And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and in detail how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.
The king had just watched fire fall from heaven. He goes home and reports it all to his wife — and what she does with that news sends Israel's boldest prophet running for his life.
Ahab had seen everything on Carmel, yet he acts only as a messenger. One writer draws attention to the plain fact of who is speaking and who is not.
Notice, "Ahab told Jezebel." He had no real interest in the matter, so he took no active part himself. Even if he had been interested, he had no energy for it. To him the heavy rain may have seemed connected with the death of the prophets, so he could stand by quietly and watch them put to death.
Carmel changed nothing in Ahab. Elijah had served the king by running before his chariot; this is the return.
Elijah was willing to serve the king. He did so as no man could have without the power of God strengthening him, running and keeping up with his chariot at full speed. But Ahab was not prepared to serve the Lord any more than before.
Elijah had faced a king who did not care. He is about to face a queen who cares intensely.
Elijah had made the good confession before the wicked king, the false prophets and the idol-worshipping nation. Now he must face opposition of a very different kind, that of the wicked Jezebel. The king was selfish and lazy. He wanted only his own pleasures and cared nothing for religion. Jezebel was the opposite: a woman of fierce energy and a religious fanatic. She pushed idolatry tirelessly, protected the priests of Baal, and persecuted the servants of the Lord. To reach her religious ends she used the royal and political power of her weak husband.
This pairing is not a one-off marriage but a lasting pattern.
The Ahabs are always fit instruments for the Jezebels. So in the book of Revelation, where all these principles are seen full grown — those that have worked, are working, or are yet to work — we find the woman riding the beast: that is, corrupt religion using the power of the state.
Elijah had no idea what this conversation would set loose.
He seems to have had little idea of the terrible storm about to burst on him. He had come from the top of Mount Carmel, and in the energy of the Spirit he outran Ahab's chariot to the entrance of Jezreel. But there he was to be stopped — by the wicked Jezebel, who had kept herself in the background until then. She had kept herself in the background, but she had not been idle there.
Elijah's watchword had been that he stood before the Lord. After Ahab's report, that is not where he feels himself standing.
He flees from a woman — the man who had faced Ahab and stood against the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal! This was so unlike him before. It came from Elijah forgetting, at this moment, the source of his strength. He could no longer say, "The Lord before whom I stand." He felt himself to be before Jezebel, not before the Lord. It was so true that he would have to walk forty days and forty nights before he stood before God again. The moment a believer lets anything at all come between his soul and God, the distance at once grows beyond measure.
Public usefulness and private strength are not the same thing, and they can part company at speed.
We see here how far the energy of the outward life of faith can keep going while the inward life grows weak. Elijah had just had all the prophets of Baal killed by the people's own hands. It was the moment of the clearest testimony to God's presence among that rebellious people. Yet his faith fails completely at a mere threat from Jezebel. Inside, his faith did not hold him up in the same measure as his outward testimony. His testimony stirs up the enemy in a way his personal faith was not ready for.
The safeguard, then, is not another victory.
And so it is that the greatest triumphs of faith often come just before the greatest failure; for it is not triumph that keeps a man, it is dependence.
- Report. Ahab saw fire fall and rain return, then only carried the news to his wife. He had neither the interest nor the energy to act, and served the Lord no more than before.
- Alliance. An indifferent man is the perfect tool for a zealous one. The lazy king supplies the power; the fanatical queen supplies the will.
- Threat. The blow lands from someone who had stayed in the background but had never been idle there.
- Distance. Elijah could no longer say "the Lord before whom I stand." He felt himself standing before Jezebel instead. Let anything come between the soul and God, and the distance grows at once.
- Dependence. Outward testimony can outrun inward faith. What keeps a servant is not the last triumph but present dependence on God.
And Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, So do the gods [to me], and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to-morrow about this time!
Ahab brought the news from Mount Carmel home to his queen: the prophets of Baal were dead. Her reply — an oath, with a deadline attached — turned the boldest man in Israel into a fugitive, and raises a question: why does courage collapse the day after a victory?
Ahab saw everything at Carmel and reported it. The answer came from his wife, not from him. His silence says a lot about who held the throne.
Jezebel's unbreakable will is now stirred to passion. Enraged, she swears an oath to make Elijah's life like the life of her slaughtered favourites. He flees the kingdom in fear. She was clearly the real ruler in Israel. As far as Scripture tells us, Ahab made no protest at all against her murderous threat, not even the mildest.
Jezebel set a deadline: "by this time tomorrow." A killer does not usually announce the hour in advance.
He seemed unable to view the threat calmly, or even to spread it out before the Lord. A little thought would have shown him that the threat was almost empty. Why should Jezebel give him a day's notice that she meant to kill him? Her messenger could easily have killed him at once, as Herod's executioner beheaded John the Baptist (Mark 6:27). It looks more as if Jezebel's real aim was to drive Elijah out of the country, before his influence grew too strong for her evil purposes.
