Elijah

by G.K. Kennedy, Sydney, Australia | Category: Profiles Of The Prophets | Mar 1978

"Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed with prayer that it might not rain" (Jas. 5:17 RVM).

However remarkable the work and privileges of Elijah, it will be profitable for us to remember we are considering a man of "like passions with us". If we keep this in mind we shall not consider him from afar but be profited through his experiences in teaching, in reproof, in correction, in instruction which is in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16). Let us not only learn about Elijah but also learn from Elijah.

The story of Elijah's public ministry begins in 1 Kings 17 but the Holy Spirit complements the Old Testament through the pen of James showing that his spiritual experience had a private beginning long before. "He prayed". Men of God must learn to pray privately before they may stand before kings. The man of God whom we see standing before king Ahab had first of all stood before the Lord, the God of Israel (1 Kings 17:1). There he had learnt God's Word and had prayed according to the will of God. Elijah had prayed according to the Word of God, knowing the scripture, "Thou ... shalt not turn aside... to go after other gods to serve them ... The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, discomfiture and rebuke... because of the evil of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken Me.... And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust" (Deut. 28:14-24). Thus his prayer was answered with a great famine, as the Lord Jesus Himself so described it (Luke 4:25).

Concerning the background of Elijah we know very little. Rather, we are caused to consider "the Spirit and power" (Luke 1:17) which were manifested in his life. He came from Gilead, possibly from a place called Thesbon (Septuagint), a Tishbite. His tribe presumably would have been Reuben or the eastern half of Manasseh or (the writer suggests) Gad. Elijah comes to mind when we read Genesis 49:19 and Deuteronomy 33:20-21. His name means "Jah is God" and would seem to indicate that God-fearing parents had named him. It was with the truth embodied in his own name that he challenged the people on Mount Carmel. "If the LORD be God, follow Him" (1 Kings 18:21).

He was a hairy man and wore a leather girdle (2 Kings 1:8) and a mantle (1 Kings 19:19). He was undoubtedly a physically fit man who could put his face between his knees in prayer (1 Kings 18:42), could run ahead while Ahab rode a distance of some 15 to 20 miles (v.46) after the slaying that day of 850 false prophets (v.40); and on the last day of his earthly life walked perhaps in excess of forty miles from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho to the Jordan and beyond perhaps toward the mountains of Moab.

Elijah was raised up by God with a ministry towards the ten northern tribes of Israel. King Ahab was on the throne, a wicked man with perhaps an even more wicked wife, Jezebel. "There was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to do that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. And he did very abominably in following idols" (1 Kings 21:25-26). This woman of Zidon had brought the worship of Baal into common practice and turned the hearts of the people to her idols. Perhaps Elijah would keep the injunction that "three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the LORD God" (Exod. 23:17) but we have no record of any of his dealings with Judah or Jerusalem excep4 for one notable exception.

In character Elijah was fearless although at times he knew what it was to be afraid. During the severe drought he had gone from the brook Cherith which is before (east of?) Jordan through to Zarephath "which belongeth to Zidon". Truly a man of God under divine protection, he passed through the breadth of hostile and unbelieving Israel to the very region of Jezebel's origin. He reverenced God, covering his face in his mantle (19:13) and bowing himself down upon the earth (18:42). He was very jealous for the Lord (19:10,14) and consequently knew the loneliness, isolation, discomfort and suffering of the godly. Himself a man of decision he called for decisive action by others, saying "How long halt ye between two opinions?" (18:21). He poured contempt upon the vain hope of the people who had forsaken the knowledge of the true God (18:27). And yet the man who had stood before the king, before the people, before 850 false prophets carrying knives and lances while he taunted them, "went for his life" before the threat of a woman (19:2-3), and gave up hope, longing to die (v.4). Possibly later also he feared when the captains and their companies of fifty men were sent to take him (2 Kings 1, noting verse 15), and he brought the fire of God down upon them.

Of interest is how this man of God appeared to others. To the widow of

Zarephath and to the third captain Elijah was "thou man of God". To Obadiah who feared the Lord greatly, but apparently secretly, Elijah was "thou, my lord Elijah". To wicked Ahab he was "thou troubler of Israel" and "0 mine enemy". Well might any saint long for a like spiritual stature through the Word of God and through prayer that it should provoke such responses from such diverse persons.

