritually depleted? Why was I the only prophet who stood up for Yahweh? Why do I feel so alone? Why do I want to die? . . .
Elijah felt every bit of humanity in that moment. He felt lost hopes, broken dreams, devastating insecurities, and heartbreaking failures. In his terrified state, he hit his spiritual rock bottom. And it hurt.
But God is still God, no matter what season we go through.
He’s the God of all-consuming fire as much as He is the God of quiet whispers.
He’s the God of spiritual fires as much as He is the God of spiritual embers.
He’s the God of successes as much as He is the God of failures.
He’s the God of the mountains as much as He is the God of the caves.
He’s the God of “being on top of everything” as much as He is the God of “everything is falling apart and falling behind.”
He’s the God of your everything, daughter of God.
So even when you pass through grim seasons that seem to contradict and backtrack the more upbeat seasons you were just living in, you can take comfort in knowing that God is the Lord God through it all.
You might ask yourself, “How can I take comfort in God’s sovereignty over each of my seasons when I feel stuck in this one?”
I’ve been there, sister. I’m actually starting to slowly crawl out of that type of season, actually. All by God’s own gracious, loving hand because He takes care of me. Here are some ways that I (and many other Christian women) use to remember God’s sovereignty over my life, no matter what season I’m in:
Read back through a prayer journal to see how God has been faithful in seasons past (and if you haven’t started a prayer journal, now’s the time to start one!).
Ask God how you can be faithful to Him in this season. Do you need to go on the mountain to perform a miracle for Him or to seek His presence in quiet solitude?
Ask God to help you be self-aware of the seasons you’re in, as well as how your mood changes from day to day. Ask Him for strength to seek His presence in each one, so that He may fill you with His grace, strength, peace, wisdom, and understanding. Remember, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7).
You will crawl out of this season, too, my friend.
God is taking care of you. He is laying food and water at your hand, encouraging you to sleep, and bringing you into a place of solitude with Him.
Don’t let His presence pass you by without hearing from Him.
Without remembering that the Lord . . . He is God.
No. Matter. What.
