Miracles of Elijah
By Joyce Webb 2019
Elijah’s name means “My God is Yahweh” or “My God is Jehovah”.
He lived in northern Israel during the time of King Ahab during the 9th century BC (Before Christ)
He was a prophet. A prophet was both a preacher, and a person to whom God spoke—-telling them of things they must tell others.
Prophecy has to do with things that will happen in the future.
Elijah had a school of men who were godly men learning about God and learning when God spoke to them to be a prophet.
In the Bible, Abraham was a man God called to follow him.
He promised Abraham that if he would followed God and obey him, that God would bless him and make his family very large.
They would be a large nation of people.
At the time, Abraham did not have even one son. So this was a wonderful promise.
As this group of people grew—-they were called the people of Israel. They were also called the Hebrew people. Later, they were called Jews or Jewish people.
All of those names—Israel, Hebrews, Jews—are the same group of people. They are the people from Abraham that believed in the God of heaven, they called Yahweh, or Jehovah.
All of the other nations around them worshipped idol gods. The Israel people were they only ones who worshipped the true God of Heaven.
The book of Malachi prophesied Elijah’s return before the great and terrible Day of the Lord Mal 4:5
For a time—the kingdom of Israel was divided into two kingdoms.
The Northern part was called Israel, and the Southern part was called Judah.
The Kings of Judah—–most of them—-obeyed the Lord and did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.
The Kings of Israel—most of them—did not obey the Lord and did not do what was right.
God sent preacher/prophets to them to tell them about their wrong doing and if they did not change—-that God would sent punishment to them and the people in the kingdom.
The King is the leader and the example for the people. When the King did what was wrong, most of the people followed what the king did.
There were always those people who stayed true to God and did what was right, but they were few in number.
One of the kings of Israel was Ahab. The Bible says that he did evil in the sight of the Lord more than any other king before.
I Kings16:30
Ahab made places to worship idols in the land. The main idol was Baal.
The worship of these idols encouraged and perhaps required the people to do all kinds of sexual acts as part of the worship.
At times, the worship of Baal required humans to be sacrificed to the idol. They were offered and killed,—-some say they were burned alive to the idol.
Jezebel was Ahab’s wife. She was a daughter of the King of Sidon.
The people of Sidon worshipped the idol Baal.
God had told the people of Israel that they were not to marry the peoples around them that worshipped idols.
The Jewish men were told to marry only Jewish women who believed in the true God-Jehovah in heaven.
The reason—the mothers raise the children and teach them. God did not want the children to start worshipping and believing in idols.
A Jewish mother would be teaching them to worship and believe in God.
Ahab did want he wanted —and ignored what God said. He knew what God said, but he did what he wanted to do.
One of the reasons the kings of one country would marry the daughter of a king of another country was to keep the peace between countries.
If a king was married to another king’s daughter, then that king would not come a start a war with that country.
So the king’s of Israel—-did what many other kings did—they married other king’s daughters. But these king’s daughters did not worship the God of heaven.
When these daughters became Queen, they told their husband they wanted a place to worship their idol/god. So their husband, the King, made a place for them to worship their idols.
This was against God’s laws. God told them that if they did this, He would not help them, and he would let other enemies come into their country and take them over.
Ahab married Jezebel from Sidon. She worshipped Baal.
She was a very wicked woman. She was a strong woman and had strong ideas and influenced her husband, king, very much.
She wanted places to worship her idol god. So she got King Ahab to make places to worship Baal. He made many of these places all over the kingdom of Israel.
God spoke to a man named Elijah, and told him to go see King Ahab and tell him that his sins and wrong doing would be punished.
Elijah told Ahab, that because of his sin of making these places of idol worship for the people —God was not going to send rain or dew on the ground for 3 years.
Ahab did not like hearing this and it just made him angry. He was not sorry that he had done wrong and he was not going to change.
The king’s wife, Jezebel, was angry. She had men hunt for the prophets of God and had them killed.
In the king’s house, the man who was the overseer, Obadiah, was a man who loved God and obeyed him.
He secretly found 100 prophets and hid them in a cave and fed them bread and water.
Ahab wanted to kill Elijah.
Strange for Ahab to think it was Elijah’s fault.
God knew what Ahab wanted to do, so he told Elijah to go away from the city—to go out into the country near a brook (small river) called Cherith.
Elijah was to stay there until God told him to leave.
There was nothing out there to eat. There was water from the river.
I am sure Elijah thought about what he was going to eat.
God already had a plan.
God sent ravens with bread and meat in the mornings, and in the evenings. They dropped it down for Elijah to eat.
