THE FEAR OF THE PROPHET ELIJAH (2Kings 1: 1-16)
In the Bible, 2Kings 1:1-16 describes the fear of the prophet Elijah. We know this because God told Elijah through His angel not to be afraid and to come down from where he was sitting and go with the soldiers that King Ahaziah had sent (2Kings 1: 15). We know that the word of God is never wrong, nor is it redundant, because He is the One with absolute wisdom. So when God said that, it means that the prophet Elijah was truly in fear. Many people have wondered about this point because God’s word in Revelation 21:8 says that cowards will never enter Heaven, but the prophet Elijah was given a special grace by God that only 2 people in all of humanity received: He was taken up into the air without experiencing death. Those two men were Enoch and the prophet Elijah (Genesis 5:24, 2 Kings 2:11). Many people, when thinking about this, think that the Bible has contradictions. But thinking like that is wrong. The Bible does not have any contradictions, but the contradictions occur because people do not understand the meanings in the Bible. Therefore, this article is written to explain the fear of the prophet Elijah.
The reason why Elijah and Enoch were taken up into the air without experiencing death was because they had great faith, or more accurately, they had greater faith than all other people who ever lived on earth. Because if there was anyone else with as much faith as they did, he or she would have been taken up into the air like them, because God is just, He rewards and punishes according to each individual’s faith and life (Jeremiah 17:10, Revelation 22:12, Matthew 16:27, Romans 2:6, 1 Corinthians 3:8, 2 Corinthians 5:10, Ephesians 6:8, Hosea 4:9). Because of this truth, we know that the prophet Elijah’s faith was very great. The Bible also says that people with true faith do not fear death, such as in the case of Paul (Philippians 1:23, Acts 20:24). If Elijah had greater faith than Paul, then his fear must not have been the fear of death. So what was Elijah afraid of? We can also take the case of Paul to understand the fear of the prophet Elijah. The Apostle Paul had once said that he was very concerned about the Christians in the churches of that time, and when Paul said goodbye to the Christians in Ephesus for the last time (Acts 20:25, 38), he said that after he was gone, many evil and wicked people would come to harm God’s children. It is for this reason that although Paul wanted very much to be with Christ, he was still willing to stay on earth because he wanted the opportunity to help and protect Christians in the churches (Philippians 1:24).
The Bible also says that all those who are filled with the Holy Spirit have the same mind, because the Holy Spirit works the same way in all the lives He dwells in (1 Corinthians 12:4; Philippians 2:5; Ephesians 4:3-6). So while Paul had such concern for the Christians in the churches of his day, Elijah had the same concern for Israel, but certainly even greater. So the fear of the prophet Elijah was not the fear of death but the fear of having to leave the people of Israel to return to God while the tendency to worship idols among the people, especially from the evil kings of Israel and Judah, could cause many to be tempted and die in sin.
(to be continued)