Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Fast Day
Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain (Hagiorite)
1st at Vespers, Prophet Elijah: 1 Kings 17:1-23 Epistle: Romans 16:1-16 Gospel: St. Matthew 14:15-15:11
Elijah I ~ Reveals the True God: 1-23 RSV, especially vs. 14: "For thus says the Lord the God of Israel,
'The jar of meal shall not be spent...." The Church declares that "when Moses and Elijah conversed with Christ, they made
manifest that He is the Lord of the quick and the dead, and that He is the God Who spake of old in the Law and the
Prophets." Elijah, the prototype of all Prophets of God, revealed the coming of God the Son in the flesh. As the Lord Jesus
predicted the withering of ancient Israel as the People of God and rebuked the nation's chief priests (Mt. 21:18-45), so
Elijah, earlier, rebuked King Ahab and predicted Divine affliction in the form of a drought (1 K.17:1). As the Lord was
ministered to by angels in the desert after His fast (Mt. 4:11), so too did God provide for Elijah in the wilderness (1
K.17:6). As the Lord fed a multitude when they were famished (Mt. 14:15-21), so too did God provide for a widow and
her son at the hand of Elijah (1 K. 17:14-16). As the Lord raised a dead son and gave him to his mother (Lk. 7:11-15), so
too God restore the breath of life to the son of a widow that Elijah might return him to his mother (1 K. 17:21-23). Elijah
revealed Christ beforehand.
"God is the Lord, and hath appeared unto us" (Ps. 117:26 LXX). We have learned through the person of this Holy Prophet
of God, that the Lord judges His People, gives drink to the thirsty, feeds His beloved ones, gives life to the dead, and has
taken our flesh upon Himself that we might believe in Him for all these blessings.
The Spirit of God disclosed that "Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all that were before
him," even taking Jezebel, a pagan, as his queen and wife, and, worse, he himself "went and served Baal, and worshiped
him....and did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him" (1 K.
16:30,31,33). The drought which Elijah prophesied (1 K.17:1) was in fact a merciful warning from God to an apostate
leader and an erring people, that God, as Judge, will not abide infidelity and idolatry. The Lord Jesus also repeatedly, but
graciously, warned the ancient People of God that they were about to lose their birthright to the Gentiles (Mt. 12:18,21).
As God led Elijah to the brook Cherith (1 K. 17:3), so the Lord Jesus promises that "whoever drinks of the water that I
shall give will never thirst" (Jn. 4:14). In manifold ways, the Lord shows that it is He Who nurtures us beside the water of
rest (Ps. 22:1 LXX).
God always provides, especially when His People are in extremity. The provision of "the jar of meal [that] was not spent
[and] the cruse of oil [that did not] fail" (1 K. 17:16), encourages us in the same way as the Lord's provision to the
multitudes in the wilderness. God gives us "the true bread from heaven...He Who comes down from heaven and gives life
to the world" (Jn. 6:32,33). "O taste and see that the Lord is good" (Ps. 33:8 LXX)!
Do you see that by Elijah's trust in God, manifested through his prayer: "O Lord, my God, let this child's soul come into
him again" (1 K. 17:21), that God was preparing His stricken People to know Him as the Victor over death, even when He
was Crucified and buried? (Lk. 24:21,31). As the Lord Himself explained even to the doubting Sadducees before His trial
and death, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God" (Mt. 22:29).
Beloved, the Prophet Elijah together with the Apostle Paul teaches us that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever" and that we should "not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be
established by grace" (Heb. 13:8,9).
O Word, Thou true image of the Being on high, and His unshaken Seal, His Wisdom, Arm, right Hand, and Power, Thee do
we praise with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
