This may seem like a weird topic to blog on; but oh well! I feel like doing something on my favorite prophet from the Old Testament; and that is... Elijah!!
Who exactly is Elijah?
Well, Elijah was a Prophet for the Northern Kingdom, during the time of King Ahab who had started to lead the Israelites into idolatrous worship of the god Baal due to his wife, Jezebel, who seemed to wear the pants in that relationship! Elijah was known as the Tishbite, and I assume grumpy old man. Interesting note: We don't really know what a Tishbite is! The Bible Dictionary states that "the meaning of this is quite uncertain, no place being known from which it could be derived." Oh mysterious! He is quite the man of mystery it seems, especially when you note that he really just came out of no where!! His first recorded 'miracle' is in 1 Kings, chapter 17, in the very first verse.
1 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
Now, I don't know if you indeed want to call that a miracle but the first thing (that we know of) that Elijah did is seal up the Heavens and cause that there be a massive famine to slowly creep through the land to punish King Ahab (and incidentally every other Israelite) for worshiping Baal instead of Jehovah. So, yup, real good first impression there Elijah! However, The Lord wanted this famine to go through the land to remind the Isrealites of whom their loyalty belongs to; The True and Living God, not some statue. So to me, that's a pretty grand entrance!
Now lets fast forward to one of my favorite instances of Elijah! The show down against four-hundred and fifty prophets of Baal!
Now lets fast forward to one of my favorite instances of Elijah! The show down against four-hundred and fifty prophets of Baal!
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| And in this Corner we have the Tishbite weighing in at 150 pounds! |
Queen Jezebel was killing off the Prophets of the Lord, and Elijah was one of the last ones (that we know of) and he wasn't too happy about it! Nor was the Man upstairs! So Elijah comes down and challenges all of the prophets of Baal (along with four hundred prophets of the forest) to a Prophet-Contest! He has the people come together and prepare two identical sacrifices and then he turns to the Baalites and lets them pick their altar and says to them, "Alrighty then, what we got here is an old fashioned prophet show down! You pick your altar, and you pray to your god, and then I'll pray to my God, and which ever sacrifice gets lit up in Heavenly Fire is the true God!" and the prophets of Baal were like, "Yeah, we will do that. There's four hundred and fifty of us, and only one of you, the cat is in the bag bro!" Then Elijah decides to be gentlemanly and lets the Prophets of Baal go first! So here are the Four Hundred and Fifty prophets of Baal and they are screaming and dancing around their altar, and nothing is happening. I can just hear the 'Who wants to be a millionaire' music in the back ground. Then Elijah starts to mock them; he tells them:
27 And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.
I love that he does that; it shows that Elijah was the Sass-Master of prophets! So, to do a recap, we have 450 prophets of Baal screaming and shouting for Baal to ignite his sacrifice and Elijah has begun to mock them! They do this till the evening, and the contest started probably around 9 am. And nothing has happened yet! So Elijah scoffs and calls the people together and he repairs the broken altar of the Lord and puts his sacrifice upon it and then he says, 'You know what, this isn't enough of a show-off, I'm going to make it even harder!' and he tells the people to: (1 Kings 18)
33 And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood.
But wait! There's more to the awesomeness of Elijah! He has one of the BEST exits I can think of in the Bible. In the second chapter of the second book of Kings, we are told that Elijah had found him a successor, Elisha, and the two fellows were out and about in the desert just chatting it up and their eyes are drawn upwards all of a sudden. A chariot of fire drawn by horses of fire appears racing through the horizon and parts Elijah and Elisha asunder! Elijah gets into the chariot and it takes him up into Heaven, and on the way up his mantle (cloak) falls off of his shoulders and lands upon the probably very confused Elisha. Imagine that, here you are talking with your teacher and all of a sudden you get knocked on your butt by a chariot of fire and then you see your teacher going towards Heaven and his cloak falls unto your shoulders! Talk about an exit!!
