Miracles followed by doubt

tango

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This is another Elijah thread... starting from the same base as the previous one.

I often find it easy to doubt, especially during the times when God seems distant and even as one who has little interest in popular culture it sometimes feels like swimming against a tidal wave to maintain a belief. Then comes the sense of wondering how I can doubt when I look back at what God has done.

Then I look at Elijah and realise I'm in good company. Shortly after a stunning victory over the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel he was hunted by Jezebel and fled, and even went a far as asking God to take his life because he said he was no better than his fathers. Elijah, the man whose prayer was answered with fire from heaven, left wishing he could just die and be done with it.

God didn't let Elijah's doubt keep him from his ministry even after such mighty signs. If we have doubts from time to time having not seen literal fire from heaven, it's hard to see God being any harder on us than he was on Elijah.
 
NewCreation435

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tango said:
This is another Elijah thread... starting from the same base as the previous one.

I often find it easy to doubt, especially during the times when God seems distant and even as one who has little interest in popular culture it sometimes feels like swimming against a tidal wave to maintain a belief. Then comes the sense of wondering how I can doubt when I look back at what God has done.

Then I look at Elijah and realise I'm in good company. Shortly after a stunning victory over the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel he was hunted by Jezebel and fled, and even went a far as asking God to take his life because he said he was no better than his fathers. Elijah, the man whose prayer was answered with fire from heaven, left wishing he could just die and be done with it.

God didn't let Elijah's doubt keep him from his ministry even after such mighty signs. If we have doubts from time to time having not seen literal fire from heaven, it's hard to see God being any harder on us than he was on Elijah.
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No, he still gave Elijah something to do. But at the same time one of those assignments was to go to his replacement. I think Elijah to some degree shortened the work that God wanted him to do because of his doubt.
 
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jsimms435 said:
No, he still gave Elijah something to do. But at the same time one of those assignments was to go to his replacement. I think Elijah to some degree shortened the work that God wanted him to do because of his doubt.
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Because of his doubt? He just didn't want to anymore I got the idea and God didn't force him to.
 
NewCreation435

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Imalive said:
Because of his doubt? He just didn't want to anymore I got the idea and God didn't force him to.
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Yes, I think he doubted God. He told God that among those who didn't worship Baal he was the only one that was left. But, then God tells him that he has reserved 7,000 who hadn't bowed to Baal. Elijah quickly got his perspective out of sync and got his eyes focused on his problem, in the person of Jezebel, instead of his faith in God who showed up at Mt.Carmel. This change in perspective caused Elijah to want to give up and God allowed it and assigned his work to someone else.
I think it is a warning to us about doubting God and that God doesn't truly need any of us. But, his work will still get done regardless.
 
tango

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jsimms435 said:
Yes, I think he doubted God. He told God that among those who didn't worship Baal he was the only one that was left. But, then God tells him that he has reserved 7,000 who hadn't bowed to Baal. Elijah quickly got his perspective out of sync and got his eyes focused on his problem, in the person of Jezebel, instead of his faith in God who showed up at Mt.Carmel. This change in perspective caused Elijah to want to give up and God allowed it and assigned his work to someone else.
I think it is a warning to us about doubting God and that God doesn't truly need any of us. But, his work will still get done regardless.
Click to expand...

I think it can also show us that if even Elijah had his moments of great doubt where he felt he just couldn't go on, we shouldn't be surprised if we also feel overwhelmed by it all sometimes.
 
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God shows us again and again in the bible that we're just human, having doubt...but regardless of that HE is faithful :)
 
NewCreation435

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tango said:
I think it can also show us that if even Elijah had his moments of great doubt where he felt he just couldn't go on, we shouldn't be surprised if we also feel overwhelmed by it all sometimes.
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Yes. I think it also shows us how vulnerable we are to those type of feelings
 
tango

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jsimms435 said:
Yes. I think it also shows us how vulnerable we are to those type of feelings
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It's interesting to see that Elijah essentially wanted to die and very shortly after seeing fire from heaven on Mt Carmel. Jonah was angry at God when the tree he did nothing to nurture died and wanted his life to end, fairly shortly after watching an entire city repent after he uttered 8 words (I use more words than that to greet someone!). Peter denied Christ three times right after insisting he'd never do such a thing.

Thinking about your earlier point, [MENTION=59]jsimms435[/MENTION] , about how God effectively allocated Elijah's remaining work to Elisha, I got to thinking there's a parallel there with Moses and how he was allowed to see the promised land but not actually enter it, and all because he struck the rock twice with his staff rather than only once. It makes me think of the tremendous authority an OT prophet had but how it was matched with tremendous responsibility.
 
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