Elijah once called himself the man who stands before the Lord. When the queen filled his sight, that footing was gone.
She swears by her false gods to take her revenge on Elijah within twenty-four hours, and she lets him know it. He flees before a woman — he who had confronted Ahab and resisted the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal! This attitude was so unlike his earlier one. It came because Elijah forgot, at that moment, the source of his strength. He could no longer say, "The Lord before whom I stand." He felt himself to be before Jezebel, not before the Lord. And it was so true that he would have to walk for forty days and forty nights to stand before God again. The moment a believer lets anything come between his soul and God, the distance becomes beyond measuring.
Elijah's public triumph and his private collapse were only hours apart.
We see here how far the energy of the outward life of faith may continue while the inward life grows weak. This came at the moment of the clearest testimony to God's presence among the rebellious people. Elijah had just had all the prophets of Baal killed by the people's own hands. Then his faith fails completely at a mere threat from Jezebel. His life was not inwardly sustained by faith in proportion to the outward testimony. His testimony stirs up the enemy in a way his personal faith was not prepared for.
There is a pattern in when this weakness strikes.
It has been truly said that faith in us is never more feeble than right after a great victory... With calm courage Elijah had faced crowds on Mount Carmel; now the voice of a woman terrifies him!
Elijah did not lose a supply of courage he had been carrying. He lost touch with the One who supplies it.
God never gives His servants a store of strength that they can draw on until it runs out. The power is always in Himself, not in them. So He supplies it moment by moment, as the need comes, to those who walk with Him and depend on Him. The brave hero of today may be weak and timid tomorrow.
Fear was not the whole story. Writers also tie his flight to disappointment at what his work seemed to achieve.
There you find, perhaps, how the apparent failure of his mission affected a man like Elijah. Looking at that, he was asking God to let him die, and sank down in discouragement. There he was — the very man who was not going to die. He was taken straight into heaven without ever seeing death. Yet the apparent lack of success defeated him, after all this wonderful display of power. Is this not a very healthy warning to us not to look at the success so much as at being with God, which will ensure success?
- Threat. Jezebel, not Ahab, answers Carmel. Her oath shows who really ruled Israel: the king never objected.
- Tactic. A killer who gives a day's warning may want a man gone, not dead. The threat drove Elijah out of the country.
- Turn. Elijah looked at Jezebel instead of the Lord. Let anything come between the soul and God, and the distance grows at once.
- Truth. Courage is not a reserve God deposits in us. He supplies it moment by moment, so yesterday's hero can be today's fugitive.
- Test. Elijah judged himself by visible results and sank. The safer test is being with God, not counting results.
And when he saw [that], he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
Elijah had just seen the people kill every prophet of Baal at his word. Now one threat from Jezebel sends him running for his life — how does faith that strong fail so fast?
Some translations open the verse with "when he saw that" instead of the ESV's "then he was afraid." Both point back to Elijah's eyes.
"When he saw that!" Everything depends upon what our eyes see, whether we are strong or weak. The sight of the glorified Christ strengthened Stephen to suffer and die, and Paul to suffer and live. Elijah could no longer say, "As Jehovah the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand." For the time being, his eyes were not upon God. His departure from Jezreel was not a quiet withdrawal, like the time our Lord went into the country in John 11:54. It was panic! It did not even occur to him to seek shelter in the territory of godly King Jehoshaphat. He rushed through the kingdom to Beersheba in the far south. There he left his servant, and went still further, right outside God's land altogether!
The collapse came at the peak of his public usefulness.
We see here how far the energy of the outward life of faith may continue to exist, while the inward life grows weak. His faith fails altogether at a mere threat from Jezebel. Yet this comes at the moment of the most striking testimony to the presence of God among the rebellious people, just after Elijah had made the people kill all the prophets of Baal among them with their own hands. This faith did not sustain his inner life in proportion to the outward testimony. His testimony stirs up the enemy in a way for which his personal faith was not prepared. This is a solemn lesson.
He ran for his life. Notice what that leaves out.
"He went for his life." It was not for his God, or for the people of God, or for the testimony of God — but for his life he went. Having only himself in view he fled as far as possible from the place of testimony. He leaves the land of promise, turns his back on the people of God, and flees to Beersheba.
Beersheba lay at the far south of Judah. Its name carried a message he ran straight past.
But Elijah's faith faltered. He could stand before Ahab with no tremor of fear, but now a woman frightened him! He fled from Jezreel to Beersheba (v.3). The very name "Beersheba" should have stopped him, because it means "the well of the oath." Why did he not stop to think of depending on the refreshment of God's oath? God could not fail him. He did not even consult God about going away and when to go. God had led him before. Why did he not depend on Him to lead him now?
Blessing itself can set a servant up for a fall.
