Elijah had just come off one of the biggest victories of his life and one of the most famous victories in the Bible. On Mount Carmel, he challenged the prophets of Baal, and God answered Elijah’s prayer with fire from heaven.
Then Jezebel threatened to kill him, and Elijah ran.
In the wilderness, he sat under a juniper tree and asked God to let him die. God gave him food and rest, and Elijah eventually traveled to Horeb, where he spent the night in a cave. Horeb was not a random destination. It was the mountain of God, the same place where Moses had encountered God centuries earlier.
That is where God asked him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Elijah said he had been zealous for God, but Israel had abandoned the covenant, killed God’s prophets, and now wanted to kill him. He believed he was the only one left.
God told Elijah to stand on the mountain. A powerful wind came, followed by an earthquake and fire. God was not in any of them. Then came “a sound of a gentle blowing.”
God gave Elijah his next assignment and corrected something important. Elijah was not alone. God had preserved seven thousand in Israel who had not bowed to Baal. Elijah had reached a point where he believed he was alone, his work had accomplished nothing, and his life was in danger.
God fed him, let him rest, corrected what he believed, and sent him back to work.
Elijah wasn’t alone, and he wasn’t finished.
1 Kings 18:20–19:18
God has more questions. See Let Me Ask You Something: When God Asks a Direct Question.