The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops. (James 5:16-18)Elijah was a man who was so full of power and the Spirit of God that he was taken up in a chariot of fire rather than suffer death. He was one of only two people recorded in the entire history of the Bible who never died.
He was an odd man, one full of contradictions. He was full of the power of God, capable of bringing on great miracles by his faith, yet he was one who was profoundly depressed. He saw the people of God unite behind him, yet he felt he was alone. He was capable of great courage and strength of will, yet was afraid at the death threat of a corrupt queen.
What would make him so great? His strength of will was strong, his presence was powerful. He evoked fear in the king just by walking into the room. They could see the power of God in his life. But what made him so powerful that God wouldn’t even let him die?
It was his faith. He never doubted that God was with him. He may have been afraid at times, even felt in danger of his life, but he always knew God was with him.
He never had any doubt that God would answer his requests. He never entertained the idea that God was not there. He just accepted it. And he also accepted the fact that God was working through him.
You first see him in 1 Kings 17 when he pronounces a drought on the land of Israel. For a time, God fed him himself by having ravens bring him food. God even sends him to a woman who is on the edge of starvation. He demands that she feed him and then blesses her with unlimited food in the middle of the drought. Then he brings her son back from the dead.
After a miracle in which he calls down fire from heaven and personally causes the destruction of most of the pagan priests in Israel, he asks God for the rain back. And it comes.
He runs for his life after Queen Jezebel threatens him. He tells God that he is the only one left in all Israel who is righteous and has to be reassured by God that it is not true. He chooses a prophetic successor. He becomes the nemesis of two corrupt kings.
His life only takes up eight chapters in the entire Bible, yet his name is synonymous with all of the prophets. It was he, along with Moses, who appeared to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17. It is he who is spoken of as the greatest prophet. He is not really spoken of much in the rest of the Bible except that the Messiah would be announced by one with his spirit. The Old Testament ends with his name and his preaching.
He never wrote any books that we know of. He left no family that we know of. What he had was his faith. It was so strong that he accomplished mighty things in his life, great enough to earn him a place among the men of great faith. And great enough to cause God to take him rather than let him die.
And James says that he is like us and that we could be like him.
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