21 Elijah - Kings

Then comes Elijah.. I have to talk about Elijah here, cause he was pretty awesome. First off there was a queen - Jezabel..evil evil women. Deceitful evil women that didn’t worship God, she worshiped Baal instead. Anyone that didn't and was a prophet for God she wanted dead. She was married to the King and definitely had control over him. So in comes Elijah. God was with him and needed him to show the world again how to worship only God, one God. So Elijah goes to the king and tells him. "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word." God was working through Elijah. Elijah took off to live by the river He was brought bread and meat to eat, then with no rain the river dried up. No God, no rain! There was a widow that lived nearby, and Elijah went to her looking for something to eat. She said she only had enough oil and flour for her and her son. God blessed the womens oil and flour and it never ran out, the whole time Elijah was with her and her son. Unexpectely, the womens son died. Elijah stretched himself over the boys body three times and God restored the boys life. He was a prophet with God in his heart, it was not Elijah that saved this boys life, it was God, of course.

Now this is an awesome story in the book of Elijah. Off Elijah goes to challenge the King, and wicked Jezebel, his wife. He challenged 450 prophets of the Baal worshipers along with 400 prophets of another false god. He said. ok go to work and let me see your god rain down fire upon your sacrifices. Show me your stuff. So they went to work praying to their gods, and nothing - nothing happened. So confident in the power of God Elijah sets up. He put out his burnt offering, then he doused it with water just to show them it was totally soaked, did it three times just to make sure! Then Elijah called out to God, and God’s fire fell from heaven, consuming the offering, the wood, the altar and the water! The people around seeing all this happened dropped to their knees. Then then believed in God.

Elijah prayed and then rain fell on Israel, Jezebel was furious and swore she would kill him. This freaked Elijah out and he headed for the hills, he didn't want to live anymore. He slept in a cave and an angel brought him food, strengthened him for 40 days and 40 nights. Then God appeared to him in a whisper. He told him to go and annoint Elisha as his successor, to continue on. Elisha carried on the word, Elijah did not die, God sent chariots and horses of fire and they took Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, while Elisha stood watching. Elijah did not die, he was taken up by God. He is one of the very few in the bible that this happened to. Same as Moses.

Under God's guidance, Elijah struck a heavy blow against the evil of false gods. He was an instrument for miracles against Israel's idolaters.