In the moment of his triumph over the pagan prophets at Mount Carmel Elijah has let himself be bluffed out of finishing the war against the disgraced cult of Baal. Jezebel, the Phoenician wife of King Ahab, merely sent a messenger to tell him, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that on one of them.”  Elijah gave in and fled in disgrace.

     Even now, alone and far away in the Negev, beyond Beersheba and beyond the clutches of the queen, Elijah trembles. Fear has chilled his heart and self-pity has sapped his strength. The farther he goes, the more hopeless his plight appears to him. At last he collapses in the scant shade of a spindly broom shrub and sobs, “I have had enough, LORD. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”

     Elijah has hit rock bottom, as we say.

     Instead of granting his death wish, The Lords sends his messenger to light a fire on that proverbial rock bottom while Elijah sleeps. Thick, dry roots from a dead broom tree heat smooth, flattish stones from the wadi floor to nearly red heat while the messenger grinds wheat and barley between two flat stones, mixes dough with water and a dash of salt and olive oil, and pats the dough into flat loaves. He rakes the fire off the hot stones and lays the loaves on them to bake.

As soon as the first loaf has baked to perfection on both sides, the messenger takes it to Elijah. The aroma of fresh bread is enough to arouse most of us, but Elijah has fallen so sound asleep that the angel has to shake him.

“Rise and eat,” he tells the prophet.

“He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a pitcher of water. He ate and drank and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came again and touched him a second time, saying, ‘Rise and eat; the journey is too much for you.’ He rose and ate and drank and, sustained by this food, he went on for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.”  – 1 Kings 19:6-8, NEB

“Great things are done when men and mountains meet,” as William Blake wrote. God entered into this equation at Horeb, and the Bible records that greater things were done. The Lord could have granted Elijah his death-wish, for that matter, but it is his way to give us garlands of flowers to replace signs of mourning (Isaiah 61:3). His angels may have ministered to Jesus after in the in much the same manner, but that happened only after his victory over the Tempter. The fact that he sent an angel to minister to Elijah in the depths of his defeat tells us of the depth of God’s concern for his servants. When they do hit rock bottom in spite of everything, he bakes bread on the rock to bring them closer to him on the mountain.

Among God’s servants today, ministers do suffer from an occupational liability to hitting rock bottom in the line of duty. We need not dwell on case histories but we should bear in mind that God has given us a share in the angels’ ministry of bearing up his servants (Psalm 91:11-12).

The apostle Paul wrote to the Christians at Philippi, “Now I have everything I want – in fact I am rich. Yes, I am quite content, thanks to your gifts received through Epaphroditus. Your generosity is like a lovely fragrance, a sacrifice that pleases the very heart of God” (Philippians 4:18, Phillips).

The fragrance of that generosity may very well have resembled the aroma of freshly baked bread, surely one of the most irresistible fragrances on earth.