THE character of Elijah was one of great moral sublimity and unquestioned faith in God. Some historians claim that he was one of the grandest and most romantic characters in Israel. In the Old Testament the sterner side of his nature is mainly portrayed. In the New Testament the Apostle James refers to him as a man "subject to like passions as we are." Jesus said, "But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow." "Heaven was shut up" to them because of the people's reliance upon Baal, their belief in a power other than God, Spirit. In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" "(p. 587), our revered Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, defines "heaven" as "harmony; the reign of Spirit; government by divine Principle; spirituality; bliss; the atmosphere of Soul." Belief in another power than God, good, necessarily obscures harmony or "government by divine Principle."
The Scriptures say that King Ahab, having encouraged idolatrous worship in Israel, had indulged in sin above all his predecessors. He also had made an altar to Baal, the chief male deity of the Phoenicians.
In critical situations in Bible history prophets appeared to uncover and denounce evil and proclaim the omnipotence of God. In this instance, Elijah, having denounced the evil doings of Ahab, was bidden by wisdom to hide from the presence of the king. About three years later Ahab, upon meeting Elijah, said to him, "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" Then the prophet told the king what the cause of the trouble was, namely, that he and his father's house had forsaken the commandments of the Lord and had followed Baalim.
