| The Appearance of the Prophet Elijah to a Soldier/Православие.Ru The Appearance of the Prophet Elijah to a Soldier SOURCE: Mystagogy by Monk Lazarus of Dionysiou ( " Διονυσιτικες Διηγσεις " ) Speaking with brother Theoktistos from Epirus on 20 July 1972, he asked me if I heard of the wondrous miracle that occurred fifteen years ago in Ioannina to a soldier who was stationed to guard the barracks. I told him I had not heard it and asked him to tell me so that I could write it down to the glory of the Prophet Elias (Elijah) who celebrates today. " Listen " , he told me. " A soldier was stationed to guard a barrack and at around midnight he heard the footsteps of a person approaching him. The soldier thought it was an officer who, as is customary, went to go check to see if he was awake or sleeping, etc. The soldier yelled: " Halt! " but again heard the steps approaching him. For a second time he yelled: " Halt! Who " s there? " Having his weapon in hand, he received no response. He was then forced to say: " Halt or I " ll shoot! " " As soon as he said " shoot " , his weapon left his hands, and landed about fifty meters away. He then saw suddenly, instead of an officer, as he thought it would be, a priest with a lightning-like brightness of light! When he saw this, he was very much afraid. The priest told him: " Do not be afraid, my child, do not be afraid, but tell me, why O blessed one do you blaspheme the divine? Christ, the Panagia and the Saints? " " Feeling remorse, he began to tear up and asked forgiveness for his sin, saying: " Forgive me, holy Father, but it is because of my evil and many years of bad habits that I do this. Forgive me. " " The Saint told him: " You are to preach to everyone to repent, and to not blaspheme. Communicate this to the Metropolis and to everybody. Even the newspapers should publish this. " " The soldier responded: " They will not believe me, O Saint. But tell me, who are you? " " " I am the Prophet Elias. And so that the people will believe you more, you will tell them at that cliff (and he pointed to the area) they are to dig and they will find an old church of mine and on top of this they are to build a church. " |
| We too live in a time where our governments and big businesses finance entertainment and parades with sexual acts in public. Our school system even calls this part of the curriculum. Some religious leaders even support this. Some so-called Orthodox people do as well. Saint Paisios said that to be righteous simply means to be trying – to be making an effort – to live in a holy manner. In most periods of history, our times included, this is the exception, rather than the rule. So we shouldn’t be surprised to find people like the prophets of Baal in the world. We shouldn’t be surprised to find them in the Bible… and we shouldn’t be surprised when we find them today. What should surprise us is whenever we find a righteous person – a saint – like the Prophet Elijah. Speaking about him, Saint James says, the prayer of a righteous man availeth much (James 5:16). Think about it. Think about all the things accomplished by the prayers of the Prophet Elijah. He was alone. He was surrounded. The times in which he lived were hopeless. He said, I alone am left, the only prophet of the Lord; and the prophets of Baal are exceedingly many. Do you know how that feels? Do we not live at a time when we feel completely outnumbered? Do you not feel like even opening your mouth will have the hounds of hell storm down your throat? Why did the prayers of the Prophet Elijah bring him such help? Why did they have such power – enough power to overwhelm all that opposition, and the power of famine, sickness, death, and the devil? Saint Augustine says, it’s because the Prophet Elijah began with confessing his sins before God. He cleaned up his own life, so he could come before God in prayer. You see, it’s impossible to have powerful prayer when your heart is divided with thoughts and with sins. That, brothers and sisters, is the reason we have been given Holy Confession in the Church. Saint James writes, Confess yours sins to one another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed. (James 5:16) |
| Having returned to Jerusalem, the Jews first of all resumed sacrifices to the Lord God, and then, the next year, they laid the foundations for the new Temple. The Samaritans, having found out about it, expressed a desire to take part in the building of the Temple, but the Jews, in order to keep the services to God pure, refused them. After nineteen years the Temple was finished. The new Temple was not as rich and splendid as the Temple of Solomon. The old folk, remembering the splendor of the former Temple, wept over the fact that this second Temple was poorer and smaller than before. But the Prophet Haggai, whom the Lord sent to the Jews, comforted them. He predicted that the glory of this latter Temple would be greater than that of the former because to this Temple would come the Desire of all nations, Christ the Saviour of the World (cf. Haggai 2:6–9). The Prophet Zechariah foretold the triumphant entry of the Saviour into Jerusalem upon a colt, the foal of a donkey (cf. Zech. 9:9). The Prophet Malachi prophesied that the advent of the Messiah was near and that before Him would be sent a Forerunner, that is a precursor like the Prophet Elijah, to prepare people to receive the Saviour (cf. Mal. 3:1, 4:5 ). Malachi was the last prophet of the Jews. After him for more than four hundred years, words of the prophets were not heard among the Hebrew people, until the appearance of the Forerunner of Christ, John the Baptist. 