Thread by @JamesBejon

THREAD: The next instalment in some tweets on Ahab’s first recorded encounter with Elijah (1 Kgs. 16.29-19.21).

As usual, the aim isn’t to cover/summarise the whole text, but simply to pick out particular (and sometimes overlooked) points of interest.

As we resume the story (17.7), we find Elijah next to a now-dried-up brook, which goes by the name ‘Cherith’.

Elijah must have worried as he saw the Cherith gradually dry up.

He was ‘as human as we are’ after all (NLT Jas. 5.17).

He would therefore have been tempted to head off in search of a new supply of water.

But, instead, Elijah waited on YHWH’s word,

exactly as YHWH wanted him to.

Before Elijah went public with his faith (on Mount Carmel), YHWH wanted to test and strengthen his faith in private.

In 17.8-9, the next/second episode in the Elijah story begins.

The word of YHWH sends Elijah to a city in Sidon named Zarephath,

where he will be fed (כלכל) by a nameless widow,

just as he was previously fed (כלכל) by ravens.

While, therefore, YHWH will answer Elijah’s final request ‘by fire’ (באש), he answers Elijah’s first recorded request ‘by a woman’ (באשה).

Yet initially Elijah’s change of location doesn’t appear to help much.

While he was previously faced with a water supply which had run dry,

he now finds himself in the company of a widow whose food supply has just run out, and who is about to prepare her last meal before she dies.

Elijah’s faith will again, therefore, be put to the test.

Note: The name ‘Zarephath’ is likely to refer either to a red dye (cp. Ugar. ṣrp, Akk. /Ṣ-R-P/) or to a ‘crucible’ (so Ges. cp. BH צרף = ‘to refine’ | מַצְרֵף = ‘crucible’),

the latter of which seems particularly appropriate to Elijah’s predicament,

since, in Zarephath, Elijah’s faith will be tested and refined.

Like all of our text’s events, the events of 17.8+ are instigated by ‘the word of YHWH’,

which is both the impetus behind and the issue at stake in our text.

In 17.1, Ahab’s rest is disturbed by the entrance of ‘the word of YHWH’.

In 17.8, when the Cherith has run dry and Elijah’s story looks set to come to a premature end, ‘the word of YHWH’ again comes and brings life/sustenance to Elijah.

And, in 18.1, when a drought has turned Israel into a virtual wilderness (18.5),

YHWH speaks and the situation again changes in response.

Hence, in a world of powerful and pagan gods and kings, each change of scene is nevertheless precipitated by the arrival of God’s word.

Occurrences of ‘the word (דבר) of YHWH’ are numerically significant.

Our text refers to ‘the word (דבר) of YHWH’ a total of 10 times,

which resonates with the foundation of Israel’s covenant, i.e., with YHWH’s 10 words = commandments (עשרת הדברים: Exod. 34.28),

and hence underscores our text’s concern with obedience (cp. 18.36).

Indeed, our text describes Elijah’s actions with v. similar terms to those employed in YHWH’s commands, which also serves to emphasise Elijah’s obedience to his God.

In response to YHWH’s first command (viz. ‘Go and hide out by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan!’),

Elijah is said to ‘go and dwell by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan’ (17.3-5).

And, in response to YHWH’s second command )viz. ‘Arise and go to Zarephath!’), Elijah is said to ‘arise and go to Zarephath’ (17.9-10).

Elijah exhibits word-for-word obedience.

Elijah then challenges the widow as to whether *she* will act ‘in line with *her* word’ (כדברך, i.e., ‘per her own ideas’) or in line with YHWH’s word (17.13-14),

to which she responds in faith = obedience.

Before she makes (what looks like) her last meal, the woman provides for Elijah,

and hence becomes an illustration of Jesus’ principle:

‘Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all the other things (about which you are anxious) will be added to you’ (Matt. 6).

Remarkably, at the close of ch. 17, the same ‘obedience formula’ is evident in YHWH’s response to Elijah.

The Tishbite (תשבי) asks for the widow’s son soul to be restored (תשב נא),

and YHWH is said to ‘listen’ to Elijah’s voice,

at which point the soul of the widow’s son is restored (תשב).

The message is therefore clear:

Elijah has been faithful to YHWH’s word.

The widow of Zarephath has been faithful to YHWH’s word.

And YHWH has even been faithful to Elijah’s word.

The question yet to be answered is whether Israel as a whole will be faithful to the word of YHWH spoken through Elijah,

all of which leads us on to the events of ch. 18, where Elijah’s showdown with the prophets of Baal is described.

The events of ch. 17 also prepare us for what is to come in more pictorial ways.

Just as the the widow goes out to collect ‘two sticks’ (שְׁנַיִם עֵצִים) with which to cook her last meal, so two piles of sticks (עֵצִים) will be arranged on top of Mount Carmel,

on one of which the prophets’ last meal will be cooked.

Just as Elijah stretches himself out on the child three times, so he requests his sacrifice to be doused in water three times over.

And, just as Elijah takes the child to his upper room, where he calls on the name of YHWH, & brings the child back down alive (להוריד), so he summons the prophets of Baal to a high place (Mount Carmel), where he calls on the name of YHWH, & brings the prophets back down (להוריד),

though they will not remain alive for very long. They are brought back down from Carmel not to be returned to their lives of idolatry, but to be slaughtered.

A suggested moral of the story: The word of God is trustworthy and true, and God’s most basic request is for us to place our confidence in it, i.e., to trust what God has said to us.

Of course, our circumstances may not always seem conducive to our faith.

Elijah had to watch the brook Cherith gradually dry up,

and the widow had to watch her supplies of meal and oil gradually run out.

But our circumstances also include testimonies to God’s grace and provision for us:

While the water dried up, the ravens continued to bring food.

And, while the widow’s child continued to become more ill, the meal and oil continued to be provided.

In the meantime, God requires us simply to trust him.

Of course, we do not like the apparent uncertainty of daily reliance on God.

Rather than, say, a jug of oil which always has a bit left in the bottom, we would prefer a whole vat of it which we could see and measure and ration.

But then our ways are not God’s ways,

and ultimately, none of us have the means to supply all our needs in the present world,

let alone when we pass beyond the grave,

which we have no option but to commit to his hands.

Let us therefore learn to trust God here and now.

Often, when one thing runs out in life it is only because God has something more fruitful in line for us.

Next up, the showdown with the prophets of Baal (ch. 18).

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