The holy prophet Elijah (9th century BC) was a descendant of the high priest Aaron. From a young age, having devoted himself to God, he lived like an angel, immaculate in soul and body. Loving to think about God, he often retired for silence to deserted places, where he prayed to the Lord for a long time.

And Elijah was loved by God, just as God loves those who love Him. More than once the Lord mercifully talked with Elijah and gave him such boldness that Elijah always received from God what he asked.

At that time, the lawless Ahab reigned in Israel. And Elijah the prophet said to Ahab: “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand! During these years there will be neither dew nor rain, except at my word.” Having said this, Elijah left Ahab, and according to the word of the prophet, a drought came. God preserved Elijah himself by the brook Cherith, which is opposite the Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the stream.

After some time this stream dried up, for there was no rain. And the Lord said to Elijah: “Get up and go to Zarephath of Sidon, and stay there; I commanded a widow woman there to feed you.” And Elijah arose and went to Zarephath and began to live with the widow. After some time, this woman’s son fell ill and died, and she said to Elijah: “What is it to me and to you, man of God? You came to me to remind me of my sins and to kill my son.”

And Elijah cried to the Lord and said: “O Lord my God! Will You really do evil to the widow with whom I am staying by killing her son? And, bending over the youth, he cried out to the Lord three times and said: “Lord my God! May the soul of this youth return to him!” And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the boy came to life, and that woman said to Elijah: “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is true.” Having the gift of miracles from God through his faith, Elijah made sure that the flour and oil in the widow’s house did not run out until the famine stopped; and she ate herself and her son and fed the prophet Elijah.

After many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Go and show yourself to Ahab, and I will give rain on the earth.” Elijah immediately went to the king and, with a fervent sermon and great miracles, converted the lost people and Ahab himself to repentance. Then, according to the word of the prophet Elijah, the sky became dark with clouds, and a lot of rain began to fall, and the famine ended.

After this, the Lord commanded Elijah to anoint Elisha as a prophet in his place. And Elisha, having said goodbye to his father and mother, went after Elijah and began to serve him.

While the Lord wanted to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were walking, and Elijah said to him: “Stay here, for the Lord is sending me to the Jordan.” And Elisha said: “As the Lord lives, so does your soul! I won’t leave you.” And they both went and stood by the Jordan. And Elijah took his mantle (outer garment), and rolled it up, and struck the water with it, and it parted this way and that, and they both crossed on dry ground. When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what you can do before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Let the spirit that is in you be doubly upon me.” And he said: “You are asking a difficult thing. If you see how I will be taken from you, then it will be so for you, but if you don’t see it, it won’t be.”

As they walked and talked along the way, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated them both, and Elijah rushed into heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha looked and exclaimed: “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and his cavalry!” And I didn’t see him again.

And he grabbed his clothes and tore them in two. And he picked up Elijah's mantle that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. And he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water with it, and said: “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah, He Himself?” And he struck the water, and it parted this way and that, and Elisha crossed over.

Thunder rolled across the sky, and the old women crossed themselves, cautiously glancing sideways at the clouds. “Elijah the Prophet rode in a chariot,” they can be heard whispering. Older people remember scenes like this. Who is he who shakes heaven and earth? Let's open the Bible and listen to what it tells us.

Israel in the darkness of paganism

900 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, the wicked king Jeroboam reigned in Israel. For reasons of self-interest, he abandoned the true God, fell into idolatry and carried away the entire unfortunate people with him. Since then, a whole galaxy of kings of Israel worshiped idols. The inhabitants of the country suffered many troubles because of their wickedness. But the Lord, in His boundless mercy, did not abandon the apostates, but tried to return them to the true path, sending them prophets and denouncing paganism through their mouths. Among them, the most ardent fighter for the true faith was the prophet of God Elijah.

Birth of a new prophet

The Bible says that he was born in the east of Palestine, in the city of Tishbit. At the moment of his birth, his father, a priest, had a vision: he saw some men swaddling the baby with fire and putting flame into his mouth. This was a prediction that in his mature years the words of his sermons would be like fire, and he would mercilessly burn out wickedness among his compatriots who had fallen into sin. They named the newborn Elijah, which translated from Hebrew means “my God.” These words perfectly expressed his destiny to become a vessel of God’s grace.

Growing up, the prophet Elijah, as befits the son of a priest, led a pure and righteous life, retiring for long periods into the desert and spending time in prayer. And the Lord loved him, sending down everything he asked. The young man himself grieved endlessly in his soul, seeing around him the terrible bacchanalia of idolatry. The rulers and people made human sacrifices. Everything was mired in vice and debauchery. The true God was forgotten. Before his eyes, those rare righteous people who still remained in Israel and tried to condemn the dishonor were put to death. Elijah's heart was filled with pain.

Terrible accuser of wickedness

At that time, Jeroboam's successor, King Ahab, reigned in the country. He was also wicked, but his wife Jezebel was especially devoted to idols. She worshiped the Phoenician god Baal and instilled this faith in the Israelites. Pagan altars were built everywhere and temples were erected. The Prophet Elijah, defying mortal danger, went to the king and menacingly denounced him for all the iniquities he was committing, trying to convince their fathers of the truth of the one God. Seeing that the king’s heart was impenetrable to the truth, as proof of his words and to punish the apostates, he sent, by the power of God, a terrible drought across the entire country, from which the crops perished and famine began.

Speaking about the miracles shown by the saints during the period of their earthly life, one should pay attention to a very important detail: it is not they themselves who work miracles, since they are ordinary people during this period, but the Lord God acts with their hands. By virtue of their righteousness, they become a kind of transmission link between the Almighty and people. After death, while remaining in the Kingdom of God, the saints, through our prayers to them, can beg God to fulfill what they ask for.

The Prophet Elijah risked not only becoming a victim of the royal wrath, but also dying of starvation along with ordinary people. However, God spared his life. The Lord led his prophet to a distant place where there was water and ordered a raven to bring him food. It is worth noting that, which is present in almost every Orthodox church, it is often depicted with a raven bringing food.

Miracles in Sarepta

The next miracle performed was the salvation from starvation of a poor widow from the city of Zarephath, where Elijah went at the command of God. Because the poor woman did not spare the last piece of bread for him, her meager supplies of food became inexhaustible by God’s power. When the widow’s son died of illness, the prophet Elijah, showing a new miracle, restored the boy’s life. His name was Jonah. The Bible tells about his amazing fate. Having matured over the years, the young man became an ardent zealot of the true faith. One day, heading on a ship to the city of Nineveh, where he was going to appeal to the inhabitants with a call to repent, he got into a storm and ended up overboard, where he was swallowed by a whale. But by the will of God, three days later Jonah was thrown out alive and unharmed. This stay in the belly of the whale and subsequent return to the world is a prototype of Christ's three-day resurrection.

Contest with the priests and the end of the drought

By the third year of drought, the last wells had already dried up. Death and desolation reigned everywhere. The merciful Lord, not wanting the tragedy to continue, ordered the prophet Elijah to go to King Ahab and convince him to turn away from worshiping demons. After three years of terrible disasters, even such a wicked man should have understood the destructiveness of idolatry. But the king’s mind became clouded from anger.

Then the holy prophet, in order to prove the truth of his God and turn the king and people of Israel away from idolatry, volunteered to compete with the priests of Baal. They accepted the challenge and built their own altar. The prophet began to call heavenly fire on them with prayers. The servants of Baal were four hundred and fifty, but the prophet Elijah was one. But only the prayer of the righteous man was heard, and his altar was illuminated with fire, and the efforts of the priests were in vain. They danced and stabbed themselves with knives - all in vain. The people praised the true God, and the disgraced priests were immediately executed. The people were clearly convinced that the messenger of God was right.

After this, the holy prophet Elijah, ascending Mount Carmel, offered a prayer to the Lord for the gift of rain. Before he had time to finish, the heavens opened and a noisy downpour poured onto the earth, watering the fields and gardens. Everything that happened was so impressive that even King Ahab repented of his errors and began to mourn his sins.

