“And he (Elijah) arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb (Mt. Sinai), the mountain of God.” 1 Kings 19:8
Mt. Sinai, or Horeb, mentioned frequently in the Old Testament, is very significant, not so much because of its location or appearance, though both are important, but because of what occurred there, especially with regard to two men. The importance of those occurrences was not because of the greatness of these men, but of the God who revealed Himself to them, in order to bring them by the words of His mouth into conformity with His purposes and will. For both men, the revelation of God was necessary to move them to respond in faith and obedience to God. But coupled with the revelation was the matter of God’s words to them, specific and lifegiving. Not only would those words change the men, but also, by and through these men, history would be made, a story of God’s dealing with a nation, in order to reach not only the Jew, but the non-Jew, bringing them to salvation in the promised Messiah who would not come and “walk among us” for many hundreds of years later.
The first of these two men was Moses. When Moses came to Mt. Sinai when he was over eighty years old, having been raised in the court of Pharaoh for forty years, and then having had to flee into the wilderness to escape Pharaoh where he would live for another forty years, God specifically revealed Himself to Moses in such a manner that Moses would understand that it was God. This was confirmed by the words which He spoke. The burning bush in the desert, which was not consumed, would arrest the attention of Moses. But when from that bush Moses’ name was called, Moses’ world changed, for like the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, when Jesus called his name, revealing Himself to him, everything changed. No longer was Moses, or Paul for that matter, confined in their minds and hearts to that which was humanly possible and real, with all of the limitations that men know. Each of these men, as would be the case of Elijah later on, would be brought beyond the small sphere of man’s capacities to understand, and certainly beyond his power to be and to do that which was impossible. In other words, these men were confronted with two simple powerful words, “BUT GOD…”
God called Moses from that burning bush at Mt. Sinai. From something so small and insignificant, yet unique, God would speak as the hymnwriter put it, “…in accents clear and still.” The quiet power and authority of God in His words, would grip not only the attention of Moses, but would strengthen his will to respond rightly to God. As in the days of Christ, when He would say to all, “Come follow Me,” so Moses was called, and given grace to follow Christ, and in communion with Him, to trust Him to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage and slavery, and into a promised land.
In Elijah’s day, as he too like Moses would know what it meant to flee tyranny, with his life in peril, he comes to Mt. Sinai, there to escape and hide. But the God of Moses is there, who will reveal Himself to his servant Elijah, even though Elijah was like a man down-trodden, tired, and discouraged. In his solitude, he had come falsely to believe that he was the only one left who had not bent his knee to worship the false god Baal. It is to this man that God asks a question: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:9) Twice God asks this, and twice Elijah’s answer reveals his need. It is then that God tells him to return to the wilderness of Damascus, there to anoint two kings and a prophet in his place. God’s simple words at Sinai would change history.
Dear Father, Speak to our hearts. In Jesus’ name, Amen.