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1 Kings 19:8 (ANIV)
So he [Elijah] got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he travelled for forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

DRAWING NOTES:

TIME OF DAY:
Unspecified in the Bible text. Afternoon.

LIGHTING NOTES:
The sun is to the right (unseen), casting shadows to the left.

CHARACTERS PRESENT:
Elijah the prophet.

RESEARCH/ADDITIONAL NOTES:
Elijah is the tiny black figure in the bottom middle of the scene! He is walking in a sandy wadi, which is a seasonal river bed: only filled with water when the infrequent rains come. You can see the rocks are smoothed by the rapid flow of water near the dry, sandy river bed.

Elijah travelled for forty days and forty nights from Beersheba to Horeb, the mountain of God, [1] which is also known as Mount Sinai, in the Sinai peninsula. That would have been an arduous and difficult journey, in scorching heat by day and bitter cold by night… and all fuelled by two miraculous meals of bread and water!

Moses and the Hebrew people had travelled in the same wilderness Elijah would now cross, except the Hebrew people were there for 40 years. Interestingly the Hebrew’s were sustained by the manna (bread from heaven) God had provided for them and learned lessons of His faithful care and provision. Centuries later, Elijah would traverse the same desert sustained by the bread God provided and would learn the same lessons.

A direct trip “as the crow flies” from Beersheba to Horeb is about 194 miles (about 312 kilometres) according to Google Earth, and might have taken Elijah perhaps about 14 days on foot, except that the direct route is a very mountainous, ravened and arid landscape and difficult terrain to cross, especially the closer to Horeb he would have walked. Of course, God was using that 40 day/night time to remind and teach Elijah about Himself.

Horeb, the mountain of God (aka Mount Sinai) was where Moses had received the Ten Commandments and made a covenant with them, several centuries before Elijah’s day. Incidentally, Elijah is the only person described in the Bible as returning to Horeb, after Moses and the Hebrew people had been there.

[1]
Horeb, the mountain of God, is the ancient name for Mount Sinai; see Exodus 3:1; 17:6; 33:6; Leviticus 7:38; Numbers 3:1; Deuteronomy 5:2; Nehemiah 9:13; 1 Kings 8:9; Psalms 106:19; Malachi 4:4.