1 Kings 19: 13b-18 “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, broken 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 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”

Anything sound familiar here? Elijah and the Lord traded the same question and answer before the Lord spoke to him on the mountain. The prophet still doesn’t completely get it. He is still stuck in self-pity. It is still about him. Maybe there was less difference between Elijah and the people he was trying to reach than he thought. Elijah could be a thick-headed, too, it appears.

But the Lord didn’t abandon him. He didn’t fire him either. The Lord doesn’t wait for us to get it all together, to get it all straight, before he puts us to work. He understands the material he has to work with. Imperfect as it is, he makes use of the broken, confused, morally struggling people that he has called to faith and redeemed for himself in whatever condition he finds them today.

So God sent Elijah back to his work, his calling, as prophet to Israel and the world. He was saying this to Elijah: “Maybe you have given up on your work. Maybe you have given up on my people. Maybe you have given up on this situation. But I haven’t, just like I haven’t given up on you. Go and do what you are supposed to do, and know that I will use it to do what I am supposed to do.”

My job, my calling as pastor, is a little bit like Elijah’s. Your callings as employees, students, parents, children, spouses, etc., may not be much like his at all. But God has still called each of us to serve him. And the more we pour ourselves into that work, the more our Lord will get done for the people he loves, and the people he saves, and the less time we will have to sit around wondering if we might be the last ones left.

The Lord left Elijah with this promise: “Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel–all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.” Bible-believing Christians are becoming a rarer species in our country today. But tens of millions of Christians still confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord. They believe in their hearts that God has raised him from the dead. If that is the case, Paul says in Romans 10, then they will be saved. We may be many things in a culture that has less and less tolerance for Christians, but we are not the only believers. And God still has work for us to do.