Elijah was a man “with a nature like ours” (James 5:17) and is held up for us as an example of fervent and earnest prayer (the Greek reads, “He prayed with prayer”) that accomplishes much. Elijah didn’t merely pray reactively to the circumstances happening around him; he sought God’s face proactively. He knew that he was coming to a King of power, holiness, and grace, so he brought with him large petitions that only a strong God could answer.

In this era of advanced sports analytics, you often see baseball players in the field pull out cards from their back pockets between batters. These are positioning cards—they tell the fielders where to stand, based on the tendencies of each batter, to increase the chances of getting an out on a hit ball. In a similar way, I hope this brief summary of Elijah the prophet will help you know what to look for as you study the prophet’s ministry in the book of Kings. As we survey Elijah’s life from his first appearance to his being taken to heaven, there are six things we need to know.

1. Elijah Was an Enigmatic Man

In the early ninth century BC, during the dark days of Ahab the son of Omri, from seemingly out of nowhere God raised up Elijah as His prophet to confront the Baal worship of Israel and Judah (1 Kings 16:28–17:1; 2 Chron. 21:12). But he was from somewhere—he was a Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead (the region of Israel east of the Jordan River). Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly where Tishbe was, and his hometown is all we know about his background. We don’t know his “origin story.” Like Melchizedek, Elijah was also “without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life” (Heb. 7:3). He was something of a mystery man, wearing distinctive clothing (2 Kings 1:8) and standing aloof from Ahab for much of his ministry (1 Kings 17:3; 18:10), appearing and disappearing at God’s command.

2. Elijah Was a Bold Man

He stood against the wickedness of the leaders of God’s people (particularly Ahab) with boldness and courage. On Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18), in the vineyard of Naboth (1 Kings 21), and in the face of Ahaziah’s soldiers (2 Kings 1), Elijah was fearless. From where did his boldness come? He tells us in 1 Kings 17:1: “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand . . . ”. Elijah knew that he stood always in the presence of the covenant God of Jacob, the true King of Israel, who had called him to do His will.

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