I Kings 19:1-8
Now Ahab told Jezebel everything that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more so, if by about this time tomorrow I do not make your life like the life of one of them.” And he was afraid, and got up and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah; and he left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree; and he asked for himself to die, and said, “Enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” Then he lay down and fell asleep under a broom tree; but behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, “Arise, eat!” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a round loaf of bread baked on hot coals, and a pitcher of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. But the angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him, and said, “Arise, eat, because the journey is too long for you.” So he arose and ate and drank, and he journeyed in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.
WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU ARE AFRAID?
BACKGROUND
There is an interesting contrast with our previous passage. In chapter 18 Elijah ran ahead of Ahab’s chariot under miraculous power. But now he runs under his own power away from Jezebel. His courage from all that Elijah saw and did through faith and prayer fell apart when confronted with his own fear.
In our previous passages, Elijah was hidden, but he was not afraid. Because God directed him to hide in different places. At the brook Cherith. In Sidon with the widow and her son. God had Elijah hide to protect him. But now he flees under his own power from Jezebel who threatened his life. He flees to save his own life. But not at God‘s direction. He does it under his own power. And all because of his fear.
The Bible is filled with the stories of great men who feared greatly. Abram feared for his life in Egypt and lied about Sarai being his wife. The result of that fear was the acquiring of a servant girl, Hagar, that would be a source of trouble to Abraham’s descendants for years to come.
After Moses murdered an Egyptian he fled Egypt in fear. When challenged by God to lead Israel out of Egypt he initially refused out of fear. He had been living in fear for forty years In Midian.
Joshua was a man of fear. The Lord told him repeatedly, “Be strong and courageous.”
Saul was afraid of becoming king so he hid himself with the baggage. Later he was so afraid of war with the Philistines that he sought out a medium to help him instead of turning to the Lord in repentance.
David fled from Saul in fear for his life and wound up in Philistine territory where he was so afraid there that he feigned insanity to protect himself.
The Bible is filled with stories of people who fled in fear, just like Elijah. But almost all of these figures became great men because God strengthened them to move past their fear into something greater.
IS IT EVER APPROPRIATE TO FEAR SOMETHING OR SOMEONE? IS THERE A GOOD FEAR?
There is another kind of fear in the Bible that is a good fear—the fear of God. The fear of God includes terror at his presence. Virtually everyone who saw the Lord with their eyes, or who saw heavenly visions, was struck with terror. This included Moses, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, and Peter, James, and John. But each time God‘s reaction was to calm their fear. The scripture denotes this when it says, “Perfect love cast out fear” (I John 4:18).
The fear of God also includes what we consider to be a high reverential fear of who God is. This is a high respect. We respect him greatly. We fear him because of how powerful he is, but we also don’t live in fear of him because he has expressed his love for us.
Elijah’s experience, at this moment, is the opposite. He fears Jezebel more than God. He flees from Jezebel’s threat to kill him, then tells God to kill him. This is how it works with us. The more we fear man the less we fear God. The Bible calls this “the fear of man” (Proverbs 29:25-26). The fear of man displaces our fear of God. We become overly concerned with what people think rather than what God thinks. Paul addresses this in Galatians 1:10, “If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.” Paul was more concerned with what God thought of him than what man thought.
Let’s see how fear played out in this episode of Elijah’s life, where it led him, and what it did to him.
EXAMINATION
(V.1) Now Ahab told Jezebel everything that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.
Jezebel was the political patron of the false prophets of Baal. She put all of her political authority behind their false religion. So to learn that her religious subjects were destroyed by a single prophet, Elijah, she was incensed. It never occurred to Jezebel upon hearing of the miracle that Elijah had done to repent and come to the Lord herself.
This could’ve been a turning point for Ahab. He was weak in comparison to Jezebel. If Jezebel had had a change of heart, he most likely would’ve followed suit. But that’s not the way the story was to play out.
Consider how hard-hearted Jezebel had to be to hear the story firsthand about a great miracle that Elijah had done while her prophets had failed utterly. If there was a time for repentance, it would’ve been then.
(V.2) Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more so, if by about this time tomorrow I do not make your life like the life of one of them.”
Jezebel is the one opponent that could do Elijah real damage. Ahab was a weak king and never threatened Elijah directly. But Jezebel is a different character completely. She is strong and powerful. She has the fierceness that Ahab lacks. She has the political power that the prophets of Baal did not have. She has everything she needs to do him in.
Interestingly, Jezebel could’ve sent soldiers to kill Elijah right away, but she did not. She may have wanted to discredit Elijah more than to kill him. Because any movement without a leader, falls apart. Elijah certainly had the beginnings of being a leader of a movement of people in repentance. But instead of standing before Jezebel without fear, he crumbled and fled. His movement, if he was to have one, would die.
(V.3) And he was afraid, and got up and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah; and he left his servant there.
WHY WAS ELIJAH OVERCOME WITH FEAR CONSIDERING ALL THAT HE HAD PREVIOUSLY FACED?
It’s about a 95-mile journey from Jezreel to Beersheba. Elijah probably covered this in a day and a half, maybe two days.
It’s remarkable that Elijah was afraid, considering all that he had done by faith during the time he withheld the rain, was with the widow and her son, and later at Mount Carmel with the false prophets of Baal. Elijah had gathered to him 450 false prophets, and an additional 400 other false prophets. Facing down 850 false prophets at Mount Carmel. The people of Israel were also gathered to him, most of them idol worshipers. And Ahab was present as well. You would think if there was a moment to be afraid it would be then. But Elijah demonstrated great strength and great faith in the Lord. Yet when he returns to Jezreel, Jezebel threatens him and he flees in fear.
