From Jezreel to Horeb
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but in this time of discouragement, with Jezebel’s threat sounding in
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his ears, and Satan still apparently prevailing through the plotting of
this wicked woman, he lost his hold on God. He had been exalted
above measure, and the reaction was tremendous. Forgetting God,
Elijah fled on and on, until he found himself in a dreary waste, alone.
Utterly wearied, he sat down to rest under a juniper tree. And sitting
there, he requested for himself that he might die. “It is enough; now, O
Lord,” he said, “take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.”
A fugitive, far from the dwelling places of men, his spirits crushed by
bitter disappointment, he desired never again to look upon the face of
man. At last, utterly exhausted, he fell asleep.
Into the experience of all there come times of keen disappointment
and utter discouragement—days when sorrow is the portion, and it is
hard to believe that God is still the kind benefactor of His earthborn
children; days when troubles harass the soul, till death seems prefer-
able to life. It is then that many lose their hold on God and are brought
into the slavery of doubt, the bondage of unbelief. Could we at such
times discern with spiritual insight the meaning of God’s providences
we should see angels seeking to save us from ourselves, striving to
plant our feet upon a foundation more firm than the everlasting hills,
and new faith, new life, would spring into being.
The faithful Job, in the day of his affliction and darkness, declared:
“Let the day perish wherein I was born.”
“O that my grief were throughly weighed,
And my calamity laid in the balances together!”
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“O that I might have my request;
And that God would grant me the thing that I long
for!
Even that it would please God to destroy me;
That He would let loose His hand, and cut me off!
Then should I yet have comfort.”
“I will not refrain my mouth;
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.”