Thoughts for the Day

* Elijah's journey from Beersheba to Horeb!

Elijah got up, and ate and drank; then he went....to Horeb the mount of God. At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’

He said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’ He answered, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

The 'back-story' to this episode is that although the people declared for God after the prophets of Baal were defeated, king Ahab and his people and gone back to their old ways. Queen Jezebel is determined to kill the prophet, and Elijah flees to Beer-Sheba in Judah before going further south into the desert. Here he sits under a bush and asks God to end his life, which is rather reminiscent of Jonah's words centuries later (Jonah 3-4). But God never answers such a prayer, for he will take Elijah to Himself in his own good time, and when a person thinks their mission is finished they may find it's only just started. God had more work for Elijah to do, so Elijah is visited twice by an angel who gives him food and drink, and instructs him to travel south to Mount Horeb (Mount Sinai) where Moses met with God. The journey will cover some 420 km of desert and mountain terrain.

Our reading says 'Elijah 'came to a cave', but in the original text it said 'the cave'. Are we to assume this is the same cleft in the rock where Moses communes with God and where he receives the Ten Commandments? Possibly, for again we get the repeated question and the rather self-righteous lament from Elijah, before the instruction to go out and stand on the mountain. Then comes the demonstration - God is not in the wind, nor is he in the earthquake, nor in the fire, instead he is in the sound of 'sheer silence'.

Perhaps, at this point we may understand that God speaks in the silence direct into our minds and hearts. Elijah's work was not completed he was to anoint the next two kings with oil and his own successor, Elisha. To do this he was to travel from Sinai in the extreme south to Damascus in the extreme North avoiding queen Jezebel all the way! One doesn't always get the answer from God one wants, and sometimes the job is not finished!

Lord Jesus Christ,
when we feel that life is difficult
and that we have done all we can
to complete the work You have give us to do,
may we tune into You once more
and learn the rest of Your plans for our life.
Then help us to find the strength to continue,
no matter the challenges that lie ahead,
until You choose to call us home.
Amen.