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(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
1 Kings 19:1–8. “And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.”
The Lord gave Ahab an opportunity to see that he was following false gods, confess his sin and repent but he chose the false gods and complained to his wife Jezebel. Jezebel had no understanding of the true God of all the earth and threatened Elijah with her vengeance. She had no experience of the Lord God Who cared for and carried His own people. (compare Judg 6:31, “And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar.”) Jezebel thought that she had to protect her god rather than rely on the Lord God to keep her secure. She told Elijah that she would kill him. Elijah was spiritually and emotionally exhausted and had a crisis in hope. He ran away from Jezebel to the desert in the south. He sat down under a tree and longed to die so that he wouldn’t be troubled by that wicked and vicious queen any longer. The Lord had an important lesson for Isaiah so He provided the prophet with food and told him to journey out into the wilderness so that Elijah could meet the Lord in the place where Moses received the Law.
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