The Purpose of Humility
God doesn't always work in the realm of the extraordinary, perhaps more often God works in the small, quiet moments. We hear God best when we are obediently humbled and intentionally quiet.
1–3a On his arrival at Jezreel, Ahab recounted to Jezebel all that Elijah had done. The words are significant (v.1). Although Ahab had witnessed God’s power in the famine and in the consuming of the sacrifice and the sending of the rain, before the imposing presence of Jezebel he could but attribute it all to Elijah, even blaming him for the death of the prophets of Baal. Her reaction was predictable. She sent a message to Elijah, giving him twenty-four hours to leave Jezreel or be killed (v.2). The threat was effective; Elijah ran for his life (v.3a).
Probably Elijah had played into Jezebel’s hand. Had she really wanted Elijah dead, she surely would have seized him without warning and slain him. What she desired was that Elijah and his God be discredited before the new converts who had aided Elijah by executing the prophets of Baal. Without a leader revolutionary movements usually stumble and fall away. Just when God needed him the most, the divinely trained prophet was to prove a notable failure.
It has often been asked how a man could experience such divine provision, perform such great miracles, singlehandedly withstand 450 pagan prophets and the king himself, and yet cower before feminine threats. It must be remembered, of course, that Jezebel was anything but a “mere woman.” She was of royal blood and every bit a queen. She could be ruthless in pursuing her goals (21:11–15). Her personality was so forceful that even Ahab feared her and was corrupted by her (16:31; 21:25). Both the northern kingdom (16:32–33) and the southern kingdom, through the marriage of her (step) daughter Athaliah to the royal house of Judah (2 Kings 8:16–19; 11:1–20; 2 Chronicles 21:5–7; Ps 45), experienced moral degredation and spiritual degeneracy through her corrupting influence.
Yet Elijah was not without blame. God’s subsequent tender dealings with his prophet were to bring his spiritual problem to light. His God-given successes had fostered an inordinate pride (cf. vv.4, 10, 14) that had made him take his own importance too seriously. Moreover Elijah had come to bask in the glow of the spectacular. He may have fully expected that because of what had been accomplished at Mount Carmel, Jezebel would capitulate and pagan worship would come to an end in Israel—all through his influence!
Whereas the great spectacle had failed to melt Jezebel’s icy heart and, worse, she would take his life, his pride was shattered, and he became a broken man. What Elijah needed to learn, God would soon show him (vv.11–12). God does not always move in the realm of the extraordinary. To live always seeking one “high experience” after another is to have a misdirected zeal. The majority of life’s service is in quiet, routine, humble obedience to God’s will.
3–9 When the fleeing prophet had reached Beersheba some ninety miles to the south, he dismissed his servant (vv.3–6). There was no need to jeopardize his life further. In his extreme dejection, Elijah wished only to be alone. Nor, for that matter, could he be safe in Beersheba, for Jezebel’s influence could reach even this southernmost city. Accordingly Elijah turned still further southward, journeying out into the desert (v.4).
Taking refuge under the scant shade of a broom tree, Elijah prayed for death (cf. Job 10:18–22). He, the mighty prophet, had stood for God as boldly as any of those who had gone before him. Yet here he was, alone and seemingly deserted in this desert wasteland, the very symbol of a wasted life. Yet God would tenderly nourish and lead his prophet to a place where he would get some much needed instruction (cf. Moses, Exod 2:15–3:22; Paul, Gal 1:15–17). After a forty-day trek, Elijah found that he had been drawn by divine providence to Mount Sinai, the sacred place of God’s self-disclosure (v.8).
After arriving at Mount Sinai, Elijah located a cave and fell fast asleep (v.9). He may have been in a spot more sacred then he realized. The Hebrew text says, “He came there to the cave,” possibly the very “cleft of the rock” where God had placed Moses as his glory passed by (Exod 33:21–23)