The blessing of the desert

I love Elijah. I love the power of his relationship with God, the ridiculous aspects of his life, all of it. But as I walk in this spiritual desert, Elijah also has something there for me as well. In I Kings 18, Elijah demonstrates the power of God against Baal, and slaughters 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah. At the same time, he prays until a drought is suddenly ended. Powerful things that show that God is with him.

But Elijah's response is fear for his life and he flees into the desert towards the mountain of God. Now as I walk along the border of the desert in my life, I have been searching for understanding of why God leads me into these places, and how I am to live/work/behave in the midst of them. I don't have an answer, but God has given me a smidgen of deeper understanding that the desert is a good place to be through Elijah.

As Elijah flees death, he runs into the desert for a full day. At the end of the day he is exhausted and overwhelmed. He actually prays for death saying that he has had enough. But as he sleeps and waits for death, an angel comes bringing food & water, supposedly to strengthen Elijah on his journey.

What I don't get is why the angel of God couldn't have just carried Elijah through the desert to the mountain of God. God has clearly done that before, say with Stephen in the NT. So why does God make Elijah trek through the desert for 40 days, strengthened only by the 2 meals given him by the angel. It would have been so easy to just transport Elijah there, and then less time would've been wasted and Elijah could be back at work much more quickly. But God is determined that Elijah needs to be in the desert. I don't know what happens, but somehow in that desert, Elijah's desire to die changes and he is willing to walk the path that God lays out for him on the mountain.

One thing that Elijah can be assured of is that God does not want him dead and has not abandoned him. He can look back during those 40 days and remember that God provided food for him, and provided in miraculous ways.

I know only that God has provided thus far, and that it seems that it is a good thing for me to wander in the desert.

Hosea 1:14 (adapted)
"I will woo you into the desert, and there I will show you that I love you."