ELIJAH AND ELISHA - 1

1 Kings 18:1-19
New International Version (NIV)

Elijah and Obadiah

18 After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”

2 So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab.
Now the famine was severe in Samaria,

3 and Ahab had summoned Obadiah, his palace administrator. (Obadiah was a devout believer in the LORD.

4 While Jezebel was killing off the LORD’s prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water.)

5 Ahab had said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs and valleys. Maybe we can find some grass to keep the horses and mules alive so we will not have to kill any of our animals.”

6 So they divided the land they were to cover, Ahab going in one direction and Obadiah in another.

7 As Obadiah was walking along, Elijah met him. Obadiah recognized him, bowed down to the ground, and said, “Is it really you, my lord Elijah?”

8 “Yes,” he replied. “Go tell your master, ‘Elijah is here.’”

9 “What have I done wrong,” asked Obadiah, “that you are handing your servant over to Ahab to be put to death?

10 As surely as the LORD your God lives, there is not a nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you. And whenever a nation or kingdom claimed you were not there, he made them swear they could not find you.

11 But now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’

12 I don’t know where the Spirit of the LORD may carry you when I leave you. If I go and tell Ahab and he doesn’t find you, he will kill me. Yet I your servant have worshiped the LORD since my youth.

13 Haven’t you heard, my lord, what I did while Jezebel was killing the prophets of the LORD? I hid a hundred of the LORD’s prophets in two caves, fifty in each, and supplied them with food and water.

14 And now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’ He will kill me!”

15 Elijah said, “As the LORD Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today.”

Elijah on Mount Carmel

16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah.

17 When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”

KINGDOM DYNAMICS 

18 “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the LORD’s commands and have followed the Baals.

19 Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
18:1-46 After nearly three years of drought, the looming question of whether it was the Lord God of Israel or Baal who controlled the rain was about to be answered in a contest on Mt. Carmel.


18:3 The Obediah mentioned here was certainly a believer in the Lord, but he is not the prophet who authored the biblical book by that name.

18:12 The Spirit: this is the only direct reference to the Holy Spirit in the Book of 1 Kings. Apparently the Holy Spirit sometimes transported Elijah from one location to another (see 2 Kin. 2:16). Philip has a similar experience in Acts 6:39, 40.

18:17, 18 Elijah was quick to clear the record. The drought was not his fault; instead it had resulted from Ahab’s failure to acknowledge the Lord and his allowing himself and all Israel to be seduced into Baal worship by Jezebel.

18:19 Elijah was calling for a showdown between their god and the Lord. All Israel was to observe the contest between Elijah and the prophets who were cared for and protected by Jezebel. Baal was the chief male deity of the Canaanites and Phoenicians. He symbolized the productive forces of nature. Groves was the wife of Baal in Canaanite mythology.

Janet Thomas
Founder/President/CEO
Bible Stories Theatre of
Fine & Performing Arts