+

THE PROPHETS

+ + + Elijah + + +

Some of the kings after Solomon were good kings and were faithful to the Lord's command, but more often they worshipped idols. The people, too, turned away from God; they thought His laws were too difficult to keep, and forgot all He had done for them, and how He had brought them out of slavery in Egypt and given them a home in the Promised Land. There came to the throne a king named Ahab, who built a temple to the god Baal and worshipped there.

Ahab was more wicked than any king before him.

In the time when Ahab was king, there lived a prophet named Elijah, who was faithful to the Lord. Elijah sent word to Ahab that there would be a great drought, as a warning to the people of Israel about their sins. Then the Lord told Elijah to go and hide from Ahab in the wilderness; He promised Elijah he would have water from a stream to drink and that the ravens would bring him food.

But after a while the stream dried up, because there was no rain. Then the word of God came to Elijah, "Get up and go to Zarephath, a town in Sidon, and stay there. I have told a widow there to give you food." So he went off to Sidon. When he got to the city gate, there was a widow gathering sticks. "Please bring a little water for me to drink," he asked. She was setting off to bring it when he called after her, "Please bring me a scrap of bread in your hand."

"I have no baked bread," she answered, "only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am just gathering a stick or two to go and prepare this for myself and my son to eat, and then we will die." But Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid. Go and do as you have said. But first make a little scone of it for me and bring it to me, and then make some for yourself and your son. For God, the God of Israel, speaks thus:

'Jar of meal will not be spent,

jug of oil will not be empty,

before the day when God sends

rain on the face of the earth."'

The woman went and did as Elijah told her and they ate the food, she, himself and her son. The jar of meal was not spent nor the jug of oil emptied, just as God had foretold through Elijah.

After this the widow's son fell sick and, in the end, died. She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Have you come here to bring my sins home to me and kill my son?" Give me your son," he said. Taking him from her lap, he carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his own bed. He called out to God, "God, my God, do you mean to bring sadness to the widow who is looking after me by letting her son die?" He stretched himself on the child three times and called out to God, "God, my God, may the breath of this child come into him again!" God heard the prayer of Elijah, and the breath of the child came into him and he breathed again. Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. "Look," he said, "your son is alive." The woman answered, "Now I know you are a man of God and the word of God in your mouth is truth itself."

After two years, God sent Elijah to see King Ahab. "God has sent this drought," he said to Ahab, "because you worship idols. You must choose between the Lord and Baal." Elijah was the only prophet of the true God, but Baal had 450 prophets. Elijah had an altar set up, and the prophets of Baal were called. "Now," said Elijah, "I will call on the name of the Lord, and you on Baal. Whichever god sends fire will be recognized as the God of Israel." The 450 prophets of Baal called on their god loudly. They jumped up and down calling Baal all the while, but their altar fire remained unlit. All day long they did this.

Elijah began mocking them. "Cry louder," he said. "Baal is not paying attention, or he is busy, or away on a trip. Maybe he is asleep and will wake up." But no matter how loudly the prophets called on Baal, nothing happened.

Then it was Elijah's turn. First he poured water over the altar, soaking the firewood and sacrifice. Then he prayed, "God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, give proof today that You are the Lord God." With that prayer, fire fell from heaven and, although the altar and everything on it was soaking wet, it all went up in flames. The people fell on their knees and cried out, "The Lord is God, the Lord is God!" As the people were going home, the sky darkened and it began to rain.

But Ahab's wife, Jezebel, was furious when she heard about this, and vowed to kill Elijah. So he fled into the wilderness. Sitting under a bush, he wished he were dead. "God," he said, "I have had enough. Let me die." Then he lay down and went to sleep. But an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." He looked around, and there at his head was a scone baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. But the angel of God came back a second time and touched him and said, "Get up and eat, or the trip will be too long for you." So he got up and ate and drank. Then he was so strong that he was able to walk forty days and forty nights, until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

There he went into a cave, and spent the night in it. Then the word of God came to him, saying, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He answered, "I am filled with zeal for the Lord, because the Israelites have left You, broken down Your altars, and killed Your prophets. I am the only one left, and they want to kill me." Then he was told, "Go out and stand on the mountain before God." Then God Himself went by. There came a mighty wind; but God was not in the wind. After the wind came a great earthquake; but God was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire; but God was not in the fire.

