So he went and dwelt by the river Kerith, which is opposite the Jordan River. The ravens brought him bread in the morning and meat in the evening. He drank water from the river. And if anyone asks, why did God command the ravens to feed the prophet and not another bird? You know that ravens hate their children very much, if they are accustomed to not feeding their young, like other birds, but they leave them in the nest and go away. And when they are hungry and seek food, they cry out to God, and He has compassion on them and sends them insects to feed them, until they reach an age when they are able to fly. The truth of this saying is supported by the book of Job, which says in chapter thirty-eight: Who prepares the prey of the raven, when its young caw to God and are afraid for lack of food? And likewise the prophet David said in his one hundred and forty-sixth Psalm: “He gives the beasts their food, even the young ravens that cry out.”
Since ravens, as we have said, hate their children and do not respect them, God sent them to meet the prophet as a distinctive sign, as if He were saying to the prophet: “And you, Elijah! You are not merciful, you do not spare the animals and the people, but you asked me not to send rain so that they would die.” And God did this as a compassionate and merciful One so that the prophet would have mercy on the people and ask God for rain.
Now let us return to the heart of our matter. And it came to pass after some days, that the brook dried up, and there was no filling, because there was no rain at all. Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah, saying, “Arise, go to Zarephath, in the district of Sidon, and dwell there; for, behold, I will command a widow there to feed you.” So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a woman was there gathering wood. And he called to her, and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” And she went to get it; and he called to her, and said, “Bring me a loaf of bread in your hand.” And the woman said, As the LORD your God lives, I have nothing but a gallon of still water, a fine meal in a jar, and a little oil in a flask. Behold, I am gathering two sticks of wood, that I may go in and make it for me and my son, and we will eat it and die. And Elijah said to her, Be of good cheer, and go in, and do as you have said; but make me a little cake first, and bring it to me, and afterward make it for yourself and your son. For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: The jar of flour shall not be empty, nor the flask of oil run short, until the day that the LORD sends rain upon the face of the earth. And she went and did as Elijah had said, and she and her son ate; and the jar of flour was not empty, nor was the flask of oil run short, according to the word of the LORD which he spoke through Elijah.
You see, blessed Christians! What benefit does a person gain from charity? Did that woman know that he was a prophet and a saint until she gave him bread that she cut from her mouth and the mouth of her son? both. But she treated him like a poor human being, her brother in humanity. As a compassionate, compassionate and hospitable woman, she preferred offering a helping hand to the hungry poor rather than herself and her child. I wish women would imitate this widowed woman and do what she did. We have seen that, with one word from the Prophet, that poor widow deprived herself and her child and presented herself to him. She saw blessings spread throughout her house, and neither her flour nor her oil ran out. The widow not only obtained sustenance, but she also obtained the blessing of resurrecting her son from the dead, as the Prophet raised him up. How did this happen?
While the prophet was living in the widow's house, her son fell sick, and his sickness was so severe that he no longer had the breath of life. Then the woman said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, O man? You have come in to me to remember my sins and to kill my son?” Elijah said to her, “Give me your son!” And he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. And he lifted up his voice and said, “O Lord, you are a witness to the widow with whom I dwell, that you have grieved her with the death of her son.” And he breathed on the lad three times, and cried out to the Lord, saying, “O Lord my God, let this lad’s spirit return to him.” And it was so, and he cried out. And the Lord heard Elijah’s voice, and the lad’s spirit came back into him, and he came alive again. So Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” And the woman said to Elijah, “See, I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is true.”
After three years the Lord came to Elijah, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, for I will bring rain on the face of the land.” Now Ahab was living in Samaria at that time, and the weather was very bad there. So Elijah went to him to show himself to him. And Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. And it came to pass, when Jezebel had cut off the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them in two caves, and fed them with bread and water. And Ahab said to Obadiah, “Let us go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the valleys; perhaps we will find grass, and we will save the horses and mules alive, so that we will not fail all the cattle.”