Visit of the Prophet Elijah by God

However, the embittered Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab, set out to take revenge for her shame and ordered the death of the prophet. He was forced to hide in the desert. One day, exhausted from hunger and thirst, the prophet Elijah fell asleep. An Angel of God appeared to him in a dream and commanded him to direct his path to Mount Horeb and settle there in a cave. When Elijah woke up, he saw food and a jug of water in front of him. This was very useful, since the journey was forty days and forty nights.

Bitter experiences about the fate of his pagan people plunged the prophet Elijah into deep sadness. He was on the verge of despair, but the all-merciful Lord honored him with his visit on Mount Horeb and announced that the righteous had not yet dried up in the land of Israel, that He had preserved seven thousand of His faithful servants, that the time was near when King Ahab and his wife would perish. In addition, the Lord announced the name of the future king, who would destroy the entire family of Ahab. To top it all off, the prophet Elijah learned from the mouth of God the name of his successor, whom he should anoint as a prophet. After some time, the Almighty sent Elijah a disciple - the pious Elisha, who began to fight paganism just as zealously.

King Ahab's New Sin

Meanwhile, the wicked King Ahab again entered the path of sin. He liked the vineyard of an Israeli named Naboth, but when he tried to buy it, the king was refused. His proud heart could not bear such shame. Having learned about what had happened, Queen Jezebel, through her minions, slandered Naboth, accusing him of cursing both God and the king. The crowd stoned the innocent man, and Ahab became the owner of the vineyard. But his joy was short-lived. The Lord, through the mouth of His prophet Elijah, denounced the slanderer and predicted a quick death for him and his deceitful wife. Once again the king shed tears of repentance. Three years later he was killed. His wife and children survived the wicked man for a short time.

The descent of heavenly fire on the servants of King Ahaziah

After Ahab, his son Ahaziah reigned. Like his father, he worshiped Baal and other pagan gods. And then one day, having become seriously ill, he began to call on them for help. Having learned about this, the Prophet Elijah angrily condemned him and predicted his imminent death. Twice the angry king sent detachments of soldiers to seize Elijah, and twice fire came down from heaven and destroyed them. Only the third time, when the messengers fell on their knees before him, did the Prophet have mercy on them. After Elijah repeated his diatribe, Ahaziah died.

Ascension to Heaven Alive

Other miracles performed by Elijah the Prophet are also described in the Bible. One day, with a blow of his cloak, he stopped the waters, forced them to part, and crossed to the other side along the dry bottom in the same way as Joshua had done before.

Soon, at God's command, a miracle happened - the prophet Elijah was taken alive into heaven. The Bible describes how a fiery chariot suddenly appeared, drawn by flaming horses, and the prophet Elijah ascended to heaven in a whirlwind like lightning. His disciple Elisha witnessed the miracle. God's Grace passed to him from the teacher and with it the ability to work miracles. The prophet Elijah himself is still alive in the villages of paradise. The Lord protects him as His faithful servant. Proof of this can be his appearance in the flesh where he, in the presence of the holy apostles and Moses, talked with the transfigured Jesus Christ.

It should be noted that before him, only the righteous Enoch, who lived before the Great Flood, was taken to heaven alive. This fiery path in the clouds was the reason why thunderclaps were often associated with his name. The Prophet Elijah, whose life is mainly described in the Old Testament, is mentioned several times in the New. It is enough to recall the scene on Mount Tabor, where he appeared to the transfigured Jesus Christ along with Moses, as well as a number of other episodes.

Veneration of the Prophet Elijah in Rus'

Since then, as soon as the light of Orthodoxy shone in Rus', the prophet Elijah became one of the most revered. The first churches in his honor were erected during the time of Prince Askold and the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga. This is largely explained by the fact that the first Christian missionaries on the banks of the Dnieper and Volkhov faced the same problems as the prophet Elijah in Palestine - they had to rescue the people from the darkness of paganism.

When there were summer droughts in Rus', religious processions went to the fields and asked him for help. There was no doubt: the holy prophet Elijah, whose prayer put an end to the three-year drought in Palestine, had the power to send rain to our land.

The Prophet Elijah and his miracles inspired many Russian rulers to create temples in his honor. In addition to the saints already mentioned, Prince Askold and Princess Olga, Prince Igor erected the Temple of Elijah the Prophet in Kyiv. Similar temples are also known in Veliky Novgorod and Pskov.

Temple of the Prophet Elijah in Obydensky Lane

Among those currently operating, the most famous is the Moscow one, whose photo is presented in our article. It is generally accepted that it was built in 1592. The place where the temple is now located is called Ostozhenka, and once it was called Skorod. The fact is that logs were floated here along the river, and it was convenient and quick to build here. It turned out to be a quick house. One day is “routine” and you’re done. This gave the name to the lanes running here.

The wooden church of Elijah the Prophet built in this place was one of the most revered in the city. During the Time of Troubles, in 1612, within its walls the Moscow clergy performed a prayer service, asking for help from the Lord God in expelling the Polish invaders from Moscow. Historical chronicles often mention religious processions to the church on days of drought, as well as on patronal feast days. Representatives of the highest clergy often conducted services there.

The stone building of the temple was erected in 1702, and for three hundred years the flow of pilgrims to it has not dried up. Even in difficult years for the church, its doors were not closed, although there were such attempts. It is known, for example, that the authorities intended to close the church immediately after the end of the liturgy on June 22, 1941. But the Lord did not allow this.

During the period of persecution of the church, the Temple of the Holy Prophet Elijah became a place where parishioners of many churches closed in the capital flocked. They brought with them not only what was saved from confiscation, but also many pious traditions that had been preserved since pre-revolutionary times. Thus, as the community grew, it became enriched spiritually.

With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', “Program 200” was launched in Moscow in 2010 - a project to build two hundred Orthodox churches in the capital. As part of this program, in 2012 in Northern Butovo, at the intersection of Grina and Kulikovskaya streets, the construction of another temple in honor of the Old Testament prophet Elijah began. The building is currently under construction and services are being held in temporary premises. Despite the forced inconveniences, the parish life of the church is very rich. A consulting service has been organized, whose activists are ready to give comprehensive explanations on all issues related to church services. An Orthodox film club has been opened. In addition, there is a Sunday school and a number of sports sections for children. The Temple of Elijah the Prophet in Butovo will, without a doubt, become one of the prominent religious and cultural centers of our capital.

The image of the prophet Elijah today

Nowadays, the church carries out extensive work to promote Orthodox culture. Books are published, films are made. Among other materials, the publication “The Holy Prophet Elijah. Life". There is a lot of interesting things for children and adults there. Modern icon painters have created a gallery of works representing the acts of Saint Elijah. Following established canons, they creatively rethink the religious and moral meaning of the image.

It is also impossible not to remember that the holy prophet Elijah is the patron saint of the Russian airborne troops. Every year on August 2, solemn services are held in the churches of the Airborne Forces units. More than a thousand years ago, the light of Orthodoxy shone in Rus', and over these years, Elijah the Prophet, whose earthly life was spent in Palestine, became a truly Russian saint, an intercessor in troubles and an example of selfless Christian service to God.

Date of publication or update 11/01/2017

The story of the life and miracles of the prophet Elijah.

Prehistory.

From ancient times, the chosen people of God, having their origins from the twelve sons of Israel, constituted one kingdom, ruled indivisibly and solely by one king, starting from Moses and Joshua to Davin and Solomon. When, after the death of Solomon, his son Rehoboam took over the kingdom, who turned out to be difficult for his subjects, for he burdened them with excessive taxes and work, severely punished them, even often sent them into exile, then ten tribes broke away from him and elected him as their king. the other was named Jeroboam. Jeroboam was formerly Solomon's servant.

One day Solomon wanted to put him to death for participating in the uprising, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt. After the death of Solomon, he returned to the land of Israel and was elected king of those Israeli tribes that broke away from Rehoboam. Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned in Jerusalem over two tribes - Judah and Benjamin; Jeroboam, Solomon's servant, reigned over the ten tribes of Israel. The two tribes that remained faithful to the son of Solomon were called the kingdom of Judah, and the ten tribes that passed to the servant of Solomon made up the kingdom of Israel.