A time of special blessing often comes just before a period of great spiritual weakness. Satan is always on the lookout, and he makes us treat the blessings themselves as a reason for pride and for exalting the flesh. Such is in part the reason for Elijah's discipline... Notice again that Satan attacks the side we guard least, because it seems the least open to attack. Who would expect a man whose courage had stood up to a whole nation to run from a mere threat?
So what did this one step cost him?
Only one time does Elijah go where his own heart directs him (1 Kings 19:3), and this breaks the thread of his career. No doubt he then arises and sets out at the angel's word. But he does so in order to come into God's presence and there learn to judge himself. Later we shall see that, despite this, God does not set His servant aside altogether. The experience of learning to know himself bears fruit. We find him again in 1 Kings 21 before Ahab, and in 2 Kings 1 standing without fear before Ahaziah's messengers.
- Sight — the break began with a look: eyes off God and onto the threat, and a man who had faced a nation ran.
- Self — he went for his life, not for God's testimony or God's people, and self-interest carried him out of the land.
- Distance — he reached Beersheba, "the well of the oath," without once asking God whether to go, or when.
- Discipline — the crash came right after the victory, striking the side he never thought to guard.
- Grace — one detour broke his course, but it did not end it. God brought him back to serve again.
And he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a certain broom-bush, and requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough now, Jehovah, take my life; for I am not better than my fathers.
Elijah has just won a public victory on Mount Carmel. One day later he is a day's walk into the desert, alone, asking to die. How does a man fall that far, that fast? And what does God do with a servant who wants to quit?
Elijah's collapse started with a change in what filled his vision. He had lived by the words "the LORD, before whom I stand"; now a queen's threat fills it instead.
He flees before a woman — he who had met Ahab and resisted the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal! This attitude was so unlike his earlier one. It came from Elijah forgetting, at that moment, the source of his strength. He could no longer say, "The Lord before whom I stand." He felt himself to be before Jezebel, not before the Lord. The moment a believer lets anything at all come between his soul and God, the distance becomes immeasurable.
The flight kept going after the danger was behind him.
From Jezreel he passes into Judah, where the queen could no longer reach him. He keeps running to Beersheba, the farthest border of Judah toward the wilderness, leaves his servant there, and, still not satisfied with his flight, goes a day's journey into the wilderness itself.
Where did the pressure come from? Not from the world outside.
Here we find Elijah, the servant of God. He has lost all courage through the difficulties connected with the people of God — not his own difficulties. It is not trial in the world; it is trial among God's own people. Nothing tests the saints of God like the troubles of the people of God. Some can face their own difficulties. But difficulties connected with the testimony of the Lord often overcome them, and they give way.
Wanting to die can look like faith. One writer weighs it the other way.
He is still the man of God, but a man tired of life. That was not a feeling of faith. There is often far more faith in being willing to live than in wishing to die... Elijah wished to die, wished to get out of the trial — certainly a most unbelieving wish. The Lord never did.
Two writers read the closing line as pride, not modesty. The first hears a complaint dressed as a confession.
A murmuring feeling rises. He asks God to take his life, saying, "I am no better than my fathers." This is not humility. He is saying that he ought to have been treated better. Since he was not, better to die — he had had enough of trial... A saint in close and peaceful communion with God never says, "It is enough." He follows the steps of the Perfect One and says, "Your will, not mine, be done."
The second asks who had ever said he was better.
In these last words is perhaps the secret of his failure. Who ever said he was better than his fathers? Possibly his success on Mount Carmel had inflated him. All alone he had done great things for God. Did this make him feel important, even indispensable? This is a state of mind that can easily develop in any of us, and it is fatal to our usefulness... It is an unspeakable honour for the great God to use any of us in His work; but let us never imagine He cannot do without us.
Elijah did not get what he asked for. That was mercy.
Unbelief is always unreasonable and inconsistent. If the prophet really wished to die, why did he flee from Jezebel? Why not die a martyr's death among the people of God?... How gracious of our God not to always take His poor, wayward servants at their word! God intended that Elijah should not die at all. His exit from the world would be like no one else's, before or since.
Serving God has a second half, and Elijah was not ready for it.
Elijah said nothing about longing to depart when he stood on Mount Carmel. There all was triumph. There he seemed to be achieving something, of some use. So he did not think of departing. But the Lord would show His servant not only what he "must do," but also what he "must suffer." We like the first well enough. We are not so ready for the second. Yet the Lord is as much glorified in a patient sufferer as in an active servant.
- Position — Elijah's strength lay in standing before the LORD. Once Jezebel filled his eye, the distance from God became immeasurable.
- Pressure — His breaking point came from trouble among God's own people. Nothing tests a believer like that.
- Prayer — "It is enough" was the language of a tired man, not a believing one. There is often more faith in being willing to live than in wishing to die.
- Pride — The words "no better than my fathers" answer a charge no one made. Success can leave a servant feeling indispensable, and that is fatal to usefulness.
- Patience — God said no. He had planned that Elijah should never die at all. The Lord is glorified in a patient sufferer as much as in an active servant.