Today Orthodox Christians celebrate the life of the Prophet Elijah, and what a life: He challenged two kings and a queen to their faces, spoke with angels, called down fire from heaven, multiplied flour and oil for a starving widow, raised her boy from the dead, caused rain to come and go by his prayers, and was finally swept up to heaven in a fiery chariot before being present at the Transfiguration of Christ. Because of his powerful ministry he’s remembered in Orthodox hymnody as “an angel in the flesh.”
But he was certainly a man, as James the brother of Jesus reminds us in his letter. “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours,” he says, and James’ point is clear: We’re to be like the great prophet.
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