Elijah or Elias, a prophet, was a native of Tishbe beyond Jordan
in Gilead. Some think that he was a priest descended from Aaron, and say
that one Sabaca was his father; but this has no authority. He was raised
up by God, to be set like a wall of brass, in opposition to idolatry,
and particularly to the worship of Baal, which Jezebel and Ahab
supported in Israel. The Scripture introduces Elijah saying to Ahab, 1
Kings xvii, 1, 2, A. M. 3092, “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.” It is remarkable, that the number of years is not here
specified; but in the New Testament we are informed that it was three
years and six months. By the prohibition of dew as well as rain, the
whole vegetable kingdom was deprived of that moisture, without which
neither the more hardy, nor more delicate kinds of plants could shoot
into herbage, or bring that herbage to maturity. The Lord commanded
Elijah to conceal himself beyond Jordan, near the brook Cherith. He
obeyed, and God sent ravens to him morning and evening, which brought
him flesh and bread. Scheuzer observes, that he cannot think that the
_orebim_ of the Hebrew, rendered “ravens,” means, as some have thought,
the inhabitants of a town called _Oreb_, nor a troop of Arabs called
_orbhim_; and contends that the bird called the raven, or one of the
same genus is intended. Suppose that Elijah was concealed from Ahab in
some rocky or mountainous spot, where travellers never came; and that
here a number of voracious birds had built their nests upon the trees
which grew around it, or upon a projecting rock, &c. These flying every
day to procure food for their young, the prophet availed himself of a
part of what they brought; and while they, obeying the dictates of
nature, designed only to provide for their offspring, Divine providence
directed them to provide at the same time for the wants of Elijah. What,
therefore, he collected, whether from their nests, from what they
dropped, or under a supernatural influence, brought to him, or
occasionally from all these means, was enough for his daily support.
“And the _orebim_ furnished him bread or flesh in the morning, and bread
or flesh in the evening.” But as there were probably several of them,
some might furnish bread and others flesh, as it happened; so that a
little from each formed his solitary but satisfactory meal. To such
straits was the exiled prophet driven! perhaps these _orebim_ were not
strictly ravens, but rooks. The word rendered _raven_, includes the
whole genus, among which are some less impure than the raven, as the
rook. Rooks living in numerous societies are supposed by some to be the
kind of birds employed on this occasion rather than ravens, which fly
only in pairs. But upon all these explanations we may observe, that when
an event is evidently miraculous, it is quite superfluous, and often
absurd, to invent hypotheses to make it appear more easy. After a time
the brook dried up, and God sent Elijah to Zarephath, a city of the
Sidonians. At the city gate he met with a widow woman gathering sticks,
from whom he desired a little water, adding, “Bring me, I pray thee,
also a morsel of bread.” She answered, “As the Lord liveth, I have no
bread, but only a handful of meal, and a little oil in a cruse; and I am
gathering some sticks, that I may dress it for me and my son, that we
may eat it, and die.” Elijah said, “Make first a little cake, and bring
it me, and afterward make for thee and thy son: for thus saith the Lord,
the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail,
until the day the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.” His prediction was
fully accomplished, and he dwelt at the house of this widow. Some time
after, the son of this woman fell sick, and died. The mother,
overwhelmed with grief, intreated the assistance and interposition of
Elijah, who taking the child in his arms laid him on his own bed, and
cried to the Lord for the restoration of the child’s life. The Lord
heard the prophet’s petition, and restored the child.
