Bible Characters – Part 15

Series – June 2024 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Bible Characters
Gleanings From The Old Testament
Part 15

Elijah And His Forty-Day Journey To Mount Horeb
He arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God. —1 Kings 19:8 NKJV

A Prophet In Distress
Shortly after Elijah had reached a tremendous height in his career as a prophet of the Lord, he got into an awkward situation. In 1 Kings 18 he was the great victor over the cult of Baal, but in chapter 19 he seemed to be a big loser. His life was in danger, for Jezebel threatened to let him share the fate of the prophets of Baal, who had been executed with the sword on Elijah’s orders (vv.1-2).

The prophet got into a deep depression, such that he preferred death to life. He said, “It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!” (v.4). But that was not God’s way with him, for He did not want His faithful servant to die ingloriously. God still wanted to teach him some important lessons. This became apparent when Elijah recognized that he was no better than his fathers and learned how insignificant he really was.

At Mount Horeb, God had a few more lessons in store for him. First of all, Elijah had to learn that God is “the God of all grace” (1 Pet. 5:10). Secondly, God pointed out to Elijah that he was not the only true servant of the Lord; there was a faithful remnant. God had reserved 7,000 in Israel whose knees had not bowed to Baal (v.18). Also, God had another task for Elijah to accomplish: anointing two kings as well as the prophet who would be his successor (vv.15-16). In the end Elijah did not die ingloriously under a broom tree. Rather, as we read in 2 Kings 2:11, he was carried up into heaven triumphantly by a chariot of fire with horses of fire!

All this was still future at the time when Elijah was lying helplessly under a broom tree in the wilderness (1 Ki. 19:4). Nobody could see him there, for he had left his servant in Beersheba (v.3). He was alone, and nobody was around to help him. Still, there was One full of compassion who looked at him tenderly. It was He who was called by the very personal name: “The LORD God of Elijah” (2 Ki. 2:14). Elijah’s help came from above, from the One who had sent him and who would not forsake His servant even in his pitiful condition.

God knew exactly what Elijah needed: strength, both physical and mental. In His grace He provided him with what was necessary. Elijah was not admonished for his deep depression. Instead, in a very mild way, God granted His servant what he needed in order to get back on his feet.

Food From Heaven
God sent an angel to prepare a meal for Elijah. The prophet was gently awakened, and he ate of the food and drank of the water the angel had put in front of him. This was repeated a second time (see 1 Ki. 19:5-8). In Psalm 78:19, the writer, Asaph, quoted a question people asked, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?” Yes, our God provides food and drink even in the wilderness!

Elijah was not the only one who was cared for in this way. God did the same thing for the people of Israel after their deliverance from Egypt: He took care of the whole nation in the wilderness. Every day He opened the doors of heaven and rained down manna around them to eat (Ex. 16). He also quenched their thirst with the water that came out of the rock that was struck with Moses’ rod (Ex. 17). These were wonderful ways in which He provided His people abundantly with food and drink.

God takes care of us in much the same way. He has prepared a table before us as Christians. The resources of heaven have been put at our disposal, for the world through which we pass is a wilderness to the spiritual eye. We have left this present evil world and we desire a better, that is, a heavenly homeland (consider Heb. 11:16). So, we are pilgrims who are bound for heaven. The Father’s house is the end of our pilgrimage. Meanwhile, we need both food and drink corresponding to our new nature. We have been born again, that is, born from above, and therefore we need food from above.

This is graciously given by our heavenly Father, as is seen here in the case of Elijah. God Himself sustains us by strengthening the new nature which we have received in the new birth. Though there is no suitable food available in the wilderness for the new man, divine resources have been put at our disposal to strengthen us in our earthly course.

The baked cake of which Elijah ate reminds us of the meal, or grain, offering (Lev. 2). This is a picture of Christ’s perfect life on earth – His complete dedication to God. He is the Man who came down from heaven, and it is on Him that we feed spiritually. Thereby we are strengthened in the inner man and are being conformed to His image (Rom. 8:29).

The water that Elijah drank refers to the refreshing streams of the Spirit. From on high, the Holy Spirit was poured out after Jesus was glorified in heaven. The water flowed from the Rock – Christ – that had been struck with the rod of judgment, and we have all been made to drink of one Spirit (Jn. 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 10:4, 12:13).

In 1 Kings 19 the water is in a jar, which means that it is still, not moving, water. This would point to the completed canon of Scripture. The water of the Word of God cleanses us (Eph. 5:26) and quenches our spiritual thirst. In John 6, where Christ presents Himself as the true Manna which came down from heaven, we have the two thoughts of food and drink in one verse: “He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (v.35).

It is this food and drink that we need on our journey. Without it, the journey would be too great for us as well. The words of the angel to Elijah can also be applied to the Christian: “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you” (1 Ki. 19:7). Our wilderness race can only be finished with joy if we are strengthened by heavenly food and drink.

What kind of food do we eat on our way to heaven? There are many kinds of food available in this world. We are offered quite a number of different things to feed on. Do we eat the food that God gives us? Or do we, like the Israelites, long for the food of Egypt, of this present evil world, the land of slavery (Num. 11:5, 21:5)? This cannot supply our needs as pilgrims traveling to the place of promise.

The Forty Days Of The Journey
After having eaten from the food that God supplied, Elijah became quite a different man. No longer did he lie down helplessly; he went on his way, strengthened by that heavenly food. It contained indeed a tremendous force, for Elijah went in the strength of that food no less than “forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God” (1 Ki. 19:8).

