I now finally have a decent internet connection at my house (we moved a little over a month ago and haven’t had a dependable connection), so I’m hoping now to get back into blogging on the Old Testament lessons of the LDS Sunday School curriculum.  I have, unfortunately, missed a great number of lessons on topics of interest to me, including the stories of King David, the Psalms, King Solomon, and the like.

Perhaps its better that I didn’t comment on the scriptural narratives of David and Solomon, as I don’t feel that the books of Samuel and Kings (histories composed by the Deuteronomists), nor the book of Chronicles (composed by the post-exilic priestly historians) are necessarily dependable accounts of the lives and actions of these men. I feel that both histories were written and/or edited by redactors who had a theological agenda and who generally disapproved of the monarchy. They seem to have had motives to want to discredit the Davidic monarchy and its religious beliefs and practices. I could go on and on about this, but I will refrain for now.  If you want to read a couple of the many posts I’ve written touching on this topic in the past, see here and here.

Okay, on to Elijah.  Elijah is one of the most revered characters in Scripture for Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others.  He appears in the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible), the New Testament, the Talmud, the Mishnah, the Qur’an, and elsewhere.  The Abrahamic faiths (except LDS) are all generally awaiting the return of Elijah “before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD” (Mal. 4:5).  While some groups believe that this scripture was fulfilled with the coming of John the Baptist or at the appearance of Elijah at the Transfiguration of Christ, neither seems to quite fulfill the expectation that he would come at the advent of the eschaton or (in Christian understanding) the Second Coming of Christ.  Latter-day Saints believe that his coming in 1836 to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple fulfilled the promises in Malachi, including the idea that he was sent “to turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers” (Mal 4:6).

The fact that his name means “Yah[weh] is my God” is very significant for the role he plays in the narratives in 1 Kings 17-19, 21, and the beginning of 2 Kings.  Elijah is the champion of the cult (“religion”) of Yahweh against the evils of the cult of Baal that have now virtually become the “state religion” of the northern tribes of Israel.  King Ahab has wholly adopted the religion of his idolatrous foreign wife Jezebel, who has made it her goal to rid Israel of its traditional worship of Yahweh. She ordered the prophets of Yahweh put to death (note the interesting detail that the governor of Ahab’s house, Obadiah, who was faithful to God, hid one hundred of the prophets in caves).  As indicated in 1 Kings 18:22, Elijah becomes practically the only prophet of Yahweh who continues to be active in Israel.  Elijah fights to return the people and its rulers to the correct worship of God.

The great irony in these Elijah narratives is apparent when we realize that Baal was believed to be the great “storm god”, the “rider of the clouds” that was responsible for bringing rain, which produced fertility and life for his worshipers.  In the Ugaritic (Canaanite) myths, when Baal is overcome and killed by his enemies and descends to the Underworld, there is no rain, the ground dries up, and all mankind is in peril until he is revived again, which miracle is signaled by the commencement of the rainy season.  Although we generally like to contrast the thought of the “pagan” religions that surrounded Israel from the true beliefs of Yahweh, it is likely that the reason the Israelites so easily fell into this pattern of Baal worship is because the two religions/gods were very similar.  For traditional Israel, Yahweh was the one who truly possessed the attributes claimed for Baal — He was the Son of God Most High, the true Lord/Master (Hebrew ba’al), the God who brought rain, fertility, and life (see, e.g., Pss. 36:5-9; 68:9; 77:16-19; 84; 104:3; 107; 135:7; 144:10-15; 147:8; etc.). To them, Yahweh was the Rider of the Clouds (see Ps. 68:4, where it should likely read “rider of the clouds”, instead of “heaven” or “desert”; also Ps. 104:3).  With this in mind, we see the clear polemics in these stories arguing for Yahweh as the bringer of rain and life rather than Baal.

