Lightning and a Wild Man
This piece on Elijah is a chapter taken from my book, Theological Adventures.
The Personality and Story of Elijah
A mountain, lightning, fire, smoke, the earth shaking, and thick darkness - these are all indicative of the appearance of God (Ex 20:18; Ps 18). This display of earth shaking powers was present from Moses to Jesus’ death. However, this physical display is not God, as Elijah will be told. The voice of God speaks in the soul like the shearing of silence and calls all unto his self.
Elijah liked a good show (1st Kings 17); his own appearance was a spectacle to behold. Elijah is easily recognized as a hairy man with a leather belt. His struggle with the spectacle of violence and feats of miraculous power followed him to the end of his life. The incredible life of the legendary immortal is a mixture of history, the extraordinary and the timelessness of myth. Knowing this, I am resistant to surrender all the extraordinary (miracles) to modern critical method.
When Elijah initially makes his appearance, he is neither a prophet nor a well-known figure. He is a wild man, a Nazarite, a zealous representative of monotheism (Yahweh). Elijah’s abrupt appearance in the narrative of the kings is absent of a call narrative or any form of commissioning; both are common to the prophets. Although Elijah will move into the role of a prophet, he begins as a self-appointed religious zealot driven by an uncommon personal faith that propels him into the public sphere of power to establish monotheism.
Elijah is set in contrast to two groups of people. The first group is Ahab and Jezebel. Ahab uses religion in compromising ways to maintain economic success and peace with his more powerful neighbors. Jezebel is the representative of foreign influence and epitomizes wickedness. The second group is the unnamed widow of Zarephath, and Obadiah who works to preserve Yahwist monotheism within the divergent religo-political powers. In contrast to Elijah, Ahab and Jezebel, both the widow and Obadiah preserve life; the widow feeds Elijah and Obadiah saves the lives of the Yahwist Prophets. For most of human history the separation of state and religion was incomprehensible. This is the world where Elijah pursues his effort to prove God is one.[1]
Elijah does not view reality with the same critical awareness of the prophets. The prophets view drought as God’s work accomplished through the created order, where the ethical and moral behavior of humanity affects the physical world. Elijah’s perspective is that the drought is a sign of punishment and is meant to turn King Ahab from syncretistic religious practices and end the worship of Baal. Further, the drought is brought on by Elijah’s faith and supported by Elijah’s oath that draws Yahweh into the mix. The cast of characters is comprised of two groups of people caught up in the self-interjecting personality of Elijah and his unwavering conviction carried in a person whose exposure to ‘others’ has been limited, and whose personal growth is in need of some social maturation.
Elijah’s willingness to challenge God and Ahab with the boldness of faith reflects a person who’s on-the-job training is revealing of the relationship of God and Elijah. Elijah, like a minimally educated war strategist, knows that defeating an enemy is as simple as controlling the water supply. He lives with a constant awareness of God and his conviction runs so deeply that he initiates a showdown between his God and the pagan deity Baal. After his proclamation of a drought whose end is dependent upon his word, Elijah disappears and King Ahab cannot find him. Elijah has fled for his life and his uncompromising stance needs time. If he stays his life would surely be taken, or as Obadiah would later say, "The Spirit of Yahweh will carry you I know not where" (1st Kings 18:12).
As a person, Elijah’s view of reality is limited to his persona. He is a person of extremes. Elijah’s appearance is carnivalesque; his personal emotions rise to heights of valiant expression and fall to lows where his despair longs for death. As a character, Elijah is void of family; he is a loner and his independent nature is in need of personal interaction. This need for personal interaction is primarily filled by Elijah’s time with the widow of Zarephath.
After his announcement to Ahab, Elijah flees to the wilderness to hide, believing this is the will of God for him. The length of his stay is not defined but possibly it was only two days, the day he arrived and the day he left. The urgency depicted in this fast-paced narrative suggests that God’s immediate response to Elijah is also desperate. What is God to do with this person whose faith has declared God to be alive and challenged the imperial power of Ahab? Elijah’s education depicts a person who understands God as more of a singular nature God than a moral and ethical being, interested in educating humanity and revealing God’s self in concert with said education.
Elijah’s faith, his raw acceptance of leftover carrion from wild birds, finds God as the source rather than reducing his plight to desperation. In hiding, Elijah eats the unclean carrion of ravens and drinks water from a place where rainfall flows. Elijah’s appetite must be satisfied; fasting is not an option. He is not seeking God in the wilderness, but survival. The omniscient narrator places Elijah’s actions under the ‘command’ of God.[2] The only voice Elijah can discern is his own which is a wild survivalists voice and for him this is God’s voice. However, God has other plans and once the drought has begun taking effect, God sends Elijah to learn in the house of a widow.
