“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, … … … … … …
And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
We have been “Drilling Down” this past year unlocking God’s word in our heart and mind. It has been percolation time for God’s word within our very soul, “dwelling richly,” filling us with the fullness of God. However, as we began looking at Paul’s Ephesian prayer, in chapter 3, we began “fracking” from inside at different angles. We recognized how variable is our own capacity according to God’s grace and purpose. Now, we want to observe God’s spiritual geological formations surrounding His fullness. Paul paints a cross-section of love, in this prayer passage, that encapsulates God’s fullness. Penetrating God’s love is a requirement. Filling our fullness is receiving love out of His fullness.
Love is layered throughout this passage and the dominant theme. But none of our core samples of love are the same. In fact, the prayer passage itself suggests God’s diversity. The further away from the center of God’s fullness, the love textures become more dimensioned with reason and truth. They all have love in them but the closer we get to God’s fullness, the more dense is the love surrounding “fullness”. Look how the passage reads starting from verse 16:
“that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you (God has provided the means) to be strengthened with power through his spirit (whose power?) in your inner being (as opposed to our flesh), so that (a necessary condition) Christ may dwell in your heart by faith – (an essential layer we want to grapple with) – that you, being rooted and grounded in love (organically rooted and structurally built, two different love textures) may have strength to comprehend (I’m not strong enough to contain Jesus’s love without some work being done ☺) with all saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth (here is four, not three, dimensions of love) and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge (next paragraph).”
We should take the hint in this last sentence of spiritual geography, “know love that surpasses knowledge.” Paul has an expectation for these saints, and us, to enter into an intimate love experience beyond human reason or vocabulary. This daunting reality, which is only in Christ, faces every serious believer desiring faith “far more” abundant than what we can ask or even think (Eph. 3:20).
We have already penetrated the eternality of God’s fullness. It is here, outside our temporal dimensions of time, we see how different persons, all whom God has called, are uniquely being filled by God’s fullness individually. Now we need to frack into “the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” I pray we catch a little of this in the cross section revealed through Elijah’s experience in 1Kings.
Elijah’s story is just one scenario of the diverse ways God works. But Elijah’s story is given that we might extract truth, expanding our fullness as we drill into His love, which always lays before us in grace. We prayerfully seek His revelation unlocked by His grace and love.
Last time we left Elijah in the desert under a broom tree. We see here God’s love manifested through Elijah’s physical needs expanding his Spiritual capacity for God’s fullness (we need to expand on this at another time). Yes, Elijah is under the broom tree because he fled from the scene of his triumph and blessing from God’s almighty hand. How could it be that Elijah’s dramatic, theatric performance, in front of all of Israel, could prologue fear and fleeing? How typically human!
“Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belong 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 broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, ”It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” -1Kings 19:3-4.
We are given a hint to what happened. He left his servant at Beersheba traveling by himself into the desert to his broom tree. This is interesting because he had no servant prior to Mt. Carmel. This is evidence of Elijah’s anticipated needs at Mt. Carmel from Elijah’s point of view. At Carmel we begin to see on display the self in Elijah. Notice how he taunts and ridicules the prophets of Baal. This is a man relishing his spotlight and asserting himself over and above his call. This might explain his sudden spiritual depression. It is reasonable to assume he had personal plans about who he was going to be after God’s blessing at Carmel. I certainly can relate to this human trap of self-promotion. God, who knows our hearts, deals with our spiritual self (inner man-Ephesians 3:16) at the expense, often, of our temporal self. God is a Spirit and He is in the business of making us Spiritual beings like Himself. Agape love operates in us bringing us out of self into Christ.
Elijah’s prayer of remorse, “Take away my life”, was not because he was still experiencing fear and running from Jezebel. It was a long trip traveling from Carmel to Beersheba even with a companion. By the time he consumed this travel time, sharing his heart, he knew fully well what he had really done. He ran away from His loving father just like the people of Israel for whom his heart was burdened, “for I am no better than my fathers”. Elijah left his servant off in Beersheba, where Ahab’s daughter was married to the king, because he needed to be alone with his heavenly Father even though he had become spiritually depressed.