The recorded instances of Elijah's praying are to be found in Jas. 5:17, "that it might not rain"; 1 Kings 17:20-21, "let this child's soul come into him again ,1 Kings 18:36, "that Thou art God in Israel"; 1 Kings 18:42 with Jas. 5:18, "he bowed himself down, and he prayed again"; 1 Kings 19:4, "that he might die"; 1 Kings 19:10,14 with Rom. 11:2, "he pleaded with God against Israel". And there on a sad note the record of his prayer life is ended.

There are many lessons to be learnt by sinner and saint from the stories concerning Elijah but from the man himself there is a vital lesson to be learnt in 1 Kings 18,19. Elijah's great desire, expressed in prayer (18:37), was to turn the people's heart back again. And to this end he wrought by fire (v.38) and by sword (v.40). But the messenger with Jezebel's threat showed that the longed-for national conversion had not occurred and he fled to Beer-sheba far south of Jerusalem, putting as much distance as possible between him and Jezebel, and cried concerning his mission that "I am not better than my fathers". We cannot doubt his deep agony of disappointment and in consequence of it he pleaded against Israel. God fed him and then sent him to Horeb, where Moses had met God at the burning bush (Exod. 3:1) and where God had spoken to His people "out of the midst of the fire" (Deut. 4:10,15). But now God will not speak in fire. First He sent a great and strong wind which rent the mountain and brake the rocks in pieces, and then an earthquake, and then a fire but the Lord was not in these. He was in "a sound of gentle stillness" (19:12 RVM). This is a lesson not easily learnt. Even the Lord's disciples asked, "Lord, wilt Thou that we bid fire to come down from heaven and consume them?", possibly having in mind the action of Elijah in regard to the companies of fifty (2 Kings 1) but the Lord turned and rebuked them (Luke 9:54-55 RVM).

And so it was that from that time forth the Word of the Lord did not come singularly by Elijah; others were used, not by fire nor by sword but by the faithful speaking of God's Word. "Is not My word like as fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" (Jer. 23:29). God said to Elijah, "The journey is too great for thee" and gave him Elisha for a companion and minister, while others would also speak for God. Among these were an unnamed prophet (1 Kings 20:13), and another (20:35) and Micaiah (22:8). And by the time that Elijah was to be taken up by a whirlwind there were companies of prophets in Bethel and in Jericho and in Gilgal (2 Kings 2:3,5; 4:38) and probably even in the city of Samaria itself where Micaiah lived.

Elijah was used of God to confront Ahab in the matter of Naboth (1 Kings 21) and to rebuke Ahaziah (2 Kings 1) but over long periods (for example, three years- 1 Kings 22:1; two years- 22:51) there is no word of Elijah's public ministry. However, it may be that Elijah engaged in the teaching and preparation of these "sons of the prophets". Dear Elijah! God has not forgotten his heart's desire to turn the people's heart back again and Elijah will perhaps in a coming day labour in Jerusalem itself in preparation for the coming of the Son of Man to "turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers" (Mal. 4:6). We are disposed to think that Elijah will be one of the two witnesses mentioned in Revelation 11:3-13. Their testimony will be for three and a half years during which they will shut up the heaven that it rain not; and in the hour of their ascension in the cloud there will be a great earthquake, causing the deaths of seven thousand'. But in 1 Kings 19 God would not plead by an earthquake with His erring people.

In 2 Chronicles 21:12-15 Elijah bears his last prophetic word and it would seem that this was done by a letter prepared before the prophet's departure. Jehoram was a king of Judah, not of Israel, but he had the daughter of Ahab to wife, and the word of Elijah seems thus to have pursued the house of Ahab, to which he refers in his letter. The written word ought to have had a strong impact upon the king's mind.

Finally, we think of Elijah who had gone up by a chariot of fire and by horses of fire by a whirlwind into heaven (possibly from near Mount Nebo as we consider the places he visited on that day), coming again in glory with Moses to the mount of transfiguration, that holy mount (2 Pet. 1:18) where they spake of the more wonderful departure that Jesus was about to accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke 9:30-31).

There is very much more in the story of Elijah which could be studied with profit but we close with two points. Firstly, the twice repeated question of the Lord to His servant - "What doest thou here, Elijah?" (1 Kings 19:9,13); a searching question at any time for a servant of God. And secondly, we love the faith of the godly prophet who could hear the sound of the abundance of rain when there was as yet no cloud, not even as small as a man's hand (1 Kings 18:41,44). Elijah, a man of like passions with us, could hear by faith when sight showed nothing, and so "he prayed again".

G.K. Kennedy, Sydney, Australia | Mar 1978
Profiles Of The Prophets