2. After three years of drought the Lord commanded Elijah to show
himself to Ahab. The famine being great in Samaria, Ahab sent the people
throughout the country, to inquire after places where they might find
forage for the cattle. Obadiah, an officer of the king’s household,
being thus employed, Elijah presented himself, and directed him to tell
Ahab, “Behold, Elijah is here!” Ahab came to meet the prophet, and
reproached him as the cause of the famine. Elijah retorted the charge
upon the king, and his iniquities, and challenged Ahab to gather the
people together, and the prophets of Baal, that it might be determined
by a sign from heaven, the falling of fire upon the sacrifice, who was
the true God. In this the prophet obeyed the impulse of the Spirit of
God; and Ahab, either under an influence of which he was not conscious,
or blindly confident in the cause of idolatry, followed Elijah’s
direction, and convened the people of Israel, and four hundred prophets
of Baal. The prophets of Baal prepared their altar, sacrificed their
bullock, placed it on the altar, and called upon their gods. They leaped
upon the altar, and cut themselves after their manner, crying with all
their might. Elijah ridiculed them, and said, “Cry aloud, for he is god;
either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey, or
peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.” When midday was past,
Elijah repaired the altar of the Lord; and with twelve stones, in
allusion to the twelve tribes of Israel, he built a new altar. He then
laid his bullock upon the wood, poured a great quantity of water three
times upon the sacrifice and the wood, so that the water filled the
trench which was dug round the altar. After this he prayed, and, in
answer to his prayer, the Lord sent fire from heaven, and consumed the
wood, the burnt sacrifice, the stones, and dust of the place, and even
dried up the water in the trench. Upon this, all the people fell on
their faces, and exclaimed, “The Lord, he is the God.” Elijah then,
having excited the people to slay the false prophets of Baal, said to
Ahab, “Go home, eat and drink, for I hear the sound of abundance of
rain;” which long-expected blessing descended from heaven according to
his prediction, and gave additional proof to the truth of his mission
from the only living and true God.
3. Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, threatened Elijah for having slain her
prophets. He therefore fled to Beersheba, in the south of Judah, and
thence into Arabia Petrea. In the evening, being exhausted with fatigue,
he laid himself down under a juniper tree, and prayed God to take him
out of the world. An angel touched him, and he arose, and saw a cake
baked on the coals, and a cruse of water; and he ate and drank, and
slept again. The angel again awakened him, and said, “Rise and eat, for
the journey is too great for thee;” and he ate and drank, and went in
the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights, unto Horeb, the
mount of God. Here he had visions of the glory and majesty of God, and
conversed with him; and was commanded to return to the wilderness of
Damascus, to anoint Hazael king over Syria, and Jehu king over Israel,
and to appoint Elisha his successor in the prophetic office. Some years
after, Ahab having seized Naboth’s vineyard, the Lord commanded Elijah
to reprove Ahab for the crime he had committed. Elijah met him going to
Naboth’s vineyard to take possession of it, and said, “In the place
where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall they lick thy blood, even
thine. And the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.” Both of
which predictions were fulfilled in the presence of the people. Ahaziah,
king of Israel, being hurt by a fall from the platform of his house,
sent to consult Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, whether he should recover.
Elijah met the messengers, and said to them, “Is it because there is no
God in Israel that ye go to inquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron? Now,
therefore, saith the Lord, Thou shalt surely die.” The messengers of
Ahaziah returned, and informed the king, that a stranger had told them
he should certainly die; and Ahaziah knew that this was the Prophet
Elijah. The king, therefore, sent a captain with his company of fifty
men, to apprehend him; and when the officer was come to Elijah, who was
sitting upon a hill, he said, “Thou man of God, the king commands thee
to come down.” Elijah answered, “If I be a man of God, let fire come
down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty.” The prophet’s words
were followed with the effect predicted. The king sent another captain,
who was also consumed; but a third captain going to Elijah intreated him
to save him and his people’s lives, and Elijah accompanied him to the
king. By these fearful miracles he was accredited to this successor of
Ahab as a prophet of the true God, and the destruction of these
companies of armed men was a demonstration of God’s anger against the
people at large. Elijah could not in this case act from any other
impulse than that of the Spirit of God.
4. Elijah, understanding by revelation that God would soon translate him
out of this world, was desirous of concealing this fact from Elisha, his
inseparable companion. He therefore said to Elisha, “Tarry thou here,
for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel.” But Elisha answered, “I will not
leave thee.” At Bethel, Elijah said, “Tarry thou here, the Lord hath
sent me to Jericho;” but Elisha replied, he would not forsake him. At
Jericho Elijah desired him to stay; but Elisha would not leave him. They
went therefore together to Jordan, and fifty of the sons of the prophets
followed them at a distance. When they were come to the Jordan, Elijah
took his mantle, and with it struck the waters, which divided, and they
went over on dry ground. Elijah then said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall
do for thee before I be taken away from thee.” “I pray thee,” said
Elisha, “let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me;” that is, obtain
the gift of prophecy from God for me, in the same measure that thou
possessest it. Double may signify like; or the gift of prophecy, and of
miracles, in a degree double to what thou dost possess, or to what I now
possess. Elijah answered, “Thou hast asked me a very hard thing; yet, if
thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if
not, it shall not be so.” As they journeyed, a fiery chariot, with
horses of fire, suddenly separated them, and Elijah was carried in a
whirlwind to heaven; while Elisha exclaimed, “My father, my father, the
chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof!”
