ELIJAH THE PROPHET
CHRISTIANITY
OASIS HAS PROVIDED YOU WITH THIS ELIJAH THE PROPHET STUDY. MANY
HAVE HEARD OF ELIJAH THE PROPHET BUT MOST ARE NOT AWARE OF WHAT
ELIJAH THE PROPHET DID OR HOW HE AND JOHN THE BAPTIST HAD THE SAME SPIRIT. LET US SEEK AND FIND THE TRUTH OF
ELIJAH THE PROPHET TOGETHER, SHALL WE?
Welcome back ... We are going
to talk about one of the most powerful prophets in the Bible. His name is
Elijah. King Ahab and his wife Jezebel were ruling Israel wickedly. They
tore down Gods altars and put up altars for false gods. They killed Gods
prophets too. This once again angered the Lord so He went and told Elijah
the Prophet to go and tell Ahab that it will not rain until Elijah told him
it would. It happened to be a famine of rain of 3 and 1/ 2 years. Imagine
that if you would. We consider droughts of rain here for maybe 6 months and
still there will be light showers during that time. Imagine 3 and ½ years of
nothing. Meanwhile Elijah went and stayed by a brook where he had water and
God sent ravens to bring him food. After a while with no rain the brook
dried up. God then sent him to a village and told him to seek a certain
widow woman who would feed him. When he found her he asked her for some
food. She said she was gathering the last of her food for her and her son to
eat then they would die. He told her to feed him first then her and her son
and as the Lord lives she would have plenty. She made him something to eat
and then they ate. Yet the food kept re-supplying itself. She would have
food to eat till the drought ended. After many days of Elijah staying there,
the woman’s son fell sick and died. The woman was very upset and yelled at
Elijah, “Have you come from the Lord to punish me for my sins?” Elijah being
grieved took her son to his room and placed him on his bed. He then prayed
to the Lord and asked Him why has He done this to the woman who had shown
such kindness for him? He then breathed into the boy 3 times. The Lord heard
Elijah and brought the boy back to life. Elijah took the boy to his mom and
said see your son lives. The woman then told Elijah surely you are a man
sent from God and the words you speak are truth. I would have figured him
for a man of God when the barrel of food never emptied. Yet many times we as
believers seem to forget. Maybe this woman forgot and took it for granted
this never ending food supply while a devastating drought was occurring and
need a reminder that God is God and that He desires our attention and faith
in Him. We all praise God when He does miracles for us whether they be as
small as finding a few dollars we didn’t know we had to saving the life of a
family member or a friend. We should all learn a lesson from this. Elijah
was just doing what God commanded and all of a sudden it was his fault her
son died even though because God chose him to go and stay with her. They
were going to die anyway because of the drought. Now they were alive and her
son was again alive because of God.
After the 3 ½ years of no rain
God called Elijah to go and meet with King Ahab. During this time the King
was constantly looking for Elijah to kill him. When Ahab met with Elijah the
King said so this is who troubles me and my country Israel. Elijah then went
on to tell him that it was Ahab that has walked away from God and his
Commandments and worshipped other gods and caused Israel to follow in Ahab’s
wicked ways. For this reason is why God sent a drought of no rain for 3 ½
years to punish Ahab and Israel. Then Elijah told Ahab to gather the 450
prophets of Baal (the false god that they had been worshipping) and them
that ate at Queen Jezebel’s table to meet him on Mount Carmel and to gather
all of Israel there as well. When they were all assembled Elijah cried out
and said “Today choose which God you follow. If it is Baal follow him but if
it is the Lord God follow him. Stop playing both sides, choose 1 side and
stay with it.” No one answered him one word. So Elijah said “I am the only
prophet left of the Lord but Baal prophets are 450. Here is the deal. Get us
2 bullocks to sacrifice on the altar. Let them choose theirs first and lay
it on with no fire underneath. I will do the same and put no fire under.
Then let the God who answers by fire on the sacrifice be the real God and
follow him.” All the people agreed. So Elijah let the prophets of Baal go
first. They put the bull on the altar and danced around yelling and chanting
and hollering even cutting their chests with knives but no answer from their
god. So Elijah egged them on a bit he told them “Hey cry out louder, for he
is a god isn’t he? Maybe he is traveling far away or perhaps he is taking a
nap. Yell louder Yell louder.” And they did but still no fire from their
god. No reply at all! They carried on like this jumping on and off the altar
yelling and screaming and cutting themselves till blood gushed from them all
from morning to evening. At the time of the evening sacrifice Elijah called
all the people to him. He rebuilt the altar of The Lord that had been broken
down. And he built the altar with 12 stones 1 for each of the 12 tribes of
Israel. And he dug a trench around the altar. And he put wood on the altar
and sliced the bullock in pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he had them
fill 4 buckets of water and they poured it on the sacrifice and on the wood.
