Though Elijah was a remarkable servant of God, it is clear that his life inwardly was not sustained in proportion to his outward testimony. With him the fire, wind, and earthquake were everything; and when outward testimony excited the malignity of the enemy, as is usual, his faith was not equal to the pressure. But mark the blessed, tender way of Jehovah with His poor servant.
He is called to go and stand before the Lord, thus proving that solitude is useless unless it be with God. We may be even as he was, under a juniper tree, or in a cave (1 Kings 19:4-9), but that is only the solitude of disappointed nature; there is neither liberty, nor rest, nor listening in that. Oh, no, it must be with God. "Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD."
The demands of nature must not be yielded to. This is typified by the prophet's fasting forty days and forty nights; that which had been supplied to him was the providing of Jehovah's hand—even a "cake baken" and "a cruse of water," supplies outside nature, in the strength of which all its claims can be set aside.
3) In consequence of the two former, the prophet listens; he hears "a still small voice"—and thus receives communications and commissions which previously would have been unintelligible to him.