5. Elijah was one of the most eminent of that illustrious and singular
race of men, the Jewish prophets. Every part of his character is marked
by a moral grandeur, which is heightened by the obscurity thrown around
his connections, and his private history. He often wears the air of a
supernatural messenger suddenly issuing from another world, to declare
the commands of heaven, and to awe the proudest mortals by the menace of
fearful judgments. His boldness in reproof; his lofty zeal for the
honour of God; his superiority to softness, ease, and suffering, are the
characters of a man filled with the Holy Spirit; and he was admitted to
great intimacy with God, and enabled to work miracles of a very
extraordinary and unequivocal character. These were called for by the
stupid idolatry of the age, and were in some instances equally
calculated to demonstrate the being and power of Jehovah, and to punish
those who had forsaken him for idols. The author of Ecclesiasticus has
an encomium to his memory, and justly describes him as a prophet “who
stood up as fire, and whose word burned as a lamp.” In the sternness and
power of his reproofs he was a striking type of John the Baptist, and
the latter is therefore prophesied of, under his name. Malachi, iv, 5,
6, has this passage: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before
the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Our Saviour also
declares that Elijah had already come in spirit, in the person of John
the Baptist. At the transfiguration of our Saviour, Elijah and Moses
both appeared and conversed with him respecting his future passion,
Matt. xvii, 3, 4; Mark ix, 4; Luke ix, 30. Many of the Jews in our
Lord’s time believed him to be Elijah, or that the soul of Elijah had
passed into his body, Matt. xvi, 14; Mark vi, 15; Luke ix, 8. In
conclusion, we may observe, that to assure the world of the future
existence of good men in a state of glory and felicity, and that in
bodies changed from mortality to immortality, each of the three grand
dispensations of religion had its instance of translation into heaven;
the patriarchal in the person of ENOCH, the Jewish in the person of
ELIJAH, and the Christian in the person of CHRIST.
in Gilead. Some think that he was a priest descended from Aaron, and say
that one Sabaca was his father; but this has no authority. He was raised
up by God, to be set like a wall of brass, in opposition to idolatry,
and particularly to the worship of Baal, which Jezebel and Ahab
supported in Israel. The Scripture introduces Elijah saying to Ahab, 1
Kings xvii, 1, 2, A. M. 3092, “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.” It is remarkable, that the number of years is not here
specified; but in the New Testament we are informed that it was three
years and six months. By the prohibition of dew as well as rain, the
whole vegetable kingdom was deprived of that moisture, without which
neither the more hardy, nor more delicate kinds of plants could shoot
into herbage, or bring that herbage to maturity. The Lord commanded
Elijah to conceal himself beyond Jordan, near the brook Cherith. He
obeyed, and God sent ravens to him morning and evening, which brought
him flesh and bread. Scheuzer observes, that he cannot think that the
_orebim_ of the Hebrew, rendered “ravens,” means, as some have thought,
the inhabitants of a town called _Oreb_, nor a troop of Arabs called
_orbhim_; and contends that the bird called the raven, or one of the
same genus is intended. Suppose that Elijah was concealed from Ahab in
some rocky or mountainous spot, where travellers never came; and that
here a number of voracious birds had built their nests upon the trees
which grew around it, or upon a projecting rock, &c. These flying every
day to procure food for their young, the prophet availed himself of a
part of what they brought; and while they, obeying the dictates of
nature, designed only to provide for their offspring, Divine providence
directed them to provide at the same time for the wants of Elijah. What,
therefore, he collected, whether from their nests, from what they
dropped, or under a supernatural influence, brought to him, or
occasionally from all these means, was enough for his daily support.