So they divided the land between them to pass through. So Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went the other way by himself. And as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him, and he recognized him, and fell on his face, and said, “Are you my lord Elijah?” And he said to him, “I am! Go, tell your lord, ‘Behold, Elijah is here.’” And he said, “What is my sin, that you have given your servant into the hand of Ahab to kill me? As the LORD your God lives, there is neither nation nor kingdom whither my lord has not sent to seek you. And they said, ‘He is not there.’ And he made the kingdom and the nation swear by oath that they have not found you. But if you do not say, ‘Go, tell your lord, ‘Behold, Elijah is here.’ And it shall come to pass, when I depart from you, that the Spirit of the LORD will carry you to places I do not know. But if I come and tell Ahab, and he does not find you, he will kill me. But your servant has feared the LORD from my youth. Has not my lord been told what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD?”
The holy and glorious prophet Elijah, when you hid a hundred men of the Lord’s prophets in two caves and fed them with bread and water. And now you say, “Go, tell your master, ‘Elijah is here, and he will kill me.’” But Elijah said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will come today and appear to him.” So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him. So Ahab went to meet Elijah.
When Ahab saw Elijah, he said to him, “Are you the one who led Israel astray?” Elijah said to him, “It is not I who led Israel astray, but you and your father’s house, because you have forsaken the Lord our God and followed Baal.
Now send and gather to Mount Carmel the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the rest of the shameful profession, (as the Greeks of Aphrodite called them), and the four hundred priests of Ashtoreth, who were under the trees and were eating the bread of Jezebel. And Ahab sent to all the children of Israel, and gathered all the prophets together to Mount Carmel. And Elijah said to them, “How long will you waver between the two sides? If the LORD is God, follow him.” But if Baal is God, follow him. But the people made no answer. Then Elijah said to the people, “I will prepare the other light, and I will not set fire to it. Then you will cry out, calling on the name of your God, and I will call on the name of the LORD my God. What god will hear, and send fire to consume the bull, and he will be the true God?”
And all the people answered and said, “The thing that you have spoken is good.” Then Elijah said to the prophets of shame, “Choose a calf for yourselves, and do it first, and call on the name of your God, and do not put fire in it.” And they took the calf and did so, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “Answer us, O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one listened. And they went around the altar which they had made. And at noon Elijah the Tishbite mocked them, and said, “Call aloud, for your God is distracted by conversation, and will not hear you.” And they went around the altar, and cried aloud, and beat their breasts, until they bled; but they labored in vain, until evening came, and no sign appeared. Then Elijah spoke to the prophets of the first grain offering, saying, “Stand aside from now on, and I will offer my burnt offering.” And Elijah said to the people, “Come near to me.” And all the people came near to him. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the twelve tribes of Israel, as the Lord had spoken to him, saying, “Israel shall be your name!” And he built up the stones in the name of the Lord, and repaired the altar that had been torn down.
And he made a trench around the altar that held two measures of grain. Then he laid the wood on the altar that he had made, and cut the burnt offering and laid it on the wood. And Elijah said to the people, “Fill four jars of water for me, and pour them on the altar, on the burnt offering, and on the wood.” And they did! Then he said, “Do it a second time.” And he said, “Do it a third time.” And they did it a third time. And the water ran around the altar, and the trench was filled with water also. And he filled the jars three times, symbolizing the Holy Trinity.
The four jars symbolize the teaching of the four Gospels that were told to the souls of the nations. Elijah cried out toward heaven and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, answer me today by fire. Let all this people know that you alone are the Lord, God of Israel, and that I am your servant. For your sake I have done all these things, and that you yourself have turned the hearts of this people after you.” Then fire came down from the Lord out of heaven and consumed the bull, the wood, the water that was in the trench, and the stones; even the dust the fire licked up.
Then all the people fell on their faces and said, “Surely the Lord God is God.” Then the prophet Elijah said to the people, “Seize the priests of Baal, and let no one of them escape.” So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the Kishon River and slaughtered them there. Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Behold, the sound of a roaring rain! Harness your chariot and go down to the house, lest the rain overtake you.” And he did as he was commanded. And Elijah went up to Carmel, and bowed himself to the ground, and put his face between his knees, and prayed to the Lord. After an hour he said to his servant, who, as they say, was the prophet Jonas, the widow’s son, whom the prophet Elijah had raised up, as we have already said, “Go up, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked, and said, “There is nothing!” And he said, “Go back seven times.” And the seventh time he said, “Behold, a cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising out of the sea.” And he said, “Go up and say to Ahab, ‘Have your chariot hardened, and go down, lest the rain stop you.” So the sky was covered with clouds and was overcast with winds, and there came a heavy rain. Instead of going to the city of Samaria, the center of his kingdom, Ahab went to Jezreel, and the prophet Elijah also went to this city, to escape the heavy rain.
