The Story of Elijah and Elisha His Life and Story Explained Bible Stories Jesus Christ Stories

Long ago, in Israel, there lived a man named Elijah. Elijah emerged as a powerful prophet and is one of the most impressive and important figures in the whole Bible. Throughout his lifetime he served as an important messenger for God and, with God's help, performed many impressive miracles. This all began when one day, as he lived in the kingdom of Israel, God came to Elijah with an important message. You see, Elijah lived during the reign of a king called Ahab. Ahab and his people did not follow the God of Israel. Instead, they worshipped a god named Baal. God appeared to Elijah and warned him that Ahab and his people must give up their worship of Baal and accept Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, as the true God. He ushered Elijah to journey to the palace of Ahab and confront him with this truth. And so, Elijah did as God wished. He made his way to the grand palace of Ahab and sought out a meeting with the king. I am Elijah. I have been spoken to by God and seek an urgent meeting with the king Ahab so I can pass on an important warning. Elijah was granted a meeting with king Ahab and came forth with his warning from God. Your Majesty, I come to you bearing an important message. God has spoken to me and he has warned that you and the other worshippers of Baal are in fact worshipping a false god. This will cause great pain and suffering to your people if you do not realize the error of your ways. How dare you say such a thing? Baal is our one true God. I warn you, Your Majesty, that your worship of the cult of Baal will lead to famine and drought in this land and your people will suffer greatly. Elijah was sent away and true to his word, the land fell under a great drought. No rain fell and the rivers and lakes dried up. The crops began to dry and both the people and animals had no food to fill their stomachs and so a great famine fell upon the land. Having been cast out by king Ahab and left to suffer the drought and famine brought about by the worship of Baal, Elijah made his way through the land and eventually came to a brook with water. Thirstily, he kneeled down to take a drink. As Elijah, hungry and tired from his journey, drank the water of the brook, ravens of heaven appeared out of the sky sent by God. They carried with them a bounty of food which they gifted to Elijah. Thank you God, this food will replentish me and help me to survive this terrible famine. Soon after, the brook that gave Elijah his water also fell foul to the drought and dried up until there was no water left. Elijah knew that he could not stay now that the water was all gone. His journey onward must continue. The Lord spoke to him and encouraged him to continue onwards and promised that on his way he would encounter a widow who would feed him. Along his path, Elijah did indeed encounter a woman. She looked like she had not eaten properly in a very long time. She was gathering sticks to bring back to her home. Excuse me good woman, do you think you could bring me a small glass of water? Of course. And a small piece of bread if you would be so kind. I'm afraid I have no bread to give, only a small bit of flour and a tiny drop of oil. I'm going to use it to make some bread and that will be the final meal for me and my little boy. I promise if you go and make this bread but give me some, the Lord will look down kindly on you. He will make sure your flour never runs out and your oil never empties. The widow listened to Elijah and did as he said. She made the bread and gave him some. True to God's word, her flour never ran out and her oil never emptied. Elijah remained with the widow and her son for the remainder of the famine, living off the food that the Lord had gifted them. There, Elijah performed yet another miracle when the widow's son grew ill and died. Oh my boy, my precious son is dead. Seeing the widow's grief for her son, Elijah went to pray to the Lord. Oh Lord, if you can hear my prayers, I beg you, return to this poor woman her precious son. And to the widow's complete shock and joy, the Lord listened. Her son was revived and she cried and cried with happiness, thanking both Elijah and God for blessing her and her son again. Elijah would continue to perform incredible feats such as this all throughout his life. When the great famine entered its third year, Elijah knew he had to return to the king and bring an end to this terrible suffering. He made his way back towards King Ahab's castle to prove to the king that Baal was a false god and that the only way to end the suffering of the land was to worship the God of Israel. I have come here again to help you end this great drought and famine. I will prove to you that the God I speak to is real and that Baal is a false god. And how will you do it? Bring me your prophets of Baal. Let us sacrifice each to our gods. I bet that your God will not create a fire of the offerings while mine will. Fine, I will summon my finest prophets and you will see once and for all how wrong you are. And so King Ahab gathered all the prophets who preached about Baal and told them of Elijah's challenge. Altogether, they were to pray to Baal to summon a fire and Elijah would do the same to his god. Whoever's god responded first would be declared as the true god of the land. Fire, fire, fire, Baal bring us fire. Fire, fire, fire, Baal bring us fire. But after hours and hours of chanting, nothing happened, not even a spark. In the meantime, Elijah had taken his sacrifice and soaked it for hours in water, making it almost impossible for it to go aflame. Behold, now I will call to my god, the Lord and Savior. And so King Ahab and his wife Jezebel and the hundreds of prophets of Baal all gathered around to see whether Elijah's god would indeed answer his prayers. Dear God, take this sacrifice and bring me fire. And just like that, Elijah's sacrifice was immediately consumed by miraculous flame. King Ahab, Queen Jezebel and the prophets were all shocked. Having proven his god was the true god, Elijah took the false prophets to the brook and slaughtered them all for their betrayal of the true god. As this happened, a great thunderstorm struck the land and the drought ended. Elijah hoped that this would be enough to return the land to worshiping the true god. But this was not to be the case. Even though Elijah proved himself in the challenge against the prophets of Baal, soon after the King Ahab died, that would not be the end of Elijah's challenges. Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab was terribly mad at Elijah for his defeat over the prophets of Baal. And she ordered for him to be killed. I want that man Elijah dead. Bring me him. And so Elijah was forced to escape to the wilderness to avoid being killed with the angry Jezebel. While in the wilderness, she reflected on the mission God gave him to end the worship of Baal and felt like a failure. Oh God, I am so sorry. I have failed you. You gave me the task of returning this land to your worship and yet they still refuse to see the truth. Just then, God responded to Elijah's cries by sending him an angel who would lead him forward on his path. The angel gave Elijah God's word on the future of Israel and assured him that three new leaders would come forward and restore Israel to the correct worship. With this knowledge, Elijah went on to defeat Jezebel and restore Israel to worshiping the Lord. Eventually, after many years of miracles and performing important work for the worship of God in Israel, Elijah was an old man. Finally, his time had come to cease his work on earth and ascend to heaven. Accompanied by his trusty servant Elisha, he made his way to the waters of Jordan. Others warned Elisha that his master was about to die, but Elisha stayed by Elijah's side until the very end. When they reached the water's edge, Elisha made a prayer to God. Oh Lord, please let me receive a portion of my master's spirit. I wish to continue his work and keep his spirit on earth alive. Just then, Elijah took his staff and struck the waters of Jordan. As he did this, flaming horses and chariots appeared from the heavens. They took Elijah with them to heaven, leaving behind only his cloak. When Elisha took up his master's Elijah's cloak, his prayers were answered, and he received a double portion of Elijah's spirit, carrying on his master's legacy even after he ascended to heaven. That was the story of Elijah the prophet, one of the most devoted and impressive people in all the Bible. He carried out many incredible miracles and is remembered for his lifelong dedication to his God, the Lord. The end.