Ahab of Israel [III]

The Ruins of Jezreel

Elijah was buoyant with optimism when he reached Jezreel. He was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel; he believed the contest on Mount Carmel had struck the death blow to the pagan practices promoted by the royal court. He was back in Ahab’s fold and eager to begin a religious reformation to root Baalism from Israel once and for all. He knew Ahab would need all the help he could get to face his domineering wife and her pagan ways, and he felt ready to give it – but he underestimated Jezebel. The king told his wife what had happened, how all her beloved prophets had been slain, and she went into a fuming rage, swearing to avenge their deaths by killing Elijah. Jezreel was in the grips of religious revival when a messenger came to Elijah, giving him a message from the queen: his death was as good as a done deal. It’s interesting that Jezebel sent a messenger to warn Elijah of her intentions; she may have done this because she felt she’d find no one that day who’d be willing to carry out the execution order against a man whose supernatural powers were so widely known, and the dispatching of a messenger was an act of rage rather than rationality, a venting of impotent wrath. Ahab may have been convinced and even converted by what he’d seen (though we know any repentance didn’t last), but Jezebel was unrelenting: she would see Elijah dead!

Jezebel’s message dashed Elijah’s spirits. His buoyant optimism sank into an infernal depression, and fearing for his life, he and his servant fled south from Jezreel. They made a hurried three-day trek to Beersheba, ninety-five miles south of Jezreel on the southern boundary of Judah in the Negev. Elijah may have considered seeking sanctuary with the God-fearing Jehoshaphat of Judah, but the Judean king was Ahab’s political ally and may have been forced by honor to report Elijah’s whereabouts. Upon reaching Beersheba, Elijah dismissed his servant and continued on alone. He likely dismissed his servant because he was planning on getting lost in the desert and dying alone; he was at the end of his rope and he meant to cut the tether. Some time upon his lonely journey he collapsed beneath a white broom tree (retama raetum) and rested beneath its bushy branches. White broom trees could grow five to ten feet in height, and they were the only shrub that could offer any shade in the desolate Negev. There he brooded over all that had transpired. He thought Yahweh had risen him up to bring the Israelites to repentance; so long as there’d been even a single ray of light to influence Israel, nothing had been too difficult for him; but Jezebel’s rage undercut his confidence, convincing him that no matter what he did, it was Jezebel – not Ahab nor the people of Israel – who had a hold on the land. So long as she lived, so long as she was in control, everything would be for naught. It didn’t matter if there were five or ten or twenty Mount Carmels: Jezebel was bent on rooting Yahwism from the land, and she would stop at nothing to accomplish her task. Israel, Elijah feared, would run red with the blood of anyone who dared stand in her way. Not even the prophets of God were safe. Under that broom tree Elijah’s belief that his life was fruitless and his mission a failure cemented, and he yearned to die. It is for this reason that, under the desolate broom tree, he made a final petition to God: ‘Just let me die.’

the harsh region of the Negev south of Judah

Elijah prays for death

But Yahweh had other plans. Elijah passed out under the tree, physically exhausted and mentally undone, and an angel appeared to him, touching him, telling him to get up and eat. When Elijah stirred he found a bread cake on hot coals near his head along with a jar of water. He was ravenous from his travels and quickly consumed the victuals. The fact that God provided them indicates that He wasn’t done with Elijah; Elijah had requested death, but God sustained his life. Elijah didn’t dare take his own life; as he saw it, life proceeds directly from God and consequently belongs to Him. A person may want to die, but that person didn’t have the freedom to take his or her own life (such scruples didn’t prevent them from requesting death, however). Elijah fell asleep again, and ‘the angel of the Lord’ appeared again and said, ‘Get up and eat, for you’ve got a big journey ahead of you.’ The ‘Angel of the Lord’ is a phrase found throughout scripture that doesn’t merely denote an angel who belongs to God or even an angel who is commissioned by God; rather, when it is used, it implies a theophany of God; ‘the angel of the Lord’ is no less than God Himself, appearing in angelic form (or, as some have argued quite persuasively, ‘the angel of the Lord’ is the pre-incarnate Christ). Elijah obeyed, eating and drinking what was provided for him, and set off on a fasted journey that would last forty days and forty nights. Like Moses before him and Jesus after him, Elijah fasted for forty days (interestingly, these three ‘forty-day fasters’ would come together on the Mount of Transfiguration during Jesus’ ministry). During the forty-day and forty-night fast, Elijah traveled from Beersheba to Mount Horeb (also known as Mount Sinai). If Mount Sinai is located in the southern region of Sinai Peninsula, it would’ve easily taken forty days to walk that distance in the desert.

