Were Prophets The People In Bible Days Who Made Lots Of Money?
Answer: It’s easy to confuse words that sound alike but have different meanings. Profit refers to making money; prophet means a person who represented God to the people in Bible times.
A prophet spoke God’s messages and told the people to obey God. People never became prophets in order to become rich or famous.
Most of the time – especially when they had to give bad news – prophets were very unpopular; some were even put in prison.
But God’s prophets were willing to risk everything for God. Some of the most famous prophets include Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
Some less well-known prophets also wrote books of the Bible: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, and Malachi.
Even though these prophets spoke hundreds of years ago, their messages apply to us, too, and we should listen to what they had to say.
Key verse: Long ago God spoke in many different ways to our fathers. He spoke through the prophets in visions, dreams, and even face to face. Little by little he told them about his plans. (Hebrews 1:1)
Related verses: Deuteronomy 18:15-22; Jeremiah 1:5; Ezekiel 2:5; 2 Peter 1:20-21
Related questions: What does prophet mean? What does a prophet do?
Note to parents: Many children think prophets mainly foretold the future. But their main job was to “forth-tell” God’s word to the people, to challenge the people to turn back to God.
Often the prophets’ messages contained predictions about the future, but most of the messages were calls or challenges to obey God and live right.
Why Did Elijah Go Up To Heaven So Early?
Answer: Elijah was a famous prophet who spent most of his life telling others about God. He is one of only two people mentioned in the Bible who didn’t die before going to heaven (Enoch is the other one- see Genesis 5:21-24).
Instead, God took them. God used a chariot of fire and a whirlwind to take Elijah to heaven.
The whirlwind and fire didn’t kill Elijah or burn him; rather, the chariot and horses separated Elijah from his good friend and student, Elisha.
Then the whirlwind carried Elijah to heaven. This showed that God approved of Elijah and that Elijah was a good man who loved God.
And God took Elijah to heaven at just the right time, not early. We don’t know how old Elijah was when God took him; he may have been an old man.
Key verse: (Elijah and Elisha] were walking along, talking. Then suddenly a chariot of fire came. It was pulled by horses of fire. It drove between them and separated them. Then Elijah was carried by a whirlwind into heaven. (2 Kings 2:11)
Related verses: 2 Kings 2:1-12; Matthew 16:14; 17:3; 27:49; James 5:17
Related questions: Why would God want to bring Elijah to heaven? Why was the chariot on fire?
Note to parents: Children often imagine that the chariot of fire would have killed Elijah and burned Elisha because it was on fire.
We don’t know what the “fire” was like. The point of the image is that God used a dramatic and miraculous event to separate Elijah and Elisha and to take Elijah to heaven.