1 Kings 19:9, commentary and pictures

Elijah fled Jezebel's threat through the wilderness to Mount Horeb, sustained forty days and nights by food and water brought by an angel, and lodged in a cave there for refuge from wild beasts. Hidden from people in that retreat, he was met by God, and the word of the Lord came to him at the cave to inquire into his need and make plain His purpose. The question, What doest thou here, Elijah, calls him to account for where he is and what he is doing, for his course was rash and self-directed with no word from the Lord directing him to flee. He had fled in weariness, disappointment and discouragement after Carmel, forgetting God's power and feeling forsaken and alone, yet God had not forgotten him but loved him no less than when fire fell from heaven and cared for him in pitying love. The same question addresses every servant led away from his mission and idle in self-serving pursuits, calling him to examine where he stands, to come out of the cave and stand with God, and to return to the work God commissioned him to do.

Journey to the Cave

He came to Horeb, to Mount Horeb, after fleeing for his life from Jezebel's threat, traveling through the wilderness on a forty-day journey until he found refuge in a cave. His retreat was hidden from people, yet God still met him there.

He was sustained on that journey by food and water brought by an angel, and traveled in the strength of that provision forty days and forty nights. He had toiled all day without food, and the exhausted, weary man was twice touched and fed to strengthen him for the way. He lodged in the cave at night for refuge and protection from wild animals and wild beasts.

The word of the Lord came to him there at the cave and at its entrance, speaking with him where he lodged. God met him through a mighty angel to inquire into his needs, to speak with him, and to make plain His purpose for Israel.

Meaning of the Question

The question puts Elijah on account for where he is and what he is doing there, challenging his long journey into the wilderness and pressing him over what purpose brought him to the cave and whether he stands where he was commissioned to stand. It is not mere information-seeking but a call to reckon with his errand, setting his present place against the places to which he had been sent.

His being there was rash and self-directed, for no specific word had directed that course and the Lord had not at this time warned him to flee. This stands in contrast to his true sendings to carry a message to Ahab in Samaria, to go to the brook Cherith, to go to the widow of Sarepta, to return to Israel and stand against the idolatrous priests on Carmel, and to run with God-given strength before the king's chariot to the gate of Jezreel. He had left his appointed work and fled without being sent, and the question sets that hasty flight against those commissions.

The question confronts him with how weak and misplaced his present position is compared with the vantage ground God intended him to occupy. He still needed to learn to trust wholly in God before he could finish his work among those drawn into Baal worship. He should instead have waited with faith and patience, trusting the God who had before warned him when to flee and where to find asylum from Ahab's search and Jezebel's hatred, who would have shielded him and given him another signal victory in Israel in sending judgments upon Jezebel.

The question draws out his answer that he has been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, while Israel has forsaken the covenant, thrown down and destroyed the altars, and slain the prophets, leaving him alone with his life sought. In that reply he describes Israel's unfaithfulness, his own isolation, and the threat to his life.

Elijah's Discouragement and Failure

After the signal display of God's power he had expected Israel to be true and faithful, Jezebel to lose influence over Ahab, and a general revolution to take place in the kingdom. When Jezebel's threatening message came he forgot that God was the same all-powerful and pitiful God who had granted his requests for fire from heaven and for rain. He lost courage and faith, and in disappointment, weariness, prostration, discouragement and murmuring felt that life was no longer desirable and that he was no better than his fathers.

He had borne a heavy burden for Israel, giving faithful warnings against national idolatry, watching with deep solicitude through three years and a half of famine for some token of repentance, and standing alone for God on Carmel where idolatry was cast down and the blessed rain testified to showers of blessing waiting for Israel. Then in weakness and weariness he fled and lodged alone praying that he might die. After marked success he was pressed down by the reaction that follows elevation of faith, exalted to Pisgah's top then humiliated to the lowliest valley in faith and feeling, prostrated with discouragement and broken-hearted feeling forsaken of God and man.

