February 18 Daily Devotional

Monthly Theme:

Elijah's name is his mission: "My God is the LORD." Elijah teaches us the meaning of repentance by the removal of idolatry. Unless we obey the Word, God's blessings don't descend. Instead, the land will experience a terrible drought.

Bible Reading:

1 Kings 19:1–4

Bible Text:

Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah .... Elijah was afraid and ran for his life (1 Kings 19:2–3).

Devotional:

It was the day after Elijah's great victory. The land was revived by rain. The prophets of Baal were dead. And the echo of Israel's confession had hardly died down: "The LORD—he is God!"

Jezebel was furious. She sent a message to Elijah: "Within a day, you'll be as dead as one of my Baal's prophets."

Why would she warn Elijah and give him a chance to run? Probably because she was more interested in a victory for Baal than in the corpse of Elijah.

Jezebel was not only an evil queen—she was the queen of evil. She wasn't merely a pawn but rather a critical piece in the devil's chess game. She was wickedly strong and able to stand alone against the masses, just as Elijah had.

When Elijah saw her utter wickedness, and when he heard of the new threat on his life, he feared and ran. It's hard to imagine Elijah afraid. Some versions of the Bible even change the verb from "was afraid" to "saw." But we cannot alter the fact that Elijah ran for his life. In the never-ending, deadly tiresome struggle of good and evil, Elijah had had enough.

The Bible has "heroes of faith," and Elijah is certainly one of them. But God does not hide our heroes' weaknesses. For they need God's grace as much as we do.

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published in 1994. This edition is copyright by Faith Alive Christian Resources, from whom may be ordered Daylight, the predecessor of Twilight.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this edition of Twilight are from the New International Version

Be sure to read the "Preface" and the "Acknowledgments" by the author.