The word of the Lord comes to
Elijah - 1 Kings 19:4-14
Elijah 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." Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep.
Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, "Get up and eat." He
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. 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." He 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. At that place he came to a
cave, and spent the night there.
Then the word of the Lord came to him,
saying, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He answered, "I have been
very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have
forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your
prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my
life, to take it away."
He said, "Go out and stand on the
mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by." Now there
was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and
breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the
wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the
earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in
the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah
heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at
the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said,
"What are you doing here, Elijah?" He answered, "I have been very
zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have
forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your
prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my
life, to take it away."