Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

There he went into a cave and spent the night.
And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
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.”
The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
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.”
The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. 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 19:9-18

but Eleazar stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. The Lord brought about a great victory that day. The troops returned to Eleazar, but only to strip the dead.

• 2 Samuel 23:10

But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.

• Judges 4:21

Then Gideon came and said to the men of Sukkoth, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me by saying, ‘Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your exhausted men?’”

• Judges 8:15

But I said, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all. Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God.”

• Isaiah 49:4

My wife and I gave each other confusing signals when we first became married.  She would say that she was tired.  Did that mean she wanted to take a nap?  Did that mean her muscles ached from a hard day’s work?

How tired is tired?  Did she want to rest?  Did she need a massage?  This was something at which I never thought I was good, but at times she praised what I did.  Other times?  She made it seem that a three-toed sloth would have done better.  Or did she need medication?  Or do I call the doctor?

So, we came up with our own words to help the confusion.

Tired meant that I could use a nap or do not set the alarm in the morning or if you need to go to work, do not wake me up when you get up.  In other words, tired meant “sleepy tired.”

Exhausted meant that you have undergone physical exertion to the point where your body is fighting back with aches and pains.  Then further discussion can find out if you get some sort of ointment rub onto the affected area, get a warm compress or heating pad, or get anti-inflammatory medication.

But Spent was reserved for when, regardless of the cause or whether tired or exhausted, stick a fork in me, I have nothing left in the tank.  Wow, does that mix metaphors!

In the Scriptures above.  I love it that Elijah has the exact same lament when God confronts him in the cave and when God speaks to him in the gentle whisper when Elijah goes out of the cave.  And a safety note here: If you experience an earthquake, you do not want to be in a cave.

But Elijah had defeated Jezebel’s army of Baal prophets, but then she put out a contract on Elijah.  She did not care how.  She wanted Elijah dead.  So, Elijah, who had just shown how powerful God was, had a moment of quivering faith and ran for his life.  And now he whines to God saying that he is the only believer left in Israel.  God corrects him on that statement.

But Elijah seems to be tired, exhausted, and spent.  The emotional and spiritual aspects had to be applied here.  He was physically tired.  He had been supernaturally given the speed to physically outrun a procession of chariots who were trying to outrun the first rain they had in the kingdom for years.  If God just used Elijah’s internal reserve of energy, that was spent, literally and by our definition.  But his emotional strength was spent also.  And his spiritual strength was wavering in that he had just defeated the Baal prophets, 450 of them, and the Asherah prophets, 400 of them.  According to 1 Kings 18, they all ate at Jezebel’s table.  Either she had them take turns or it was one very big table.

The Scripture from 2 Samuel 23 reminded me of when my wife had held her bleeding arm, after the kidney dialysis center had sent her home without stopping the bleeding.  She held her arm for fifteen minutes and she was unable to move her hand.  The EMT from the 9-1-1 call had to pull her hand off her arm and it took a lot of massage to get the hand working again.  So, that is what it means in the verse about Eleazar’s hand was “frozen” to the sword.

Then with Jael killing Sisera in his sleep, it looks like the NIV used the opposite definitions to what my wife and I had dreamed up for exhausted.  But I feel vindicated by Judges 8.

The Isaiah 49 Scripture is one of the rare moments when “spent” is not used for a lapse of time in the NIV.

But when my wife was nearing death, she forgot all that.  She said, “I told you I was tired.”

I was confused.  First, she always said she was tired, and she slept, or tried to sleep, a lot.  She never said her tiredness was worse than it had been.  But second, this was a definition that we had not accounted for.  Her body was hardly moving, but her heart was pumping like crazy.  Without taking a step, she was more exhausted than if she’d run ten marathons.

Lately, I have been that kind of exhausted, but not to that extreme.  God has a way of giving me naps when I do not plan them.  I awaken and praise God and thank Him for the nap.  I thought I had to get some writing done, but God knew better.

And I have checked, and the exhaustion is not heart related.

I guess that I am not as young as I used to be.  But please, do not ask me how old I am.  I can never remember.  I would do the math, but … I feel another nap coming.  Just kidding.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.