Our guest preacher on Zoom, Gail Sosinsky Wickman, shared a wonderful reflection on the prophet Elijah and the ambiguity of this story from 1 Kings. 

Good morning. Every time I reread the scriptures for today, Elijah’s story left me uneasy. What I’d like to do this morning is share the struggles I have had with this passage.

This week’s bit of 1 Kings starts with Jezebel making the most convoluted, difficult-to-read death threat I have ever come across in literature. Our passage ends with verse 15a, which immediately made me wonder what is in 15b, so I am going to bring in the previous action and follow through with the ending because extending the story helped me come to grips with it. 

In the action before Jezebel’s death threat, Elijah is having his big showdown with the prophets of Baal. This is a great story. We have a land suffering from drought due to the people’s wicked ways, and Elijah proposes a contest. He calls for the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Ashera to meet him at Mount Carmel. I cannot tell you what happened to the 400 prophets of Ashera. The passage never mentions them again. Anyway, the crowds gather, and Elijah proposes that two bulls be brought for sacrifice. Each side will build an altar, prepare the wood and lay the pieces of the bull on it, but put no fire to the wood. Instead they will pray, and whichever god sends fire is the one to follow. 

The 450 prophets of Baal went first. They built the altar, laid out the offering and prayed. All Morning Long. Nothing happened. 

About noon, Elijah starts with the trash talk – “Maybe he’s wandered off. Maybe he’s asleep. Maybe he’s using the toilet.” 

So the 450 prophets step up their game and start cutting themselves and bleeding all over and praying louder. Still nothing.

Then it is Elijah’s turn. First, he builds an altar of 12 stones, one for each tribe of Israel. Then he lays the wood out, then he butchers the bull and lays it out, then he digs a big trench around the altar, enough for two measures of grain, which one source says means that it took two measures to plant the area. From the context, it was a big trench. Then he adds insult to injury and has 4 jars of water poured over the sacrifice. And a second time. And a third. The passage doesn’t say it, but that’s 12 jars of water, like the 12 tribes of Israel. Anyway, the sacrifice is so waterlogged that the surrounding trench is full. Elijah says a simple prayer, and BOOM!

“Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench.”

The people fell on their faces and acknowledged God’s power. Don’t you just want to end the story there? Dramatic, observable proof of God’s power and the people being transformed? But it doesn’t end there.

⁴⁰ Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.” Then they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the Wadi Kishon and killed them there.

This bothers me. The 450 prophets of Baal had just seen dramatic, observable proof of God’s power. Didn’t any of them want to convert? One of the most cherished parts of my faith is the belief in redemption. It’s not offered here. Instead, depending on the version, the prophets are killed, slain, executed, put to death, or slaughtered. 450 worn out, bloodied, disheartened contest losers. 

What comes next makes me think that Elijah was bothered by it, too. He sends King Ahab off to get something to eat, climbs to the top of Mount Carmel and “bowed himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees.” He’s curled into the fetal position. He is so utterly worn out that he sends his servant to watch for the signs of rain. It’s like he can’t even muster the strength to go look for the fulfillment of God’s promised rain.

So Israel finally gets some rain and Ahab hurries home to tell Jezebel what happened. Now Elijah might have thought that all would be well. He had been there for that dramatic, observable proof of God’s power and the people had fallen on their faces. Why wouldn’t it convince Jezebel?

This part reminded me of the past few years when it seems like you can have 47 peer reviewed studies and 100% reproducible experimental results supporting that something is true, and you are still going to have people say, “Nah. Not gonna believe it.” Unfortunately for Elijah, this was Jezebel. She uttered her convoluted death threat and like any sensible human being, he runs for his life.

Elijah heads into the wilderness and sits under a broom tree. Not exactly an oasis of delight, but shade. And he prays. “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” I read commentaries that said no one is really sure what Elijah means when he compares himself to his ancestors. I read a commentary that says he is comparing himself to previous prophets, particularly Moses. What it brought to my mind, and this is just me, is the scorched earth policy in so much of Joshua – kill ‘em all, even the animals. Even if Elijah did not personally wield the sword, 450 deaths is a lot to feel responsible for.

Eventually, he falls asleep, only to be awoken by an angel who tells him to eat and drink. There is no surprise from Elijah, but he did just see God’s fire consume beef, wood, stone, dust and water. He sleeps again, and this time when he wakes the angel tells him to eat up because he won’t be eating for the next 40 days. Again, there is no emotion, no reaction, no words from Elijah until he gets to Mount Horeb and shelters in a cave. 

In that cave, God comes to him and asks, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

¹⁰ He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”

I get the sense that these thoughts have been running through his head over and over again for the past 40 days and nights. 

Then comes the highlight of this text, my favorite part. God is going to be walking past, and Elijah is supposed to come out of the cave to find him. First, there is wind so strong it shatters mountains – but God was not in the wind. Then there was the earthquake shaking the ground – but God was not in the earthquake. Then there was fire – but God was not in the fire.

Then there was sheer silence, and Elijah went to entrance of the cave because that’s where God was. 

This section, too, has a number of translations. Some call the silence a gentle whisper, a still small voice, gentle blowing, a gentle breeze. I personally like the sheer silence, that idea that there is nothing there to get in the way of experiencing God. 

This section always speaks to me, but it is especially evocative now. We live in a time of Loud and Big – military parades, 11 million protesters, AI Bots working overtime to drive everyone on social media farther and farther apart. It’s overwhelming. It’s only when I strip all the noise away that I am ready to receive God’s presence. 

Again, don’t you just want to end here? God and Elijah have this beautiful moment in the stillness?

But God asks again, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 

¹⁴ He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.”

Nothing has changed! Elijah is still frightened for his life. He’s had a one-on-one with God, and all he talks about are his credentials and his worries. This, too, leaves me uneasy. I want to see him feel comforted, but that’s not what he says.

When we look at the last half verse, God tells Elijah to go to the wilderness of Damascus, which doesn’t sound so bad if you stop there. Maybe it’s a pleasant spot for a little respite, a little relaxation. Nope.

Remember how I was suspicious of the half verse? Here’s the rest of the story. 

¹⁵ Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. ¹⁶ Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel, and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. ¹⁷ Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill, and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill. ¹⁸ Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

Elijah is being thrown back into the political world and has a blood bath to look forward to. I want to shout, “Unfair! When does he get to rest? You were with him. You saw. You know.” As Elijah said, “Enough!” Yes, the ending bothers me.

After all the readings, this story still leaves me unsettled, but I think it is good to go over passages enough times that Holy Spirit can meet us in the reading. I think it’s important that we’re not just focusing on the parts of the Bible we like. Cherry picking is just a way of painting the picture of God we want to see. Mostly, I’ve discovered how grateful I am to be living under the New Covenant where everyone is invited to become God’s child and redemption is freely given. 

May we all be gifted this week with sheer silence and the presence of God. Amen.