Chapter Twelve/He Took Comfort in His God

 

Jehovah Sustained His Prophet

How do you think Jehovah felt as he looked down from  heaven and saw his beloved prophet lying under a tree in the wilderness and begging for death to take him?  We do nnot have to guess.  After Elijah sank into sleep, Jehovah sent his angel to him. The angel gently woke Elijah with a touch and said: "Rise up and eat." Elijah did so, for the angel had kindly set out a simple meal for him-fresh,wearm bread along with water. Did he even thank the angel? The record saysonly that the prophet ate and drank and went back to sleep.  Was he too despondent to speak? At any rate, the angel woke him a second time, perhaps at dawn. Once more he urged Elijah, "Rise up and eat," and he added these remarkable words, for the journey is too much for you." - 1 KINGS 19:5-7.

Thanks to God-given insight, the angel knew where Elijah was headed.  He also knew that the journey would be too much for Elijah to carry out in his own strength.  What a comfort to serve a God who knows our goals and  our  limitations better than we do! (Read Psalm 103:13, 14.) How did Elijah benefit from that meal?

We read: "He rose up and ate and drank,and he kept going in the p ower of that nourishment for forty dys and forty nights as far as the mountain of the true God, Horeb."(1 Kings  19:8) Like Moses some six centuries before him and Jesus nearly ten centuries after hinn, Elijahj fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. (Exodus 34:28; Luke 4:1, 2) That one meal did not make all his problems go away, but it sustained him miraculously. Imagine that older man trudging through the trackless wilderness day after day,week after week, for nearly a month and a half!

Next time: Chapter Twelve/He Took Comfort in His God-Conclusion of Jehovah Sustained His Prophet

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