Chapter 39 Elijah Altar

Ahab was afraid of Elijah's power, so he respectfully followed Elijah's command.He told all the priests of the sun god not to stop on the way to the top of Mount Carmel, which overlooks the great plain of Jezreel.Elijah tells Ahab that if the famine is solved immediately, there will be a revolution and this time is a chance to save his country. The priests of the sun god rushed to Mount Carmel from all directions. The common people also wanted to see Elijah's miraculous power with their own eyes, and they also came in droves. They saw a lonely old man standing in front of a dilapidated, half-collapsed stone altar built hundreds of years ago when the first settlers settled here.

When the priests of the sun god appeared to be assembled, Elijah began to speak. He said that Yahweh or the sun god Baal, which one is the real god, seems to be doubted.very good.Let’s fix this once and for all now.He ordered two calves to be brought.One end was given to his enemies for sacrifice.The other end was left to himself. Two cows were killed and the meat was placed on the altar wood. Elijah said, "Let us not light the wood on the altar with fire, but we will pray to our God, and then we will wait and see what miracle will happen." The heathen knelt before Baal and begged him to help them.All day their altars were as cold as the waters of Kishon.They shouted and chanted strange spells, but nothing happened.

Elijah laughed at them. Regardless of the danger, he shouted: "Your Baal god, how amazing! A noble god, he can't save his own people. Maybe he is on a trip, or he is sleeping. Louder, he still can't hear it." !" But still nothing happened. Elijah waited until dark. At this time, he asked everyone to get closer to see how he did it. He took twelve stones (symbolizing the twelve tribes of the ancient Jewish nation) and built an altar.Ditches were dug around the altar to isolate it from other people and everything. Finally, to further impress the crowd, he had buckets of water poured on the logs and stones.

After three pours, the whole altar was drenched with water, at which point Elijah prayed to the God whom Abraham, Isaac, and Israel believed in. A flame fell from the sky. There was the crackling of wet wood and the hissing of steam from the altar, and Elijah's offering was smoking. Yahweh's might is displayed before all. Elijah seized this favorable moment. "Kill these liars." He pointed to the priests of the sun god and shouted.The Israelites rushed to catch the intruders and dragged them to the Kishon River, killing all 450 priests of the sun god. Then Elijah turned to Ahab and said, The LORD is satisfied.Before dusk, the drought can be over.

That promise still rings in his ears, and Elijah's promise still rings in Ahab's ears as he walks back to the abode.He had walked half a mile when suddenly dark clouds came from the sea and covered the sky.After a few minutes it started raining.The rain poured down on the scorched fields.After three and a half years of drought, the land of Israel finally received rain. Ahab told his wife what had happened that afternoon, and the queen was furious.She ordered Elijah to be arrested for the murder of her friend. However, Elijah was nowhere to be found.He knew that he would not be forgiven this time, so he hid carefully.He passed through Israel and Judah, and went on without stopping to Beer-sheba, the southern border of the Southern Kingdom.

He still didn't feel safe there.He walked into the desert and was about to die of hunger and thirst. The Lord sent an angel to bring him food, and after he ate, he was able to walk in the desert without eating a meal. Finally, he reached Mount Horeb, the holy place in the Sinai Peninsula.Here a thousand years ago Moses received the covenant of the Lord in the thunder. Elijah's experience of receiving Jehovah's oracle was different from that of Moses.First, the wind howled, and the prophet was almost blown off the cliff. Elijah listened desperately, but heard nothing. Then came the loud rumble of an earthquake, and then another fire.

Elijah listened again, but still heard nothing. Suddenly, everything stops. There was a faint voice. Elijah heard the voice of the Lord. Jehovah wants him to return to where he came from and find a suitable successor to carry on his business.He is too old.There is much to do in the land of Israel. Elijah accepts instructions.He left the desert and returned to the city he hated.When he reached the plains of Jezreel (where the judges had wiped out the Amalekites and the Midianites), he saw a peasant laboring peacefully in the fields of that thriving countryside. Yahweh's sign that this child will be his disciple.Elijah stopped.He left the road and threw his cloak over the young man's shoulders.

Elisha (that's the young man's name) understood what the prophet's actions meant.He left work, went home to say goodbye to his parents, and followed his new owner.He will learn prophecy and godliness to live up to the honorable title of Prophet. When Elijah and Elisha arrived in Israel, conditions in the country were dire.Things got even more chaotic under Jezebel.From Phoenicia came a great number of priests of the sun god, and the country was again as pagan as ever with temples. Meanwhile, the king was in a panic.