When Things Have Gone to the Dogs

Welcome to the “Dog Days of Summer”. Whenever someone says that, I think of old dogs lying around in the shade on a hot August afternoon. Others just think it means that we are having some tough days. Actually, we call these the “dog days” because these days correspond with the rising of Sirius, the Dog Star. But as you know, there are days when it seems like things have gone to the dogs. There are years that are like that.

It would be fair to say that the last year (2020–2021) was a rough year. We battled a pandemic and are still fighting it. We have gone through a strange and tumultuous political season and election year featuring some odd characters. We are dealing with the consequences of climate change. Wildfires have sprung up in the western United States and a smoky haze has drifted over much of the rest of the country. Drought is threatening much of the lands where we grow and raise our food. These our rough times — dog days.

Some folks turn to the Bible at such times. When they do, I think they usually expect to hear about good times rather than dog days. They expect to read something inspiring in their scriptures: A heroic story about the successes of God’s people, sort of an “advertisement for God”, something with a happy ending. I hate to be the one to break the news, but much of scripture is not that sunny. The story of Elijah, which will be read in many churches this summer, is a good example. It is the story of tumultuous political times, despotism, and misguided religion all taking place during a drought. The story, although thousands of years old, sounds vaguely familiar.

Elijah was and is the greatest hero of the Bible’s people. How great was he? He was so great — that he doesn’t die. Instead, a chariot of fire comes and swoops him on up into heaven. For that reason, people of faith expected him to come back at any time. People that were experiencing dog days expected Elijah to come back on the Day of the Lord, that Great Day when God would put everything right.

A drought was threatening the land and starving the people. Elijah, in true prophetic fashion, blamed it on Queen Jezebel. Humans have always created gods in their own image rather than the other way around. Jezebel’s god was of the first kind and meant to serve her own purposes. Elijah’s God, the God of Israel, was considered above and beyond human foibles. To end the drought, Elijah challenged her priests to a sacrifice contest. They went up on Mount Carmel. The priests piled up wood and put a bull on it to be sacrificed. Then they starting dancing around, calling on their gods to start the fire. But nothing happened. Elijah taunted them, suggesting that their human-like god was sleeping or out taking a leak.

Then Elijah went to work. He rebuilt the altar of his God, which had been torn down. He piled wood on it — put a sacrifice on it, and told the people to pour water on it. In the middle of a drought, this was a precious commodity. Then he told them to pour water on it again. Then he told them to do it again. Then he prayed. Lightening flashed in the sky, the kind of lightening that tells us that a summer rain is coming. Fire also came from the sky. It dried up all the water, burnt the sacrifice, melted the rocks, and scorched the ground underneath. When the people saw this, they helped Elijah kill Jezebel’s priests. Elijah fell on his face up on Mount Carmel. Then, one after another, rain drops started to hit the back of his head. The drought was over.

King Ahab drove his chariot to the capital city and told Queen Jezebel: “Well, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that Elijah made it rain — the drought is over. The bad news is that Elijah made your gods look stupid, and killed 850 of your priests.” Queen Jezebel was not really happy with this news. She made Elijah a promise: “If I don’t kill you in the next 24 hours let the gods strike me dead.” Elijah knew that even though the Queen was a nut and there was nothing to her gods, she was pretty good at keeping her promises. He ran away, and fast, into the wilderness.

He ran about as far as he could go. In the middle of the desert, he found one little tree. He laid down under it and began to pray: “O Lord…just shoot me…let me die. I’ve tried and I tried; but nothing changes and I am no better than anyone else. Every-thing has gone to the dogs.” Here is a heroic prophet feeling down and depressed, feeling the way you sometimes feel. Elijah may be the Bible’s greatest hero, but he is more like you than you think.