Elijah listening for God’s voice – with other scenes from his life.

After the fire came the whisper of a light breeze. When Elijah heard this, he covered his face with his cloak and went out and stood before the cave. A voice came to him, saying "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He answered, "I am filled with zeal for the Lord, because the Israelites have left You, broken down Your altars, and killed Your prophets. I am the only one left, and they want to kill me."

"Go back," God said to him. "There will be a new king. And you are to anoint Elisha to be the prophet after you. And I have kept seven thousand in Israel who have not bent their knees before Baal." Elijah did as God told him.

+ + + Elisha + + +

One day, when Elijah and Elisha were walking along the banks of the Jordan, Elijah said, "I am soon to be taken away from you. If you have anything to ask of me, ask now." Elisha said, "Let me be the prophet of Israel when you are gone." Elijah said, "If you see me being carried away, you will know that your request is granted. If you do not see me, it is refused."

They were walking on and talking when all at once a fiery chariot appeared, drawn by flaming horses. Elijah was drawn up in the whirlwind to heaven.

Elisha saw this and cried out, "My father! My father! I saw Israel's chariot and charioteer!"

And Elisha picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah's shoulders and put it on.

After this, Elisha was Israel's prophet.

One day as Elisha was on his way to a town called Shunem, a lady who lived there invited him to stay and eat. After that he always broke his journey for a meal when he passed that way. She said to her husband, "Look, I am sure that man who keeps passing our way must be a holy man of God. Let us build him a small room on the roof, and put a bed for him in it, and a table and chair and lamp. Whenever he comes to us he can rest there."

One day when Elisha came, he retired to the upper room and lay down. "What can we do for this woman?" he asked his servant, Gehazi. "Well," said Gehazi, "she has no children and her husband is old." Elisha sent for the woman and told her, "This time next year you will hold a son in your arms." She said, "No, my lord, do not joke with me." But she did have a son, as Elisha had said.

The child grew up. One day he went out to his father who was working in the fields saying, "Oh, my head! My head!" The father had him carried to his mother, who sat him on her knee until midday, when he died. She went upstairs, laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door, and went out.

She called her husband and said, "Send me one of the servants with a donkey. I must hurry to the man of God and back." "Why go today?" he asked. "It is not a holy day." But she answered, "Never mind," and had the donkey saddled.

She set off and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. Gehazi went out to greet her, but she took hold of the man of God. When Gehazi tried to push her away, the man of God said, "Leave her. She is sad and God has not told me why." She said, "Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, 'Do not joke with me'?"

Elisha told Gehazi, "Go with her quickly. You are to stretch out my staff over the child."

But the child's mother said, "As God lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So Elisha went with her.

Gehazi had gone on ahead, and had stretched out the staff over the child, but nothing happened. He went back to meet Elisha and told him this. Elisha then went to the house, and there on his bed lay the child, dead. He went in and shut the door on the two of them and prayed to God. Then he climbed onto the bed and stretched himself on top of the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes to his eyes, and his hands on his hands. As he lowered himself onto him, the child's skin grew warm. Elijah lowered himself onto the child again, seven times in all. Then the child sneezed and opened his eyes.

"Take up your son," he said to the boy's mother. She bowed to him in thanks, and, taking up her son, went

+ + +

Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army, was a leper. His wife had a little Israelite serving girl, who had been captured by the Syrians in a raid. She told Naaman's wife, "There is a prophet in Israel. If my master would go to him, he would cure him of his leprosy."

