1 Kings 19 Elijah Tires

The Lord has returned rain and punished the prophets of Baal. Jezebel now seeks Elijah’s life. Elijah tires of running from death. “I’m the only one left!”

The story of Elijah getting angry and ‘calling out God’ is one that gives me strength in my darkest times. Elijah has had it up to his ears with the trouble he has faced. He doesn’t think anyone is listening. The only ones he thinks even notice him are those out to kill him. He is tired and frustrated. He feels as if he is the only one left standing for the Lord. And he is angry at God for leaving him all alone in this battle.

God does three things for him. God reaffirms that He is still with him, no matter what. God tells him that he is NOT alone. And God gives him another to take his place. Let’s join Elijah as he reaches the end of his rope and let the Spirit speak to us too in this journey.

♥ ♦ ♥

Elijah is basking by the fire in the home of his servant while Ahab is with Jezebel. He is telling her of all that happened this day.

“What do you mean ‘He did away with’ my prophets” screeches Jezebel.

“I mean he killed them all.”

“And you didn’t stop him” she demands.

“If you would have seen the hand of the God of Israel in action on Mount Carmel, you would have been afraid to defy him too” pleads Ahab.

“I’m sick to death hearing about the ‘great God of Israel’. Baal is god. Not some God who won’t even let you talk to other gods.”

Jezebel begins pacing. Ahab knows to stay out of her way when she is like this. He leaves her to her anger. After a few minutes she stops. She calls to her personal servant.

“Bring me a scribe! I have a message for Elijah, the murderer of my prophets.”

“Yes mistress” she replies and hurries from the room to fulfill Jezebel’s request. Shortly after she returns with a scribe.

“Take this message down for Elijah. ‘So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow’ (1 Kings 19:2). See to it that it is delivered immediately.”

After finishing taking down Jezebel’s words, the scribe asks; “Where will I find Elijah?”

“How should I know! He is no friend of mine. Go ask the king. He seems to be close to him.”

The scribe hurries from the room. He wants as FAR away from the queen as possible. He can see the anger radiating off her like heat from pavement. He goes directly to Ahab, as the queen has ‘suggested’. When he enters the throne room, he bows respectfully.

“What is it” asks Ahab.

“The queen has had me take a message for the prophet Elijah. She told me to deliver it, but I know not where he is. She said that you would know.”

“What is the message” asks Ahab with curiosity and trepidation.

“So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” This he recites from memory so that he wouldn’t have to break the queen’s seal.

Ahab’s eyes go wide. “She is truly angry” he thinks to himself. “The best thing to do is to get out of her way. She may rid me of the trouble maker Elijah without me lifting a hand against him.”

He tells the scribe of the most likely place for Elijah to be. He had seen Elijah in the company of his servant shortly after meeting him at the gates of Jezreel.

The scribe bows low and sets off to the home Ahab indicated. It is late, but the urgency of the queen’s message won’t wait until morning. When he reaches the home of Elijah’s servant, he knocks with urgency and continues knocking until someone answers.

Elijah is the one to answer the door. The scribe is most grateful for that great relief. He will not have to return to the queen and tell her that he couldn’t find him.

“My lord Elijah, I have a message from you from Queen Jezebel.”

Elijah reaches out and takes the scroll from his hand. The scribe bows and leaves. He does not want to stick around and see what Elijah might do after reading the queen’s words.

Elijah watches him hurry away before closing the door. Once back by the fire, Elijah breaks the seal and reads Jezebel’s words. His eyes, at first, go wide in surprise at the venom contained in her words. Then he gets angry. “Who does she think she is!” Then fear begins to build in his heart. Elijah knows exactly who she is. She is the wife whom Ahab has never refused anything. He knows his life is in grave danger. And so is the life of his servant, if Jezebel takes her anger out on him in Elijah’s absence.

Elijah shows his servant the message. “We must leave NOW”, says Elijah.

The two of them quickly gather supplies for their journey before slipping quietly out the door. They have no idea if Jezebel has already dispatched soldiers to find Elijah, so they carefully make their way out of the city. As soon as they are past the gates, they set off at great speed and doesn’t stop until they reach Beersheba. By morning, they are ‘safely’ across the border of Israel and into the land of Judah.

Elijah believes that his servant is safe here. “You will stay here. Jezebel can’t reach you in the land of Judah. I must go on though. I need to be away from you, so that I am not a danger to you any longer.”

Elijah’s servant kisses him goodbye and watches as he walks away. He has no idea where his master is going, and he plans on keeping it that way.

Elijah walks on for the rest of the day and finds himself in the wilderness. He finally stops to rest under a broom tree. He is exhausted in both body and spirit. He leans his back against the tree and speaks to God.

“It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers” (1 Kings 19:4).

Elijah lays down to sleep, hoping not to rise again. A short time later, he feels a hand on his shoulder gently shaking him from his sleep. He opens his eyes and an angel of the Lord speaks to him. “Arise and eat” (1 Kings 19:5).

Elijah raises himself from the ground and sees a stone sitting near where his head was. On it is a steaming hot cake of bead. Beside that is a jar of water. Elijah’s stomach begins to rumble as he takes in the smell of the cake. He hadn’t even realized he was hungry until this minute. He sits up and eats every bite of the cake and drinks all the water. With his stomach full, he lays down again to sleep. His spirit is still heavy.

A short while later, Elijah is awakened again by a hand on his shoulder and the angel of the Lord speaking to him.

“Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you” (1 Kings 19:7).

Elijah finds another cake and water meal waiting for him. This time he knows that there is work to do after eating it. After eating and drinking all of it, Elijah rises from the ground and starts walking in the direction his spirit is pulling him.

