The Day of New Beginnings

Our Journey to Horeb

 

1st kings 19:
 
15* The LORD said to him, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have arrived, you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram;
 16* and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place.
 17* "It shall come about, the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death.
 
The above verses are the conclusion of Elijah’s meeting with God on Horeb. The Lord commissioned Elijah to his greatest work. He was to anoint Hazel king over Aram, Jehu king over Israel, and Elisha as prophet in his place. Through these anointings God’s purposes were going to be fulfilled. Elijah was also going to impart to Elisha a double portion of his spirit. 
 
Now, lets look at the verses that led up to Elijah’s meeting with God. 
 
1* ¶ Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.
 2* Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So may the gods do to me and even more, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time."
 3* And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
 4* But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, "It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers."
 5* He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, "Arise, eat."
 6* Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again.
7* The angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, "Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you."
 8* So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.
 
We want to pay special attention to verses five through eight. While these verses no doubt literally happened, there is much symbolism that pertains to us today. 
 
As Elijah slept under a Juniper tree, an angel touched him and told him to arise and eat. The angel is a type of the apostolic ministry, as both are messengers sent from God. Elijah’s ultimate destination is Horeb, the mountain of God. Horeb was where God appeared in His glory to Moses and the children of Israel. Heb. 12 says that we have not come to Horeb in this hour, but to Mt. Zion, the Heavenly Jerusalem. So, Horeb is a type of the realm of God, where the Lord manifests Himself in His glory. For us, Mt. Zion is not a physical location, but a realm of spirit, the realm where God reveals Himself to us without veil or shadow (1st Cor. 13:12). We have not fully entered this realm yet. We are ascending in the Lord through the heavens that we might know Him in His Horeb manifestation. As the Lord deals with us and we appropriate the cross experience, we rise spiritually from one realm of knowing the Lord to the next. It is at “Horeb” that we see God’s purposes for us completed and our destinies fulfilled. 
 
Now, how does Elijah get to Horeb? First, the angel, or messenger, tells Elijah, “Arise, eat.” This is our command also. We are to arise, meaning ascend spiritually. Eph. 5:14 says, “…Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you." We are to arise from our state of spiritual slumber. 
 
Elijah is also told to eat. Twice the angel tells Elijah, “Arise, eat.” The first time Elijah eats and lays back down. The second time he arises and goes in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights. It’s only as we arise in the Spirit that we are strengthened by the spiritual food that God provides.
 
It’s important to note that this food provided by the angel is very simple. It’s a  bread cake and jar of water. There is something special about this food. There’s no way Elijah travels forty days and nights through the wilderness on a bread cake and water. The bread cake and water are a type of the Living Word. It is an apostolic Word that Elijah eats. The angel is a type of the apostolic ministry and through that ministry a Word is ministered that is capable of taking Elijah (and us) to Horeb, the mountain of God. There is no other food that can sustain us in our journey to Horeb. We must feed upon a foundational Word through the foundational ministries in order to ascend into the place God has ordained for us (Eph. 2:20, Eph. 3:4-5). Paul told the Corinthians that though they had countless tutors in Christ, they had not many fathers, and that he became a father to them through the Gospel of Christ. Though there be much teaching and preaching within Christianity, it cannot take us fully to our destination. We must be touched by that “angel” to be fed properly. Then we can make the necessary journey God has set before us. 
 
Elijah went forty days and forty nights in the strength of the food the angel gave him. When Elijah was awakened the second time he was told to eat again as the journey was too great for him. So it is with us. The journey is too great for us to make in our own strength. We cannot attain the “Horeb realm” through our own energies. Why did Elijah have to go forty days and forty nights to reach Horeb? Why was it necessary to eat and then make such a strenuous journey? Why couldn’t God have simply translated Elijah by the Spirit to Horeb? The Scriptures are clear that at other times Elijah was caught away and transported in the Spirit to different places. It sure would have been easier for Elijah. The reason is because forty is a symbolic number signifying trial and testing. E. W. Bullinger, in his book, Number in Scripture, states, “Forty has long been universally recognized as an important number, both on account of the frequency of its occurrence, and the uniformity of its association with a period of probation, trial, and chastisement—not judgmental, like the number nine, which stands in connection with the punishment of enemies, but  the chastisement of sons, and of a covenant people.” 
 
Elijah’s forty days and forty nights to Horeb are a type of the trials and chastening the Lord puts us through to create sons (Heb. 12). This is why it’s so important to arise and feed upon the apostolic Word God provides us. It’s only through a living Word that we are sustained through the Lord’s dealings in our lives. We don’t want to fall in the wilderness. We don’t want to grow weary from the long journey and miss our Horeb. 
 
1st Kings 19:
11* And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, 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:
 12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
 13* 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. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?
 
At Horeb the Lord revealed Himself to Elijah in a new way. As we enter the realm of “Horeb” we also can anticipate meeting the Lord in a new way. The “forty days and forty nights” are to prepare us for this very purpose.