It was at Mount Sinai that Yahweh met with Moses and gave the Ten Commandments along with the Mosaic Law. It was at Sinai that Yahweh feasted with the elders of Israel; it was at Sinai that Yahweh showed His power to the Israelites who had fled from Egypt (the display made the Israelites quake in terror). Sinai, then, became a place where Yahweh revealed Himself – and He would do so again. In the four contests against Baal given so far in the narrative – the drought, the provision of flour and oil, the raising of the widow’s son, and the contest on Mount Carmel – Yahweh showed His power. He made it clear that He was more powerful than Baal; indeed, Baal was but an ant in His presence. The contests had answered the question, ‘Who is the living God?’ Now Yahweh would answer another question: ‘What is the living God like?’ 

Modern Day Mount Sinai (a.k.a. Mount Horeb)

When Elijah reached Mount Sinai, he took shelter in a cave burrowed into the mountainside. That night the voice of Yahweh came to him – ‘Elijah, what are you doing here?’ The question was poignant: up to this point, Elijah had gone here and there by God’s dictates, but now he had struck out on his own in fear of Jezebel and distrust in God. God was basically asking Elijah why he’d deserted his post – Yahweh had meant for Elijah to be in Jezreel, regardless of Jezebel’s taunts, and we are forced to wonder what would’ve happened had Elijah had more of a backbone. Perhaps there would’ve been another contest between Baal and Yahweh that made Mount Carmel look like a game of fiddlesticks; maybe Jezebel would’ve finally received her due; perhaps the hoped-for religious reformation would’ve happened. But, as it were, Elijah ran, and now he was at Mount Sinai far from his sphere of prophetic operations. Elijah responded to God’s question, informing him matter-of-factly that he’d done all that He had commanded he do, but he gave a tacit reproof: Why, then, had Yahweh simply looked upon Israel’s spiritual and moral deterioration without intervening? How could He be so immobile when Jezebel was slaughtering His prophets and paganism was taking root in the land? Why hadn’t He done something to prevent all that? Elijah’s response is a classic refrain found throughout the Old Testament: “Why is God silent and indifferent? Why do the righteous suffer while the wicked prosper?” Elijah lamented that God’s people were ruined and complained that he was all alone in his devotion to God. Jezebel had slain all God’s prophets, he was the only one left, and she was intent on hunting him down and putting him to the sword.

Elijah at the Mouth of the Cave

Yahweh didn’t address his complaints; rather, He told him to go to the mouth of the cave. There Yahweh would show Himself – but first He would show His power. First came a windy tempest that ripped rocks loose from the mountain and sent them crashing to the valley below; next came an earthquake and then a fire – perhaps a thunderstorm with bolts of lightning the likes of which Elijah had never seen – but Yahweh was present in none of these things. After these displays of power, there was ‘a sound of gentle silence,’ and Elijah knew then that he was in the presence of Yahweh. The ‘gentle whisper’ that some translations use doesn’t depict how Yahweh speaks; rather, it’s descriptive of the resonating silence after the clamor of destruction; it’s with the silence hanging in the air that Yahweh’s voice of direction is heard. This display of power followed by divine presence has multiple lessons about God’s character. First, Elijah learned that God’s innate nature is quiet and soft, kind and gentle, a far cry from the capricious and malevolent gods of the Near East. Elijah was well acquainted with God’s displays of power and wrath against wayward Israel and false prophets; but he needed to realize that Yahweh is forced into wrath by peoples’ actions: He is a just God and cannot remain passive when justice is needed, but that doesn’t mean He delights in the destruction of the wicked. A second lesson is that Yahweh is distinct from the pagan gods: warrior gods were thought to fight on behalf of their people using thunder bolts (lightning and fire), storm winds, and earthquakes to terrify the enemy; Yahweh showcased these powers, but His deepest identity wasn’t found in displays of power but in gentleness and kindness. Elijah needed to be reminded that the God he served was far superior not only in power but also in character to the gods of the Baal-Melqart cult. The third lesson was that though the spectacular demonstrations of God’s power have a purpose – as Elijah well knew – they weren’t the vehicle by which God’s plans were brought to fruition; more often than not, Yahweh’s divine program was carried on its path to completion by the gentle Spirit of God speaking into peoples’ hearts. Though Yahweh is indeed a God of judgment, He is also a God of mercy and grace. Elijah needed to see that the time of fire, sword, and slaughter had passed; now the time had come to proclaim the word of Yahweh in gentle silence.

