As the Lord God Lives
Prophecy – To Be Before God
The office of prophecy in Israel signifies a reality that has various meanings; and yet, before all else it is a stance before God. We see this in the person of Elijah, especially as he announces himself to Ahab in their first encounter.
A stance? By that word, I mean a real standing before the face of God – signifying an intimate encounter with the Divine. God is immediately present to his prophet by his imminence; he is close. This is the God who is “I Am.” As Cardinal Ratzinger would put it in his Introduction to Christianity: God reveals himself as “Being-for.” God, in so many ways, tells his people that he is God for them. God says, “I Am” here for you… (pg. 128). Yes, prophecy is a way of being before God… of being present to God who is already present to the individual and to his whole people. As St. Paul teaches, when speaking to the Athenians: “he is not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’” (Acts 17, 27—28). This takes some thought. God, and for that matter Elijah, are not Ahab’s adversaries. This confrontation is not adversarial. God and his prophet are for Ahab and the kingdom. Elijah and the Lord God are Israel’s best promoters. It’s worth thinking about; because, sometimes, we think God is against us when things do not go our way. God is not standing in our way when he comes before us. The Lord is simply being present in love to the creature he has created. Take a moment to be before him… and let him be God for you!
For a prophet, especially like Elijah, this sense of always living and moving in God is particularly acute. The profession of the prophet is “to be” always before God. The prophet’s being is always radically directed to God and his presence. For Carmelites, we see how Elijah’s opening statement summarizes our entire vocation as religious.
“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” (Ps 139, 7).
The action and movement within the narrative of Elijah’s doings, his comings and goings, are all prompted by God. Elijah is living within the framework of salvation history, which means the prophet is simply following God’s design for his people as it unfolds in time. God’s word and wisdom will direct the whole course of Elijah’s career. He is truly a man of God. The word of the Lord is a powerful force in the mind of Elijah. It seizes him at times and is the motive behind each step that he takes in his journeys:
After his initial encounter with Ahab, we are told that “…the word of the Lord came to him…” to direct him to the brook Cherith; from the wadi, Elijah is once again directed by a divine utterance: “…then the word of the Lord came to him…” and off he goes to the widow of Zarephath. After years of drought, it comes time to confront Ahab once more: “After many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year…” and the contest is initiated by Divine command. As soon as Elijah offers the sacrifice on Mount Carmel, the word of the Lord takes the prophet in hand and seizes him: “And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.” About a 15-mile run – a marathon sustained under the impetus of the Spirit! An angel instructs the desolate man of God in the wilderness as he flees the death threats of Jezebel, the angry queen… and God will speak to Elijah on Mount Horeb: “and there he came to a cave, and lodged there; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him.” In the Naboth affair, God pronounces sentence over king Ahab and Jezebel by speaking directly through Elijah: “then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite…” Ahaziah comes to rule Israel after the death of his father Ahab and he too falls into the temptation of idolatry. Elijah is sent to confront this young king with a signal from God: “but the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite…” Finally, it is time for Elijah’s departure and he is once more sent under the influence of God’s word: “…the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel… to Jericho… to the Jordan.” (1 Kgs 17,2; 17,8; 18,1; 18,46; 19,5-8; 19,9; 21,17; 2 Kgs 1,3; 2,2; 2,4; 2,6).
From start to finish Elijah is always under the direct influence of the word of the Lord: his hand upon him, his angel guiding his course. Elijah cannot operate except in response to the Word. We can assume that the very first confrontation with Ahab was also initiated by the Word at work in the mind and heart of the prophet. This then is the first feature of prophecy that we note in the career of Elijah – a complete openness to the Word of God. He runs in the way of God at his word. A prophet is one to whom God speaks directly, and the prophet in turn hears. His duty upon hearing, is to obey the divine utterances. There is almost a personification of the Word in these visits to the prophet, as if Elijah were experiencing God in a personal manner.
What is a Prophet?
Fr. Simeon, in his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew entitled Fire of Mercy Heart of the Word, defines a “prophet” (προφετης– from the verb προφεμι = to speak before) not as one who says things before they happen (interpreting the prefix προ - in the temporal sense); but, rather as one who goes before the face of God proclaiming his words and his will (the prefix in the spatial sense). (Vol. 1, pg. 70). To speak of a stance before God, or to stand before God, is to speak of going before the face of God. In the second moment, the prophet goes forth (still under the gaze of God, i.e., remaining before God / abiding in his presence) to proclaim his words and his will. And this is what Elijah is now doing as he stands before Ahab. By his own presence, Elijah brings the king of Israel to a face-to-face encounter with God.
Elijah declares before Ahab: “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand…” (1 Kgs 17, 1). Elijah is making a stand. He stands before God to serve him; but also, to pray, and finally to stand before the people. “For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons forever.” (Dt 18, 5). He is God’s chosen instrument to serve him in this time of crisis – to call Israel back to the true worship of God. Elijah comes from his place of prayer to stand before God’s people who is represented in the person of the king. In this case Elijah stands with God and against Israel in their idolatry. Elijah is declaring that God cannot stand such infidelity, and will no longer tolerate it. God will now address the problem, and put his foot down. The prophet as God’s “stand-in” will become a stumbling block in the path of the king and his people. Elijah will prevent them from going any further down the path on which they are treading – a path that will lead to exile – a “standing apart” from God.
The first words out of the mouth of Elijah are: “As the Lord the God of Israel lives…” The prophet utters the divine name Lord (YHWH). This was the name given to Moses when he asked God what to say to the sons of Israel about the One who sent him to them. Elijah reaffirms the faith of Israel. He provides his credentials and presents himself as the Lord’s official representative. As an ambassador to the Divine, Elijah represents the God who lives (and is not dead like the idols of Baal and Asherah). God is: “I Am Who I Am.” The Lord has come to assert his rights over his people: “But this command I gave them, ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’” (Jer 7, 23). God desires nothing more than the well-being of his people. Their spiritual health, as a kingdom and nation, depends upon whether or not they find themselves before God – to stand always in his presence. They will live insofar as they acknowledge that God lives and is living in their midst. Elijah speaks in order to call to obedience.
By these same words Elijah indicates that a formal oath is to follow. God is about to speak judgment over his people and over the false Gods they worship. And the only thing Israel can do is to stand before their God who loves them with a jealous love – who will not permit his children to stand anywhere else except in his presence. In this first encounter the prophet of Carmel has placed Israel before the living God! We too stand before the living God.