Elijah The Tishbite
(ep 01)
Today we start an episode of the man Elijah. Firstly let me clarify that we get to hear the story of Elijah the original. I know very many little babies have been named after him over the years, but my mind is on the patent Elijah 🙂
Now, this guy is a Prof: in the sense of a prophet not a professor in a university, as we know it. When we get to hear first of him first in our book, the author calls him Elijah from Tishbe in Gilead.
My first thought as I studied this story was why did the author of the Book of Kings decide to call him “Elijah from Tishbe?
You see I am a writer and if I was to report about a person here in Rwanda. It’s unlikely I would say ‘A man named Mugisha from Rwanda… ‘No. that would sound quite strange. It would work if it was more like ” A woman called Carol from Kenya. You see a Kenyan In Rwanda is unusual, but a Rwandan in Rwanda is normal.
So its either Elijah is a foreigner or from a minority tribe in the nation of Judah.
So I decided to do a little research on Google (Thank God for Google) I discovered pleasantly that my suspicions was right. Tishbites were a small tribe of immigrants that settled in Gilead.
Now allow me to put this into perspective for you.
So one morning I wake up and tell the King of the Princesses in my house “Sweetie God spoke to me last night, I have a message for president Kagame” Imagine for an instant its not the first time my husband has heard this. God has been sending me to deliver pretty tough messages to people, Messages that have put me into lots of trouble with friends and family.
The only difference is, none of it has been beyond the area chief.
One thing I can tell you will happen for sure is that before I even tell him what message am going to deliver, He will be disputing my source of information this time round. Yaani, it will be something like this
“Carol please (he only calls me when he is speaking to me a matter of great gravity) “have you sat down to think that some of these messages you have could be coming from your sub conscious? “
I mean we both know that you would pay anything to go and see Hon, but seriously, not with a Message from God …
I imagine us getting into an argument until he understands that the message is genuine and It’s a command from God not a request. And since he is a God fearing man, and he doesn’t want to have a meeting with thunder and lighting in the middle of the day when the sun is smiling widely to the earth.
He will let me go, and will be left praying and packing or vise versa.
The Bible in 1Kings 17 records that Elijah went up to the King, not any other King but to King Ahab. Now. Let me refresh to you who King Ahab was;
This was the King that is recorded to have made God angry more than any other King in the history of Israel. The Son of Omran the Army officer who overthrew the old Kingdom lineage of Jeroboam and took over the kingdom by force.
- Ahab married Jezebel, As in Jezebel! (The evil queen from Sidon who brought in her own prophets and killed Yahweh’s prophets)
- Jezebel led him to worship Baal, a made up God (Now of all the sins that upset God, worshipping another God really sets him up)
- Not only did he worship Baal, but he made a temple for him, just like Yahwehs temple
- After making the temple he made an alter for this God!! (he decided to offer sacrifices for his new found gods, instead of Yahweh)
- Then he put up an image of a goddess Asherah (Not sure if it was to keep Baal company or she was a god all by herself)
So it doesn’t need expert imagination to figure out that Ahab did not care to hear from the God had he had rejected, leave alone from some Elijah from Tishbe
Anyways, in the middle of having a Kingly lunch, the kings aide come and informs Ahab that there is a man at the gate who claimed he has been sent by God. You must remember that Ahab is a God fearing man; the problem is that he fears some funny God’s. So he agrees and commands his aide to check Elijah up for weapons and allow him into his courts.
Elijah walked in looking more confident than his heart actually was. Ahab was a mean King by all standards, if half of his DNA came from his father, this did not escape Elijah’s knowledge as he took one painful step after the other as he approached the Kings throne.
Note to self: When you subscribe to the Mastership of Yahweh, be ready to do funny stuff, even risky stuff.
Author . Musician . Blogger
Caroline nkirote-Bongo