Before we go any further, let’s look at some terms we have used and you will see them elsewhere the Tanak. Those terms are Asherim, Asherah and Ashteroth. These words are used to describe idolatrous practices involving trees and wood in idols. Some of the things we are going to present will be sexual in nature and if you are offended by such things, we recommend that you do not read on. Also, this is not something that should be read to children, so we warn you right now, do not read on if there are children involved. However, because of the nature of this idolatry it will be easily seen why the Lord, the prophets and the righteous were against such things among the people of God.
An Asherah is used when the idol is just a goddess, image or tree. It is used forty times in Scripture and it is feminine singular. Asheroth is feminine plural and used when there is more than one statue, image or tree. It is used three times in Scripture. Asherim is masculine plural and used if the goddess and the tree are having “intercourse.” It is used sixteen times. In Hebrew, you cannot go from feminine plural to masculine plural, it is impossible, but it does for the above reasons.
An Asherah is the goddess of erotic sex and is presented three ways. She is presented as the goddess herself in an image or figurine. She is also presented as a living tree, and she is also presented as a decorated tree (Jer 10.1-5). These trees were called a “green” tree (fir or evergreen-Deut 16.21). It was called a “sacred tree” and also the “tree of life.” This refers to fertility and life after death.
Paganism was mixed with the true worship of God as we have seen before (Exo 32.1-5; 1 Kings 12.25-28). They merged and mixed these concepts together (Rev 3.16; Isa 36.7; 1 Kings 12.28; Exo 32.1-5). Pottery has been found with inscriptions that say, “I have blessed you by Yehovah of Samaria and his Asherah.” This indicates that there may have been a belief that Yehovah had a consort by the name of Asherah. Asherah had an equivalent called Hathor in Egypt, Astarte in Canaan, Ishtar in Babylon and Aphrodite, Diana, Artemis and Juno in the Greco-Roman world.
Asherim pendants have been found shaped like a woman’s uterus, and it had a highlighted “pubic triangle” of fertility having intercourse with a tree. At Lachish, pottery was found and it had ibexs (wild mountain goats) flanking a tree in a triangle shape eating the leaves (hair) of the pubic triangle, called the “nectar of the gods.” When male and female imagery is used, then the image is an Asherim.
As time went on, tree worship spread from the east through the Phoenician colonies. It was carried to Cyprus and spread to Malta and then Sicily. Corinth and the Greek states were corrupted, and from Italy and Rome it spread to Europe and then to the west. For more information on this subject, go to the book, “Understanding Asherah” by Ruth Hestrin, or to Tyndale’s Bible Dictionary, the Jewish Encyclopedia, the Encyclopedia Judaica and Biblical Archaeology Review. The Asherah/Asherim worship just described will be what Elijah and the prophets are confronted with and denounce.
1 Kings 17.1 introduces us to the prophet Elijah (Eliyahu Ha Navi). He is like Melchizedek in that he just appears. There is no mention of his father or mother or his upbringing. This is very unusual for a major biblical personality. Elijah will personify “The Prophets” in Biblical Eschatology, just as Moses personifies “The Torah.” The Torah and the Prophets are considered “two witnesses” (Matt 17.1-8; Luke 16.31, 24.27; Rom 3.21; Rev 11.1-6). He was “of the settlers” of Gilead and he lived in the area that belonged to the Reubenites and the Gadites, and partly to Manasseh.
Elijah comes at the time when Ahab is leading Israel into apostasy. Ahab supported the worship of Baal and Asherah and even paid for the support of the priests that led this worship. Elijah comes along when the land was overrun by pagan priests and the tree groves, and doing it openly. The whole land seemed like it was given over to this worship, and those that did not participate were so fearful that they were the only one, like Elijah thought (1 Kings 19.10).
Now, there are some who believe that Elijah was a non-Jew because it says he was a “settler” (m’t’shav”) of Gilead as if the root (t’shav) means resident alien or sojourner. But, the word “t’shav” for an alien never appears in the Bible without the Hebrew letter “vav” (Tav, Vav, Shin, Bet). In 1 Kings 17.1, “t’shav” does not have the “vav”, indicating he was Jewish. Another indication is his name. Elijah is “Eliyahu” meaning “my God is Yehovah” and it is a typical Hebrew name. He was sent by Yehovah as a prophet and there are no non-Jewish prophets that have ever fulfilled that position (Deut 18.18-19). Again, he personifies the “Prophets” in the Scriptures who are all Jewish, and he is seen with Yeshua at the transfiguration with Moses, the personification of the Torah (Matt 17.11-12). He has an important role in the eschatological plan of God, so we believe he is unquestionably Jewish.
Yehovah tells Elijah to go to Ahab and tell him there will be no rain or dew for three and a half years, except by “my word.” The word “Tishbi” (Tishbite) backwards in Hebrew is “yevoshet” meaning “dried up.” He then tells him to go east and hide at the Brook Cherith, near Pella. This is where Jews will flee from the False Messiah before the last three and a half years of the birth-pains (Rev 12.1-17; 1 Kings 19.4). Cherith means “cut off, separation, off the main stream.” Yehovah says he will find water there and he will command the ravens to provide for him “there” (not someplace else). We learn in Gen 8.7 that a raven was used by Noah in another event involving rain, and it happens again here, but why?
Many consider ravens worthless, and Elijah considered Israel worthless because of the idolatry (1 Kings 19.10), Yehovah shows Elijah that just as the raven had value, so does Israel. The Lord will also show that the non-Jews had value in Acts 10 with the salvation of the Roman Centurion Cornelius without having to be ritually circumcised and becoming Jewish first according to the 18 Edicts of the House of Shammai (Beit Shammai).
So, Elijah went as he was instructed and the ravens brought him food two times a day and he had water during the drought and famine, but then the brook dried up. Then Yehovah told him to go to a non-Jewish city called Zarephath (“refined”) and God had commanded a widow there to provide for him. This was over a 100 miles away. When Yeshua was rejected by his own people he used this widow as a picture of God choosing whoever he wanted (even a non-Jew) for himself (1 Kings 4.24-26).
So Elijah went and saw this widow gathering sticks. Elijah asks her for water, and then for bread to make sure she was the one. But she says, “As Yehovah your God lives, I have no bread.” She only had a handful of flour, and was going to prepare it for her son and herself, then starve. She doesn’t appear to be aware of what God told Elijah about providing for him. Elijah is going to learn a lesson about God’s unseen hand.
Elijah told her not to fear, but go do as she said but bake him a little cake from it first (first fruits) and give it to him. This was done in faith because God told him she was going to provide, and she didn’t have enough. The only way to get more is to give some to him. Yehovah has told Elijah that the bowl of flour will not run out of flour, nor her jar of oil until God sends rain again. So she went and did what Elijah said and she and her house ate for many days (possibly 1-2 years). The Lord gave her her “daily bread” and not all at one time. Had she been given a granary full of flour, others would have noticed and this widow could have been in danger by hungry mobs. God multiplied the flour like he multiplied the loaves in Matt 14.19.
We will pick up in 1 Kings 17.17-24 and the story of how Elijah raised the widow’s son from the dead in Part 16.
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