After Elijah dramatically showed the people of Israel who the true God was at Mount Carmel, and then executed false prophets that were leading the people down a bad path, 1 Kings 19: 1-2 tells us that King Ahab reported back to his wife, Jezebel, and she was pretty unhappy, to say the least.
As a bonus for Jezebel, though, although she called down a curse upon herself from “the gods” if she didn’t kill Elijah within a day, those gods that she worshiped were powerless to fulfill that curse, so when Elijah eluded her, it didn’t matter (from that perspective, at least).
We might have expected Elijah to have been emboldened after not only seeing God’s – Yahweh’s – miraculous power at work, but also having executed 450 false prophets after they lost a “contest” against the true God on Mount Carmel.
However, Elijah was still afraid of Jezebel, and – from a human perspective, at least – with good reason. After all, she had killed God’s prophets in the past, back when Obadiah had hidden away a hundred of them (see 1 Kings 18:4). A commentator [Long, p.219] suggested that maybe Elijah expected Ahab and Jezebel to be overthrown at Mount Carmel, and that Elijah may have felt like a failure because he wasn’t able to restore Israel from following Baal.
So, Elijah did what many others have felt like doing when things got bad: he ran away.
Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.
1 Kings 19:3-5a NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.19.3-5.NIV
Elijah got to Judah (which, as you may know, was the southern kingdom that was – at that time – separate from the northern tribes of Israel where Ahab was king), and he dropped off his servant. I’m not sure if he didn’t want to drag his servant into the rest of his escape, if he didn’t want any witnesses going along with him who might reveal his location, or if he simply didn’t expect to be returning.
However, after another day’s journey, he was ready to give up. Imagine that: a prophet of the God who had fed him with ravens, who had supplied unlimited oil and flour to a widow of Sidon, who had brought the widow’s son back to life, and who had powerfully brought down fire from heaven to help Elijah when he was outnumbered hundreds to one…this same prophet was ready to throw in the towel and wanted to die because the queen wanted him dead.
Having said that, I’ve also experienced feeling down after a big success. As a colleague pointed out to me a while back, mental challenges like depression can hit hard after completing a big project. In the lead-up to a project’s deadline and release, you’re running on adrenaline and you’re so busy that you don’t have time to process all of the feelings and stress. Then, you get the project out the door and into production, and there’s this big gap. As you have time to take a breath, all of that pent-up stuff you were dealing with starts to hit, and – especially if you have trouble processing emotions like I do – it can be tough.
So, I can empathize a little bit with Elijah. For today, let’s be a little more aware of the struggles that others are experiencing – even those who may have just won a major victory. Then, let’s take a look in the next article (or you can peek ahead and read the rest of 1 Kings 19) what God did for Elijah next…
From Sunday School lesson prepared for May 18, 2025
References:
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – 1 & 2 Kings, by Jesse C. Long, Jr. © 2002 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 