Failed Education in the School of the Widow
Elijah, like a phoenix from ashes (not fire) rises from Israel’s religious identity as a force of nature. Elijah is an earthy man who has more in common with Samson than he does with Moses. The remarkable aspect of Elijah as a person is his faith, not his courage that vacillates with his despairing temperament. Elijah is more of a sign than a prophet, more of an expressed need in its most primal form than an example. Israel as a people needs to believe! Unfortunately they are a wild people with occasional bursts of faith in the Nazarite tradition and lack Torah as instruction in both the court of the king and in everyday life.
The Wildman, the hairy survivalist, the self-appointed prophet, the sign of need, needs education. Elijah has nowhere to go to learn Torah, so God has chosen a widow to be Elijah’s teacher. Elijah has been informed that God has spoken to a widow and ‘commanded’ her to feed him. Elijah lacks any theological grounding, he writes nothing and his story is (like Samson’s) flavored with the trappings of a dime novel from the old west.
When Elijah arrives in Zarephath the widow recognizes him and taunts him with his own oath formula (as Yahweh lives); however, she expresses her complete desperation and in the use of ‘your God’ differentiates her understanding of Yahweh from Elijah’s. The God of the widow doesn’t bring droughts to topple kings and leave widows to suffer. Her God cares for widows and sends Elijah to take care of her, so that she may feed him. The text sets forth the care of the widow in typical legendary discourse to magnify the person of Elijah.
We are never told how the widow’s jars remained full; we are led to believe it was always miraculous. Of course, in a time of drought and famine it must have been, day by day, miraculous for a desperate widow and a fugitive zealot to have their needs met. I do not think we are to imagine Elijah spending three years in his upper room and hiding while the jars remained full. Rather, Elijah must survive by caring for the widow and her house. Elijah’s strength and athletic adrenaline must serve the widow.
The widow of Zarephath is nameless, even as Elijah did not consider her when he stood before Yahweh, challenged Ahab, and declared a drought that would end only at his word. Only the raw, underdeveloped character of a wilderness survivalist matches the chutzpah of Elijah. The self-sufficient loner is admirable for his belief but is not an example to follow as a human being. Elijah’s reputation as a miracle worker overshadows any sign of someone who cares about other human beings. Elijah cares only for the supremacy of his God, a God whom he experiences but fails to recognize along the way in the lives of the widow of Zarephath and Obadiah.
Elijah is a liminal person, disconnected from society, uneducated and untamed. Elijah does not recognize the faith of Obadiah or the widow; he considers himself to be alone when other believers in Yahweh have believed at the risk of losing their lives and been saved by the wisdom of Obadiah. Elijah doesn’t know the ‘seven thousand ‘ souls that have not bowed down to Baal, he doesn’t even acknowledge their existence; he is alone.
The son of the widow of Zarephath becomes ill; her response reveals her displeasure with Elijah. It is apparent that the widow and Elijah have a less than exemplary relationship. He lives in her home as a dysfunctional liminal person, unable to adjust to the life of ‘widows’, of everyday people. This is so because Elijah never changes course in his perspective on how he is to live in relation to the consequences of his actions. Ultimately, Elijah’s actions lead to his violent death.
The widow thinks of Elijah as an unforgiving, merciless character, disconnected from her reality. The cause of her son’s illness is, in her thought, the result of living with this man who has no sympathy for widows. He has reminded her of her sins (1st Kings 17:18). We are not told what sin or sins that the widow recalls. I suspect the introduction of her son is a literary clue. Without a husband to care for her, she has either resorted to using her desirability as a female to gain the aid of a man or has prostituted herself. Possibly her son is not the child of her deceased husband. Elijah resorts to the power of his faith and heals the boy.
Elijah was given an opportunity by Yahweh to live with a woman, get to know her and possibly to have a family. Elijah’s way of living and his concept of God leave widows helpless in a world of male dominance. Elijah is a man without responsibility and his zealousness is problematic for all, even God. However, God honors faith and works with all kinds of people, people like the widow, like Obadiah, and even like the miracle-working Elijah.
God sent Elijah to the widow to recognize the failure of his king-challenging fiasco that led to his flight into the wilderness where there was no manna, no quail, only the carrion of ravens. Elijah does not recognize his failure to fast and seek God’s guidance. Elijah’s trek to Horeb is in imitation of Moses and once again Elijah fails. Elijah does not receive a revelation of God but is rebuked for thinking God is a nature God that is known through acts of power. God attempts to teach Elijah that he speaks in the sheering silence of the soul where only God can be heard. God speaks in the heart of a widow who experiences the rash faith of Elijah as the cause of her suffering. God speaks in the life of Obadiah who saves Yahweh’s prophets from Jezebel.
