The Book of 1 Kings

Word Study

"Obadiah feared the LORD greatly," Hebrew yare (יָרֵא), to fear, reverence; his very name means "servant (or worshipper) of Yah." In the darkest days of Ahab and Jezebel, when Jezebel was slaughtering the LORD's prophets, God still had a man in the palace itself who "feared the LORD greatly." Obadiah, the governor of Ahab's household, secretly hid a hundred prophets in two caves and fed them at the risk of his life. Here is a striking truth: God preserves His own even in the most hostile places. Obadiah stands beside Joseph in Pharaoh's Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, and the saints in Caesar's household (Philippians 4:22), witnesses that no court is so wicked that God cannot keep a faithful servant there. Note the contrast that runs through the chapter: Ahab searches the land to save his horses and mules, while God is about to save a nation; the king cares for his beasts, the prophet for the people's souls. And note Obadiah's honest fear for his life, and Elijah's steadying oath, "As the LORD of hosts liveth, before whom I stand." The title "LORD of hosts" (YHWH tseva'ot) names God as commander of all the armies of heaven, a fitting name on the eve of the day the fire would fall. Obadiah's quiet, hidden faithfulness and Elijah's public, fearless confrontation are two forms of the same fear of God, and God had need of both.

Explanation

After three years of drought, God told Elijah to present himself to Ahab, promising to send rain. The famine was severe. Ahab and his devout household steward Obadiah, who had secretly saved a hundred prophets from Jezebel's massacre by hiding and feeding them, went out separately to search for grass to keep the royal animals alive. On his route Obadiah met Elijah, recognized him, and bowed. Elijah told him to announce his presence to Ahab, but Obadiah, knowing how relentlessly Ahab had hunted Elijah, feared that the prophet might vanish by the Spirit and leave him to be killed for a false report. He pleaded his long record of faithfulness. Elijah reassured him with a solemn oath that he would indeed present himself to Ahab that very day, and Obadiah went and brought the king to meet the prophet.

Gospel Focus

Obadiah is a quiet encouragement to every believer who must live faithfully in an ungodly environment. In Ahab's own palace, under Jezebel's murderous reign, God had a man who "feared the LORD greatly" and used his position to protect the people of God at great personal risk. You may feel isolated in a workplace, a family, or a culture hostile to the faith, but God can keep you faithful and use you right where you are. He had "seven thousand" in Israel who had not bowed to Baal (chapter 19:18), and He has His hidden servants still. Yet the chapter also confronts the wider people of Israel, and us, with the coming question: whom will you serve? Obadiah could not stay hidden forever; a day of open decision was at hand. So it is with every soul. There is a place for quiet faithfulness, but there also comes a moment to stand and be counted. The God who preserves His servants in secret will one day call them into the open, as He called Elijah to Carmel. Fear the LORD greatly now, and be ready to confess Him openly when the day comes.

Word Study

"How long halt ye between two opinions?" Hebrew pasach (פָּסַח), to limp, to hobble, to leap unevenly between two sides. When Ahab accused Elijah of being the "troubler of Israel," Elijah threw the charge back: it was Ahab and his idolatry, not the prophet, that had brought disaster. Then Elijah put to the people the great question of the chapter: "How long halt (pasach) ye between two opinions?" The word pictures a man limping along on two unequal legs, or a bird hopping between two branches, unable to settle on either. Israel wanted to keep both the LORD and Baal, to hedge their bets, and Elijah exposes the impossibility: "if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him." There is no middle ground; divided worship is no worship. Jesus said the same: "No man can serve two masters... Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24); "he that is not with me is against me" (Matthew 12:30). The people's silence, "answered him not a word", is the guilty silence of those caught wavering. Elijah, though outnumbered four hundred and fifty to one, is unafraid, for he knows numbers do not decide truth. His proposed test is bold and fair: "the God that answereth by fire, let him be God," a test aimed precisely at Baal's supposed domain, since Baal was worshipped as a storm-god who wielded lightning. God would answer with fire on Baal's own claimed ground.

Explanation

When Ahab met Elijah, he blamed the prophet as the "troubler of Israel." Elijah turned the accusation around: it was Ahab's family and their worship of the Baals ("Baalim") that had brought the disaster by forsaking God's commandments. Elijah commanded that all Israel and the 850 prophets of Baal and of the groves (Asherah) be gathered to Mount Carmel. There he confronted the people with a decisive choice: they could not go on wavering between the LORD and Baal; they must follow one or the other. The people stood silent. Elijah, the lone prophet of the LORD against 450 prophets of Baal, proposed a test: each side would prepare a sacrifice but light no fire, and the God who answered by sending fire would be acknowledged as the true God. The people agreed it was a fair proposal.

Gospel Focus

"How long halt ye between two opinions?" is one of the most piercing questions in all Scripture, and it is addressed to every heart. Israel wanted both God and Baal, a foot in each camp, the safety of religion without the cost of full allegiance. But God will not share His throne. "If the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him." The gospel demands a decision. Jesus said, "No man can serve two masters," and warned that the lukewarm, "neither cold nor hot," He would "spue thee out of my mouth" (Revelation 3:16). Many souls today limp along exactly as Israel did, wanting Jesus and the world, Sunday and sin, the name of Christ without the surrender of the heart. To such the question comes: how long? A divided heart is a dishonored God and a defeated life. The call is to a whole-hearted, undivided following of the LORD. Notice too Elijah's courage as "I, even I only": faithful witness is not decided by numbers. Truth with one man is a majority. Stop halting. Choose this day whom you will serve, and follow Him with all your heart.