the supposed location of Elijah's Cave

In the ‘sound of gentle silence,’ Yahweh repeated His question to Elijah: ‘What are you doing here?’ Elijah answered the same as before, but this time we can assume his demeanor changed: no longer was he bitter and belligerent, he was humble and contrite. Yahweh responded to Elijah, telling him that He wasn’t done in His dealings with wayward Israel and giving the prophet tasks to complete. Elijah was to go to the Desert of Damascus – the great Syrian desert that stretches from Damascus to the Euphrates River Basin, and around which the fertile crescent runs – and anoint Hazael as King of Aram; then he was to anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as King of Israel; finally he was to anoint Elisha son of Shapshat as prophet in his place so that Elijah’s commission could be fulfilled by another. (Interestingly, Elijah anoints Elisha, who then – taking his master’s place – anoints both Hazael and Jehu; but that is for a later chapter). This last directive – to anoint a successor – shows God’s gentleness and love: though Elijah had forsaken his calling in his depression and despair, Yahweh wasn’t lashing out at him and tearing him down; no, God was going to have mercy on him. God was going to give Elijah rest. Yahweh had shown himself to Elijah as a provider and warrior; now He was showing Himself to Elijah as a caring father. Elijah was being relieved of duty; God was caring for his worn and frazzled soul. These three future anointings were followed by a cryptic declaration: ‘He who escapes Hazael’s sword will be killed by Jehu; he who escapes Jehu’s sword will be killed by Elisha.’ These three individuals – Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha – would be the bearers of judgment on the Omride Dynasty and apostate Israel. Jehu would kill those who escaped Hazael of Aram’s sword; and Elisha would slay, by the sword of the spirit, those who escaped the physical judgment initiated by Jehu. Hazael and Jehu would create tumultuous upheavals just like the wind, earthquake, and fire did at Mount Sinai; but the word of God spoken by Elisha would be the ‘sound of gentle silence’ that broke men’s wayward hearts and made them humble themselves before God. Yahweh was promising that bold action was about to be taken against the corrupt ruling Omride Dynasty and the pagan religion it promoted; a ruthless foreign invader and dynastic upheaval were the means by which Baalism would be rooted from Israel. Here it’s made plain to Elijah that Yahweh isn’t a capricious warrior defending or dethroning kings on passing whims like the gods of the ancient Near East; He has an agenda for history, and His acts of war serve a long-term plan being worked out.

Before Yahweh sent Elijah back the way he had come, He gave him another spot of good news: Jezebel hadn’t been as successful as she thought. Yahweh unveiled the fact that He’d preserved seven thousand devotees in Israel who hadn’t bowed down to Baal or kissed Baal’s image (these were common acts of submission given to kings and deities; kissing the idol involved kissing its feet in an act of homage, submission, and allegiance). Though the seven thousand is certainly a round number and symbolic, it’s evident that God had preserved Himself a remnant who would flourish once judgment fell upon the Omrides and those who had run after the Baals. 

Elijah 'anoints' Elisha

Elijah left Mount Sinai and made his way towards Syria to anoint Hazael as King of Aram. En route he came across Elisha, who was plowing a field with twelve yoke of oxen. Elisha must’ve come from an affluent family for twelve yoke of oxen to be working the fields: oxen were pricey, but large (and wealthy) landowners could treat all their fields in a timely manner by using multiple plows, each pulled by a team of oxen and driven by a worker. It’s possible that Elisha’s family owned more than twelve yoke of oxen but that, in this instance, Elijah came across Elisha as the latter was overseeing twelve teams currently in the field. Elijah approached Elisha and cast his distinctive ‘hairy cloak’ upon him; the cloak had become Elijah’s trademark and a symbol of his prophetic office, so Elisha knew exactly what was happening when it was placed on his shoulders. Elisha didn’t ask for clarification or protest the move; he was undoubtedly one of the seven thousand whom Yahweh had preserved in Israel, and he was eager to begin his apprenticeship under the infamous prophet – but not before getting a blessing from his family. Elisha kissed his family, butchered a pair of oxen, and made a celebration feast at which he could receive his family’s blessing. With all that taken care of, he and Elijah departed, master and padawan, in an Israel ripe war and judgment.