The tribes of Israel, although they were divided into two kingdoms, yet they all served one God, who created heaven and earth, and could not have another temple except the Jerusalem one, built by Solomon, or other priests except those appointed by God; therefore, people from the kingdom of Israel constantly went to Jerusalem to worship and sacrifice to the Lord their God. Seeing this, Jeroboam, the king of Israel, began to worry: “If these people always go to Jerusalem like this to worship God, they will want to go back to their first king, the son of Solomon, and they will kill me.”

Thinking about this, he began to look for ways to turn the Israelites away from Jerusalem. And he decided, first of all, to turn them away from God.

It is impossible, he said, to leave Jerusalem to them unless they first leave God.

Knowing that the people of Israel are easily inclined to idolatry, Jeroboam came up with such an insidious trick for their apostasy. He cast two young heifers out of gold, just as the ancient Israelites, upon leaving Egypt, carved a golden calf in the desert, which they worshiped instead of the true God. Having called all the people of Israel to him and pointing those gathered to those two heifers, Jeroboam said: “Israel! These are your gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Go no more to Jerusalem, but worship these gods.”

And he placed those heifers in various places: one in Bethel (southern Samaria), and the other in Dan (north Galilee), building beautiful temples for them and appointing priests for them; and even performed the duties of a priest himself. To further seduce sin-loving people, Jeroboam ordered that all sorts of lawlessness be committed in front of those calf-shaped idols cast from gold on the days of the holidays established in honor of them.

So the wicked king, for the sake of a temporary reign, himself fell away from God, and turned all ten tribes of Israel away from Him. After this, the king and other kings of Israel with all their subjects adhered to the same wicked idolatry as they had learned and become accustomed to under Jeroboam.

The most merciful Lord, who does not abandon the people who abandoned Him, but in His goodness seeks their conversion, sent His holy prophets to the Israelites so that they would expose errors and exhort them to get rid of the devil’s snares and return again to the worship of the true God. Among the prophets sent by God to Israel at different times was the great of the prophets, Saint Elijah.

Life and miracles.

According to reliable legends, the birthplace of the holy prophet of God Elijah was the country of Gilead in the eastern part of Palestine, and the city in which he was born was called Tishbite, which is why Elijah was nicknamed the Tishbite. Elijah came from the family of Aaron. The birth of Elijah was marked by a vision to his father, whose name was Shebakh. At the very time when Elijah’s mother was giving birth to him, Sheba saw white-shaped people talking to the baby, swaddling him with fire and feeding him, putting a flame of fire into his mouth. Frightened by such a vision, Sabah went to Jerusalem and told the priests about the vision. Then one of them, a perspicacious man, said to Savah:

Do not be afraid of the vision regarding your son, but know that that baby will be a vessel of God’s grace; his word will be like fire, strong and effective, his zeal for the Lord will be great, and his life will be pleasing to God, and he will judge Israel with weapons and fire.

Elijah received the upbringing that befits a young man from a priestly family; From a very young age, having devoted himself to God, he loved virgin purity, in which he remained as an angel of God, immaculate before God, pure in soul and body. Loving to think about God, he often retired for silence to deserted places, where he talked for a long time with God in warm prayer towards him, blazing towards him, like a seraph, with fiery love. And Elijah himself was loved by God, just as God loves those who love Him.

And as a result of his life as an equal to the angels, Elijah acquired great boldness towards God: everything that Elijah asked of God, he received. Hearing and seeing, on the one hand, the iniquities committed in corrupt Israel: kings - perpetrating ungodly wickedness, judges and elders - acting untruthfully, the people - serving abominations of idols and stagnant in all sorts of spiritual and physical vices without fear and fear of God, bringing their sons and daughters as sacrifices to demons; and on the other hand, zealous worshipers of the true God, enduring all kinds of oppression and persecution, even death - about all this, the prophet of God was very heartbroken: he either mourned the death of so many countless human souls, or complained about the cruel persecution of the righteous; He especially grieved and suffered in soul over the dishonor inflicted on the true God by wicked people, and was more and more filled with zeal for the glory of God.

First of all, Elijah prayed to God to turn sinners to repentance. But since God requires voluntary conversion from sinful people, and the hard-hearted Israelis did not have such a desire for good, the prophet Elijah, who was very jealous of the glory of God and the salvation of people, asked God to punish the Israelis temporarily, so that at least by such means he would turn them away from wickedness. But knowing at the same time that the Lord, due to His love for mankind and long-suffering, was not quick to punish, Elijah, out of his great zeal for Him, dared to ask God to command him, Elijah, to punish the lawbreakers. The merciful Lord, like a loving father, did not want to sadden His beloved servant, who served Him filially and did not violate even His smallest commandment.

At that time, King Ahab reigned in Israel, having Samaria as his capital city. Ahab married Jezebel, daughter of King Ethbaal of Sidon. Jezebel, as a pagan, brought with her to her new fatherland the Sidonian idol, the god Baal (Baal is the main god among the Canaanite peoples). Ahab built a temple for him in Samaria, erected an altar for him there, he himself worshiped Baal as a god, and forced all the Israelites to bow to this idol.

And it was to this king that the prophet of God, Elijah, came and denounced him for the error that he, having abandoned the God of Israel, was bowing down to demons and, together with himself, was leading the entire people to destruction. Seeing that the king did not listen to his admonitions, the holy prophet added action to his words, handing over the enemy king and his subjects to punishment. He said:

The Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand! In these years there will be neither dew nor rain, except according to my word.

Having said this, Elijah left Ahab, and according to the word of the prophet, the sky closed and there was a drought: not a single drop of rain or dew fell on the ground. Due to the drought, there was a complete failure of the grain harvest, and famine ensued. For when one king sins, the wrath of God comes upon all his subjects (as before, as a result of the fall of David alone, the entire kingdom suffered). The prophet of God Elijah expected that Ahab, the king of Israel, having been punished, would realize his error, turn to God with repentance, and together with himself would turn the people who had been corrupted by him to the true path. But when Saint Elijah saw that Ahab, like Pharaoh, remained bitter, not only did not think of putting an end to wickedness, but, on the contrary, was sinking more and more into the abyss of evil, persecuting and even killing people who were pleasing to God with their lives, he continued the punishment for another and in the third year. At this time, the word of the first God-seer, the holy prophet Moses, said to Israel was fulfilled: “And your heavens, which are above your head, will become copper, and the earth under you iron,” because with the heaven closed, the earth had no moisture and did not produce any fruit.

Since the air was always hot, and every day there was intense heat from the scorching sun, all the trees, flowers and grass withered - the fruits died, the gardens, fields, and fields became completely empty, and there was no plowman or sower in them. The water in the springs dried up, small rivers and streams completely dried up, and in large rivers the amount of water decreased, the whole earth became waterless and dry, and people, livestock and birds were dying of hunger. Such punishment befell not only the kingdom of Israel, but also the surrounding countries. For when one house in the city catches fire, the fire spreads to neighboring houses. This happened in the heavenly realms: one nation of Israel incurred the wrath of God, and the whole universe suffered.

But all this happened not so much from the wrath of God, but from the zeal for the glory of God of the prophet Elijah. For the most merciful and man-loving Lord, in His immeasurable goodness, seeing the misfortune of people and the death of animals, was already ready to send rain to the earth, but He refrained from doing so in order to fulfill the decision of Elijah, and so that the words of the prophet would not turn out to be false: “in these years There will be neither dew nor rain, except at my word."

The one who said this was so consumed by jealousy of God that he did not spare himself, for he knew that when the supply of food on earth was depleted, he, like all people, would have to endure hunger. But he neglected this, for he preferred to die of hunger rather than have mercy on unrepentant sinners who were at enmity against God.

What is the all-good God doing? He sends the prophet Elijah to some secluded place, far from human habitations, saying: “Turn to the east and hide by the stream Cherith, which is opposite the Jordan; from this stream you will drink, and I commanded the ravens to feed you there.”

