#308 | Melakhim Aleph ch.19 - Elijah the Zealot

And it's at this point that Achav comes home.

Clearly Achav had quite an overwhelming revelational experience on Mount Carmel.

Achav comes home to Jezebel, his wife.

He's brimming with excitement.

He told Jezebel everything that Eliyahu had done and how they'd killed all of the prophets of Baal.

And Isebel sends a messenger to Eliyahu and says, So the gods, she talks in the plural, will do.

And so they will continue because tomorrow, I will put your life like their life.

In other words, by tomorrow, you are a dead man.

What did Eliyahu think? You know, what happens after this is that Eliyahu goes to the desert.

He leaves the northern kingdom.

He goes into the southern kingdom.

He goes to the desert.

He asks to die.

He goes and lies down almost like a Yishmael under a brush, under a bush in the desert.

And he says, He wants to die.

And he says, God, please.

What was Eliyahu expecting? It seems like Eliyahu was expecting a regime change.

Was expecting that Ahav would possibly divorce Izebel, have Izebel executed just like her prophets.

Eliyahu had planned an entire plan Whereby the nation could be brought back to belief in God.

But he realizes that as long as Ezebel is in place.

As long as Jezebel controls the religion in the kingdom.

Things are not going to change.

And he probably feels awful.

For three years he's put the nation through rack and ruin.

Through famine and drought.