Who Was Elijah in the Bible?

Elijah was a prophet of Israel who called the nation back to the LORD during the reign of King Ahab, around the middle of the 800s BC. He announced a three-year drought, faced 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and never died, because God took him to heaven in a whirlwind. His story runs from 1 Kings 17 to 2 Kings 2, and he appears again in the New Testament beside Jesus at the Transfiguration. This guide walks through his life in order and explains why so much of the Bible keeps pointing back to him.

Pastor Jack Graham tells the Mount Carmel story in "Elijah on Mount Carmel," an episode of Bible in a Year with Jack Graham on Pray.com that you can play above. He calls the scene "a battle of belief" and says of the prophet, "Elijah was full of faith." All Scripture below is from the World English Bible (WEB).

Key facts about Elijah

• Name: in Hebrew, Elijah means my God is the LORD, which is the message of his whole life
• Home: Tishbe in Gilead, east of the Jordan River
• Rulers he confronted: Ahab and his wife Jezebel, and later their son Ahaziah
• Main passages: 1 Kings 17-19, 1 Kings 21 and 2 Kings 1-2
• Successor: Elisha, the farmer he called from the field
• New Testament: Matthew 17, Luke 1, Luke 9 and James 5

Where does Elijah's story begin?

Elijah enters the Bible with no family history and no call scene. He simply appears in front of the king with a warning.

"Elijah the Tishbite, who was one of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, 'As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.'"1 Kings 17:1, WEB

The setting matters. Ahab ruled the northern kingdom of Israel, and his marriage to Jezebel, a princess from Sidon, brought the worship of Baal into the capital. People had started giving Baal the credit for the rain, so a drought that only the LORD could end was a direct challenge to that idol. Graham puts the drought in spiritual terms. God's people, he says, "were experiencing the judgment of a righteous and holy God from whom their hearts had turned," and the dry land matched the state of their hearts.

How did God provide for Elijah during the drought?

God sent Elijah into hiding by the brook Cherith, and he fed him in a way no one would plan.

"The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook."1 Kings 17:6, WEB

When the brook dried up, God sent him to Zarephath, a town in Sidon, Jezebel's home country. There a widow was gathering sticks to cook her last meal for herself and her son. Elijah asked her to feed him first, and she did.

"The jar of meal didn't run out and the jar of oil didn't fail, according to the LORD's word, which he spoke by Elijah."1 Kings 17:16, WEB

Later her son fell ill and stopped breathing. Elijah carried him upstairs, prayed over him three times and the boy lived. Her response is the first confession of faith in Elijah's story: "Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the LORD's word in your mouth is truth" (1 Kings 17:24, WEB). Graham says God used this season to "strengthen and deepen his faith as he prepared for many battles ahead."

What happened on Mount Carmel?

After three years, God sent Elijah back to Ahab. Elijah asked for all Israel to gather on Mount Carmel with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah. Then he put the real question to the crowd.

"Elijah came near to all the people, and said, 'How long will you waver between the two sides? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.' The people didn't say a word."1 Kings 18:21, WEB

The test was simple. Each side would prepare a bull on an altar, and the God who answered with fire was God. Baal's prophets called out from morning until the evening offering, and nothing happened. Elijah rebuilt the LORD's altar with twelve stones for the twelve tribes, dug a trench around it and had the whole thing soaked with water three times. Graham passes along a line he heard from someone else: "a God who cannot burn wet wood is not a God at all."

Elijah's prayer is short, and it asks for God's name to be known more than for his own success.

"At the time of the evening offering, Elijah the prophet came near and said, 'LORD, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Hear me, LORD, hear me, that this people may know that you, LORD, are God, and that you have turned their heart back again.'"1 Kings 18:36-37, WEB

Fire fell and burned up the offering, the wood, the stones and the water in the trench.

