Elijah and the LORD: Elijah has been involved in a mighty battle. He seems to think it decisive and so he has left the battlefield for Jezreel. Yet there have been several hints in the narrative thus far that it is the queen, and not the king, who is the real general of the opposing forces. She will not be so easily cowed as her husband, and Elijah is now to see that to win a battle is not necessarily to win the war. That realization will send him into retreat, both physical and mental, as victory becomes defeat. Retreat will in turn lead him to another mountain, to confront, not Baal, but the LORD himself—whom Elijah serves, but whose ways he only partly understands and accepts.

19:1–2  Thus far in the story Jezebel has remained in the background. Elijah has been dealing entirely with Ahab…