Many know of the dramatic encounter on Mt. Carmel between the Prophet Elijah and the false prophets of Baal. (1 Kings 18) Elijah challenged them to a contest, to determine whose God was the true God. The false prophets built an altar and offered sacrifice, calling upon their “god” to send fire. But, nothing happened. Elijah built an altar to the true God, who answered dramatically with power and with fire. However, fewer recall what followed. Elijah learned of a threat from Jezebel and ran for cover:

But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree; and he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am no better than my fathers.” And he lay down and slept under a broom tree; and behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water.

The account continues:

And he ate and drank, and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, else the journey will be too great for you.” And he arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. (1 Kings 19:4-8)

There on Mt. Horeb Elijah had another encounter:

And [the Lord] said, “Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:11 – 13)

Elijah heard the voice of God, not in a mighty wind, an earthquake, or fire — but in a gentle whisper. God’s dramatic intervention at Carmel revealed His power. So did the whisper on Horeb. Elijah’s surrender challenges us to hear the voice of God, not in spite of difficult times, but through them. I have seen many depictions of Elijah calling down fire from heaven, but few of the broom tree encounter. One hangs on the wall of my prayer room to remind me of the lesson.

In his weakness, Elijah found freedom. The Apostle Paul had a broom tree experience. Challenged in Corinth, the Lord spoke to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” He then added, “I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor. 12:9,10)

Like Elijah and Paul, our weaknesses can become a place of encountering God. The Cross, an instrument of torture by many, is a holy place where Jesus did for us what we could never do for ourselves, offering himself in complete surrender, redeeming the world and beginning the new creation. (John 19:30)

The Cross is also a lens through which to view weakness. It points back to another tree, the tree of the serpent’s deceit, a tree of loss, lies and of death. Our first parents ate, in disobedience. They abused their freedom, the reflection of the Image of God within them. (Genesis 3)

The cross (not the broom tree) is the Second Tree which leads us to freedom. Under the blood which flowed from the wounded side of the Savior we find healing. Jesus, the second Adam (1 Cor. 15:45), has crushed the serpent and defeated the last enemy, death. (1 Cor. 15:26)

Theodore the Studite, an eighth century Abbot, wrote concerning that tree:

How precious the gift of the cross, how splendid to contemplate! In the cross there is no mingling of good and evil, as in the tree of paradise: it is wholly beautiful to behold and good to taste. The fruit of this tree is not death but life, not darkness but light. This tree does not cast us out of paradise, but opens the way for our return.

This was the tree on which Christ, like a King on a chariot, destroyed the devil, the Lord of death, and freed the human race from his tyranny. This was the tree upon which the Lord, like a brave warrior wounded in hands, feet and side, healed the wounds of sin that the evil serpent had inflicted on our nature.

A tree once caused our death but now a tree brings life. Once deceived by a tree, we have now repelled the cunning serpent by a tree. What an astonishing transformation! That death should become life, that decay should become immortality — that shame should become glory!

When I was young, I often felt I lived under a broom tree when I became discouraged, like Elijah. I did not know the Lord was with me. I know better now. It often takes the depletion of our own efforts and resources before we give up — and give in — to the One who gave Himself up for us on that Second Tree.

Broom trees can be classrooms. Paul reminded the Galatians, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Gal. 5:1) When we surrender under the Tree of the Cross, we find the Way to freedom.