Thursday, June 13, 2024
Memorial of Saint Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Elijah gets a win
Before all the people, Elijah repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been destroyed, with twelve stones, one each for the sons of Jacob. Then Elijah dug a wide trench around the altar.
The trench was “of competent largeness,” says Matthew Poole in his seventeenth century commentary. After teasing the prophets of Ba-al, Elijah came into his own. And Elijah knew how to make an altar.
Fill four jars of water and pour it over the dead bull and over the wood.
Do it again, he said.
Do it one more time, he said, and they did it.
The water flowed around the altar and the trench was filled.
And then they waited. But not for long. Soon it was time for the evening sacrifice, and Elijah came forward to speak.
Answer me, Lord! That this people may know you are God, and that you have brought them back to their senses.
And the Lord’s fire came down.
The Lord’s fire consumed the burnt offering, wood, stones, and dust, and it lapped up the water in the trench. All the people fell on their faces. “The Lord is God! The Lord is God!”
Fired up himself, Elijah called for the people to turn on the prophets they had so recently adored.
Don’t let anyone get away! Seize the prophets of Baal. And Elijah had them brought down to the valley and there they were slaughtered.
Talk about snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory. “It is mine to revenge,” says the Lord.
Or was Elijah’s bloodthirsty command simply reflecting what he heard from God? Yahweh showed very little mercy to those who followed other gods, before or after the time of Elijah. Perhaps he whispered his command to Elijah, and Elijah just opened his mouth and the words sang out.
Well, maybe. But I think Elijah just got carried away, thumbing his nose at Jezebel who watched it all from a safe distance, from a window high on her castle wall, if she was there at all. That’s how I imagine the scene, while poor Ahab, down in the melee, watched his wife’s prophets die and then heard Elijah shout to him.
Get up, Ahab! There is the sound of a heavy rain. Go get something to eat.
Ahab sneaked into the castle kitchen, hoping Jezebel was not having dinner. Or was she even there? Maybe she’d gone shopping in Jezreel. Meanwhile Elijah, who might have grabbed a sandwich sometime that day, was listening for the voice of Yahweh.
Atop Mount Carmel, Elijah crouched down to the earth and put his head between his knees.
Days earlier God had told Elijah the rain was coming. At last, after three years. Now Elijah told Ahab the rain was coming. But … nothing.
Seven times Elijah (still crouched, head between his knees) told his servant to look out to sea. At last the seventh time the servant said to Elijah, “There is a cloud as small as a man’s hand rising from the sea.”
That’s it! God is all around that small cloud, inside that small cloud. Soon this will be a magnificent rainstorm. Go, get out of here, shouted Elijah to Ahab, and Ahab obeyed Elijah and drove his horses hard to Jezreel.
But the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, who girded up his clothing and ran before Ahab as far as the approaches of Jezreel.
That’s about thirty miles. Elijah ran faster than King Ahab’s racing chariot … and then stopped. He looked back. Ahab overtook him and raced through the city gate, up the castle steps and straight into the queen’s bedroom.
Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Jezebel sent word to Elijah, “By this time tomorrow you too will be dead!”
Ahab does not seem to have much mind of his own. Ahab seeks to please everyone. Ahab is king, so his mild manner and indecisiveness puts all his subjects in harm’s way, that is to say, in the way of Jezebel.
Months earlier Jezebel had commanded that all of Yahweh’s prophets be killed. Elijah escaped. The prophet Obadiah hid a hundred of his fellow prophets in two caves. Now Jezebel was furious with Elijah, and Elijah himself became afraid of her. But he was not indecisive. He took off running as fast as his feet would carry him, to the southern reaches of Judah, well over a hundred miles this time, to Beersheba. While the rain poured down.
Thus have you prepared the land: drenching its furrows, breaking up its clods, softening it with showers, blessings its crops. It is right to praise you in Zion, O God.
(1 Kings 18, Psalm 65, John 13, Matthew 5)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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