He had them do it 2 more times at a total of 12 buckets of water which also
filled the trench surrounding the altar. Then he prayed and said, “God let
it be known this day that you are the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel and
that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. And
that these people will know that you are the Lord God and have turned their
hearts back to you.” At that moment the fire of the Lord fell and consumed
the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up
the water in the trench. When the people saw it they all fell on their faces
and said The Lord He is God, the Lord HE is the God. Elijah then had the
people take all 450 of the Baal prophets and he took them down to a brook
and killed them all.
Wow, you may be thinking that was a bit too harsh of a
punishment. But, remember the law of the Lord was an eye for an eye and that
any false prophet must be killed to remove the evil out of the land of
Israel. During Ahab’s wicked reign over Israel he let his wife Jezebel have the Lords prophets killed. All were
taken except for Elijah. Also there were 100 prophets that God had hidden in
a cave. God had a man named Obadiah who happened to be the governor for Ahab
feed them and bring them water. After this Elijah told Ahab to celebrate for
there was a sound of rain coming. Elijah went back up to the top of Mount
Carmel and put his face to the ground. He told his servant to go to the
cliff and tell him what he sees. The servant came back and said there was
nothing. Elijah had him do it 7 times. On the last time the servant said
there is a cloud coming up out of the sea in the shape of a mans hand.
Elijah told his servant to go tell Ahab to return home now so the rain
wouldn’t stop him. The spirit of the Lord was on Elijah and Elijah ran in
front of Ahab and made it back to the king’s house before him and he waited
outside at the gates. Ahab when he got home told Jezebel of the wonders
Elijah did and that he killed all 450 of her prophets’ of Baal. Jezebel sent
a message to Elijah saying surely you will die like you killed my prophets.
Elijah got nervous and took off into the wilderness to hide. He found a tree
to sleep under and before he fell asleep he prayed to God that He would take
his life now.
I would venture to say that
Elijah was a very powerful prophet. I mean he just called down fire from the
Heavens, slain the prophets of Baal, caused it to not rain for 3 ½ years
then caused it to rain again, brought a little boy back from the dead. All
of these things he performed at Gods command yet a woman who threatened to
have him killed made him run off to the wilderness asking God to take his
life before the Queen found him. There is a very strong and graceful lesson
we all should learn from Elijah. I would venture to say that most of us are
not like Elijah as far as able to perform these miraculous deeds. Yet I
would bet we all felt like he did many times. Scared and alone, just wanting
it all to be over with so we can be at peace. The point is that no matter
what Elijah did for the Lord he was still just a human being who gets scared
and lonely and at times may just want to leave it all behind. Yet that’s the
whole point of having faith in the Lord. Jesus knows this for he was a man
too. He felt the feelings we feel. He was scared and alone. He knows what we
go through. Let’s see what the Lord does in answer to Elijah’s prayer. An
angel woke up Elijah and told him to eat for there was water and cake on the
fire. Again for the second time an angel awoke Elijah and told him to eat
again for the journey is too much for him. Elijah ate again and traveled for
forty days and forty nights to Mt. Horeb all on the strength of the angel
cakes. When he got there he heard the Lord ask him “What are you doing here
Elijah?” Elijah replied, “I have been very jealous for the Lord my God for
the children of Israel have rebelled against you and forsaken your covenant
and broken down your altars and killed all of your prophets. Only I remain
and they seek to take my life too.” God told him to stand on the mountain
before the Lord. The Lord passed by him and there was a great wind that
ripped the mountain and broke all the rocks and after that there was a great
earthquake and after that a fire but the Lord was not in any of these
things. After the fire there was a still small voice. When Elijah heard it
he wrapped his face in his mantle and stood at the entering of the cave. The
word of the Lord came to him again and told Elijah to go and anoint a new
king for Syria, also to anoint a new king to take Ahab’s place and a new
prophet to take the place of Elijah. The Lord also told Elijah that he had
7,000 people that had not knelt to Baal and they continued to serve the
Lord.
Apparently, although Elijah
was ready to fold it up, the Lord had more work for him to do. Many times
when we feel like we have done enough or that we are not worthy to continue
on we must remember that although we feel alone there are others just like
us out there as well. All this time Elijah felt like he was the only one.
God had 7,000 who had not strayed from the Lord. It is comforting for us to
know like I am sure it was for Elijah to know that although we feel the
whole world is against us there are others out there struggling just as we
are and that the Lord is always taking care of us as long as we follow his
will.
Meanwhile back at the castle,
King Ahab wanted this mans vineyard because it was very close to his home.
