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Elijah

contributor: Marjorie Dobson

Description

A narrative piece in which Elijah reflects on the circumstances that have led him to flee from the anger of Jezebel. Set at the point of 1 Kings 19. 4-8

Short Extract:

What kind of a prophet do I think I am?
What am I doing here, crouching under a tree, miles from anywhere and scared of shadows?
Why am I so frightened of that woman? She may be queen, but she's only an idol-worshipper - and the god she worships has proved useless and powerless.

Surely I shouldn't be hiding here, lost and lonely and afraid.
Me! The great prophet Elijah.
Me! The great man who called down fire from heaven, after those priests of Baal had ranted and raved and danced themselves to exhaustion, and cut themselves with knives until there was more blood on them than there was on the sacrifice on their altar.
What a sight it was. Four hundred and fifty of them, prancing with spears and swords and calling on Baal to pour fire on their sacrifice.

At that point I had plenty of fire in my belly too, so when they weren't getting anywhere with all their shouting, I kept on encouraging them to shout louder.
'Maybe your god's asleep.' I said. 'Maybe he's gone away on his travels; maybe he's thinking, if he can.'
So they shouted louder and prophesied in their own weird fashion, but nothing happened. Nothing at all. And I just sat back and watched and waited - and waited.

I was confident then. What's happened to me now?
How could I have dared to do what I did next? Where did I get the courage from?

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