journey to the mountain

Good morning all,
Today's reading gets us back to Elijah's story. After Elijah defeated and killed the prophets of Baal, Jezebel was pretty upset with him. So today's passage finds him on the run again. I was hoping to find a good map showing all this, but this was the best I could find. Remember that most of Elijah's ministry has been in Israel, the northern kingdom. When he flees from Jezebel's wrath he goes all the way to the southern end of Judah to Beersheba, where he leaves his servant. Then he goes a day further into the desert and falls asleep wanting to die.

When the angel wakes him to feed him and sends him on his way, Elijah travels all the way to Mt. Horeb (AKA Mt. Sinai). There seems to be some conscious symbolism here since Sinai is where God first made the covenant with Israel. That means this episode in Elijah's life is a renewal of that covenant. We get another reference to this story when Jesus takes three of his disciples up a mountain for the transfiguration where he talks with Moses and Elijah. Tomorrow we'll see what God says to Elijah at the mountain and where that leads him.

God bless,
Sam

1 Kings 19:1-12
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there. 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.” 5Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” 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. 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.” 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.

9At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10He 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.” 11He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.