Elijah had stood up for God against the evil king, the false prophets, and the idolatrous people. But now he would face a completely different adversary: the wicked Jezebel. The king was selfish, lazy, and concerned only with satisfying his desires and pleasures. Religion was of no interest to him. Jezebel, on the other hand, was an energetic woman, a religious fanatic who tirelessly pursued idolatry, protected the priests of Baal, and persecuted the servants of the LORD. In order to achieve her religious goals, she tried to use for herself the secular and royal power of her weak husband.

First before God, now before a woman

Now Elijah found himself confronted with the fanatical zeal of this dreadful woman. Faced with her threat to take revenge on him, his courage failed him and he fled for his life. After he had traveled through the land of Judah, he reached Beersheba in the far south, at the edge of the wilderness. Up to that point he had followed the word of the LORD, as he could say on Mount Carmel: “I have done all these things at Your word” (1 Kings 18:36).

On his hasty journey, however, he was not guided by a word from the Lord, but by the threat of a woman. For the moment, Elijah had allowed the evil and powerful Jezebel to place herself between him and God. Thus it happened that the man who had previously stood up for God before the king, the false prophets, and all Israel, now fled from the threat of a woman. In fact, it is exactly as James says: Elijah was a man “with a nature like ours” (James 5:17)—with the same feelings.

The direction of our gaze is decisive

In all this Elijah thinks neither of God nor of the people of God, but only of himself. God had led him to a place where he was to bear public witness. But in the face of the resistance that came with that place, his faith failed. He left the path of faith and acted on his own initiative. We read: “And he was afraid, and got up and ran for his life.”

Up to that point, in the great dramas of his ministry, Elijah had been sustained by the clear gaze of faith fixed on the living God. In this new trial, however, his weak faith lost sight of the living God and saw only a violent woman. In the face of her murderous threat, the God who had led and preserved him, who had given him food that never ran out, who had granted him oil that never ran dry, who had demonstrated His power by raising the dead, sending down fire from heaven, and sending rain, vanished completely from his awareness. All of it was suddenly forgotten, and the prophet saw only an angry woman and the immediate prospect of a violent death. “And he was afraid, and got up and ran for his life.”

Peter experienced something similar: “But seeing the strong wind, he became frightened” (Matthew 14:30), after which he began to sink. By walking only by sight, the first of the twelve apostles sank, and one of the greatest of the prophets fled. Only if we walk by faith and see the One who is unseen will we be able to stand amid the growing difficulties and frightening circumstances of our time.

“He ran for his life.” Not for his God’s sake, not for the sake of the people of God, not for the sake of the testimony of God—he fled for the sake of his own life. Because he had only himself in view, he fled as far as possible from the place of testimony. He turned his back on the people of God and fled to Beersheba.

How tragic! How quickly we too can forget, in a trial, all that the Lord has been for us in the past. The path on which He has led us, the grace that has preserved us, the heart that has loved us, the hand that has held us, the word that has guided us—all of that is forgotten in the face of a trial that seems so real to eyes and senses. We see the trial and lose sight of God. Instead of standing before the living God, we flee from a temporary trial. We try to escape the trial instead of seeking the grace of God that carries us through the trial and enables us to recognize God’s will.

Experiences in the wilderness

Having arrived in Beersheba, Elijah left his servant behind and set out into the wilderness, a day’s journey. In that lonely place he turned to prayer. But this prayer was completely different from his earlier petitions. Formerly he had prayed for the glory of God and the blessing of the people, but now he asked for himself. And what a request! He cried: “It is enough; now, LORD, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.” He still had only himself in view. His flight from Jezebel and his prayer in the wilderness were full of self-preoccupation. For “his own life” he fled, and he asked only for “himself.”

