We will be looking at what is in one sense the low point of Elijah's life, but seeing the character of God revealed exactly in this low point. We will be considering the reality of, roots of, remedies for, and rejection of Elijah's Death Wish; and in all of this learning the sovereign mercy and compassion of our great God.

Let's pray together. By your birth, your cross, your passion, by your tears of deep compassion, by your mighty intercession, Lord and Savior, hear us, help us, teach us. We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. It had been the most exciting, exhilarating, and exhausting day of Elijah's life. Electricity was in the air when all Israel and the prophets of Baal gathered to Mount Carmel at the command of Elijah through Ahab the king.

With power and urgency, he had preached to the silent crowd on the question, how long will you hesitate between two opinions? And then, with irresistible logic, he has suggested the test of strength between Jehovah and Baal. And for a good part of the day, he had with assembled Israel watched the increasingly wild dancing of the pagan prophets. He had mocked them because of the distraction and apparent inattentiveness of their God to their cries. And when the pagan prophets were exhausted in mid-afternoon, Elijah called the people to him, and prepared with his own hands the ox to be sacrificed to the Lord.

And when we look at the details of the sacrifice described, this preparation must have involved heavy manual labor for at least an hour. After directing the altar to be built, he doused it with water, or had it doused with water three times. And then Elijah lifted up his whole soul in prayer to God, pleading for him to vindicate his glory. With thrilling, breathtaking, and glorious power, the fire from heaven fell, and the offering together with the wood the stones and water were consumed immediately following Elijah had commanded the seizure and led in the slaughter of the 450 prophets of Baal And when this bloody and nerve-wracking work was done, Elijah had once again given himself to prayer, and seven times he had beseeched God in the humblest posture of supplication, face between his knees, flat on the ground. He had beseeched God for the end of the drought that had stricken Israel, which he had announced three and a half years previously.

And finally, there was the exhilaration of the small cloud, the size of a man's hand, appearing on the horizon, beginning then to fill the whole western sky. And Elijah, buoyed up by the glory of God, out ran the chariot of Ahab, the 12 to 14 miles from Mount Carmel to Jezreel. And finally, apparently, in the late evening, exhausted and exhilarated, Elijah received a messenger from Jezebel who conveyed to Elijah this message from her. So let the gods do to me and even more if I do not make your life as one of them by tomorrow about this time. All this is the backdrop of the text to which I would have you turn this morning.

Please turn to 1 Kings 19 3 and 4, And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs 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, oh Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers." Now many interesting titles might be given to this passage of Scripture and to this message, but you know that I've given it the title, Elijah's death wish. And we will consider Elijah's death wish under four points. Think with me first of all about the reality of Elijah's death wish. And here I have three things I need to say about the fact or reality of Elijah's death wish.

First, this death wish of Elijah embodied a desire to leave the world, leave a world that was for him full of fear, disappointment, discouragement, suffering, sorrow, grief, and hurt. And notice how he begins, it is enough. He is saying, I've had enough fear, disappointment, and work. I am tired. I am weary.

I can't bear this burden anymore. I have had enough of all these things." But second, this death wish of Elijah was a prayer to God to let him leave such a world as he lived in, as it looked like to him at that time. He was asking God to get him out of there. And that leads me to the third thought. This death wish of Elijah was not, therefore, a threat to commit suicide.

Nor was it a desire to commit suicide. It is wrong, always wrong, to take our own lives. It is God's sovereign prerogative to take life any time he chooses. He is the God of life and death, but it is not suicidal then to ask God to take our lives if he wills. A desire to die is not identical with a desire to commit suicide.

Of course a desire to die is serious. If we feel such a desire, we ought to take it seriously if it's in ourselves and our own heart. But a desire to die is not identical to a desire to commit suicide. Of course, we should take it seriously. Suicide, however, is an act of rebellion against the God of life, praying to die whatever else it might be, as at least in some way an act of submission to the God who is sovereign over life and death.

Now before we move on, let me apply the reality of Elijah's death wish in two ways. There is first of all, you may not believe it, but there is first of all here something to encourage us in Elijah's death wish. Clearly, even godly people, they may get so discouraged, so dark, so down, that they want to die. Elijah was a good man. Elijah was a godly man.