"When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces. They said, 'The LORD, he is God! The LORD, he is God!'"1 Kings 18:39, WEB

Then Elijah climbed to the top of the mountain and prayed for rain. He sent his servant to look toward the sea seven times. On the seventh, the servant saw "a small cloud, like a man's hand, is rising out of the sea" (1 Kings 18:44, WEB), and the storm came. Graham draws a plain application for today: "The false gods of our own age are powerless to meet the deepest needs of the human heart."

Why did Elijah run from Jezebel?

The high point on Carmel is followed right away by the lowest point in Elijah's life. Jezebel swore to kill him within a day, and he fled south past Beersheba into the wilderness.

"But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree. Then he requested for himself that he might die, and said, 'It is enough. Now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.'"1 Kings 19:4, WEB

What God did next is one of the gentlest scenes in the Old Testament. He let Elijah sleep, and an angel woke him twice with bread and water. The second time the angel said, "Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you" (1 Kings 19:7, WEB). God met his exhaustion with food and rest before he said anything about the mission. Anyone who has crashed after a big week can learn from that order.

What was the still small voice?

Strengthened by that food, Elijah walked forty days to Horeb, the mountain where God had met Moses. There he poured out his complaint that he alone was left. God answered with a lesson about how he speaks.

"He said, 'Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD.' Behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire passed; but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a still small voice."1 Kings 19:11-12, WEB

The man who had called down fire learned that God was not limited to fire. God also corrected his math. Elijah thought he was alone, and God told him, "Yet I reserved seven thousand in Israel, all the knees of which have not bowed to Baal" (1 Kings 19:18, WEB). Then God gave him new work, including the call of Elisha, a farmer plowing with twelve yoke of oxen. Elijah "put his mantle on him" (1 Kings 19:19, WEB), and the two traveled together from then on.

How did Elijah leave the earth?

Elijah confronted Ahab once more over the murder of Naboth and the theft of his vineyard (1 Kings 21), and he later rebuked Ahab's son Ahaziah. His ministry ended near the Jordan, with Elisha refusing to leave his side. Elisha asked for "a double portion of your spirit" (2 Kings 2:9, WEB), the share a firstborn son would inherit.

"As they continued on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven."2 Kings 2:11, WEB

Only two people in the Bible are taken to God without dying: Enoch in Genesis 5 and Elijah.

Why does Elijah appear in the New Testament?

The last book of the Old Testament ends with a promise about him.

"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes."Malachi 4:5, WEB

The New Testament says that promise was fulfilled in John the Baptist. The angel told Zechariah that his son would go before the Lord "in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17, WEB), and Jesus said of John, "this is Elijah, who is to come" (Matthew 11:14, WEB). On the mountain of the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah stood with Jesus, and Luke says they "spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem" (Luke 9:31, WEB). The Law and the Prophets were talking with Jesus about the cross.

What Elijah teaches us about prayer

James picks Elijah as his example of ordinary prayer, which is a surprise given the fire and the chariot.

"Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn't rain on the earth for three years and six months. He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit."James 5:17-18, WEB

"A nature like ours" covers the whole story, the boldness on Carmel and the despair under the juniper tree. Elijah prayed, got tired, wanted to quit and was met by God in both places. Graham's warning fits that honesty: "Never give your energy or your devotion or your faith to what does not really exist."

This week, read 1 Kings 18:20 to 19:18 in one sitting. Write down one thing you've been wavering about, and one way God has fed you in a hard season. For another figure from the same chapters, read Pray.com's guide, Who Was Jezebel in the Bible?

A prayer for Elijah's kind of faith

LORD God, you answered Elijah with fire and you spoke to him in a still small voice. Keep me from wavering between you and the things that can't save me. When I'm worn out and ready to quit, feed me and let me rest, and then show me the next thing you have for me. Let people around me see that you are God. In Jesus' name, amen.

More to read and hear on Pray.com

• Elijah on Mount Carmel | Bible in a Year with Jack Graham
• Bible in a Year with Jack Graham
• Who Was Jezebel in the Bible?
• The Spirit of Jezebel

AI-assisted from Pray.com episode transcripts, then reviewed and approved by Ryan Beck.