42. The Greek Empire. The Translation of the Books of the Old Testament into the Greek Language 43. The Roman Empire. The Universal Expectation of the Messiah Having been freed from the empire of the Greek kings, the Jews did not have long to make use of their freedom. The Romans, having conquered the whole known world, also subjugated the Jews (64 B.C.). They placed over Palestine the procurator Antipater from the tribe of Esau, an Idumean (or Edomite). He very cleverly secured the confidence of the Romans, but was soon poisoned. After him, his son Herod, called Herod the Great, was appointed governor of Galilee. He was a suspicious, brutal and cunning man. He also, like his father, skillfully gained the confidence of the Roman authorities and was declared King of the Jews. In order to find favor among the Jews, King Herod restored the Jerusalem Temple. Having received the title of King, he was still subordinate to Caesar , the Roman Emperor. From the time that the Jews came under Roman power, they were always subject to a Roman ruler , a deputy of the Roman Emperor. The Jews were allowed to keep their Sanhedrin , their council of high priests and elders of the people; but the power of the Sanhedrin was strictly limited. The Sanhedrin, for example, could not impose the death penalty without the permission of the Roman ruler, to whom belonged the highest authority in Israel. |
| The Baal worshippers didn’t give up. They worked themselves into a bloody frenzy (literally), cutting themselves with knives. They raved on with their prophetic invocations (the Hebrew word for “rave” and “prophesy” is the same word) until late afternoon, until they finally collapsed in exhaustion. Then it was Elijah’s turn. His demeanour was calm and confident, a studied contrast to the frenzy of the worshippers of Baal. He bid the people draw near, and took twelve stones to repair the altar of Yahweh, thereby calling the twelve tribes back to their ancestral allegiance. Then he dug a trench around the altar and asked the people to soak the offering with water, making it harder to ignite. They soaked the offering, and then (at Elijah’s word) soaked it again. And then again a third time. Then Elijah the prophet prayed a simple prayer, asking Yahweh to send fire from heaven and turn the people’s hearts back to Him. Immediately the fire of God fell from heaven, and consumed the offering and the wood under it and the stones and the dust and licked up the water filling and overflowing the trench. The people fell on their faces, crying “Yahweh! He is God! Yahweh! He is God!” Elijah commanded them to seize the idolatrous prophets of Baal and execute them for their apostasy even as the Law demanded. This contest should have decided the future policy and turned the tide back to the exclusive worship of Yahweh. Instead, it merely intensified royal fury, and Jezebel swore that she would have Elijah dead within twenty-four hours. Elijah, alone, friendless, and forsaken, fled for his life, departing from Mount Carmel in the north to Beer-sheba in the extreme south of the country. There he stopped and prayed that he might die. He had utterly failed: failed in his mission to turn Israel back to God, failed to stop the juggernaut of royal power, and more importantly, he had failed Yahweh Himself. He determined to head further south to Mount Horeb, the historic origin of Yahwism, and there to confess to Him his failure, and ask that he might die. |
| Rehoboam “O my soul, thou hast rivaled Rehoboam, who paid no attention to his father’s counselors, and Jeroboam, that evil servant and renegade of old. But flee from their example and cry to God: I have sinned, take pity on me.” Rehoboam was a son of Solomon who became the King of Judah. Some representatives of the northern tribes came to him asking for lower taxes. Rehoboam told them that he would give his answer in three days. He spoke with his father’s counselor’s who advised him to be merciful. He then spoke with some men his own age who advised him to make the taxes even greater. He listened to the younger men, who suggested that he tell the people. “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions” Jeroboam was the first king of the northern kingdom, of the Kingdom of Israel. He gained his position through treason and encouraged the worship of idols. Ahab, Jezebel and Eliiah and Zarephath “Heaven is closed to thy, my soul, and a famine from God has seized thee; for thou hast been disobedient, as Ahab was to the words of Elijah the Tishbite. But imitate the widow Zarepheth and feed the prophet’s soul.” Ahab was one of the kings of Israel. If you remember, after Solomon’s rule the kingdom was divided into the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. Ahab and his wife, Jezebel encouraged the worship of many different idols. The prophet Elijah, who is also mentioned in the canon, was constantly in opposition to them. Elijah was so enraged by the blasphemers of Ahab that he prayer to God that it would not rain for three and a half years. At one point Elijah fled because Ahab was going to kill him. God told Elijah to go to a certain widow, Zarephath. He met the widow gathering sticks in preparation for a last meal for her son and herself. Christ referred to Elias and Zarephath, as recorded in Luke 4:25-26 Hezekiah and Manasseh (mentioned in other services) |
