-Elah:
An evil king, son and successor of Baasha,
king of Israel, B.C.E. 926:.1Kings
16:6 "So Baasha slept with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah.(map).and
Elah his son reigned in his stead."
After reigning two years,
Elah was slain by Zimri
while he was intoxicated:.1Kings
16:9 "And his servant Zimri...conspired against him, as he was...drinking
himself drunk..."
Zimri was one of the officers
of Elah's dad Baasha and also was servant to Elah. Zimri slew Elah and
succeeded him as king:.1Kings
16:10.
Elah was father of
Hoshea
the last king of Israel:.2Kings
15:30. He reigned nine years:.2Kings
17:1-3.
Zimri destroyed all the family
of Baasha, according to the prediction of Jehu the prophet:.1Kings
16:7.
As Baasha conspired
against his master Nadab,
so Zimri against Baasha's son Elah. Zimri in turn was slain by Omri.
Thus retributive
justice pays transgressors in kind.
-elders:.The
"elders".of
the
New
Testament.church
were the "pastors".(Ephesians
4:11),."bishops
or overseers".(Acts
20:28), "leaders"
and "rulers".(Hebrews
13:7;
1Thessalonians 5:12).of
the flock. Pastors and teachers
have a responsibility to be honest and honorable.
Everywhere in the New Testament
'bishop' and 'presbyter' are titles given to one being recognized by people
in a branch of the Christian church
as being a leader:.1John
2:12-14. He who is called presbyter or elder on account of his age
or gravity is also called bishop or overseer with reference to the duty
that lay upon him:.Titus
1:5-7;
Acts 20:17-28;
Philippians
1:1. See 'church authority'.
Eli:.Eli
was the high priest and a
judge of ancient Israel
for forty years. Samuel
from birth was dedicated to God by his mother and after weaning,
was brought to the temple where Eli the high priest was, so he could learn
the things to do with God.
Apart from being a terrible
father.(1Samuel
2:12,22-24; 3:13),
Eli was a good, but fat man.(1Samuel
4:18), who probably lacked the
energy needed to ensure his sons were properly raised:.Proverbs
22:6. His sons were named Hophni and Phinehas, both so corrupt, God
got rid of them, along with Eli.(lesson?
be sure to get good at being a mom or dad):.1Samuel
2:34; 4:1-22.
Always follow through with
what you know to be right for all concerned. Eli had a lackadaisical.laissez
faire attitude that 'did him in'. He
knew better, but his heart wasn't for doing his best with the knowledge
and responsibilities his position presented. His protege,
Samuel ended up taking Eli's place when God got rid of Eli. Eli, as they
say, 'blew it'. Don't you make the same mistakes.
-Elijah.(called
Elias
in the New Testament.as
it was written
in Greek):.(below
comprised
from.Easton's
Bible Dictionary):
Elijah is suddenly introduced
to our notice in 1Kings 17:1 as
delivering a message from the Lord
to Ahab. This
is the first mention of him. Nothing is said of his lineage.
Was he an angel, appearing for a time as human? By his work, his purpose
is shown to be that of awakening men from the slumber of their low consciousness,
to the opposite, that of life in
God.
Elijah's Hebrew name 'Alihu'
signifies 'he is my God', the he meaning God, the one we all refer
to. Elijah's life was a humble existence with basic.necessities:.Proverbs
30:8; 1Kings 17:2-16.
Elijah appeared suddenly
on the world scene, as did Melchisedec,
both without parentage
and alluding
to these great personages
being manifestations
in the flesh of the Great Intelligent Being we call the true God.
Angels? Good non terrestrials?
Elijah, having delivered
his message to Ahab, he retired at the command of God to a hiding place
by the brook Cherith, beyond Jordan, where he was fed by ravens. When the
brook dried up God sent him to the widow of Zarephath, a city of Zidon,
from whose scanty
store he was supported for the space of two years. During this period the
widow's son died and was restored to life by Elijah:.1Kings
17:17-24. During these two years a famine prevailed in the land.
Elijah met Obadiah,
one of Ahab's officers and a very spiritual man, whom Ahab
had sent out to seek for pasturage for the cattle and Elijah bade
Obadiah, go and tell Ahab that Elijah was there. King Ahab came and met
Elijah and reproached
him as the troubler of Israel.
It was then proposed that
sacrifices should be publicly offered for the purpose of determining whether
Baal
or Jehovah
were the true God:.1Kings
18:17-39. This was done on Carmel, with the result that the people
fell on their faces, crying "The Lord, he is the God". Thus was accomplished
the great work of Elijah's ministry.
