|
48. Elijah on Mount Horeb.
Elijah was in a cave
on Mount Horeb in Arabia, thinking in his prayer how the ten tribes had
forsaken the covenant of the God of their fathers and destroyed his
altars and killed his prophets, and that he alone was left and was not
sure of life. Resentment imagines everything bad to be even worse than
it is. Had not God saved a hundred prophets through Obadiah? In these
melancholy thoughts, Elijah was reassured in his heart that God would
pass by and comfort him when he came out of the cave. A storm appeared
in the sky. A stormy wind passed by, tearing the mountains and rocks
apart; the Lord was not in the stormy wind. Elijah did not recognise the
nearness of God in the storm. The earth shook and trembled. The Lord was
not in the earthquake. The fiery lightning shot. The Lord was not in the
fire. The storm passed in a light, gentle whisper. When the prophet
heard the sound, his troubled heart opened and realised that the Lord
was passing by. He covered his head and stepped to the mouth of his
rocky cave. There his heart spoke to God and God spoke to his heart and
comforted him.
|
||
|
|