Chapter 38 Personal Elijah

The above is the history of the Jewish kingdom in the first half of the ninth century BC.In Israel, the situation is very different. Everything was ruined in that poor country. Jezebel established a veritable religious court, and anyone who refused to believe in the sun god was sentenced to death or exile.No one seems to be able to stop this forced conversion of an entire people. But as always, in times of need, the conscience of the nation speaks. The prophet Elijah stood up and saved the people from falling. We know very little about the early life of this remarkable man.It is possible that he was a Galilean (this is the homeland of many prophets).He spent most of his youth in the wilds of Gilead on the east bank of the Jordan River, and his surroundings influenced his life.He's basically an old-school guy.He needs no reason, never discusses, believes in Jehovah as his Master without question.

He admired the simple and hard life of the desert, and the easy and comfortable life of the city did not interest him.Indeed, he loathed all cities.Cities, he believed, were breeding grounds for luxury and religious infidelity.The city tolerated, even welcomed, various pagan gods from Phoenicia, Egypt, and Nineveh.A city is a sanctuary of paganism, and it should sweep most of its inhabitants from this world along with it. Ahab and Jezebel believed that the prophet Elijah was a very dangerous person. He has supreme confidence in the justice of the cause in which he professes. He is as brave as a lion.

He has no worldly ambitions. He despises personal property. His only attire was a rough coat of camel fur. What he ate was alms from others. The crows would also feed him (people told each other) when needed. In short, he is invulnerable, because he has no attachment to the world, and death is meaningless to a man who has given his heart and soul to God. The mentor impressed his contemporaries. Elijah labored all his life, and his performance was very dramatic.He would suddenly appear in the marketplace of a distant city, sounding a prophetic warning.People have not yet recovered from their astonishment, and the prophet has disappeared.

A few days later, he appeared in another place again, came and left mysteriously again. So people believe that he has some kind of magical power and can be invisible at will. Since ancient times, people have liked to exaggerate the abilities of heroes.Over time, Elijah becomes a great magician-like figure.His words of wisdom are forgotten, but his miracles live on.Hundreds of years after his death, Jewish mothers still often tell their children about a miraculous figure who can change the laws of nature.Can turn a sack of grain into twelve sacks, heal the sick more than once, and bring the dead back to life.

This remarkable man, revered by his contemporaries, is now one of the protagonists in the great religious drama of his time. The prophet came to Ahab unexpectedly like a bolt of lightning.He had just made a wish to the sun god.He's going to hear the punishment for it. Elijah said: "Droughts will come upon this nation, there will be famines, and there will be pestilences, because the Lord will not tolerate the sin of idolatry." Ahab's soldiers could not catch him because he suddenly disappeared.He has flown over the plateaus of Israel and returned to his beloved desert.On the bank of the deep valley of Cherith Creek, there was a simple thatched hut.He stayed there until the summer, waiting for a new place to live when drinking water became scarce.He flew across the country from east to west and arrived at Zarephath on the Mediterranean coast, which was under the jurisdiction of the Phoenician city of Tyre.

Elijah's reputation as a miracle-worker followed him among the heathen, and we hear tales of how he saved the landlady's son, and how he gave the honest woman enough oil and flour to survive the famine. But Elijah was wrong when he thought that the misery of his subjects would restore reason to the wicked king.Instead, Jezebel was enraged by this nationwide calamity, and she intensified her persecution of Jehovah's followers.A few faithful old priests survived because of the protection of Obadiah, the steward of Ahab's court.Obadiah was a good man, and he hid them in his palace.Before they, too, would be killed, Jehovah decided to save them.

He ordered Elijah to return to Israel and meet the king. Of course, Elijah knew that if he entered the land of Israel, his life was in danger. He waits outside the court for Obadiah (who is looking for pasture for the king's horses).He asked the good man to tell Ahab that the Angel of the Lord was going to visit him officially. The King and the Prophet meet again.