GO, RETURN … I HAVE LEFT ME SEVEN THOUSAND IN ISRAEL

‘Behold, then an angel… and, behold, there was a cake … and a cruse’, vv. 5-6. Following his dramatic victory over the prophets of Baal, Elijah had fled from the wrath of the vengeful Jezebel. The seemingly invincible prophet had run for his life from the northern part of the northern kingdom of Israel to the extreme southern end of the southern kingdom of Judah - and then fur­ther all the way to Mount Horeb in the Sinai peninsula.

But there God provides for His disappointed, disillusioned and despondent servant. And the man previously fed miracu­lously by ravens and a widow, enjoys two helpings of ‘angel cake’ accompanied by refreshing drinks to revive him. ‘Behold, the Lord’ , vv. 11-12. God did not speak in the great wind as He did to Job; He did not reveal Himself in the earth­quake as he did to Korah; He did not walk in the fire as He did with Daniel’s three friends. Here these served as the mere out­riders and forerunners of His presence, before which Elijah covered his face. Now the Lord has Elijah’s wrapt attention! ‘Behold, there came a voice unto him’ , vv. 13-17. Elijah first repeats his earlier complaint against Israel; the people had rejected God’s word, worship and witnesses, note ‘thy covenant’, ‘thine altars’ and ‘thy prophets’, vv. 10, 14. The man who had made intercession to God for Israel on Mount Carmel, 18. 37, now makes intercession to God against Israel’, Rom. 11. 2! ‘I, even I only, am left’, he laments. But God has two messages for His ser­vant. First, he is not indispensable. He is to anoint (a) Hazael, who will fight against Israel and so weaken Ahab’s dynasty; (b) Jehu, who will overthrow the house of Ahab, destroying Jezebel, together with the worshippers and altars of Baal; and (c) Elisha, who will carry on his prophetic work after him. Between them, these three men will finish off the destruction of Baal worship in Israel which Elijah had begun. Secondly, to fur­ther encourage His servant’s downcast spirit, the Lord sets the record straight; ‘I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to … Baal’, Rom. 11. 4. So, ‘Go, return’, Elijah, all is not lost! There is still a work for you to do.