1 Kings 19:1

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.