The number 40 is used here with an obvious reason. In Scripture it always refers to a testing time, a complete period of trials and temptations. A period of 40 days can be found in the:

1. Account of the flood (Gen. 7:12, 8:6);
2. Story of Moses’ stay on the mountain of God (Ex. 24:18, 34:28);
3. Story of the spies who were sent into Canaan (Num. 14:33-34);
4. Account of the battle between David and Goliath (1 Sam. 17:16);
5. Book of Ezekiel as the time during which the prophet had to bear the iniquity of the house of Judah (Ezek. 4:6);
6. Book of Jonah as the period after which Nineveh would be overthrown (Jon. 3:4);
7. Gospel story of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness (Mt. 4:2).

Forty years is found even more often in Scripture. For instance, Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness took 40 years according to the number of the days in which they spied out the land of Canaan. Many kings, such as Saul, David and Solomon, reigned for a period of 40 years.

Apparently the idea of a complete period of time is prominent in the number 40. It is a fixed time in which God tests a man in order to find out whether he meets his responsibility toward Him. This is also shown by the numbers four and ten, of which 40 is made up. Four is the number of creation (the four winds of heaven, the four corners of the land) and of our walk here on earth and of human failure (Numbers, the fourth book of the Pentateuch, describes Israel’s failures in the wilderness). The number ten is preeminently the number of responsibility (ten fingers with which man acts, ten commandments which he has to keep). Therefore, the number 40 speaks of creature responsibility toward the Creator and Lawgiver.

The people of Israel could only finish their long journey through the wilderness because of God’s rich provisions on the way. Likewise, Elijah finished his journey of 40 days and 40 nights in the strength of the food with which God provided him. As sojourners and pilgrims, we too can only reach the end by making use of the free gifts God supplies to His own. Thus, in His grace He meets all our needs.

The End Of The Journey: The Mountain Of God
What was the goal of Elijah’s journey? It was Horeb, or Mount Sinai, which here in First Kings 19 is referred to as “the mountain of God” (v.8) – precisely as in the book of Exodus (see 3:1, 18:5). This special name is used because of God’s revelation to His people on this very mountain. He had brought Israel to Himself at Mount Sinai (Ex. 19), now Elijah was going to have an encounter with God on this mountain.

We can apply these things to ourselves as well. The important end of our journey as pilgrims is to meet our God on His holy mountain and to come into His immediate presence. As Christians we are associated with another mountain, namely Mount Zion, the mountain of God’s grace, and also with “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb. 12:22). We “are not under law but under grace” (Rom. 6:14). “The Jerusalem above … is the mother of us all” (Gal. 4:26). So we have free access to God, “to the throne of grace” (Heb. 4:16). We have “boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus” (10:19). This is a spiritual reality in the present dispensation of grace, for we draw near in spirit, with “full assurance of faith” (v.22).

Our faith will make room for sight at Christ’s coming. Then we shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, renewed in body, soul and spirit, and stand on His holy mountain with all the redeemed. He will come again and receive us to Himself, and thus “we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Th. 4:17). This is the ultimate goal of our pilgrimage down here.

When we enter into God’s presence, we learn to know ourselves, but we also learn to know our God in His infinite grace. This is seen in the case of Elijah. The prophet came to see himself in his utter weakness and pettiness; he was just one of a faithful remnant of 7,000 people. But he also got to know God in a completely new way. The God of Mount Sinai, who had revealed Himself in lightning and thunder when giving the law as the God of judgment, now appeared to Elijah as “the God of all grace” (1 Pet. 5:10). God was not in the strong wind, the earthquake or the fire. Rather, He spoke with “a still small voice” (1 Ki. 19: 12). He brought rest and peace and quiet. He showed His mercy to an unworthy and unfaithful people.

It is remarkable that even Moses, the lawgiver, learned the same lesson on Mount Sinai after the Israelites had broken the law and had brought themselves under its curse. The law was mixed with grace, and in this way Moses came to know this new aspect of God’s glory: the God of light is also the God of love.

In the very place where the law had been given, Moses heard, as it were, the glad tidings of the gospel. God was merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. He was essentially the God of grace, and He was rich in mercy toward a sinful and stiff-necked people (Ex. 33:14–34:9). In His forbearance He could pass over the sins of His people, looking ahead toward Christ’s work of redemption (Rom. 3:25).

On the mount where Jesus was transfigured before His disciples, we see both Moses (who gave the law to Israel) and Elijah (who turned the heart of the people to the law) in the company of our Lord Jesus Christ (who came to fulfill the law). By His sufferings and shameful death on the cross Jesus bore the curse of the law and proclaimed the full riches of God’s mercy for lost sinners. The prophet Elijah may not have grasped this secret very well during his life, but he must have understood it in the light of Christ’s glory. We see on the Mount of Transfiguration, where he appeared together with Moses, they both talked with Jesus and spoke of His decease – His departure from this world which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem (Lk. 9:30-31).

On Mount Horeb, Elijah was told that God would maintain His rights and protect His honor. Elijah was not the only faithful Israelite that was left; there was a remnant according to the election of God’s grace (see Rom. 11:1-6). It is in God’s presence that we learn to know His grace and praise Him for it. We will do this in a perfect manner when we shall be with Him throughout all ages, after our pilgrimage – having been strengthened by the food God provided along the way – has been completed.

By Hugo Bouter (adapted)

Look for Part 16 of this Series next month.