under a solitary broom tree

"So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: 'May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you...'

        Elijah was afraid and fled for his life."

Just looking at that excerpt probably makes you think, 'yeah, that seems like a good reaction.'

       Perhaps. But reading 1Kings 17 & 18 kind of makes you feel like this was not a very rational decision in light of all of the events that preceded it.

Check this out, dudes...

        In the previous chapters we read that Elijah: gave a prophesy from the Lord to the king, allowed God to direct him to a specific river to camp out, got fed by ravens (he didn't eat the ravens.... the Lord had the ravens bring him food), experienced as God gave specific provisions through the drought and famine, was used by God to bring a child back from the dead, watched as the Lord sent down fire to ignite a water soaked sacrifice, prayed seven times to make it rain and then watched as the sky turned black with rain clouds, tucked his cloak in his belt and ran faster than a chariot....

then after all of these crazy miracles....... some lady threatens him........ and he gets scared and runs.

Can you relate? 

I certainly can. Especially to his words as he sat under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, Lord."

All of those miracles. All of the times when God spoke directly into your ear. All of those times that things seemed impossible and He came through in such amazing ways. They are all so quick to be forgotten sometimes.

so what do you do? what do you do when you're too tired to keep going? what do you do when the weight of what's ahead of you is pressing down on top of you?

in Elijah's story, he walked to Sinai to speak directly to God. when he got there the Lord said to him, "what are you doing here?"

Elijah told God what had happened..... which God already knew...... and God said this: 

"Go back the same way you came..."