Elijah on the mountain

Week 4: Tuesday

Reading

1 Kings 19.1-13

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, ‘So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.’ Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there.
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: ‘It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.’ Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, ‘Get up and eat.’ He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, ‘Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.’ He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights 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?’

Reflection

Elijah is the other great prophet who – alongside Moses – makes it into the story of Jesus’ transfiguration, appearing beside Jesus and talking with him.

In today’s reading, Elijah is in deep distress. He is on the run from King Ahab and Queen Jezebel having defeated the many other false prophets who were loyal to them. He is afraid for his life, despite the display of divine power he has just witnessed. We learn from him that victory and defeat walk hand-in-hand in our spiritual lives, and that we often need a place to hear God most deeply, most clearly and most powerfully.

After climbing the mountain, Elijah finally hears God. Not in the fire, nor the earthquake, nor in the wind, but – after waiting (or “tarrying”) till they have passed – in the most profound quiet.

Watch

Recall your moments of great triumph, and great defeat.

...and pray

for a sense of God's presence in all seasons of your life.

Copyright © The Archbishops’ Council 2024.