People: prophets, exiles, and foreign kings
The prophets who confronted Israel's kings, the rulers who destroyed and restored Jerusalem, and the exiles who lived under them.
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Card 1 of 10
Who was Elijah?
A prophet in the northern kingdom who opposed King Ahab and Queen Jezebel and their worship of Baal, and who was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind.
He challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest on Mount Carmel, where God answered with fire. Days later, afraid of Jezebel, he fled into the desert and asked to die, and God met him in "a still small voice". Because he did not die, Jews expected him to return, and Malachi promised he would. Elijah appears with Moses at Jesus's transfiguration.
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Who was Elisha?
Elijah's successor, who asked for a double portion of Elijah's spirit and performed more miracles than any other Old Testament prophet.
Many of his miracles are small and personal: purifying a spring, multiplying a widow's oil, raising a boy from the dead, and healing the Syrian general Naaman of leprosy. Several are echoed in Jesus's miracles, such as feeding a crowd with a few loaves and having food left over.
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Who were Ahab and Jezebel?
A king and queen of the northern kingdom who promoted the worship of Baal and persecuted the prophets of the LORD.
Jezebel was a Phoenician princess who brought her gods with her. When Ahab wanted a neighbour's vineyard, she had its owner, Naboth, falsely accused and stoned so the king could take it. Her name became a byword for a scheming, wicked woman, and Revelation uses it for a false prophetess in one of the seven churches.
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Who were Hezekiah and Josiah?
Two of the few good kings of Judah, who tried to turn the nation back to God.
Hezekiah removed idols and trusted God when the Assyrian army besieged Jerusalem in 701 BC, and the city was spared. Josiah, a century later, became king at eight; during temple repairs a lost book of the law was found, and he led a sweeping reform. Neither could stop the slide for long. Josiah died in battle in 609 BC, and Jerusalem fell twenty-three years later.
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Who was Nebuchadnezzar?
The king of Babylon who conquered Judah, destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 586 BC, and carried its people into exile.
He is the king in the stories of Daniel: he sets up the golden statue and throws Daniel's three friends into the furnace. Daniel also records a period when he lost his mind and lived like an animal until he acknowledged that God rules over the kingdoms of men. Jeremiah even calls him God's servant, the tool of judgment on Judah.
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Who was Daniel?
A young Jew taken to Babylon who served in the royal court under several kings, stayed faithful to God, and was thrown into a den of lions for praying.
He refused the king's food and interpreted dreams for Nebuchadnezzar. Under the Persian king Darius, officials jealous of him tricked the king into banning prayer to anyone but himself; Daniel prayed anyway, three times a day with his window open toward Jerusalem. He was lowered into the lions' den and came out unharmed.
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Who were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?
Daniel's three friends in Babylon, thrown into a blazing furnace for refusing to bow to Nebuchadnezzar's golden statue.
Those were their Babylonian names; their Hebrew names were Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. They told the king that God could save them, "but if not", they would still not bow. The king saw a fourth figure walking with them in the fire, and they came out without even the smell of smoke.
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Who was Cyrus the Great?
The Persian king who conquered Babylon in 539 BC and allowed the exiled Jews to return home and rebuild their temple.
Persian policy was to let conquered peoples worship their own gods in their own lands, and a clay cylinder recording this survives in the British Museum. Isaiah remarkably names Cyrus as the LORD's "anointed" — the Hebrew word is messiah — the only foreigner given that title in the Bible, even though Cyrus did not know God.
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Who were Esther and Mordecai?
A Jewish orphan who became queen of Persia and her older cousin and guardian, who together stopped a plot to destroy the Jews.
Mordecai refused to bow to the king's chief official, Haman, who then plotted to kill every Jew in the empire. Esther went to the king uninvited, which could mean death, to plead for her people. Haman was hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordecai, who took his place as the king's second-in-command.
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Who were Ezra and Nehemiah?
Two leaders of the Jews after the exile: Ezra, a priest and scholar who taught the law, and Nehemiah, a royal official who rebuilt Jerusalem's walls.
Ezra came from Babylon to restore the people's knowledge of the law of Moses. Nehemiah had been cupbearer to the Persian king, a trusted position, and used his influence to get permission and materials. Together they reshaped the returned community around the law, which set the pattern for the Judaism of Jesus's day.