The prophets of Baal were
then put to death by the order of Elijah. Not one of them escaped. Then
immediately followed rain, according to the word of Elijah and in answer
to his prayer:.James
5:18.
Jezebel,
Ahab's wife, enraged at the fate that had befallen her priests of Baal,
threatened to put Elijah to death:.1Kings
19:1-13. He therefore fled in alarm to Beersheba and thence went alone
a day's journey into the wilderness, sitting down in despondency
under a juniper tree. As he slept, an angel touched him and said unto him
"Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you."
He arose and found a cake
and a cruse.(small
container).of
water. Having partaken of the provision thus miraculously supplied, he
went forward on his solitary way for forty days and forty nights to Horeb,
the mount of God, where he took up his abode in a cave. Here the Lord appeared
unto him and said "What are you doing here Elijah?" In answer to his despondent
words God manifests to him his glory.(I
guess, showed him some things that convinced him that this indeed was the
Creator of the multiverse).and
then directs him to return to Damascus and anoint Hazael
king over Syria and Jehu
king over Israel and Elisha to be prophet helping Elijah:.1Kings
19:14-21; 2Kings 8:7-15; 9:1-10.
Elijah had an interesting
interaction with those who didn't believe in the real God and were instead
steeped in worshiping
'gods' of their satanic practices:.1Kings
18:17-40; Isaiah 46:1,2.
These so-called prophets of Baal and the groves, were as bad as those who
do similarly today in their satanic
worship practices, as reported by
Janet
Ossebaard.
When Elijah's time was done
on Earth, the Infinite One took him away in a whirlwind.(2Kings
2:1-12).in
the sight of Elisha, the one who took over from Elijah. Elijah passed on
without the intermediary
step of what we call the death of the physical body.
And so all this leads up to the words of Emmanuel
thousands of years later:.John
11:26 "And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Believe
you this?"
Elijah comes again and can
be noticed by what was happening on Earth in Emmanuel's time:.Malachi
4:5,6; Matthew 11:13,14.
With one of the
free Bible computer programs, type in Elijah and/or Elisha and
read about his remarkable life.
More
on
Ahab.
-Elisha:.(comprised
from
Easton's
Bible Dictionary)
After Elijah's departure.(2Kings
2:1-12), Elisha returned to Jericho
and there healed the spring of water by casting salt into it:.2Kings
2:21.
Elisha possessed, according
to his own request."a
double portion".of
Elijah's
spirit.(2Kings
2:9).and
for the long period of about sixty years.(B.C.E.
892-832).held
the office of."prophet
in Israel":.2Kings
5:8.
Elisha's circa
was B.C.E. and 900 years
before Emmanuel.
Elisha was an attendant and disciple
of Elijah:.1Kings
19:16-19. His name first occurs in the command given to Elijah to anoint
him as his successor; see verse 16.
This was the only one of
the three commands then given to Elijah which he accomplished. On his way
from Sinai to Damascus he found Elisha at his native place engaged in the
labours of the field, ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen.
He went over to him, threw
over his shoulders his rough mantle.(a
large overgarment).and
at once adopted him as a son and invested him with the prophetical office.
Elisha accepted the call
thus given.(about
four years before the death of Ahab).and
for some seven or eight years became the close attendant on Elijah till
he was parted from him and taken up into heaven.(the
air; off the ground and away
from view): 2Kings
2:1. During all these years we hear nothing of Elisha except in connection
with the closing scenes of Elijah's life. After Elijah, Elisha was accepted
as the leader of the sons of the prophets and became noted in Israel.
After his trip to Jericho,
Elisha headed to Bethel.(2Kings
2:23), where, with the sternness
of his master, he cursed the youths who came out and scoffed at him as
a prophet of God who was bald:."Go
up, you bald head."
The judgment at once took
effect and God terribly visited.(2Kings
2:24).the
dishonour done to his prophet. Similarly it
happened
to Emmanuel. The lesson is, respect others, even
our enemies.
Elisha came to king Jehoram
of Israel
when a war broke out between the Syrians
and Israel. Elisha was able to bring the war to an end without the bloody
conflict
that had been the history for both nations:.2Kings
6:21-23.