Naaman told this to the king of Syria. The king replied, "By all means, you must go to him. I will write a letter to the king of Israel." So Naaman went off, taking with much gold and silver, and expensive clothing, as gifts.

Naaman gave the king of Israel the letter written by the king of Syria. It read: "With this letter, I am sending my servant Naaman to you for you to cure him of his leprosy." When the king of Israel read it, he tore his clothes. "Am I a god who can give life and death?" he asked, "so that he sends a man to me and asks me to cure him of his leprosy? Listen to this! The king of Syria is just trying to pick a fight with me."

When Elisha heard that the king had torn his clothes, he sent word to him, "Why did you tear your clothes? Let him come to me, and he will find that there is a prophet in Israel."

So Naaman came with his team and chariot and drew up at the door to Elisha's house.

Elisha sent him a messenger to say, "Go and bathe seven times in the River Jordan, and your skin will be clean once more."

But Naaman was angry, and went off. "Here I was thinking he would come out to me, and stand there, and call on the name of the Lord, and wave his hand over the spot and cure my leprosy. We have the great rivers of Damascus, which are much better than any water in Israel. Why can I not bathe in them and become clean?" He turned around and went off in a rage.

But his servants came to him and said, "If the prophet had told you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? All the more reason, then, to do what he says since it is so easy."

So Naaman went down and dipped himself seven times in the River Jordan, and his skin became well and healthy, like the skin of a child.

Naaman and his whole escort went back to Elisha. "Now I know," he said, "that the God of Israel is the only true God. So please accept all these gifts I have brought." But Elisha would take nothing, even though Naaman continued to press him. So Naaman asked to carry home earth from Israel, in order to build an altar to God in Damascus. "Go in peace," Elisha said to him.

Naaman had only just left when Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, said to himself, "That man was very rich. My master should have taken something from him. I will run after him and get something from him for myself." He did this, and Naaman was very glad to give him a gift of great value. He put this in his house.

Then he went back to Elisha. "Gehazi, where have you been?" Elisha asked. "Nowhere," Gehazi replied. But Elisha said to him, "My heart was present when you took that gift. Now you are rich and can buy many things. But Naaman's leprosy will cling to you always." Gehazi left him a leper, white as snow.

+ + + Manasseh's Repentance + + +

One of the kings who came to the throne after this time was Manasseh. Manasseh ruled a long, long time, and did many, many things that were displeasing to God. After some time, however, he realized how great his sins were, and he also realized that God wants even sinners, and even sinners as great as King Manasseh, to come to Him in repentance to be forgiven. This is Manasseh's prayer for forgiveness:

O Lord Almighty, God of our fathers, of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and of their holy offspring, You Who have made heaven and earth with all their order, before Whom all things shudder and tremble, for no creature can bear Your glorious splendor, and no sinner can resist the threat of Your anger;

yet the mercy You promise us is without measure and beyond knowing, for You are the Lord Most High, of great compassion, ever patient and always merciful, and You sorrow over the evils of man.

You, O Lord, because of Your great goodness, have promised repentance and forgiveness to those who have sinned against You, O Lord, and in the multitude of your mercies You have appointed repentance for sinners so that they may be saved.

Therefore You, O Lord, God of the holy, have not appointed repentance for the holy, for Abraham and Isaac and Jacob who did not sin against You, but You have appointed repentance for me, who am a sinner.

For the sins I have committed are more in number than the sand of the sea; I am not worthy to look up toward heaven because of the great number my sins;I am weighed down and rejected because of my sins, and I have no relief; for I have made You angry and have done what is evil in Your sight.

And now I bend the knee of my heart, begging You for kindness.

I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned and I know my evil deeds.

I earnestly beg You, forgive me, O Lord, forgive me.

Do not destroy me with my evil deeds!

Do not be angry with me forever.

For You, O Lord, are the God of those who repent, and in me You will bring Your people to know Your goodness; for, unworthy as I am, You will save me in Your great mercy, and I will praise You every moment all the days of my life.

