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The Truth About Angels
from heaven with food for His servant. “Arise and eat,” the angel said.
“And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and
a cruse of water at his head.”
After Elijah had partaken of the refreshment prepared for him, he
slept again. A second time the angel came. Touching the exhausted
man, he said with pitying tenderness, “Arise and eat; because the
journey is too great for thee.” “And he arose, and did eat and drink”:
and in the strength of that food he was able to journey “forty days and
forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God,” where he found refuge in
a cave.—
Prophets and Kings, 166
.
In the desert, in loneliness and discouragement [after his moun-
taintop experience on Mt. Carmel], Elijah had said that he had had
enough of life and had prayed that he might die. But the Lord in His
mercy had not taken him at his word. There was yet a great work for
Elijah to do.—
Prophets and Kings, 228
.
Through a mighty angel the word of the Lord came to him, “What
doest thou here, Elijah?” In bitterness of soul, Elijah mourned out his
complaint: “I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for
the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine
altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword: and I, even I only, am
left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
Calling upon the prophet to leave the cave in which he had hidden,
[133]
the angel bade him stand before the Lord on the mount, and listen to
His word. As Elijah obeyed, “behold, the Lord passed by, and a great
and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks
before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind
an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the
earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a
still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped
his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of
the cave.” His petulance was silenced, his spirit softened and subdued.
He now knew that a quiet trust, a firm reliance on God, would ever
find for him a present help in time of need.—
The Review and Herald,
October 23, 1913
.
When Elijah was about to leave Elisha, he said to him, “Ask what
I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said,
I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.” [
2 Kings
2:9
.]—GW (1915) 116.