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I Kings 19:1-5, 9b-18
Elijah Flees to Horeb
1Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”
3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.
The Lord Appears to Elijah
And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
15 The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17 Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. 18 Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”
We don’t often base our daily Reflections on stories from the historical books of the Old Testament. But this story seems especially worth reading and thinking about. Even though it’s a story that relates events that took place almost 3,000 years ago in the Bronze Age, it seems to me that it has important teaching for us in the digital age. That teaching relates to how God acts and speaks into the world.
This story takes place a few generations after King David and his son Solomon. After the reign of Solomon, the country had divided into two kingdoms. The northern part became known as the Kingdom of Israel, and the southern part, whose capital was Jerusalem, was called the Kingdom of Judah.
Our story for today begins in the Kingdom of Israel when its king was Ahab. His queen was a Sidonian woman named Jezebel, who was a militant worshiper of the pagan god Baal. Under her influence, Ahab had allowed the worship of Baal to spread throughout the land. (And, by the way, this was a common problem when Hebrew kings married foreign women – even Solomon himself allowed pagan worship to take place after he took foreign wives.)
In response to the spread of Baal worship, the prophet Elijah, who was the leader of the Israelites who were faithful to the true God, challenged the priests of Baal to a public contest. Each side would call on their god to send down fire and consume a sacrifice. The priests of Baal failed, of course, because there is no Baal. But the God of Israel sent down fire when Elijah called on him, and the people of the country rose up and purged the country of the priests of Baal.
In today’s reading, the evil queen, who is enraged by these events, swears to have Elijah killed. The prophet flees into the desert, where he displays the classic symptoms of depression – lethargy, hopelessness, sleeping excessively. Just at the moment when he thought the forces of the true God were victorious in the land, Elijah found himself on the run. So it was probably reasonable for him to be depressed.
But as Elijah struggles with this depressive state, God sends angels to provide for him. They bring him bread and water. (And the Hebrew text describes an unusually high quality of bread. We might consider it ‘artisanal bread.’) Strengthened by the food and water, Elijah continues his journey through the desert until he comes to the mountain of God.
At the sacred mountain, God puts on a demonstration to teach Elijah an important lesson. First, a violent wind blows, powerful enough to shatter rock. Then there is an earthquake. Then fire from the sky. But after these powerful events, there is silence. And in that silence Elijah experiences the presence of God in a new and profound way – that’s why he covers his face and walks to the mouth of the cave.
Then God tells Elijah to go back to work – to anoint a new king for Israel and a new prophet to train as his successor. And God assures Elijah that even when the forces of evil seem to have the upper hand, God will preserve some of the faithful to carry on the true faith.
Here’s why I say this story has some lessons to teach us:
First of all, lots of people of faith make the mistake of thinking that it’s in fire and storm and earthquake that God works in the world. Sadly, we tend to describe those things as “Acts of God.” But in this passage, God seems to be saying that his voice is really heard in the silence after the powerful forces abate.
Are hurricanes and earthquakes expressions of God’s anger at the people who live in their path? I seriously doubt it. But when people of faith show up to help, when churches reach out to provide food and shelter – that, I think, is the sound of God’s quiet voice after the disasters, speaking a word of comfort and encouragement to those who have suffered.
I think this story is also meant to teach us that even in those times when it seems like the forces of evil are winning, God has not abandoned the project of establishing his kingdom. In the story, God promises to preserve a remnant of the faithful even in the darkest hours.
To me, this seems like one of the greatest stories of comfort and encouragement in all of the Old Testament.
Let’s pray. Lord, help us not to be shaken when spectacular events take place, and guard us against the mistake of believing that you send storms and earthquakes as punishment upon those who suffer. Help us to listen for your word of hope in the silence afterward, and empower us to be messengers of that word of hope as we serve the suffering in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
(The listed readings for today are Psalms 150 and 23; I Kings 21:1-16; I Corinthians 1:1-19; and Matthew 4:1-11. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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