Elijah was a whiner: "I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away" (1Ki 19:14). "Oh, poor me, I am the only one left." When we feel alone how easily we presume that we are also abandoned by God. But what would make us sure that God is present with us just because the crowd agrees with us? Should we have such confidence in either the crowd or our love of them? Should we have such confidence in our ability to read the times? A swiftly moving river gives an exciting ride, like the crowd sweeping all before it, but sometimes there is a waterfall at the end. Sometimes the mob plunges over the cliff, like the legend of the Lemmings. How could we know how many faithful Israelites God has secretly preserved for Himself? Why is God's Word alone not sufficient? What more could we want?

Sometimes a lone voice is enough. It brings the faithful out of hiding and leads them to sing a joyous Te Deum. The Lord Jesus was all in all, and yet alone. He was abandoned (Mk 14:27) and was a lone man before the onslaught of wickedness, absolutely certain of the divine will. But He trusted Himself into the hands of the One who judges justly (1Pt 2:23). To be right and to be alone is to be God's alone. Christ goes alone to die, as a single seed, to draw together a great granary of the faithful (Jn 12:24). The one alone makes many righteous (Rm 5:18-19). The one alone dies to give many life.