For all the host of heaven sings Your praise, and Yours is all glory forever. Amen.

Elijah

Some of the kings after Solomon were good kings and were faithful to the Lord's command, but more often they worshipped idols. The people, too, turned away from God; they thought His laws were too difficult to keep, and forgot all He had done for them, and how He had brought them out of slavery in Egypt and given them a home in the Promised Land. There came to the throne a king named Ahab, who built a temple to the god Baal and worshipped there.

Ahab was more wicked than any king before him.

In the time when Ahab was king, there lived a prophet named Elijah, who was faithful to the Lord. Elijah sent word to Ahab that there would be a great drought, as a warning to the people of Israel about their sins. Then the Lord told Elijah to go and hide from Ahab in the wilderness; He promised Elijah he would have water from a stream to drink and that the ravens would bring him food.

But after a while the stream dried up, because there was no rain. Then the word of God came to Elijah, "Get up and go to Zarephath, a town in Sidon, and stay there. I have told a widow there to give you food." So he went off to Sidon. When he got to the city gate, there was a widow gathering sticks. "Please bring a little water for me to drink," he asked. She was setting off to bring it when he called after her, "Please bring me a scrap of bread in your hand."

"I have no baked bread," she answered, "only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am just gathering a stick or two to go and prepare this for myself and my son to eat, and then we will die." But Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid. Go and do as you have said. But first make a little scone of it for me and bring it to me, and then make some for yourself and your son. For God, the God of Israel, speaks thus:

'Jar of meal will not be spent,

jug of oil will not be empty,

before the day when God sends

rain on the face of the earth."'

The woman went and did as Elijah told her and they ate the food, she, himself and her son. The jar of meal was not spent nor the jug of oil emptied, just as God had foretold through Elijah.

After this the widow's son fell sick and, in the end, died. She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Have you come here to bring my sins home to me and kill my son?" Give me your son," he said. Taking him from her lap, he carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his own bed. He called out to God, "God, my God, do you mean to bring sadness to the widow who is looking after me by letting her son die?" He stretched himself on the child three times and called out to God, "God, my God, may the breath of this child come into him again!" God heard the prayer of Elijah, and the breath of the child came into him and he breathed again. Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. "Look," he said, "your son is alive." The woman answered, "Now I know you are a man of God and the word of God in your mouth is truth itself."

After two years, God sent Elijah to see King Ahab. "God has sent this drought," he said to Ahab, "because you worship idols. You must choose between the Lord and Baal." Elijah was the only prophet of the true God, but Baal had 450 prophets. Elijah had an altar set up, and the prophets of Baal were called. "Now," said Elijah, "I will call on the name of the Lord, and you on Baal. Whichever god sends fire will be recognized as the God of Israel." The 450 prophets of Baal called on their god loudly. They jumped up and down calling Baal all the while, but their altar fire remained unlit. All day long they did this.

Elijah began mocking them. "Cry louder," he said. "Baal is not paying attention, or he is busy, or away on a trip. Maybe he is asleep and will wake up." But no matter how loudly the prophets called on Baal, nothing happened.

Then it was Elijah's turn. First he poured water over the altar, soaking the firewood and sacrifice. Then he prayed, "God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, give proof today that You are the Lord God." With that prayer, fire fell from heaven and, although the altar and everything on it was soaking wet, it all went up in flames. The people fell on their knees and cried out, "The Lord is God, the Lord is God!" As the people were going home, the sky darkened and it began to rain.