Where did they get the bread and meat? The Bible does not say.
Maybe God just created the bread and meat out of nothing and had the ravens bring it.
Maybe God let the ravens pick it up from someone’s house, or campfire.
One of the wonderful things about it is—-the ravens did not eat it themselves. That is a miracle right there!
Elijah told King Ahab that there would be no rain—and there was none—so the little river began to dry up.
When that happened, God told Elijah to go to a town in the country of Sidon.
God told Elijah, I have prepared a woman who is a widow, to feed you.
When Elijah came to the gate of the city, he saw a woman gathering sticks to make a fire,
If she was out gathering sticks wherever she could find some, she was very poor.
Elijah went up to her and asked for water and a piece of bread.
She told him, As the Lord thy God lives—- “I do not have bread to give you. I was gathering sticks to make a fire, and I have just enough flour and oil to make a small flat bread for my son and myself and then we will die —-because I have no more flour.”
The woman seemed to know that Elijah’s god was not Baal.
She seemed to know that Elijah worshipped God in heaven.
Elijah said to her—Make a small flat bread for me first, and if you do this, then you can make one for yourself and your son. God has said, that if you do this—–you will have flour and oil to for many days.
The woman believe him—-she believed God—-she used her little bit of flour and oil and made a small flat bread for Elijah.
The Bible says that she, and her son, and Elijah ate for many days because her barrel (wooden bowl ) always had some flour in it.
And her bottle of oil, never ran dry, there was always some oil in it.
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Notice: The Bible does not say that the barrel was full or the bottle of oil was full. It just says it never was empty.
There was always just enough for that day.
God meets our need. He often does it in a way that makes us keep on trusting Him.
If the barrel was full or the oil was full——they could relax and forget about trusting God until it was empty again.
But if there was only enough for that meal—–then they had to trust God for the next meal.
Sometimes this is the way God answers our prayers. He answers them in a way— that makes it so we have to keep praying and trusting him for each “step” we make.
God does not always make us “full” so we can relax and forget about praying and trusting.
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The woman, boy and Elijah were not eating fancy food. Flour and oil makes a poor flat bread. But it kept them from starving.
While Elijah was there, he stayed in the loft of the house, one day the woman’s son got sick and in a short time he died.
The woman was very upset and sad. She began to blame Elijah.
Thinking that because he was a holy man of God, that he had come to bring punishment to her for her past sins.
Elijah took the boy and carried him up into the loft of the house.
He put the boy on the bed. Elijah lay over him and prayed. He did this 3 times. On the 3rd time, the boy began to breathe again and came alive.
The woman said, “Now I know for sure, you are a man of God.”
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In the 3rd year of no rain, God told Elijah to go see King Ahab.
The king’s house was in a town called Samaria. They were having a bad famine because of no rain for 3 years to make food grow.
Ahab told Obadiah to go out around the country and look for any place that still had green grass, so Ahab could feed his horses.
(Kings had many horses because they used them to ride in battle.)
As Obadiah was out in the country looking for places that had grass, he met Elijah.
Elijah told him to go tell the King that he was coming to see him.
Obadiah was afraid. He said, The king has been looking for you for 3 years to kill you. He has sent men every where looking for you.
If I go tell the king that I saw you are here, the king will send someone to find you. But the Lord God will take you off somewhere and hide you. Then the King will kill me.
Elijah told him not to worry. I will show myself to King Ahab today.
So Obadiah went back to King Ahab and told him. King Ahab went to meet with Elijah.
When Ahab saw Elijah, he said, You are the man who is making trouble for Israel by stopping the rain.
(Remember—it was because of Ahab’s not obeying God and making places to worship the idol, Baal, that God was punishing.
It was Ahab who was responsible for the rain stopping.)
Elijah told the King. It is not my fault. It is your fault that the rain had been stopped.
Elijah said, I want you to bring all the prophets of Baal to Mount Carmel. There were 450 of them.
King Ahab did what Elijah said. He had all the prophets of Baal come to Mount Carmel.
Many people had come there also, to see what was going to happen.
Elijah said to the people—How long are you going to stand in the middle between worshipping Baal or worshipping God.
You must decide —-if God is God—worship him—–if Baal is God—-worship him.
Elijah said, Let us see who is really God.
He told the prophets of Baal to get two bulls to sacrifice. He told them to make an altar, to put wood on it, to kill one bull and cut it in pieces and put it on the altar—-but do not put fire to it.
Elijah told the prophets—pray to Baal and ask him to send fire down to burn the sacrifice.
So the prophets of Baal began to pray to Baal. It was morning.
By noon, nothing had happened.
