1 Kings 19:8
And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
After Carmel Jezebel threatened his life, and though God had just shown His power Elijah lost courage and fled without being sent. Exhausted from labor without food and sunk in discouragement and bitter disappointment, he asked to die under the juniper tree. An angel twice bade him eat and drink, and in the strength of that miraculously supplied food he journeyed forty days and forty nights through the wilderness to Horeb, where he lodged in a cave. God did not forsake him in despair but with pitying tenderness watched over him and abundantly supplied the strength needed for the trial. The history brings hope to all who labor self-sacrificingly and grow despondent, teaching them to trust God rather than fear, to remain in duty, and to wait patiently for Him to defend them.
Flight to Horeb
This verse belongs to Elijah's flight into the wilderness after his work on Mount Carmel, when Jezebel threatened his life and he lost courage and lost sight of God's care despite God's recent display of power, fleeing without being sent. That journey was a rash and faithless flight for life from Jezebel, made without God's warning to flee and without waiting for the Lord to speak. He should instead have trusted God for protection and waited with faith and patience for God to shield him and give another victory with judgment upon Jezebel.
He had toiled all day without food, including running before Ahab's chariot to the gate of the city, and was left exhausted, weary, prostrate, broken-hearted and discouraged. This was the reaction that follows exalted faith and marked success, and in it he murmured and asked God to take his life because he was no better than his fathers. He was disappointed that Israel had not become true and faithful and that Jezebel's influence over Ahab had not ended after the display of God's power. As a weary, travel-worn fugitive fleeing for his life before the rage of an infuriated woman, with bitter disappointment crushing his spirits, he forgot that the same all-powerful and pitiful God who had granted fire from heaven in answer to prayer and then granted rain remained unchanged.
An angel twice bade him arise and eat cake baked on coals and drink water, warning that the journey was too great for him. In the strength of that food he arose and traveled forty days and forty nights through the wilderness to Horeb the mount of God. There he found refuge in a cave, lodging there at night for protection from wild beasts, and received the Lord's question about what he did there. The food was supplied by miracle for a long journey when it could be obtained from no other source.
Divine Care and Lessons
Discouragement did not cut Elijah off from God, for His eye still rested on His suffering servant asleep under the juniper tree, knowing the sore anguish of a heart pressed by temptation and severe conflict. He loved the prophet no less in that forsaken feeling than when fire flashed from heaven on Carmel in answer to prayer, and with pitying tenderness He ministered to him. Twice the angel woke him and bade him arise and eat cake baked on the coals and drink water, warning that the journey was too great for him. In the strength of that refreshment Elijah went through the wilderness forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God, where he found refuge in a cave, lodging there at night for protection from wild beasts. This is the care of the heavenly family for faithful servants.
The food put strength into him that carried him the whole way, proving that God abundantly bestows on His servants the strength they need for test and trial. It proves His watchful care to preserve the life of His servants and to supply the necessities of a journey He requires, feeding His prophet by miracle for a long journey when food could be obtained from no other source. It is one example of how holy angels have in all ages been sent on missions of mercy to minister to God's people when about to perish from weariness and hunger in the desert.
The same watchful care of the Father that fed Elijah and rained manna from heaven for Israel preserved Joseph and his family on the journey to Egypt and while tarrying in that land of strangers. It sustained the poor earthly parents of Jesus through the costly gifts brought to the infant Saviour by the wise men.
By one failure of faith, in letting go of faith and yielding to human weakness and error and fleeing before Jezebel's threats to pray alone in the desert that he might die, Elijah cut short his life-work. The work he had begun he was not to complete, for God bade him anoint another to be prophet in his stead. Yet God had marked the heart-service of His servant, and in mercy did not leave him to perish in discouragement and solitude in the wilderness. Not for him the descent to the tomb, but the ascent with God's angels to the presence of His glory.
Sin brings only shame and loss and unbelief means failure, but God's mercy reaches to the deepest depths and faith lifts the repenting soul to share the adoption of the sons of God. The trial belongs to an account in which natural impulses and spiritual life are brought into conflict, exposing what is impure in character. God's work in it brings the fine gold to light and consumes the dross, a refining each person undergoes in an individual way.
The history teaches God's people facing difficulty to trust in the Lord rather than human wisdom when difficulties arise. Each one is to remain in the way of duty without yielding to fear or letting fear discourage him. He is to wait patiently and prayerfully for God to defend him and display His power, giving room for God to work.
Becoming discouraged and desponding under trying circumstances, pressed beyond measure and seeing nothing desirable in life, is nothing strange or new even for men of spiritual power and one of the mightiest of prophets. For all who spend their lives in self-sacrificing labor and are tempted to give way to despondency and distrust, Elijah's experience on Horeb brings hope and courage in the assurance of God's watchful care, love, and power. It speaks especially to those whose zeal for God's cause is misunderstood or unappreciated, whose counsels and reproofs are slighted, whose efforts at reform are repaid with hatred and opposition, and who are burdened by those from whom help and support should come. When hope was gone and his life-work seemed threatened with defeat as a weary, travel-worn fugitive before the rage of an infuriated woman with bitter disappointment crushing his spirits, Elijah learned one of the deepest lessons of his life. In the hour of his greatest weakness he learned the need and the possibility of trusting God under circumstances the most forbidding, with the assurance that Heaven never forsakes those who maintain integrity.