Finding God in the Midst of Desolation

The title of this message is “Finding God in the Midst of Desolation.” It could also be titled “God Finding Us in the Midst of Desolation.”

Richard Wurmbrand was born in 1901 to Jewish parents in Romania. As an adolescent, he went to Soviet Russia to study Marxism and returned as a communist agent. In 1938, he and his wife Sabina came to faith in Jesus Christ through the witness of a Romanian carpenter. Richard was ordained first as an Anglican and then as a Lutheran. Throughout the war, he ministered to his own countrymen. When Romania was occupied by the Soviet Red Army in 1944, he ministered to and served soldiers from the Red Army as well.

In 1947, when Romania became a communist country, Richard began speaking out against the government’s suppression of churches because, under communism, the state doctrine was atheism. He was arrested and thrown into jail in 1948, where he spent eight and a half years. More than three of those years were spent in solitary confinement, 12 feet below ground, with no light or sound. He kept his sanity by composing a new sermon every day and preaching it to himself at night. Some of these sermons he remembered and later published in a book after his release.

He was eventually released in 1956 but was warned by the government to stop preaching about Jesus. However, he continued his work in the underground church in Romania. He was arrested again in 1959 and sentenced to 25 years in prison. During this imprisonment, Richard was tortured. He was beaten on the soles of his feet until the flesh was torn off, then the next day he would be beaten on the soles of his feet again. The pain was excruciating. He was burned, mutilated, and locked in an icebox for long periods of time. In 1964, he was freed when two ministry organizations paid a ransom of $10,000, which was five times the going rate. In 1966, he and his wife Sabina began an organization that eventually became known as the Voice of the Martyrs. In 1967, he wrote one of his most famous books, “Tortured for Christ.” After the fall of communism in Romania, he and Sabina opened a bookstore and printing facility for Voice of the Martyrs in Romania. The new mayor of Bucharest offered Richard some storage space for books in the basement of the palace of former Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Richard had spent years in that same underground cell, praying for the opportunity to minister to his people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I’m sharing the story of Richard Wurmbrand’s life with you because there’s an idea out there, sometimes it is within us, that the main goal of human life is for us to be happy, comfortable, and prosperous and that God’s purpose is to make that happen.  When we entertain this notion, it will lead to problems as we navigate life and engage with the world. That’s because we are selling our life short and misunderstanding God. If we persist on this path, when we reach the end of our lives, we will experience extreme regret over the gap between what our life was and what it could have been if we had lived the life that God had in mind for us. Another big challenge with this way of thinking is that it has no answers when evil attacks us.

Now, it requires discernment to determine if what we’re facing is indeed spiritual warfare. For example, if you cannot find a parking spot at Costco on a Friday afternoon that probably isn’t spiritual warfare. But when your bed feels warm and cozy on a Sunday morning when you should be getting up to get ready to attend worship, that probably is spiritual warfare. 

Evil can attack us for several different reasons. Simply because we are children of God is enough of a reason for evil to attack us. And when, as children of God and followers of Jesus, we take a stand against evil, it will almost always attack us in return.  And then sometimes evil comes upon us just because of that characteristic that we share with all the rest of humanity:  we are broken people in a broken world. 

In a broad sense, anything that’s opposed to the will of God is an evil attack. So that could be death, or a broken relationship, betrayal, crime, violence, or war. All those things are rooted in evil. And when evil attacks us, we experience desolation. Our world feels like it is collapsing around us. 

How do we carry on when evil shatters our lives? That’s what we’ll explore in this post. To aid in our reflection, let’s reflect on 1 Kings 19:1-18. If you have a Bible or Bible app nearby, I encourage you to turn there now.

Elijah Experiences Desolation

Some background information that may help as we explore this passage is that it’s set in the northern kingdom of Israel. At this point, the Israelite kingdom had split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Ahab reigns as king in the North, and he and his wife Jezebel not only personally worship the false god Baal, they also actively promote Baal worship in the northern kingdom. Elijah serves as God’s prophet in the northern kingdom, and God sends Elijah to Ahab to announce a drought, declaring that there will be no rain until Elijah says so by God’s command. This region is naturally dry, so the absence of rain and dew is particularly devastating. After three years of drought, God sends Elijah to Ahab once more. Elijah instructs Ahab to gather all of God’s people and the prophets of Baal for a challenge. Idolatry had been a problem in the northern kingdom for years, but now God was going to make it clear to the people who the one true God was through this challenge.  The challenge involved both the prophets of Baal and Elijah killing a bull, cutting it up into pieces, and then placing it on top of a bunch of wood on top of an altar. preparing sacrifices and placing them on altars. Then each would call upon their respective God, and whichever God sent fire to consume the sacrifice would be the one true God. The prophets of Baal went first. They set up their sacrifice and then they called upon Baal for hours, but nothing happened. 

Then, at the time of the evening sacrifice at the temple in Jerusalem, Elijah prepared his sacrifice, but he added an extra step—he had four large water jars filled up and poured over the sacrifice three times. So much water was poured on Elijah’s sacrifice that it filled a trench dug around the altar with water. 

Then “…Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. ³⁷Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” (1 Kings 18:36-37) 

In response, God sent fire from heaven, which not only consumed the sacrifice but also the wood, the stones of the altar, and it licked up the water in the trench. Witnessing this, the people of Israel declared that Yahweh is Lord, and they pledged to follow Him. The prophets of Baal are then captured and killed, and rain is sent upon the land. 

