“He Remembers That We Are Dust”: Encouragement for a New Year
PLEASE NOTE: All verses are quoted from the New International Version unless otherwise noted. Any quotations given without a verse reference are my own interpretation. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the Old Testament prophet Elijah. His life is filled with astonishing, unique events, one of which I can relate to all too well. Elijah’s origins are a mystery. He shows up for the first time in 1 Kings 17:1 : “Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.’” Where was Tishbe? No one knows for sure. What else do we know about Tishbe and Tishbites? Nothing. Elijah is the only person identified as such in the Bible. Elijah shows amazing confidence in the face of a wicked ruler who could easily have put him to death. I used to think that God had spoken to Elijah suddenly, in a dream perhaps, and told him out of the blue to go to Ahab wi...