Elijah said, You should call louder—maybe Baal is talking, maybe he is busy, maybe he went on a trip, maybe he is sleeping.
The prophets of Baal prayed harder. They even cut themselves with knives. They prayed and prayed to Baal and cried his name.
Nothing happened.
It was now evening.
Elijah went to the altar of God that was broken down. He put the stones back up again. He put wood on the altar.
Elijah took the other bull. He killed the bull, he cut it up and put the pieces on the altar.—he did not put fire to it.
Elijah called for men to get water—-a lot of water—4 barrels of water. He had the pour the water all over the bull and altar.
Then he told them to get 4 more barrels of water and pour it over the altar—-it made a big puddle all around the altar.
Then Elijah prayed–”Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel—let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant. I have done all these things because you told me to do them.
Hear, O Lord, hear me—that this people may know that you are the Lord God and that you have brought the people’s hearts back to you.”
As soon as Elijah finished praying—-Fire fell from heaven down on the sacrifice. It burnt up the bull, the wood, the stones, and the water !!
(That was a hot fire to burn up the stones!)
When all the people saw it—–they fell on their faces to the ground.
They said, The Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God.
Elijah told the people to kill the prophets of Baal. (Because they were leading the people to worship an idol and not God.)
Elijah told Ahab to go eat and drink—because it was going to rain.
Elijah went to the top of mount Carmel and began to pray for rain.
Elijah prayed one time, then he told a servant boy to go look and see if there were any rain clouds. The boy came back and said, No, clouds.
Elijah prayed again. He sent the boy again. Seven (7) times Elijah prayed and finally there was a small rain cloud beginning.
Elijah got up, he told the boy to go tell Ahab to go back home the rain was coming.
Ahab got in his chariot and began to go back.
God touched Elijah and gave him super strength, Elijah began to run, he ran faster than Ahab’s horses. And got to the town before Ahab and his horses !! He ran about 15 miles.!
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Let us think about some things that happen here.
Ahab was the person who was doing wrong and would not change to do what was right. God had warned him, but he kept doing what was wrong.
Finally, God’s patience came to an end. He sent punishment to Ahab and the people by stopping the rain.
Ahab would not take the blame and responsibility for the punishment. He blamed the man of God for it.
People who sin and do wrong often do the same thing.
They have been warned many times, but they will not do the right thing. They like their sin and want to keep doing it.
Then when punishment comes to them from God, they blame Christians for their trouble.
They say “If we could get rid of those Christians, we would not be having these troubles.”
Another thing to notice—–Elijah prayed one simple little prayer at the altar—and “boom” —-God sent fire down from heaven.
When Elijah went up onto the mountain top for rain, he had to pray 7 times before a little rain cloud came.
Why does God do that? Why does God answer some prayers the first time, but other times, we have to pray, and pray, and pray?
Remember when Elijah prayed for the boy to come back to life, he had to pray 3 times for him.
I do not know the answer. I just see that this is what happened.
God did answer Elijah’s prayer—-but sometimes it took longer and many more times of prayer.
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When Ahab got back home, he told his wife, Jezebel, all that had happened.
When she heard that all the prophets of Baal were killed, she told people in the king’s house that she was going to kill Elijah.
(Think about this: Jezebel heard how the prophets of Baal prayed all day, crying out to their idol—-nothing happened.
When Elijah prayed to the God in heaven, fire fell and even burned up the rocks.
And she still wants to believe in and save her prophets of Baal.)
Someone told Elijah that she was planning to kill him.
He left and went out into the country. He was feeling upset and sorry for himself. He told God. This is enough. Just let me die.
He went to sleep. An angel touched him and told him to get up and eat.
When he looked around, he saw a campfire and a “cake” was baking in fire. (Probably, like cornbread). He saw a jug of water.
After he ate and drank the water, he went to sleep again.
The second time the angel touched him. He told him to get up and eat again——because he was to go on a long trip.
After Elijah ate again, he traveled for 42 days walking to Mount Horeb.
(That was a long time to go without eating anything, plus walking, but it was food that the angel gave him. )
When he got to Mount Horeb, he found a cave to stay in.
The Lord spoke to him and asked– What are you doing here, Elijah?
Elijah answered. I have been faithful to God. The people of Israel are worshipping idols. They had killed the prophets of God. I am the only one left and now they are trying to kill me.
God told him, Go stand on the mountain. Then the Lord passed by Elijah.
There was a very strong wind. So strong it broke up some of the rocks into pieces. But the Lord was not in the wind. (The Lord did not speak out of the wind.)
Then an earthquake happened. The Lord was not in the earthquake. (The Lord did not speak out of the earthquake.)