His answer reveals discouragement and the mistaken belief that he alone remains faithful, when Israel has forsaken the covenant, thrown down the altars, and slain the prophets, and his life is sought. God later corrects that belief by telling him that seven thousand in Israel have not bowed to Baal. By letting go of faith and yielding once to human weakness and error, his one failure of faith in exhaustion cut short the work he had begun so he was not to complete it, and God bade him anoint another to be prophet in his stead. Yet God marked his heart-service and valued his faithful service and did not leave him to perish in discouragement and solitude in the wilderness, for him there was not the descent to the tomb but the ascent with God's angels to the presence of His glory. His time of trial was one in which the natural impulses and passions of his character contended with spiritual life and God's grace, bringing the dross to the surface so it could be consumed while the fine gold in his character remains.

God's Care and Instruction

Elijah's exhaustion and sense of being forsaken in the cave did not mean God had abandoned him, for God had not forgotten him but worked for him even in frightened, uncertain flight, asking where he was and what he was doing there though no specific word from the Lord had directed that course. His eye was still upon His suffering servant, and He loved him no less in broken-heartedness than when fire flashed from heaven on Carmel in answer to prayer, knowing and reading the heart's sore anguish under temptation and severe conflict and caring for him in pitying love. He had lodged in a cave in the wilderness on his way to Horeb after a forty-day-and-forty-night journey, using it at night for refuge and protection from wild beasts, having toiled all day without food. After marked success he was pressed down by the reaction that follows elevation of faith, exalted to Pisgah's top then humiliated to the lowliest valley in faith and feeling, prostrated with discouragement and broken-hearted feeling forsaken of God and man, yet God did not forsake him because despondency and despair had seized him. In pitying love He sent His angel with food from heaven to sustain His faithful servant, twice touching and feeding the exhausted, weary man to strengthen him for the journey. Those who have not borne weighty responsibilities and have not been accustomed to feel very deeply cannot understand his feelings and be prepared to give him the tender sympathy he deserves.

God met him in the cave at Horeb through an angel with the question calling him to account for his long journey and his errand there, showing he had not been sent into the wilderness by God unlike His sendings to the brook Cherith, to the widow of Sarepta, and to Samaria with a message to Ahab. The question drew out his bitter mourning that he had been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts while Israel had forsaken the covenant, thrown down altars, and slain prophets, leaving him alone with his life sought, and it led to God manifesting Himself to show that quiet trust and firm reliance upon Him will ever find Him a present help in time of need. That history belongs to his discouragement and flight after Jezebel's threat, and it teaches God's people facing difficulties to trust in the Lord rather than human wisdom, keep to the way of duty and not let fear discourage them. By waiting patiently and prayerfully with confidence in God they can see His power and rely on Him as their defense.

God met and spoke with him at the cave entrance, showing that He meets those who trust His word and speaks with them. Believers should therefore approach Him with childlike simplicity and rely on His promises rather than seek wisdom from worldly wise people. The cave represents a place of withdrawal that he must leave, for he is urged to come out of the cave and stand with God and talk with Him rather than remain under sorrowful thoughts and brooding over sorrow that weaken him and hinder his witness for Christ. That same call comes to those facing grief to turn from brooding over sorrow and seek God, who gives grace to meet shattered plans and trials. God's voice calling him to come out of the cave and stand with God to hear what He will say requires coming under divine guidance, and obeying opens the heart to receive. Then the Comforter leads into all truth, the Holy Spirit taking the things of Christ as they fall from His lips and infusing them as living principles into the open heart, so that both the Father and the Son are known.