The mans name was Naboth. Ahab told Naboth if you give me your vineyard I
will give you another one even greater or I will give you the money that you
think it is worth. Naboth refused because he said the Lord forbids him to
give his family’s inheritance to Ahab. This made Ahab very sad so he went
home and pouted. He wouldn’t eat or anything. Jezebel saw this and figured a
way to make her husband happy again. She got 2 evil men to lie and say that
they heard Naboth blaspheme the Lord and the King. When the people heard all
this they took Naboth out and stoned him to death. Now Ahab could get his
vineyard without any worry. The word of the Lord came to Elijah and told him
to go to Ahab in his new vineyard. Elijah told Ahab, “The Lord says, have
you killed and also taken possession of this vineyard? Therefore Ahab, the
dogs shall lick your blood in the same place where they licked the blood of
Naboth. I will bring evil upon you and take away your power and Jezebel for
the evil she has done will be eaten by dogs by the wall of the city. All of
those of Ahab’s house that die in the city shall be eaten by dogs and those
that die in the fields shall be eaten by the birds.” The Bible says that
there was none like Ahab who sold himself to wickedness and caused Israel to
sin. His wife Jezebel was the one who stirred all the wickedness up by
worshipping idols and false gods. Yet when Ahab heard what Elijah told him
he humbled himself. He fasted and wore sackcloth and groveled on the ground
repenting of his evil deeds. The Lord told Elijah “You see how Ahab has
humbled himself before me? Because he did this I will not bring the evil
upon him in his days but will wait till he is dead and bring it down on his
son’s house.” Once again we see the grace and mercy of the Lord. After all
that Ahab did, according to the Bible he was one of a kind in doing
wickedness yet he repented and God had mercy upon him. He would still die in
the way he was told but the evil that would have ripped his world apart
would be kept back until after he was gone. Ahab was killed in battle
against the Syrians and when they cleaned the blood out of his chariot back
home there were the dogs licking up his blood just as Elijah had prophesied.
Later on, after Jehu whom Elijah anointed king had taken back Israel from
the house of Ahab, Jezebel ended up just as Elijah prophesied she would.
Jehu had her thrown out of a window in the city and there she was eaten by
dogs up against the wall.
Ahab’s son Ahazia reigned in
place of his dad. Ahazia did evil just like his dad and his mom Jezebel. He
worshipped Baal and once again made the Lord angry. One day he fell through
the ceiling of his home and became very sick. He called his servants and
told them to go and inquire of Baal to see if he would recover of this
disease. Meanwhile the Angel of the Lord spoke to Elijah and told him to go
and meet the messengers from the King of Israel and ask them “Is it not
because there is not a God in Israel that you go to inquire of Baalzebub the
god of another country? The Lord says that you will never arise again from
your bed and you shall surely die there.” When the messengers heard this
they went back to tell their king. The king asked who told them this. They
told them he was a hairy man clothed in leather. The king knew it was
Elijah. In his anger Ahazia sent a captain of his army along with 50 men.
They met with Elijah and told him “The king has said Come down of that hill
man of God.” Elijah replied. “If I be a man of God then let fire come down
from heaven and devour all of you.” And the fire came down and killed them
all. Ahazia sent another 50 and the same result happened. He sent another
50. This time the captain begged Elijah to spare their lives so that they
would not end up like the previous men. The Angel of the Lord spoke to
Elijah and told him to not be afraid and to go down with them. Elijah told
Ahazia his fate and so it happened as the Lord said it would for Ahazia did
not go and ask of the Lord God of Israel about his sickness but instead
wished to ask the false god Baal like his mother and father did.
Once again we see that Elijah
was a very powerful prophet which the Lord protected when people were
seeking to kill him. We should learn another lesson from Elijah’s story.
That no matter what the odds are against us God will protect us from the
wicked while we are following His word and living as Jesus taught us to
live. In the book of Luke 9:51-56 as Jesus and the Apostles were traveling
to Jerusalem the 2 brothers James and John were offended by the villagers in
a Samaritan village because they did not receive them hospitably. The
brothers asked Jesus should they command fire to come down from heaven and
devour them just like Elijah did. Jesus rebuked them and told them that they
do not know what kind of spirit they possess and that He did not come to
destroy men’s lives but to save them. Since Jesus came and sacrificed
Himself for ALL mankind the Old Covenant was broken by God and a New
Covenant was formed with Jesus being the Lord of the Covenant. Though the
Holy Spirit inside us has the power to bring down fire upon our enemies we
are not to destroy our enemies but save them with love and forgiveness like
Jesus did.