Now you would think that after Elijah had won the sacrifice contest, and killed all the other priests; that it would be Queen Jezebel that would be depressed and on the run — not Elijah. But you have to understand, people like Queen Jezebel do not get depressed. They do not have the moral equipment needed to be depressed. Psychopaths do not get depressed. Why? Because nothing is ever their fault. They are never wrong. The world we live in is a fallen world and it is full of people like Jezebel. They are often very successful. They seem like such “take charge” people, so confident. Why? Because they have nothing to make them cautious! They have no conscience to give them pause. For them, everything is simple and they create their own reality. This also sounds strangely familiar in our times.

Because he is a person of faith, Elijah has a handicap: When he does and says things, he wants them to be true and right. He knows how things can go wrong. He knows all the ways that he can screw things up. Besides that, he has compassion. He actually cares about his King and Queen and probably even their dead priests. He is probably a little sorry that it had to come to this. So Elijah is the one that ends up running away — running for his life. Elijah is the one that is laying in the dust exhausted, hungry, and praying for death. Finally, Elijah goes to sleep.

Elijah, this great man of faith is not all that different from you…or me. Like most of us, he tries to run away from his problems rather than facing them. He tends to want to do that by himself alone. And also, like most of us, he just wants to quit. It doesn’t take much to make him afraid, depressed, even suicidal.

So Elijah is lying in the dust under a broom tree exhausted, hungry, praying for death. He goes to sleep. It is the sleep of someone who can do nothing else. The Bible says that a “messenger” touched him, woke him up and said: “Get up and eat.” Don’t picture this as something spectacular and miraculous. Don’t picture a shining, winged, guardian angel. Fact is, it is all pretty plain. The Bible’s messengers are usually pretty plain. Note that there is no description of this messenger. There are no wings, no halo, no unearthly glory. Because the angel, this messenger, is not the point. If I was filming this, I would have Clint Eastwood standing there in the desert nudging Elijah with the toe of his boot, sneering: “Get up and eat!” or maybe just a wild dog licking his face to wake him up.

Actually, it seems that great pains are taken to show just how ordinary all of this is. Elijah wakes up to find, not a meal fit for king, but bread and water. The bread is called an UGAH — a lump of ground meal mixed with water that has been plopped down on a hot stone to bake. There is no butter, no jelly. Elijah eats the UGAH and drinks the water. But he does not jump up strong and refreshed like he is Popeye after eating his spinach. Instead, he lays back down and goes to sleep again. There are no immediate results. It takes a couple of days for Elijah to get it back together, and his recovery is not complete. This is just the beginning.

He does not head north to have it out with Jezebel. Instead, he goes further south — all the way to Sinai. The food has just given him the strength to keep on running, to retreat as far as he can go without leaving the country. Sometimes God’s people need to simply retreat and regroup.

That is where our story ends. In a lot of ways, this is not a very inspiring story. It is simply a true story. True to life. Sometimes it is tough for people of faith. There are dog days and days that have gone to the dogs. When we need it the most, help sometimes comes in very simple, unspectacular ways. Recovery takes time. So many of these stories end this way: With Elijah hiding in the mountains. With Jesus lying in the tomb for three days. Then God comes with enough comfort so that we know that it isn’t over till its over. There will be good days and there will also be a Day of the Lord.

After a while, Elijah goes back and God helps him make a promise to Jezebel: “In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel. The corpse of Jezebel shall be as dung on the field.” Elijah never sees Jezebel again. He is swept off to heaven in a fiery chariot. At Passover, an extra place is set for Elijah with a piece of bread and a cup of wine, just in case he decides to come back. As for Jezebel: King Ahab dies and his sons are defeated in battle. Two of her servants toss Jezebel out the window of her castle. The dogs eat her. Later they find only her skull, her hands her feet. The rest I guess — went to the dogs. What was it God had said? “The corpse of Jezebel shall be like dung on the field.”

There is bad news and Good News. The bad news is that there are dog days, and good people, people of faith can end up having a rough time. But then, just when it seems like everything has gone to the dogs; that is when you find yourself leaning even more heavily on God for strength. Knowing how bad you need it, God gives it to you.