I learned something new this week. It's the first time in a few months that I've been inspired to write a blog entry. So... here we go...
Listening to the audio book titled "Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy" by John Shelby Spong, I learned about another parallel between the the prophet Elijah and our headstrong friend, John the Baptist. I've already pointed out in an earlier blog entry that, in Mark's gospel, John represents Elijah as the prophet who came to "prepare the way" for Jesus. If you'd like to visit that entry, click here: https://mattandkim17.wixsite.com/matt/post/elijah-prepares-the-way
One of the most telling features of John's status as the "new" Elijah, would have been Mark's description of John's clothing "made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist."
I have learned of another parallel between the two characters. Let's go back and revisit one of Elijah's famous moments:
In 1 Kings chapter eighteen, the prophet Elijah has a showdown with the prophets of Baal. It's a contest to see whose god is the true God. The prophets of Baal place a cut up bull on a pile of wood. Elijah tells the prophets to call on Baal, to set the offering ablaze. Nothing happens. The prophets begin to shout to their "god" and cut themselves in earnest. Nothing happens. Elijah mocks them, then steps forward. He rebuilds a fallen altar with special stones. Twelve stones to be exact. He places wood and another chopped up bull on this newly constructed altar, but before calling on his God to set the offering alight, he soaks it with water. Then soaks it again. Then again. Elijah then calls on Yahweh his God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to set the bloody, wet pile of beef and timber on fire. The offering is immediately and completely consumed by a temporary God ordained inferno. Those standing by are now convinced that Yahweh is indeed the true God. Elijah then orders the prophets of Baal to be slaughtered and so it is done. When King Ahab finds out about all of this, he tells his wife Jezebel. As luck would have it, this king and queen are not nice. She is highly ticked:
1 Kings 19:1 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”
Jezebel wishes to have Elijah killed by the sword. Elijah escapes. Apparently he can run faster than a horse drawn chariot.
Now let's return to the New Testament where we find John the Baptist dressed in Elijah's clothes.
In Mark chapter six: King Herod and wife Herodias are the new Ahab and Jezebel, the new bad guys. John is the new Elijah. Herodias manipulates her husband into ordering the beheading of John. John is not so fleet of foot and he is killed by the sword, as were the prophets of Baal. The fate wished by Jezebel upon Elijah has found John.
Mark 9: 11 And they asked [Jesus], “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”
12 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? 13 But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.”
Thanks for reading!
-matt
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