Elijah saw within himself a seed of idolatry, which eroded Israel’s trust in their loving God for an empty substitute of Baal worship. We don’t see repentance from Elijah but surely he was feeling shame while sorting out within himself what really happened. We see this later on Horeb in his encounter with God Himself. We can suspect he knew he was headed for Mt. Horeb where Moses had been with God on Mt. Sinai. The angel mentioned his long journey and gave him sustenance that lasted him for his 40 day trip to Horeb. God did not intervene but allowed Elijah to process within himself the 4 years of faithfulness he shared with his heavenly Father. God allowed Elijah to use his faith and God’s faithfulness as the light to direct his path, Palm 119:105. God’s permits Elijah to expand his capacity for God’s fullness and then even expands it “so much more” (Romans 5) with Himself. This is agape love!
Having a servant certainly was self-serving and not directed by God’s command. He traveled alone the previous 4 years (with God) but now He is traveling alone with himself, a trip much more difficult. Elijah realized he needed to leave the servant in Beersheba to experience God’s presence, the object of his faith. If we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship. If we don’t, fellowship with God becomes isolated misery. No, God does not abandoned us, not at all! In fact, He who is mindful of the sparrow will nurture us back into spiritual fellowship with a larger capacity for His fullness. Even while we are disconnected with God, He is not disconnected from us. God merely withdraws grace from us so the reality of self hits us with real force. This is part of God’s work within us which is constant once we are in Him, Philippians 2:13.
Elijah’s purpose in coming to Samaria was solely God driven. Elijah is now driven away from Samaria by his self-strength separated from God’s power but not from God Himself. Elijah came to Samaria in God’s strength but flees in his own strength …. but God is faithful!
And what is his Jehovah Jirah’s response?
“And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, and angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold, there was a cake baked upon hot stones and a jar of water, and he ate and drank and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.”
Elijah already knew the “love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” He experienced it at the declining waters in Brook Cherith and as God’s instrument to the Widow at Zarephat. God’s love flows through our circumstances like gold nuggets in the stream of God’s grace. We may have to move up stream or move our claim from Cherith to Zarephat but our experience in Christ is a process of knowing what is not seen until, at last, it all become clear in His presence or, in Elijah’s case, a chariot of fire escorts him home.
Elijah, now however, is still in a stupor. Tired, exhausted, spiritually ashamed, taking his food and drink, Elijah is a consumer who goes back to sleep. The text says he traveled a day’s journey and then fell asleep under the broom tree. It was probably the end of the day when the angel woke him and gave him nourishment. A.W. Pink suggests the angel let him sleep the night and woke him in the morning before continuing his journey.
We are not told Elijah’s journey is taking him to Mt. Sinai until he arrives. This is the place God’s righteousness is revealed to Moses, the place of the burning bush, the place where God’s people were not allowed to touch or set their foot upon except for Moses and Aaron, “God’s Holy Mountain”. This is the place God’s love led Elijah.
This is a marvelous example of God’s gracious love to man running in fear. God’s uses our weaknesses, our fear, to instruct our feeble minds of our own frailty so we may rely upon Jesus’ resurrected life within us. When our faith experience is as deep as Elijah’s, it becomes a tool God uses to lighten our path. Our reliance on self is stark when we are conditioned to walk by faith. If we live in the Spirit, Paul tells us in Galatians, let us also walk in the Spirit, Galatians 5:25.
Here is agape love, love at the divine level, which never leaves, even when we abort faith with a human response to a human threat. God uses grace to change our fear to shame and shame to humility. In this abject condition of humility we are ready to receive even more grace, grace much more abundantly, James 4:6, 1Peter 5:5, Proverbs 3:34, 29:23, Romans 5:20.
Elijah is now in the mount of God. He has found a cave and “lodged in it”. This is also the place Moses spent 40 days and nights by himself with God. And sure enough God greets Elijah:
“What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Elijah has reached his destination; he is alone with God Himself. God’s love brought Elijah to God’s Mountain and into His very presence.
God is not only mindful of our finite needs but also the work grace can perform to bring us to completion. We are easily distracted by the circumstances of our physical self. We need reminding, this body, in which we live, is not who we really are, but the house in which we live while growing in Christ.
We are going to return to this scene, next time, because in it we see grace constantly available to those in Christ. Grace is a provision of God’s love enabling us to participate in our resurrected Lord’s risen life.