Commemorated on July 20th
Just as the American astronauts touched down on the moon on July 20th, it was
precisely on that day of the year that the Prophet Elijah ascended to Heaven in
a fiery chariot nearly 2,900 years before. Those who would call it a
coincidence may be reminded that the odd against its being a coincidence are 365
to 1, and that the odds for its being in the hand of God are an even one to one.
Because Elijah did not die the death of a mortal but was elevated to Heaven by
the hand of God, he is venerated as a saint who was a prefiguration either of
Jesus Christ or of Saint John the Baptist, a point which can be debated but
leaves no doubt that Elijah was a man of God much as the mighty Moses.
Known as Elias in the Greek and King James versions of the New Testament, Elias
of great fame was from Thisbe or Thesbe, a town of Galaad (Gilead), beyond the
Jordan. He was of priestly lineage, a man of a solitary and ascetical character,
clothed in a mantle of sheep skin, and girded about his loins with a leathern
belt. His name is interpreted as "Yah is my God." His zeal for the glory of God
was compared to fire, and his speech for teaching and rebuke was likened unto a
burning lamp. From this too he received the name Zealot. Therefore, set aflame
with such zeal, he sternly reproved the impiety and lawlessness of Ahab and his
wife Jezebel.
He shut up heaven by means of prayer, and it did not rain for three years and
six months. Ravens brought him food for his need when, at God's command, he was
hiding by the torrent of Horrath. He multiplied the little flour and oil of the
poor widow of Sarephtha of Sidon, who had given him hospitality in her home, and
when her son died, he raised him up. He brought down fire from Heaven upon Mount
Carmel, and it burned up the sacrifice offered to God before all the people of
Israel, that they might know the truth.
At the torrent of Kisson, he slew 450 false prophets and priests who
worshipped idols and led the people astray. He received food wondrously at the
hand of an Angel, and being strengthened by this food he walked for forty days
and forty nights. He beheld God on Mount Horeb, as far as this is possible for
human nature. He foretold the destruction of the house of Ahab, and the death of
his son Ohozias; and as for the two captains of fifty that were sent by the
king, he burned them for their punishment, bringing fire down from Heaven.
He divided the flow of the Jordan, and he and his disciple Elisseus passed
through as it were on dry land; and finally, while speaking with him, Elias was
suddenly snatched away by a fiery chariot in the year 895 B.C., and he ascended
as though into heaven, whither God most certainly translated him alive, as He
did Enoch (Gen. 5:24; IV Kings 2: 11). But from thence also, after seven years,
by means of an epistle he reproached Joram, the son of Josaphat, as it is
written: "And there came a message in writing to him from Elias the Prophet,
saying, Thus saith the Lord God of David thy father, Because thou hast not
walked in the way," and so forth (II Chron. 21:12). According to the opinion of
the majority of the interpreters, this came to pass either through his disciple
Elisseus, or through another Prophet when Elias appeared to them, even as he
appeared on Mount Tabor to the disciples of Christ.
Source: Orthodox Saints, Spiritual Profiles for
Modern Man July 1 to September 31, by George Poulos. Also,
www.goarch.org.
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