A: The story of Elijah has several parallels with the story of Moses. They both parted the waters with a staff - Moses parted the Red Sea, while Elijah parted the River Jorda
…n. Most especially, they both involve solar imagery, suggesting the intrusion of more ancient material based on the sun god. For example, Moses sent Joshua with an army to fight the Amalek, and while Moses held his hand above his head Joshua prevailed, but if he lowered his hand the Amalek would prevail, until the going down of the sun (Exodus 17:9-13). Solar imagery in the story of Elijah includes the passage where he challenged the king to let the opposing priests compete with him to call upon their gods to start a fire under a bullock carcass, a feat that only he could perform. Twice, Elijah called down fire from heaven onto opposing soldiers. A chariot of fire and horses of fire passed by before Elijah was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind. The motif of a chariot of fire was widely associated with the sun god. While Elijah did not achieve any great moral or religious objectives in his confrontations with Ahab, his message in the Bible is his opposition to the god Baal, worshipped by Ahab and Jezebel. The purpose of the challenge in which he lit a fire on an altar was to show the impotence of Baal's priests. His slaughter of the priests serves to emphasise this, although strangely the Bible says that the people continued to worship Baal as before. ( Full Answer )