Then Elijah said to King Ahab, “Now, go and eat…” …Ahab went to eat
Ahab does what he’s told (1 Kings 21:15-16). Not a lot of thought process there…
…Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel, where he bowed down to the ground, with his head between his knees. He said to his servant, “Go and look toward the sea.”The servant went and returned, saying, “I didn’t see a thing.” Seven times in all Elijah told him to go and look. The seventh time he returned and said, “I saw a little cloud no bigger than a man’s hand, coming up from the sea.”
After years of no rain, it must have been so difficult to imagine that the sky could once again open up and provide life-giving rain. That little cloud was a physical manifestation of hope.
The power of the Lord came on Elijah; he fastened his clothes tight around his waist and ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.
King Ahab told his wife Jezebel everything that Elijah had done and how he had put all the prophets of Baal to death. She sent a message to Elijah: “May the gods strike me dead if by this time tomorrow I don’t do the same thing to you that you did to the prophets.” Elijah was afraid and fled for his life…
This was not the triumphant welcome he was no doubt expecting! Why the surprise? Elijah was looking at the world through the eyes of what is true / false and naturally projected that onto others. Jezebel on the other hand was soley interested in getting what she wanted however the means required (1 Kings 21:7). How we must learn to evaluate the people in front of us!
…he took his servant and went to Beersheba in Judah.
Relatively speaking, Judah must have appeared as a refuge compared to Jezebel’s Israel!
Leaving the servant there, Elijah walked a whole day into the wilderness. He stopped and sat down in the shade of a tree and wished he would die. “It’s too much, Lord,” he prayed. “Take away my life; I might as well be dead!”
How similar this is to what Jonas expressed (Jonas 4:3). In both cases, their expectations were absolutely shattered in what would appear to be the defining moments in their lives. Were their lives a failure? Hardly. God’s plan is so much more vast than the snapshot of our lives / our limited perspectives. This is a truth I really need to take to heart.