The week’s Old Testament reading starts at a point in Israel’s history following a major series of events and miracles involving the prophet Elijah. It’s a lot like reading the epilogue of a book without reading the rest of the story that precedes it.
In order to understand the significance of God’s actions in 1 Kings 19:9-18, we need to know about what happened in the previous chapter involving Elijah and Israel’s evil king and queen, Ahab and Jezebel.
The prophet Elijah challenged Ahab’s 850 priests who worshipped Baal in order to show the weakness of their god compared to Yahweh, the God of the Israelites (1 Kings 18:20-39). God answered Elijah’s prayer; the priests and
prophets of Baal lost pitifully; and the people of Israel then fell to the ground and worshipped the one true God, Yahweh.
After God ignites the sacrifice and wet wood for Elijah, the prophets and priests of Baal are captured and brought to another area for execution:
Then Elijah commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Don’t let anyone get away!” They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there. — 1 Kings 18:40 NIV)
In the final verses of Chapter 18, in response to Israel turning from Baal and back to the Lord, Elijah prays for rain to end the drought that he prophesied three years before (1 Kings 18:1).
So, we see powerful miracles happen in response to Elijah’s prayers: Causing a drought that covers Samaria for three years; providing enough food for a widow and her son throughout that drought from a small bit of flour and oil; raising the widow’s son from the dead; igniting wet wood and the sacrifice at the altar; and bringing massive rains in response to the Israelites’ repentance. Whatever Elijah prayed for, happened.
After the death of the prophets and priests of Baal, Ahab hurried back to Jezebel, and told her all about what happened. She then sent a messenger to Elijah telling him that she will ensure he is dead by the next day.
We’re told in the third verse of Chapter 19 how Elijah, a mighty man of God, who witnessed the awesome power of the almighty, responded to her warning:
Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.
He runs all the way to the furthest point of the kingdom where he leaves his servants, and then he runs another day’s journey (somewhere between 8 and 30 miles) into the wilderness. Elijah now does something totally unexpected:
He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. — 1 Kings 19:4-5
In other words, Elijah attempted suicide. We don’t like to think of it that way, but that’s what praying to die means when one’s prayers have the results that Elijah’s did. God answered Elijah’s prayer; but this time the answer was no.
God sent an angel instead to minister to Elijah, strengthen him, and sent him out on another mission.
Looking closely, we can see the first biblical example of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and treatment.
Feelings of despair or hopelessness, impulsive behavior, fear for one’s safety, hypervigilance, are directly described in the text and it’s quite likely Elijah felt other physical symptoms as well.
PTSD commonly results from a devastating, horrific event happening in a place where we normally feel safe and secure. The more severe or continuous the exposure is, the greater the likelihood of a severe reaction. Post-traumatic stress in normal. If we didn’t feel stress after a traumatic event, it wouldn’t really be traumatic. If, however, that stress lasts a long time or is so severe it interferes with our ability to function normally, we consider it a disorder.
The slaughter of 850 people, fire igniting his altar sacrifice, Jezebel’s messenger finding him and threatening him created a rational response (fear) to an irrational series of incidents. That series of events can be, and apparently was, overwhelming.
Pastoral Crisis Intervention training teaches that the response to PTSD, in order to bring someone out of that spiral is proximity, immediacy, and expectancy (PIE) — “give them a piece of PIE.”
That’s exactly what God did.
All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. 7 The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 … And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” 11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” 15 The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram…
18 Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel — all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” — 1 Kings 19:5-15, 18
God sent an angel to him, and then drew him closer to himself upon the mountaintop the Israelites linked to God’s holiness — Proximity.
God brought him food to strengthen his body and well as his faith through that angel soon after he fell asleep that first day — Immediacy.
God told Elijah that he still had work for him to do, that he was not finished yet. He gave him a clear understanding that he was still capable and useful, and that he would not be doing it alone — Expectancy.
Elijah thought he was alone, but God shows him in verse 18 that many other holy people were set aside by God to help him in this mission. We should avoid the Western temptation to assume the writer means an actual numeric count of 7,000. To the Israelites, and other ancient cultures in the region such as the Egyptians, Canaanites, and Hittites, numbers were often used as rhetorical and spiritual symbols as well as for actual counting.
The number 7 is one of Judaism’s most powerful symbols. It represents the creation of the world, blessing, and a spiritual completion or perfection. A week is seven days long, Pentecost is celebrated after seven weeks from
the first grain harvest. The lampstand (menorah) in the Temple has seven branches. The farm land in Israel was supposed to be left unused every seventh year, and after seven of those cycles (49 years), the following year was a
Jubilee Year, in which all slaves were freed, sold land returned to its original owners, and all debts forgiven.
In the chapter that precedes this week’s passage, as Elijah prays for rain to end the drought in Israel, he sends his servant to look for rain clouds forming:
And he said to his servant, “Go up and look toward the Sea.” He went up and looked and reported, “There is nothing.” Seven times [Elijah] said, “Go back…” 1 Kings 18:43
The number 1,000 also has a symbolic use (we use it as a general term to mean “many” even today: “thousands of people watched the parade”). The word for thousand (elef) also means crowd, tribe, or even a military group or
unit. Many references in the Bible show 1,000 used in a general sense to mean “many”: Genesis 24:60 has “thousands of ten thousands” and Daniel 7:10 mentions “a thousand thousands … and … ten thousand times ten thousand.” These are not meant as arithmetic word problems, rather as imagery to indicate a huge number stretching the boundaries of one’s imagination.
With this in mind, we see that God has told Elijah that he not only won’t face the upcoming challenges on his own, but that God has provided a perfect group to help achieve their objective, larger than Elijah could reasonably
expect or imagine, and specifically blessed by God for his purpose.
What began as a terrifying ordeal for Elijah in response to Jezebel’s threat has now been turned around through God’s healing grace. At this point, Elijah is safe, but things aren’t looking very good for Jezebel.
The same is true in our own lives. The incredible destruction and inhumanity we see in our world—devastating loss and suffering (sometimes even in our own circle of friends and family)—can lead us to hopelessness and misery. But we do not face these tragedies alone. God is with us (though as a soft voice in the background of our hearts), and he provides an amazing support group for us if we will step outside our own caves of despair and listen for
his voice.
And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
Grace and Peace,
Fr. Austin