Elijah: The Prophet Who Called Down Fire From Heaven

Background: The War Between Yahweh and Baal

Elijah the prophet makes a sudden appearance in the book of 1st Kings without any biographical information given. The only thing known about him was that he was a Tishbite, from the city of Tishbe and his prophetic ministry consisted of the northern kingdom of Israel. Elijah was called by God as His instrument of judgment against the rising idolatry in Israel. This idolatry consisted primarily of the worship of the pagan god Baal, the storm god and god of fertility. The people had abandoned Yahweh in favor of Baal and other lesser pagan gods. This slide from worshipping Yahweh to worshipping foreign idols begins with the fall of King Solomon by his idolatry. A short lesson on the history of Israel will help to provide the setting for the situation that Elisha stepped into. Israel had always struggled with violating God’s covenant promise to them by their idolatry. This was somewhat diminished during the reign of King David when national pride was at high point and there was a return to the law of Moses. Following the death of David, his son Solomon became king, and his reign began strongly, but ended badly. Upon becoming king, God blessed him with wisdom because of his desire to rule his people justly.

God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice, behold, I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you. “I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days, (1Kings 3:11-13).

However, God also blessed Solomon with “riches and honor,”–And this eventually brought his fall from God’s grace. Solomon received riches, wealth, and honor beyond comprehension for that time, “So King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. All the earth was seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart,”(1Kings 10:23-24). He slowly descended toward selfish passions and moved away from his relationship with God. He surrounded himself with luxurious possessions and accumulated 700 wives and 300 concubines. Many of his wives were foreigners who worshipped pagan gods. These wives seduced Solomon into idolatry, and he began worshipping these idols. He even built altars to these gods, “Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon,” (1Kings 11:6-7). This was the beginning of a pattern of idolatry and evil that would pollute the nation and the kings of Israel for the coming generations. God rebuked Solomon and told him that the kingdom would be torn away from his son and divided. Following his death there was rebellion in the kingdom and it split into two parts, a northern kingdom, (Israel), and a southern kingdom, (Judah).

Seven kings would rule Israel following Solomon until the time of Elijah, and each of these kings was more evil than the one before. This list of evil kings concludes with the worst of them all, Ahab. The evil of Ahab would be multiplied by the addition of an even more evil person–his wife Jezebel. Her name has become known as the living image of wickedness ever since. She was the daughter of a foreign king, and she was a cult worshipper of Baal with her own legion of priests and prophets which included 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah, (the queen mother of the gods). While Ahab was himself an idol worshipper, he did not take it to the level of his wife. Jezebel was not satisfied in just bringing her cult practices and prophets to Israel; she wanted to forbid the worship of Yahweh in favor of Baal worship. This progressed until she began murdering the prophets of Yahweh which forced the remaining prophets to have to hide themselves. This was all done with the approval of Ahab.

The story of Elijah is centered around his relationship to Ahab and Jezebel, and the conflict between the Baal worshippers and the remnant of Israelites who remained loyal to Yahweh. Elijah steps into the pages of Scripture when he is sent by the Lord to confront Ahab by declaring a drought on the land for the idolatry that he was promoting. The conflict escalates until the confrontation between Elijah and Jezebel’s prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. Elijah defeats them in a demonstration of whose God is greater when God rains down fire on Elijah’s sacrifice. Elijah and his assistants then kill Jezebel’s 450 prophets. It is apparent that God called Elijah as His weapon of wrath against the false gods. As such, Elijah was given miraculous gifts in which to display God’s power. The following two stories demonstrate this power and Elijah’s stature where he is given the title of, “the man of God.” This background information will present the stories of Elijah in the proper context so they can be properly understood including the nature of the conflict between the forces of good and evil represented by Elijah, and Ahab and Jezebel. This will also pertain to the stories of Elijah’s successor, Elisha.

Elijah Calls Down Fire on the Kings Men

Following the death of King Ahab, his son Ahaziah proceeds to the throne. He followed in the footsteps of his mother and father by worshipping Baal. Ahaziah injures himself in a fall which occurred in his house and he is bedridden. Because he is a Baal worshipper, he sends messengers to a prophet of Baal to ask if he will recover from his injuries. The Lord tells Elijah to intercept these messengers with His own message which informs Ahaziah that because he has sought Baal for answers instead of the God of Israel, he will not recover and he will surely die. Elijah finds the messengers and gives them the message. They returned to Ahaziah who upon seeing them asked them why they had returned. They told him that they were stopped by a man who told them to return to the king with this message, “Thus says the LORD, “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but shall surely die,” (2Kings 1:6). Ahaziah was angry after hearing this curse and he asked the messengers what type of a man had spoken such words against the king. The answer they gave was that it was a hairy man who wore a leather strap around his waist. Ahaziah immediately recognized him as Elijah the prophet because he was the only person known for wearing a strange garment made of camel hair that was secured with just a leather strap.

Ahaziah, feeling his newfound power as the king, sent a regiment of fifty men with a captain leading them to bring Elijah to face the king’s justice. They found Elijah sitting on top of a hill and the captain said, “O man of God, the king says, Come down.” Elijah responded by saying, “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your men.” And just as he said, flames rained down from the sky and burned the captain and the regiment to ashes. The report got back to Ahaziah, so he sent another regiment of fifty men with their captain. This new regiment approached Elijah on the hill and said the same thing to him and Elijah repeated the same answer that if he was indeed a man of God then let fire come down from fire, and fire came down from the sky and incinerated the second regiment just like the first. Instead of recognizing that he was battling against God, Ahaziah did not relent but instead sent a third group of fifty. The captain of this group, not wanting to be cremated like the other groups, approached Elijah on his knees and begged for mercy on their lives. Elijah received the words of God to let them live and go with him to meet with the king. Once he was there, Elijah confronted Ahaziah and repeated the message of his impending death and he left. Ahaziah then died according to Elijah’s prophecy.

Elijah is Taken Up to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire

Elijah, the man of God, comes to glorious end where he is one of only a handful of humans who did not suffer death but were transported directly to heaven. Another person who was translated directly to heaven was Enoch who succeeded Adam in the sixth generation. The story in the book of Genesis only tells us that Enoch walked with God, and he was not, because God took him. In relation to Enoch, Elijah was taken up in style and in a dramatic display. In some fashion, not revealed, Elijah knew the time of his departure from the world. He had already chosen and trained his successor, Elisha, who was with him when the end came. As they were walking near the Jordan river, a chariot of fire suddenly appeared between them. The chariot and its horses were of fire, and the chariot was driven by horsemen, most likely angels. Elijah took his seat in the chariot and away they went in a whirlwind into heaven. Elijah was taken and Elisha took up the role of God’s prophet in the continuing war against Baal worship.

Evil Meets Justice

For those who may be wondering what happened to Ahab and Jezebel–Ahab was killed in a battle against the Arameans; “Now a certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king of Israel in a joint of the armor. So he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn around and take me out of the fight; for I am severely wounded.” The battle raged that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot in front of the Arameans, and died at evening, and the blood from the wound ran into the bottom of the chariot,” (1Kings 22:34-35). As for Jezebel, she died a horrific death as predicted by Elijah.