Elijah was a strong man, and Elijah was a useful man. And yet Elijah wanted to die. Satan may come to us in our darkest moments and when we are deeply discouraged and we wish that we could leave this dark world, he may whisper in our ear that if we were godly, we would never have such a desire. He may accuse us of being suicidal because we want to die. But believe or do not listen to him.

I'm not saying it's good or healthy or right to want to die, but it's the fact that good and godly people have felt that way. Wanting to die does not necessarily mean that you're ungodly or suicidal. Elijah was a good man. Elijah was a Godly man and Elijah wanted to die. But there's something also here to instruct us.

Some of you cannot imagine, I suppose, ever coming to the place where you want to die. You may never have experienced such a feeling. And I hope you never do. But It is a very real emotional state, and a very real possibility for Christians to become so discouraged that they wish God would just take them home. Elijah the man of God experienced this emotional condition, and therefore strong men can experience it.

Husbands can experience it. Fathers can experience it. Pastors can certainly experience it. Of course, if they get into this state, then so also can those who the Bible calls weaker vessels. Now, why do I say all of that?

I think we are prone to forget. Yes, I think we're not as aware as we should be of what fragile vessels we all are, and especially the people sitting next to us are. We know that about ourselves. We don't know it, it seems, about them. We look at someone and they seem strong and impervious to human suffering.

We take out our two by four of exhortation and belt them right across the forehead with it, with our opinions and our criticism. And they look all right when they walk away. Little do we realize that they spend the next two weeks because of our insensitivity wanting to die. Elijah's example teaches us to be more tender, tactful, and wise in the way we deal with people. That is my first star.

I have three more. The second one is this, the roots of Elijah's death wish. And so here we ask the question, what is it that can make a strong man like Elijah so dismal and so discouraged that he wants to die and actually prays to God to take his life. An examination of the text shows that there were at least four things which were responsible for Elijah's death wish. And these same four things may bring us to the same state of mind.

Remember, I asked some of you children to tell your dad, after we're done, why Elijah wanted to die. And there were four reasons he wanted to die. The first one was exhaustion. Exhaustion. I think we must begin by understanding that there was an undeniable connection between Elijah's physical and emotional condition and the reaction that left him praying to die.

I began this message by describing what seems to be a year's worth of work and emotion that had been packed into that one great day of Elijah's life. It was at the end of that day that Jezebel's death threat came, and Elijah reacted so badly. You do not need to excuse Elijah's panic at that point. You do not need to excuse Elijah's reaction when you admit that his physical and emotional exhaustion had something to do with his coming to the place where he prayed to die. So there was exhaustion and there was disappointment.

Disappointment was a tremendous And there was disappointment. Disappointment. Disappointment was a tremendous factor in causing Elijah's desire to die. In a strange way, of course, Elijah's disappointment says something very good about him. The old saying is, of course, that if you aim at nothing, you'll always hit it.

That's true. The only person who may miss his target and be disappointed that he missed it is the person who actually aimed at something. You cannot be disappointed unless you have high ideals for which you are living and to which you are dedicating your life. Elijah had such ideals, but he felt now that they all have been sadly disappointed. It's clear first, first of all, that Elijah was sadly disappointed with himself.

He was disappointed with himself. How clearly He says this in his prayer to die. The argument he uses to persuade God to take away his life is what? I am not better than my fathers. You hear in that his disappointment.

You see, Elijah had an ideal for himself. It was an ideal that was much better than the example, and that his fathers, his predecessors in Israel, said he was going to be different. He was going to improve on their example. He was going to reform Israel. He was going to worship Jehovah alone where they had compromised.

He was going to stand where they had fled. He was going to be used of God to bring Israel back to Jehovah where his fathers had not. Elijah was going to stand for higher ideals in Israel than they. And this was the standard he had set for himself. And he felt that he had fallen miserably short of it.

Even at the end of the great day on Mount Carmel, Jezebel had brazenly threatened his life, and what had he done? He had fled in fear. What did he really accomplish then? And no wonder that he had accomplished nothing. Look at how in Carnal fear, he had fled from the face of that wicked woman.

How could he expect God to bless and use him when that was the kind of thing he was made of? Elijah was sorely disappointed in himself. No wonder he wanted to die. But it's clear in the second place that Elijah was disappointed in the people of God. He was disappointed in the people of God.

