Another Eucharistic Meditation

1 Kings 22:26-27: �Then the king of Israel said, �Take Micaiah and return him to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king�s son; and say, �Thus says the king, �Put this man in prison, and feed him the bread of affliction and the water of affliction until I return safely.��E

As we noted in the exhortation this morning, Micaiah, the prophet of Yahweh, disappears from this story into prison, and never returns. With him, the word of Yahweh seems to be defeated. Ahab not only imprisons the prophet, but also takes steps to escape the Word of Yahweh. In the end, we know that this is all for nothing. Ahab�s disguise doesn�t save him, and Micaiah�s prophecy comes to pass.

Micaiah, however, doesn�t know that when he�s heading to prison. He knows he�s a true prophet, for he�s been in the council of Yahweh to hear the deliberations of the heavenly court. He is confident that he will be vindicated: �if you return safely, Yahweh has not spoken by me,�Ehe tells the departing Ahab. But it hasn�t happened yet, and so Micaiah is sent to prison to wait on Yahweh, with the Word of Yahweh his only confidence and hope. He is sustained in prison by faith.

Literally, he is sustained in prison by bread and water. Ahab calls this the �bread of affliction and the water of affliction,�Ewhich probably means that Ahab places Micaiah on subsistence rations. Micaiah is not feasting in prison. And the food he receives doesn�t hold much promise of feasting.

But we need to look at Micaiah�s rations in the light of earlier stories in Kings. Bread and water has been the food of prophets throughout several chapters. Elijah drinks water from Cherith and the bread brought by ravens; then he drinks water from the widow of Zarephath and the bread she bakes; faithful Obadiah is keeping 100 prophets alive with bread and water in caves. In each case, the bread is the bread of affliction and the water is the water of affliction. But in each case, the mere fact of bread and water is a sign of Yahweh�s continuing favor to His prophet, and ultimately to Israel. Bread and water was a sign that the word of Yahweh would not remain hidden, would not remain humiliated, forever.

At this table we do have a feast, a feast for a king, a feast in which the water of affliction has been translated into the wine of gladness. But this table too is a promise of something better in the future. In a word where God�s promises of do not seem to be coming to pass, where it does not seem that the knowledge of Yahweh covers the earth as the waters cover the sea, where it does not seem that the blessing of Abraham is flowing to all nations; in the midst of this delay and sometimes in the midst of apparent failure and defeat, this table is a sign that God will keep His promise, and that in the end Jesus will preside at an eternal feast, a feast without affliction, where every sorrow is healed and every tear is dried.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, April 10, 2005 at 08:37 AM

Permission is given to use material on this site, provided the source is cited, blog entries are republished in full, and the author is notified in advance.