And then there's one last thing that truly sets Elijah apart!
He has a sequel!! He is one of the few prophets that we know of that actually has his own sequel! You see; shortly after the Kirtland Temple Dedication in 1836 Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdry were praying in a spot by themselves and the Heavens opened up. Elijah had appeared to them, after Jesus Christ had already appeared and accepted the Temple as His House, and Moses and Elias had appeared as well to give Joseph Smith the Priesthood Keys that they had held in mortality. Elijah came to do the same thing; he gave Joseph Smith the Priesthood keys of the sealing power and fulfilled the promise in Malachi 4:
5 ¶Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:
So there you have it folks! That is why Elijah is one of my favorite prophets from the Old Testament. He came out of nowhere, his opening act was a massive famine, and then he had a big ol' prophet showdown (and won!) and then shortly after that he was carried away in a chariot of fire! Then he wasn't done just yet, because he came back and gave Joseph Smith the Keys of the Sealing Authority!
27 And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.
I love that he does that; it shows that Elijah was the Sass-Master of prophets! So, to do a recap, we have 450 prophets of Baal screaming and shouting for Baal to ignite his sacrifice and Elijah has begun to mock them! They do this till the evening, and the contest started probably around 9 am. And nothing has happened yet! So Elijah scoffs and calls the people together and he repairs the broken altar of the Lord and puts his sacrifice upon it and then he says, 'You know what, this isn't enough of a show-off, I'm going to make it even harder!' and he tells the people to: (1 Kings 18)
33 And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood.
34 And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time.
Yup. He doused it in water! Then he says a simple prayer, boiling down to: 'God, I know You are God, and I am Your servant. Let it be known that You are God so that they will worship You again' and the Altar erupts in fire, consuming all of the bullock, all of the wood and the stones, and the dust, and the water! So now we have it, the Lord God is the God of Isreal! Then Elijah tells them of the stakes of the Prophet-Off; he has the people gather all of the Prophets of Baal and kills them all. Every one of them!!But wait! There's more to the awesomeness of Elijah! He has one of the BEST exits I can think of in the Bible. In the second chapter of the second book of Kings, we are told that Elijah had found him a successor, Elisha, and the two fellows were out and about in the desert just chatting it up and their eyes are drawn upwards all of a sudden. A chariot of fire drawn by horses of fire appears racing through the horizon and parts Elijah and Elisha asunder! Elijah gets into the chariot and it takes him up into Heaven, and on the way up his mantle (cloak) falls off of his shoulders and lands upon the probably very confused Elisha. Imagine that, here you are talking with your teacher and all of a sudden you get knocked on your butt by a chariot of fire and then you see your teacher going towards Heaven and his cloak falls unto your shoulders! Talk about an exit!!
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| You Couldn't have told me to bring sunblock?! |
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| Can I have my mantle back?! |
He has a sequel!! He is one of the few prophets that we know of that actually has his own sequel! You see; shortly after the Kirtland Temple Dedication in 1836 Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdry were praying in a spot by themselves and the Heavens opened up. Elijah had appeared to them, after Jesus Christ had already appeared and accepted the Temple as His House, and Moses and Elias had appeared as well to give Joseph Smith the Priesthood Keys that they had held in mortality. Elijah came to do the same thing; he gave Joseph Smith the Priesthood keys of the sealing power and fulfilled the promise in Malachi 4:
5 ¶Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite theearth with a curse.
Thats why we do so much Family History; the Spirit of Elijah rests upon the Church and urges the children to turn their hearts to their fathers and make sure that they have the same options and knowledge and ordinances available to them that the presently living get to enjoy!So there you have it folks! That is why Elijah is one of my favorite prophets from the Old Testament. He came out of nowhere, his opening act was a massive famine, and then he had a big ol' prophet showdown (and won!) and then shortly after that he was carried away in a chariot of fire! Then he wasn't done just yet, because he came back and gave Joseph Smith the Keys of the Sealing Authority!