The Lord did this so that Elijah would not die from hunger and so that, with the help of the ravens and the Horath stream, he would arouse in Elijah compassion for the people suffering and dying from hunger and thirst. Crows, in comparison with other birds, have a special property: they are very voracious and do not have a feeling of pity even for their chicks, for often the raven as soon as it hatches the chicks, leaves them in the nest, flying away to another place and dooming the chicks to death from hunger. Only the Providence of God, taking care of every creature, saves them from death. And every time the ravens, at the command of God, flew to the prophet and brought him food - bread in the morning, and meat in the evening, the conscience in Elijah - this inner voice of God in man - cried out to his heart: “Look, the ravens, being nature wild, tasty, voracious, not loving their chicks, as they care about your food: they themselves are hungry, but they bring food to you. You yourself are a man, you have no compassion for people, and you want to starve not only people, but also cattle and birds ".

Also, when after some time the prophet saw the stream dry, God said to him:

It’s time to have mercy on the tormented creature and send rain to it, so that you yourself don’t die of thirst.

But the zealot of God remained strong, he prayed to God that there would be no rain until the unpunished were punished, and until all the enemies of God perished on earth. Then again the Lord, wisely inclining His servant to mercy, sent him to Zarephath of Sidon, which was not under the authority of the king of Israel, to a poor widow, so that he would be convinced of the disaster he had caused not only to rich people and married people, but also to poor widows, who, not only during famine, but also during years of harvests of bread and all earthly abundance, often do not have daily food.

The Prophet, coming to the gates of this city, saw a widow carrying firewood, no more than two logs: for she had only a handful of flour in her tub and a little oil in a jug. Since Elijah was tormented by hunger, he asked the widow for a piece of bread. The widow, who told him about her extreme poverty recently, said that she wanted to cook dinner for herself and her son from the remaining flour for the last time, and then they would die of hunger. The man of God could have been moved by this and taken pity on all the poor widows suffering from hunger: but great jealousy for God conquered everything, and he did not show any mercy to the perishing creature, wanting to glorify the Creator and show the whole universe His almighty power. Having the gift of miracles from God through his faith, Elijah created such that the flour and oil in the widow’s house remained inexhaustible: and he ate from the widow until the famine ceased. The Prophet also resurrected the widow's deceased son through prayer combined with blowing three times on the deceased, as it is written about in the Word of God. “After this, the son of this woman, the mistress of the house, fell ill, and his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah: what do you and me, man of God? You came to me to remind me of my sins and to kill my son. And he said to her, Give me your son. And he took him from her hands, and carried him into the upper room where he lived, and laid him on his bed. And he cried to the Lord and said: Lord my God! Are you really a widow, with whom I am staying, will you do evil by killing her son? And prostrating himself over the boy three times, he cried out to the Lord and said: “Lord my God! Let the soul of this boy return to him!” And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of this boy returned to him, and he came to life. And Elijah took the boy, and brought him out of the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother, and Elijah said, “Look, your son lives.” And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God.” and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is true." (1 Kings 17:17-24)

There is a legend about this resurrected son of a widow, that his name was Jonah, that it was he who, having come of age, was awarded the prophetic gift and was sent to Nineveh to preach repentance; being swallowed up in the sea by a whale and thrown out by it three days later, he prefigured the three-day resurrection of Christ, as is narrated in detail in the prophetic book and in his life.

After three rainless and hungry years, the all-good God, seeing His creation completely destroyed on earth from hunger, had mercy and said to His servant Elijah: “Go, appear to Ahab; I want to have mercy on My creation and, at your word, send rain to the parched land, give it water.” and make it fruitful. Ahab is already inclined to repentance, is looking for you and is ready to obey you in everything that you command him."

The Prophet immediately went from Zarephath of Sidon to Samaria, the capital city of the Kingdom of Israel. King Ahab at that time had a housekeeper named Obadiah, his faithful servant and a God-fearing man. He hid one hundred prophets of the Lord from being killed by Jezebel, placing them in two caves, fifty in each, and feeding them with bread and water. Having called this steward to him, King Ahab (even before Elijah came to him) sent him to look for grass in the dried up streams, so that he would have something to feed the few horses and other livestock that were still alive. As soon as Obadiah left the city, he met the holy prophet Elijah, bowed to him to the ground and said that Ahab had carefully searched for him throughout his entire kingdom. Saint Elijah answered Obadiah: “Go, tell your master: “Elijah is here.”

Obadiah refused, saying: “When I leave you, then the Spirit of the Lord will carry you away, I don’t know where; and if I go to notify Ahab and he does not find you, he will kill me.”

Elijah answered: “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand! Today I will show myself to him!”

Obadiah returned and told the king. Ahab hastened to meet the man of God. When he saw Elijah, because of the anger hidden in him towards the prophet, he could not restrain a cruel word and said to Elijah: “Are you the one who troubles Israel?”

The Prophet of God fearlessly answered Ahab: “It is not I who trouble Israel, but you and your father’s house, because you have despised the commandment of the Lord and are following the Baals.”

After this, the prophet of God, having within himself the power of Divine help, ordered the king: “Now go and gather to me all Israel to Mount Carmel and four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and four hundred prophets of the oak forests, eating from the table of Jezebel.”

Immediately the king, having sent messengers throughout the entire land of Israel, gathered countless people, and called all the wicked prophets and priests to Mount Carmel and came there himself.

Then the zealot of God, Elijah, addressed the king and the entire Israeli people with these words: “How long will you limp on both knees? If the Lord is God, then follow Him, and if Baal, then follow him.”

The people were silent, and could not answer anything, for every Israeli was convicted of error by his conscience. Then Elijah continued: “I am the only prophet of the Lord left, and the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty people; let them give us so many bullocks, and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it up and put it on the firewood, but let them not add fire, and I will prepare another the bullock and put it on wood, but I will not put fire: and you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord my God. The God who gives the answer through fire is God.”

Having heard these words, all the people approved the decision of the prophet of God and said: “So be it, your word is good.”

When the bullocks were brought into the middle of the meeting, Saint Elijah said to the wicked prophets of Baal: “Choose one bullock for yourself, and you will be the first to prepare the sacrifice, for you are many, and I am alone, and I will prepare it after. Having laid the bullock on the wood, do not light the fire, but pray to your god Baal that he may send fire from heaven and burn your sacrifice.”

The shameless prophets did just that. Having cast lots, they took the calf, built an altar, put a sufficient amount of wood on it, slaughtered the calf, divided it into parts, placed their altar on top of the wood and began to pray to their Baal to send fire on their sacrifice. They called on his name from morning until noon, shouting: “Listen to us, Baal, listen!”

But there was no voice, no answer. They began to jump around the altar, but all in vain. At noon, the prophet of God laughed at them: “Shout louder,” he said, “so that your God will hear you; he must be not free now: either he is busy with something, or he is talking with someone, or he is feasting, or he has fallen asleep; shout like as loud as possible to wake him up."

The false prophets called Baal with a loud voice and, according to their custom, stabbed themselves with knives, and others beat themselves with whips until they bled. Before evening came, Saint Elijah the Tishbite said to them: “Be silent and stop; it is time for my sacrifice.”

The worshipers of Baal stopped. Then Elijah, turning to the people, said: “Come to me!”

Everyone approached him. The prophet took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of Israel, built an altar to the Lord from them, then, covering the altar with firewood, divided the calf into parts, placed them on the firewood around the altar, dug a ditch and ordered the people to take four buckets and pour water on the sacrifice and for firewood; so they did. Elijah ordered it to be repeated; repeated. He ordered the same thing to be done a third time, and they did it. Water flowed around the altar and the trench filled with water. And Elijah cried out to God, turning his gaze to heaven, saying: “Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! Hear me, Lord, hear me now in the fire! And send fire from heaven for the sacrifice, so that all these people will now know that "You are the only God of Israel, and I am Your servant, and I have offered this sacrifice to You! Hear me, O Lord, answer me with fire, so that the hearts of these people will turn to You!"

And fire fell from the Lord from heaven and destroyed everything that was burned - wood, stones, ashes, and even the water that was in the ditch - the fire consumed everything.

At the sight of this, the people fell face down on the ground, crying out: “The Lord is God!”

Elijah said to the people: “Seize the prophets of Baal, so that not one of them escapes.”

