A Word about the Prophet Elijah

In ancient times, the Jewish people were adorned with prophetic ministry and were a field on which the prophets worked. And now he has been deprived of this praise by the church. And the very bodies of the prophets are with us. Of course, a barren people did not need prophets-farmers; It was absurd to retain the prophets for those who crucified the One they had foretold, crucified (in gratitude) for the dead whom He raised from them, for the blind to whom He restored their sight, for the hungry whom He fed from them, for the coercion that because of them the Lord of all used regarding the prophet Elijah, forcing the prophet to take back his renunciation of them. The previous mentor leads me to Elijah. Blessed Elijah, seeing that the Jewish people are not worthy of God’s love for mankind and that, although God constantly tolerates their fight against God, they always turn His very long-suffering into evil, rebels against the goodness of God towards them: he speaks out against them. Then, knowing that God is pleased with the zeal of the righteous, wishing to punish the Jews and at the same time fearing that divine goodness will immediately be softened by a few tears, he imposes punishment on them and binds his punishment with an oath, so that God, out of respect for the oath, cannot cancel the condemnation pronounced against them. God, he says, is good to them and is softened by their few tears, and this strengthens them in their idolatry. “As the Lord God of Israel lives,” he said, “in these years there will be neither dew nor rain, except at my word” (1 Kings 17:1). Then, God seemed to object to him: what, Elijah, if they propitiate Me with repentance, if I see them shedding tears and repenting of their sins, won’t I immediately send rain? No, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, save at my word” (1 Kings 17:1). "As the Lord lives" They, he says, are attached to idols, but I swear by Your deity. Show what power an oath by You has, so that through this they will be convinced of the powerlessness of their idols. No, “as the Lord God of Israel lives, these years there will be neither dew nor rain, except at my word.” You will not cancel, he says, punishment as soon as it seems (pleasing) to You (because You want to be humane), but only when I ask for them, when I judge, when they show sufficient heartfelt repentance. God respected the prophetic prohibition and fulfilled the oath given in His name. And so the Lord was ashamed of everyone, on the one hand respecting the prophet, and on the other hand having mercy on the people punished by hunger. What does He do then? Together with the people, he also punishes the prophet, so that he himself, having been subjected to the same punishment, would sooner realize the incompatibility of his spell with love of mankind, he punishes the prophet along with the people, but makes this punishment easier for the prophet, showing His wisdom in the very way of fulfilling love for mankind. Indeed, He feeds the prophet with the help of birds that hate children; after all, the raven is a parent who does not love children and does not feed those whom he gives birth to. Precisely hinting at this, the prophet twice said: (the Lord gives food) “and the raven’s chicks that call upon Him” (Ps. 146:9) **. Since crow chicks, and all chicks in general, are not able to gather food for themselves, but their parents take care of them, and crow cubs are deprived of parental care, and, nevertheless, the crow family survives even without parental education, then David, showing God’s love for mankind, attributes their food to God. Opening their mouths to the air and not receiving food from their parents, crow chicks have some small animals that perform Divine Providence regarding them, and thus, receiving them from the air, they feed and grow. That is why the prophet says: “and to the raven’s chicks who call on Him.” And so, after Elijah showed child-hatred towards the Jews as ungrateful children, God seemed to intercede with him through the child-hating fathers, just not silently calling out to Elijah in this way: don’t you have the same hatred for the Jews that crows have for their children? But look how they have changed, look, oh, Elijah, what their love for humanity is: merciless towards their own chicks, they are zealous feeders for you. It is absurd, O Elijah, when the ravens serve as mediators of My love for you, you should not become an intercessor for the Jews regarding the punishment imposed on them by Me. Be ashamed of the change that has taken place in the ravens, and be merciful to the Jews; Although I respect the spell you cast, I also regret them. But when God saw that Elijah was not softened by this, then He stopped delivering food to him through the ravens, forcing him to change, so that, forced by hunger, he, although for his own sake, would cancel the spell he had uttered. And he, even being left without the services of the ravens, endured: I will starve, he says, only to see the wicked punished; let my body perish, punished along with them. So, when the supply of food to him through the ravens stopped, and a lot of time had passed, Elijah again moved to another place and left under the pressure of hunger and became a petitioner to a pagan woman, and, moreover, a widow and a poor woman. And God, wanting him to become more humane, after the Jews were then forbidden to communicate with the pagans, announces to the prophet what he had to do in the future: “Get up,” he says, “from here, and go to Zarephath of Sidon, and stay there; I commanded a widow woman there to feed you” (1 Kings 17:9), so that when he heard: “Gentile woman,” he would abhor such food and begin to ask God for the gift of rain. However, these words did not soften him and he hurries to where the hospitality of the pagan woman awaited him. And what is even more remarkable is that God inspires the widow to immediately meet him, hungry, with stern words, using all measures to dispose him to mercy. What does the pagan woman tell him? “As the Lord your God lives” (1 Kings 17:12). Where did the pagan woman come from with these words: “As the Lord your God lives!” (Obviously) God had previously shown her the prophet in a vision; Is this not what God said to the prophet: “I commanded a widow woman there to feed you” (1 Kings 17:9)? God first showed the wife the image of the prophet, his appearance, height, and the request he would make. Therefore, when the prophet appeared, the widow remembered what was shown in the vision and saw him as