At the beginning of chapter 17, Elijah, through his authority as a prophet of Yahweh, promises King Ahab that “there shall not be dew nor rain these years” until he says there will be. This is a direct challenge to the religion of Baal and its prophets, who believed that they could call on their god to bring rain.  Elijah shows the almighty power of Yahweh and the utter impotence of Baal as he, in the name of Yahweh, brings a lengthy drought that cannot be overcome despite the idolatrous prophets’ best efforts.

While we can perhaps see the drought as a punishment by the Lord for King Ahab and the followers of false gods, we are also shown that Yahweh remembers and provides for those who are faithful to Him.  In the second half of chapter 17, we have the story of the widow of Zarephath who had just enough cornmeal and oil to make one last meal for herself and her son, and then expected to starve to death.  At this point of crisis, Elijah the prophet arrives, having been promised by God that this poor widow would sustain him during the famine. When she explains her desperate situation, that she doesn’t have enough even for herself and her child, she is promised by Elijah that her meal barrel and oil cruse would not fail but miraculously last through the drought.  This is a great story of faith tested, and the poor widow did not fail but was blessed with abundance sufficient for herself, her son, and the prophet.  Yahweh can bring sustenance during famine, taking care of the lowest of his followers, while Baal can’t manage to reverse the dry conditions in any manner, not even to wet the thirst of the king of Israel.

Yahweh further proves himself to be the God who brings life by raising, through Elijah, the faithful widow’s son from the dead. The power to give victory over death is the ultimate display of Yahweh’s power to bring life. This miracle is later repeated by Elijah’s prophetic apprentice, Elisha, and, of course, by Jesus himself.  At seeing her son revived, the widow exclaimed to Elijah, “Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is true.” Her testimony that Yahweh was the true Governor over life and death was greatly fortified.

The next great challenge by Elijah against the Baal worshipers was at Mount Carmel, where he engaged the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal in a showdown to once-and-for-all show whose God had true power over the elements.  As a side note, the mention of the “prophets of the groves” (the prophets of the asherim, 18:19) seems to be a later insertion into the story, as we don’t hear much about them again. It is possible that in the original story there was a conflict between Yahweh and Baal, but not between Yahweh and Asherah (but we won’t go into that now).  The challenge from Elijah was to see whose god could bring fire down from Heaven to consume the sacrifice. The purpose of the sacrifice was apparently to request the sending of rain to end the drought, but the consumption of the sacrifice by fire from heaven would be a great visual manifestation of the true God’s power.

While the prophets of Baal called upon their god all day long and into the evening with no response manifest, Elijah began to mock them, saying:

1 Kings 18:27 Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.

His taunts reflect what the author sees as the foolish traditions regarding the god Baal, that during seasons of dry weather the fertility god was either on a journey (e.g. into the Underworld) or had died.  It is possible that other related myths described the god as being away hunting, or being asleep and needing awakening before the rains would come.  These beliefs were widespread throughout the region and Elijah’s derision is clearly a deliberate attack against them.  It is odd, in light of this, to see such language used to refer to Yahweh in the Psalms and elsewhere (see Pss. 35:24; 44:23; 59:4-5;  78:65).

After the false prophets’ antics (including jumping on the altar and cutting themselves) produce no results, Elijah prepares to demonstrate the omnipotence of the Lord. So confident is Elijah that the Lord can easily consume a sacrifice with fire that he makes the show of power even more dramatic by drenching the sacrifice, the altar, and the whole area in buckets of (precious) water.  He then called upon the One whom he knew to be the true God of Israel.

(1 Kings 18:36–37)  LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. 37 Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.

The prophet’s faith was not in vain. As soon as he had called upon his God, fire descended out of heaven and consumed everything associated with his sacrifice: the offering, the wood, and, amazingly, the water and even the stones and dust!  All present were compelled to recognized Yahweh as “the God” (1 Kgs. 18:39).

