The name “Elijah” means “Yahweh is my God.” Elijah prophesied in Israel during a time of dark apostasy. During the days of King Omri, many Israelites began to turn away from their ancestral God and turn to the god of the Canaanites, Baal. With the ascension of Ahab to the throne, the apostasy of Israel became complete. Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, was an enthusiastic patron of the Baal cult. Under her direction, the prophets of Yahweh were relentlessly persecuted. The prophets of Baal were welcomed at the royal court. Altars to Baal were constructed throughout the land.
God’s Mission to the Nations
Break forth, shout joyfully together, You waste places of Jerusalem; For the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, That all the ends of the earth may see The salvation of our God (Isaiah 52:9-10).
The prophets of ancient Israel declared that Yahweh is the One who fills the earth with the glory of His presence (Isaiah 6:3). The prophets were theologians par excellence and their theological expectations are fulfilled in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here selected passages are interpreted via a Trinitarian model to demonstrate how the prophetic writings reveal God’s mission to rule all the nations of the earth.
The Altar of Yahweh Yireh
The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord (Genesis 12:7-8).
The Dancing Warrior
We often sing, “You dance over me, while I am unaware; You sing all around, but I never hear the sound…” without understanding the beautiful theology contained within the lyrics of the song. While I am uncertain about the author’s source of inspiration, the lyrics reflect the words of the prophet Zephaniah:
“The Lord your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy” (3:17).