All this shows the prophet’s deep despair. He had seen the magnificent power of the Lord on Mount Carmel and had heard the people, with their faces to the ground, speak the confession “The LORD, He is God” (1 Kings 18:39). He had carried out God’s judgment on the prophets of Baal, had seen the rain come in answer to his prayer, and had undoubtedly hoped for a great revival of worship of the Lord and for blessing for Israel through his work. Clearly, all of this had been in vain. Elijah was not prepared for that. He had believed he was better than his fathers, and that under his mighty ministry a real and comprehensive return to the Lord would take place—but it did not. The years of drought, the destruction of the prophets of Baal, the rain from heaven—all of it seemed to have been in vain. So utterly in vain that Elijah, the man who had stood up for God, fled for his life.

Poor Elijah! He could face the king, the prophets of Baal, and all Israel, but he was not prepared to experience the failure of his mission. Evidently his greatest effort—to bring the people back to God—had been futile. There was nothing more to do; his life was a failure. Death therefore seemed to him the happiest thing. Perhaps in this way he would find rest from his fruitless labors and his hopeless struggle.

It is good to turn our eyes from this servant to the perfect Master, and to see His infinite perfection shine precisely on the day of His rejection. Despite all His miracles of grace, His words of love, and His deeds of power, He is despised, rejected, and called a glutton and a drunkard (Matthew 11:19). In that moment of total rejection and the apparent failure of His entire work, He turns to the Father and says: “I praise You, Father … Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight” (Matthew 11:25–26).

God encourages the discouraged servant

Although Elijah asked for his death, he did not die—and never has died. God had another plan for His beloved servant. It was not part of that plan to take His servant out of this world as a disappointed man, under a cloud of depression, dying in some lonely wilderness. His passage into heaven was to take place quite differently. At the right time God’s chariot waited to carry him into heaven with glory and honor. In the meantime he was the object of God’s gracious care. He granted him sleep; the angel of the LORD ministered to him; he received food and his thirst was quenched.

On the day of faith the ravens fed him and the widow provided for him, but on the day of his despair God Himself fed him. What a God our God is, who cares for us! “His mercies never fail … If He causes grief, Then He will have compassion according to His abundant goodness” (Lamentations 3:22, 32).

This was Elijah’s experience: after he had been awakened by the angel of the LORD, “at his head was a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jug of water.”

The LORD in Elijah’s time is the Lord Jesus in the time of the Gospel. In a similar situation the disciples had fished all night and caught nothing—only to find in the morning the Lord of glory, who cares for the needs of His weak servants: with a charcoal fire, fish cooked on it, bread, and a loving invitation: “Come and have breakfast” (John 21:12).

So it is with us as well. Our faith can grow weak and we can be downcast in the face of the apparent failure of all our service. In times of disappointment we may lose courage, harbor bitter thoughts, speak thoughtless prayers, and even complain about our hard lot. But God’s gracious care never ceases. His mercies never fail.

The long journey

After God had strengthened His servant through sleep and food, He gave him new instructions. Elijah learned that he had a long journey ahead of him, but the Lord said: “The journey is too great for you.” What a distance Elijah covered in this world! Kerith, Zarephath, Carmel, and Horeb marked the stages of his journey, until at the end the chariot of fire stood ready to bring him to completion in power and glory. But every single stage was “too great” for Elijah.

The enemy’s obvious power, the courage and faith required, the resistance to be expected, the deprivations to be endured—all this was too much for a man who has feelings like ours. If Elijah were to lose sight of the living God even for a moment and fail to depend on God daily, he would immediately realize that he was no better than his fathers and that the way was “too far” for him.

We too, as Christians, must recognize that we will not find our rest here. We are also on a journey that will indeed end in glory, but on which we must endure trials, overcome difficulties, bear witness, and encounter resistance. We too could say: The way is too far for us; we are too small for it.

But even if the journey was too far for Elijah, it was not too far for Elijah’s God. In considerate love, God provided for the needs of His servant. With the strength of the food God provided, Elijah continued his journey of forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.

With God all things are possible. If we look at the distance of the way and our own weakness, we might cry out in despair: “And who is adequate for these things?” (2 Corinthians 2:16). But immediately the answer follows: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

So we too, since all the grace and power of the risen Christ are available to us, can press on courageously—“strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1).

His mercies never end.

Lamentations 3:22