He was told to return whence he had come that he might find a worthy successor to continue the task for which he himself was growing too old.His days were numbered,so he was told,and there was much work to be done in the land of Israel.
Elijah obeyed.He left the desert and went back to the hated cities.When he reached the plain of Jezreel where the Judges of ancient days had destroyed the armies of the Amalekites and Midianites,he saw a farmer ploughing peacefully in the fields of that prosperous country.
Jehovah gave him a sign that this boy was to be his disciple.Elijah stopped.He left the road and dropped his mantle across the shoulders of the young man.
Elisha (for that was his name)understood what this ceremony meant.He left his plough.He went to his home,bade farewell to his father and mother and followed his new master,that he might learn the ways of wisdom and godliness and be worthy of this high honour.
When Elijah and Elisha reached Israel,they found the country in a terrible condition.Under the influence of Jezebel,things had gone from bad to worse.Other Baal priests had been sent for from Phoenicia and the country was as full of heathenish superstitions as ever before.
Meanwhile the King in his restlessness had removed his home from Samaria to the town of Jezreel and he was building himself a new palace.
Now it happened that a vineyard which he wanted as part of his own grounds belonged to a citizen by the name of Naboth.
Ahab told Naboth that he wanted to buy this vineyard.Naboth,however,answered that the vineyard had been in his family for many generations and that he did not care to sell it.
Jezebel suggested an easy way out of the difficulty.Ahab was King.Could he not do what he wanted?Why not take the vineyard and kill Naboth?It was all very simple.
Ahab,however,refused to do this.He dreaded another interview with Elijah and to make an end to all further explanations,he pretended that he was sick and took to his bed.
Jezebel made the best of her opportunity.While Ahab was confined to his bed,she accused Naboth of high treason.There was no trial.The poor farmer,together with his sons (who would have been heirs to the much coveted vineyard),were all stoned to death,and their bodies were thrown before the dogs.
No sooner had this been done than behold!there stood Elijah before the garden of the palace.
He had arrived in his usual unexpected way.
His message filled Ahab with unspeakable horror.Before another year was gone,the same dogs who had just licked the blood of Naboth,would lick that of the King,and they would eat the torn flesh of Jezebel the Queen after her body had been thrown into the streets of Jezreel.
It seemed impossible and highly improbable.Nevertheless,Ahab was frightened,and tried to discover a way in which he could escape his fate.
He had so firmly established his tyrannical rule over Israel that he did not fear his own subjects.If he was destined to be killed,death would come to him from the side of his enemies.
His enemies,as all people knew,lived in the north.Evidently Ahab must guard himself against a new attack from the side of Aram.Fortunately for him,that country just then was sorely pressed by the King of Assyria.An attack from the south,made simultaneously with that from the east,might put an end to all further Aramean ambitions.
Ahab decided to take the initiative and waste no time.He sent fleet messengers to Jehoshaphat,the King of Judah,and proposed that the latter join hint in his campaign against Damascus.
Jehoshaphat was willing,and together the two monarchs marched northward.
The priests of Baal predicted a great victory,but Micaiah,one of the few prophets who had remained faithful to Jehovah,repeated the warning that the King would be killed,no matter how hard he tried to escape his fate.
What Ahab did then shows just what sort of man he was.He disguised himself as a common soldier,and at the same time,he encouraged Jehoshaphat to wear his kingly robes.
“For then,”so he reasoned,“the Arameans will recognise Jehoshaphat,and they will try so hard to shoot him that they will pay no attention to me.”
But when the battle took place,Jehoshaphat in his scarlet mantle remained unharmed.Ahab,on the other hand,in his mean coat,was struck down by a chance arrow and he died of his wound.
His body was brought back to Jezreel.Just before the funeral took place,the royal war-chariot was washed to cleanse it of Ahab's blood.The inevitable dogs which always live in the streets of Oriental villages licked up the mixture of water and blood.In this way,the prophecy of Elijah came true.The war-chariot stood on the ground which once had belonged to Naboth.
The death of Ahab meant more than a change in the succession.It was the beginning of another long period of anarchy.
Ahab was followed by his oldest son,Ahaziah.But shortly after his anointment,the boy fell out of a window of the palace of Samaria and was badly hurt.He sent messengers to the temple of Baal to ask whether he would recover.Elijah intercepted these messengers and answered “No!”
Ahaziah died.
His brother Jehoram was little more fortunate.Mesha,the King of Moab,who was supposed to pay an annual tribute to Israel,rose up in rebellion.Jehoram suggested to Jehoshaphat that they take the land of the Moabites together and divide it.
The King of Judah thought this a very good idea.
This expedition was followed by ill luck from the very beginning.For some unexplained reason,the two monarchs tried to cross the wilderness of the Dead Sea,instead of taking the usual,more convenient route front the north.
They lost their way in the desert and almost perished from thirst.
When they reached Moab,they found that the King had put his capital in such excellent state of defence that it was necessary to lay siege.
