Elijah

Elijah (Hebrew Eliyyahu, "the LORD is my God"; Greek Elias, the form used throughout the New Testament) was the towering prophet of the ninth century BC who confronted Baal worship in the northern kingdom and became, in later Scripture, the very symbol of the prophetic office and the herald of the day of the LORD. A Tishbite from Gilead, he burst onto the scene without genealogy or introduction, his life a series of dramatic, supernatural confrontations on behalf of the exclusive worship of Israel's God.

He first appears before wicked King Ahab to announce, in the name of the living God, a drought of three and a half years (1 Kings 17:1). Hidden by the brook Cherith and fed by ravens, then sustained with the widow of Zarephath whose flour and oil did not fail, he raised her dead son to life (1 Kings 17:22). The climax came on Mount Carmel, where Elijah challenged the 450 prophets of Baal: the God who answered by fire would be God. When fire fell from heaven and consumed his drenched sacrifice, the people fell on their faces crying, "The LORD, he is God" (1 Kings 18:39), and the prophets of Baal were destroyed; then the rains returned.

Yet Jezebel's death-threat sent the prophet fleeing in despair to the wilderness, where an angel fed him and he journeyed forty days to Horeb, the mount of God. There the LORD passed by — not in wind, earthquake, or fire, but in "a low whisper" — and recommissioned him, assuring him that seven thousand in Israel had not bowed to Baal (1 Kings 19:12–18). He anointed Elisha as his successor (1 Kings 19:19), denounced Ahab over the murder of Naboth (1 Kings 21:17–19), and called down fire on the soldiers of Ahaziah. Finally, unique among men with Enoch, Elijah did not die but was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind by a chariot of fire, his mantle falling to Elisha (2 Kings 2:11).

Elijah's significance reaches its height in prophecy and fulfillment. Malachi foretold that God would send "Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD," to turn the hearts of fathers and children (Malachi 4:5–6). The New Testament applies this to John the Baptist, who came "in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17), and Jesus affirmed, "Elijah has already come" (Matthew 17:12). Elijah himself appeared with Moses, representing the Prophets beside the Law, talking with the transfigured Christ (Matthew 17:3). And James holds him up as proof that "the prayer of a righteous person has great power," for Elijah "was a man with a nature like ours" who prayed and the heavens were shut and opened (James 5:17–18).