After some days, as soon as the rain had stopped, Ahab came to Samaria and told his wife Jezebel all that the prophet had done, and how he had killed the priests of Baal. As soon as that foolish woman heard that the prophet Elijah had killed the priests, she sent a messenger to Elijah saying to him, “Thus do God, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” As soon as Elijah heard this, as a man, he rose up and went on his way, and came to Beersheba, which is on the border of Judea, and left his servant Jonah there. Then he himself walked a day’s journey into the wilderness, until he came and sat under a tree called in Hebrew rathman, and in Arabic, juniper (a thorny tree), and asked for death for himself, and said, “It is enough now, O Lord! Take my life, for I am not better than my fathers!” And he lay down and slept under the juniper tree.
This place, according to honorable tradition, is the current location of the Monastery of Saint Elias on the Jerusalem-Bethlehem road.
And behold, an angel of the Lord touched him, saying, “Arise, eat, and drink!” And he awoke, and behold, there was by his head a loaf of bread, and a cruse of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came again a second time, and said to him, “Arise, eat, and drink, for the way is long before you.” So he arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that beast forty days and forty nights to a mountain with two peaks, one of which is called the peak of Sinai, and the other the peak of Horeb, where Moses saw the bush burning but not consumed. And the prophet Elijah also went to this peak, and entered a cave there, and dwelt there. And behold, the word of the Lord said to him, “What ails you, Elijah?” And Elijah said, “Why have I been so zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts? For the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, and thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword, and I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away.” And the Lord said to him, “Go out, stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and his wind was great and strong, and rent the mountains and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire a still small voice. There the Lord will be.” So it was as if he had previously told him about the transfiguration of Christ.
When Elijah heard this, he wrapped his mantle around his face and went out and stood at the gate of the alley. Then the voice of the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and anoint Hazael king over Syria, and Joshua-nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shephat of Abel-meholah to be prophet, that he may take your place.” Then he left that place and went there, and found the ugly man plowing a field. Immediately Elijah threw his mantle over him. The ugly man left everything and followed the prophet Elijah and became his disciple and servant.
After these things, Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, on the outskirts of Samaria, near the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. And Ahab was jealous of that vineyard, and said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard, that I may make it a vegetable garden, since it is near my house. And I will give you another vineyard in its place, or I will give you money for it.” But Naboth said to Ahab, “The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.” So Ahab went into his house sullen and displeased because of the word that Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him, saying, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And he lay down on his bed, and turned away his face, and ate no bread. Then Jezebel his wife came in to him and said, “Why is your spirit so sullen that you eat no bread?” And he said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money, or if you wish I will give you a vineyard for it.’ But he said, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’” "Take it easy, sir," said the stupid Isabel. "Tomorrow I will try to get you to inherit it without you having to pay for it."
So Ahab was comforted that evening. But the foolish woman wrote a letter the next morning, and sealed it with Ahab's signet ring, and sent it to Naboth's countrymen and enemies, saying, "Set up false witnesses against Naboth, accusing him of cursing God and the king, and stone him with stones." So they bore false witness for the queen's sake, and stoned him with stones. Afterward they sent a letter to Jezebel, saying, "We have done as they were commanded; now his inheritance is open to the king." Then foolish Jezebel told her husband what she had done, and said, "Now you can add Naboth's vineyard to your possession."
And when Ahab had departed to go to the vineyard, the Lord God said to the prophet Elijah, “Go and meet Ahab king of Samaria, as he is going to the vineyard of Naboth, and say to him, ‘Are you coming to possess the vineyard of Naboth?’ But this says the Lord God: ‘In the place where you licked up the blood of Naboth, dogs will lick up your blood and the blood of foolish Jezebel, because you envied your neighbor’s vineyard and used every means of oppression to possess it. And none of your descendants will rest in the kingdom.’ So the prophet Elijah went and told Ahab about this. When he heard this, he wept and put sackcloth on his body and fasted, regretting his sin. Then the Lord accepted his repentance and said to the prophet, ‘Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring evil in his days, but in the days of his son I will bring evil upon his house.’” This is what actually happened, because after the death of Ahab, his son Ahaziah became king of Samaria, who stopped worshipping the true God and worshipped hollow, soulless idols.
