1 Kings 19:4-8 (NRSV)
Read 1 Kings 19:4-8 on biblegateway.com
Verse 4But 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." Verse 5Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, "Get up and eat." Verse 6He 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. Verse 7The 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." Verse 8He 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.
Devotion
Is Elijah rethinking the whole thing?
He had been impressive. The altar fire he ignited on behalf of Yahweh obliterated anything the prophets of Baal could conjure. It was a triumph!
But something is nagging at him. Is it the 450 men he killed or the fearful way he fled the scene? With his arrogance, violence, and cowardice, what kind of point has he made on behalf of God? Under a solitary broom tree Elijah considers whether Yahweh is not what he thought…
Like Elijah, we sometimes use power as a solution. We highlight success while forgetting the worth of those who are unremarkable or disagreeable. Too easily we dismiss or exclude. We lose our attention for the small gestures and passing comments which express the needs of God’s people. Like Elijah, God persists in nourishing us, giving us space to learn and more opportunity to be instruments of holy peace.
Prayer
Lord God, source of wisdom, how shall we think of you? How shall we speak for you? Amen.