What Did Elijah Do Under the Juniper Tree? Elijah Laid Down when He should have Stood Up:
God had a 40 day’s journey for Elijah and he went ONE DAY and lay down, angry and despairing! Ask yourself – do you want your life to stay where things are now? If you are going to come out of your situation you are going to come out on your feet and not on a slab! God is not going to kill you. The lesson is NEVER LAY DOWN IN A BATTLE ZONE. The first thing that the angel told Elijah was “arise”. Why? Because a Juniper is no place to lay down. A Juniper is also known as a “broom tree” because people commonly used its branches to make broom sticks. What is the lesson? It isn’t time to take a nap. It’s time to clean up your mess. It isn’t time to feel sorry for yourself. You have a mess to clean up. Whether it is your mess or someone else’s you have no business giving up and just lying there vainly waiting for things to magically get better.
He Received the Touch of the Angel:
How many of us have refused the touch of God when we were pouting under our Juniper tree? God sends a brother, a sister or our pastor and they try to encourage us but we stubbornly resist behind an impenetrable resolve to wallow in self-pity? Maybe even your spouse realizing you were going through something tried to encourage you and you said, “don’t touch me!!!” You have to quit feeling sorry for yourself and set aside the anger that is putting you in a bad place and become reachable and teachable so you know what to do next!
Elijah ate the Bread of Adversity when Necessary:
The angel not only touched Elijah – he gave him something to eat and something to drink. Many people are willing to receive the touch of God in a bad situation, but they don’t go any further. The Holy Spirit is MORE than your COMFORTER, He is your HELPER. You have to let Him help you! Elijah ate and drank what the angel gave him and then he just laid back down. The angel comes back around, touching him again and says “no that isn’t what I had in mind…” God was ok with giving Elijah a second touch. But then Elijah had to do something about it. Peter when going through the same thing when he was in jail, sleeping between two soldiers:
[Act 12:7 KJV] 7 And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon [him], and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from [his] hands.
God will send the smoting angel to you when necessary. What is the message the angel gave to Peter? “GET UP!!” You are waiting for the chains, the limitations, the bad situation to come off of you but notice in Peter’s case it didn’t happen until he complied with the command.
The angel brought the food and water to Elijah and notice where he placed them. He didn’t put them at Elijah’s feet. Instead he put them at Elijah’s head. What does this mean? It means you have to get your HEAD RIGHT before you will ever get your WALK RIGHT. Are you having trouble with your walk? You might not think so but what about your spouse? Your kids? Your employer, or your pastor. I dare you to ask them “are you having trouble with my walk?” If you will eat and drink the bread of adversity – the lessons in adversity, everyone around you will take notice and you will be a blessing in their lives and not a pain. In Elijah’s case the angel agreed with Elijah “the journey is too great for thee…” Have you ever told God that? “I can’t do it, God! I can’t take anymore…” Of course, you can’t. On that score, you and God are in agreement. You can’t take anymore. Now what? It’s time to get your spiritual diet right and to partake of what God has to say to you in that difficult season.
What Was God Strengthening Elijah For?
You would think that Elijah would eat the food and drink that the angel gave him and live happily ever after. It’s all good now right, Momma Bug? No – there is still a journey to take. The plan hadn’t changed. Where God was taking Elijah that he didn’t think he could survive even 1 day? Elijah still had 40 days to go. Where was he going? To Holy Ghost Disneyland? Hmmm. In reality Elijah was going to Horeb. Horeb means “desert”. He went 1 day into the wilderness and then 40 days on the strength of angel’s food and it’s all coming up roses right? No – what he has achieved is a timely arrival in the desert – into the “dry place”. This is a place where the only redeeming factor here is that this is where a conversation with God takes place. God was strengthening Elijah and motivating Elijah just to get him into the place where he could talk to him.
God wants to talk with you. You can go there willingly but one way or another you are going. You can’t have THIS CONVERSATION with God in your sleep number bed with a belly full of a warm supper. After this conversation with God this prophet Elijah will anoint KINGS and ordain a prophet who will in his lifetime do TWICE what Elijah did. The power of God that comes on Elijah at Horeb is so immense it couldn’t be fulfilled in his lifetime – it took two generations, a king, a prophet and a eunuch just to bring it about. The power of God that came on him BECAUSE HE OBEYED and came out from UNDER THE JUNIPER – Elijah’s life was so full of God and so full of His glory that even death couldn’t take Him and God had to send His personal transportation to get him to heaven.
Conclusion:
Are you ready to come out from under your Juniper? Are you ready to stop feeling sorry for yourself? Are you ready to stop asking for “just another touch”? Are you ready to feed on His bread in the place of adversity and be teachable and reachable? Are you ready to have a conversation with God and settle things and receive assignments that will change your life and the generations after you forever? Then arise and receive the truth of this message and act upon it until things change in your situation.
