Elijah's On The Run Series

C If we took a look inside the palace we could have seen Ahab giving the report to Jezebel and I often wondered what he was thinking. Was he waiting to see if she’d accept what happened and turn to the Lord? Because if he was I don’t think she was expecting the message she heard. After all, she was an in charge type of person. What she said went and that was that. I think when she saw the clouds and rain coming she probably thought that her prophets had won the day.

So Ahab said, “Elijah called down fire, killed all the prophets and then he made it rain.” In other words the people have turned on Baal and now they’ve turned back to God. When Ahab gave her his report Jezebel doesn’t exactly fall on her knees and scream, “What must I do to be saved?” She immediately sends a messenger. It might have been the town crier to give a public announcement. And the message was simple, “Elijah willed be killed in the next twenty-four hours.” In other words he would end up just like all the other prophets.

The big question is, did she really want him dead? I don’t think so. I think she wanted Elijah to be like all the other prophets who went and hid in a cave. You see, martyrs fuel revivals but cowards calm them down. The question on the streets the next day would be, “Where’s the prophet?” He ran away. Oh well, I guess he wasn’t very sincere.

We often tend to think of Jezebel as an old witch with piles of make-up on her face because the last thing she does before she’s killed is put on her make-up. I think she was extremely attractive and she put on her make-up to entice the one who came to kill her but her efforts failed.

If you want to call someone wicked you’d just have to call them Jezebel. History tells us that she convinced Ahab to worship the golden calf under the pretense that it would be a service to Jehovah. And we know the calf was central to Baal worship. Once she had the king in the palm of her hand she led the people to abandon their worship of God and follow false prophets, idolatry and immorality. And then she attempted to kill as many prophets of the Lord as she could.

It’s interesting to see that this was the first time Elijah went anywhere without a word from God. And so we wonder where God was now? I think Elijah left Him back on Mt. Carmel.

III Running from Jezebel

a Elijah quit. It says he ran to Beer-sheba which was about one hundred and three miles. Then he left his servant which tells us he had no intention of coming back. And then he went a days journey into the wilderness where he says he wished he could die. My first thought in reading this was, if that’s what he really wanted then all he had to do was stay at the palace. She would’ve made sure he died.

B Have you ever wondered, what would it take to make you quit?

1 Would discouragement do it? A guy came to my church before I got there. He came to the pastor one day and said, “I’m a carpenter and if there’s ever anything you want done around here just let me know.“ He came back and said the same thing a couple of times and one day the pastor said, “You know I’ve got a new door for my study. Any chance that you might put it on?” He said sure and came the next day. He hung the door and everything looked all right but it didn’t open all the way because the bookcase that was fastened to the wall was in the way. The pastor apologized and asked if he would mind hanging it from the other side. He said sure and hung it that way. And that was the last time he ever came to the church. It’s easy to get into the rut of saying no one appreciates me but God does. And when it comes down to it would you rather have His reward or someone else’s thank you.