LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) — Biblical authors often allude to previous moments in the biblical storyline to help readers better understand theological themes, argued professor Duane A. Garrett during a faculty lecture at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Feb. 19. The lecture, titled “Elijah at Sinai,” was delivered in the historic Broadus Chapel.
Garrett, the John R. Sampey Professor of Old Testament Interpretation and Professor of Biblical Theology, argued that these “allusive patterns” consist of references to previous passages of Scripture that help make clear what the biblical author wants the reader to learn.
Garrett took as his theme 1 Kings 19, in which the prophet Elijah fled to Mount Sinai to escape from the wrath of Jezebel, leading to Elijah’s complaint against the faithlessness of Israel. Though Elijah had just witnessed fire come down from heaven and consume the burnt offering, reaffirming the Lord as the true God, Elijah was despondent over the Israelites’ faithlessness when he reached Sinai, and he sought to prosecute them before God. The author of 1 Kings includes details that remind the reader of Moses’ intercession for Israel while he was on Mount Sinai in Exodus 19, Garrett argued.
“Moses is the paradigm,” Garrett said. “His intercession demonstrates that, for all his frustration and disappointment, the true prophet of God must plead for Yahweh’s people and not against them. Elijah, in this regard, failed to live up to the paradigm.”
“The essential message of the Moses-Elijah parallel in 1 Kings 19 is unambiguous. The prophet of God should intercede for sinners and not seek their destruction.”
Later biblical authors connect the theme of the ideal prophet from Moses at Sinai in Exodus 19 and later Elijah at Sinai in 1 Kings 19 to their own writings, Garrett argued. This is most clear in the book of Jonah. Like Elijah, Jonah failed to live up to the standard of an ideal prophet established in the example of Moses in Exodus 19.
“Jonah’s yearning to see Nineveh destroyed has an obvious parallel in Elijah’s prosecution of Israel. Therefore by means of the allusions to Moses and Elijah, the book of Jonah extends the reader’s understanding of the compassion of Yahweh and the role of the prophet. Jonah rejected Moses’ model of intercessor and embraced Elijah’s model of prosecutor.”
Though Elijah and Jonah serve as negative examples, these passages help illuminate passages in the New Testament. The theme of the true prophet is taken up by the Gospel writers, who link the narratives of Moses, Elijah, and Jonah, and demonstrate how Jesus is the fulfillment of the ideal prophet envisioned throughout the Old Testament.
Source: Baptist Press
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