1 Kings 19:5
1 Kings 19:4-8
4 But Elijah himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors." 5 Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep.
Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, "Get up and eat." 6 Elijah looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. 7 The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, "Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you."
8 Elijah got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.
• To follow the Bread of Life discourse, here's the reading for Breadtide week 3: John 6:35-51
More About Sources
When we discussed the Manna from Heaven narrative from Exodus last week, I used the technical German theological word Heilsgeschichte that combines Heil=salvation and Geschichte=history and means God's action in the lives of the people, in creation, in all the world. These stories are about some of the historical (measurable in time and space) experiences of the people. Even more, they're about emotional, psychological, and spiritual human experience and have a high degree of multi-layered density.
Hebrew Bible Sections
The Old Testament/Hebrew Bible is in three major sections:
• Torah or the five books of the Pentateuch
• Prophets
• Writings
Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings come from the same group or committee of authors we often refer to as the Deuteronomic Historian.
Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings belong to the Former Prophets. Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and the book of the twelve (Minor Prophets in the Christian bible) belong to the Writing Prophets.
Writings include Job, Psalms, Proverbs. Ecclesiastes, Ruth, Esther, Daniel, Song of Solomon… I may have left out a few.
Bread for the Journey
In each of the five Bread of Life Sundays, the Old Testament reading is about hunger and sustenance. Today we hear one of the famous Elijah stories from 1 Kings. If you'd asked me about Elijah, I'd have remembered
• water and fire in the moat and the prophets of Ba'al;
• God in the still small voice; and today's account of • bread and water for the journey.
But I couldn't have told you what kind of bush or tree or shrub it was, so I researched Broom Tree. Turns out it's more of shrub than a tree; people made coals from its roots, trunks, and branches. Broom embers retain heat a long time; Elijah's bread probably baked on a fire left from an earlier traveler. I discovered broom trees symbolize renewal and resurrection; a hot fire can sear open the seeds so they germinate and begin to grow. Thats familiar information to us in southern California where fires are a major hazard.
"Angel" means "messenger." Elijah was in a deep blue funk (it's a long complicated story—read what comes before this); God sent the angel who pointed out the ready to eat food because without physical sustenance the journey would be too difficult. Then there's the basic human need for community. Eating alone can be too lonely… but this short reading focuses on physical feeding. As it is throughout scripture, 40 days and 40 nights is approximately one month. Horeb and Sinai are the same place—which word depends upon the source.
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