![]() 9 There Elijah went into a cave and spent the night. Then Elijah walked for 40 days and nights to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. He ate and drank and then went back to sleep.ħ Later the Lord’s angel came to him again, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat! If you don’t, you will not be strong enough to make the long trip.” 8 So Elijah got up. The angel said, “Get up and eat!” 6 Elijah looked around, and by his head there was a cake that had been baked over coals and a jar of water. I am no better than my ancestors.”ĥ Then Elijah lay down under the bush and went to sleep. He said, “I have had enough, Lord! Take my life. Then he sat down under a bush and asked to die. Then Elijah left his servant in Beersheba 4 and walked for a whole day into the desert. He took his servant with him, and they went to Beersheba in Judah. ![]() If I don’t succeed, may the gods do the same or worse to me.”ģ When Elijah heard this, he was afraid. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah and said, “I swear that by this time tomorrow, you will be just as dead as those prophets. They belong in the world, doing the work of God amidst the affairs of daily life.19 King Ahab told Jezebel everything that Elijah did and how Elijah had killed all the prophets of Baal with a sword. But ultimately God’s servants are not called to live on a mountaintop of spiritual ecstasy, close to God but far from the world. God’s servants are called to make periodic pilgrimages to Horeb, the source of Israel’s faith, for spiritual renewal and to be reenergized for service in God’s reign. Perhaps there is theological significance to both sides of the ambiguity. ![]() On the other hand, twice God asks the reproachful question, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (19:9, 13), and each time the prophet responds by whining about the sad state of affairs in Israel and how the entire burden of Israel’s spiritual welfare rests on his shoulders. Once at Horeb, God’s appearance and the giving of a new commission reenergize Elijah and restore him to his ministry. On one hand it can hardly be inappropriate for a discouraged prophet to make a pilgrimage to the source and center of Israelite faith, especially when it is the divine messenger who suggests such a trip and provides the miraculous food and water necessary for the strenuous journey. ![]() The story is ambiguous about the trip to Horeb. 7 Prophets do not belong on an isolated mountaintop of divine apparitions and spiritual ecstasy, they belong in the world carrying out the work of God. The tone of the question and the fact that it is repeated later in the story suggest that the question is a reproach.
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