Now we may be surprised at this, given the overwhelming outpouring of support that day on Mount Carmel. And Elijah forgotten that the assembled representatives of all Israel had cried out, Jehovah he is God, Jehovah he is God, and helped him slaughter the prophets of Baal? Had he forgotten that? It seems he had. No doubt also he was well experienced in the fickleness of the human heart.

It would have been easy for him to entertain cynical doubts about the real commitments of those who had cried out so enthusiastically Jehovah he is God and What is clear what is clear from our passage is that he was deeply? Disappointed in the people of God their sins burden depressed and yes discouraged him Both in verses 10 and 14 he complains about the sins of the son of Israel to Jehovah. You see one of these texts in verse 10. He said, I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the sons of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away. Elijah saw it all too clearly.

Here is Israel, appointed to be the firstborn and son of God of all the nations of the earth. Yet they kill his prophets and destroy his altars. Discouraging sight. So he was disappointed in the people of God. But he was also in the third place, I think we have to say, disappointed with God himself.

He was disappointed with God himself. This seems to be reflected in the twice repeated complaint that I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. The implication, the subtext next to that is, and see where it has gotten me. Where is God's mighty hand? Why has he not blessed me and encouraged me in my zeal?

Why has he left me exposed to the power of Jezebel? Yes, the Christian life is a trial of faith, our faith in the goodness of God. Probably all of us more or less sometimes feel like saying to God, I can't believe you let that happen. Elijah had imagined that God would wonderfully bless his zeal for the Lord. But what he had imagined had not materialized.

He was disappointed with God. Can we not hear the implication in his prayer to die? If you're not going to bless me, if the rest of my life is going to be the same kind of misery that I'm experiencing right now, if you are really merciful, then kill me right now. Yes, You see, Elijah had been a man of high ideals. He had ideals for himself, for God's people, and indeed for God himself and his providence.

As they prayed under that juniper tree, he wept with a sense of disappointment in himself and the people of God, and yes, in the providence of God itself. But I think if you will examine yourself, you will see that the same kind of things make you discouraged, and perhaps sometimes in the secret heart pray to die or want to die. You've been a Christian so many years, and you know you're not what you should be. It even seems that you've slid back from where you were. Your faith in God's people has been shattered.

You have been hurt and are burdened by a sense of their sins. The church is not quite the place that you hoped it would be, thought it was. Well, see, it's not. God's people have deeply disappointed you. And God himself has let things happen in your life that you simply cannot understand.

Sometimes you do ask God in your secret prayers, why did you let that happen? So, of course, I'm not saying that Elijah's disappointment or my disappointment or your disappointment is really justified. Elijah had forgotten some very significant facts. Elijah was not looking at life through the lens of faith. All I am saying is that one major cause for discouragement is the perceived disappointment of our ideals.

Exhaustion, disappointment. A third cause of his prayer to die was loneliness. Loneliness. Another cause of prayers to die is loneliness. Twice also in verses 10 and 14 again we hear the refrain, the refrain, I alone am left.

I alone am left. Now whatever other conclusions we draw from this statement, one thing is plain. Elijah felt very alone. And the Bible teaches, it is not good for a man to be alone. Thoughts and worries allowed to stagnate in our minds and with no deep friend with which to share them and talk them over are like stagnant water that breeds all sorts of foul creatures.

So loneliness and, fourthly, loneliness, disappointment, exhaustion, fear, Fear was the cause of his death wish. The fourth impetus of Elijah's desire to die was carnal fear. Faith took flight and fear took over. The threat of Jezebel had perhaps bred in Elijah's mind, I'll make you like one of them. Well, he knew what one of them looked like after they'd slaughtered them that day by the brook Cushone.

The image was dreadful to him. Called logic, of course, and clear reason, might both have asked Elijah why pray to die if he was afraid of dying. That would have been a good question. But in his emotional condition, such logic did not occur to Elijah and does not occur to us. He simply fled in dread of the assassins of Jezebel.

These were the great causes of Elijah's death wish, exhaustion, disappointment, loneliness, and fear. Am I addressing someone here who is deeply discouraged and disheartened and who may even be praying like Elijah for God to take away his life or her life? I think if you'll examine yourself, you'll see that it's one or more of these things that is responsible for your emotional state. It may be physical or emotional exhaustion. It may be deep disappointment.