It was nearing time for Elijah
to depart from this world. The prophet Elisha who was anointed to be next in
line after Elijah was traveling with him. Elijah told him on 3 occasions to
wait at a certain place while he went on alone. Elisha would not leave the
side of Elijah though. As they were about to cross the Jordan River Elijah
took off his mantle and struck the river with it, the water parted and they
both walked across on dry land. Elijah asked Elisha what he wanted from him
before he leaves. Elisha answered that he wanted a double portion of his
spirit be placed on him. Elijah said that if you see how I leave this world
then it would be given to him. At that time a chariot of fire and horses of
fire that split the 2 men apart and Elijah was carried up to Heaven in a
whirlwind. Elisha saw this and was blessed with a double portion of Elijah’s
spirit. Elijah did not die but was taken up alive.
As you can see Elijah was a
very powerful and important character. So much so that even now the Jewish
people leave a seat for him at their tables when they celebrate Passover.
For when Elijah comes back the Messiah will be after him.
Malachi 3:1 says
Behold I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and
the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to His temple even the messenger
of the covenant whom you delight in behold He shall come says the Lord of
hosts. Malachi 4:5 Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the
coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord and he shall turn the heart
of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to the fathers.
So you can see why they are waiting for Elijah to come first. Yet Elijah
already did come and he did exactly what was told that he would do. Elijah
came back as John the Baptist. In the book of
Luke 1:11-17 the angel Gabriel
appeared to a priest named Zacaharias. Gabriel tells him that his barren
wife would conceive and have a son. This son would be great in the sight of
the Lord and he will be filled with the Holy Ghost even from the womb and he
shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of
the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to
make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? The
spirit of Elijah came back in to John the Baptist and did exactly what
Malachi said he would. But maybe someone will ask how a person’s spirit can
be put on another. Sounds like Christian voodoo magic or something? Well
Elijah had a double portion of his spirit placed on Elisha. So it is not
just in the New Testament that it was written it could be done. Another
similarity to Elijah and John the Baptist is that they both lived in the
wilderness and dressed in leather. Also John the Baptist was beheaded
because of the wishes of the wife of the wicked King Herod. Who happened to
be the King of Israel. This time Elijah did not run from the threats of a
Jezebel. He knew his destiny and fulfilled it. But the clincher is Jesus own
words Matthew 11:7-15 Jesus is speaking to the people about John the Baptist
He tells them that this is he who it was written that the Lord will send His
messenger before Him to prepare the way He also said that if you will listen
I tell you the truth he is Elijah which was to come. John baptized with
water to cleanse the people’s hearts of their sins to prepare them to
receive the truth of the Lord. We can see the difference in Elijah as John
the Baptist. For when King Herod sent his soldiers to arrest John he didn’t
call down fire from heaven on them he went willingly because he knew his
time was through. In fact he told his disciples to go and follow Jesus now
for Jesus must increase and he must decrease. I think it was destiny that
Elijah was to be killed by a wicked Queen. God paused it while He worked His
will and His plan for I must say a much greater deal for all mankind. For
instead of being destroyed we are saved by Jesus when we truly believe and
follow Him. The baptism of fire will be left for those who reject Gods gift
and Grace.
On a bit more sinister note
regarding those who are still waiting for the Prophet Elijah to come
before the Lord. In the book of
Revelation 13:13 it says the false prophet
of the Antichrist will do many wonders and miracles including calling down
fire from the Heavens. Uh Oh. That sounds familiar doesn’t it? If people are
waiting for an Elijah figure to go before the Messiah they are surely going
to think this guy is him. By the miracles and wonders this False Prophet
does he causes them to worship the Antichrist. Now wait one minute. What if
this John the Baptist thing and Jesus thing is false and the real Messiah
and Elijah have not come back yet? Listen to what this False Prophet does
next. He has them make an image of the Antichrist and all those who do not
worship it shall be killed. Elijah killed 450 prophets of Baal who was a
false god and was worshipped by people as a graven image. Elijah constantly
fought against those who were against God. He said he was jealous for God.
Even so much as to where he thought he was the only 1 left that worshipped
God. Do you really think that he would cause people to make graven images to
worship? Doesn’t sound like Elijah to me. Its obvious that the father of
lies, the devil, is deceiving people especially those of the Jewish faith
into believing that this will be Elijah. The real Elijah would be breaking
down these images not having people build them. Elijah has already come. The
Messiah Jesus Christ has already come. Jesus is coming back in the clouds.
As the lightning lights up the skies from the east to the west so shall all
mankind see Him when Jesus comes back. Do not believe any other story or
messiah. Peace be with you.
Read about
Elijah in the Bible
1 Kings 17:1 thru 2 Kings 2:11
CONTINUE TO THE NEXT STUDY
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