Tag: Elijah

Elijah’s trip to Heaven

June 29, 2020

The book of 2 Kings begins in chapter 1 with Ahaziah the son of Ahab and Jezebel. He has fallen through a window and been injured. He sends messengers to inquire of the god of Ekron, Baal-zebub. Notice that this is the same chief of demons from the New Testament that Jesus was accused of casting out demons by.

Elijah is sent to intercept the messengers. “Is there no god in Israel?” This is the question he asks of them. He also informs them that the King will not recover from his injuries. When Ahaziah heard that message he wanted to know who the man was. He is given the description and knows it must be Elijah.

This is where the fun begins. First fifty-one soldiers are sent to bring the Prophet to the King of Israel. They are destroyed by Jehovah. A second group is dispatched with the same result. What would you have done if you were the commander of the third platoon? Hopefully, you would do what this commander did. He humbled himself before the Lord and begged for the lives of his men and himself.

Elijah delivers the message of doom directly to Ahaziah. He is the last of Ahab’s heirs to take the leadership of Israel. After his death Joram becomes the King. Remember that Jezebel is still alive.

The story of Elijah being taken to Heaven in 2 Kings chapter 2 is very interesting. Notice that he knows it is his last day on earth. Elisha refuses to leave him despite several attempts. When asked what Elijah can do for Elisha, the younger man asks for twice as much of God’s spirit as the older man has. The chariot of fire separates the two and Elijah is taken away.

The great prophet’s cloak is retrieved, and the miracles of Elisha begin. Fifty men looked for him and did not discover where he had gone. The river is parted, water is made pure, and two bears maul forty-two boys that were teasing him.

Joram is made King of Israel in 2 Kings 3. While he wasn’t as bad as his father Ahab had been, he was not a lot improved over he and Jezebel. When the Moabites rebel he asks Jehoshaphat from Judah and the King of Edom to join them. During the travel to Moab, the run out of water. The Judean King wants to consult Elisha. Jehovah provides water and enables them to be victorious over Moab. Their King offers his son as a sacrifice to his god to stop the attack.

A widow of one of the school of prophets came to Elisha in 2 Kings 4 and explained that since her husband’s death she had bills she could not pay. He did not tell her he would pray for her or take her problem to the benevolence committee.

He asked what she had. All he had to work with was her small jar of olive oil. As today, this is not inexpensive. When you read this, not these things. The jar she poured from was her own. No one gave it to her. The jars she poured the oil into were borrowed. Her faith and neighbors controlled how much oil she had to sell. The jars were returned to the neighbors after they were emptied.

Elisha raised a dead boy for his mother. He did this by direct touch and once again not by just prayer. He saved some of the prophets from food poisoning, and this was done with simple flour. He fed one hundred men with twenty loaves of bread and there were leftovers. Jesus was not the first to miraculously feed others.

©Copyright 2020 by Charles Kensinger

Elijah and Ahab and Jezebel

June 26, 2020

Most of us have heard the story of Elijah at Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18. Ahab’s palace administrator, Obadiah, had saved a hundred prophets of Jehovah in two caves. Obadiah meets Elijah and tells him he will meet with King Ahab. It has been over three years into the drought. Obadiah hesitates, and the prophet assures him today is the day for the meeting.

The confrontation between Baal and Yahweh is ended the way the child of God would expect it to. God won. Not in a close race, the victory was a blow out. The prophets of the false god were destroyed. God brought the needed rain through Elijah as well. One more confrontation was needed.

One of the scriptures in the Bible that has been most helpful to me is 1 Kings 19. Elijah is informed that the King’s wife has threatened his life. He flees from Jezebel and tells Jehovah he wants to do. He can run and wallow in self-pity. Then he is prepared for his next task.

Elijah watches a series of natural events that end in a still small voice according to the King James Version. Yahweh only occupies that voice. How often do we misjudge the presence of the Lord in our circumstances? We are told something by our parents or friends and believe they are speaking for God. Their advice is based on what they believe. Like the prophets of Israel, they do not speak for anyone else.

The instructions are to anoint two Kings and a prophet. Hazael as King of Aram, Jehu for Israel to replace Ahab and Elisha to replace him. He is also informed that there are seven thousand in Israel that have not worshipped the false gods. 

Ben-Hadad, the King of Aram, prepares to attack Ahab and Samaria in 1 Kings 20. He sends emissaries to Ahab to present an alternative. All he must do is pay everything that is valuable. Gold, silver and the best of his wives and children are the commodity they trade in. After a while, another offer is made to Ahab. All the wealthy men of Samaria must make the sacrifice that the King did previously. They refuse.

As they await the attack, a prophet from Yahweh visits the King of Israel that this vast army will be defeated by his junior officers, if they start the battle. The Arameans are soundly defeated. The following spring, they return, and the prophet returns to announce that another victory will be had. However, a treaty is made between the nations and a prophet returns to Ahab.

He is disguised as a wounded soldier and tells the King a false story which he believes. When he pronounces a death sentence on the soldier, the disguise is removed, and a prophecy is pronounced against both Ahab and Israel because he made a treaty and did not allow Jehovah to once again give them the victory. He wants our obedience, not our own strategy.

A story given in 1 Kings 21 about a vineyard gives, even more, light upon the relationship and character of Ahab and his wife, Jezebel. By the way, notice that she is still in Samaria even though the King’s best wives were given to the Aramean King, Ben-Hadad.

Naboth had a vineyard close to the palace of Ahab which he wanted to use for a vegetable garden. The King made an offer and was turned down. He became sullen and returned home where his wife got the story from him quite easily. After denigrating him she conspired to have Naboth murdered. Another interesting idea is that Naboth is accused of cursing God and the King. Which god? If it is Jehovah, I don’t think the punishment would have been stoning.

Ahab did not hesitate to take possession of the vineyard. Elijah returns to the King and condemns him for the murder of an innocent man. His entire family will be wiped out. Once again Ahab acts like he is repentant, and Jehovah decides to delay the devastation until after the King’s death.

©Copyright 2020 by Charles Kensinger