In
the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Elijah faced a great deal of hardship in his life. Of course, it did
not help his safety that he regularly challenged the pagan religious
establishment backed by King Ahab and his queen, Jezebel. Elijah even
had the gall to upstage the prophets of Baal and Asherah on Mount
Carmel, and then slaughter the host of them. Because of this outrage,
Elijah had to flee for his life, because Jezebel had sworn to put the
prophet to death.
So Elijah fled to Beersheba, which is on the southern border of
Judah, and there he left his servant, but the prophet himself
continued on a day's journey into the wilderness. Then he lay down
under a broom tree and prayed to God for death. He fled death at the
hands of the pagan queen, but sought death at the hands of the Holy
Lord God. He was completely spent from his battles with the forces of
evil and his flight from destruction.