The people fulfilled his order, and Elijah took them to the stream Kishon, and slaughtered them there, and threw their wicked corpses into the water so that the earth would not be desecrated by them and so that the air would not be infected with the stench from them. After this, Saint Elijah ordered King Ahab to quickly drink and eat and harness the horses to the chariot to set off, because soon there would be a big rain that would wet everything.

When Ahab sat down to eat and drink, Elijah went up Mount Carmel. Bending down to the ground, he put his face between his knees and prayed to God and to send rain to the earth. Immediately, through his prayer, the heavens opened, as if with a key, and a great rain fell, which wetted everyone and gave the thirsty earth plenty to drink. Then Ahab, realizing his error, mourned his sins on the way to Samaria. Saint Elijah, having girded his loins, walked on foot ahead of him, rejoicing in the glory of the Lord his God.

The wicked queen, Ahab's wife, Jezebel, having learned about what had happened, was terribly angry with Elijah, and, swearing by her gods, sent to tell him that tomorrow at the very hour at which Elijah killed the prophets of Baal, she would kill him. Saint Elijah was afraid of death, for he was a man with all the infirmities characteristic of people, as it is said about him: “Elijah was a man like us.” Because of Jezebel's threats, he fled to Beersheba, in the kingdom of Judah, and went into the desert alone. After a day's travel, he sat down under a juniper bush to rest. Tormented by sadness, he began to ask God for death for himself: “Enough already, Lord; take my soul, for I am no better than my fathers.”

The Prophet said this not out of grief from persecution against him, but as a zealot of God, who does not tolerate human malice, the dishonor of God and the reproach of the Most Holy Name of the Lord: for him it was easier to die than to hear and see the lawless, despising and rejecting their God. With such a prayer on his lips, Elijah lay down and fell asleep under a tree. And then an angel of the Lord touched him, saying: “Rise, eat and drink.”

Having risen, Elijah saw warm unleavened bread and a jug of water at his head, got up, ate, drank water and fell asleep again. The angel of the Lord touched him a second time, saying: “Rise, eat and drink, for a long road is before you.”

Elijah got up again, ate more, drank water, and, refreshed with this food, walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God Horeb, where he settled in a cave. Here his interlocutor was the Lord God Himself, who appeared to him in a light whirlwind quietly blowing in the clean air. When the Lord approached him, terrible signs of His appearance preceded him: first there was a strong storm, destroying mountains and breaking rocks, then there was fire, the Lord was not in the fire; after the fire - a breath of light wind; here was the Lord. When Elijah heard the passage of the Lord, he covered his face with his cloak, and leaving the cave, he stood near it. He heard the Lord saying to him: “Why are you here, Elijah?”

Elijah answered: “I am jealous of the Lord, the God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, destroyed your altars and killed your prophets with the sword; I am left alone, but they are also looking for my soul to take it away.”

The Lord, comforting Elijah in his sorrow, revealed to him that not all the people of Israel had abandoned Him, but He had seven thousand His secret servants who did not bow their knees to Baal. At the same time, the Lord announced to Elijah about the imminent destruction of Ahab and Jezebel and their entire house and commanded Elijah to appoint a worthy man named Jehu to the kingdom of Israel, who would destroy the entire family of Ahab, and to anoint Elisha as a prophet. So, having consoled His servant, the Lord departed from him.

The saint of God, at the command of the Lord, left Horeb, and on the way he met Elisha, the son of Saphat, plowing the land with twelve pairs of oxen; Having laid his cloak on him, Saint Elijah declared the will of the Lord to him, called him a prophet and ordered him to follow him.

Elisha said to Elijah, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and I will follow you.”

Saint Elijah did not prevent this. Elisha, having come home, slaughtered a pair of oxen, which he himself had plowed, gave a treat to neighbors and relatives, and then, saying goodbye to his parents, went to Elijah and began to serve him.

At this time, King Ahab, under the influence of his wicked wife Jezebel, added new ones to his previous iniquities.

An Israelite named Naboth had a vineyard near King Ahab's property in Samaria. Ahab proposed to Naboth: “Give me your vineyard, from it I will have a vegetable garden, for it is close to my house, and instead of it I will give you a better vineyard than this, or, if you wish, I will give you the amount of silver it is worth.”

Naboth answered: “The Lord preserve me, so that I may give you the inheritance of my fathers!”

Ahab returned to his house, embarrassed and offended by Naboth's answer, and could not eat bread out of frustration. Jezebel, having learned the reason for it, laughed at him: “Is this really your power, King of Israel, that you are not able to show your will even on one person? But stop grieving, eat the bread and wait a little: I myself will give the vineyard into your hands.” Naboth."

Having said this, she wrote an order on behalf of the king to the oldest citizens of Israel and attached the royal seal to it. It was written that they should bring a false accusation against Naboth, that he had slandered God and the king, and, presenting false witnesses, stone him outside the city. And that unjust murder was committed on an unlawful order. After the execution of the innocent Naboth, Jezebel said to Ahab: “Now inherit the vineyard without money, for Naboth is no longer alive.”

Ahab, having heard about the murder of Naboth, was a little saddened, and then went to the vineyard to take it into his possession (the estate of those executed for crimes against the king went to the king). On the way, at the command of God, the holy prophet Elijah met him and said to him: “Since you unjustly killed the innocent Naboth and illegally took possession of his vineyard, therefore the Lord says: in the very place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, the dogs will lick and your blood; also your wife Jezebel will be eaten up by dogs, and your whole house will be destroyed."

Ahab, hearing these words, began to cry, took off his royal clothes, dressed himself in sackcloth, and imposed a fast on himself. And Ahab's small repentance before the Lord had such force that the execution of the appointed punishment for the whole house was postponed until Ahab died. For the Lord said to His prophet Elijah: “Do you see how Ahab humbled himself before Me? I will not bring trouble in his days; in the days of his son I will bring trouble upon his house.”

After this, Ahab lived for three years and was killed in battle with the Syrian king Benhadad. From the scene of the battle he was taken by chariot to Samaria, and the blood flowing from the chariot was licked by dogs, as the prophet of God had predicted. Likewise, everything that was predicted about Jezebel and the entire house of Ahab was later fulfilled in due time, after the taking of Saint Elijah into heaven.

After the death of Ahab, his son Ahaziah reigned, who turned out to be the heir to both the throne and his father’s wickedness, for, listening to the wicked mother Jezebel, he worshiped and made sacrifices to Baal, which greatly angered the God of Israel. One day, due to carelessness, Ahaziah fell from the window of his house and became very ill. He sent envoys to Baal, who lived in the idol Baalom and gave false answers to those who approached him with questions. He sent to that demon to ask about his health, whether he would recover from his illness. When the ambassadors of Ahaziah were going to Baal, on the way, at the command of God, the prophet Elijah appeared before them and said: “Is there no God in Israel, why are you going to ask Baal? Return and tell the king who sent you - this is what the Lord says: from your bed, on which you lie down, you will not rise up, but you will die on it.”

Having returned, the messengers conveyed these words to the sick king. The king asked them: “What is the appearance of the man who came out to meet you?”

They answered: “That man is covered in hair and is girded with a leather belt around his loins.”

The king said, "This is Elijah the Tishbite."

And he sent the oldest captain of fifty and with him fifty men to take Elijah and bring him to him. They went and saw Elijah on Mount Carmel, for he was accustomed to dwell primarily on this mountain. Seeing Elijah sitting at the top of the mountain, the captain of the fifty said to him: “Man of God, the king says: come down.”

Saint Elijah answered the commander of fifty: “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and burn you and your fifty.”

And immediately fire fell from heaven and set them on fire. The king sent another captain of fifty with the same number of people, but the same thing happened to them: fire falling from the sky set them on fire. The king sent the third captain of fifty with fifty men. This captain of fifty, having learned what had happened to those sent before him, came to Saint Elijah with fear and humility, and falling on his knees before him, begged him, saying: “Man of God! Here I and these thy servants who came with me stand before you; have mercy on us: we did not come of our own free will, but were sent to you; do not destroy us with fire, as you destroyed those sent before us.”

