1.    He had experience of God in a personal and immediate way, and knew it.

2.    He was one to whom the power, holiness and will of God was revealed.

3.    He spoke and acted for God because of his personal experience of God, going to anyone he was sent to.

4.    He understood the present and the future from the point of view of God, and did not take into account personal danger in immediate situations.

5.    He followed in the tradition of Moses, the prototype of the true prophet, maintaining the Covenant faith and Law.

6.    His stand for the Covenant faith and Law required that he should challenge those who failed to keep it and should attempt to arouse them to a sense of sin, to bring them to repentance.

7.    He spoke the messages given to him by God and therefore spoke with authority, and as a mediator between God and the people and the people and God.

There are many points of similarity between the stories of Elijah and the stories of Moses, in their prophetic task. Elijah continues the work begun by Moses. He returned to the holy mountain associated with Moses to be commissioned by God for his main task in Israel. The writer of the book of Kings intended us to see the connection.

Chapter 19 ends with the call of Elisha which took place after Elijah had returned to Israel. Elisha carne from Gilead in Transjordan which was also Elijah's original area.