It may be terrible loneliness. It may be carnal fear. And it may be one or all of these things. It was all of these things for Elijah. The first step in God's remedy for how you feel is to look at yourself and identify what the problem clearly is.

But having seen the reasons or roots of Elijah's death wish, come in the third place with me to consider how the great physician dealt with his servant. That is to say, in the third place, let's look at the remedies for Elijah's death wish. The remedies for Elijah's death wish. I'm glad that there are other people this week that have said, now I have ten things to tell you, or eight things to tell you about this. I have only seven things to tell you about the remedies for Elijah's death wish, and I'll try to deal with them briefly.

The first thing is this. It does make me feel like a Puritan though, seventhly, right? Anyway, first Jehovah provided Elijah with rest and refreshment. Elijah was provided with rest and refreshment by Jehovah. Look at verses five to seven.

He lay down and slept under a juniper tree, and behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, arise, eat. Then he looked, and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and laid down again. The angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you. Food and sleep were important preparations for God's further remedies for his servant.

The cure for physical and emotional exhaustion necessarily involves eating and sleeping. Rest and refreshment. Even with the miraculous aid of God, Elijah's mortal frame could not stand one day after another like that of the great day of the assembly. If you find yourself praying to die, it may be your responsibility to stop abusing your body by denying it necessary rest and refreshment. Part of the solution may be to take a vacation or early get some rest, not recreate yourself to death and schedule everything just as full as when you're at home.

Anyway, part of the solution to the way you feel and your desire to die may be actually to get some rest. Second, Jehovah granted Elijah a lengthy period of time alone with himself. Notice verses 7 and 8. The angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you. So he arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mountain of God." I think these verses indicate that God was in favor of this trip to Horeb.

He supplied him with food for it, and this seems to indicate that it was not just Elijah's idea, but God's plan as well. Yes, he had fled from Jezebel, but God now directed his journey to Mount Horeb. And I think this teaches us, implies pretty straightforwardly, that there's no substitute for time alone with God if we would be cured by the kind of emotions that make us want to die. We need to spend much time in prayer and much time in the Word. I speak personally.

You know, on Monday isn't a great day sometimes for preachers and pastors. And my wife may look at me and say, what's wrong? And I will say back to her, I need to go for a long walk. And I do. And it might be much better afterwards because that's when I pray.

That's when I spend time, more time with God than I might in the times of prayer in my study. We need to spend much time in prayer and much time in the Word. We must serve God diligently, but we cannot always be giving from our souls and never feeding our souls with communion with God. He went 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mountain of God. And then in the third place, by way of remedy, Jehovah challenged his carnal fear.

Look at verses nine and 13. Then he came there to a cave, lodged there, and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah? Verse 13, When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in the mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave, and behold, a voice came to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah? Twice then, Jehovah asked his servant, What are you doing here? Well, that was a great question.

What indeed was he doing there? What he was doing there was fleeing from Jezebel and carnal fear and because of crisis of faith in Jehovah. That's what he was doing there. Someplace along the line, we must, If we're going to address our own emotional condition, our own desire to die, our own discouragement, someplace along the line, we're going to have to confront our own sin in the matter. Our own sin and emotional prayers to die.

Sympathetic as we may feel for the circumstances that led to Elijah's flight, his fleeing from Jezebel simply cannot be justified, had to be repented of, cannot be excused. So Ultimately, his sin had to be confronted. Yes, yes, gracious Jehovah rested and refreshed his servant first. Yes, he gave him much time alone with himself to reflect and to pray, But finally, finally, the sin had to be pointed out. What are you doing here, Elijah?

Elijah's carnal fear, his sordid unbelief had to be exposed and confessed. And I think this teaches us that we must deal with ourselves and others in the same way. When they or we are depressed and want to die, we must be patient. We must deal with the physical factors, but ultimately we must confront sin. Factors, but ultimately we must, we must confront sin.

In our day and age, we tend to be patient and not confront, but Jehovah, and teaching us by example, He teaches us that we need to do both. Fourth remedy, Jehovah deepened his insight into the mysteries of divine providence. Now here is one place where I'm going to be all too brief. But let me point you in the direction I think the text takes us. Elijah, as we have seen, was disappointed with God's providence.