Word Study

"The fire of the LORD fell," Hebrew esh YHWH (אֵשׁ יְהוָה). The contest exposes Baal as nothing. His prophets cry "from morning even until noon," leap on the altar, and cut themselves till the blood gushes, but "there was no voice, nor any that answered." Elijah's biting mockery, "peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked", pours scorn on the whole system of idolatry: idols have mouths that speak not and ears that hear not (Psalm 115:5-7). Then Elijah acts. He repairs the broken altar of the LORD with "twelve stones," a deliberate testimony that the twelve tribes are still one people under one God, even in the divided kingdom. He drenches the sacrifice with water three times, removing every possibility of trickery and making the miracle unmistakable. His prayer is short, calm, and God-centered: not "answer me for my sake" but "let it be known this day that thou art God... that this people may know." And "the fire of the LORD fell" and consumed not only the sacrifice but the wood, the stones, the dust, and even the water.

"The LORD, he is the God," Hebrew YHWH hu ha-Elohim (יְהוָה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים). The people's response is the great confession the whole chapter drives toward, cried twice for emphasis: "The LORD, he is the God" (YHWH hu ha-Elohim), the very meaning of the name Elijah (Eli-Yahu, "my God is Yah"). The name of the prophet became the creed of the nation. The execution of Baal's prophets at Kishon carried out the law's sentence on those who led Israel into idolatry (Deuteronomy 13:5).

Explanation

The prophets of Baal went first. From morning to noon they called on Baal, leaping about their altar, but nothing happened. Elijah mocked them, suggesting their god might be busy, traveling, or asleep. They grew frantic, cutting themselves with knives until they bled, and raved on until evening, still with no answer whatever. Then Elijah called the people near and rebuilt the LORD's ruined altar with twelve stones for the twelve tribes. He arranged the wood and sacrifice, dug a trench, and had the whole thing soaked with twelve barrels of water until the trench overflowed, so no one could claim fraud. At the time of the evening sacrifice he prayed simply that God would reveal Himself and turn the people's hearts. Instantly the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the very stones and dust, and even the water in the trench. The overwhelmed people fell down crying, "The LORD, he is the God." At Elijah's command the false prophets were seized and executed at the brook Kishon.

Gospel Focus

Carmel is a picture of the gospel's central truth: only God can answer the deepest need, and He answers not our frenzy but our faith. Baal's prophets did everything human religion can do, loud, sincere, passionate, even bloody self-sacrifice, and heaven was silent, for "they that make them are like unto them" (Psalm 115:8). No amount of religious effort, self-punishment, or works can bring down the fire; salvation is not achieved by what we do for God. Then Elijah drenched the altar, making the situation humanly impossible, and simply prayed, and "the fire of the LORD fell." The fire that falls on the sacrifice is the emblem of God's acceptance, and it points to the cross, where the fire of God's judgment fell upon the true Sacrifice in our place, so that all who trust in Him are accepted. We do not kindle the fire; God provides both the Lamb and the fire. And the great cry, "The LORD, he is the God," is the confession the whole earth will one day make, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow... and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord" (Philippians 2:10-11). For the LORD who answered by fire is the same LORD who came in flesh; the God of Carmel is the Christ of Calvary. Stop exhausting yourself before deaf idols; call on the name of the LORD, who answers.

Word Study

"a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand," and "Go again seven times." Having proved the LORD is God, Elijah now claims the promised rain (verse 1). He tells Ahab a great rain is coming, then climbs to the top of Carmel, bows to the ground with his face between his knees, and prays. This is the prayer the New Testament holds up as a model: "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain... and he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain" (James 5:17-18). Note the persistence: he sends his servant to look seven times, and six times the answer is "There is nothing." Elijah does not quit; he prays until the answer comes. At last there appears "a little cloud... like a man's hand," a tiny beginning, easily despised, yet the sign of the coming downpour. God's greatest works often begin small, for "who hath despised the day of small things?" (Zechariah 4:10). Elijah acted on the little cloud as though the rain were already falling, warning Ahab to hurry his chariot. Then "the hand of the LORD was on Elijah" and he ran before the king's chariot the many miles to Jezreel, supernaturally strengthened. The same prophet who called down fire now models believing, persevering prayer, and the reward of not fainting.

Explanation

With the false prophets destroyed and the LORD vindicated, Elijah told Ahab to eat and drink, for he could already hear, by faith, the coming of a great rain. While Ahab feasted, Elijah went to the mountaintop and prayed earnestly, bowed to the ground. He sent his servant seven times to look toward the Mediterranean for any sign of rain. Six times there was nothing; the seventh time a small cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, rose from the sea. Elijah at once sent word for Ahab to ready his chariot and hurry home before the rain trapped him. Soon the sky turned black, the wind rose, and a heavy rain fell, ending the three-year drought. Empowered by the hand of the LORD, Elijah girded up his garment and ran ahead of the king's chariot all the way to Jezreel.

Gospel Focus

After the fire, the rain, and it came through prayer. Elijah, whom James presents as "a man subject to like passions as we are," teaches us how to pray: earnestly, believingly, and persistently. Six times the servant returned with "There is nothing," and six times Elijah sent him back. How many blessings are lost because we quit praying at the sixth look! "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18:1). The answer came as "a little cloud... like a man's hand," a reminder that God's mightiest works often start small and unimpressive; do not despise the small beginnings of His grace. And Elijah believed the promise before he saw the rain, "there is a sound of abundance of rain," faith hears the answer while the sky is still clear. The God who sent the fire of judgment and acceptance also sends the rain of refreshing, and both come to those who pray and do not faint. "There shall be showers of blessing" (Ezekiel 34:26) to a people who turn back to the LORD. Pray on until the cloud appears, act on the smallest sign of God's working, and run in the strength the hand of the LORD supplies.