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1 Kings 17:22-24  The LORD heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived.  Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house.  He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”  Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth.”

The Prophet Elijah had a key role to play in the outworking of our gracious God’s Eternal Plan of Salvation as it is revealed to us in the inspired Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.  Four centuries after this event involving the enigmatic death of the young son of the widow of Zarephath, the LORD will declare to Israel through the Prophet Malachi, “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes.  He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”  Then, in the outworking of this Plan of Salvation the LORD will be strangely ‘silent’ for another 450 years until he sends his own beloved Son into his world, and a heavenly messenger will declare John the Baptist (the ‘herald’ chosen to announce Jesus) to be the fulfilment of Malachi’s prophecy (Luke 1:13-17).

Moreover, during Jesus’ earthly ministry he will be ‘transfigured’ (Gk ‘metamorphosed’) on a high mountain in the presence of his disciples Peter, James and John, and in this ‘other-worldly’ state he will meet with Moses and Elijah and talk with them about his imminent crucifixion (Luke 9:29-31).

As we reflect on these details of the ‘Big Picture’ of the Plan of Salvation, it is not surprising that the Sovereign LORD God would choose to work amazing, ‘Christ-foreshadowing’ miracles (like raising the dead) through Elijah.  Interestingly, the raising of her dead son was proof enough to this poor Zarephath mother that the LORD God was at work, revealing himself so clearly to his lost, sin-affected world.

It is good for us to take note of all this when we read, and respond to, the closing words of the Apostle Paul’s significant sermon at a meeting of the Areopagus in Athens: “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone – an image made by human design and skill.  In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.  For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed.  He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:29-31).

Let us not be found remaining in ignorance of these things when Jesus returns as Judge and King.  May we rather have turned to him in repentance-and-faith, so that we can look forward to his coming (soon?) as our Saviour, and not as our Judge.

– Bruce Christian