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I am reading through Kings and Chronicles right now in my annual trek through the Bible, and the Prophet, Elijah, has been the “star” these last few days. Elijah means “Yahweh is my God” in Hebrew. He is known for his great faith and is one of the most prominent and revered prophets in the Old Testament.

Elijah is known for his fierce faith in the face of difficult circumstances when Ahab, the King of Israel, and his domineering, foreign wife, Jezebel killed off most of the faithful Hebrew prophets and instituted the worship of Baal and Asherah for the nation of Israel.

Elijah stood defiantly against Ahab and Jezebel who sought to kill him for his defiance Elijah is, perhaps, most known for his public challenge to the prophets of Baal and Asherah that culminated in a powerful demonstration of Yahweh’s superiority to those foreign gods.

This story and another story in a similar vein to it are the backdrop for this article. If Elijah is an exemplary man of faith, to what extent should we follow his example today in the expression of our faith in the face of governmental and cultural opposition?

The Elijah story referenced begins during a very bad famine in Samaria, which is the seat of government for Israel, the “northern kingdom”, during the reign of Ahab. The story begins with a severe drought. Obadiah, the man in charge of King Ahab’s palace, was out wandering around the land looking for springs of water for the King, when he came across Elijah, the prophet.

Elijah asked Obadiah to announce his presence to the King. Obadiah warned Elijah that King Ahab was looking for him to kill him. “Elijah answered, “I serve the Lord All-Powerful. As surely as he lives, I promise that I will stand before the king today.’” (1 Kings 18:15)

Elijah was nothing if not bold for God! When Ahab came out to meet him, he called Elijah a “troublemaker”. Elijah was not bothered in the least. He called out the King for following “false gods”. Then Elijah challenged the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah supported by Jezebel to a test – a dual of sorts on the high places of Samaria.

King Ahab basically said, “You’re on!” and summoned all of Israel and his prophets to Mt. Carmel, near modern day Haifa, to accept Elijah’s challenge. This was Elijah’s challenge:

“[B]ring us two bulls. Let the prophets of Baal have one bull. Let them kill it, cut it into pieces, and then put the meat on the wood. But don’t start the fire. I will do the same with the other bull, and I will not start the fire either. Prophets of Baal, pray to your god, and I will pray to the Lord. Whichever god answers the prayer and starts the fire is the true God.” (1 Kings 18:23-24)

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When Elijah began to mock and make fun of them, they prayed louder. They cut themselves with spears and swords until they were “bleeding all over”. The afternoon passed. The prophets increased their fervor until they were “out of control”. The evening came and still nothing happened.

Then Elijah stepped up and signaled the people over to him. After he he killed and prepared his bull, Elijah requested four (4) jars of water and poured them over the meat and the wood. Three (3) times he had water poured over the sacrifice on the wood until everything was saturated, and water filled the ditch around the alter.

Finally, Elijah approached the altar and prayed, asking God to prove Himself to all the people, and fire came down! The fire burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the ground around the altar, and it dried up all the water.

The spectators bowed down to the Lord and praised Him. In that moment, Elijah instructed the people to capture the prophets of Baal, and Elijah led them to the valley where he killed them all.

Despite this amazing and powerful demonstration of God’s presence and authority, Jezebel wasn’t impressed. She wasn’t there, but Ahab reported what happened to her. Instead of being awed by the demonstration of God’s power (and Elijah’s connection to such a powerful God), she demanded Elijah’s life.

When Elijah found out that his demonstration of power fell on deaf ears, he ran for his life into the wilderness where he plopped down under a tree, wishing he was dead. There is much to the story, and Elijah’s response to these things, that is worth discussing, but it isn’t directly relevant to the point of this article. (I may address what I see as an “Elijah complex” in another article.)

The second story involves the same theme of fire. It seems Elijah had a thing for fire! The second story occurs after Ahab died. Ahaziah had taken over as king. When King Ahaziah was badly injured from falling through the roof of his house, he sent messengers to inquire of the priests of Baal Zebub whether he would recover from his injurious.

When Elijah found out about this, he was indignant and was instructed by an angel of the Lord to confront the messengers of Ahaziah. Elijah put them on the spot: “There is a God in Israel, so why are you men going to ask questions of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron?” (2 Kings 1:3)

Elijah’s rhetorical question convinced the messengers to turn back. When Ahaziah found out his messengers were turned back by Elijah, he sent a captain and 50 men to get Elijah and bring him before the King.

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(A third group of 50 men was sent to get Elijah, but this time their captain fell down on his knees and begged Elijah to spare them. Elijah relented, and he agreed to accompany them back to the King.)

There is so much to say about Elijah, but I want to focus on Elijah’s example to us in these two stories. We would call Elijah a mighty man of God and a man of great faith. He was fierce in his defense of God’s honor and brash in dealing with the idolatrous kings and false prophets in his time.

Elijah faced off with 450 opposing prophets in front of all of Israel. He didn’t back down from the tyrant King Ahab and his controlling wife, Jezebel. He stood up for God and for righteousness despite the death threats he received.

