He hears me when in the
Solitude of my darkest nights
On Him I call.
He hears me when in silence
My heart tries to hide
My fears that I might fall.
He hears me when in crowds
My mind wanders and doubts
Begin their insidious call.
He hears me whether
I cry to Him or not
Because He knows my very soul,
He knows it all.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
The most
important part of Elijah’s mission was the Melchizedek Priesthood sealing power
by which things that are bound or loosed on earth are bound or loosed in heaven
(D&C 128:8-18). He was the last prophet to have this power before the time
of Jesus Christ.
He appeared
on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses and conferred the keys of this priesthood
on Peter, James and John (Matt 17:3). He appeared again, with Moses and others,
on April 3, 1836, in the Kirtland Ohio Temple and conferred the same keys upon Joseph
Smith and Oliver Cowdery (D&C 110:13-16). It is for this purpose that he
did not taste death. This was the second part of his earthly mission.
Elijah’s
ascension into heaven on a chariot of fire is one of the most endearing
accounts in the Old Testament. Elisha’s grief at the parting is heart rendering.
As he cried after him, calling him ‘father’, he rent his clothes into pieces in
his distress (2 Kings 2:11,12).
There is a
significant connection between Elijah’s mission and the planet we presently
live on. When Moroni delivered his message to Joseph Smith, he said that the earth
would be wasted if Elijah didn’t come to restore the sealing power (D&C
2:2-3). Malachi goes so far as to say that if it were so, the Lord would smite
the earth with a curse at His coming (Malachi 4:5).
Our Mother
Earth which gave us physical birth (Moses 2:7) was foreordained and consecrated
to establish on its face a family system patterned after the order of heaven
and to become the future celestial abode of exalted sons and daughters of God. She
also has a mission to accomplish like the rest of us.
Had Elijah
not come to restore the sealing priesthood power to bind us together, the earth
would not have accomplished its foreordained purpose and would not have been
able to answer the end of its creation. All men and women would be forever
without root and branch, meaning without ancestry and posterity that would
otherwise extend into eternity.
Enoch
learnt from his encounter with Mother Earth that she had a soul as deep as the
river. Grief came over him and made him
weep when he heard her call us her children and witnessed her mourn over our
wickedness (Moses 7:48). So overcome was Enoch at her suffering that he asked
God three times, ‘’when shall the earth rest” (v 49,54,58).
You think
the earth has no soul? Consider how she groaned when the Son of Man was lifted
up and all nature suffered at the death of its creator (Moses 7:56; 1 Nephi 19:
12). Imagine this big beautiful perfect planet, the workmanship of God’s hands,
with a soul as tender and real as you and I, utterly wasted at Christ’s
coming…..Imagine how Father Adam and Mother Eve would feel to see this earth
wasted after they paved the way for humanity by ‘the sweat of their brow’
(Moses 5:1). We think we have it hard…..we don’t even have to slice our bread…
When the
end comes, this earth will be celestialized and crowned with the Father’s
presence to be an eternal abode for those who will accept the sacrifice of His
Beloved Son who was lifted upon the cross of redemption so that we can return
to live with Him on this Mother Earth forever (D&C 88:17-20).
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
When
You rose from Your grave
With
healing in Your wings,
Did
I live on in Your heart
As
you ascended to Your throne
To
seal my destiny?
Did
You carry us all in Your bosom
With
the crucible of the cross
Forever
etched in Your memory?
-
CATHRYNE ALLEN
Elijah was
called to preach repentance to one of the most evil kings of Israel. Not
only did King Ahab walk in the footsteps of his predecessor Jeroboam who turned
Israel to idolatry but he did one better than that, he married Jezebel, the
daughter of king of Sidonia, who worshipped Baal. Ahab turned worship of Baal
into the state religion and 'did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to
anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him' (1 Kings 16:33)
Baal, a Phoenician
deity of the Canaanites, worshipped as the god of storm who they believed had
power over water, is mentioned in the Old Testament 58 times. Because the
Canaanite vegetation was rich and the soil fertile, many Israelites were
deceived into thinking the Canaanite god Baal regulated the water supply needed
for the soil.
It is no
wonder then that Elijah, as a fitting punishment to Israel who worshipped Baal
believing he sent water to enrich their pastures and ensure their crops, sealed
up the heavens for three and a half years. You would think that during three
and a half years of drought, worshipping a god who was supposed to be a god of
water and rain, Israel would come to their senses and realise they were on the
wrong track but this did not happen. Sometimes I think we operate in mortality
on the intelligence level called stupidity.
From the
time of his proclaimed drought on the kingdom of Israel, Elijah was a wanted
man and spent much of his time in hiding. So severe had the drought become that
Ahab searched for him far and wide, among all nations, blaming him for the
misfortune that had befallen his kingdom (1 Kings 18:10). All the nations and
kingdoms Ahab searched had to swear an oath that they were not hiding him and
whoever reported seeing him would be executed if Elijah was not there by the
time Ahab's search party arrived (1 Kings 18:12).
Sealing the
heavens began Elijah's life on the run dotted with miracles. He was guided in
all his wanderings by the God of Israel who preserved his life. When the time
came for God to show forth his power by lifting the drought, Elijah was
instructed to return to Israel where he engaged in the most outlandish contest
with the false prophets of Baal who failed to show forth his power in igniting
the sacrifice they were offering.
