I will not leave you.
Category: Sundays after Pentecost
Speaker: The Rev. Dr. Robert W. Prichard
It is summer time in Washington—the time for evening thunderstorms, important late term Supreme Court decisions, summer vacation, summer camp, and summer internships. I mention the latter because our Old Testament lesson today is the internship story to end all internship stories. The interns in question are intern prophets, or in the language of 1 Kings “the company of the prophets.” They follow around a famous prophet to figure out exactly what it is that prophets do.
Prophets figure prominently in the Old Testament. They play 3 important, but distinct, roles in the history of Israel. Early on they are all-purpose non-hereditary, charismatic leaders, who adjudicated disputes between individuals, provide religious leadership, and, when necessary, lead the people in war. Moses is understood as the first of the prophets in this sense, and Samuel as the last. After the establishment of the kingship with Saul, the prophets filled a second role, providing a check and balance system for the kings and queens of Israel and Judah, speaking the words of God to the hereditary monarchs at a point when no one else dared to tell them what they would not like to hear. Finally in the years following the death of King Johoiachin in captivity in Babylon and the end of the monarchy, prophets like Isaiah played a third role by raising up visions of hope, calling the people to a lasting faith at a point in which they were no longer a nation.
It is from the second period during which the prophets kept watch over the monarchs that our lesson comes today. And the subject of the account Elijah the Tishbite, clearly the most important and the most impressive of the prophets of this second sort. We catch him as approaching the end of his life.
The particular monarchs to whom Elijah brought the unwelcome word of the Lord were the members of the family of King Ahab of Israel, who ruled Israel in the 9th century BC. Elijah, following a line of thought that was shared by most of the prophets, was critical of Ahab because of Ahab’s apparent indifference to the God of Israel. Ahab married a Sidonian princess, built a temple for the Canaanite god Baal for her, and began to adopt some of her religious practices himself. Elijah did not like this marriage or its effects on Israel, and he spoke the word of the Lord against the royal couple. He waged such a successful campaign against them, that the name of Ahab’s queenh—Jezebel-- has become a synonym for a shameless an immoral woman. But the campaign was not easy on the prophet. Ahab slaughtered hundred of prophets at Jezebel’s behest, though he never could lay hands of Elijah, who spent much of Ahab’s twenty year reign in hiding.
As our story begins today, Elijah has scored some major victories against Ahab’s family. Ahab has been killed in battle (as another prophet had predicted), and Ahab’s son Ahaziah, who was also a follower of a Canaanite deity, died from an accidental fall, as Elijah had predictd. But another of Ahab’s sons in on the throne, and Jezebel lives on, swearing that she will have Elijah killed. Elijah knows that he will not live to see the end of the fight with Ahab’s wife and remaining son, and so he sets out for the wilderness to die.
This is when the interns make their appearance. There is quite a number of them, a pack of about fifty, and they are intent on shadowing Elijah so that they can learn exactly what it is that a prophet does. But Elijah has no interest at this point in his life in being a mentor. He tries to distract them by saying “you stay here, while I go on a chore on which the Lord sent me.” Most are content to stay at a distance from Elijah, but one of them is particularly persistent. He is not young and is not a very physically impressive man; later in the chapter we learn that small children are in the habit of making fun of his bald head. But he is persistent and he has a great name for someone who wants to be the successor of Elijah—Elisha. One name means my god is Yah[weh]; and the other has a name that means my god is Savior.
There is an old religious idea shared by Jews and Christians and by some other religious groups as well that the moment of death is a particularly holy one, and that if you attend carefully to that moment, you can catch a glimpse of the fullness of God’s kingdom as the person dies. A junior high school student, to use some modern parallel, may not be allowed to ever enter the teachers’ lounge, where at least in my youth, it was rumored that strange things were to be found, like cokes machines, and strange activities, like smoking. The student may never be allowed in, but if one positioned oneself at the right time in the right place one might just catch a glimpse of a slimpse of that inner sanctum when a teacher opened the door and entered.
Elisha will not leave Elijah because he wants to be there at the moment of death. He believes that will get a glimpse of God’s kingdom and in the process a measure of prophetic power that Elijah has been exercising and that Elisha will surely need, if he is to stand up to Ahab’s family. Jezebel has already killed hundreds of prophets.
Elijah keeps moving around, looking for a place to be alone, even performing a small scale version of Moses’ crossing of the Red Sea waters but Elisha will not leave him. Finally—and I think the narrator here has a sense of humor--Elijah makes a double of nothing bet. “If you see me when the Lord takes me, you can have twice the grace that I received, but if not you will receive nothing.” Elisha accepts the deal, and almost comes out on the losing side, because soon after the agreement a chariot of fire arrives and catches Elisha’s attention. But somehow he does keep an eye on Elijah and watched him as he is taken up into heaven and thereby wins his double dose of grace. In the following chapters, Elisha is able to follow through with Elijah’s work and wins in the conflict with Ahab’s family.
Last month I went to a short history conference in Atlanta. It was organized to honor E. Brooks Holifield, a very distinguished church historian, who had recently retired. It was a bittersweet occasion. We marked the end of the career of a great scholar and a lovely man. But it was also an occasion of hope, for we celebrated in a room full of people who had been touched by his teaching and inspired by his passion for history.. We knew that the passion that he brought to his subject would not be lost.
This story of Elisha and Elijah is a well told and often funny account of a continuing human problem. How is it that we can pass on the ideas and convictions that are most important to us to those who follow after? The leaders of the church often think that the problem is that the generations after us do not listen or are not interested, but this account is a story that turns the equation around. Elijah, who would just as soon tend to his own business at the end of his life, is bothered by a group of 50 intern prophets who are anxious and eager and called by God to learn and to hear about his faith in God. May God also raise up in us in, our children and grandchildren, our neighbors, and coworkers, and colleagues, and friends the same kind of hunger for a glimpse of the kingdom of God that drove Elisha and his fellow interns.
Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you”