But Ahab's wife, Jezebel, was furious when she heard about this, and vowed to kill Elijah. So he fled into the wilderness. Sitting under a bush, he wished he were dead. "God," he said, "I have had enough. Let me die." Then he lay down and went to sleep. But an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." He looked around, and there at his head was a scone baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. But the angel of God came back a second time and touched him and said, "Get up and eat, or the trip will be too long for you." So he got up and ate and drank. Then he was so strong that he was able to walk forty days and forty nights, until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

There he went into a cave, and spent the night in it. Then the word of God came to him, saying, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He answered, "I am filled with zeal for the Lord, because the Israelites have left You, broken down Your altars, and killed Your prophets. I am the only one left, and they want to kill me." Then he was told, "Go out and stand on the mountain before God." Then God Himself went by. There came a mighty wind; but God was not in the wind. After the wind came a great earthquake; but God was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire; but God was not in the fire. After the fire came the whisper of a light breeze. When Elijah heard this, he covered his face with his cloak and went out and stood before the cave. A voice came to him, saying "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He answered, "I am filled with zeal for the Lord, because the Israelites have left You, broken down Your altars, and killed Your prophets. I am the only one left, and they want to kill me."

"Go back," God said to him. "There will be a new king. And you are to anoint Elisha to be the prophet after you. And I have kept seven thousand in Israel who have not bent their knees before Baal." Elijah did as God told him.

Elisha

One day, when Elijah and Elisha were walking along the banks of the Jordan, Elijah said, "I am soon to be taken away from you. If you have anything to ask of me, ask now." Elisha said, "Let me be the prophet of Israel when you are gone." Elijah said, "If you see me being carried away, you will know that your request is granted. If you do not see me, it is refused."

They were walking on and talking when all at once a fiery chariot appeared, drawn by flaming horses. Elijah was drawn up in the whirlwind to heaven.

Elisha saw this and cried out, "My father! My father! I saw Israel's chariot and charioteer!"

And Elisha picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah's shoulders and put it on.

After this, Elisha was Israel's prophet.

One day as Elisha was on his way to a town called Shunem, a lady who lived there invited him to stay and eat. After that he always broke his journey for a meal when he passed that way. She said to her husband, "Look, I am sure that man who keeps passing our way must be a holy man of God. Let us build him a small room on the roof, and put a bed for him in it, and a table and chair and lamp. Whenever he comes to us he can rest there."

One day when Elisha came, he retired to the upper room and lay down. "What can we do for this woman?" he asked his servant, Gehazi. "Well," said Gehazi, "she has no children and her husband is old." Elisha sent for the woman and told her, "This time next year you will hold a son in your arms." She said, "No, my lord, do not joke with me." But she did have a son, as Elisha had said.

The child grew up. One day he went out to his father who was working in the fields saying, "Oh, my head! My head!" The father had him carried to his mother, who sat him on her knee until midday, when he died. She went upstairs, laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door, and went out.

She called her husband and said, "Send me one of the servants with a donkey. I must hurry to the man of God and back." "Why go today?" he asked. "It is not a holy day." But she answered, "Never mind," and had the donkey saddled.

She set off and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. Gehazi went out to greet her, but she took hold of the man of God. When Gehazi tried to push her away, the man of God said, "Leave her. She is sad and God has not told me why." She said, "Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, 'Do not joke with me'?"

Elisha told Gehazi, "Go with her quickly. You are to stretch out my staff over the child."

But the child's mother said, "As God lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So Elisha went with her.

Gehazi had gone on ahead, and had stretched out the staff over the child, but nothing happened. He went back to meet Elisha and told him this. Elisha then went to the house, and there on his bed lay the child, dead. He went in and shut the door on the two of them and prayed to God. Then he climbed onto the bed and stretched himself on top of the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes to his eyes, and his hands on his hands. As he lowered himself onto him, the child's skin grew warm. Elijah lowered himself onto the child again, seven times in all. Then the child sneezed and opened his eyes.

"Take up your son," he said to the boy's mother. She bowed to him in thanks, and, taking up her son, went out.

+ + +

Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army, was a leper. His wife had a little Israelite serving girl, who had been captured by the Syrians in a raid. She told Naaman's wife, "There is a prophet in Israel. If my master would go to him, he would cure him of his leprosy."

Naaman told this to the king of Syria. The king replied, "By all means, you must go to him. I will write a letter to the king of Israel." So Naaman went off, taking with much gold and silver, and expensive clothing, as gifts.