We next read of Elisha predicting
a fall of rain when the army of Jehoram was faint from thirst.(2Kings
3:9-20); of the multiplying of
the poor widow's cruse of oil.(2Kings
4:1-7); the miracle of restoring
to life the son of the woman of Shunem.(2Kings
4:18-37); the multiplication of
the twenty loaves of new barley into a sufficient supply for an hundred
men.(2Kings
4:42-44); of the cure of Naaman
the Syrian of his leprosy.(2Kings
5:1-27); of the punishment of Gehazi
for his falsehood and his covetousness; of the recovery of the axe lost
in the waters of the Jordan where iron floats.(2Kings
6:1-7); of the miracle at Dothan,
half way on the road between Samaria and Jezreel; of the siege of Samaria
by the king of Syria and of the terrible sufferings of the people in connection
with it and Elisha's prophecy as to the relief that would come:.2Kings
6:24 to 7:2.
We then find Elisha at Damascus,
to carry out the command given to his master to anoint Hazael king over
Syria.(2Kings
8:7-15); thereafter he directs
one of the sons of the prophets to anoint
Jehu,
the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel, instead of Ahab.
Thus the three commands given to Elijah.(2Kings
9:1-10).were
at length carried out.
We do not again read of him
till we find him on his deathbed from some sickness in his own house:.2Kings
13:14-19.
Why sickness unto death and
yet his guru, his master, Elijah escaped all this?
Don't know why, except, Elisha had asked to be
even more effective than Elijah and that would have given him a greater
name. Perhaps he, at the time, thought it to be important in getting the
people to think he was just as good as Elijah was:.2Corinthians
10:12. But probably he just wanted to be more effective in serving
and helping.
Barnes
New Testament Notes:."Apparently
the special function of the two great Israelite prophets, Elijah and Elisha,
was to counteract the noxious
influence of the Baalistic
rites and when these ceased, their extraordinary ministry came to an end.".And
in Elisha's case, his end came as a result of some illness. I wonder why
he wasn't taken away directly to God as his predecessor
Elijah and the earlier Enoch was, instead of going
through some illness? Hmm!
Joash,
the grandson of Jehu, comes to mourn over his approaching departure and
utters the same words as those of Elisha when Elijah was taken away:.2Kings
13:14 "My father, my father! The chariot of Israel and the horsemen
thereof."
Afterwards when a dead body
is laid in Elisha's grave a year after his burial, no sooner does it touch
the hallowed remains than the man."revived
and stood up on his feet":.2Kings
13:20,21.
With one of the
free Bible computer programs, type in Elisha and read about
his remarkable life. A story about his remarkable confidence in his Creator:.2Kings
6:8-23.and.a
story about iron floating.
-Enoch.(*):.was
the seventh from Adam:.Genesis
5:21-24. He was the son of Jared,
and father of Methuselah. After the
birth of Methuselah, his son, Enoch."walked
with God three hundred years".and
then the Creator took him away by translating
him without tasting physical death:.Genesis
5:21-24. When he was translated, only Adam,
so far as recorded, had as yet died a natural death and Noah
was not yet born.
This was not the Enoch who
was a son of the murderer Cain:.Genesis
4:1,17.
Some wonder if the
non biblical Book of Enoch was removed from the Bible,
as another 711 books
appear to have been?
-ephod:.something
girt.(to
encircle with a belt or band), a sacred
vestment worn originally by the high priest.(Exodus
28:4), afterwards by the ordinary
priest.(1Samuel
22:18).and
characteristic
of his office:.1Samuel
2:18,28;
14:3. It was worn
by Samuel and also by David:.2Samuel
6:14. It was made of fine linen and consisted of two pieces, which
hung from the neck and covered both the back and front, above the tunic
and outer garment:.Exodus
28:31. That of the high priest was embroidered with divers
colours. The two pieces were joined together over the shoulders.(hence
in Latin called superhumerale).by
clasps or buckles of gold or precious stones and fastened round the waist
by a "curious girdle of gold, blue, purple and fine twined linen":.Exodus
28:6-12.
The breastplate, with the
Urim
and Thummim, was attached to the ephod.
-Evil-merodach:
Means 'man of Merodach'. He was the son and successor of Nebuchadnezzar-II,
king of Babylon, B.C.E. 561
and originally named Amelu Marduk.
Evil-Merodach's friendly
treatment of Jehoiakim
the captive king of Judah, in releasing him from prison and variously distinguishing
him above other captives, is mentioned to his praise:.2Kings
25:27-30; Jeremiah 52:31-34.
His reign and life were cut
short by a conspiracy,
headed by his brother-in-law Neriglissar,
who succeeded him:.Jeremiah
39:3.