A newsletter of weekly mediations on biblical theology and curated resources from The Carson CenterFebruary 25, 2026
 Exodus 33:21 And the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” 1Kings 19:9 There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 11 And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by… Read 1 Kings 19; 1 Thessalonians 2; Daniel 1; Psalm 105 There are few more potent cocktails than exhaustion mixed with discouragement. When life and ministry aren’t going well and we are sleep-deprived, the world can look very dark indeed. That’s how it was for Elijah in 1 Kings 19. He had just been a central part of God asserting his superiority over Baal and striking at the heart of the idolatrous regime of Ahab. Nevertheless, Queen Jezebel was still aggressively pursuing him (see 1 Kgs. 19:1–2). There was no suggestion that anything was about to change in Israel. The (covenant) drought may have been broken for now, but there is little sign of repentance and faith, nor a return to the beautiful way of life prescribed in the Torah. So what is Elijah to do? He heads for Horeb. The text doesn’t say whether this was God’s idea or Elijah’s, but it is clear that God is bringing the prophet back to where it all began—to the place where God established his people, and crucially, where God also appeared to Moses after a climactic episode of idolatry. The narrative in 1 Kings 19 is clearly patterned after Exodus 33, where in the wake of the Golden Calf incident and the death of a multitude of idolatrous Israelites, Yahweh reminded Moses of his glory, his covenant commitments, and the utter reliability of his words. Now he does the same thing for Elijah. Of course, there are differences between these events. For Moses, it is a matter of reaffirming God’s enduring commitment to follow through on all that he had said to him up to this point (especially Ex. 19–24). For Elijah, the focus falls on the necessity of listening to the prophetic word, rather than relying on pyrotechnics. But the essential pattern is the same: God reveals his glory and calls people to listen to his word. It is no accident that it is these two, Moses and Elijah, who join Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, where a voice is heard from heaven saying “This is my Son: listen to him!” (Luke 9:34). In Jesus, God speaks definitively, revealing both his grace and his glory. Our basic responsibility is simple: we need to listen to him! – Gary Millar Reflect: How do you cope with discouragement? How does tiredness affect the way you react? Why is it vital to ensure that God’s Word is the loudest voice in our heads? |
  Ecclesiastes’s Most Important Word: Not Fleeting but Absurd “Ecclesiastes’s Most Important Word: Not Fleeting but Absurd” by Bobby Jameison The book of Ecclesiastes packs its most shocking yet liberating insight into a single word—a word that tells you that life won’t give you what you want or deserve. And yet receiving that shockingly bad news opens the door to help and hope. This most important word in Ecclesiastes is also one of the hardest to translate. The Hebrew word hevel first shows up in the book’s thesis statement in 1:2, which you might be familiar with from the King James Version: “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” You could also translate hevel as “meaningless,” “futile,” or “fleeting.” Throughout the book, the author and protagonist, who calls himself Qohelet, examines all of life, investigating every possible pursuit and pleasure, and again and again pronounces it all hevel. The literal meaning of hevel is “breath” or “vapor”; Psalm 62:9 says that those of low estate and high estate “are together lighter than a breath.” Based on this literal meaning, many people take hevel in Ecclesiastes to consistently mean “transient” or “fleeting.” To be sure, Ecclesiastes often pronounces something fleeting or transient to be hevel. And, in at least one place, Qohelet clearly uses hevel to mean “fleeting”: “Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are hevel” (11:10, ESV alt.). The fact that life’s goods are all fleeting is certainly part of their problem. But to say that hevel means “fleeting” doesn’t go far enough. It doesn’t fully capture Qohelet’s basic beef with life under the sun. What does? “Absurd.” This word names the disconnect between what we want and what the world gives, between what we deserve and what the world returns, between what we cry out for and the world’s indifferent silence. |
