1 Kings 19:5

AN ANGEL OF JEHOVAH MINISTERED TO ELIJAH

"And he lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and, behold, an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and, behold, there was at his head a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the Angel of Jehovah came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the mount of God."

"The emotional experiences through which the prophet had so recently passed had left their marks upon him."[5] Not only that, the physical strain of that 17-mile run to Jezreel and the journey to his location in the wilderness had also exhausted the prophet's strength.

"The angel of Jehovah came the second time" (1 Kings 19:7). This character in the O.T. is equivalent in many ways to an appearance of God Himself; and it is unreasonable to suppose that Elijah was, in any manner, disobedient to the will of God in his flight from Jezreel. This double ministry of the angel of Jehovah forbids such a notion.

"The journey is too much for thee" (1 Kings 19:7). Hammond did not see the journey mentioned here as the projected journey to Horeb, but rather as a reference to the journey Elijah had already made.[6] We believe, however, that the angel did in fact instruct Elijah to go to Horeb, else why should he have gone? An angel was taking care of him where he was!

That Elijah was actually instructed by the angel of Jehovah to go to Horeb also appears to be implied in the mention of that place in the very next words, and also in the provision of the food that would enable him to fast on the forty-day trip to Horeb, a distance estimated by Martin as, "about one hundred miles."[7] Matheney also agreed that the provisions provided by the angel, "Strengthened Elijah for the long journey to Horeb."[8]

There also appears just here an inconsistency between the supposed journey of "forty miles" to Horeb, as estimated by Barlow,[9] or a "hundred miles" as estimated by Martin, and the fact that the forty days mentioned in the text seems to project a much longer journey than either of those distances could have required.

The answer to this problem lies in the false location of Mount Horeb, which for 200 years has been supposed to be located at the southern portion of the Sinaitic peninsula, but which according to recent research has been located in southern Arabia, where Paul said it was (Galatians 4:25).

The confirmation of this true location of Horeb is fully documented and proved by Larry Williams in his new book, The Mountain of Moses (New York: Wynwood Press, 1990). He identified Horeb as AL LAWZ, due east of the traditional Sinai, and across the southern extremity of the Gulf of Aqaba.[10] We shall cite other passages in this chapter which support Williams' identification of Horeb.

In this light, it is easy to see why forty days would have been required for Elijah to go to Horeb, because he would have had to pass around the northern extremity of the Gulf of Aqaba.