Commentaria in III Regum
St. Bernard has the tropology of the whole history in the whole of sermon 64 among the small ones.
Allegorically, by this bread of Elias the Fathers understand the Eucharist, by whose virtue for 40 days, that is through the whole life, which is for us a time of fasting and penance, we walk “unto the mount of God, Horeb,” that is, that we may see “the God of gods in Sion.” So Paschasius Radbertus, book On the Blood and Body of the Lord, chapter 10; Alger, book 2 On the Sacrament of the Altar, chapter 1; Rupert, book 5, chapter 10; Rabbi Samuel of Morocco, book On the Coming of the Messias, chapter 20.
Anagogically, this bread represents the most sweet refreshment of the Saints in heaven, by which not for 40 days, but through all eternity they will remain without food, healthy, strong, joyful and glorious. So Rupert.
FORTY DAYS,—without other food, and so fasting. The journey from Bersabee to Mount Horeb is of a few days, namely four or five; especially as Elias walked by night as well as by day, and fear gave him wings, says Serarius. Whence it is plain that, struck with fear, dread, sorrow and anguish, he went wandering, turning aside hither and thither wherever his will carried him, and did not keep the direct way; and perhaps had not even fixed in his mind the end of the journey, namely to go to Horeb. So Abulensis.
Note here that Elias fasted 40 days, as Moses did, and afterwards Christ, in imitation of whom the Church instituted the fast of Lent.
St. Ambrose wrote a book On Elias and Fasting, in which he shows the advantages of fasting, and brings various examples of this from Sacred Scripture, as also the harms of drunkenness and intemperance.
HOREB.—“Horeb” is Mount Sinai, as I showed on Exodus 17:6, on which Moses, receiving the law from God, conversed with Him, Exodus 19, so that Elias, suffering and fighting for the law of God, might converse with Him on the same mountain, and receive from Him the manner of defending it.
(as it seems) Moses, covered by God, Exodus 33:22, saw the back and the glory of God passing by, and therefore Elias here saw the same glory in that, but in another form. For Moses saw it in the form of vast light and splendour; Elias, however, in the form of the whistling of a gentle air; so Rabbi Solomon, Lyranus and others. Hence this cave was held in great veneration by the ancients, so that Josephus, book 2 of the Antiquities, chapter 12, relates that before the time of Moses that place seemed to the ancients so sacred that shepherds were forbidden by a kind of religion to bring their flocks to that mountain, because they suspected something divine to be there.
Symbolically St. Gregory, book 2 on Ezechiel, homily 13: “Elias,” he says, “when he heard the voice of the Lord speaking with him, is described as standing at the entrance of his cave and veiling his face; because when by the grace of contemplation the voice of the higher understanding comes into the mind, the whole man is no longer within the cave, because the care of the flesh does not possess his soul, but he stands at the entrance, because he meditates going out from the narrowness of mortality. But he who now stands at the entrance of the cave, and receives the words of God in the ear of the heart, must veil his face: because while by heavenly grace we are led to understand higher things, the more sublimely we are raised, the more we ought always by humility to press ourselves down in our understanding, lest we attempt to be wise more than it behoves to be wise.” And, after some intervening matter: “For to turn the ear and cover the face is to hear the voice of the inner substance through the mind, and yet to turn the eyes of the heart away from every bodily form, lest the soul imagine anything bodily in that which is everywhere whole and everywhere circumscribed.”
10. WITH ZEAL HAVE I BEEN ZEALOUS FOR THE LORD GOD OF HOSTS,—to take away the worship of Baal and of idols, and therefore I slew 850 of their chiefs. Again it can be translated with Vatablus, I am held by a wonderful jealousy for the Lord God, as if to say: I am tormented for the honour of God by a kind of jealousy, as though I bore the person of God; I am tormented when I see the synagogue, which is the spouse of God, fall away from Him and pass over to Baal as to an adulterer.
THEY HAVE THROWN DOWN THY ALTARS.—For besides the altar appointed by God in the temple at Jerusalem, many, far removed from it, in the neighbouring mountains had erected altars to the true God, which were called “high places,” and sacrificed on them, which, though less pleasing to God, nevertheless He did not wish to be overthrown in a heretical and impious spirit, as though they were altars of a false god, not of the true. So Abulensis and Serarius.
11. AND HE SAID (the Angel, God’s vicegerent) TO HIM: GO FORTH, AND STAND UPON THE MOUNT BEFORE THE LORD: AND BEHOLD THE LORD PASSETH, AND A GREAT AND STRONG WIND OVERTHROWING
…THE LORD IS NOT IN THE FIRE; AND AFTER THE FIRE A WHISTLING OF A GENTLE AIR.—In Hebrew, a whistling, or a silent voice, or a low and thin one. The Septuagint add…
Note that the end and aim of this vision was that God might console, soften and instruct Elias, who was inflamed with anger, weariness and grief because of the licence, the impunity and the crimes of Jezabel and the Baalites. Why?
First, then, to his eyes and senses He offers a very strong wind, so that it seemed about to overthrow the mountains and break the rocks; then a great earthquake; then a burning and blazing fire, as if to say: To me, O Elias, winds, earth, fires, and so all the elements and all creatures, middle, highest and lowest, are at hand to destroy the idolaters and Jezabel: but this manner of my providence and clemency is not ordinary and usual, nor fitting; and therefore I will not use it, whence He says: “The Lord is not in it.” In the fourth place, finally, God offers to the ears of Elias a gentle air, or spirit and whistling, representing Himself, and His clemency and providence: for this gentle spirit signifies God’s patience and longanimity in punishing sins, which Elias ought to imitate and put on, and every apostolic man. So St. Irenaeus, book 4 Against Heresies, chapter 36: “The prophet,” he says, “being too disturbed and excited to vengeance, was taught to act more mildly.” And Tertullian, book On Patience, chapter 15: “The Spirit of Him (that is God) most mild and gentle sits on His throne, who is not gathered in a whirlwind, not livid with cloud, but is open and simple in tender serenity, whom Elias saw the third time: for where God is, there too is His nursling, namely patience.” And St. Macarius, homily 6: “Behold,” he says, “the voice of a gentle air, and in it the Lord. It is plain therefore that the rest of the Lord is placed in peace.” “By this,” he says, “showing that gentleness, kindness and clemency alone is pleasing to God: but each of the others draws on the wickedness of men.” St. Chrysostom, homily 4 On Elias, at the end asserts that God therefore quickly took Elias away, lest, if he lived longer, the world should be destroyed by his fire and zeal; but Chrysostom is more severe than the severe zeal of Elias. So also Procopius.
Second, this gentle spirit or whistling carried the voice of God to Elias, by which God instructed him, who was too much disturbed, faint-hearted, and thought himself the only worshipper of God and prophet left; whence He says: “I have left me seven thousand men, who have not bowed their knees before Baal,” Romans 11:4.
Third, this subtle spirit signified the power, efficacy and vengeance of God penetrating all things.
Whence He showed Elias the manner of exercising vengeance on the Baalites by Hazael, Jehu and Eliseus, not by wind, earthquake and fire. So Cajetan and Antonius Fernandius in the Visions of the Old Testament, vision 9.
Therefore this gentle spirit was at once subtle and keen. For God, and God’s wisdom and providence, work and chastise as strongly as sweetly. God therefore by this vision did not wish to disapprove the zeal of Elias for vengeance, but only to moderate it, that it might not come from anger and perturbation of mind, such as was in Elias, but from gentleness and love of justice. Whence He prescribes to him the manner and mode of the same vengeance, namely that he anoint Hazael and Jehu kings, and Eliseus a prophet, that they may carry it out.