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, or the journey will be too much for you.” He got up and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food 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?” 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. Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill, and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill. Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
So he set out from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat, who was plowing. There were twelve yoke of oxen ahead of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle over him. He left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” Then Elijah said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” He returned from following him, took the yoke of oxen, and slaughtered them; using the equipment from the oxen, he boiled their flesh and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out and followed Elijah and became his servant.
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.
The LORD said, “Go out and stand at the mountain before the LORD. The LORD is passing by.” A very strong wind tore through the mountains and broke apart the stones before the LORD. But the LORD wasn’t in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake. But the LORD wasn’t in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was a fire. But the LORD wasn’t in the fire. After the fire, there was a sound. Thin. Quiet.
Thin Places: Where the Veil Between This Word and Another is Thin, by Carrie J. Knowles is a short article worth the read. Elijah had just finished a feat of great faith. What followed was both the backlash from that as well as a mood swing from determination into euphoria down to the depth of depression and despair. From faith to being afraid and on the run and feeling like no one faithful was left in the land but himself, even though he had to know better than that. But we all know that such times can’t be entirely rational.
There are many times in life, some more acute than others, when we feel all but lost, maybe in a panic, trying to hold on for all we’re worth and yet not seeing how we can do so for much longer. Elijah was in that place.
God’s answer was graphic. It would not be in some experience that would seem obvious. Not at all.
Though various phenomena, such as wind, storms, earthquakes, fire, accompany the divine presence, they do not constitute the presence itself which, like the “silent sound,” is mysterious and ultimately ungraspable.
NABRE footnote on 1 Kings 19:12
One of my most remarkable experiences in the past was a one-day silent retreat at a Dominican retreat. Actually just a significant portion of one day, maybe around 8 hours or so, and we had a good meal in between. But except for probably the start and at the end when we shared, we had to be silent the entire time. I can’t describe it, except to say that it was powerful. Somehow God was in it in a way that was unusual. A thin place.
Elijah himself entered into such a space. And there he was able to hear God’s word. God gave Elijah work to do and then corrected Elijah. In other words, Elijah needed the sense of renewed calling, tasks to accomplish and a new perspective. God was far from finished with Elijah. And God’s unique work in Elijah would be carried on through Elisha, who he was to anoint as his successor.
I find myself that many days I need such. There are always challenges to what we think are not only ideal circumstances, but spaces we think somehow must be. We are too emmeshed in the mess of this world, too far removed from the other world which actually is present here, but all but lost to us. That is an ongoing challenge, but we need those special times which can be markers and help us find our way to the better place God has for each of us.
Jesus community 