Elijah walks, and walks, and walks some more. He is not walking at a breakneck speed, like he had used coming down from Mount Carmel, but his pace is not slowing or lagging. Elijah walks for 40 days straight. He does not stop to eat or drink. What he was given under the broom tree sustains him. He stops at night for a short rest, but no other rests the entire journey.

Elijah arrives at the place the Lord has been drawing him towards. It is Mount Horeb. This is the very mountain where God gave His law to the people of Israel. Where He wrote with His finger on tablets of stone. It is a special place to the Lord. And He has brought Elijah here to minister to his sagging spirit.

Elijah doesn’t head for the mountain top. He finds a low-lying cave and crawls inside it. Here, he lays down to rest.

God calls out to him in the cave. “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:9).

Still inside the cave of his misery, Elijah answers the Lord.

“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” (1 Kings 19:10).

“Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord” (1 Kings 19:11).

Elijah steps toward the entrance of the cave, but he doesn’t step out of it. Elijah is buffeted by a strong wind that sweeps over the entire mountain. It tosses about boulders, smashing them against one another or trees. On the heels of the wind is a violent earthquake. It throws Elijah to the ground in his cave and brings dust down on his head. Right after the earth stops heaving, fire breaks out on the mountain. It is a raging inferno right in front of his cave. Elijah can feel the heat radiating off of it and filling the cave he is in. The fire extinguishes as quickly as it ignited. As the smoke drifts upward, Elijah hears a low whisper.

In all the events that he had just witnessed, none of them speaks to him like the whisper. Elijah KNOW that it is the voice of the Lord. He wraps his cloak around his face and moves into the mouth of the cave. As he stands in there, the Lord speaks to him again.

“What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:13).

With a heavy heart, Elijah answers the Lord. “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” (1 Kings 19:14).

The Lord hears Elijah’s pain. He also knows that Elijah isn’t the only one left who hasn’t bowed down to Baal. He speaks to Elijah’s pain by directing him to put into place people who He will use to judge those who have bowed to Baal. And he gives Elijah someone to come along side him.

“Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:15-18).

Elijah has a job and direction now. He is grateful to the Lord for sending him help, and for letting him know that he is NOT alone.

Elijah takes of walking towards Abel-meholah. Once he arrives, he lets the Spirit of the Lord direct him to the place where Elisha is. He is drawn to a field where a strong young man is plowing with twelve yoke of oxen. He is walking beside the twelfth pair when Elijah walks toward him.

Elisha is so distracted that he doesn’t even see Elijah. Elijah walks over to him and throws his cloak on him without saying a word, then turns to leave. Elisha is startled and looks up. He sees the retreating back of Elijah, and he KNOWS what this gesture means. He is being called to follow this man. He is not even certain he knows the man’s name, but he knows the call of the Lord when he feels it.

Elisha runs after Elijah while clutching his cloak. He wants to follow him, but he has one request to make first.

“Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you” (1 Kings 19:20a).

Elijah knows the hard road he has called this young man to. His request is not unreasonable, considering what his life now holds. Elijah readily consents. “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” (11 Kings 19:20b). Elijah thinks to himself; “He has no idea what the Lord has just asked of him. If he returns, he is a man of God and he WILL learn, the hard way. If not, then I have lost nothing.”

Elijah continues walking down the road and Elisha returns to his house. Elisha quickly calls all his friends and family together. While they are on their way, he slaughters all of his oxen and offers them as a sacrifice to the Lord. He uses the yokes that bound the oxen together as wood to boil their flesh. He shares this as one last meal with his friends and family. He has no idea when he will return this way again.

As soon as the meal concludes, Elisha bids his family farewell and runs to find Elijah. He sees him in the distance and quickens his pace. Once he is beside Elijah, he slows to the older man’s pace.

“I am with you my lord from now on. Nothing but death will separate us.”

Elijah smiles over at Elisha. Without Elijah even introducing himself, Elisha’s spirit knows him now. Elisha is in it for the long haul. Bound to Elijah and to the Lord.

(to be continued)

One thing of note in the calling of Elisha is that Elisha offered up everything he owned to the Lord. He didn’t leave himself a ‘fallback’ plan if things got hard. He left it all behind.

I doubt that things immediately got easy for Elijah, but now he had someone to share the burden with. Jezebel’s threat was LONG expired. If she had been true to her word, she would have been killed that night when she failed to do to Elijah as he had done to her prophets. But we know she didn’t. She has more evil deeds to inflict on Israel, through her husband.

ALL the mighty things that happened on the mountain side were brought about by God for Elijah to witness, but they did not speak to his heart like the quiet whisper. Miracles are AMAZING to behold, but without the presence of God in them, they are empty. God used them simply to get Elijah’s attention. I have no doubt that He has done the same thing to me in my life. When things were hard, He would send someone along to build me up. But more than that, His intervention refocused my attention on Him instead of my problems.

God often speaks to me through poetry. He gives me the words that bring healing to my heart. When thinking about His lesson for Elijah, I am reminded of one of those poems: “Never Alone In Any Lesson”. I invite you to read, or reread it with me. For we are NEVER alone!

Father God, thank You for allowing me to come to You with my raw feelings. To complain when I feel that life is unfair. To cry on Your shoulder. And thank You for drying my tears and putting me back on my feet to continue on our journey. Sometimes You send someone along who will walk with me for a while. Sometimes You send me a song or a poem. Sometimes You simply hold me a little tighter. No matter what, You don’t cast me off for ‘not having enough faith’ or ‘being a baby’ about things. You love me right through the hard places. Thank You for ALWAYS being there, even when I can’t see You through my troubles.