The Holy Prophet Elijah

2 August

 

The Holy Prophet Elijah was a miracle-worker and a zealot for faith in God.  He was born in the tribe of Aaron in the town Tishba.  When Elijah was born, his father Savah saw an angel of God hovering around the child, wrapping the child in fire and giving him a flame to eat. That was an expression of Elijah's fiery character and his God-given power. He spent his entire youth in devout thought and prayer, withdrawing frequently into the wilderness to contemplate and to pray in solitude.

 

At that time the Jewish kingdom was divided into two parts: the kingdom of Judah consisting of two tribes, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin with their capital in Jerusalem, and the kingdom of Israel consisting of ten tribes with their capital in Samaria. The first kingdom was governed by descendants of Solomon, and the second kingdom was governed by descendants of Jeroboam, the servants of Solomon. The greatest confrontation that the prophet Elijah had was with the Israelite King Ahab and his evil wife Jezebel. King Ahab and Jezebel, worshipped idols and were turning the people away from serving the one true God. Before this, Jezebel a Syrian, persuaded her husband to erect a temple to the Syrian god Baal and ordered  priests to worship this false god.

 

Through great miracles Elijah displayed the power and authority of God: he closed up the heavens, so that there was not any rain for three years and six months; he lowered a fire from heaven and burned the sacrifice to his God, which the pagan priests of Baal were unable to do; he brought down rain from heaven by his prayer; he miraculously multiplied flour and oil in the home of the widow in Zerepath, and he resurrected her son; he prophesied to king Ahab that dogs will lick up his blood and to Jezebel that dogs will consume her flesh.  

 

On mount Horeb, he spoke with God and heard the voice of God in the calm of a gentle breeze. Before his death he took Elisha and designated him as his successor. Elijah was taken up into the heavens in a fiery chariot by flaming horses. In the New Testament he appeared on Mount Tabor to our Lord Jesus Christ together with Moses. Before the end of the world St. Elijah will appear again to put an end to the power of the anti-Christ (Revelation, Chapter 11).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

             

             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the “Prologue of Ohrid” by Saint Nikolaj Velimirovi}