After Elijah completed his challenge with the prophets of Baal, he sent Ahab home. When Ahab arrived, he told Jezebel about Elijah killing the 450 prophets of Baal. Needless to say, Jezebel was not happy.
Jezebel sent a message to Elijah. She said, “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.”
When Elijah received the message, he ran for his life, first to Beersheba. He sent his servant away and then went another day’s journey into the wilderness. He found a juniper tree (also called a broom tree), and there he rested. Under that tree he spoke to God and asked God to let him die.
Soon Elijah went to sleep, and he was awakened by an angel’s touch. The angel had brought him food and wanted him to get up and eat. Elijah didn’t argue, but he did as the angel said. Again Elijah went to sleep, and again an angel touched him and told him to eat. His message was, “Because the journey is too great for thee.”
The food the angel provided for Elijah was sufficient to see him on a journey that took him to Mt. Horeb (Sinai) and took forty days and nights. When he arrived, he found a place to stay in a cave.
There in that cave, Elijah poured out his heart to Jehovah. His words were in response to the word of the Lord that ask him, “What doest thou here, Elijah?” (I Kings 19:9).
This is what Elijah told God. He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord god of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
Poor Elijah! He really thought he was the only one that hadn’t bowed down to Baal. He thought he was the only one that still served God.
He had seen God’s prophets murdered. He had watched as the Children of Israel forsook God’s commandments and bowed to false gods. He had seen them marry other nations, ignore the commands to offer sacrifices to God in heaven, and he had seen the sacred rites polluted by this nation of thankless people who forgot that God brought them out of bondage.
God told Elijah to go and stand on the mountain. Then the Lord passed by, and there was a strong wind that tore through the mountain. It broke the rocks, but the scripture says that God was not in the wind.
Next there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Neither was the Lord in the fire that followed. But after all the noise and dramatic events, there came to Elijah a “still small voice.”
When Elijah heard that voice, he wrapped his face in his mantle, went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. That voice once again asked Elijah, “What doest thou here?” His answer was the very same as the first time. He still thought he was the only one that still served Jehovah God.
God gave Elijah some instructions. He told him to go back to Damascus, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria, anoint Jehu king over Israel, and make Elisha a prophet. Then he provided him with a prophecy concerning the battles that would come, and He finally gave Elijah an answer to his complaining about being the only one that had not bowed to Baal.
God said, “I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.” He simply said to Elijah that he was not alone. There is no record of what Elijah said to God, but he returned to Damascus and went to find Elisha.
Do you ever feel alone? Do you ever feel like you are the only one trying to do what is right? It is such a hopeless feeling!
You are not alone. With all the immorality in this world, all the war, the violence, the violations of our rights, there is a still small voice. We can hear that voice when we read God’s word. We can feel His presence as we talk to Him through prayer. We can know that He is there when we come together on the first day of the week to worship the one true God of heaven. May God help us to know that we are not ever alone.
Sandra Oliver