The collision between King Ahab and the prophet Elijah is described in brief stark terms in I Kings 17. Elijah announces a drought.
Three years later he returns from hiding to challenge the prophets of Baal to a religious trial of strength. For Elijah Mount Carmel was exhilarating, self-vindicating, and a very public demonstration of God's power. But it was emotionally draining, the cost only felt in delayed shock and an overwhelming sense of vulnerability. (I Kings 18
So he ran away, scared out of his wits by Jezebel. God's response to Elijah's breakdown began with practical concern for a human body depleted by overworked limbs and overwrought emotions. Rest. Food. Sleep.
Then an interview on the mountainside.
This terrified man, afraid not only of Jezebel, but of the burden of his life, and the expectations of his God, discovers the presence and person of God, not in elemental force, but in the creative whisper that first moved on the chaotic waters and brought peace, life and blessing.
The life of faith has to be lived in the tension between Carmel and Horeb, between judgement and grace, between the high octane self expenditure of obedience and the quiet insistent whisper of the One who restores the soul. (I Kings 19)
Ad the triumphalist praise song 'These are the days of Elijah' should be tempered by the Quaker poet's contrasting hymn, 'Dear Lord and Father of mankind, forgive our foolish ways.' ( J G Whittier)
There are echoes throughout Whittier's hymn of Elijah's overdone passion, burnout and need of renewal – 'take from our souls the strain and stress, and let our ordered lives confess, the beauty of thy peace."
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