The territory he initially fled to was the southern most territory of the kingdom of Judah. But Elijah didn’t feel he was safe even there. So he left his servant, discharging him from his service and fled south into the wilderness.
(V.4) But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree; and he asked for himself to die, and said, “Enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”
HAVE YOU EVER FELT SO FEARFUL OR DEPRESSED THAT YOU WANTED TO DIE?
The wilderness that Elijah fled to just south of Judah was the land of Midian. It’s interesting that Elijah should flee there, because Midian was where Moses lived for 40 years in the wilderness and where God called him to free Israel. Elijah may have initially seen himself like Moses to lead his people in faithfulness to God, but that did not happen because of his fear.
It’s interesting that Elijah asks the Lord to take his life when he was afraid that Jezebel would do that very thing. Elijah is now doing more than suffering from fear, he’s suffering from depression. Fear can often lead to depression. And depression can confuse our thinking. As it did to Elijah.
Saying that he is no better than his fathers is to basically say he’s not special. He’s just an ordinary man. It’s interesting that he says this considering all that he had experienced with great miracles. God had used him an extraordinary ways, he stopped the rain, he provided food miraculously, he called fire from heaven, he restored the rain, he even raised the dead, but Elijah seems to forget all of that because of his fear.
(V.5-6) Then he lay down and fell asleep under a broom tree; but behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, “Arise, eat!” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a round loaf of bread baked on hot coals, and a pitcher of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again.
The parallels with Moses are interesting. Just as God had fed Israel in the desert with bread from heaven, the manna, so too, the angel feeds Elijah with special bread. Though he ate, his depression was not over, signified by his laying down again. Elijah is still hoping to die, perhaps in his sleep. But the angel has other plans. Elijah isn’t planning on going anywhere else. He’s giving up.
(V.7) But the angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him, and said, “Arise, eat; because the journey is too long for you.”
Though we’re not told in the text, it may have been at this point that the angel told Elijah to go to Mount Horeb. He says, “The journey is too long for you.” So, the angel knows where Elijah is going.
The Hebrew word for long in this translation literally means, great, as in too much. So the emphasis is not on how much time the journey will take, but how difficult the journey would be. The journey to Mount Horeb will be through the wilderness. There would not be a lot of options for food. So this special food that the angel gave him was all that Elijah would have to rely upon to complete his journey.
(V.8) So he arose and ate and drank, and he journeyed in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.
It was only about 130 miles from the wilderness where Elijah was to Mount Horeb. So it would not take him 40 days to walk that distance. However, he may have waited for those 40 days for God to speak to him. And he had nothing to eat. The parallels with Moses are again interesting. Moses had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, so too, Elijah would fast for 40 days and 40 nights.
Mount Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai. This was where Elijah was fleeing to. The place where God had revealed himself to Moses and Israel and given the 10 Commandments. As we’ll see in our next study, God would also reveal himself to Elijah at this historical location, much as he did Moses.
TRUST AND FEAR ARE OPPOSITES. WHY IS IT SO HARD TO TRUST GOD WHEN WE ARE IN FEAR?
WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
- Fear can make us forget all of the victories we have experienced with the Lord.
- The fear of man changes our perspective, making us fear people more than we fear God.
- Just like Elijah in the wilderness, God can meet us in the middle of our fear and put us on a different direction.
- When we feel like giving up, God is ready with the provision we need to keep living by faith.
INTERPRETATION
What is the author’s big idea?
God can change your direction from fear to faith, from powerlessness to power.
Because of his fear, Elijah was heading in one direction, escape. God redirected him to Horeb, to an encounter with him. Elijah ran away from Jezebel in his own strength and became exhausted. But then God provided him with power for forty days to flee to Horeb where he would encounter the Lord.
Fear can be a powerful thing. For a long time I feared teaching. I knew I had the ability to do it, but I feared what people might think if I made a mistake or didn’t do well. Then a friend asked me to teach a Bible study for his family. I felt obligated to say yes. Through that experience the Lord restored my confidence and I became open to teaching others. Then I was asked to teach at church. Then pastor Chuck asked me to fill in for him on occasion in the pulpit. Through it all, God restored my confidence, enabling me to teach more consistently until I began teaching this class each week. And now I’m developing a theology curriculum for Christian media professionals with Trans World Radio. God changed my direction from fear to faith. And he can do the same with any one of us.
APPLICATION
Do you have the fear of man?
- Recognize your condition.
This is the first step to conquering our fears. When we recognize that we are living in fear, we can begin to conquer it.
- Look at the lives of biblical figures who feared and how they overcame their fear.
In most cases in the scripture, God enabled his servants to overcome their fear and press forward. The same power available to them is the same power available to us. Even more so because we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us who empowers us.
- Confess to God that you have feared man more than him.
Once you recognize your fear, confess it to God, then confront it. Fear keeps us from trusting the Lord, which is sin. So, confession is needed. Once we appropriate God’s forgiveness then we can take the next step of confronting our fear head on.
- Instead of saying no to the opportunities before you, say yes, and see how God will use you.
It is just this simple. Turning from saying no to saying yes. Each time I preach for Chuck I am overwhelmed with fear, until I step forward and take the pulpit. Then, within seconds, the fear is gone and I can sense God’s presence with me.
- Determine to be a person of spiritual courage.
Make the yeses a habit, and you will be able to take courage. This is just like Joshua. Through the beginnings of the book of Joshua the Lord repeatedly told Joshua to have courage. But later on in the book, God no longer told him that. Instead, Joshua was telling the people to have courage.