Naaman gave the king of Israel the letter written by the king of Syria. It read: "With this letter, I am sending my servant Naaman to you for you to cure him of his leprosy." When the king of Israel read it, he tore his clothes. "Am I a god who can give life and death?" he asked, "so that he sends a man to me and asks me to cure him of his leprosy? Listen to this! The king of Syria is just trying to pick a fight with me."

When Elisha heard that the king had torn his clothes, he sent word to him, "Why did you tear your clothes? Let him come to me, and he will find that there is a prophet in Israel."

So Naaman came with his team and chariot and drew up at the door to Elisha's house.

Elisha sent him a messenger to say, "Go and bathe seven times in the River Jordan, and your skin will be clean once more."

But Naaman was angry, and went off. "Here I was thinking he would come out to me, and stand there, and call on the name of the Lord, and wave his hand over the spot and cure my leprosy. We have the great rivers of Damascus, which are much better than any water in Israel. Why can I not bathe in them and become clean?" He turned around and went off in a rage.

But his servants came to him and said, "If the prophet had told you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? All the more reason, then, to do what he says since it is so easy."

So Naaman went down and dipped himself seven times in the River Jordan, and his skin became well and healthy, like the skin of a child.

Naaman and his whole escort went back to Elisha. "Now I know," he said, "that the God of Israel is the only true God. So please accept all these gifts I have brought." But Elisha would take nothing, even though Naaman continued to press him. So Naaman asked to carry home earth from Israel, in order to build an altar to God in Damascus. "Go in peace," Elisha said to him.

Naaman had only just left when Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, said to himself, "That man was very rich. My master should have taken something from him. I will run after him and get something from him for myself." He did this, and Naaman was very glad to give him a gift of great value. He put this in his house.

Then he went back to Elisha. "Gehazi, where have you been?" Elisha asked. "Nowhere," Gehazi replied. But Elisha said to him, "My heart was present when you took that gift. Now you are rich and can buy many things. But Naaman's leprosy will cling to you always." Gehazi left him a leper, white as snow.

Manasseh's Repentance

One of the kings who came to the throne after this time was Manasseh. Manasseh ruled a long, long time, and did many, many things that were displeasing to God. After some time, however, he realized how great his sins were, and he also realized that God wants even sinners, and even sinners as great as King Manasseh, to come to Him in repentance to be forgiven. This is Manasseh's prayer for forgiveness:

O Lord Almighty, God of our fathers, of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and of their holy offspring, You Who have made heaven and earth with all their order, before Whom all things shudder and tremble, for no creature can bear Your glorious splendor, and no sinner can resist the threat of Your anger;

yet the mercy You promise us is without measure and beyond knowing, for You are the Lord Most High, of great compassion, ever patient and always merciful, and You sorrow over the evils of man.

You, O Lord, because of Your great goodness, have promised repentance and forgiveness to those who have sinned against You, O Lord, and in the multitude of your mercies You have appointed repentance for sinners so that they may be saved.

Therefore You, O Lord, God of the holy, have not appointed repentance for the holy, for Abraham and Isaac and Jacob who did not sin against You, but You have appointed repentance for me, who am a sinner.

For the sins I have committed are more in number than the sand of the sea; I am not worthy to look up toward heaven because of the great number my sins;I am weighed down and rejected because of my sins, and I have no relief; for I have made You angry and have done what is evil in Your sight.

And now I bend the knee of my heart, begging You for kindness.

I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned and I know my evil deeds.

I earnestly beg You, forgive me, O Lord, forgive me.

Do not destroy me with my evil deeds!

Do not be angry with me forever.

For You, O Lord, are the God of those who repent, and in me You will bring Your people to know Your goodness; for, unworthy as I am, You will save me in Your great mercy, and I will praise You every moment all the days of my life.

For all the host of heaven sings Your praise, and Yours is all glory forever. Amen.

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