And the angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.”
Elijah has walked away from his post and fallen asleep in the wilderness, outside the path of God's leading. The angel has already fed him once. Now the angel comes back and touches him a second time.
Grace that comes back a second time
Elijah's own strength is gone. The striking thing is that God does not stop at one visit.
J. N. DarbyHe eats, drinks, and like a man without strength lies down. But the Lord sends the angel back again, because He is full of grace and mercy. He watches over all our ways. He feeds our souls according to our needs and all our circumstances. So the Lord bore with Elijah and helped him, and He is the same towards us.
A meal for a servant who had left his post
The angel brings no rebuke. He brings a meal to a man who had walked away from his duty.
W. W. FeredayHere we have a truly wonderful display of the kindness of God. An angel sent from heaven to bring a meal to a faulty servant! This servant had abandoned an important post of duty. He was now completely outside the path of God's leading!
Not the ravens this time — God aims at the heart
God had fed Elijah by ravens before. This time the way He feeds him carries a message.
W. W. FeredayWhen he was right with God, only the need of his stomach had to be met, and the ravens were enough for that service. But when he was all wrong with God, something more serious than his stomach was in question. God would reach his heart. The attentions of the angel would be a definite assurance to Elijah that the Lord loved and cared for him still, despite his deep failure... The angel woke him a second time and said, "Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you." It was a journey he should never have taken!
Fed so he could walk
God does not feed him so that he can lie down again. He feeds him for a reason, and the same reason lies behind what He gives us.
H. L. RossierHe eats, but does not understand what God wants of him, and goes to sleep again. A second time he finds the same food. God fed him so that he might walk. An important lesson for us! The Lord had fed him at Cherith and at Zarephath so that he might bear a powerful testimony. But if divine food does not give us strength for ourselves, will God reach His purpose?
Every stage of it was too great
The angel gives a reason. It is not only the road ahead that outran Elijah's strength — his whole life did.
Hamilton SmithHe learns that he is on a journey, but, says the Lord, "the journey is too great for you." What a journey was Elijah's through this world. Cherith, Zarephath, Carmel, Horeb mark the stages of his journey. The chariot of fire is ready to end it in power and glory. But every stage was "too great" for Elijah. He had to show power. He needed courage and faith. He had to meet opposition and bear hardship. All of it was too great for a man with the same nature as ourselves.
Compared with Moses and with Christ
One writer compares Elijah with Moses and with our Lord Jesus Christ. The three cases are not the same at all.
William KellyElijah's was clearly the lowest of the three, for God gave him something that sustained him by a miracle. The Lord did not hold him up by His own power alone, with nothing else. God gave power to a means that sustained him. So his case was more a matter of what God gave. In Moses' case it was what he enjoyed, not what he was given. Created things did not give him power; he enjoyed the Creator Himself. And in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ it was the Creator Himself, in the most perfect self-denial and dependence on His Father.
The same word to us
One writer turns the angel's words toward the reader.
Leslie M. GrantWe too must take this to heart. Our journey through the world is too great for us if the food of the Word of God does not sustain us.
Summary
- The journey is too great — and not just the road to Horeb. Every stage of Elijah's life outran the strength of a man with our nature.
- So God comes — He sends an angel from heaven with a meal for a faulty servant who had walked off his post.
- And comes again — the second touch shows a God who watches over all our ways and feeds us in every circumstance.
- He feeds so we may walk — food from God that leaves us lying down has not yet reached its purpose.
- The same journey is ours — it is too great for us too, unless the food of God's Word keeps us going.