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2. Obedient
Elijah is such a nice child for both of his parents. He wants to please them as he can. He tries to do whatever his parents ask him to. Elijah never questions
when his parents tell him that being a prophet means dangerous. Here, according to Murphy, Elijah is characterized as an obedient child because it can be seen
from his speech with others. When they left that place, his father and mother demanded that Elijah
never tell anyone what he saw and heard; to be a prophet meant having ties to the government, and that was always dangerous. In any case, Elijah
had never heard anything that might interest priests and king. 9 As a result, Elijah loses his ability to have a vision. Gradually his
capability disappeared, and that made his parents quite relieved. After all, his parents never raise that matter any longer.
As soon as the visions disappeared, he – obedient to his father and mother – made very effort to forget them as rapidly as possible. For this reason,
the voices and visions became more and more infrequent. His father and mother were pleased, and they did not raise the mater again. 9
Although Elijah and his family come from the low-class society, his parents really care about him. Being such a common man, Elijah runs his simple
life as a carpenter by the supports of his parents. His parents do so once they know that he is mature enough to sustain himself. “When he came of an age to sustain
himself, they lent him money to open a small carpentry shop. Elijah went on buying the cedar they brought in and selling the products of his carpentry
shop.”11 As time passes by, the situation in Akbar is getting more silent than usual.
People, especially the old ones, are afraid of the coming battle. The workers such
31 as the traders and the artisans decide to leave for a moment until the condition is
better. Yet, Elijah should be obedient to wait until the Lord gives him the permission. It feels dilemmatic though. According to Murphy, the following
expression can really show how obedient Elijah is in putting forward his opinion. The merchants and artisans made plans to go to Sidon and Tyre until calm
was restored. “It is easy for them to leave,” he thought. Merchants can transport their goods everywhere in the world. Artisans too can work,
even where a strange language is spoken, “But I must have the Lord’s permission 128.
3. Courageous