I Kings 19:12-13 KJB
Apparently, when Elijah prayed to God on Mount Carmel, and God sent fire from Heaven to completely burn the burnt sacrifice that Elijah had prepared, and all of the people who had formerly worshipped Baal fell on their faces and began to worship God, and Elijah had had the 450 prophets of Baal killed, then Elijah evidently thought that a great change would take place. From what Elijah later said to God, one can surmise that Elijah had thought that after God had shown Himself to be the only true God, that the majority of the people of Israel would turn to the worship of God, and king Ahab and his evil wife Jezebel would no longer be able to murder God's prophets and control the people of God by terrorizing them. I Kings 18:17-46 (KJB).
But Elijah soon discovered that not much had really changed. When the evil queen Jezebel threatened to kill him, apparently no one stood with Elijah and promised to protect him. Jezebel actually demonstrated that she was afraid of Elijah, because if she had been serious, she would have just sent an assassin to kill him without warning him instead of just threatening him. Nevertheless, Elijah panicked and ran for is life. I Kings 19:1-3 (KJB).
Elijah fell into a state of despair and wanted to die, but God was not angry with him. God displayed His compassion for him, and He sent an angel to cook food for him and give him water because God knew that Elijah was taking a long journey to Mount Horeb. Apparently, Elijah wanted to die on the mountain of God where He had given Moses the Ten Commandments. Elijah came to the mountain and hid in a cave there, but God asked him why he was there. Elijah replied that he believed that the forces of evil had won in Israel and that he alone was left to serve God. God told him to come out of the cave and stand on the top of the mountain. God then displayed to Elijah some of His destructive forces. God sent the powerful forces of wind, an earthquake, and a fire, but God was not in any of them because God wanted Elijah to know that His destructive forces were not directed toward Elijah. God wanted Elijah to know that where evil was concerned, God still had destructive control over it. God then spoke to Elijah in "a still small voice;" that is, a voice of love and compassion. God asked Elijah again why he was there, and Elijah again replied that he thought that he alone was left in Israel to serve God. I Kings 19:4-14 (KJB).
God's remedy for Elijah's despair and depression was that God simply told him to get back to work. God had kings for him to anoint, and a prophet for him to anoint to take his place when God called him home. As for Elijah's self-pity, God informed him that He had seven thousand in Israel who still served Him and not Baal. God's message to Elijah was clear. God still had Almighty Power over evil, and although God's people would always be in the minority in the earth, they would still win out over evil in the end. I Kings 19:15-18 (KJB).
One of the destructive forces that God demonstrated to Elijah was a fire that God was not in. I Kings 19:12 (KJB). But God is in His fiery wrath that He uses to utterly destroy evil. Hebrews 12:29 (KJB). The lake of fire is a part of God's nature that He uses to so preoccupy with pain all death and evil to the extent that it, and the Devil, can never influence His creation again. Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 20:10 (KJB). God's fiery wrath is actually creative because it causes God to be able to recreate Heaven and earth to be righteous after He has cleansed them with His fiery wrath including all of His repentant, living humans whom He created in His image to be good. II Peter 3:9-13; Revelation 21:1-5; Genesis 1:31; Genesis 1:26-27 (KJB). God promised in Revelation 21:5, "Behold, I make all things new." Since His living humans must be a part of the "all things" that God has created, then God must know a way to cause all of His living humans to repent and return to faith in Christ their Savior so that He can either save them by His grace or by a lesser form of salvation in the end of the world. Revelation 4:11; Revelation 5:11-14; John 5:24; John 5:28-29 (KJB).
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