1 Kings 19:1

THE EXTREME DISCOURAGEMENT AND DEPRESSION OF ELIJAH

"And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough; now, O Jehovah, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers."

"Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah" (1 Kings 19:2). Whatever Ahab was, he was no king, but a malleable tool in the hands of the wicked Jezebel. If Ahab had been the possessor of any ordinary intelligence, he would thoroughly have understood that Baal (including everything connected with his pagan religion) was fraudulent, helpless and extremely sinful. Therefore, we must conclude that he did know the truth; and that, if he had really been a king, he would have promptly expelled, or put to death (as the Law commanded) those four hundred priests of the Asherah who had ignored his command to assemble on Carmel and have taken the government of Israel away from his pagan wife.

Ahab did not have the guts to do any of these things, and when Elijah saw what the situation actually was, then the most terrible and depressive discouragement imaginable came upon the prophet, and he fled the domain where Jezebel ruled.

When Jezebel heard the details of the grand confrontation between her 450y pagan priests and Elijah, and how it had been terminated in their execution, if she had been anything else except a dedicated enemy of God Himself, she would have renounced paganism and have accepted the true faith in God.

"There are eyes so blinded (2 Corinthians 4:4) and hearts so steeled against the truth that no evidence can reach them; and this fierce murderer of the prophets had long been given over to a reprobate mind. She listened to Ahab's account, but her one thought centered on how she might achieve the vengeful murder of Elijah."[1] There is no way to change such a person.

In the small town of Indiahoma, Oklahoma, this writer once preached for a few days. And someone requested him to visit a man and to discuss the hope of his becoming a Christian. The man promptly said, "If Jesus Christ himself stood right where you stand and invited me to become a Christian, I wouldn't do it!" That remark concluded the interview.

"And when he saw that, he arose and went for his life" (1 Kings 19:3). Moffatt's rendition here has, "Elijah arose in terror and ran for his life." The RSV has, "He was afraid ... and went for his life." All recent versions are similar, but we still prefer the ASV, because whatever Elijah was, he was NO coward. He was simply getting out of a hopeless situation, and no one except a fool would have done anything else! If his action here had been cowardice, as implied in the recent versions, how can we account for the fact that God never even allowed the man to die. And, when only two men of all human history stood by Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, how did it come to pass that Elijah was one of them?

"It is obvious that Elijah did not flee from any fear of the vain threat of Jezebel, from the fact that he did not merely withdraw into the kingdom of Judah, where he would have been safe under Jehoshaphat from all the persecutions of Jezebel, but went to Beer-sheba, and thence into the wilderness, there to pour out before the Lord the weariness of his life."[2]

This writer agrees with Keil that it was discouragement, NOT FEAR, that drove Elijah to flee, having once himself experienced in the year 1965 the overwhelming frustration and discouragement that resulted from what appeared to be a HOPELESS situation. (This is discussed in the records of that year in my memoirs, The Tales of Coffman). This writer did not flee to Beersheba, but to Canada!

"Under a juniper tree ... he requested for himself that he might die" (1 Kings 19:3). Jonah also made this same request of the Lord (Jonah 4:3); but in neither instance did the Lord grant the petition.

"It is enough" (1 Kings 19:4). Keil believed that Elijah meant, "I have endured tribulation enough," and Lange thought it meant, "I have lived long enough."[3] The more likely meaning is, "Enough has already been done to convince Israel of the living God's supremacy and of the worthless vanity of Baal." This also harmonizes with the next sentence.

"I am no better than my fathers" (1 Kings 19:4). "This was true, as far as bringing back Israel to the true faith was concerned."[4]