Just because God doesn’t announce Himself in thunder and lightning, because the earth doesn’t shake and the rocks don’t move, because He doesn’t light up the sky with His glory, or give some other obvious sign of His divinity and ability, that doesn’t mean He isn’t present and working. The invisible, subtle, incremental work He does through human hearts and processes is just as powerful as the grand displays, and it can accomplish the same purposes. God is always present and He is always working whether we can see it or not.
Jezebel’s Willfulness - 1 Kings 19:1-2
After the miracle on Mount Carmel, Ahab went back to Jezebel and told her how Elijah had killed the prophets of Baal. Did he tell his wife the whole story, explaining that her god had proved himself impotent in the face of the Lord’s incredible power, which is why the prophets were killed? The Bible doesn’t explicitly say. All we know is that instead of realizing the truth, she was infuriated and threatened to kill Elijah as retribution. Jezebel did not know Israel’s God. As the Phoenician princess of Sidon (Lebanon), she brought Baal worship to Israel. So, she was a true believer. Without her influence, Ahab and the rest of the people might have been persuaded by God’s miraculous display of power and Baal’s lack thereof. After all, they knew God and had a history with Him. But when the queen refused to see the truth and doubled down instead, her husband hardened himself, too.
This should encourage all of us to teach our children about the Lord, in hopes that because they know the truth, even if they stray at some point, they will eventually come back to it (Deuteronomy 6:6-9; Proverbs 22:6).
Also, this should serve as a warning not to yoke ourselves to unbelievers. When we form close relationships with people who don’t know God, they can draw us away and blind us to His power in our lives (Proverbs 13:20; 1 Corinthians 15:33; 2 Corinthians 6:14-15).
Elijah’s Despair – 1 Kings 19:3-8
When Elijah realized not only that the Lord’s victory over Baal had not brought an end to idol worship in Israel, but also that his life was being threatened by the woman who had already killed many of God’s prophets, he ran. He went over 100 miles before stopping in Judah’s southernmost town of Beersheba with his servant. He left his servant there and continued running for another day farther south into the Wilderness of Beersheba. This was about as far and as isolated as he could get from the murderous queen while staying within Israelite territory. Although it looked like he was running to preserve his life, he didn’t want to live anymore. He just didn’t want to hand a victory to the idolatrous kingdom by allowing them to kill him. But when he finally found rest under the shade of a broom tree, he asked God to take his life. He was tired and believed he had no more success than his predecessors in putting an end to the idolatry of Israel. He was tired of running, hiding, and striving. Clearly, none of it mattered anyway. For all the hiding, his life was still in danger. Then, even after God’s miraculous victory over Baal, the Israelites were still worshipping idols.
Elijah had lost hope. But the Lord was not done with him, and He wasn’t done with the idolatrous kingdom. So, as he slept, an angel touched him, telling him to wake up and eat. When Elijah looked, he saw a cake of bread that had been baked for him on hot stones and a jar of water. He ate and drank and went back to sleep. But the angel touched him again, saying that he must wake up and eat because the journey ahead of him was going to be difficult. So, he ate and drank. This food gave him the strength to travel 40 days and nights to Horeb, better known as Mount Sinai.
Though that journey would normally take half that time, it is likely that God had a purpose for the 40-day period. When Moses went to the top of the same mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, he stayed there 40 days and nights without food or water (Deuteronomy 9:9). By having Elijah do the same thing, He was linking him to Moses and the covenant God made with Israel. Also, Elijah’s 40-day journey in the wilderness is symbolic of the Israelites’ 40 years of wandering in the wilderness after they refused to enter the Promised Land in the time of Moses (Numbers 14:29-34).