And the prophet spared those who came in humility; He did not spare those who came before because they came with pride and power, they wanted to take him as a prisoner and lead him with dishonor. The Lord commanded Saint Elijah to go with these others fearlessly and tell the king the same thing that he had said before. Having come to the king, Elijah said to him: “Thus says the Lord: since you sent to ask Baal about your life, as if there was no God in Israel whom you could ask, then for this you will not rise from the bed on which you lie, but you will die."

And Ahaziah died according to the word of God spoken by the lips of the prophets. After Ahaziah, his brother Joram took over the kingdom, because Ahaziah had no sons. On this Jehoram the line of Ahab ceased, having been destroyed by the wrath of God in the days of the holy prophet Elisha, as it is written about in his life.

When the time approached at which the Lord determined to take Elijah alive in the flesh, Elijah and Elisha walked from the city of Gilgal to the city of Bethel. Knowing from the revelation of God about the approaching hour, Elijah wanted to leave Elisha in Gilgal, humbly hiding from him his upcoming glorification from God. He said to Elisha, “Stay here, for the Lord is sending me to Bethel.” Saint Elisha, who also knew by the revelation of God about the upcoming miracle, answered: “As the Lord lives and as your soul lives! I will not leave you” - and both went to Bethel. The sons of the prophets who lived in Bethel, coming to Elisha alone, said to him: “Do you know that today the Lord will take your master and exalt him above your head?”

After this, Elijah said to Elisha: “Stay here, for the Lord is sending me to Jericho.”

Elisha answered him: “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you,” and they both came to Jericho.

The sons of the prophets, who were in Jericho, approached Elisha and said to him: “Do you know that today the Lord will take your master and exalt him above your head?”

Elisha answered: “I know the same thing, be silent.”

Saint Elijah said to Elisha: “Stay here, for the Lord is sending me to the Jordan.”

Elisha said: “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you,” and they went together. Following them at a distance from them went fifty men of the sons of the prophets; when both prophets reached the Jordan, Elijah took his sword, rolled it up and struck the water with it; the water parted on both sides, and they both passed through the Jordan River on dry ground.

Having crossed the Jordan, Elijah said to Elisha: “Ask what you can do before I am taken from you.”

Elisha answered: “Let the spirit that is in you be doubly upon me.”

Elijah said: “You are asking a difficult thing. If you see me taken from you, it will be so for you, but if you don’t see it, it will not be.”

As they walked and talked like this, suddenly a chariot and horses of fire appeared and separated them from each other, and Elijah was taken into heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha looked and exclaimed: “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and his cavalry!” (With these words he seemed to be saying: you, father, were all the strength for Israel: with your prayer and zeal you helped the kingdom of Israel much more than a great many war chariots and armed horsemen helped it). Elisha no longer saw Elijah.

Then he took hold of his clothes and tore them in grief. Soon Elijah's cloak, thrown from above, fell at his feet. Having picked him up, Elisha stopped on the bank of the Jordan, and, like Elijah, dividing the water on both sides, he crossed the dry land and became the heir of the grace that acted in his teacher. The holy prophet of God Elijah, taken together with his flesh to heaven on a fiery chariot, is still alive in the flesh, preserved by God in the villages of paradise. He was seen by the three holy apostles during the Transfiguration of the Lord on Tabor, and ordinary mortal people will see him again before the second coming of the Lord to earth. He who escaped death from the sword of Antichrist, and not only as a prophet but also as a martyr, will be awarded in the ranks of the saints greater than now, honor and glory from the righteous rewarder of God, in the three Persons of One, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, to whom be honor and glory now , and ever and ever. Amen.

(Based on the book "The Holy Prophet Elijah" by Tabernacle Publishing House)

Who doesn't know the prophet Elijah? It seems to me that everyone knows him, even atheists. However, the Old Testament places it in such a distant past that it becomes completely inaccessible to us. In the memory of most people, the associative series associated with this unique person turns out to be either semi-fairy-tale: if thunder roars, it is “Ilya the prophet rides across the sky in a chariot,” or completely everyday: “Ilya the prophet - it’s time to mow.” That's all, actually.

So who is he really, the prophet Elijah? He is a saint. But a saint who could take a sword and kill 450 false prophets. He is “as if in Heaven,” but he did not die. He is an Old Testament righteous man, but he reveals an amazing new truth about God.

Elijah's feat can be better understood if we think about it in modern terms. He lived almost three thousand years ago. He lived in a society where the bulk of people were torn away from their native faith. They called themselves Israelis by name, but by their lifestyle they were rude pagans. Vices, witchcraft, godlessness, cynicism and injustice. Isn't it very reminiscent of our modern times?

Now imagine that an inappropriately dressed person walks along our asphalt streets and accuses all citizens of sins and godlessness. Let us assume that in some surprising way he was not admitted to a psychiatric hospital, like the Monk Amphilochius of Pochaev. They didn’t put me in prison because they were afraid... and respected. Of course, he is abnormal, but it is better not to touch him.

When lawlessness became widespread, God punished the Israelites with drought. The disaster lasted three and a half years, and all this time the Lord waited for repentance from His people. But he wasn't there. There was no rain either.

The prophet who announced the wrath of God suffered from drought just like everyone else. At first he lived by a stream, and a raven brought him food. But the stream dried up, and the Lord sent Elijah to Zarephath of Sidon, to another state, to a certain pious widow. “There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when heaven was shut up for three years and six months, so that there was a great famine throughout the whole land, and Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to a widow in Zarephath of Sidon” (Luke .4:25–26), Christ said to the Pharisees, emphasizing the constant weakness of the faith of the Jewish people. That is, in all of God’s chosen people there was not a sufficiently pious person to send a prophet to him. And not only in Israel, but also in neighboring pious Judea, God did not find a place of rest for his servant. But God is no respecter of persons, and the humble faith of the foreigner, even whose name the Bible did not preserve, turned out to be more precious in the eyes of God than the arrogance of the “sons of Abraham.”

How will we know about the humility of the poor widow? According to the first words she uttered: “As the Lord your God lives! I have nothing baked, but only a handful of flour in a tub and a little oil in a jug; and behold, I will gather two logs of wood, and go and prepare it for myself and for my son; Let us eat this and die” (1 Kings 17:12). Look: “As the Lord God lives is yours" A woman believes in the true God and recognizes Him as Lord, Creator of Heaven and earth. He knows the prophet by sight, because he doesn’t even ask him who he is. And at the same time, she humbly places herself outside the “legitimate” worshipers of God, outside the Jewish people, emphasizing this with the word “yours.” And further, when Elijah assures her in the name of God that for his sake, the prophet, the flour and oil in her house will not run out until the famine subsides, the widow does not contradict, does not doubt, but immediately fulfills what was told to her. Truly, she is the Old Testament “Samaritan woman” and is worthy of all respect.

Meanwhile, the drought continues for the fourth year. There is such hunger in the country that even the king has nothing to feed and water his livestock. And so the Israeli king - the wicked idolater Ahab - decided to look for new pastures and water for his horses. And then they informed him that the prophet Elijah wanted to see him. And, as the Bible says, “Ahab went to meet Elijah” (1 Kings 18:16). How stingy the chronicler is with his words! However, in many places the biblical language is extremely restrained. Behind this brief statement of fact, I see much more. How can the king “go”? How does the king “come out” and “go” in general? And from other biblical texts, and from our life, we know that the ruler does not walk alone - he is surrounded by his retinue, squires, and guards. And the use of a singular verb in this case is a simple metaphor. It is logical to assume that here, too, Ahab “went” to meet Elijah not alone, but surrounded by his retinue. So, let’s try to imagine this, but to make it easier and more convenient for us to understand the completeness of the picture, let’s imagine what it would look like now. A motorcade with flashing lights is moving at high speed, police motorcycles are in front and behind, and an armored limousine with tinted windows is in the center. A lonely silhouette of Elijah appears in the middle of the road. And the procession stops! Which of the modern spiritual authorities can stop the presidential motorcade with his appearance? I don't mean church hierarchs. I mean authority spirit. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone like that. Out of the limousine comes... Ahab. “Is it you who troubles Israel?” (1 Kings 18:17) - says Ahab, and his bodyguards in jackets and ties look at the prophet embittered and fearful. “It is not I who trouble Israel, but you and your father’s house, because you have despised the commandments of the Lord and are following the Baals” (1 Kings 18:18), the prophet answers. To which of the current rulers of the world cannot these words be applied? Unfortunately, I don't know anyone like that. It seems to me that when the prophet uttered these words, his gaze burned with fire, and his face was as bright as the face of Moses, for Divine jealousy kindled his heart.

