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Bible study on elijah and elisha4/23/2024 ![]() ![]() Elijah’s most famed exploits are his calling a drought upon the land of Israel and his defeat of the prophets of Baal at Mt. Beyond the physical similarities, however, there are clear parallels between the missions of Elijah and John the Baptist. ![]() One of the reasons for this emphasis appears to be the foreshadowing both Elijah and Elisha bring to the stories of Kings: they stand as clear types, respectively, of the lives of John the Baptist and the messiah Jesus Christ.Įlijah’s connections with John the Baptist are likely the more obvious of the two after all, the angel in Luke 1:13-17 explicitly identifies the preborn John as “a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah…as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Both Mark 1:6 and Matthew 3:4 identify John the Baptist as wearing “camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey,” which is the same description of clothing given to Elijah in 2 Kings 1:8 (“hairy man” should be more accurately translated as wearing a garment of hair). While they are clearly shown to be the primary instruments of God’s judgment upon the House of Ahab, it might be still questioned why the Biblical story seems to slow down so much and focus on these particular two prophets and their stories. They are portrayed as the adversaries of the kings as opposed to their confidantes, and they are portrayed as lonely voices of God in the midst of powerful kings fighting for the Baals. While prophets have served as important characters in the Biblical narrative up to this point (Moses, Samuel, and Nathan in particular), this is the first time where we see such in-depth discussions of the prophets themselves. ![]() While the Book of Kings is entitled because of its stories of the kings of Israel and Judah, the very heart of the book (1 Kings 17-2 Kings 9) shifts away from the focus on Kings to shed light on two important characters: the prophets Elijah and Elisha. Preparing the Way for God's Salvation: Elijah and Elisha as Foreshadowing ![]()
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