Daily EncouragementSample

So said Elijah, and then he prayed that he might die. This is a picture of a man who has come to the end of the road and can take no more. There is an element of comfort for us lesser mortals in observing that even men of this spiritual calibre can come to such a place.

What brought him there? The immediate reason was Jezebel’s threat. Perhaps we wonder why the man who was unafraid to beard the king should flee from his spouse. Jezebel was not the first wife to be more formidable than her husband and a force to be reckoned with. There is more to it than that, however. In part Elijah’s despair was a reaction to the outward triumph on Mount Carmel. In spite of the cry from the multitude, “The Lord - he is God!”, Elijah still feels that for all his zeal he has failed, that fundamentally the people have rejected the Lord and that he alone is left.

How graciously God deals with him! First, he provides for his physical needs - food and drink and sleep. Then there is “a gentle whisper” with orders to return to the work; there is the assurance that he is not by any means alone; and there is the provision of Elisha, who will follow him and take up his ministry.