March 26, 2020: Day 54 – I Kings 18

This is one of the most dramatic stories in the entire Old Testament.  You have to know it by now, and if you don’t, you have to learn it.  The chapter begins innocently enough as we learned in the previous chapter that there was going to be a drought until the Lord tells Elijah that there is no longer a drought.  The king is helpless in this situation because God is only speaking through Elijah.  The king is worshiping Baal even though he is supposed to be in charge of the people of Israel.  But there is one person in Ahab’s court who is still faithful to the Lord, and that is Obadiah.  His name means literally: “servant of the Lord”.  I think if I were born in another life I would love to have that as a name.

Obadiah is given the task to go find grass to feed the horses and on his way he meets with Elijah.  Elijah commands him to tell the king that he found him.  But Obadiah is terrified because he knows if he goes back and tells the king and Elijah disappears then the king will kill him.  Why?  Let’s just say that Elijah has had a bounty on his head which was not insignificant, placed there by the king.  But Elijah promises him that he wasn’t going anywhere.

Now the fun begins, as does the drama.  The king comes and Elijah tells the king to bring all the Israelites and all of the prophets of Baal to Mt. Carmel.  I’ve been there, it is really, really impressive.  What is somewhat surprising to me is that the King actually does what Elijah asks him to do.  Elijah challenges the prophets to a religious duel where each side gets to prove that their god is the most powerful.  The prophets of Baal go first and ask fire to come down from heaven to consume a bull  and wood sacrifice.  Nothing happens and Elijah mocks them and trash talks them.

When it is Elijah’s turn he does the same, he asks for fire to come down from heaven, but not before he inundates the bull and the wood with water just to show how powerful God really is.  Almost like with the game being tied and you have two free throws to win the game and you shoot them with your eyes closed.  Yeah, exactly like that.  The shots go in, God brings down fire, Elijah commands that all the priests of Baal be slaughtered and they are.  He then tells Ahab that the rain is going to start coming down, he better get home so he doesn’t get wet and yelled at by his wife Jezebel. 

That’s where we find ourselves.  The power of God is revealed and you would think the story is over, God wins, Elijah wins, and the people and rulers of Israel turn to worship God again.  Not so fast…