It seems that Jehovah at Mount Horeb undertakes to instruct him in the mysteries of divine providence. Look at verses 11 and 12. So he said, go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord and behold the Lord was passing by and a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing." Elijah had, it appears, indulged simplistic expectations of how God works. God indeed does sometimes work and fire falling from heaven.

It had happened that day of the Great Assembly. Sometimes God is in the earthquake. He was in the earthquake that shook the jail in Philippi. Sometimes God is in the rushing mighty wind. He was on the day of Pentecost.

But what God does and what God does when he is working is not always dramatically visible. What God does does not always make the evening News. Sometimes what God is doing goes unnoticed by the world and even by the church. God is preparing in silence, secrecy, his blessings. We mistake his silence and his secrecy for his inactivity in his absence.

We see no earthquake, we see no mighty wind and no fire, and we think God has forsaken us. He is present, however, in what the new American standard translates as the sound of a gentle blowing. Often our unbelief is founded on our failure to listen closely enough, our penchant to look for things that are carnally dramatic, and is based on the sheer pessimism with which we look at the providence of God and the world. Oh, how awful was the pandemic. Everything was going wrong.

Everything was bad. Of course, many bad things that happened. But we know that God was doing some good things too, and godly, committed, Bible-believing churches were growing. That's true too. But we didn't hear about that, we didn't even think about that or see it happening, but it is what happened in many cases.

Elijah, the prophet of fire, as somebody has called him, was taught that God was not always in the fire from heaven. Sometimes He is in the soft and silent breeze of the earth. But a fifth remedy. Jehovah gave Elijah a specific task, definite jobs to perform as he sent him back to work. Look at verses 15 to 17.

The Lord said to him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have arrived, you shall anoint Hazael, king over Aram, and Jehu, the son of Nimshi, you shall anoint king over Israel, and Elijah, the son of Shaphan, of Abel-Maholla. You shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall come about the one who escapes from the sword of Haseel, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death." Elizabeth Elliot, writing to those who are in grief, speaks somewhere of the comfort of work. Now, I'm not saying that people who have been bereaved and experienced deep grief should go back to work the next day. But one of the best cures for grief and sorrow is at the right time and without undue delay to go back to our God-given labors.

It is a wonderful thing. It is a comforting thing. It is an encouraging thing to know what God wants us to do and to get to doing it. So God commissioned Elijah as he sent him back to work. He commissioned Elijah with three things to do.

Anoint Hazael, king of Aram. Anoint Jehu, king of Israel. Anoint Elijah to continue your work in Israel as a prophet when I take you. You might say that in these three anointings, Jehovah renewed Elijah's vision for his life. But we hasten on.

Sixthly, Jehovah reminded Elijah of the great truth that his purposes of salvation were sovereign. The great truth that his purposes of salvation were sovereign. Things were not as bad as Elijah feared. They were in fact much better. Look at 1 Kings 19, 18.

Yet I will leave 7, 000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him." Now this verse, you know, is quoted in those famous chapters on God's sovereignty in Romans 9 to 11. I haven't asked you to turn many places. Look at Romans 11, 3 to 5. Romans 11, 3 to 5. And here we have Elijah quoted.

Lord, they have killed your prophets. They have torn down your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life. But what is the divine response to him? I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. In the same way then there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice.

According to the election of grace. One of the great bulwarks of encouragement for the people of God is their faith in the sovereignty of God's purpose to save. And it is when we lose sight of this God and begin to focus too much on ourselves and too much on the other grasshoppers that inhabit this globe that we can become engulfed in carnal fear and want to run away. We need to often remind ourselves of the great truth that is in John Piper's wonderful hymn. He says, God will not share his sovereign reign, though one should boast it is in vain.

God's mighty promise rules the earth. The barren woman shall give birth." And he is well said in saying that. But seventhly, Jehovah granted Jehovah granted Elijah a faithful friend and coworker. Remember that one of his problems was loneliness. And we read in verses 19 to 21.

So he departed from there and found Elijah, the son of Shiphath, while he was plowing with 12 pairs of oxen before him, and he was the 12th. And Elijah passed over to him and threw his mantle on him. He left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, please let me kiss my father and my mother, then I will follow you. And he said to him, go back again for what have I done to you? So he returned from following him and took the pair of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the implements of the oxen and gave it to the people and they ate.

