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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.”
This is a story that strikes me as particularly interesting — and considering that it’s a story from the Bronze Age, almost 3000 years ago, it’s surprisingly relevant to the life we live today. So I’m always glad to see it come up in the lectionary.
It’s a story from the First Book of Kings, which reports on the reigns of those who succeeded King David and his son Solomon. You might remember that in a Reflection a couple of weeks ago, we mentioned that after the reign of Solomon, the country had split into two kingdoms. In spite of having been given the gift of wisdom, Solomon had committed a number of errors in his reign, including imposing ruinous taxes on the people of the country. That led to the northern part of the land breaking away and becoming the Kingdom of Israel. The remaining part of the country, with its capital in Jerusalem, was called the Kingdom of Judah.
Several generations after David and Solomon, king named Ahab acceded to the throne of Israel. His queen was a foreigner – a Sidonian woman named Jezebel, who was a worshiper of the pagan god Baal. And Jezebel was not just a worshipper of Baal — she was a militant and ruthless queen. Under her influence, Ahab had allowed the worship of Baal to spread throughout the land. (This, by the way, was why God had warned the Hebrew people not to marry foreign women. They tended to import their religion with them. You might remember that even Solomon himself had allowed pagan worship to take place after he took hundreds of foreign wives and concubines.)
You also might remember that in response to the spread of Baal worship, the prophet Elijah had challenged the priests of Baal to a public contest –a “battle of sacrifices,” so to speak. Elijah and the priests of Baal each built an altar and sacrificed a bull, then each called upon their god to send down fire and consume their 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 foreign influence by slaughtering the priests of Baal.
But Elijah’s victory was short lived. In our reading for today, the evil queen Jezebel, furious at her murder of her Baal priests, swears to have Elijah killed. The prophet flees the country and heads off into the desert. You can imagine how discouraged Elijah must have been. Just when he thought he had restored worship of the true God to prevalence in the land, Elijah found himself on the run. So it was probably reasonable for him to be depressed.
But to his refuge in the wilderness, God sends an angel to provide for Elijah. He brings him bread and water. (And interestingly, the Hebrew text says the angel provided an unusually high quality of bread — what we might call ‘artisanal bread.’) Refreshed by this angelic sustenance, Elijah continues his journey through the desert, eventually arriving at 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 spectacular events, there is silence. (Older versions of the Bible said it was “a still, small voice.” The NIV Bible says it was “a gentle whisper.” But the Hebrew text actually says it was “a sheer fine 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.
The fact that God’s voice was heard in silence seems particularly important to me. Lots of people of faith seem to make the mistake of thinking that it’s in fire and storm and earthquake that God works in the world. And often, they insist that natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes are expressions of God’s anger against people they don’t approve of. After the great tsunami in South Asia several years ago, a number of Christian leaders declared this tsunami to be God’s punishment against those who practice other religions. Some of the same Christian leaders announced that Hurricane Katrina was a punishment against New Orleans for tolerating homosexuality. 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 assistance and shelter – that, I think, is when you hear the sound of God’s quiet voice, speaking a word of comfort and encouragement to those who have suffered.
I think there’s another message in the story as well — 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
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