Day 178—We are in the sixth month of reading the Bible and continue with the History of Israel. Today, we meet the prophet Elijah. 

 Day 178 – 1 Kings 17 – 19. (Elijah and a drought, King Ahab, a contest, and a runaway)

In 1 Kings 17, we meet Israel’s great prophet, Elijah, from Tishbe in Gilead (East of the Jordan River). The LORD came to him and said there would be no dew or rain for years except by His word.

Elijah was to go a little way eastward to the Cherith Brook and hide out there. He could get water from that stream, and God would send him meat and bread morning and night via Ravens. Elijah immediately obeyed.

After a while, as the drought took hold, the Cherith dried up. Before Elijah had time to wonder, the LORD told him to go to Zarephath, a far north-west town in Sidon on the Mediterranean Sea, and stay there. God had provided a Sidonian widow to feed him. Elijah immediately obeyed.

When he reached the city gate, he saw “the widow” and spoke to her. Would she bring him water and a little “morsel of bread?”  She told him she had only enough flour and oil to make herself and her son one last pita, and then they would die of starvation.

Elijah told her that if she fed him first, God would supply her needs until it rained again.  She believed, and God honored her faith. Her flour and oil were replenished every day as she used them. Later, when her young son got sick and maybe even died, Elijah went to the boy and prayed and he was revived.  

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1 Kings 18.  Much later, God told Elijah to go to Ahab, and God would then send rain on the earth. Elijah immediately obeyed. He met Obadiah, a servant of Ahab and a secret prophet of the LORD who had been hiding and feeding 100 prophets so Queen Jezebel couldn’t kill them. With Elijah’s assurances that he wouldn’t disappear, Obadiah told King Ahab where to find Elijah.

At the meeting, there was a bit of angry wordplay. “It is YOU, you troubler of Israel!” Ahab cried. “No, I have not troubled Israel,” Elijah responded. “YOU have, and your father’s house.” 

Elijah then gave Ahab an ultimatum. “Send and gather all Israel to me at Mt. Carmel, plus the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah – who eat at your wife’s table!”  Interestingly, Ahab did not quibble but obeyed. (The king was desperate for rain!)

Then came that great contest between good and evil, using two sacrificed bulls.  The 850 false prophets prayed and cried, cut themselves, and flailed away until exhausted, but no god came to light their fire (and burn their bull). Elijah mocked them. “Perhaps your god is sleeping, going potty, angry, traveling somewhere…or dead.”  No matter how those false prophets tortured themselves, “No one answered; no one paid attention.”

And then it was Elijah’s turn.  He set up the sacrifice and drenched it three times with some very “dear” water brought to the top of the mountain. Then Elijah prayed to the living God. “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that YOU are God in Israel…..”

And WHHOOOOSSSH!! Elijah’s sacrifice exploded into holy flames that consumed the bull, the wood, the stones, the water in the ditch, and even the dust.  And the people fell to the ground proclaiming,  THE LORD is God.

“Seize those prophets of Baal, let none escape!” cried Elijah, then he took them down to the brook Kishon and systematically slaughtered them all.   Whoa!

Then Elijah told Ahab, Go up, eat, and drink, for “There is a sound of the rushing of rain.” Then Elijah went up to the top of Mt Carmel again with his servant and bowed down to pray.

(James 5:16b-18, “The prayer of a righteous man has great power…. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months, it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.”)

Three times, Elijah prayed and had his servant go and look toward the west. On the third time, he returned and said, “Behold a little cloud like a man’s hand is rising from the sea.”

The servant was sent to Ahab with the message, “Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you.”  And in just minutes, the sky became black, the wind started howling, and a GREAT RAIN began. 

Ahab whipped his horses towards Jezreel (his winter capital, about 20 miles away).  Elijah gathered up his garment and RAN AHEAD OF AHAB TO THE ENTRANCE OF JEZREEL!  (Man, that prophet was flying!!)

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1 Kings 19. When Jezebel heard how Elijah had killed all her hand-picked prophets, she was enraged and vowed to kill him by the next day.  Elijah heard the threat, and this mighty man of God was afraid. He got up and ran for his life, all the way to Beersheba, ONE HUNDRED MILES south, and then another day into the desert. He sat down under a bush and asked God that he might die.  Then he fell asleep. 

God sent an angel with food, which he ate, and then fell back asleep. Later, the angel brought more food and then sent him on a less hectic journey even further south, all the way to Mount Sinai. It took forty days and forty nights. 

There, on the Mount of God, Elijah rested in a cave.

“What are you doing here, Elijah?” asked the LORD.

“I’m the only one left, and they all seek my life,” Elijah answered.

“Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD,” came the command.  And the LORD passed by.

A great and strong wind tore the mount and broke rocks in pieces…but the LORD was not in the wind.

An earthquake came, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.

A fire came next, but the LORD was not in the fire.

A sound of a low whisper came next. This time, it WAS the LORD, and He comforted Elijah.  YOU are not alone. I have 7,000 others who are faithful to me. 

I want you to go; anoint Elisha to be a prophet after you. 

You are also to go anoint Jehu to be king over Israel. 

And you are to go to Damascus and anoint Hazel to be king of Syria. 

See, I have work for you yet, Elijah. 

Elijah left Mount Sinai and found Elisha plowing a field. He threw his cloak on the young man. After Elisha made a sacrifice and kissed his mom and dad goodbye, he went after Elijah and assisted him.