links open new window The Transfiguration Giovanni Savoldo 12x16 Gicl... Mat 17:2  And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. Mat 17:3  And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with him.

Eli'jah. (my God is Jehovah). Elijah has been well entitled "the grandest and the most romantic character that Israel ever produced." "Elijah, the Tishbite, ... of the inhabitants of Gilead" is literally all that is given us to know of his parentage and locality. Of his appearance as he "stood before" Ahab, (B.C. 910), with the suddenness of motion, to this day, characteristic of the Bedouins, from his native hills, we can perhaps realize something from the touches, few but strong, of the narrative. His chief characteristic was his hair, long and thick, and hanging down his back. His ordinary clothing consisted of a girdle of skin around his loins, which he tightened when about to move quickly. 1Ki_18:46. But in addition to this, he occasionally wore the "mantle," or cape of sheepskin which has supplied us with one of our most familiar figures of speech. His introduction, in what we may call the first act of his life, is the most startling description. He suddenly appears before Ahab, prophesies a three-years drought in Israel, and proclaims the vengeance of Jehovah for the apostasy of the king. Obliged to flee from the vengeance of the king, or more probably of the queen, (compare 1Ki_19:2, he was directed to the brook, Cherith. There, in the hollow of the torrent bed, he remained, supported in the miraculous manner with which we are all familiar, till the failing of the brook obliged him to forsake it. His next refuge was at Zarephath. Here, in the house of the widow woman, Elijah performed the miracles of prolonging the oil and the meal, and restored the son of the widow to life after his apparent death. 1 Kings 17. In this or some other retreat, an interval of more than two years must have elapsed. The drought continued, and at last, the full horrors of famine, caused by the failure of the crops, descended on Samaria. Again Elijah suddenly appears before Ahab. There are few more sublime stories in history than the account of the succeeding events -- with the servant of Jehovah and his single attendant on the one hand, and the 850 prophets of Baal on the other; the altars, the descending fire of Jehovah consuming both sacrifice and altar; the rising storm, and the ride across the plain to Jezreel. 1 Kings 18.