Broom Tree Inn | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Broom Tree Inn | Previous Challenge Entry
By Carol Adams
12/09/05
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Broom Tree Inn

T – Is a trip to the wilderness. There once was a prophet named Elijah who fled to the wilderness after a great spiritual victory. He sat under a lone broom tree, begging for God to take his life. But God in His love and mercy touched and taught Elijah spiritually and physically, restoring him at the Broom Tree Inn.

R – Refuge in flight. Elijah was running on empty for he physically and spiritually gave all that he had in the great spiritual victory against the prophets of Baal, Jezebel and Ahab. He was spiritually exhausted, beaten down and ashamed. Now, he needed a touch from the Lord. He needed to be renewed, revived, and restored.

E – Elijah is described as having great experiences, exhaustion, and emptiness. Whenever we have great victory in our lives, we oftentimes experience defeat shortly after. We begin to question our existence, and we look back and wonder why we have failed. Elijah was exhausted physically and spiritually. Two great victories had been won: the defeat of Jezebel’s prophets of Baal by fire and the answered prayer for rain after a long drought. As Elijah prays for rain, he tells his servant to go tell Ahab that he had better hitch his chariot up and be on his way before the rain stops him. Ahab rides off to Jezreel. The power of the Lord infuses Elijah and he outruns Ahab in his chariot. It was a six mile run!
Then Ahab tells Jezebel all that Elijah had done; so she sends a messenger to Elijah and threatens to kill him. Elijah’s experiences make him exhausted and he knows emptiness leading to fear, insecurity and abandonment. He runs for his life into the wilderness. He is an empty shell with nothing more to give.

E – Encouragement from God. Depression brings on sleep. Elijah was physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted, as he comes to the lone Broom Tree Inn. God allows Elijah to find rest there. He awakens to the angel of the Lord touching him and telling him to get up and eat. There in the midst of the wilderness, God provides sustenance to Elijah. His physical needs were being addressed. Elijah ate, drank and went back to sleep. The angel came back a second time, touched him and told him to get up and eat for the journey would be long. Elijah needed his rest and food at the Broom Tree Inn for his forty days and nights journey to Mt. Horeb. God enabled him to be renewed in his body, revived in his spirit, and restored in his soul. This is encouragement for Elijah.

S – As Elijah sat under the spreading branches of the Broom Tree Inn, his state of mind was fragile. Yet God strengthened him by giving him food, water, rest, and a ministering angel. God gave him special strength to travel over 200 miles without additional food. God was not finished with Elijah. God continued to speak to Elijah and use him mightily even after he left the Broom Tree Inn.

Taken from I Kings 17-19.

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