Elijah – A Man of
Prayer
James 5:13-18
13 Is any among you afflicted? let
him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 14 Is any sick among you? let him
call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him
with oil in the name of the Lord: 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the
sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they
shall be forgiven him. 16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray
one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much. 17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we
are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the
earth by the space of three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth
brought forth her fruit. [1]
1 Kings 17:1-19:18
1 Elijah the Tishbite, an inhabitant
of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord
lives, the God of Israel whom I serve, there will be no dew or rain except at
my bidding.”
2
The word of the Lord came
to him: 3 “Leave this place; turn eastward and go into hiding by the Wadi
Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 4 You will drink from the wadi, and I
have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” 5 He proceeded to do as the Lord had bidden: he went, and he stayed
by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 6 The ravens brought him
bread and meat every morning and every evening, and he drank from the wadi.
7
After some time the wadi dried up, because there was no rain in the
land. 8 And the word of the Lord
came to him: 9 “Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon, and stay there; I have
designated a widow there to feed you.” 10 So he went at once to Zarephath. When
he came to the entrance of the town, a widow was there gathering wood. He
called out to her, “Please bring me a little water in your pitcher, and let me
drink.” 11 As she went to fetch it, he called out to her, “Please bring along a
piece of bread for me.” 12 “As the Lord
your God lives,” she replied, “I have nothing baked, nothing but a handful of
flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am just gathering a couple of
sticks, so that I can go home and prepare it for me and my son; we shall eat it
and then we shall die.” 13 “Don’t be afraid,” said Elijah to her. “Go and do as
you have said; but first make me a small cake from what you have there, and
bring it out to me; then make some for yourself and your son. 14 For thus said
the Lord, the God of Israel: The
jar of flour shall not give out and the jug of oil shall not fail until the day
that the Lord sends rain upon the
ground.” 15 She went and did as Elijah had spoken, and she and he and her
household had food for a long time. 16 The jar of flour did not give out, nor
did the jug of oil fail, just as the Lord
had spoken through Elijah.
17 After a while, the son of the
mistress of the house fell sick, and his illness grew worse, until he had no
breath left in him. 18 She said to Elijah, “What harm have I done you, O man of
God, that you should come here to recall my sin and cause the death of my son?”
19 “Give me the boy,” he said to her; and taking him from her arms, he carried
him to the upper chamber where he was staying, and laid him down on his own
bed. 20 He cried out to the Lord
and said, “O Lord my God, will
You bring calamity upon this widow whose guest I am, and let her son die?” 21
Then he stretched out over the child three times, and cried out to the Lord, saying, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life
return to his body!” 22 The Lord
heard Elijah’s plea; the child’s life returned to his body, and he revived. 23
Elijah picked up the child and brought him down from the upper room into the
main room, and gave him to his mother. “See,” said Elijah, “your son is alive.”
24 And the woman answered Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and
that the word of the Lord is
truly in your mouth.”
1 Much later, in the third year, the
word of the Lord came to Elijah:
“Go, appear before Ahab; then I will send rain upon the earth.” 2 Thereupon
Elijah set out to appear before Ahab.
The famine was severe in Samaria. 3
Ahab had summoned Obadiah, the steward of the palace. (Obadiah revered the Lord greatly. 4 When Jezebel was
killing off the prophets of the Lord,
Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty to a cave, and
provided them with food and drink.) 5 And Ahab had said to Obadiah, “Go through
the land, to all the springs of water and to all the wadis. Perhaps we shall
find some grass to keep horses and mules alive, so that we are not left without
beasts.”
6 They divided the country between
them to explore it, Ahab going alone in one direction and Obadiah going alone
in another direction. 7 Obadiah was on the road, when Elijah suddenly
confronted him. [Obadiah] recognized him and flung himself on his face, saying,
“Is that you, my lord Elijah?” 8 “Yes, it is I,” he answered. “Go tell your
lord: Elijah is here!” 9 But he said, “What wrong have I done, that you should
hand your servant over to Ahab to be killed? 10 As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom to which
my lord has not sent to look for you; and when they said, ‘He is not here,’ he
made that kingdom or nation swear that you could not be found. 11 And now you
say, ‘Go tell your lord: Elijah is here!’ 12 When I leave you, the spirit of
the Lord will carry you off I
don’t know where; and when I come and tell Ahab and he does not find you, he
will kill me. Yet your servant has revered the Lord from my youth. 13 My lord has surely been told what I
did when Jezebel was killing the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred of the prophets of the Lord, fifty men to a cave, and provided
them with food and drink. 14 And now you say, ‘Go tell your lord: Elijah is
here.’ Why, he will kill me!”
15 Elijah replied, “As the Lord of Hosts lives, whom I serve, I
will appear before him this very day.”
16 Obadiah went to find Ahab, and
informed him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah. 17 When Ahab caught sight of
Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” 18 He
retorted, “It is not I who have brought trouble on Israel, but you and your
father’s House, by forsaking the commandments of the Lord and going after the Baalim. 19 Now summon all Israel to
join me at Mount Carmel, together with the four hundred and fifty prophets of
Baal and the four hundred prophets of Ash- erah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
20 Ahab sent orders to all the
Israelites and gathered the prophets at Mount Carmel. 21 Elijah approached all
the people and said, “How long will you keep hopping between two opinions? If
the Lord is God, follow Him; and
if Baal, follow him!” But the people answered him not a word. 22 Then Elijah
said to the people, “I am the only prophet of the Lord left, while the prophets of Baal are four hundred and
fifty men. 23 Let two young bulls be given to us. Let them choose one bull, cut
it up, and lay it on the wood, but let them not apply fire; I will prepare the
other bull, and lay it on the wood, and will not apply fire. 24 You will then
invoke your god by name, and I will invoke the Lord by name; and let us agree: the god who responds with fire,
that one is God.” And all the people answered, “Very good!”
