1 Kings 16 – 18 part 12
Ahab and Elijah
Tonight we will start looking at Ahab and Elijah. In tonight lesson we will get to take a look at one my favorite stories in the OT in Chapter 18. But for now let take a look at the end of Chapter 16 where we get at brief introduction to King Ahab of the northern Kingdom.
1 Kings 16:29 In the
thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri became king over
Israel; and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two
years. 30 Now Ahab the son of
Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before
him. 31 And it came to pass,
as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam
the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of
the Sidonians; and he went and served Baal and worshiped him. 32 Then he set up an altar for
Baal in the
Ahab is the 8th
king of
Also we see a prophecy
being fulfilled that Joshua said in,
Joshua 6:26 Then
Joshua charged them at that time, saying, "Cursed be the man
before the LORD who rises up and builds this city Jericho; he shall lay its
foundation with his firstborn, and with his youngest he shall set up its
gates."
That exactly what
happened with Hiel and his two sons as they rebuilt
1 Kings 17:1 And
Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the
LORD God of
Here is our first
recorded instance of where Ahab and Elijah encounter one another. Elijah was a
very courageous man as he delivers God’s message to him and what a message it
was. Not only did he claim there would be no rain there would also be no dew.
This is also mentioned in James 5:17. The name Elijah means “my God is
Jehovah”.
2 Then the word of the LORD came to
him, saying, 3 "Get away
from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into
the
Apparently this message
didn’t sit to good with Ahab as our text shows that Elijah had to leave from
there to hide. But, we can see that God was taking care of his servant by
having the ravens feed him morning and night. However, his brook dried up and
he was in danger of dehydration now.
1 Kings 17:8 Then
the word of the LORD came to him, saying,
9 "Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to
Once again we see God
taking care of Elijah by means of this widow lady. Now just for a minute I want
you to put yourself in the shoes of this lady. Imagine being down to your last
bit of food and there is very little water left and now some man is telling you
to make him a cake first and that the Lord will make your bin of flour and your
oil to never run out until it rains again. What would you have done? Would you
believe this man and feed him or would you think he was out of mind and try to
run him off so you and your son could die in peace? Well, lets see what see
what she decided to do.
1 Kings 17:15 So she
went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her
household ate for many days. 16
The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to
the word of the LORD which He spoke by Elijah.
Well, she decided to believe Elijah and it paid off because everything happened just as he said it would. But another problem arises.
1 Kings 17:17 Now it
happened after these things that the son of the woman who owned the
house became sick. And his sickness was so serious that there was no breath
left in him. 18 So she said
to Elijah, "What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me
to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?" 19 And he said to her, "Give
me your son." So he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper
room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed. 20 Then he cried out to the LORD
and said, "O LORD my God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with
whom I lodge, by killing her son?" 21
And he stretched himself out on the child three times, and cried out to the
LORD and said, "O LORD my God, I pray, let this child's soul come back to
him." 22 Then the LORD
heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he
revived. 23 And Elijah took
the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him
to his mother. And Elijah said, "See, your son lives!" 24 Then the woman said to Elijah,
"Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the
word of the LORD in your mouth is the truth."
First this widow thinks that Elijah whole purpose to see her was to kill her son and to remind her of whatever sin she was guilty of. This was enough for Elijah to question God about this as well, because her son was dead. His soul was separated from his body but Elijah carried him upstairs and stretched himself out over him 3 times and prayed to God for his soul to return and sure enough it happened. I find interesting that the widow now says that she believes that Elijah was a man of God. Wasn’t the unending supply of flour and oil enough to convince her? Well, whatever the answer may be this certainly a great event that shows God’s care for his servant and his ability to work his miracles.
1 Kings 18:1 And it
came to pass after many days that the word of the LORD came to Elijah,
in the third year, saying, "Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send
rain on the earth." 2 So
Elijah went to present himself to Ahab; and there was a severe famine in
Once again it is time for Ahab and Elijah to meet again so that God will send rain to the earth. We find out that Jezebel had been on killing spree as she was trying to kill all of God’s prophets but their servant Obadiah was secretly working against them doing what he could to protect these prophets.