Then he arose and followed Elijah and ministered to him. Now, I think I can prove, I can't take the time to do it right now, that Elisha was not only a servant, but a friend to Elijah, something more than what that other servant had been. He was closer to him, more identified with him, he was going to be his successor. Elijah gained in Elisha not only a servant, but a friend and fellow laborer. And remember, as I said, that we saw that One of Elijah's problems was an awful sense of loneliness and isolation.

Twice we heard the refrain, I alone am left. It was Jehovah himself who said it is not good for man to be alone. Jehovah did not therefore say to Elijah, I'll be your friend and helper, you shouldn't be lonely. He gave him a human friend, a co-worker, a helper. Elijah was his servant, his friend, and his successor.

No man is made to bear the pressures of life and grief in this world and of serving God. No man is made to bear those pressures alone. God appoints the plurality and parity of pastors in the church, because a single pastor cannot bear the load alone. I know that I could not. I'm thankful I never had to.

I do wonder that churches, I do not wonder that churches that practice some sort of single pastor idea have pastors that last for only two or three years at a time. Most men cannot stand the pressure of long-term labor like that alone. No man is made to stand such pressure, certainly not alone. God gives wives to husbands. One reason is that they might have a listening ear to hear their tale of woe.

How stupid I was as a young husband. You know, I thought, I was born, all my problems by myself, I gotta keep doing that. And was so reluctant to tell my wife when I was upset, disturbed, discouraged about something, and it took me a long time to learn that I felt so much better after I told her it was bothering me. What was wrong with my head? I don't know.

But Anyway, God gives wives to husbands. One reason is that they might have a listening ear to hear their tale of woe. Those worries seem so much less fearful when they can be gotten outside your own head and expected in the clear air of the outside world. Woe be to the man who does not cultivate that close relationship with his wife or other friends that enables her to be a helper to him this way as well, a helper emotionally. Well, we've seen the reality and the reasons and the remedies for Elijah's death wish.

There is one more thing we have to see, and that is the rejection of Elijah's death wish. Now, I don't think, somebody may correct me, but I never have been corrected about this, that anybody else in the Bible prayed that God would take away their life. There may be some. I don't, I'm not speaking dogmatically, but I don't think there are very many others who prayed this way. And it is amazing therefore that God decided to make an example of Elijah.

Turn to 2 Kings 2, 11, and 12. And as they were going along and talking, Elijah and Elisha, behold there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire which separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven. Elisha saw it and cried out, my father, my father, the chariots of Israel, and its horsemen, and he saw Elijah no more. Then he took all of his own clothes and tore them in two paces to pieces." What is God saying in this unique conclusion to Elijah's earthly life?

Pray to me to die will you? I'll show you. I'll make you one of the two men who never die. God, I don't know if you've ever refused to answer this prayer. Pray to me that I, I'll show you you'll never die.

Elijah, here's the thing, Elijah, the man who prayed to die, Never did. Isn't that incredible? Isn't that wonderful? Doesn't it show us something? What does that show us about God?

What attribute of God comes out here? What do we see about God in this? This is a remarkable response to Elijah, the man who prayed to die, never did. What do we see in that? Well, I'll tell you what we see.

We see a God of sovereign mercy. We see a God whose tender mercies are very great. That's what we see. He is the God so deep and infinite in compassion that the man who prayed to die never did. When we come to the place that we just want God to take us and let us die, we have lost sight of how wonderfully and sovereignly merciful our God is.

The mercy of God means that things will not always look as black and as bleak as they do now. The Bible promises weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. We must remember the confidence of the psalmist. Surely goodness, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Dear sad believer, take the cure suggested by the word for your sadness and fear.

Remember most of all, the man who was so miserable that he prayed to die, yet so blessed that he never did. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the massive encouragement and comfort that there is in this passage for us. I don't know what particular needs, feelings, thoughts came into this room this morning in the hearts of these dear people. I don't know what providences will come to them in the next weeks or months, but I do pray that in so far as there is a word of comfort, consolation, instruction, exhortation in this message this morning, that you will bring it to their minds and hearts with power.

We ask these things in Jesus name.