John Wayne was a movie megastar. In fact, film studios used to base their annual projections on his popularity. He was so bankable that his movies consistently drew crowds to the theaters in the 40s, 50s, and 60s—many of them filled with starry-eyed boys like me who watched the Duke’s adventures breathlessly, imagining that we were riding at his side to save the day. John Wayne was an American hero.
There was something about the Duke, however, that I didn’t understand until I was older. Wayne was not a great actor. Unlike Gregory Peck, who became lost in the character of whatever role he was playing, John Wayne was always John Wayne. Whether playing a Western sheriff, a World War II marine, or a modern-day detective, he was always himself—not the character.
This disappointing realization showed me something I didn’t want to know. As a screen hero, Wayne was larger than life. But as an actor, he was just average. Being average in the garb of greatness was a hard concept for me to understand. It made me reevaluate my assumptions.
A MAN LIKE JOHN WAYNE?
This same tension hit me a few years ago when I studied the life of a great prophet of ancient Israel. I had grown up hearing Sunday school stories about Elijah. He too captured my imagination. As an Old Testament superhero, Elijah seemed to be able to do everything short of leaping tall buildings in a single bound.
The prophet Elijah brings to mind some pretty strong images:
- Boldly defying a king
- Raising a boy from the dead
- Calling down fire from heaven
- Riding to heaven in a fiery chariot
And the fact that such a man appears in the ages of the Bible also helps to make him bigger than life. It’s hard for me to imagine Elijah waiting for a bus or buying burgers at McDonald’s. Yet the New Testament makes a point of letting us know that Elijah was, after all, a very ordinary person.
A MAN LIKE US
The New Testament says that Elijah was subject to the same emotions and moods as the rest of us. Even though his life was marked by miracles, eight words help us identify with him. The apostle James said of Elijah that he “was a man with a nature like ours” (Jas. 5:17).
It’s possible that James was referring to legends that portrayed Elijah as more of a god than a man. So, while emphasizing that God has given prayer to help us in our weakness, the apostle made it clear that Elijah was someone like us. He had the same weaknesses and failures that tell the story of our own lives.
This prophet who engaged in so many amazing events in the Bible was, in fact, not Superman. He was, in a sense, every man. He experienced the discouragement, fears, and doubts that mark all of us from time to time. He pictures for us human frailty, spiritual dependence, and the great need for prayer in our walk with God.
A MAN OF MYSTERY
Elijah shows up abruptly in the Old Testament record of Israel’s kings, appearing on the pages of the Bible with minimal introduction—no lineage, no pedigree, and no résumé. First Kings 17:1 simply says:
Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead…
We can’t even be sure of what is meant by calling him “the Tishbite.” Some think this is a reference to Tishbe, a city beyond Jordan, in the tribe of Gad. The word tishbe, however, can also be translated “pilgrim or sojourner.” It could simply mean that he was homeless and wandering in Gilead before the Bible calls our attention to him.
The most we can be sure of is that Elijah is “of the inhabitants of Gilead.” Gilead was east of the Jordan River, inhabited by the tribes of Israel (Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh) who, in the days of Joshua, did not enter the Land of Promise.
This lack of background adds to the mystique of “Elijah the Tishbite.” Because he comes to us in obscurity, some writers have tried to fill in the gaps, speculating at length about his parentage, miraculous birth, and education in the school of the prophets.
What seems most apparent, however, is that the Scriptures use Elijah’s obscurity to emphasize that his significance is in his God, not in himself. His Hebrew name is Eliyahu (literally, Yah is El), signifying that Jehovah is God. As his story unfolds, we see the significance of his name—Elijah was sent to demonstrate to Israel that Yah (Jehovah), not Baal, is the one true God.
A MAN FOR EXTRAORDINARY TIMES
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.” Emerson reminds us that our response to the conditions of our lives is more important than the nature of our circumstances.
Elijah is an ancient showcase for such wisdom. There are only a few periods in the Bible when we see a wave of “sign miracles.” In most periods of history, the servants of God do not go around healing the sick, raising the dead, and calling down fire from heaven.
Yet Elijah, and his protégé Elisha, lived in one of those exceptional times. The miracles that distinguished their public lives paralleled the supernatural display of power that marked two other periods of history. In Israel’s supernatural exodus, the miracles of Moses had shown that God was delivering Israel from slavery in Egypt. Many years later, the miracles of Christ and His apostles would make it clear that the same God was delivering people of all nations and all times from the spiritual penalty and bondage of sin.
So what was happening in the days of Elijah that required such a supernatural display? The northern kingdom of Israel had begun to slide into the darkness of idolatry. In fact, spiritual conditions had deteriorated so badly that Elijah mistakenly thought he was the only person who still believed in the God of Israel (1 Kings. 19:10). In one of the darkest times of Israel’s history, God intervened to show Himself as Lord of lords and God of gods.