Then a fire happened. The Lord was not in the fire. (The Lord did not speak out of the fire.)
After the fire—-there was a quiet small voice.
The Lord asked again, What are you doing here, Elijah?
Elijah said the same as before: I have been faithful to God. The people of Israel are worshipping idols. They had killed the prophets of God. I am the only one left and now they are trying to kill me.
The Lord told him to go toward the city of Damascus. He was to find a man named Jehu, and he was to anoint him to be king over Israel.
(This would mean that Ahab would not continue to be the king, and not his family line.)
He also told Elijah, to anoint Elisha to be the prophet in Elijah’s place.
Then the Lord told Elijah, there are 7,000 people in Israel who have been faithful to me and have not worshipped idols.
Elisha followed Elijah—-everywhere Elijah went—-he was learning form Elijah because he was to take Elijah’s place after Elijah was gone.
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Notice—God was not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire, —-he was a quiet small voice.
God made all those things to happen and they were very powerful and amazing and fearful to see.
But when God decided to talk to Elijah, he did it in a quiet small voice.
Sometimes we want God to tell us what to do. We want a big show of something so we know it is God.
But most of the time, God speaks to us in our spirit in a small quiet voice.
We must learn how to listen and give attention to that quiet voice.
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King Ahab lived next door to a man named, Naboth.
Naboth had a very nice vineyard (fields of grapes).
King Ahab saw all those nice fields of grapes. He went to Naboth and wanted to buy the fields.
Naboth told the Kings, No. Because, in the Jewish law, land was given to each tribe (group) of Israel. The land was to belong to that tribe forever.
Also, each family had their part of that land. It was to stay in that family forever.
So, Naboth, was not free to sell it to the king.
King Ahab knew the Jewish law. But he wanted the field, and he also knew that he could not force Naboth to sell it.
King Ahab went home and was sad and angry. His wife, Jezebel, asked him what was wrong.
King Ahab told her. Jezebel said, Do not be upset. I will get the vineyard.
Jezebel called two men and told them to make up lies about Naboth, that he had blasphemed against God. The punishment was death by throwing stones until the person died.
So the men went to the leaders of the town, and told these lies about Naboth.
In the Jewish law, if two witnesses say something is true and happened it was accepted as true.
The leaders came and got Naboth and had him stoned to death.
After Naboth died, Jezebel came to Ahab and said, Naboth is dead. Go and take the vineyard.
God spoke to Elijah. He told him to go to King Ahab and give him a message from God.
He said: Because you have done evil and sinned before God, —–God is going to send punishment.
(It was Jezebel who had Naboth killed. But Ahab was not supposed to marry a woman who was not Jewish. And especially, a woman who worshipped idols. If Ahab had never married her, and obeyed God, then the woman would not be queen. So, part of this was Ahab fault.)
The message from God was: Ahab would die. And the dogs would come a lick up his blood.
God also said, that the dogs would eat Jezebel’s body.
King Ahab knew enough about God to be very afraid. He humbled himself, he put on sackcloth and prayed, and cried to the Lord.
Because he cried to the Lord and humbled himself, God told Elijah that he would not do what he said while Ahab lived. But during his son’s rule as king, then it would happen.
Later, King Ahab was in a battle. He was hurt badly. Later, he died.
When the men went to wash his chariot of the blood, dogs came and liked Ahab’s blood, just like God said and Elijah prophesied. II Kings 22:36-40
Ahab was buried.
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After King Ahab died —-his son, Ahaziah became the king.
Ahaziah did evil just like his father.
One day Ahaziah fell and was hurt badly. He sent some messengers to a
neighboring country—-to talk to a prophet of Baal to ask Baal—- if he would get better or not.
An angel of the Lord spoke to Elijah and told him to go meet these messengers.
He said to them, Why are you going to see a prophet of Baal? Why are you not asking a prophet of God?
Elijah said, Tell the king this: This is what the Lord says: Why are you going to Baal to tell you what will happen? Isn’t God the God of Israel? Because you have done this —-you will not get better. You will die.
So the messengers went back to the king. The king was surprised that they were back so soon.
They said they met a man and he said that because you sent to a prophet of Baal to ask what would happen to you——- and you because you did not ask God—-you will not get better, you will die.
The king asked, Who was this man? They told him. The king understood that it was Elijah. He was angry.
The king sent out 50 soldiers to arrest Elijah
When they came to Elijah, They said, O, man of God, You must come with us to see the king.
Elijah said, If I am a man of God—–then let fire come down from heaven and kill all 50 men.
Fire fell from heaven and killed the men.
