1 Kings 19:1-4
"19 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3 Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
4 But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”"
The lessons of this passage are, from the point of view of the spiritual life, among the most important a Christian can learn. No greater contrast could possibly be conceived than that between the towering giant of Carmel and the forlorn figure we see here under the juniper tree, whispering in his extremity his desire to die. What can be the explanation of the extraordinary change? It would be easy to criticise Elijah, reminding him of Paul's exhortation about being 'able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand' (Ephesians 6:13) - and doubtless there was failure on his part - but we are more concerned to learn wisdom for ourselves from his failure than to sit in judgment upon him. One lesson we can learn is that after great exploits for God the danger of reaction is a very real one. It seems clear that in the aftermath of glorious victory at Carmel he was seriously overwrought, who would not have been? - and a serious reaction set in, bringing a dark and enervating depression upon his spir- it. He was 'not himself' as we would say, and this explains much that was out of character in his behaviour. We need to remember that the life we live by faith is a life lived in the flesh (Galatians 1:20), and even the best of God's saints are subject to its frailties and weaknesses. Elijah was a man of like passions as we are, and God chooses the weak things of the world as the instruments of His grace.