Dave wrote:
It was really interesting to note that in one of Ray's recent email responses he quoted 2 Chronicles 21:12.
And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying 'Thus ays the Lord' etc
I have heard people state frequently, that the two witnesses mentioned in Revelation are both Enoch and Elijah. I guess that little bit of correspondence sinks that theory. However I am just wondering whether it is possible to to calculate the number of years between Elijah's departure and the arrival of the letter to King Jehoram.
Dave, you ask a very interesting question.
I did a little bit of digging and dug up some very interesting information.
The letter in question is:
2Ch 21:12 ¶ And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah, However, is the common belief that the letter arrived many years after Elijah's translation? Or is it possible that the letter could have arrived while Elijah was still around. (for want of a better word) The Scriptures indicate that this may well have been the case.
2Ki 1:15
- And the angel of the LORD said unto Elijah, Go down with him: be not afraid of him. And he arose, and went down with him unto the king.
2Ki 1:16
- And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron, [is it] not because [there is] no God in Israel to enquire of his word? therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.
2Ki 1:17
- So he died according to the word of the LORD which Elijah had spoken. Because Azahia had no son, Joram reigned in his stead in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah]
It would seem that Jehoram's reign overlapped that of his father Jehoshaphat from 853-848b.c. This reference is to the second year of the co-regency, thus this indicates that this was Jehoshaphat's eighteenth yr of reign. This would seem to suggest that Elijah had not departed before Jehoram had become king.
What do you think of this, it kind of makes sense.
Comments are always welcome,
Your brother in Christ,
Darren