AHAB, KING OF ISRAEL - Three years' Famine in Israel - Elijah meets Obadiah and Ahab - The Gathering on Mount

Carmel - The Priests of BaaI - Description of their Rites - The time of the Evening Sacrifice - Elijah prepares the

Sacrifice - Elijah's Prayer - The Answer by Fire - Israel's Decision - Slaughter of the Priests of Baal- The Cloud not

bigger than a Man's Hand - Elijah runs before Ahab to Jezreel.

(1 Kings 18)

THREE and a half years had passed since the ban of Elijah had driven clouds and rain from the sky of Israel, and the

dry air distilled no dew on the parched and barren ground (comp. Luke 4:25; James 5:171 ). Probably one of these years

had been spent by the prophet in the retirement of Wadi Cherith; another may have passed before the wid ow's son was

restored from death to life; while other eighteen months of quiet may have followed that event.

Surely, if ever, the terrible desolation which the prophet's word had brought upon the land must by this time have had

its effect upon Israel. Ye t we meet no trace of repentance in king or people: only the sullen silence of hopeless misery.

What man could do, had been attempted, but had signally failed. As the want and misery among the people became

more pressing, King Ahab had searched both the la nd and all neighboring countries for Elijah, but in vain (1 Kings

18:10), while Jezebel had wreaked her impotent vengeance on all the prophets of Jehovah on whom she could lay

hands, as if they had been Elijah's accomplices, to be punished for what she regarded as his crime. If all the

representatives of Jehovah were exterminated, His power could no longer be exercised in the land, and she would at the

same time crush resistance to her imperious will, and finally uproot that hated religion which was alike t he charter of

Israel's spiritual allegiance and of civil liberty. Yet neither Ahab nor Jezebel succeeded. Though Elijah was near at

hand, either in Ahab's dominions or in those of Jezebel's father, neither messenger nor king could discover his place of

retreat. Nor could Jezebel carry out her bloody design. It affords most significant illustration of God's purpose in raising

up "prophets," and also of the more wide sense in which we are here to understand that term, that such was their

number, that, however many the queen may have succeeded in slaying, at least a hundred of them could still be hid, by

fifties, in the limestone caverns with which the land is burrowed. And this, we infer, must have been in the immediate

neighborhood of the capital, as otherwis e Obadiah (the "servant of Jehovah"), the pious governor of Ahab's palace

(comp. 1 Kings 4:6; 2 Kings 18:18; Isaiah 22:15), could scarcely have supplied their wants without being detected (1

Kings 18:4). Nor was Obadiah the only one in Israel who "feared Jehovah," though his position may have been more

trying than that of others. As we know, there were still thousands left in Israel who had not bowed to Baal (1 Kings

But there was at least one general effect throughout the land of this terrible period of drought. Every one must have

learned that it had followed upon the announcement of Elijah; every one must have known what that announcement had

been, with all concerning Jehovah and His prophet that it implied; and, lastly, if no general repentance had taken place,

every one must at least have been prepared for the grand decisive trial between God and Baal, which was so soon to

take place. And still the weary days crept on as before; the sun rose and sank on a cloudless sky over an arid land; and

there was no sign of change, nor hope of relief. It was summer. Jezebel had left the palace of Samaria, and was in her

delicious cool summer-residence at Jezreel, to which more full reference will be made in the sequel (comp. 1 Kings

18:45, 46; and the inference from 1 Kings 21:2). But Ahab was still in Samaria, busy with cares, caused by the state of

the land. This temporary absence of Jezebel explains not only Ahab's conduct, but how he went to meet Elijah,

attempted no violence, and even appeared in person on Mount Carmel. So great was the strait even in Samaria itself,

that the king was in danger of losing every horse and mule, whether for the public or his own service. To discover if

any fodder were left in the country, the king and Obadiah were each to make careful survey of part of the land. Obadiah

had not proceeded far on his mission, when the sight least expected - perhaps least desired - presented itself to his view.

It was none other than Elijah, who had been Divinely directed to leave Sarepta and meet Ahab. As there is not anything

in Holy Scripture without meaning and teaching, we may here mark, that, when this is assigned by the Lord as the

reason for Elijah's mission: "I will send rain upon the ground" (1 Kings 18:1), it is intended to teach that, although it

was Jehovah Himself (and not Elijah, as the Rabbis imagine) who held "the keys of the rain," yet He would not do

anything except through His chosen messenger.