He did this, and Elisha promptly joined him ( 1 Kings 19:19-21). Reaching Mount Horeb, Elijah heard the voice of God tell him to anoint two kings as well as Elisha as a prophet. Rain fell, and Elijah retreated from the evil Queen Jezebel, who had sworn to kill him ( 1 Kings 19). When it is Elijah's turn he boldly soaks the sacrament with water to display his supreme trust in God to start a fire despite being wet.Īfter Elijah’s victory over the prophets of Baal when he called down fire from heaven, the drought ended.

Ahab's prophets pray for hours to Baal but nothing happens. The challenge is to offer sacrifices to their own deities and see which starts a fire to show their divinity. Elijah dares Ahab to a challenge of his deity, Baal, versus the God of Elijah at Mount Carmel. Idolatry is deadly business.The tale proceeds as Elijah confronts the evil king, Ahab, about being the cause of problems for the people of Israel. Once the Lord miraculously consumed Elijah’s offering, Elijah executed the false prophets in keeping with the provisions of Deuteronomy 13 (1 Kings 18:39–40). Like Elijah, we are not to try to manipulate God by working ourselves up into a frenzy He answers the simple, humble prayer made in faith. After mocking Baal, Elijah simply prayed and God responded (vv. The false prophets tried to manipulate their deity into action by raving and cutting themselves, but they got nothing. Note the contrast between the true prophet Elijah and the false prophets of Baal.

The ensuing showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal is well known. Even in those ancient days, the enemies of God were trying to destroy His church, but God preserved it through the work of Obadiah. 1 Kings 18:2–19 indicates that Elijah’s meeting with Ahab was arranged by a godly man named Obadiah, who had saved the lives of many of the true prophets of Yahweh, the God of Israel, when Queen Jezebel tried to annihilate them. The winner in the contest would prove which deity should be worshiped. Thus, Elijah went to Ahab to schedule a showdown with the prophets of Baal. A dramatic sign would show Israel that the rain was coming not because Baal finally got around to hearing their prayers but because the God of Israel was moving. Yet the Lord would not do this without proving one more time that He is God and Baal is not. For three years, the unfaithful Israelites saw the powerlessness of Baal, the supposed god of the storm, to bring rain, but now it was time to cause the water to fall again. But after three years of no rain, the Lord chose to end the drought, as we see in today’s passage (1 Kings 18:1). In the days of Ahab, king of Israel, Elijah prosecuted the covenant, announcing the punishment of drought for the northern kingdom’s idolatry (1 Kings 17:1 see Deut. They announced to God’s people, particularly the kings, when they were being unfaithful, and they exhorted them to obedience lest the curses of the Mosaic covenant fall on the covenant community (see Lev. Instead, the prophets served primarily as covenant prosecutors. Certainly, many of the prophets revealed what was to come however, seeing the future was not their chief job. Many people probably think that the primary job of the old covenant prophets was to predict the future.

Elijah bible study rain