And how did
the priests of Baal do? Their greatest offering was cutting themselves ‘till
blood gushed out upon them’ crying to their god for rain (1 Kings 18:28). One
ancient author recorded a similar scene he observed in Gaza in Roman times:
“They danced
along the streets to the sound of wild music, holding huge swords and bills,
with whips for scouring themselves….they flew wildly one past the other: their
heads sunk low towards the earth, as they turned in circles: their loose hair
dragging through the dust. Presently they began to bite their arms, and next to
hack themselves with the two edged swords they carried…..one of them, the
leader in this frenzy, commenced to prophesy, with sighs and groans, lamenting
aloud his past sins, which he would now avenge by the chastisement of his
flesh. He then took the knotted whip and lashed his back, cutting himself also
with his sword till the blood ran down.”
(Cunningham Geikie, Hours with the Bible, 3:399-400)
There is
only one deranged entity who would inspire such an ungodly practice and
persuade people of a sound mind to believe this could pass as a form of worship…..and
we all know who that is.
Elijah,
however, drew the hosts of Israel to him so they could properly see, repaired
the altar of the Lord that had been torn down with 12 stones signifying the 12
tribes of Israel and saturated the wood and the sacrificial animal with four
barrels of water, three times. He then appealed to Jehovah to show that He is
the true God of Israel (1 Kings 18:37). Of course, the fire came down and
consumed the whole altar with the surplus water that was in the surrounding
trench (1 Kings 18:30-39). He then instructed the astonished Israelites to
capture all 450 prophets of Baal, took them to the brook Kishon and slew them
there (1 Kings 18:22,40). Now that’s a man of conviction!
Because of
his un-daunting faith in the God of Israel, Elijah was blessed with power over
water like Moses and Joshua and divided river Jordan prior to his ascension
into heaven, never to taste death (2 Kings 2:6-11).
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art by AI)
As the stars in heaven
That burn with everlasting light
So is my love that burns for Thee
On the altar of my heart.
-
Cathryne Allen
There was a prolific and significant prophet of the Old Testament whose earthly mission was
divided in two time periods, before the first and second advents of Christ. His life warrants a lengthy consideration.
He is known
as the ancient prophet who performed many mighty miracles and who had power to
control the elements. Approximately 900 years before the birth of Christ, the
people of the northern kingdom of Israel had almost entirely forsaken the
worship of the true God under the reign of king Ahab and had become worshippers
of the Phoenician god Baal. Enter Elijah
the Tishbite who was called to lead Israel back to their forsaken God. He
boldly stood up to Ahab and said: “As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom
I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years but according to my word.”
(1 Kings 17:1)
And so
Elijah sat by the brook Cherith, before Jordan, and he drank of the brook and
was fed by the ravens sent by the very God in whose name he proclaimed the
draught that lasted three and a half years (1 Kings 17:2-6). When the brook
dried up, the Lord led him to Zarephath to be sustained by a widow whose son he
raised from the dead (vs 7-24).
Elijah's
boldness of character would be difficult to replicate. He stands as an example
of spiritual confidence of one who knows God on a personal level. Besides the
power that he was entrusted with he loved the God of Israel and did everything
he could to turn the people’s hearts to Him.
Elijah’s
difficult life has touched my heart to the core. He sorrowed and he suffered
through rejection, persecution and isolation and most of all he longed for
heaven. When fleeing Jezebel who sought to take his life, Elijah went into
wilderness and sat himself under a juniper tree and requested of God that he
might die (1 Kings 19:4). The Lord instead sent him an angel who fed him and
led him to mount Horeb.
Elijah
fasted for forty days during this trip. When he arrived and the Lord asked him
what he was doing there, he expressed the root cause of his sorrow: nothing
about his personal hardships but that the children of Israel had forsaken the
covenant and slain the prophets and that he was the only one left (vs 8-10). And
then the assurance and comfort from the God he loved: “Yet I have left me seven
thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every
mouth which hath not kissed him.” (v 18) In other words: Elijah, you have done
some good even though you can’t see it.
And then the
ultimate show of love and support……the Lord gave him Elisha. Another man of
God, who denounced all his wealth and followed Elijah into his ministry. A man who
became so great that a dead man cast into his sepulchre came to life again when
his body touched the bones of Elisha (2 Kings 13:21). Is this not greatness???
How
much You must love
Those
who serve Thee to the end;
Who
speak the words of truth
And
proclaim Thy holy name.
These
are Thy prophets,
Your
everlasting friends:
The
strong, the noble,
The
devoted who hear and obey.
These
are Thine angels who herald
Thy
gospel and Thy name ;
To
the ends of the earth they speak
And
their words forever remain.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Elijah by Djane Daviss)
Will
I be lost in crowds of heaven
When
my mortal shell at last I leave,
And
will this earthly life appear unreal
When
my true home is to me revealed?
Will
I come to see Thy face
I
so often sought on bended knee,
And
forget all the lonely moments
I
suffered with merciful help from Thee?
My
heart will rend within my chest
When
I kneel before Thy throne;
I
will weep with grateful heart
For
cherished truths that I have known.
-
CATHRYNE ALLEN
