Prophet Elijah wielded such tremendous power in his time. At a point in his life, because of his spectacular display of miracles, Elijah expected that he would be celebrated by everyone, particularly Queen Jezebel and King Ahab.
He believed that all the people in the city would welcome and receive him with so much accolade and applause after all his heroic acts. He imagined that by the time he got to Jezreel, Queen Jezebel would have heard about all that happened. He expected that she would be awed and probably say the following to him:
“Wow! Mighty man of God; this is awesome. This is really wonderful. From now on, I’m not going to worship Baal anymore. In fact from now, I’m going to serve Jehovah with the same energy and the same devotion that I used to serve Baal.”
I also believe that Elijah expected that the king was going to change the policy to make a rule in favour of God Almighty, that anybody who worshipped any other god, other than the God of Elijah, would be killed.
Those were his utopian expectations!
Elijah’s expectation was that he would be celebrated by his people. He expected that there was going to be significant transformation in his nation, as a result of his spectacular display of power. But none of that happened.
To his utter amazement and chagrin, Jezebel wasn’t bothered. She wasn’t even touched. She wasn’t affected in any way. She just couldn’t care less about anything. She was far from being impressed. On the contrary, she was infuriated!
“Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD”, he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors”.”
~1 Kings 19:4
I believe that Jezebel would have gone back and imported a thousand more prophets, and the problem would continue. This was why in despair, Elijah thought and said, what’s the point? This was the reason for his depression.
Have you ever found yourself in Elijah’s place before?