“And the _orebim_ furnished him bread or flesh in the morning, and bread
or flesh in the evening.” But as there were probably several of them,
some might furnish bread and others flesh, as it happened; so that a
little from each formed his solitary but satisfactory meal. To such
straits was the exiled prophet driven! perhaps these _orebim_ were not
strictly ravens, but rooks. The word rendered _raven_, includes the
whole genus, among which are some less impure than the raven, as the
rook. Rooks living in numerous societies are supposed by some to be the
kind of birds employed on this occasion rather than ravens, which fly
only in pairs. But upon all these explanations we may observe, that when
an event is evidently miraculous, it is quite superfluous, and often
absurd, to invent hypotheses to make it appear more easy. After a time
the brook dried up, and God sent Elijah to Zarephath, a city of the
Sidonians. At the city gate he met with a widow woman gathering sticks,
from whom he desired a little water, adding, “Bring me, I pray thee,
also a morsel of bread.” She answered, “As the Lord liveth, I have no
bread, but only a handful of meal, and a little oil in a cruse; and I am
gathering some sticks, that I may dress it for me and my son, that we
may eat it, and die.” Elijah said, “Make first a little cake, and bring
it me, and afterward make for thee and thy son: for thus saith the Lord,
the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail,
until the day the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.” His prediction was
fully accomplished, and he dwelt at the house of this widow. Some time
after, the son of this woman fell sick, and died. The mother,
overwhelmed with grief, intreated the assistance and interposition of
Elijah, who taking the child in his arms laid him on his own bed, and
cried to the Lord for the restoration of the child’s life. The Lord
heard the prophet’s petition, and restored the child.
2. After three years of drought the Lord commanded Elijah to show
himself to Ahab. The famine being great in Samaria, Ahab sent the people
throughout the country, to inquire after places where they might find
forage for the cattle. Obadiah, an officer of the king’s household,
being thus employed, Elijah presented himself, and directed him to tell
Ahab, “Behold, Elijah is here!” Ahab came to meet the prophet, and
reproached him as the cause of the famine. Elijah retorted the charge
upon the king, and his iniquities, and challenged Ahab to gather the
people together, and the prophets of Baal, that it might be determined
by a sign from heaven, the falling of fire upon the sacrifice, who was
the true God. In this the prophet obeyed the impulse of the Spirit of
God; and Ahab, either under an influence of which he was not conscious,
or blindly confident in the cause of idolatry, followed Elijah’s
direction, and convened the people of Israel, and four hundred prophets
of Baal. The prophets of Baal prepared their altar, sacrificed their
bullock, placed it on the altar, and called upon their gods. They leaped
upon the altar, and cut themselves after their manner, crying with all
their might. Elijah ridiculed them, and said, “Cry aloud, for he is god;
either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey, or
peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.” When midday was past,
Elijah repaired the altar of the Lord; and with twelve stones, in
allusion to the twelve tribes of Israel, he built a new altar. He then
laid his bullock upon the wood, poured a great quantity of water three
times upon the sacrifice and the wood, so that the water filled the
trench which was dug round the altar. After this he prayed, and, in
answer to his prayer, the Lord sent fire from heaven, and consumed the
wood, the burnt sacrifice, the stones, and dust of the place, and even
dried up the water in the trench. Upon this, all the people fell on
their faces, and exclaimed, “The Lord, he is the God.” Elijah then,
having excited the people to slay the false prophets of Baal, said to
Ahab, “Go home, eat and drink, for I hear the sound of abundance of
rain;” which long-expected blessing descended from heaven according to
his prediction, and gave additional proof to the truth of his mission
from the only living and true God.
3. Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, threatened Elijah for having slain her
prophets. He therefore fled to Beersheba, in the south of Judah, and
thence into Arabia Petrea. In the evening, being exhausted with fatigue,
he laid himself down under a juniper tree, and prayed God to take him
out of the world. An angel touched him, and he arose, and saw a cake
baked on the coals, and a cruse of water; and he ate and drank, and
slept again. The angel again awakened him, and said, “Rise and eat, for
the journey is too great for thee;” and he ate and drank, and went in
the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights, unto Horeb, the
mount of God. Here he had visions of the glory and majesty of God, and
conversed with him; and was commanded to return to the wilderness of
Damascus, to anoint Hazael king over Syria, and Jehu king over Israel,
and to appoint Elisha his successor in the prophetic office. Some years
after, Ahab having seized Naboth’s vineyard, the Lord commanded Elijah
to reprove Ahab for the crime he had committed. Elijah met him going to
Naboth’s vineyard to take possession of it, and said, “In the place
where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall they lick thy blood, even
thine. And the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.” Both of
which predictions were fulfilled in the presence of the people. Ahaziah,
king of Israel, being hurt by a fall from the platform of his house,
sent to consult Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, whether he should recover.