The experience was given when hope was gone and his life-work seemed threatened with defeat, after he fled for his life from an infuriated woman and asked that he might die, and it gives hope and courage to self-sacrificing workers who become discouraged, desponding and weary under trying circumstances. It speaks to those whose zeal for God's cause is misunderstood or unappreciated, whose counsels and reproofs are slighted, whose reform work is repaid with hatred and opposition, and who are burdened by those from whom help was expected. In that hour of greatest weakness he learned one of life's deepest lessons of the need and the possibility of trusting God under the most forbidding circumstances, with assurance of God's watchful care, love and power, and that Heaven will never forsake him while he maintains his integrity. His history after bearing a heavy burden for Israel, giving faithful warnings against national idolatry, watching with deep solicitude through three years and a half of famine for some token of repentance, and standing alone for God upon Carmel where through the power of faith idolatry was cast down and the blessed rain testified to showers of blessing waiting for Israel, declares that sin can bring only shame and loss, that unbelief means failure, that God's mercy reaches to the deepest depths, and that faith lifts up the repenting soul to share the adoption of the sons of God. For in weakness and weariness he fled before the threats of Jezebel and lodged alone praying that he might die, and by letting go of faith and yielding once to human weakness and error his one failure of faith cut short the work he had begun so he was not to complete it, and God bade him anoint another to be prophet in his stead. Yet God had marked the heart-service of His servant, so he was not to perish in discouragement and solitude in the wilderness, and for him there was not the descent to the tomb but the ascent with God's angels to the presence of His glory.

Call to Faithful Service

The same question that met Elijah in the cave meets every child of God who is not actively engaged in service and whose voice the enemy has silenced by any means or led away from the mission, asking why such a one is idle and who sent him there when God has commissioned him to go into all the world and preach the gospel and to prepare a people for the day of God. It is God's personal appeal calling a person to examine where he stands in relation to Him, and even one estranged from God and wasting time and opportunities, as Philip was, can still hear God speaking and respond. It calls people absorbed in their own business to account, urging them to leave idleness and self-serving pursuits and labor for God. Through God's Word it applies to people who remain idle instead of doing needed work, challenging professed servants of God who refuse available work because the wages offered do not meet their demands.

It is a question of reproof to believers who leave the churches where their help is needed and move together to a larger church, warning them to examine whether their move is God's direction or a self-serving impulse. If they will not heed, God will make the danger clearer, for such moves can weaken small churches, discourage those left behind, and endanger souls. It challenges a worker who has left the missionary field for a journey and business, asking why he is there and who sent him, prompting him to reconsider whether he should remain in that course, pray, or change his work. It asks those at Battle Creek why they are where they are, challenging them to account for leaving their appointed work and becoming a hindrance rather than a help to the church.

It calls families to consider whether they are using their influence where it is needed, for families who know God's word and could serve where Christian ministry is lacking are called to leave familiar surroundings and move to spiritually dark places to work patiently, wisely and perseveringly for those without hope, even when answering requires self-sacrifice. It challenges one absorbed in family responsibilities instead of carrying out the work God called her and her husband to do, as Adelia was challenged, pressing her to examine whether her course is faithful when judgment is near and the world needs warning. It warns one to remain where God assigned him work and not leave for America, as Stephen Haskell was warned, calling him to consider whether his intended move fits his present service.

It calls one to examine whether his work is fitting and who commissioned him to do it, as Brother Michaels was called, for his morally harmful commercial work is clouding his judgment and lowering his abilities, and he is urged to leave it and work with books that teach truth. It challenges a minister given a commission to serve as a watchman for God's people, calling him back to his work, warning that unbelief and darkness may be keeping him from it and that life's entanglements influence his ministry more than he realizes, for Christ's soldiers must remain faithful at their posts for as long as the conflict lasts. Christians should not imitate Elijah's discouraged withdrawal into the cave and retreat from their work, but come forth and stand with God, letting their faith and good works shine openly and their light shine into the world's darkness.

The question is a call for God's people to come out of the cave, stand with God and hear what He says, leaving division and self-sufficiency behind to seek the unity and love Christ prayed for. It questions those who take on a mission or authority He has not given them, applying to self-appointed critics who judge and control God's messengers, deciding what they may teach and which words they may use, challenging their claim to act as judges and asking who sent or authorized them.