Pushing Buttons

A series on meeting God – Elijah
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
1 Kings 19:1-18 

[We all have a story about how we met God. Some are more miraculous than others, but none more amazing than the mere fact that the Living God, our Creator, reached out to bring us into relationship with him. In this series, we will be looking at how people in the Bible met God, and what that means to you today.]

  

Pushing buttons… everybody does it. Spouses push each other’s buttons. Bosses push employees’ buttons. Parents push their children’s buttons. Siblings push their brother or sister’s buttons. Coaches push their player’s buttons.

 

In every case, the person pushing the button knows the other person well enough to anticipate how they’ll react. Such was the case for Ahab, the king of Israel. He married Jezebel, a Phoenician princess.

 

Jezebel was the daughter of the king of Sidon, a Phoenician city-state where they worshiped Baal. When she married Ahab, he followed her lead and also worshiped Baal. In fact, he even had a temple of Baal built in Samaria.

 

But Jezebel wasn’t satisfied with just promoting the worship of Baal in Israel. She went to the extreme measure of having the prophets of the Lord killed! In many ways, she was responsible for a three-year draught and famine in Israel which was the result of the judgement of the Lord for worshipping Baal.

 

Following Elijah’s defeat of the prophets of Baal, and their utter destruction, Ahab ran to Jezebel, and told her everything that Elijah had done. He pushed her button. As a result, Jezebel went into a rage and sent Elijah a cryptic message that promised she would have him killed within 24 hours.

 

She pushed his button which drove Elijah into a suicidal depression. He panicked and ran for his life into the wilderness of Beersheba, eventually arriving at Mount Sinai, the mountain of God. It was here that he had an encounter with the Lord even though Elijah was still feeling sorry for himself.

 

¹⁰ Elijah replied, “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.”                     NLT

 

In response, the Lord told him to “stand before me on the mountain”. As Elijah did this, a strong wind passed him; then an earthquake; followed by a fire. But the Lord wasn’t in any of these. Finally, Elijah heard a “gentle whisper”. It was the Lord.

 

Elijah’s life; his mission; his purpose for living, had been derailed by Ahab who pushed Jezebel’s button who, in turn, pushed Elijah’s button. Sometimes, it doesn’t take much to get us off track. It’s just a matter of the right button being pushed.

 

When that happens, what can we do to get back on track? For Elijah, he needed to meet the Lord in a quiet place far away from the pressures he was feeling. He needed to be someplace where he could listen for the Lord to speak to his heart.

 

It’s hard to find a quiet place in today’s world. Everybody’s busy. Life is lived at a frenetic pace. But the Lord is faithful and is always pursuing us. He’s waiting for us to draw near to him so that we can hear his voice.

 

¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.       ESV    Hebrews 4

 

Copyright 2025 Joseph B Williams

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