Elijah's actions did not go unchallenged. Ahab told Jezebel and she issued death threats against Elijah. This struck fear into the heart of Elijah. Now this is amazing from one perspective, for Elijah has been living a life of miracles. He has raised the dead, seen fire fall from heaven, defeat all the false prophets and caused the weather! Yet now he is in great fear, so much so that it sends him into a deep depression. But this is a very human reaction. We must never build our lives on outward circumstances, they are a fickle foundation. The circumstances can change so easily, but more than this, they actually provide no foundation at all. Just as here, something else can come in, Jezebel's threat in this case, that totally undermines our life. God is the only sure foundation.
Why was he so afraid of this woman? She had power in the kingdom and had already had many other prophets of God killed. But why did Elijah not think that God could save him from her, especially after all He had already done for Elijah? Our hearts can be very fickle indeed. We often think that if only we saw great miracles we would have no problems believing. This is simply not true. There is also the possibility that behind Jezebel there was demonic power. Now Charismatics are beloved of speaking of the Jezebel spirit and there is mention of this elsewhere in the Bible, but not here. So we will leave things hanging for the time being. In a sense this is more realistic, for things often happen in life for which there is no obvious explanation.
Elijah ran out into the desert and wanted to die. An angel of the Lord appeared to Elijah. Now if an angel appeared to us we might expect it to say something significant to us, a great message from God. What did this angel say? "Get up and eat", and it had to do this twice. Sometimes God is much more practical than we are. Elijah did as he was told and went on to Horeb. Horeb is probably another name for Mount Sinai.
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