Day 167: Viaticum

1 Kings 19:1-8 Fearing for his life under Jezebel’s threat, Elijah fled to the wilderness in the land of Judah and prayed for a natural death. His forty days and nights in the desert is a type of the forty days and nights that Christ would spend in the wilderness before beginning his public ministry, and the miraculous feeding by an angel is a type of the Eucharist (TYPOLOGY X 2!!) The number forty in Scripture is symbolic of a long period of preparation for a special task. (CCC 332, 2583)


Ch 19:9-18 In this scene, God was not present in his traditional kinds of theophanies (a visible manifestation to humankind of God), from which Elijah hid in the rock; rather, he manifested himself in “A STILL, SMALL VOICE.” It was a sign of things to come in which God’s Word and inspiration would come largely through less spectacular means and eventually through Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God made flesh. The Lord sent Elijah back into the wilderness with instructions to anoint kings for Syria and Israel as well as to anoint Elisha as a prophet to Israel.


Seven thousand: God indicated that there was a significant population of Israel that had remained faithful despite Ahab’s idolatrous practices. (CCC 436, 2583)


Ch 19:19-21 The immediate willingness of Elisha to follow Elijah and leave everything behind points to Christian discipleship in which “no one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God” (Lk 9:62). True discipleship requires complete detachment from all things and a complete subordination and dedication to the fulfillment of the will of God. (CCC 2427)


Ch 20:1-21 The greed of King Ben-hadad led to war with Israel, and Ahab, despite his sins, had the Lord on his side according to an anonymous prophet.


Ch 20:22-43 Returning with a new strategy, the Syrians attacked but were defeated by Israel’s forces. Ahab reached an agreement with Ben-hadad that spared the Syrian leader’s life. However, a prophet proclaimed that Ahab’s life would be required of him for not consulting the Lord before deciding Ben-hadad’s fate after the Lord had delivered him into Ahab’s hands.


2 Chronicles 20:1-37 The king petitioned God to allow Judah to fight against the triumvirate that was about to attack, and God consented on the condition that the soldiers of Judah simply stand by and watch. As they did, the three invading armies turned on one another and annihilated each other. The statement in this chapter about the high places remaining (cf. 20:23) seems to contradict an earlier statement about the high places being removed (cf. 17:6), but the two are NOT in contradiction: the pagan artifacts were removed from Judah but were not destroyed in the Northern Kingdom.


Song of Solomon 6:1-3 The bond of marriage is permanent, lasting until death. This relationship established by God is so intimate that the spouses belong to each other: “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.” (CCC 796, 1605, 1616, 1646, 2335)


Ch 6:4-13 The lover sings the praises of his beloved’s beauty, comparing her even to Tirzah and Jerusalem, the respective capitals of Israel and Judah. This image suggests that the bride is as beautiful as the Promised Land that the people of Israel had sought in earnest for so long. Once found, their happiness was made all the more sweet given the many challenges and hardships preceding its discovery.

(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)


The Fall of Israel

(*Walking With God: A Journey Through The Bible by Tim Gray and Jeff Cavins)



Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven we give you thanks and we give you praise for this opportunity to just enter into the history of the kings, the history of the chronicles, the history of the family of Jesus, the history of the people you have chosen with their flaws and their faults, with their disasters and with their victories. Because we know that you are the God of our flaws and the God of our faults.  You are the God of our disasters and you are the God of our victories. And so we give our hearts to you this day and every day. Please receive them. Please receive our lives, our victories, and our defeats, our flaws, and everything we are. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Dustin's Insights

Sg. 6:


My Study Color Code

Suffering, Martyrdom Places The Church, Sacraments, Divinity Horticultural Imagery People Messianic Kingship Sin, Death, Decay