This event marks a significant triumph, but it didn’t last for long. Jezebel, who was behind the promotion of the false god Baal, vowed to kill Elijah. So, Elijah fled for his life, going out into the wilderness where he fell asleep under a bush. When he woke, an angel appeared, providing him with food and water. Elijah slept again and when he awoke, the angel was there again with more food and water, which Elijah needed to provide strength for a journey he was about to take. He traveled for 40 days and nights to Horeb, the mountain of God, where God had given the Ten Commandments to Moses. Elijah found refuge in a cave, and he was all alone there.

God Meets with Elijah at Horeb

God approached Elijah and asked, “What are you doing here?” This question is profound because our actions always flow from our inner being. So, when God asks Elijah, “What are you doing here?” he is, in a sense, asking, “What’s going on inside of you that caused you to be in this place, all alone in the state that you’re in?”

When evil attacks us, it can result in us experiencing desolation. There are two types of desolation we can experience: desolation in our circumstances, and desolation in our inner being. Which of these two types of desolation do you think is the most significant? It’s the desolation in our soul. Because we can have terrible things happen to us, but if our soul is strong, and centered in the Lord and the peace that he gives, we are able to endure those tough times. But when our soul becomes crushed by our circumstances, then what happens is our desolate soul can lead us to take actions that will lead us to an even deeper and darker place.

Here is how Elijah answered: He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” (1 Kings 19:10)

Do you hear the emotion in what Elijah is saying? There’s discouragement there. He’s done everything God asked him to do just as God asked him to do it, and now all these bad things are happening to him. There is isolation, he is all alone and he feels abandoned. Then of course there’s fear, fear over losing his life. 

God told Elijah to leave the cave where he is hiding and come and stand on the mountain for God is going to pass by. When Elijah came out, a mighty wind passed by, then an earthquake, and a great fire. But God wasn’t in any of them. Often, we tend to think that God has only in the great and grand things that happen, and he can be in those things. But I think that God is trying to tell us through this passage that he is usually in what came next for Elijah, a gentle whisper. God was in that whisper, and he asked Elijah the same question as before, “What are you doing here?” Elijah responded with the same answer and the same discouragement, isolation, and fear.   

But then God unwinds Elijah’s desolation by giving him a new action. See, Elijah’s emotions were telling him to hide all alone in a cave. God told him to go back the way that he came and to do some work on God’s behalf. God told Elijah that he was to anoint Hazael as king of Aram, or Syria, Jehu as king of Israel, and Elisha as Elijah’s successor as God’s prophet.

Then God buries Elijah’s desolation once and for all. He already gave Elijah new direction and new action, now he gives him new information. God said, Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19:18)

With this new information, Elijah realized that not only was God with him, but he was not alone in his human-to-human relationships either. There were thousands of other people who also believed in the one true God and his work that he had been doing in Israel as God’s prophet was not in vain. 

Paying Attention to Our Soul

So, what does this mean for us? Well, dear friend, there are times when you can do all the right things and still end up suffering. And what’s important when we find ourselves in such times is to pay attention to what is going on in our soul. We can ask ourselves, as the Psalmist does, “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?” (Psalm 42:5a) We cannot help but have our circumstances impact our inner being, but we can stop our soul from spiraling downward by asking ourselves what is going on deep inside us. And then the Psalmist encourages his soul with these words: Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. (Psalm 42:5b) 

Sometimes counselors share a technique with clients called “opposite action.” When we know that certain emotions tend to drive us to do things that we would rather not do, when those emotions rise up within us, we can do the opposite of what our emotions tell us to do, and it will put us on a much better path. All of us have within us a tipping point of hope.  When evil attacks come upon us, our reserves of hope can be diminished. And if they get too low, we can tip into despair. When that happens, there is not only desolation around us on the outside, there is also desolation overwhelming us on the inside. By paying attention to what is going on in our soul, we can be aware of when we are starting to get close to that tipping point. And when our emotions tell us to throw in the towel & give up all hope, we can choose to do actions that are guided by faith, the opposite actions to what our emotions tell us, and choose to hope in God and praise him, for he is our Savior and our God no matter what. 

Jesus is the Reason We can Choose Actions of Faith

And the reason that we can choose to take actions of faith when it seems like the world has turned against us, when evil is attacking us and our life and everyone else we hold dear is in clear and present danger, and our emotions are telling us that there is no hope is because, nearly 2,000 years ago, a man named Jesus, who was executed on a cross for crimes which he did not commit, stood among his followers 3 days after his death and said, “Peace be with you.” (Luke 24:36) His followers did not feel much peace in that moment. Luke tells us that they were startled and frightened, and they thought they saw a ghost. So Jesus showed them his wounds on his feet and hands so they knew he was the crucified One. He let them touch him so they knew his was a physical resurrection. And he ate some fish to show that he was a real human being who was really alive, just like they were, only more so.

Then Jesus said words to his followers that gave them the power act in faith even when their lives were in danger and their emotions told them to head in the opposite direction as fast as they could: “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.  I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:46-49) 

 Dear friend, our faith is not in the circumstances of our life or the emotions we feel. Our faith rests upon Jesus Christ, and his life, death and resurrection for us. Because of Jesus, all the evil within us has been forgiven, all the evil around us has been defeated and will, one day, be banished from this world forever. Therefore, I want to encourage you to live your life centered on Jesus and get all the peace your soul needs from him, for as he has told us, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). Amen.

(This message was shared at Walnut Grove Lutheran Church in Langley BC on April 14, 2024. For more information about WGLC, please go to wglc.org.)