Elijah flees to Horeb
1 Ahab told Jezebel every thing Eli jah had done and how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.
2 Jezebel then sent word to Elijah, “May I be cursed if by this time tomorrow I have not dealt with you as you dealt with them.”
3 Elijah was scared and fled for his life. He reached Beer-sheba of Judah and left his servant there.
4 He himself disappeared into the desert going on a day’s journey. Then he sat down under a broom tree and prayed to die, “That is enough, Yahweh, take away my life for I am dying.”
5 He lay down and went to sleep under the broom tree. Then an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”
6 Elijah looked and saw, at his head, a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. He ate and drank and went back to sleep.
7 The angel of Yahweh came a second time to him, saying, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too long for you.”
8 He got up, ate and drank, and on the strength of that food, he traveled for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.
The encounter with God
9 On reaching the place, he came to the cave and stayed in it. Then the word of Yahweh came to him,“What are you doing here, Elijah?”
10 He answered, “I am burning with jealous love for Yahweh, the God of Hosts, because the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword. No one is left but myself and they are still trying to kill me as well.”
11 Then Yahweh said, “Go up and stand on the mount, waiting for Yahweh.” And Yahweh passed by.
There was first a windstorm, wild wind which rent the mountains and broke the rocks into pieces before Yah weh, but Yahweh was not in the wind. After the storm, an earthquake, but Yahweh was not in the earthquake.
12 Af ter the earthquake, a fire, but Yahweh was not in the fire. After the fire, the mur mur of a gentle breeze.
13 When Elijah perceived it, he covered his face with his cloak, went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then he heard a voice addressing him again, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
14 He answered, “I am burning with jealous love for Yah weh, the God of hosts, because the Israelites have forsaken your cove nant, thrown down your altars and slain your prophets with the sword. No one is left but myself, yet they still seek my life to take it away.”
15 Yahweh said to him, “Take the road back through the desert and go to Damascus for you must anoint Hazael as king of Syria;
16 you shall also anoint Jehu, son of Nimshi, as king over Israel; and Elisha, son of Shaphat, from Abel Meholah, you shall anoint as pro phet in your place.
17 Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael will be slain by Jehu and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha will let him die.
18 Yet I will spare seven thousand in Israel who have not knelt before Baal and whose lips have not kissed him.”
19 So Elijah left. He found Elisha, son of Shaphat, who was plowing a field of twelve acres and was at the end of the twelfth acre. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak over him.
20 Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah and said, “Let me say goodbye to my father and mother; then I will follow you.” Elijah said to him, “Return if you want, don’t worry about what I did.”
21 However, Elisha turned back, took the yoke of oxen and slew them. He roasted their meat on the pieces of the yoke and gave it to his people who ate of it. After this, he followed Elijah and began ministering to him.
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Comments 1 Kings, Chapter 19
• 19.1 Elijah was scared and fled for his life. Thus, the miracle does not miraculously solve the problems of faith. The conversion of the people will be a long and painful work.
We can see on the map how Elijah crossed the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah from north to south. Carmel is 250 kilometers from Beersheba, the last town before the desert south of Judah.
The journey is too long for you. Elijah only looks for the entrance to the desert to save himself, but God brings him much farther. He is given a mysterious bread which recalls the manna of the Hebrews in the desert and foretells the eucharistic bread which Jesus will give for our spiritual journey (Jn 6:8).
He traveled for forty days and forty nights (see Ex 24:18). Elijah goes to encounter Yahweh. Jesus himself will go to the desert as a nec es sary proof and we, too, at certain moments need “to go to the desert” (sometimes God himself puts us in the desert: Hos 2:16). Elijah’s solitary journey shows the itinerary which those who seek God have to undertake. However, much we need the sup port of our spouse, of our companions, of the Church, each one makes his or her own journey, and God calls peo ple personally to seek this encounter with him.
• 9. Thus Elijah arrives at Horeb: it is the other name of Sinai, where Yahweh had revealed himself to Moses four centuries earlier.
Go up and stand on the mount, waiting for Yahweh. To him who is afire with a jealous love for God, God manifests his tenderness be yond all that we can imagine. Thus, Yahweh reveals himself in the gentle breeze more than in the hurricane or in the earthquake.
What are you doing here, Elijah? First, God asks a question and obliges the prophet to discover the depth of his heart. There is nothing in Elijah but his jealous love for Yahweh. Yahweh, in turn, reveals his infallible plans.
Hazael, Jehu, Elisha. Yahweh tells Elijah about the future of Israel with all its tragic truth: the kingdom, gloriously begun with David and Solomon, is destined to disappear. This will be the result of the people’s disobedience.
– Hazael, king of Syria, is the enemy king who will conquer and humiliate Israel.
– Jehu will destroy Ahab’s family and annihilate the worshipers of Baal.
– Elisha will transmit the menacing words of Yahweh.
Nevertheless, Israel will not totally disappear, for God reserves a Remnant, expressed in symbolic form by 7,000 Israelites who have not knelt before Baal.
This revelation clarifies the mission of the prophets of the Bible. The majority of them, and the greatest among them, lived during the three centuries in which Israel passed from the glory of Solomon to the Exile. So the prophets:
– tried to hold back the infidelity of the chosen people who were heading to their ruin;
– called for inner conversion, that of the heart;
– taught the marvelous future which God had reserved for the “remnant” of Israel, after the destruction of their material kingdom in the land of Palestine.
• 19. Elijah passed by Elisha and cast his cloak over him. He calls him in the same way as Jesus will call his apostles: “Follow me.” Perhaps Elijah inter prets the answer, “Let me embrace my parents,” as a hesitation on Elisha’s part to leave everything and, for this reason, he answers him: “Go back if you want, it was nothing of importance.” But Elisha merely wanted to say goodbye to his relatives in a decent manner (see Lk 9:61). From now on, Elisha will be Elijah’s disciple and his successor in Israel.