Not a one-dimensional Elijah

It is rather difficult to follow the psychology of Elijah.
A couple of hours earlier, Yahweh won Baal hands down.
Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, "The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God."  (1 Kings 18:38-39).
Action spoke louder than words. Yahweh was the ONE TRUE God. The choice was obvious. So, Elijah told the people to round up the 450 prophets of Baal and brought them down to the brook Kishon. He killed them there (1 Kings 18:40).
I cannot imagine how long it would take Elijah to kill 450 people. If he took an average of 12 seconds to walk up to a Baal prophet, swing a sabre in his hands to chop off the head, or to slit the throat, or to punch a hole in the heart or to rip open the belly, it would take one and a half hour to finish off these 450 prophets.
He then told Ahab to eat and drink while he went to pray for rain.
And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he bowed himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees (1 Kings 18:42).
Look at his posture. Elijah must have been very tired. Not quite right. When a great rain came, Ahab rode his chariot home while Elijah ran before him to the entrance of the city because the hand of the Lord was on Elijah (1 Kings 18:46). What an amazing feat!
A couple of hours later, Jezebel sent a death threat to Elijah (1 Kings 19:2). Elijah was afraid. He rose and fled to Beersheba (1 Kings 19:3). It was really difficult to follow his psychology. Didn't Yahweh walk with him all along? Why should he fear for his life?
From Beersheba, he went a day's journey into the wilderness. There, he prayed to God to take away his life.
But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree; and he asked that he might die, saying, "It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am no better than my fathers." (1 Kings 19:4)
Only one other person made this same request to God. He was Jonah, a prejudiced prophet. He was angry with God who, seeing the repentance of the people of Nineveh, spared them.  Jonah prayed to God to take away his life!
And he prayed to the LORD and said, "I pray thee, LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repentest of evil.
Therefore now, O LORD, take my life from me, I beseech thee, for it is better for me to die than to live." (Jonah 4:2-3)
He knew that God was merciful and would spare Nineveh. Yet, Jonah wanted Nineveh to receive punishment instead of pardon. His wish was so intense that, being frustrated, he wanted to die!
On the other hand, the request of Elijah was reasonable and understandable. Elijah preferred dying in God's hand to dying in the hand of the evil woman Jezebel. At that moment, Elijah was very human. He had been a superhero, channelling God's power to earth: flour, oil, breath of life, fire and rain. He had not spared any false prophets. Yet, at that moment, Elijah mysteriously experienced a bout of depression and weakness. He fled for his life and asked then God to kill him!! He must have been very confused indeed, a very human Elijah indeed. Very often, we think of these prophets and Jesus in a very one-dimensional and larger than life way. For some, it would be impossible for Jesus to be tired, to be hungry, to be reluctant to help, to be impatient, to be angry, to weep and to fear for his life. Luckily, the gospels leave us not with a one-dimensional Jesus.

My Advocate, I thank the authors of the Bible to have left us characters with a rich texture. Each of them related with You in a wide spectrum of manners. May we find our guides, our consolation and ourselves among them. Amen.