Elijah met the messengers, and said to them, “Is it because there is no
God in Israel that ye go to inquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron? Now,
therefore, saith the Lord, Thou shalt surely die.” The messengers of
Ahaziah returned, and informed the king, that a stranger had told them
he should certainly die; and Ahaziah knew that this was the Prophet
Elijah. The king, therefore, sent a captain with his company of fifty
men, to apprehend him; and when the officer was come to Elijah, who was
sitting upon a hill, he said, “Thou man of God, the king commands thee
to come down.” Elijah answered, “If I be a man of God, let fire come
down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty.” The prophet’s words
were followed with the effect predicted. The king sent another captain,
who was also consumed; but a third captain going to Elijah intreated him
to save him and his people’s lives, and Elijah accompanied him to the
king. By these fearful miracles he was accredited to this successor of
Ahab as a prophet of the true God, and the destruction of these
companies of armed men was a demonstration of God’s anger against the
people at large. Elijah could not in this case act from any other
impulse than that of the Spirit of God.
4. Elijah, understanding by revelation that God would soon translate him
out of this world, was desirous of concealing this fact from Elisha, his
inseparable companion. He therefore said to Elisha, “Tarry thou here,
for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel.” But Elisha answered, “I will not
leave thee.” At Bethel, Elijah said, “Tarry thou here, the Lord hath
sent me to Jericho;” but Elisha replied, he would not forsake him. At
Jericho Elijah desired him to stay; but Elisha would not leave him. They
went therefore together to Jordan, and fifty of the sons of the prophets
followed them at a distance. When they were come to the Jordan, Elijah
took his mantle, and with it struck the waters, which divided, and they
went over on dry ground. Elijah then said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall
do for thee before I be taken away from thee.” “I pray thee,” said
Elisha, “let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me;” that is, obtain
the gift of prophecy from God for me, in the same measure that thou
possessest it. Double may signify like; or the gift of prophecy, and of
miracles, in a degree double to what thou dost possess, or to what I now
possess. Elijah answered, “Thou hast asked me a very hard thing; yet, if
thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if
not, it shall not be so.” As they journeyed, a fiery chariot, with
horses of fire, suddenly separated them, and Elijah was carried in a
whirlwind to heaven; while Elisha exclaimed, “My father, my father, the
chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof!”
5. Elijah was one of the most eminent of that illustrious and singular
race of men, the Jewish prophets. Every part of his character is marked
by a moral grandeur, which is heightened by the obscurity thrown around
his connections, and his private history. He often wears the air of a
supernatural messenger suddenly issuing from another world, to declare
the commands of heaven, and to awe the proudest mortals by the menace of
fearful judgments. His boldness in reproof; his lofty zeal for the
honour of God; his superiority to softness, ease, and suffering, are the
characters of a man filled with the Holy Spirit; and he was admitted to
great intimacy with God, and enabled to work miracles of a very
extraordinary and unequivocal character. These were called for by the
stupid idolatry of the age, and were in some instances equally
calculated to demonstrate the being and power of Jehovah, and to punish
those who had forsaken him for idols. The author of Ecclesiasticus has
an encomium to his memory, and justly describes him as a prophet “who
stood up as fire, and whose word burned as a lamp.” In the sternness and
power of his reproofs he was a striking type of John the Baptist, and
the latter is therefore prophesied of, under his name. Malachi, iv, 5,
6, has this passage: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before
the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Our Saviour also
declares that Elijah had already come in spirit, in the person of John
the Baptist. At the transfiguration of our Saviour, Elijah and Moses
both appeared and conversed with him respecting his future passion,
Matt. xvii, 3, 4; Mark ix, 4; Luke ix, 30. Many of the Jews in our
Lord’s time believed him to be Elijah, or that the soul of Elijah had
passed into his body, Matt. xvi, 14; Mark vi, 15; Luke ix, 8. In
conclusion, we may observe, that to assure the world of the future
existence of good men in a state of glory and felicity, and that in
bodies changed from mortality to immortality, each of the three grand
dispensations of religion had its instance of translation into heaven;
the patriarchal in the person of ENOCH, the Jewish in the person of
ELIJAH, and the Christian in the person of CHRIST.