1 Kings 18:5 And
Ahab had said to Obadiah, "Go into the land to all the springs of water
and to all the brooks; perhaps we may find grass to keep the horses and mules
alive, so that we will not have to kill any livestock. 6 So they divided the land between
them to explore it; Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way
by himself. 7 Now as Obadiah
was on his way, suddenly Elijah met him; and he recognized him, and fell on his
face, and said, "Is that you, my lord Elijah?" 8 And he answered him, "It
is I. Go, tell your master, 'Elijah is here.' " 9 So he said, "How have I
sinned, that you are delivering your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill
me? 10 "As the
LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent
someone to hunt for you; and when they said, 'He is not here,' he
took an oath from the kingdom or nation that they could not find you. 11 "And now you say, 'Go,
tell your master, "Elijah is here" '! 12 "And it shall come to
pass, as soon as I am gone from you, that the Spirit of the LORD will
carry you to a place I do not know; so when I go and tell Ahab, and he cannot
find you, he will kill me. But I your servant have feared the LORD from my
youth. 13 "Was it not
reported to my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD,
how I hid one hundred men of the LORD's prophets, fifty to a cave, and fed them
with bread and water? 14
"And now you say, 'Go, tell your master, "Elijah is here." '
He will kill me!" 15
Then Elijah said, "As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand,
I will surely present myself to him today." 16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab,
and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah.
Obadiah didn’t want to
tell Ahab about Elijah but he didn’t really have a choice in the matter because
Elijah was determined to talk to Ahab. So, Ahab makes his way to meet Elijah.
1 Kings 18:17 Then it
happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, "Is that you,
O troubler of
Ahab tries to blame
Elijah for
1 Kings 18:20 So Ahab
sent for all the children of
Here we see that Elijah
is setting up a contest to see whose God is real so that way if their gods are
real then all should worship them but if Elijah’s God is real then all should
worship him. All the children of
(ESV) 1 Kings 18:25 Then
Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose for yourselves one bull and
prepare it first, for you are many, and call upon the name of your god, but put
no fire to it." 26 And
they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon
the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, "O Baal, answer
us!" But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around
the altar that they had made. 27
And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, "Cry aloud, for he is a god.
Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or
perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened."
Elijah is really putting
it to these men because he let them go first and here it already noon and
nothing is happening. I love how Elijah starts mocking them about their false
God and tells them to yell louder to get their God’s attention. First, he says
maybe he is musing which means he is meditating or in deep thought. Next he
accuses him of relieving himself. Now this word has the idea of withdrawing
yourself to a private place and some have suggested that he was saying maybe
his off using the bathroom right now. Then he says maybe he gone on trip or
maybe he just sleeping right now.
You have to admit Elijah
is being very bold at this point considering there is one of him and 450 of
them. Can you image what was going through the children of
1 Kings 18:28 So they
cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances,
until the blood gushed out on them. 29
And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering
of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice; no one
answered, no one paid attention.
One thing is for sure
these prophets were doing everything they could think of to get a response from
their God but all they got was a big bowl of nothing.
1 Kings 18:30 Then
Elijah said to all the people, "Come near to me." So all the people
came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken
down. 31 And Elijah took
twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to
whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, "
I want you to think about
what Elijah is doing here. The contest was to simply call on you God to burn up
this cut up bull on top of this wood and these other prophets had failed. But
Elijah goes way beyond the agreement that he made and makes this burning of the
bull impossible to be burned by a mere human. While Elijah may have appeared
cocky by those looking on there would be no way anyone could accuse him of
starting the fire himself because of all this water he has had poured on this
wood. The trench he dug around this alter would hold a little over 4 gallons of
water and now it was full.
1 Kings 18:36 And it
came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice,
that Elijah the prophet came near and said, "LORD God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am
Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your
word. 37 "Hear me, O
LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that
You have turned their hearts back to You again." 38 Then the fire of the LORD fell
and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and
it licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 Now when all the people saw it,
they fell on their faces; and they said, "The LORD, He is God!
The LORD, He is God!" 40
And Elijah said to them, "Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let one of
them escape!" So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the
Brook Kishon and executed them there.
Again, I ask you can you
imagine being there to witness such an event. You know all those watching
probably felt like they were about to jump out of their skin waiting to see
what would happen when Elijah called up the Lord. Again can you imagine how hot
the fire felt that came down and consumed up the bull, the wood, the water and
even the 12 stones? All those standing there that day had no doubt the Elijah’s
God was the only true God and they all fell on their faces and humbled
themselves before God almighty. Then all these false prophets were killed that
day.
1 Kings 18:41 Then
Elijah said to Ahab, "Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound
of abundance of rain." 42
So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then
he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees, 43 and said to his servant,
"Go up now, look toward the sea." So he went up and looked, and said,
"There is nothing." And seven times he said, "Go
again." 44 Then it came
to pass the seventh time, that he said, "There is a cloud, as small
as a man's hand, rising out of the sea!" So he said, "Go up, say to
Ahab, 'Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.'
" 45 Now it happened in
the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a
heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel. 46 Then the hand of the LORD came
upon Elijah; and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance
of Jezreel.
After this great standoff
God is now ready to send the rain but first Elijah prays for it and he does so
7 times before it starts happening. Of course we could use this to remind us to
be persistent in our prayer life. Then Ahab makes his way Jezreel and by the
hand of God Elijah even though he is on foot makes it Jezreel before him.