It has been a privilege to listen to Radio 4 this week after The World at One (1:45pm), where for 15 minutes there has been an examination of one of the prophets. Monday was Jonah, Tuesday Isaiah and today (Wednesday 14 August) Elijah. Tomorrow is devoted to Miriam the Prophet, which will be interesting, and lastly (Friday) Samuel, who was both confidante and critic of those in government. If you have not listened then perhaps you might like to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0383kxs/episodes/player. The episodes are supposedly available to listen to for a calendar year.

One of the comments from today concerning Elijah struck a chord as I drove through the Malverns. The person being interviewed (a Rabbi from Israel) said that Elijah was given a make-over within the Jewish tradition: softened a little. It is he who is now left a chair with a glass of something to drink at the Passover, and the invited guest for celebrations. The wild man of 1 Kings has been through a Jewish equivalent of ‘colour me beautiful’. The rabbi amused me by saying that he had become ‘santa claus’.

It is easy to see why a makeover was necessary. Elijah did, after all, kill the false prophets of ba’al after challenging them to show down.

The question that I found myself asking as Worcester appeared on the horizon and on the M5 was ‘do we sanitise God’, ‘make God more palatable’? I think sometimes the church does do so. It perhaps easy to understand why. God is after all quite demanding.

A scholar interviewed during the programme, however, offered the following caveat. Elijah had to be direct. Israel was following other gods and needed to be rebuked.

I wonder whether we need to rediscover the God who demands everything of us. Perhaps only a God who can speak so directly to us is worth following at the end of the day.