Elijah Believed A Lie

Elijah Believed A Lie

I Kings 19:9-10 NKJV

[9] And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” [10] So he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.” 

Just yesterday, I saw on two related Facebook page the story of the demise of a major minister of the gospel. I was so broken that I didn't take out time that night to confirm from other possible sources. I reposted the information. Some friends scrambled to tell me the story was fake. I saw it later in the afternoon. I quickly went to delete all of it. You may not know, but I'm a retired Mass Communication lecturer. I know the need of confirmations.What happened to me? It must be the same thing that happened to Elijah. It is called Illusory truth Effect. It " is the tendency to believe false information to be correct after repeated exposure".

 Most belivers know that lieing is a sin, but not many know that believing a lie is also a sin. David Trounce examined this in 2021, "...this was the first sin of Man. Adam and Eve didn’t lie. Their first and most devastating sin was that they believed a lie". So did Elijah, and so did I yesterday. Elijah believed that he was the only one left who believed in Jehovah. 

 It's that belief that sent him on a forty day journey to Mt. Horeb. The last time someone was in a similar cave was Moses in Exodus 33. Keil and Delitzsch say, " This question did not involve a reproof, as though Elijah had nothing to do there, but was simply intended to lead him to give utterance to the thoughts and feelings of his heart". I agree with them. By the end of the encounter, Elijah must have taken down the post. Tomorrow we share God's reply to the fake post Elijah carried. In a study that was done at Temple University, they found out that, " Repetition makes statements easier to process relative to new, unrepeated statements, leading people to believe that the repeated conclusion is more truthful". The more Elijah repeated that he was the only one around, the more he belived it, even though God told him there were several thousands more. My prayers for you is that you do not believe a repeated lie, in Jesus Name. Good morning.