Mount Horeb is surrounded by deserts. Not just two or three of them, but six deserts. So in order to meet God, Elijah has to journey through the desert.
Deserts are dry and lonely places. They’re full of dangers and rough living conditions. When we think of deserts, we think of suffering and isolation. We want to avoid them at all costs.
But in the Bible, deserts have a special place in God’s plans. The Hebrew word for desert is midbar. It’s related to another Hebrew word medaber. In the Hebrew language, there are no vowels. This means that words with the same consonants are closely connected.
So the word midbar which means desert, is connected to the word medaber. What’s the meaning of the word medaber? It means to speak.
Throughout the Bible, the desert is the place where God speaks.
