Exhausted Retreat...Elijah pt 9

https://billrandles.wordpress.com/2021/11/29/exhausted-retreat-elijah-9/ ^ | 11-29-21 | Bill Randles

[pastorbillrandles]

And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.( I kings 19:1-3)

For a brief moment, after the showdown at Mt Carmel, and the humiliating defeat of Baal, it looked like Israel was returning to the covenant. A crowd of Baal worshippers prostrated themselves and confessed in public that “The LORD, He is God”, the King of Israel partook of a covenant meal, the congregation of Israel zealously helped the prophet of God to purge out of their midst the Priests of Baal, the King in his chariot was following the prophet down the mountain, and perhaps most importantly, God had sent rain to the parched, sin cursed land.

The Covenant was seemingly renewed. Perhaps the newly converted Ahab would now allow himself to be guided by the Prophet of God, and the Nation would come back to the true worship of God?

But would King Ahab’s repentance hold up, under the pressure of his demonically inspired wife? Elijah lingered at Jezreel, just long enough to find out.

To Elijah’s utter dismay, and perhaps even depression, it became obvious that yet Jezebel was in charge and eager to separate her vacillating husband from the powerful influences of the prophet, thus the threat and the 24 hour deadline. The newly converted King had come back under her powerful spell.

When Elijah saw the situation for what it was, he fled for his life, leaving the boundaries of the promised land, again. He headed south, and crossed over the border into the Kingdom of Judah, and headed further south into the wilderness of Paran and on into Sinai.

But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.( I Kings 19:4-8)

Behold the tender mercy and compassion of God on his weary servant, feeding him, in the wilderness ( as He had done for Israel)and refreshing his weary soul.

Truly Elijah was exhausted, and no doubt discouraged, perhaps emotionally spent after the drama of the confrontation on Carmel, and all that led up to it. It looked like the nation would be renewed, and that the majority was on His side, surely Israel would turn as a nation again to God, even the King! But seemingly all of that was for naught.

Where was Elijah headed? To a place of much significance, in the covenant history of Israel, to Mt Horeb where Moses received the covenant, and where He had sprinkled the people with the blood, and where the people agreed to follow God. He was going back to the place of the source.

This underscores the similarities between Moses and Elijah. Both underwent Divine training, in obscurity before they stepped into the scene. Moses confronted his Pharaoh, Elijah faced Ahab. Pharoah’s magicians are akin to the Priests of Baal, and Each of them were fed in the wilderness by God. Even the forty days are parallel. And both of them arrive at Mt Horeb, Moses to receive the covenant, and Elijah to renew it.

No wonder that Moses and Elijah both appear before Jesus at the transfiguration. In Jesus the mission of Moses and Elijah is fully vindicated and fulfilled.

And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? ( I Kings 19:9)

After forty days wandering in the wilderness, Elijah arrives at Horeb, and to the Cave. The King James says , ‘a cave’ but the Hebrew Text has a definite article before it according to Alfred Eidersheim, it is “The Cave”.

And so he came ultimately unto “the mount of God,” to “the cave”** – perhaps the very “clift of the rock” where Moses had first been permitted to hear the glorious revelation of what Jehovah was and of what He purposed.( Eidersheim, Alfred, Old Testament History)

Furthermore, Yahweh literally asks Elijah to “State your purpose , Elijah”.

This is no therapy session for Elijah, as modern commentaries and interpreters often make it out to be. Elijah, as a prophet of the only true God, is essentially a member of God’s council. He is like an attorney who prepares briefs, delivers charges, listens to sentences, and stands in the very council of the LORD, like an officer of the court.

Jeremiah brings this out in his denunciation of false prophets,

For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?… But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. ( Jeremiah 22:18,22)

Elijah has come to the Holy Mountain to regroup, to meet with the God of the covenant, to stand in the council of the LORD and to receive fresh orders. He will also intercede against Israel, and make a complaint of their actions. Is all lost? Is Elijah the only one standing for God? Will the covenant be renewed? Where do we go from here?

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[Varsity Flight]

1 Kings 19. Important Mark in History itself.

Revelation of the nature of our Maker.

[Deaf Smith]

I enjoy reading your threads.

[aces]

I enjoy the perspective as well..