One day Ahaziah fell from the balcony of his palace in Samaria and became sick. But he did not ask God to heal him, who gives health to the sick. Instead, he sent messengers and said to them, “Go to the city of Ekron, where there is a soothsayer of Baal. Ask her about my illness.” While the messengers of the king of Samaria were on their way, the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, ‘Is there not a God in the holy place who gives health and well-being, and you seek soothsayers?’ Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘She saw the bed on which the king is gone up; he will not come down from it, but will surely die.’” So the prophet went and told the messengers. The messengers returned to their king and told him that a man had met them on the way and said these words to them.
Then the king asked them, “What does the man look like who came up to meet you and spoke these words to you?” They said to him, “He is a hairy man with a leather belt around his waist.” “It is Elijah the Tishbite,” he said. “Hurry, and let the captain of fifty go to the mountain and find the prophet there. Then he said to him, “O man of God, the king says, come down.” The prophet answered and said, “Because I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and the fifty who are with you.” So fire came down from heaven and consumed him and the fifty who were with him.
As soon as the king learned of the matter, he returned and sent another captain of fifty and the fifty that belonged to him, and what happened to the previous one happened to him.
And he sent a third with his soldiers. And the third stood afar off, and fell to the ground, and prayed to the saint, saying, “O man of God, do not be angry with me as you were with the first and second captain of fifty and their soldiers. But have mercy on me, and come down, and come to the king.” Then the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, “Go down with him, and do not be afraid of him.” So he arose and went down with him to the king. He condemned him according to the commandment of God, and his end came as Elijah had said. After his death, Joram the son of Ahab became king.
In the days of this king, God wanted to take the prophet Elijah as if he were to heaven. Then the prophet Elijah took his ugly disciple and they went to a place called Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here! As for me, the Lord has sent me to Bethel.” The ugly man said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they both came to Bethel. Then the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over your head?” And he said, “Yes, I know; be quiet.” Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.” And he said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho came near to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over your head?” And he said, “Yes, I know; be quiet.” Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” And he said, “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.” So they went on together. And fifty men of the prophets came and stood opposite them at a distance. And they stood by the Jordan. And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and struck the waters; and the water was divided hither and thither. And they both passed on dry ground. And it came to pass, when Elijah had passed on, that he said to Elisha, “Ask me, what shall I do for you before I am taken from you?” And Elisha said, “Let the spirit that is in you be in me double.” And Elijah said, “You have asked a hard thing; but if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be for you; but if you do not see me, it shall not be for you.” And while they were going on and talking, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated them. And Elijah went up in a whirlwind as it were to heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, “My father! My father! The chariot of Israel and its horseman. The interpretation of this is that the kings of the Hebrews had horses and chariots and they rode horses as rulers, but you, O prophet, are a chariot and a horseman and a ruler over Israel.
While Elisha was saying this, he had not seen him yet. He grabbed his clothes and tore them into two pieces. He patched Elijah's robe that had fallen from him, and he returned and stood on the shore of the Jordan. So he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, but it did not split. He said, “Where is Elijah’s God now?” He struck the waters a second time and they broke, and he crossed over on dry land.
And when the sons of the prophets who were in Jericho opposite him saw him, they said: The spirit of Elijah has rested on Elisha, so they came and worshiped God on the ground.