| «I will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings. I will lay waste the land...I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you.» As everyone knows there were two main occasions when the Jewish people were exiled. The first was the exile to Babylon in the time of Jeremiah, and the second occurred after they rejected the Messiah in 30 A.D. Forty years later, in 70 A.D., the Roman General Titus destroyed Jerusalem. Most of the Jews were scattered among the nations and until the present time they have no temple in which to offer their sacrifices. Now, having looked at these examples of fulfilled prophecy, we must ask ourselves whether there is some principle which we are to learn from this. The answer is « YES ». There must always be two (or more) witnesses When God said through Moses that no prophet should be accepted until his prophecy comes true, He was saying that there must be two witnesses. When Elijah said that it wouldn " t rain, Elijah was the first witness. By withholding the rain for three and a half years until Elijah prayed for it, God Himself became the second witness as He fulfilled Elijah " s words. When Jeremiah prophesied that Hananiah (the false prophet) would die, he was the first witness. When God caused Hananiah to die a few weeks later, He showed Himself as the second witness confirming Jeremiah " s words. In the Torah we find that God established this basic principle even for human law. Deuteronomy 17:6 says, «On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death; but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.» and in Deuteronomy 19:15 the same principle is stated to apply to all types of crime, «One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses .» This need for two witnesses is also found in the Qur " an. In the Sura of the Heifer (Al-Baqara) 2:282 from 2 A.H. it says, |
| The Holy Prophet Elias A man who saw God, a wonderworker and zealot for faith in God, Elias was of the tribe of Aaron, from the city of Tishba, whence he was known as " the Tishbite. " When Elias was born, his father Sabah saw angels of God around the child, swaddling it with fire and feeding it with flames. This was a foreshadowing of Elias’ fiery character and his God-given fiery powers. He spent his whole youth in prayer and meditation, withdrawing often to the desert to ponder and pray in tranquility. The prophet Elias came into the greatest conflict with the Israelite king, Ahab, and his evil wife Jezebel, for they worshipped idols and turned the people from the service of the one, living God. On top of this, Jezebel, being a Syrian, persuaded her husband to build a temple to the Syrian god, Baal, and appointed many priests to the service of this false god. Elias performed many miracles by the power of God: he closed the heavens, that no rain should fall for three years and six months; called down fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice to his God, while the priests of Baal were unable to do this; brought rain from the heavens at his prayers; miraculously multiplied corn and oil in the widow’s house at Zarephath, and restored her dead son to life; prophesied to Ahab that the dogs would lick up his blood, and to Jezebel that the dogs would devour her--which came to pass; and performed many other miracles and foretold many events. He talked with God on Horeb, and heard His voice in the calm after the great wind. At the time of his death, he took Elisha and appointed him his heir as a prophet; he parted the Jordan with his mantle and was finally borne to heaven in a fiery chariot drawn by fiery horses. He appeared, together with Moses, to our Lord Jesus Christ on Mount Tabor at the Transfiguration. At the end of the world, Elias will appear again, to break the power of the antichrist (Rev. 11). From: The Prologue from Orchid. Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic. Birmingham B30 1QE, England: Lazarica Press, 1986. Book 3, Pg. 86-87 Troparion, Tone 4 Incarnate Angel and summit of the Prophets,/second forerunner of the coming of Christ,/glorious Elijah sent down grace from on high to the Prophet Elisha./He heals diseases and cleanses the leprous./He pours healings on all who honor him. Kontakion, Tone 2 O great Prophet Elijah,/seer of God " s mighty works,/who didst halt the torrential rain by thy word,/pray for us to the Lover of Mankind. 2 августа 2013 г. Подпишитесь на рассылку Православие.Ru Рассылка выходит два раза в неделю: Комментарии Мы в соцсетях Подпишитесь на нашу рассылку |
| It " s a matter of life and death, of freedom and slavery. How shall we decide? In the end we will know which prophet is right by which king wins the battle, but by then, if Jeremiah is right, it will be too late to act. So the LORD, the Eternal One, sends more information. Chapter 28 continues, «Shortly after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: and tell Hananiah, «This is what the LORD says: You have broken a wooden yoke, but in its place you will get a yoke of iron...I will put an iron yoke on the necks of all these nations to make them serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon...» « «Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, Hananiah! The LORD has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies. Therefore, this is what the LORD says: «I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you are going to die , because you have preached rebellion against the LORD.» » «In the seventh month of that same year, Hananiah the prophet died .» Jeremiah 28:12–17. Those living in Jerusalem did not have to wait very long before they had their answer. Hananiah made his false prophecy in the fifth month . Shortly afterward Jeremiah told him, «You will die for your false prophecy», and he died in the seventh month . Jeremiah " s word was confirmed by God, and those who were looking for leading from God knew that they must surrender and go to Babylon. Five years later Jerusalem fell, again confirming Jeremiah " s words. We read in Jeremiah 39:6–7 that, «...the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and also killed all the nobles of Judah. Then he put out Zedekiah " s eyes and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.» Other fulfilled prophecies in the Torah-old testament There are many other such fulfilled prophecies in the Torah-Old Testament. For some of them the length of waiting between the prophecy and the fulfillment was short. In Elijah " s case it was three and a half years, in Jeremiah " s a few weeks. Thus the people living at the time could see the fulfillment and believe in the prophet. Other prophecies were not fulfilled until centuries later, and some have still not been fulfilled. Here are several examples. |
| Was it for his own necessities, because he said, Ye sent unto my necessity? Rejoiceth he for that? Verily not for that. But how know we this? Because himself says immediately, not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit. I have learned of Thee, my God, to distinguish betwixt a gift, and fruit. A gift, is the thing itself which he gives, that imparts these necessaries unto us; as money, meat, drink, clothing, shelter, help: but the fruit, is the good and right will of the giver. For the Good Master said not only, He that receiveth a prophet, but added, in the name of a prophet: nor did He only say, He that receiveth a righteous man, but added, in the name of a righteous man. So verily shall the one receive the reward of a prophet, the other, the reward of a righteous man: nor saith He only, He that shall give to drink a cup of cold water to one of my little ones; but added, in the name of a disciplë and so concludeth, Verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward. The gift is, to receive a prophet, to receive a righteous man, to give a cup of cold water to a disciplë but the fruit, to do this in the name of a prophet, in the name of a righteous man, in the name of a disciple. With fruit was Elijah fed by the widow that knew she fed a man of God, and therefore fed him: but by the raven was he fed with a gift. Nor was the inner man of Elijah so fed, but the outer only; which might also for want of that food have perished. Chapter XXVII I will then speak what is true in Thy sight, O Lord, that when carnal men and infidels (for the gaining and initiating whom, the initiatory Sacraments and the mighty workings of miracles are necessary, which we suppose to be signified by the name of fishes and whales) undertake the bodily refreshment, or otherwise succour Thy servant with something useful for this present life; whereas they be ignorant, why this is to be done, and to what end; neither do they feed these, nor are these fed by them; because neither do the one do it out of an holy and right intent; nor do the other rejoice at their gifts, whose fruit they as yet behold not. For upon that is the mind fed, of which it is glad. And therefore do not the fishes and whales feed upon such meats, as the earth brings not forth until after it was separated and divided from the bitterness of the waves of the sea. Chapter XXVIII |
| Tweet Нравится What is the Basis for Venerating Saints " Relics? Fr. John Whiteford The Relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh The veneration of the relics of the saints is rooted in several Biblical truths, as well as in the Tradition of the Church. 1). Unlike the pagan Greeks, we believe in the goodness of creation. As we are told in Genesis 1:31 , when God completed his work of creation: " And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. " Consequently, we believe that God can and does use material things to impart grace, as is seen throughout both the Old and New Testaments. 2). God honors those who honor him. " for them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed " ( 1 Samuel 2:30 ). " if any man serve me, him will my Father honor " ( John 12:26 ). " Wondrous is God in His saints; the God of Israel, He will give power and strength unto His people. Blessed is God " (Psalm LXX). 3). God has worked miracles through the relics of the saints in Scripture. We are told that when the Prophet Elijah was taken up to heaven in fiery chariot, his mantle fell to the Prophet Elisha: " And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over " ( 2 Kings 2:14 ). Furthermore, when the Prophet Elisha himself died, he was buried in a cave, but then a man was raised from the dead by touching his relics. After his death, the Moabites invaded, and when some men where burying another man in that area, when they saw the Moabite raiders, " they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet. " ( 2 Kings 13:20-21 ). And in the New Testament we read that " God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them " ( Acts 19:11-12 ). |
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