Elijah Under the Juniper Tree

Worn out and running for his life, Elijah sat under a juniper tree and asked God to let him die. God answered with sleep, bread, and water, and an angel's gentle touch.

Straight after the great victory on Mount Carmel, Queen Jezebel vowed to kill Elijah by the next day. The prophet fled for his life to Beersheba, left his servant there, and went a day's journey alone into the wilderness. Sitting down under a juniper tree, he asked to die: 'It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.' God did not rebuke His exhausted servant. Instead He let him sleep and sent an angel twice with a cake baked on the coals and a cruse of water, saying, 'Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.' In the strength of that food Elijah traveled forty days and nights to Horeb.

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Category: Distress
Prayed by: Elijah

Key Chapters

1 Kings 19 Elijah Flees to Horeb 5 min read Even a great prophet can fall into despair, and Scripture records his honest pra...

Key Passages

It Is Enough

1 Kings 19:3-4

Even a great prophet can fall into despair, and Scripture records his honest prayer without hiding it.

A³nd when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.

⁴ But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.

Arise and Eat

1 Kings 19:5-8

God answers Elijah's despair with rest, food, and gentle care before He gives him any new task.

A⁵nd as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.

⁶ And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. ⁷ And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. ⁸ And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.