The saint proposed a test to the king: he, Elijah, would meet with the servants of Baal on Mount Carmel so that each side would make a sacrifice. Whose sacrifice the Lord accepts by fire, he confesses the true God. And so 450 people - enemies of God, false prophets - gathered to confront Saint Elijah. 450 Wang, Blavatsky, Glob, Malachov and Copperfield. From morning to evening, the prophets of Baal prayed to their gods, read mantras, and stabbed themselves with knives in a frenzy. Surely, among them there were real sorcerers (not all swindlers!), who had demons under their command. Probably, at another time they could perform various “signs” and “miracles,” but now, in the presence of the obvious power of God, all demonic power drooped, weakened and was abolished. The demons walked away and nothing happened. Saint Elijah stood aside and made fun of the prophets of Baal jumping around the altar: “Shout with a loud voice, for he is a god; Maybe he’s lost in thought, or busy with something, or on the road, or maybe he’s sleeping, so he’ll wake up!” (1 Kings 18:27).

When it was his turn to pray, Saint Elijah built an altar out of stones, laid out firewood, prepared a calf, dug a ditch and ordered everything to be doused with water three times so that the miracle of God would be revealed even more clearly. And the Lord heard his terse, fiery prayer and came down with fire, burning the calf, the altar, and the water around it. And all the assembled people fell on their faces, exclaiming: “The Lord is God!”

Oh, weak in faith Jewish people! How many times have you exclaimed like this, and within a moment you betrayed your Lord. This is what happened at Mount Sinai, when Moses paused at the top, and the people did not hesitate to make themselves a cast idol. This was the case after the division of the Jewish kingdom into Judah and Israel, when the Israeli king Jeroboam placed two golden calves to distract his subjects from the Temple of Jerusalem. And the people were not indignant that they were being distracted from God Almighty to demons, they did not organize either an uprising or a revolution, but quite calmly changed the object of worship. How much they didn't care! But they had a reliable teaching about angels and demons and knew the whole truth about the “silver and gold gods.” Only little did they believe in this teaching... So it was later, under Christ the Savior. This was the case with Elijah.

As soon as everyone saw first the miracle of God in the descent of heavenly fire, then the miraculous rain according to the word of the prophet, on the same day the godless queen Jezebel threatened to deal with Elijah in revenge for the murder of her false prophets. And no one stands up for him: neither King Ahab, who cried after these miracles (1 Kings 18:45), nor the people who saw the holiness of the prophet.

Fire from heaven descends on the prophet's sacrifice! It is enough to watch at least the video recording of the descent of the Holy Fire onto the Holy Sepulcher on Holy Saturday to try to understand what was happening then on Mount Carmel. One can easily imagine the general enthusiasm, fear of God and trembling. The prophet himself, imbued with this inspiration and zeal for God, fled in front of the king’s chariot from Mount Carmel to the city of Jezreel, where Ahab’s residence was, and this is more than 30 kilometers (1 Kings 18:46). But Ahab’s wife, the idolater Jezebel, was not persuaded by the miracle, and, fleeing her wrath, Elijah hid in neighboring Judea, in the city of Bathsheba.

In the desert, not far from Bathsheba, the Angel of the Lord appeared to Elijah to comfort him in a difficult hour. “Enough already, Lord; take my life, for I am no better than my fathers” (1 Kings 19:4), said the prophet. How often we, like the prophet Elijah, turn to God with such words in the hour of trial! There is no more strength to endure! I can't do it anymore! And how many times after this does the Lord pat us on the head and spoon-feed us to console our restless soul... Perhaps this is why the story of the prophet Elijah is valuable? We see that this saint is a pillar of faith and piety, but at the same time, he is not a superman. He is the same as us. He needed to eat and drink - God miraculously fed him. He was tormented by despondency and sadness about his compatriots perishing in idolatry - the Lord Himself consoled him.

“Why are you here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:9) - the Lord meekly asks him. And in this gentle questioning we hear: “Why are you so sad, Elijah? What oppresses your soul?

There is so much God’s love and compassion in this matter, not only for the prophet, but for the entire human race, which is in turmoil and perishing. Once upon a time, several thousand years earlier, with the same love and pain, God asked: “Adam, where are you?” (Gen.3:9). And almost another thousand years later he will also ask Mary Magdalene: “Wife! Why are you crying? Who are you looking for? (John 20:15), and later Peter: “Simon the Jonah! Do you love Me more than they?” (John 21:15).

And Elijah said: “I was jealous of the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel forsook Your covenant, destroyed Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword; I am left alone, but they are looking for my soul to take it away” (1 Kings 19:10). So we say now: “Lord, look! Your sons have left their temples, wallow in vices and drunkenness, seek only profit and pleasure, bowed their knees to demons in sects...” And, just like the apostles once did, we want to exclaim: “Lord! Do you want us to say that fire will come down from heaven and destroy them? (Luke 9:54). And hear the Savior’s meek answer: “You do not know what kind of spirit you are; For the Son of Man came not to destroy the souls of men, but to save” (Luke 9:55-56). The Lord answered Elijah in the same way.

“Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, and behold, the Lord will pass by, and a great and strong wind will rend the mountains and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord will not be in the wind; after the wind there is an earthquake, but the Lord is not in the earthquake; after the earthquake there is fire, but the Lord is not in the fire; after the fire there is a quiet wind, and the Lord is there” (1 Kings 19:11-12). This is the manifestation of God's love. This is one of the few places in the Old Testament where the Lord so touchingly shows His surpassing all our understanding humility that descends for the human race not only to the Cross, but also to hell. Before the Savior came into the world, people knew God as a Judge, a righteous rewarder: “I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, punishing the children for the iniquity of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me” (Ex. 20:5), since the moral state of the Jewish the people were such that sometimes it was possible to keep people from sin only through the fear of punishment, and even this did not always stop the “obstinate and depraved generation.” And only sometimes in the Old Testament the Lord reveals all the true greatness of His Divine love. And, probably, only in this place does the Lord also reveal the greatness of His humility. He seems to be saying to us: “You are witnesses of My power rending the mountain and crushing the rock, but not this face of Mine; you have experienced My shaking punishments, but this is not My essence; you have seen My burning anger, but not in this I. But when you contemplate My humility and My love, know that it is truly I who appear.” The Prophet Elijah is the discoverer of the “quiet wind” of the spirit of God’s love.

And just as the prophet fervently served God, so he ended his ministry. The fiery chariot carried him as if to Heaven, where he remains now, not separated from his body. Tradition says that before the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the prophet Elijah and Saint Enoch will be sent to earth (Gen. 5:24), and they will preach repentance to the human race that has departed from worshiping God, and will be killed for this. But these are things to come.

What can we learn by reflecting on the life of St. Elijah? Mentally standing in front of the prophet, you feel as if you are standing next to a skyscraper. Next to the block of faith. What should I imitate him in? How can I imitate him? How can an ant imitate an elephant?

But even an ant can pick up a straw. Yes, next to his skyscraper of faith, our abodes of faith are just miserable beggarly hovels. But even in this shack you can be nourished with spiritual blessings. Yes, we cannot bring down fire from heaven. But we can light a match, bake a cake, and feed it to the prophet, like the Sidonian widow. The Lord does not speak to us Face to face, as with Elijah, but we also communicate with Him - in the cage of our heart. So let us be like the holy prophet in zeal. Let even our little prayer rule, even our Lilliputian service, be imbued with the spirit of jealousy. Let us constantly remember the words of our Lord: “I have come to bring down fire on the earth, and how I wish it would already be kindled!” (Luke 12:49). This fire is Divine jealousy, which makes us overcome our laziness, negligence, pride, and everything else that stands like a wall between every person and Christ. With the same fire, may the Lord grant us to burn down all the obstacles of our enemy, the adversary. Amen.

