{"id":63132,"date":"2019-09-18T16:59:03","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T13:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=63132"},"modified":"2023-04-11T16:10:31","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T13:10:31","slug":"elijah-finally-relents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/elijah-finally-relents\/","title":{"rendered":"Elijah (Finally) Relents"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[858,375,384,401,581],"acf":{"old_id":"63132","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34250,"related_cahpter":"310","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"After all, what good is zeal for God if it destroys His people?","content":"

If we got the impression from the last few chapters of I Kings that Elijah would rather be left alone with God than have to deal with the fickle people who persist in betraying Him, we might find further support when he sets Ahaziah\u2019s messengers on fire.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fifty men show up with their captain, interrupting Elijah\u2019s solitude at the top of a mountain, and demand, \u201cMan of God, by order of the king, come down!\u201d (1:9) \u2013 but Elijah is not impressed with the orders of this king who would turn to Baal Zebub before his own God. <\/span>Oh, really? Do you really believe, then, that I\u2019m a man of God? Do you accept the power of the God Whose man I am? Let me show you!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

And fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty men (vs. 10).<\/span><\/p>\n

Ahaziah and his next captain don\u2019t take the lesson, and the encounter is repeated: the brazen demand, the fire, the deaths.<\/span><\/p>\n

The third time, however, is the charm \u2013 and as it turns out, captain number 3 doesn\u2019t just learn the lesson that passed over the others\u2019 heads, but perhaps has something to teach Elijah, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

How does he avoid the same fate as his predecessors? Not by proclaiming his faith in God, or by distancing himself from the king and his sins, or by apologizing \u2013 though all of that is implied by his submissive stance and language, and by the fact that he doesn\u2019t even mention the king\u2019s order. His focus is on something else:<\/span><\/p>\n

‘Oh, man of God, please have regard for my life and the lives of these fifty servants of yours!’ (vs. 13)<\/span><\/p>\n

Why the strange phrasing, \u201chave regard\u201d? Why not just \u201cdon\u2019t kill me\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n

Even assuming that the first two groups deserved their fate \u2013 it seems that captain number 3 sees another element in the prophet\u2019s choice of response to their offenses: a lack of regard for their lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elijah shared his driving force, what he regards above all, at the end of I Kings: \u201cI am moved by zeal for the LORD, the God of Hosts\u2026\u201d (I Kings 19:10).<\/span><\/p>\n

Zealous for God, but what about His people? Elijah repeats in frustration that they \u201chave forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and put Your prophets to the sword.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHave regard for my life,\u201d pleads the captain. See me as valuable in my own right, and worth your energy. The previous two groups were dispensable, vehicles through which Elijah displayed the power of his God. This time, the captain says, <\/span>Look at me. I, and my men, have value \u2013 not as pawns in a grand message to the kingdom, but as individuals, as servants of God and His prophets<\/span>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It is this sort of regard Elijah struggles with, and so his time is nearing an end.<\/span><\/p>\n

For what good is zeal for God if it destroys His people?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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