he appeared to her in the vision. Convinced from here that this was a divine revelation, she immediately answered his request when the prophet appeared: “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 will go and prepare it for myself and for my son; Let us eat this and die” (1 Kings 17:12). Words of refusal rather than alms. “I have nothing baked, but only a handful of flour, and I will go and prepare it for myself and for my son; We’ll eat this and die.” Nothing else, he says, remains for us when we eat this handful except death. These words were meant to impress Elijah. She suffers more from hunger than I do, he thought; I am starving alone, but she and her children are in poverty. May I not be the cause of death for the one who will show me hospitality. So what? As I already said, he is softened by these words, and concern for humanity arises in his heart. “The jar of flour will not be exhausted, and the jar of oil will not fail until the day when the Lord gives rain on the earth” (1 Kings 17:14). Now the gift of rain is no longer far away. Before he was curbed by hunger, he did not allow God’s love for mankind to grant rain, but said: “In these years there will be neither dew nor rain, except at my word” (1 Kings 17:1). Now he allows and even indicates the beginning of permission, although he only indicates and does not add requests. What then is the Source of humanity? He again presents him with the third experience of philanthropy: he orders the soul of the widow’s son to be separated from the body. Respecting the prophet, He did not deprive him of the power of his blessing and did not make the arrogance (oil) scarce in order to force him to love mankind. It would, of course, be a humiliation for the prophet if the words of his blessing were invalid, and at the same time it would harm the faith of the pagan widow if his blessing were of little use to her. That is why God does not reject his blessing, but for the third time makes the prophet experience divine love for mankind: He sends death to the widow’s son, leading the prophet to the need to turn to Him with a prayer. The widow, when her son died, walked around the prophet with tears. Oh, it would be better, she said, that I had first perished from hunger and died before your blessing, than now to witness the death of my son! The prophet was ashamed of what had happened: is this, he says, a reward for the widow for the hospitality she showed me? Before my appointment she was happy with her son, but after my appointment she cried for her beloved son. Ashamed of what had happened and having thought about this matter with himself, Elijah felt that in this event there was the finger of the Lord of all, he felt divine wisdom. And what does he say? “Oh my God! will You really do evil to the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son” (1 Kings 17:20)? What does he mean by this? You, he says, pointed out this widow to me. You, he says, said: “I commanded the widow woman there to feed you” (1 Kings 17:9), thereby testifying to her pious mood. You moved me from those places to her and honored her with your testimony, and now you punish her with the death of her son? “Oh my God! Will You really do evil to the widow with whom I am staying by killing her son? This is not a natural case of death, says the prophet, this is a matter of your wisdom in order to instill in me the need for love of mankind, so that when I say to You: Lord, have mercy on the widow’s murdered son, You can also answer me: have mercy on my children Israel. You inspire me with love for mankind, I feel Your art, Master, so that when I ask You: save the dead son of a widow, You can also answer me: Spare Israel, who is being killed by hunger. You ask Me for mercy, accept My request for mercy: resolve the spell of hunger, and I will resolve the definition of death. And so, when God saw that Elijah, after many trials, had become more philanthropic, then he turned to him with a clearer demand for philanthropy, since then he could no longer consider the cancellation of the punishment for himself as humiliation. “Go,” says (the Lord) (1 Kings 18:1). These words contain God’s request to His servant: God Himself asks His servant for love for mankind. “Go,” he says. Since, he says, you have become more philanthropic, then accept My words about philanthropy; Since you are convinced that I am obsessed with love for mankind, then listen to My words more clearly. I am worried about the abolition of punishment, I strive for the granting of leniency, I am ashamed of the tears of the punished. All sinners, O prophet, adhere to the manuscripts of My love for mankind: do not make Me turn out to be a liar before them. Listen to the words of Scripture, which you yourself know: “I do not want the death of the sinner, but that the sinner should turn from his way and live” (Ezek. 33:11). Elijah bowed his ears and opened his soul to what the Lord was telling him. “Go,” he says, “and show yourself to Ahab.” It is not apart from you that I am reconciled with them: you yourself bring mercy to the punished. I secretly ask you for them, and you appear as a clear intercessor for reconciliation. “Go and show yourself to Ahab, and I will give rain on the land” (1 Kings 18:1). You bring about reconciliation, you petition for the gift of rain, and I will confirm your preaching. So, both willingly and reluctantly, Elijah ran and preached the news of rain, but, again seeing their wickedness, he looked for some pretext to punish them. What then is God? Seeing him not imbued with philanthropy towards those being punished, He removes Elijah from cohabitation with sinners. I, he says, O Elijah, know your jealousy, I recognize your demands, but I also have mercy on sinners, as soon as they are punished beyond measure. You are a strict judge of piety, and the human race constantly sins. All that remains is to separate you from each other. Go to heaven, if you cannot bear sinners, and I will move to earth. If you continue to remain with sinners, then the entire human race will be destroyed, constantly being punished by you. What then? Go to heaven, O Elijah! Fire cannot live with reeds. I will give you sinless companions, I will place you with the faces of angels. Move to heaven, and I will dwell with sinners. I can carry the lost sheep and all sinners on My shoulders, calling: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden.” I will not punish you, but “I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” Translation by P. Yungerov – Editorial office of “The ABC of Faith”