Since ancient times, the prophet Elijah was considered a good helper in agriculture and, according to his miracles during his lifetime, they prayed for rain during droughts, or, conversely, clear weather during torrential downpours. It is believed that the holy prophet Elijah can help in various matters, in healing from illnesses, in establishing peace in the family and, of course, in strengthening faith.
It must be remembered that icons or saints do not “specialize” in any specific areas. It will be right when a person turns with faith in the power of God, and not in the power of this icon, this saint or prayer.
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THE LIFE AND MIRACLES OF THE HOLY PROPHET ELIJAH

The Prophet Elijah was born in Israel in Thesbia of Gilead in the tribe of Levi 900 years before the birth of Christ. When Elijah was born, his father Sovak had a vision of handsome men talking to the baby, swaddling him with fire and feeding him with a fiery flame. From a young age, he settled in the desert and lived in a strict feat of fasting and prayer. First of all, Elijah prayed to God to turn sinners to repentance.
Called to prophetic service during the reign of the idolater King Ahab (874-853), who worshiped Baal (the sun) and forced the Jewish people to do the same.

One day the Lord sent Elijah to Ahab and ordered him to predict that if he and his people did not turn to the true God, then his kingdom would suffer famine. Ahab did not listen to the prophet, and drought and great famine struck the country. During the famine, Elijah lived for a year in the desert, where ravens brought him food, and for the next two years he lived with a widow in the small Phoenician town of Sarepta. This widow lived in poverty and the prophet Elijah, wanting to test the widow’s faith and virtue, ordered her to bake bread for him from the last of the flour and butter. The widow fulfilled the command, and her selflessness did not go unrewarded: according to the word of the prophet, flour and oil in this house were miraculously constantly replenished throughout the famine and drought.

Soon the Lord sent a new test of the widow’s faith: her son died. In inconsolable grief, she decided that the holiness of the prophet Elijah, incompatible with her sinful life, became the cause of the boy’s death. Instead of answering, the holy prophet took her dead son in his arms and, after three times intense prayer, resurrected him (1 Kings 17:17-24).
After three and a half years, Elijah returned to the kingdom of Israel and told the king and all the people that all the disasters of the Israelites were due to the fact that they had forgotten the true God and began to worship the idol Baal. To prove the error of the Israelites, Elijah proposed to make two altars - one to Baal and the other to God, and said:

“Let us make sacrifices, and if fire comes down from heaven on the altar of Baal, then he is the true God, but if not, then he is an idol” (see 1 Kings 18:21-24).

First they made an altar to Baal, piled up wood, slaughtered a bull, and the priests of Baal began to pray to their idol: “Baal, Baal, send us fire from heaven.” But there was no answer, and fire did not descend from heaven on Baal’s altar. IN That evening Elijah made his altar, laid out the wood, watered it first with water, and began to pray to God. And suddenly fire fell from the sky and consumed not only the wood and the sacrifice, but also the water and stones of the altar. Seeing this, the people fell to the ground in fear and exclaimed: “Truly the Lord is God!” (1 Kings 18:39). The prophet Elijah ordered the priests of Baal to be captured and killed at the stream of Kissova.

After the miracle, the Prophet Elijah expected Israel to turn to God, but the restoration of true faith did not happen. Yes, and Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, a convinced pagan, was angry with the prophet for the destruction of the priests, and the weak-willed king, who repented from the terrible sign, took the side of his wife.

The Prophet Elijah was forced to flee to the south of Judea. The Lord consoled the saint with a vision of an Angel, who strengthened him with food and commanded him to go on a long journey through the desert. Elijah runs to the sacred Mount Sinai, where Moses once received his famous laws. The prophet Elijah walked for 40 days and 40 nights and, having reached Mount Horeb, settled in a cave. All his efforts to eradicate wickedness seemed helpless to him:

“Enough now, O Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers” (1 Kings 19:4).

Elijah, in despair, speaks to God about the failure of his mission and the “failed” history of Israel:

“The children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, destroyed Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword; I am left alone, but they are looking for my soul to take it away” (3 Kings 19:10).

The Lord, with a special vision, again called him to be more merciful. In sensory images - a storm, an earthquake and fire - the meaning of his prophetic ministry was revealed to him. To contrast with these visions, the Lord appeared to him in the breath of a quiet wind, making it clear that the hearts of sinners were softening and turning to repentance more through the action of God's mercy. In the same vision, the Lord revealed to the prophet that he was not the only one who worshiped the True God: there were still 7,000 people in Israel who did not bow the knee to Baal. He must return to the country and choose a successor in the person of Elisha, who will complete the fight for the faith he began.

At the command of God, the prophet Elijah again went to Israel to consecrate Elisha to the prophetic ministry.

The holy prophet Elijah came to the court of the Israeli kings twice more. The first time was to expose Ahab for the illegal murder of Naboth and the appropriation of his vineyard (1 Kings 21). Hearing the prophet’s reproof, Ahab repented and humbled himself, and for this God softened His anger. The second time - to denounce the new king Ahaziah, the son of Ahab and Jezebel, for the fact that in his illness he turned not to the True God, but to the Ekron idol. The holy prophet predicted Ahaziah the death of his illness for such unbelief, and soon the prophet’s word came true (2 Kings 1).

For his fiery spiritual zeal for the glory of God, the prophet Elijah was taken alive to Heaven in a chariot of fire:

“Suddenly there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and separated them both, and Elijah went up into heaven in a whirlwind” (2 Kings 2:11).

His disciple Elisha witnessed this ascent and, together with the mantle (outer clothing) of Saint Elijah that fell from the chariot, received a prophetic gift twice as great as that of the prophet Elijah.

Then, at the Transfiguration of the Lord, he appeared together with the prophet Moses and appeared before Jesus Christ, talking with him on Mount Tabor. The two most authoritative men of the Old Testament personify the Law and the Prophets - the first and most important two sections of Holy Scripture.

In the biblical tradition, Elijah is one of the two Old Testament saints who did not see death on earth, but were awarded heaven before the coming of Jesus Christ. According to the Bible, before him, only Enoch, who lived before the Flood, was taken alive into heaven (Gen. 5:24). Therefore, on some icons of the Resurrection you can see Elijah and Enoch at the gates of heaven, meeting the ancient righteous, led out by Christ through the broken gates of hell.

According to the tradition of the Holy Church, the prophet Elijah will be the Forerunner of the Terrible Second Coming of Christ to earth and will suffer bodily death during the sermon.

Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev) about the prophet Elijah:

“The life of the prophet Elijah teaches us what true prophets were like, called by God for a special service, for a special mission - to proclaim to people about God. The prophets were persecuted: “A prophet has no honor in his own country” (John 4:44), that is, where he preaches, he is not understood. All prophets had enemies and ill-wishers, people who wished them death. Like all people, prophets had their weaknesses, and they were not always able to carry out the incredibly difficult mission that was entrusted to them - to testify about God to people who did not want to hear this testimony.
As we read about the lives of other prophets, we learn that when the Lord called them, some of them refused. One said that he was too young, the other - Jonah - completely fled from the Face of God, realizing that he did not have the strength to fulfill the mission entrusted to him by God. The prophet Elijah in despair asked God for death. But the prophets were always supported by the grace of God; in their ministry they came into direct contact with God, meeting Him in personal spiritual experience.
At different periods of human history, God sent prophets to people so that people would hear the Word of Truth from them, so that they would testify with miracles to the presence of God and the power of God. And in all eras, prophets were weak people - just like you and me. Their prophetic mission far exceeded their natural human strength, and they, not relying on their own strength, sought help from God. They asked God for spiritual reinforcement in difficult moments, when they were abandoned by people, persecuted, when enemies sought their death. And the Lord mysteriously strengthened them with the grace of the Holy Spirit.”

GREATNESS

We magnify you, holy, glorious prophet of God Elijah, and honor your glorious ascent to Heaven in a chariot of fire.

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