Elijah then capitalized on the people’s new-found faith in Yahweh and rid the country of the vast retinue of Baal’s prophets by putting them to death. He then advised the suddenly impotent King Ahab that rain was imminent. As the life-giving precipitation poured down, it was abundantly clear to all that Yahweh was the only true God in Israel.

Queen Jezebel, the matron of the Baal cult in Israel, was obviously very upset to hear of these happenings and orders that Elijah suffer the same fate that her prophets had (of course she had already been trying to kill all of Yahweh’s prophets, including Elijah). Elijah escapes and goes to spend some time on Mount Horeb (another name for Sinai, the mountain of revelation). Significantly, he fasts for forty days and nights before experiencing, similar to Moses, a theophany.

The theophany described in chapter 19 is different, however, from earlier recorded manifestations of God.  Here (vv. 11-12) we have the familiar story of the wind, the earthquake, and the fire that apparently accompany the Lord’s appearance, but he is not present in any of those phenomena. His presence is marked only by a still small voice (or, in some translations, “the voice of silence” or “the sound of sheer silence”).  While I certainly accept the concept of God communicating through a still small voice, it is apparent that this description is polemically motivated. The writer/editor clearly wants to disassociate the manifestation of Deity from the traditional images of the disruption of elements that accompanied the theophanies of earlier times. For example, consider these earlier accounts of the appearance of God.

(Psalm 18:6–15)   In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. 7 Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. 8 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. 9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet. 10 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. 11 He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. 12 At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire. 13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. 14 Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. 15 Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.

(Isaiah 6:1–4)  In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

These two examples are characteristic of the earliest descriptions of the appearance of the Lord. We even get such a description in the book of 1 Kings itself, in chapter 22 when the prophet Micaiah ben Imlah says:

(1 Kings 22:19) Hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.

Traditionally, the Lord is generally seen sitting on his throne and the vision is often accompanied by grand displays of smoke, fire, and earthquake. The account of Elijah’s experience on Sinai even goes contrary to Moses’ experience, where these elements are a main feature of the theophany.  In this 1 Kings account, those points are mentioned, but it is specifically stated that Yahweh is not associated with them.  The only true manifestation of Yahweh here is the still, small voice.

It is quite clear to me that the passages in Kings are an addition from the Deuteronomist redactors. Around the time of the Babylonian captivity (centuries after the fact), these books of the Hebrew Bible were compiled/edited by individuals who had a clear theological agenda.  They didn’t like the language used in the ancient theophanic accounts and attempted to edit those stories by making it look like God was never seen in human throne (e.g., sitting on a throne), and other visual aspects were downplayed. God’s only manifestation was through his Voice/Word.  We see these redactors at work in the contradictory statements surrounding the theophany at Sinai at the time of Moses. While the fantastic natural phenomena couldn’t be erased from collective memory, we are told by the Deuteronomist that Moses was informed that:

(Deut 4:12 RSV) Then the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.

This is odd when we are told elsewhere that Moses, Aaron, and the elders of Israel saw the Lord (Exod 24:10) and we are told later (in the context of the above scripture) that Moses sees God’s back — certainly part of his “form.” Yet the beliefs of the Deuteronomists would not let them admit that God could be seen — only heard.  For me, it is this theology that is behind the famous passage concerning Elijah.  While this kind of perspective may make God seem more mysterious and perhaps more omnipotent/omni-present, the older tradition is more awe-inspiring and definitely more cool!  Of course I don’t mean to say that God cannot manifest himself in any way in which He chooses — and He does make himself known in a variety of different ways — I do want to identify here the fact that the Bible is composed of differing theological views that come from disparate time periods and that sometimes these views are purposefully contradictory.  This is not due to contradictions in God’s Word or God’s own thinking, but due to the fact that the books that make up our Bible have passed through the hands of many human editors and translators.  Beyond these technicalities, however, the Word of God and the important lessons we need to learn from it continue to shine through.  God does speak to us through a still, small voice that we can only hear if we are humble and have a great desire to listen carefully to what he wants to reveal to us individually.