The biography of the Saint Prophet is taken from the book of the Lives of the Saints (Synaxarium)
About Elijah the Prophet by Saint John Chrysostom
I want to talk about Elijah, this man who was raised to the heights of heaven because of his zeal for the Lord. He is the one to whom King Ahab said, “You trouble Israel,” and Elijah answered, “It is not I who trouble Israel, but you and your father’s house.” But when he heard Jezebel, Ahab’s wife, say, “So may the gods do to me, and so too, unless I make your life like one of the priests whom you have slain by this time tomorrow,” he fled forty days’ walk from the place. A word he heard from a woman, and because of her he fled. Elijah acted in all his actions with arrogance and cruelty. While he was free from sin, he appeared arrogant to the utmost limits of arrogance. But God allowed his stumble and prepared him in this way so that he might make the mercy with which he was bestowed the gentlest aspect of his dealings with his neighbor… After forty days God came to him, and the master turned to his servant, for God was full of mercy and compassion. Then God asked him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” It was as if God was saying to him, “You fled, so where is your trust in Me? This is a situation that teaches you not to trust yourself…” Elijah answered him as if he had now changed his previous thoughts, saying, “O Lord, they have forsaken Your covenant, tore down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword, and I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it.” But God said to him, “No, that was not the reason you fled. You are not the only one, Elijah, who has not bowed down to Baal, but I have left seven thousand knees in Israel that have not bowed to Baal.” God blamed him for fleeing, and not only for fleeing, but also for the fact that the word of a woman had caused him such fear. God wanted to test Elijah to make him understand that the works he had done should not be attributed to himself but to the power of God. Elijah, who sometimes closed the sky so that it would not rain, and sometimes brought down fire from the sky on the altar of burnt offering, God allowed him to fall a small fall, so that he would then wear the garment of love...
God lives
“As God lives, before whom I stand.”
This was the slogan of the Prophet Elias during his life, and so it remained alive in the conscience of the people, to the point that many would like to give their children his name.
The church hymn calls him “the angel in the flesh, the foundation and pillar of the prophets, the second forerunner of Christ’s presence,” the witness of truth until the last days, the voice of the living conscience, the resister of injustice. His ascetic life in the mountains and desert made him the patron saint of monks and of all who in their lives object to the insolence and corruption of the world.
His encounter with the Lord took place not in a storm, not in an earthquake, not in fire, but in “the sound of a gentle breeze.” There the Lord was (3 Kings 19:11-13).
The Lord is not seen in the “crowd” because the noise often drowns out the voice, the inner call. This is how God is visited after a great trial that shakes us to the point of breaking us. His visitation is in kindness and mercy. Therefore, the worship of God in the end does not take place in noisy celebrations, nor in splendid temples, nor even in papal religious rites, but in “spirit and truth” where the voice of the Word of God is heard, the voice of the living God incarnate in us.
The prophet of God poured out his wrath on the prophets of Baal and killed them. There is no doubt that every killing is a disobedience to God’s commandment “You shall not kill.” But if the power of wrath must be stirred up within us, let it descend upon evil and its helpers. This damp wood, our lute immersed in human lusts and weaknesses, can only be burned by the fire of divine love that purifies, enlightens and warms our hearts. (3 Kings 18:36-38).
His heart was ignited by the divine fire in his love for God, so he no longer belonged to this earth, so he rose bodily, standing in advance and alive, to the proximity of God in the true heavenly homeland (4 Kings 2:11).
And let us not forget his prayer, as he actually trains us in fervent prayer, pure and effective prayer, with which the son of the widow of Sidon embraced the dead man, cried out to God three times, and revived him (as is done symbolically in the first aid for the fainting), conveying to him with all his being the spirit and strength derived from God. (3 Kings 17) : 21).
And the rain came down after a long drought and after fervent prayer to God, “prostrating himself to the ground and putting his face between his knees” (3 Kings 18:42).
We mentioned how, through his prayer to God, he sent down fire on the wet wood and the burnt offering, and everything was burned.
Saint Elias dress
We see some people dedicating their children to Saint Anthony or Saint Elias and coming to the priest to sanctify this garment.
These are Western practices. We do not have a church rank to sanctify fabrics. As for priestly vestments, they are sprinkled with holy water for use in service.
Troparia in the fourth tune:
O angel of the body, the foundation and pillar of the prophets, the second forerunner of the presence of Christ, the glorious and venerable Elias, grace was sent from on high to Elisha to expel illnesses and purify lepers, and therefore healing will always flow to those who honor him.
Qandaq with the second tune
O Prophet who foresaw the great deeds of God, the great Elias is his name, O you who with your word stopped the flow of the waters of the clouds, intercede on our behalf to the One who loves mankind alone.