The king sent out 50 more soldiers. The same thing happened to them.
The king sent out 50 more soldiers. This time when the men came to Elijah the leader bowed down before Elijah and said Please do not kill us with fire.
Then the angel of the Lord spoke to Elijah and told him to go along with the soldiers and not be afraid of them.
So Elijah went with them. When Elijah saw the king, he said: Why are you sending messengers to ask the prophet of Baal what will happen to you.
Isn’t there a God in Israel?
(Remember, Ahaziah knew about what happened to the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. He knew that when they prayed to the idol nothing happened. It was God in heaven who answered and sent fire on Elijah’s altar. So why is he still praying and worshipping the idol Baal?)
Elijah told him, Because you have done this, God has said you will not get better, you will die.
So Ahaziah died.
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Ahab;s son, Ahaziah, died.
Ahaziah had no son, so Jehoram, became king.
There was a battle and Jehoram was killed and Jehu became king. Jehu was not part of Ahab’s family.
This was the man that God told Elijah to anoint to be king.
After the battle where Jehoram died, Jehu came to Ahab’s palace.
Jezebel was sitting by an upstairs window. Two men servants were with her.
Jehu saw her. He said, Are you on my side?
She was not on his side. She was against him. The man who was serving as king after her son—-was now dead.
The two men servants were for Jehu. They pushed Jezebel out of the window. The horses of the soldiers ran over her.
Later when the men went back to bury her, only her skull and hands were left. The wild dogs had eaten her, —just like God said and Elijah prophesied.
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The time came when Elisha knew that Elijah would be taken away.
Elijah wanted to go to Bethel—– where the school of prophets were.
He told Elisha to stay and not come with him.
Elisha said, No, I want to be with you. I will not leave you. So they went to the town together.
When they got there, some of the prophets said to Elisha, The Lord is going to take away Elijah from you today.
Elisha said: Yes, I know. Don’t say anything more about it.
Then Elijah said he wanted to go to Jericho—– where the school of prophets were.
He told Eliaha to stay and not go with him.
Elisha said, No, I want to be with you. I will not leave you. So they went to the Jericho together.
When they got there, some of the prophets said to Elisha—God is going to take Elijah from you today.
Elisha said: I know it. Do not say anything more about it.
Then Elijah told Elisha, stay here, God has sent me to the river Jordon.
Elisha said, No, I want to be with you. I will not leave you. So they went to the Jordon river together.
Fifty (50) of the other prophets followed behind and watched.
Elijah took off his mantle (like a robe or cape) he twisted it up and then he hit the river water with it. The river water parted (like the Red Sea did).
Elijah and Elisha walked across the river bottom to the other side.
Elijah asked Elisha —- What shall I do for you before I am taken away from you?
Elisha said: I want a double part of the Spirit to be upon me.
Elijah said, You have asked a hard thing. If you see me when I am taken away from you—then you will have it. If you do not see me, then you will not have it.
They walked and talked—then suddenly—a chariot of fire with horses of fire—-came down between them. Elijah was taken up into the chariot and a whirlwind took the chariot and horses and Elijah up into heaven—-and they saw him no more.
Elisha cried out. He felt sad that Elijah was gone from him.
Elisha took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen behind—-he went to the river Jordon—he took the mantle and hit the water—he said: Where is the God of Elijah?
The river waters parted. Eliaha walked back across the river bottom to the other side.
The prophets that were watching, came to Elisha. They bowed down—-and said: The Spirit that was on Elijah is now on Elisha.
(As we read the Bible, we see that God did give Elisha a double part of the Spirit to Elisha. He did twice as many miracles as Elijah did.
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Elijah never died.
He and one other man, Enoch, never died. Both men were taken up into heaven without dying.
In the book of MalachI, Chp. 4 Vs. 5 —-”I will send you Elijah, the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”
In the book of Revelation , we read about two witnesses that God sends to preach to the people—- during the time of the Anti-Christ‘s rule.
“I will power to my two witnesses , and they will be clothed in sackcloth and will prophesy during those 1,260 days.” (About 3 ½ years) Revelation 11:3
In vs. 6, it says that they will have to power to pray for the rain to stop,
to change the waters (rivers and all) into blood, and send all kinds of plagues (like Egypt had).
Some Bible teachers think that these two witnesses—- that are sent by God ——are going to be Elijah and Enoch. Because they never died.
The Bible says that “ it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment.” Hebrews 9:27
These two witnesses will die. Their bodies will lie in the street for 3 1/2 days.
Then God will give them life again and raise them up. They will rise in the air and go into heaven. Rev. 11:7-12
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