Desperate: employing extreme measures in an attempt to escape defeat, frustration or embarrassment.

James 5:17
“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours,…”

Depression

• 25% of women and 12% of men in the US will suffer from some type of major depressive episode in their lifetime. 
  
• 48% of all medications prescribed in the US are anti-depressants

3 Main causes of Depression

1. chemical imbalance
2. response to a medical condition - ie. chronic pain
   
3. reaction to life event - ie. loss of job, loss of loved one
   

1 Kings 19:1-21 - (NKJV)

Elijah Escapes from Jezebel
  ¹ And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. ² Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.” ³ And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
⁴ But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”
⁵ Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” ⁶ Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. ⁷ And the angel of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” ⁸ So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.
⁹ And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
¹⁰ So he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”

God’s Revelation to Elijah
¹¹ Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces 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; ¹² and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.
¹³ So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
¹⁴ And he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”
¹⁵ Then the LORD said to him: “Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. ¹⁶ Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. ¹⁷ It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. ¹⁸ Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

Elisha Follows Elijah
¹⁹ So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. ²⁰ And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.”
And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?”
²¹ So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.


Elijah's desperate measures:

• Run away
• Asked God to take his life

1.  Elijah's was a reactionary depression
    v1 - coming after an emotional "high"
    v2 - received death threat
    v4 - struggled with sense of purpose
    v10 - disappointment with life / unmet expectations
    v14 - loneliness
2.  It was not a spiritual problem
    Malachi 4:5
    ⁵ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
      Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

    John 1:20-21 - (NKJV)
    ²⁰ He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”
     ²¹ And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?”
    He said, “I am not.”
    “Are you the Prophet?”
    And he answered, “No.”

    Matthew 17:3 - (NKJV)
    ³ And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.

    Revelations 11 - - The 2 witnesses are described here, many scholars say they speculate the witnesses are Moses and Elijah
    
    Psalms 42:3 - (NKJV)
     ³ My tears have been my food day and night...

    Matthew 26:38 - (NKJV)
    ³⁸ ...“My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death...”

3.  Transformation happened when God met him
    2 Corinthians 5:18-19 - (NKJV)
    ¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry      of reconciliation, ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses     to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

• by using his angels
• v2 - by God speaking through the unexpected
• by taking the focus off of Elijah
  

    

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