And he lay down and slept under the broom-bush. And behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, Arise, eat!
Elijah has run for his life from Jezebel's threat. He has walked a day into the wilderness, asked God to end his life, and fallen asleep. What comes next is not the answer he prayed for, but a touch on the shoulder and a meal.
The shade Elijah found came from a desert shrub, not the evergreen we picture:
This is thought to refer to the Arabic ratam, the Retama raetam, and not to the juniper. It is a "broom" that grows twelve feet high. A person could sit under it for shelter. 1 Kings 19:4-5.
(Older translations say "juniper tree," and some quotes below use that word.)
One writer sets this scene beside an earlier one in Elijah's story:
In 1 Kings 17 Elijah by faith could make the widow's oil and meal last. But here he is weak. He needs an angel to come, strengthen him, and give him some food. He eats, drinks, and like a man without strength lies down. But the Lord sends the angel back again, for He is rich in grace and mercy. He watches over all our ways. He feeds our souls according to our needs and all our circumstances.
Elijah had asked to die. God's reply was food, not death:
Yet the Lord can graciously meet his poor servant even asleep under a juniper tree. "He knows our frame, He remembers that we are dust." So He does not grant the sulky request of His hard-pressed and disappointed servant. Instead He seeks to feed and strengthen him for more work. This is not "the manner of man." It is — blessed forever be His name — the manner of God, whose ways and thoughts are not like ours. People often treat one another in a rough and harsh way. They make no allowance, and act in haste and severity. Not so God.
God had fed Elijah before, by ravens and by a widow's supply. This time He sends a messenger:
This was a deeper and a closer token of God's interest and care for him than the supply of the ravens or the widow's barrel. The cake baked on the coals and the jug of water at his head show him how God provides for him. But the angel is there to point them out and urge him to take them. That shows the Lord's own personal interest in him. Solitary as he was, he was not left alone or unattended.
Elijah never asked for this meal:
At the prayer of Elijah, fire had fallen from heaven upon the sacrifice on Mount Carmel. Rain had fallen on the dry land, from a sky opened at the prayer of that same righteous man. But God gave him the burning coals, the hot cakes, and the jug of water without his asking. How faithful was and is our God!
Elijah was not where God had sent him. That is what makes this visit so striking:
Here we have a truly wonderful display of the kindness of God. An angel sent from heaven to provide a meal for a failing servant! This was a man who had left an important post of duty, and who was now completely outside the path of God's leading.
The food was not comfort for its own sake. It was meant to carry him on a journey:
In 1 Kings 17 Elijah himself received food, and then he gave food to others. Here, in the place his lack of faith had driven him to, he had no food at all. But God does not abandon him: He thinks of him... He eats, but does not understand what God wants of him, and goes to sleep again. A second time he finds the same food. The angel says to him, "Arise, eat; for the journey is too great for you." God fed him so that he could walk. An important lesson for us!
Elijah and God wanted opposite things from that sleep:
The Lord knows better than we do what may be demanded of us. In His grace He strengthens us to match what He knows those demands to be. The prophet wished to sleep for sorrow, but the Lord wished to strengthen him and steady him for future service.
- Weakness. The prophet who fed others in 1 Kings 17 now has nothing, and God must feed him.
- Refusal. He asked to die; God declined and gave him breakfast instead — the manner of God, not the manner of man.
- Nearness. Not ravens, not a widow, but an angel who points to the food and urges him to eat: a closer token of care than anything before.
- Grace. All of this reaches a servant who had abandoned his post and was outside the path of God's leading.
- Purpose. God fed him so that he could walk, because the journey ahead was too great for him.
And he looked, and behold, at his head was a cake, baked on hot stones, and a cruse of water. And he ate and drank, and lay down again.
Elijah had run for his life from Jezebel. He asked God to let him die, then fell asleep under a broom tree in the wilderness. He wakes to find food and water at his head. Why does God answer a servant's collapse with a meal instead of a rebuke?
The prophet was not at his post when this meal arrived.
After some time — not too soon, we may be sure — an angel touched him and said, "Arise and eat." He looked around and saw a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. He refreshed himself and slept again. Here we have a truly wonderful display of the kindness of God. An angel sent from heaven to provide a meal for a failing servant! He had left an important post of duty, and was now completely outside the path of God's leading.
Elijah had been fed before by ravens and by a widow. This time help came another way.
No ravens were there with a ration of bread and meat. The touch that woke him was not a widow's, with her jar of flour that never ran out and a few sticks for a fire. He was not to die, but live. An angel of the Lord had provided for his needs. Fire and food, the gifts of his God, were right beside him.
Someone baked that cake and filled that jar. The wonder is who took the trouble.
One of the lessons of the way is to grasp how God can stoop to arrange the little things for His servants. He delights to stoop. Sadly, we often distrust the One whom we serve. We doubt the interest His heart has in us and in His people. Who would have thought of the blessed God preparing a cake, baking it, and filling the jar! Then He sent His angel to that poor, weary, depressed servant of His, to tell him what He had ready for him. Such is the heart of Him whom we serve.
The meal was not all that God sent. Someone came with it.
The cake baked on the coals and the jar of water at his head show him how God provides for him. But the angel is there as well, to point them out and urge him to eat. That displays the Lord's own personal interest in him. Solitary as he was, he was not left alone or unattended. God sends an angel as his companion and servant; and a second time he touches him, after watching him, no doubt, as he slept.
Elijah took the food without taking the point.
As Elijah slept the sleep of discouragement an angel touched him and said, "Arise and eat." How gracious the Lord is! Instead of reproving Elijah He provided the food Elijah needed. But after Elijah had eaten, he lay down again to sleep. When we are in such a lazy state we need the words of Scripture, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you" (Eph. 5:14).
Food from God was never meant to end in sleep. It was meant to put him back on his feet.
In 1 Kings 17 it had been Elijah who handed out food to others, after God had fed him. Here, where his lack of faith had driven him, he had no food at all. But God does not abandon him: He thinks of him. The only strength available to him comes from food God has prepared for him... He eats, but does not understand what God wants of him, and goes to sleep again... God fed him so that he might walk. An important lesson for us! The Lord had fed him at Cherith and at Zarephath so that he might bear a powerful testimony. But if divine food does not give us strength for ourselves, will God's purpose be reached? The food Elijah finds at his head has miraculous power. Is it not the same with the Word of God? It brings us to the mount of God.
God measured the strength to the road ahead, not to the mood of the man.
The Lord knows better than we do the demands that may come on us. He strengthens us in grace, according to His estimate of those demands. The prophet wished to sleep for sorrow. The Lord wished to strengthen him and steady him for future service.
- Failure — Elijah is off the path of duty when the angel arrives. God's kindness meets him where his own fear has carried him.
- Provision — God baked the cake and filled the jar. He stoops to the smallest details for a discouraged servant.
- Presence — the angel points to the food and urges him to eat. That is closer care than the ravens or the widow.
- Purpose — God feeds him so he can walk, not so he can sleep. Food that leaves us where it found us has missed its aim.
- Proportion — God measures the strength to the journey He sees coming, not to the despair the servant feels now.