So the questions arises: should we model ourselves after Elijah? In this world that is embracing “foreign gods” that we might label money, power and influence, CRT and “wokeness”, and any number of things that we might find opposed to God and His righteousness, should we call down the proverbial fire from heaven on them?

I will end with another, short story. This story also took place in a Samaritan town, but we need to fast forward to Jesus and his followers.

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Jesus was getting ready to go to Jerusalem where he would give himself up to Pilate and the Sanhedrin. He sent some men ahead of him with instructions to make things ready for him, but they came back to report that the people in the town would not welcome Jesus.

When James and John, the apostles, heard how the Samaritan town responded to the request for help, they asked Jesus, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven and destroy those people?” (Luke 9:54)

Sound familiar? They were ready to do their best Elijah imitation!

A better role model they could not have had, right? The great Elijah, the man of faith who didn’t taste death because of his righteous life, who stood up to idolatrous kings and false prophets at the risk of his life.

Doing as he did seemed like a good move, but Jesus rebuked them! (Luke 9:‬55 NIV)

End of story. The next verse simply reads: “[H]e and his disciples went to another village.” (Luke 9:56)

That’s it…. No comment…. No explanation…. No big deal is made of the rebuke. Jesus, simply moved on.

My writing today is inspired by the rebuke and the curious lack of comment or clarity. I have been reading the Bible with new perspective in the last couple of years. I have been more keenly aware of these types of curious “gaps” in the biblical narrative that seem to leave us hanging without explanation.

I believe we miss something deep and profound when we simply move on without attempting to understand what God is saying in these spaces. I believe we are supposed to stop and wonder what is going on when explanation seems to be missing.

We can start with understanding what God is not saying.

In this passage, when James and John asked about “calling down fire”, they were pretty clearly alluding to Elijah. They were even in the same area, Samaria, where Elijah called down fire to destroy the men who were sent to bring Elijah before the King.

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The apostles knew their Scripture and their heritage. Elijah was a big deal in the Hebrew tradition. Jesus told his followers that John the Baptist was the “Elijah who was to come” (Matthew 11:14 (a messenger saying prepare the way), and Luke says John the Baptist had the spirit of Elijah. (Luke 1:17) People thought that Jesus might even be Elijah. (Mar. 6:15; John 1:21)

Imagine the expectant Jews in Jesus’s day. After returning from exile in Babylon, their ancestors were subjected to foreign rule for about 400 years. They were anxiously awaiting that voice spoken in the spirit of Elijah crying in the wilderness to prepare the way for the Messiah, the seed of Jesse who would return to the throne of David and rule over the land God promised them.

They legitimately thought Jesus was that Elijah! Or maybe the Messiah, himself!

In fact, Jesus was and is the Messiah they anticipated, but he did not meet their expectations of what the Messiah would be like and what he would do.

Interestingly, James observes about Elijah that he was “a human being, even as we are….” (James 5:17)

What should we make of Jesus rebuking James and John when they wanted to call down fire on the town of Samaria that refused to welcome Jesus?

Was Elijah wrong to call down fire on the men sent to bring him back to the King? Did he go overboard? Are the times different now? Does it depend on the circumstances?

I don’t know, exactly, but I think that times are different now. God’s purposes never change, but how He works out His purposes in the history of human beings changes over time as God works toward His end goal.

In the big sweep of Scripture, we see God’s simple promise to Noah, followed by the simple covenant God makes with Abraham, followed by the extremely detailed covenant God makes with Moses and the people of Israel. Then, Jesus comes and announces a “new covenant”.

God’s interaction with people, and His relationship with people, changes over time. God does not change, and His purposes do not change, but God has been working out His plans and unfolding His purposes – the redemption of mankind and of His creation – throughout history.

I don’t have time now or space here to get into the sweep and progression of God’s purposes from the beginning until now (and on to the new heavens and new earth and the people from every nation, tribe and tongue praising the Lamb at the throne). I just want to note that we are at a different place in the story than Elijah was.

Jesus announced the “new” plan when He read from the Isaiah scroll in the temple one day (Luke 4:18-19):

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

This “new thing” was anticipated by the Prophet, Isaiah, hundreds of years prior to that day, and Jesus said. “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21) Jesus also explained his the purpose for his coming this way: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:17)

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It seems this is why he told the 70 men he sent out from town to town healing and delivering people from demons to move on and “shake the dust off” their feet when anyone did not welcome them or listen to them.

Elijah may have acted in accordance with God’s will and purposes for the time in which he lived to accomplish what God was doing doing then to advance His purposes, but Jesus rebuked his disciples when they wanted to do the same thing. the time is different now, and God has moved on to move the story towards its inevitable end.

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Like the 70 he sent out from town to town, we shouldn’t waste time worrying about the people who do not welcome us or listen to what we say. Shake off the dust and move on is the direction for us also as we continue in the mission of Jesus to seek and save the lost.

Elijah isn’t the right role model for us today. Elijah was just a man, like us. Jesus is our role model now – the new Adam. As God unfolds His divine plan in our time, the attitude of calling down fire has been replaced with the attitude of carrying crosses in self-sacrificial love for a lost and dying world.

We would do well to lose our Elijah complex and take on the mind of Christ:

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped [held onto for advantage], but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant [slave], being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:1-10)