Elijah first appears in scripture as Elijah the Tishbite, from Gilead. That is really all we are given at first. He was not introduced as a king, a captain, a priest, or the head of some office in Israel. He was a prophet. He stood before God, and because he stood before God, he could stand before kings. (1 Kings 17:1)
I do not believe Elijah was a Levite. Scripture calls him the Tishbite from Gilead, and it gives no sign that he came through the Levitical order. That matters to me. God does not look on men the way institutions look on men. He looks at the heart. When the order men built becomes corrupt, God can call a man from outside that order and send him with His word.
Elijah lived in the days of Ahab king of Israel, when Israel had been pulled away from the true worship of God and turned toward Baal. The people were halting between two opinions. They still had the history of Moses and the fathers, but their hearts had gone after other gods. (1 Kings 16:29-33; 1 Kings 18:21)
Ahab did evil before God, and his wife Jezebel was even more set against the prophets of the Lord. She hated them and had many of them killed. Elijah became one of the great voices standing against that corruption. Ahab did not like him. Jezebel wanted him dead. The priests of Baal opposed him. Yet Elijah stood. (1 Kings 18:4; 1 Kings 18:17-19; 1 Kings 19:1-2)
One of the first things Elijah declared was that there would be no rain except by his word. After that God sent him to the brook Cherith, and there the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening. What a wonderful thing. God did not need a palace, a priestly table, or a king's favor to preserve His prophet. He could feed him by the birds of the air. (1 Kings 17:1-6)
Then came the great challenge on Mount Carmel. Elijah gathered Israel and asked them a simple question: How long will you halt between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. If Baal is god, follow him. The priests of Baal prepared their sacrifice and cried out from morning until evening, but there was no answer. No voice. No fire. Nothing. (1 Kings 18:20-29)
Then Elijah repaired the altar of the Lord that had been broken down. That phrase really struck me. He was not trying to make a new religion. He was calling Israel back to God. He was restoring the place of worship that had been broken down in front of the people.
Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of Jacob. He built the altar in the name of the Lord. He laid the sacrifice in order, poured water over it, and called upon the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the dust, and the water. The people fell on their faces and cried that the Lord was God. (1 Kings 18:30-39)
This is where I feel Elijah's work becomes so important. He was not simply calling people back to the law of Moses as an institution. He was calling them back to God Himself. He called on the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. He repaired an altar. He stood outside the corrupted religious order of his day and showed the people that God still answers from heaven.
I have noticed this same pattern with the prophets who spoke with God or saw God. They were men who lived the older way. They were not merely products of the institution. They heard God, obeyed Him, and were sent by Him. That is the Order of Adam. It is family, altar, covenant, sacrifice, obedience, and direct communication with God.
From Moses to the days of the Messiah, the institutional order was often corrupt. There were sincere people inside it, and God worked with sincere people wherever they were. However the system itself often turned men away from the living God. By the time of the Messiah's ministry, that corruption was very plain. The leaders had the forms, the offices, and the traditions, but many of them could not recognize the Son of God standing before them.
After Carmel, Jezebel threatened Elijah's life, and Elijah fled into the wilderness. He was tired, heavy, and worn down. He sat under a juniper tree and asked God to take his life. But God did not cast him away for being tired. An angel touched him and gave him food and water. Then the angel came again a second time and told him to arise and eat, because the way was too great for him. Elijah ate and drank, and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the mount of God. (1 Kings 19:1-8)
At Horeb, Elijah heard from God. The wind came, the earthquake came, and the fire came, but God was not in those things. Then came a still small voice, and Elijah wrapped his face in his mantle and stood at the entrance of the cave. Scripture does not plainly say Elijah saw God with his eyes, but it does show that Elijah stood before God, heard His voice, and was sent by Him. (1 Kings 19:9-18)
Later, when Ahaziah sent captains with their fifties to bring Elijah down, Elijah again stood in the authority of God. The first captain came with fifty men and commanded Elijah to come down. Fire came down from heaven. The second captain came the same way, and fire came again. The third captain came differently. He fell on his knees and pleaded for his own life and for the lives of the fifty men under him. Then the angel of the Lord told Elijah to go with him. That captain understood something the others did not. Elijah was not a man to be handled by kings as though he belonged to them. He belonged to God. (2 Kings 1:9-15)
Then came the day Elijah was taken. Elijah went with Elisha from place to place, and Elisha would not leave him. When they crossed Jordan, Elijah asked what he should do for Elisha before he was taken away. Elisha asked for a double portion of his spirit. Elijah told him that if he saw him when he was taken, it would be so. Then a chariot of fire and horses of fire parted them, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha saw it and cried out, "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof." (2 Kings 2:1-12)
Elijah did not disappear from the work of God. Many years later, when the Messiah was transfigured on the mountain, Moses and Elijah appeared with Him. What a terrific thing. Moses, who offered the children of Israel the higher order, and Elijah, who called Israel to that same higher order of worship, appeared with the Messiah. (Matthew 17:1-3; Mark 9:2-4; Luke 9:28-31)
Malachi said Elijah would come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. If he did not come, the earth would be smitten with a curse. His work is to turn the hearts of the children back to the fathers. These fathers are not merely recent ancestors. They are the covenant fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the ancient worship of God given through them. (Malachi 4:5-6)
This is why Elijah matters so much to me. In his own day he called Israel away from Baal and back to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In the last days his work is still a turning back. Back to the fathers. Back to the covenant. Back to the worship of God that had been broken down.
What a wonderful pattern this is.