Meditation on 1 Kings 19:1-15a
Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford
First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY
June 22, 2025
We gathered at Lori Yastrub’s for our Sunday School picnic yesterday. Lori, our elder for children and youth Faith Formation, and her husband, Steve, have a swimming pool. With yesterday’s warm temperatures, the children so enjoyed the refreshment of the cool water for hours. And we had plenty of good food and fellowship to share.
This annual gathering is important to our ministry. Sunday School, as you know, usually happens inside the classroom. The picnic is an opportunity to laugh, eat, talk, relax, play, and take our faith outside in the world. This barbecue is a celebration of all the learning and growth and all that was accomplished in the previous Sunday School year. It’s meant to be fun! It also helps the children and young families form strong bonds with one another and with their teachers and me. Finally, the picnic reinforces the message that God is with us wherever we go—and we have other Christian friends traveling their journeys of faith beside us. We are not alone.
The broom tree figures prominently in our passage in 1 Kings today. The prophet Elijah is exhausted from doing God’s work. The mighty warrior prophet served the Lord in Northern Israel during the 9th century BCE. He has been fighting spiritual and physical battles for YHWH, armed with a sword. This is a time of relative peace and prosperity for the people of God. But it is also a time of rampant corruption and idolatry at the highest levels of Israel’s government.
Jezebel is perhaps Elijah’s greatest enemy. She was a beautiful Phoenician princess who married Ahab, the king of Israel, and became a powerful queen known for her promotion of the worship of Baal, a Canaanite god, in Israel. Jezebel persuades Ahab to worship this god associated with fertility, rain, and storms. His worship is seen as a direct challenge to YHWH, the God of Israel.[1]
At the beginning of our passage, Jezebel vows to avenge the deaths of the priests of Baal, and Elijah, the soldier who is responsible for them, escapes on foot, alone, to the desert, traveling miles and miles. At his lowest moment, when he feels like he has failed the Lord and is no better than his ancestors who failed to rid his nation of idolatry, he sits down under a broom tree. God is with him in the desert, under the broom tree, just as God will be with him in the quiet stillness or “sound of sheer silence” when eventually he reaches his destination.
The broom tree grows primarily in desert, hilly, and rocky areas in Israel and neighboring lands, where “it is often the only source of shade.”[2] The broom tree is really a bush, growing 2 to 12 feet high. “The twigs bear small leaves and white pea-like fragrant flowers in spring. The roots are long and reach deep for water. The roots were used for charcoal.”[3]
I was surprised to learn that broom trees also grow wild in the United States—in Arizona and Nevada. In these places, “many people consider them a weed and pull them up as quickly as they find them.”[4] Although, when you are in the desert heat, you appreciate any little bit of shade you can find, even a weedy bush that, more often than not, isn’t tall enough to stand under; you have to hunker down beneath it.
The bush is the first sign of God’s compassionate provision for the weary prophet in the desert and God’s desire to strengthen him to continue in his unique calling. After Elijah prays that the end would be near, he lies down under the broom tree and falls asleep. Then there are more signs of God’s care for Elijah. The angel of the Lord shows up, touches him to awaken him and tells him to eat. “At his head was a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. He ate and drank and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, ‘Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.’ ”
You see, the Lord always had Elijah’s journey in mind—and knew just what he needed to accomplish God’s work, with every step. The prophet ate and drank, and that little bit of food from the angel gave him the strength for a journey of 40 days and 40 nights. His destination? Horeb, the mountain of God. That’s where the Lord will be revealed to Elijah and the prophet will know, without a doubt, what God desires for him to do. He knows, because God places that desire within him, just as God places desires within us and provides all that we need for the journeys that we will take, journeys that may not take us far from here and journeys that take us a long way from what is comfortable and familiar.
Yesterday at the Sunday School picnic, I thought about the journeys that brought the young families to our church. Some of the children are children and grandchildren of longtime members, some who grew up in our church. Some are children of a new generation of Presbyterians who have come as young adults from other places. Some have attended a few years with their children. Some have just come to visit our church in the last few months. Looking around at the kids jumping off the diving board, floating around on blow up rafts or chatting in small groups at the shallow end by the side of the pool, it struck me how the children have grown in the three years since I came to minister here. Later, I marveled at how much better I know these families—and I know each child by name.
Today, we honor three teens whom I met in my first Confirmation class here and have had the privilege of coming to know them and their parents. They may be graduating from different high schools, but they have a common faith in Jesus Christ and membership in this church. They are part of our family. Today, they receive scholarships from their congregation, which they will use for different colleges and universities and different majors, preparing for different careers. God has a special path chosen for each one.
On their journeys, they will be energized by new experiences. They will enjoy living on their own for the first time, without someone telling them to do their homework or what time to go to bed or worrying about what they are wearing. They will make new friends, visit new places, eat different foods (some they will like, some they won’t) and try new leisure activities. They will also grow weary and discouraged at times, passing through deserts. College is more challenging than high school and requires good organization and time management. Teachers will expect them to be responsible and meet their deadlines for reading and written work, without reminders or warnings. They will pull all-nighters to finish papers they procrastinated about and cram for final exams, only to realize that what they studied wasn’t on the test. They will drink too much caffeine. They will miss their high school friends. They will miss their families. They will be far from home. But whenever they encounter deserts, a broom tree will spring up like a weed, if they are looking for it. They may find rest and peace for body, mind, and soul.
Although we cannot be with them when they go away to college, they take their church family and their Lord in their hearts. They bring with them all their memories from their childhood church experiences, too. May these memories and all that was learned here serve them well as they prepare for the future God has planned. We will continue to remember them in our prayers. We look forward to welcoming them back home on school breaks and when this leg of their journey is over.
May the God of Israel who was faithful to strengthen Elijah on his sacred journey send angels to feed and strengthen Joanna Huang, Andrew Carbonara, and Julianna Landi in their deserts and oases. May they place their trust in the Lord and seek to walk their paths as God directs them. May these three youth and all of us grow in faith, hope, love, and witness so that we may become like the hardy broom trees, springing up like weeds in all the dry places to bring cool refreshment and rest to others. May we all come to know the desires of God’s heart and may these desires become our own.
Let us pray.
Holy One, thank you for your presence and plan for us and your Spirit that guides us on our sacred journeys. Thank you for the angels who nourish us with faith, hope, and love along the way. Show us your will for us, dear Lord. May we have your heart’s desires. Strengthen us so that we may live in peace and confidence, trusting in your love. But if we get discouraged and weary like Elijah, we pray that you will send a broom tree and food from heaven when we need it. May we become like hardy broom trees, springing up like weeds in all the dry places to be a blessing to others. In the name of our Triune God we pray. Amen.
[1] Encyclopedia Brittanica at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jezebel-queen-of-Israel
[2] “Flora” in Anchor Bible Dictionary edited by David Noel Freedman (NY: Doubleday, 1992),805.
[4] Nancy Cushman, “Lessons from the Broom Tree,” July 1, 2019 at https://dscumc.org/blog/2019/07/01/lessons-from-the-broom-tree/
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