Elijah: The training of a prophet

   

                          Elijah

 

Now Elijah the Tishbite, said to Ahab,

“As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives,

whom I serve,

there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years

except at my word.” 1 Kings 17

 

The Lord exalts his prophets to the court of princes.

He tells him what is to happen:

knowledge which can make him seem crazed.

 

And how does he equip his prophet

for the burden

of the certain knowledge of what is to come,

the burden of being thought a fool

which can belong to those who hear the word of God?

 

After seasons of great visibility,

He moves him to hiddenness.

* * *

 

Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: 

“Leave here, turn eastward

and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan.

 

“The Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, Lord?

But I heard you call me to the court of the King

I thought that was my vocation.”

 

“You did.

I did.

It was.

 

But I now call you to something different.”

 

“But the Kerith Ravine is barren,

It has no sources of food.

No one lives there.

 

I have heard men tell of the healing power of social support

I have read that it is not good for man to be alone.

 

I have heard that iron sharpens iron,

that you show each man a slightly

different diamond-facet of your face,

so that in community, the jigsaw

of your revelation of yourself is complete.

 

‘Go alone to the Kerith Ravine,’ you now say.

I might be lonely there.”

 

“You might, Elijah,

 You will.

But I will meet you there,

Teach you there,

Comfort you there.

 

Can I be heard amidst the pomp of Ahab’s court,

the adulation of the people of Israel,

the laughter, warmth and happy

after-echoes of friendship?

When you talk all the time,

when people talk to you all the time

when conversation echoes in your ears,

and you leave head whirring with yeasty talk,

can you still hear my voice,

my gentle whisper?

 

It is more difficult.

 

You may well be lonely.

But I who created you

And know each strand of the tangled roots

Of fear, faith, courage and instability in your heart,

Which neither you nor the world has guessed at,

 

I will be your friend.

 

I will nourish you,

Show you the joy of my presence,

Fill you with laughter as I draw near,

Flow through you in waves of liquid love,

Make you drunk with the wine of my spirit.

I will succour you.

 

I will teach you that though I am a giver

And love to give good things,

I am, in fact, enough.

 

And you will know that for sure

When all you have is me.

 

I am even practical. 

You will drink from the brook,

And I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.

Providing for you though what your people reckon unclean.

* * *

 

So Elijah went to the Kerith Ravine,

and the ravens brought him bread and meat

and he drank from the brook.

 Some time later, the brook dried up

 Because there had been no rain in the land. 

 

“Lord, did I not hear you command

me to drink from this brook.

And it is now dry.

Lord?  Lord?”

 

“You did, Elijah,

I did.

And it is indeed now dry.

 

But, though you do not suspect me of it,

I am, in fact, intensely practical.

And I speak new words.

Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there.

 I have commanded a widow to supply you with food.

 

Yes, I know it is the centre of Baal worship.

But I will again provide for you through the least

Of those you reckon unclean

Blessing them and you

In the river of blessing in which I delight.”

                           * * *

 

“But I had heard you call me to be a hermit by the brook.

I have grown to rather like it here.

I thought that was my vocation.”

 

“You did.

I did.

It was.

 

But today is a new day,

And I come to you with new words.

As I will keep coming as long as you live

Offering you fresh wisdom, fresh love,

Manna and mercies new every morning.”

 

So Elijah went to Zarephath.