Elijah is a showman, a man of violence, and an uncompromising zealot unable to hear the voice of God. These loud, boisterous personalities show up often in religious circles. Their lives do not end well and neither does Elijah’s (contrary to legend). The miracles in Elijah’s life draw attention to his resolute faith, but the violence that follows his life distorts the revelation of God. This is readily demonstrable in the showdown orchestrated by Elijah, the carnivalesque showman.
Prior to focusing on Elijah’s showdown with the prophets of Baal, it is important to view Elijah’s slaughter of said prophets as his zealousness and identification with the history of zealot behavior established by Phinehas. Elijah was doing well until he succumbed to the violent tactics of his opponents. Nonetheless, Elijah calls fire (lightning) down from heaven. This event was the momentary eclipse of Baalism that tempted Elijah to end the threat of paganism. Elijah chose to strike with an act of terror into the heart of Baal worship (the slaughter of the prophets of Baal). The text leaves the reader with the impression that it was by Elijah’s own hand that the prophets of Baal were all slain.
Elijah’s uncompromising faith, driven by his own zealousness to see God in the world, produced miraculous signs that proved insufficient to bring change. Elijah followed his signs with acts of violence that are incompatible with the God who speaks into the souls of human beings. The immortal struggle of religious dedication to succumb to violence is, for those who hear the voice that shears the silence, ended on a cross, followed by an empty tomb.
My son insists, and I agree with him, that the only encouragement or advice that Moses and Elijah could offer Jesus at the transfiguration was not to fail as they had done through the use of anger or violence. Specifically, striking a rock or killing persons of errant belief. In the end the ‘chariots of Israel’ in the blazing fire of an all-out attack on Elijah ended his life. The legend makes his death a miraculous ascent; the truth sets aside the legend.
Jesus and Miracle Workers (Luke 4)
“Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.
But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah,
when the heaven was shut up three years and six months,
and there was a severe famine over all the land;
yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.
There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha,
and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”
(Luke 4:24-27)
After the temptations proffered by Satan to use power, and a ministry tour of Galilee, Jesus arrives in his hometown of Nazareth. It is likely that the stories about Jesus that had reached Nazareth carried the typical extrapolations of word of mouth news. It appears the people of Nazareth are expecting a prophet and miracle worker like Elijah and Elisha. Jesus is not interested in using power and violence to fight for deliverance from empire.
Jesus brings deliverance of a more immediate and personal nature by healing the broken bodies of those that have faith. Yet, Jesus will point to the power of their individual faith as the reason for their healing. Still, it is the identification of Jesus as a prophet that rests upon receiving healing. In Nazareth they will not recognize Jesus’ teaching; they do not receive his role as a prophet, as one who speaks for God. They are expecting deliverance from Roman subjugation through violent prophets and a messianic King like David.
Jesus’ responds with stories taken from the Elijah and Elisha narrative. Jesus is not interested in the acts of power that Elijah and Elisha are known for - acts over nature and violence against others. Rather, Jesus is interested in healing that results from the faith of a person who recognizes when God speaks. It is the faith of Elijah’s widow and a leprous Syrian general that Jesus uses as positive examples.
The widow is a victim of Elijah’s power and the Syrian General is an enemy of Israel. These two characters, the widow and Naaman, represent the universal aspect of Jesus’ ministry to persons not recognized in Israel. They are examples of faith for recognizing Elijah and Elisha as prophets; even though they were of a lesser character than Jesus. Jesus is not like Elijah or Elisha.
It seems that miracles belong to a realm of experience that is inconsistent with day-to-day reality. Familiarity breaks down the relationship of the miracle worker with those who feel a landed connection with him or her. Miracles are easily forgotten, unable to produce faith, and require the unfamiliar. Jesus is more than a miracle worker and associates his ministry with the humility of the widow and Naaman, rather than with Elijah or Elisha.
Jesus exalts the ministry of Elijah and Elisha only in relation to their role in the life of the widow and the foreigner (even a leprous enemy general). Elijah and Elisha were celebrated among the populace. Jesus rejects celebrating his presence in relation to miraculous signs (John 4:48, Matthew 7:21-23). The miracle-working prophets fail as examples of faith in relation to their acts of power. The cause for celebration is the faith of the widow and the foreigner.
[1] The abrupt appearance of Elijah and his ability to gain an audience with Ahab needs some comment. I do not think Elijah has a prior history as a prophet. Nor do I think his oath (As the LORD the God of Israel lives) followed by his self-positioning (before whom I stand) denotes access to the heavenly council. Elijah’s monotheism is not compatible with the concept of a heavenly council, nor does Elijah report a heavenly vision. Elijah proclaims his own word based upon an oath and his way of living before God as a Nazarite. Elijah’s appearance before Ahab is as intuitively providential as the drought he proclaims; without God, Elijah would be alone.
[2] The biblical narrators write from an ‘all knowing’ position as though they know the thoughts of both God and the characters of the stories they preserve.