25 Elijah said to the prophets of
Baal, “Choose one bull and prepare it first, for you are the majority; invoke
your god by name, but apply no fire.” 26 They took the bull that was given them;
they prepared it, and invoked Baal by name from morning until noon, shouting,
“O Baal, answer us!” But there was no sound, and none who responded; so they
performed a hopping dance about the altar that had been set up. 27 When noon
came, Elijah mocked them, saying, “Shout louder! After all, he is a god. But he
may be in conversation, he may be detained, or he may be on a journey, or
perhaps he is asleep and will wake up.” 28 So they shouted louder, and gashed
themselves with knives and spears, according to their practice, until the blood
streamed over them. 29 When noon passed, they kept raving until the hour of
presenting the meal offering. Still there was no sound, and none who responded
or heeded.
30 Then Elijah said to all the
people, “Come closer to me”; and all the people came closer to him. He repaired
the damaged altar of the Lord. 31
Then Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of the tribes of
the sons of Jacob—to whom the word of the Lord
had come: “Israel shall be your name”—32 and with the stones he built an altar
in the name of the Lord. Around
the altar he made a trench large enough for two seahs of seed. 33 He laid out the wood,
and he cut up the bull and laid it on the wood. 34 And he said, “Fill four jars
with water and pour it over the burnt offering and the wood.” Then he said, “Do
it a second time”; and they did it a second time. “Do it a third time,” he
said; and they did it a third time. 35 The water ran down around the altar, and
even the trench was filled with water.
36 When it was time to present the
meal offering, the prophet Elijah came forward and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Israel! Let it be known today that You are God in Israel and that I am Your
servant, and that I have done all these things at Your bidding. 37 Answer me, O
Lord, answer me, that this people
may know that You, O Lord, are
God; for You have turned their hearts backward.”
38 Then fire from the Lord descended and consumed the burnt
offering, the wood, the stones, and the earth; and it licked up the water that
was in the trench. 39 When they saw this, all the people flung themselves on
their faces and cried out: “The Lord
alone is God, The Lord alone is
God!”
40 Then Elijah said to them, “Seize
the prophets of Baal, let not a single one of them get away.” They seized them,
and Elijah took them down to the Wadi Kishon and slaughtered them there.
41 Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat
and drink, for there is a rumbling of [approaching] rain,” 42 and Ahab went up
to eat and drink. Elijah meanwhile climbed to the top of Mount Carmel, crouched
on the ground, and put his face between his knees. 43 And he said to his
servant, “Go up and look toward the Sea.” He went up and looked and reported,
“There is nothing.” Seven times [Elijah] said, “Go back,” 44 and the seventh
time, [the servant] reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising in
the west.” Then [Elijah] said, “Go say to Ahab, ‘Hitch up [your chariot] and go
down before the rain stops you.’” 45 Meanwhile the sky grew black with clouds; there
was wind, and a heavy downpour fell; Ahab mounted his chariot and drove off to
Jezreel. 46 The hand of the Lord
had come upon Elijah. He tied up his skirts and ran in front of Ahab all the
way to Jezreel.
1 When Ahab told Jezebel all that
Elijah had done and how he had put all the prophets to the sword, 2 Jezebel
sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “Thus and more may the gods do if by this
time tomorrow I have not made you like one of them.”
3 Frightened, he fled at once for his
life. He came to Beer-sheba, which is in Judah, and left his servant there; 4
he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush
and sat down under it, and prayed that he might die. “Enough!” he cried. “Now,
O Lord, take my life, for I am no
better than my fathers.”
5 He lay down and fell asleep under a
broom bush. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6
He looked about; and there, beside his head, was a cake baked on hot stones and
a jar of water! He ate and drank, and lay down again. 7 The angel of the Lord came a second time and touched him
and said, “Arise and eat, or the journey will be too much for you.” 8 He arose
and ate and drank; and with the strength from that meal he walked forty days
and forty nights as far as the mountain of God at Horeb. 9 There he went into a
cave, and there he spent the night.
Then the word of the Lord came to him. He said to him, “Why
are you here, Elijah?” 10 He replied, “I am moved by zeal for the Lord, the God of Hosts, for the
Israelites have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and put Your
prophets to the sword. I alone am left, and they are out to take my life.” 11
“Come out,” He called, “and stand on the mountain before the Lord.”
And lo, the Lord passed by. There was a great and mighty wind, splitting
mountains and shattering rocks by the power of the Lord; but the Lord
was not in the wind. After the wind—an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12
After the earthquake—fire; but the Lord
was not in the fire. And after the fire—a soft murmuring sound. 13 When Elijah
heard it, he wrapped his mantle about his face and went out and stood at the
entrance of the cave. Then a voice addressed him: “Why are you here, Elijah?”
14 He answered, “I am moved by zeal for the Lord,
the God of Hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken Your covenant, torn down
Your altars, and have put Your prophets to the sword. I alone am left, and they
are out to take my life.”
15 The Lord said to him, “Go back by the way you came, [and] on to
the wilderness of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael as king of Aram.
16 Also anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king of Israel, and anoint Elisha son of
Shaphat of Abel-meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17 Whoever escapes the sword
of Hazael shall be slain by Jehu, and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu shall
be slain by Elisha. 18 I will leave in Israel only seven thousand—every knee
that has not knelt to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.” [2]