First light on the bare summit of Mount Carmel in drought: dead brown grass and gray rock, a few parched oaks, a low tumbled ring of old altar stones half buried in dust, and far below a flat silver sea, under a pale, empty sky.

The Book of

1 Kings 18

Three years without rain. One prophet of the LORD against four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal. Which God will answer by fire?

46 verses≈ 10 min4 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1–2Solomon's throneThe kingdom made secure
3–4WisdomA discerning heart
5–8The templeA house for the LORD's Name
9–11Glory and fallSolomon's heart turns
12–16Two kingdomsThe kingdom torn
17–19ElijahThe LORD, He is GodChapter 18
20–22AhabNaboth and Micaiah

Elijah’s Message to Ahab

After a long time, in the third year of the drought, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the face of the earth.”

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An empty clay jar lying on deeply cracked, dry earth under a hard sky.

So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria,

Evening at a limestone cave on a parched hillside: Obadiah, the king's steward in a dark-green robe, hands a basket of flat loaves and a water jar to a bearded man at the cave mouth, while many more men sit close together in the shadows behind, and Obadiah glances back down the slope.

and Ahab summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace. (Now Obadiah greatly feared the LORD,

for when Jezebel had slaughtered the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty men per cave, providing them with food and water.)

Then Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go throughout the land to every spring and every valley. Perhaps we will find grass to keep the horses and mules alive so that we will not have to destroy any livestock.”

So they divided the land to explore. Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went the other way by himself.

Now as Obadiah went on his way, Elijah suddenly met him. When Obadiah recognized him, he fell facedown and said, “Is it you, my lord Elijah?”

Elijah

“It is I,” he answered. “Go tell your master, ‘Elijah is here!’”

Obadiah

But Obadiah replied, “How have I sinned, that you are handing your servant over to Ahab to put me to death?

Obadiah

As surely as the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent someone to search for you. When they said, ‘He is not here,’ he made that kingdom or nation swear that they had not found you. And now you say, ‘Go tell your master that Elijah is here!’

Obadiah

I do not know where the Spirit of the LORD may carry you off when I leave you. Then when I go and tell Ahab and he does not find you, he will kill me. But I, your servant, have feared the LORD from my youth.

Obadiah

Was it not reported to my lord what I did when Jezebel slaughtered the prophets of the LORD? I hid a hundred prophets of the LORD, fifty men per cave, and I provided them with food and water. And now you say, ‘Go tell your lord that Elijah is here!’ He will kill me!”

Reflect

Feared the LORD from youth

Obadiah served inside Ahab’s own palace, yet he “greatly feared the LORD” and hid a hundred prophets at great risk. He could say, “I, your servant, have feared the LORD from my youth.” Where has God placed you among people who do not know Him, and what would quiet faithfulness look like there this week? Write it down.

Elijah on Mount Carmel

So Obadiah went to inform Ahab, who went to meet Elijah.

Ahab

When Ahab saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?”

Elijah

“I have not troubled Israel,” Elijah replied, “but you and your father’s house have, for you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and have followed the Baals. Now summon all Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel, along with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

Carmel to Jezreel

Elijah told Ahab to summon all Israel “to meet me on Mount Carmel.” The contest was probably at the southeastern end of the Carmel ridge, above the Kishon valley, where tradition places it, though the exact spot is uncertain. Jezreel, Ahab’s royal town, lay about seventeen miles east across the valley, and Elijah ran there ahead of the king in the rain.

Morning on the broad, bare top of Mount Carmel: a great crowd of Israelites in brown wool spreads over the slopes, a separate mass of Baal's prophets in long dyed robes stands to one side, Ahab in crimson stands with his guards, and alone in the open ground between them stands Elijah in his dark cloak.

So Ahab summoned all the Israelites and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel.

1 Kings 18:21

But the people did not answer a word.

Elijah

Then Elijah said to the people, “I am the only remaining prophet of the LORD, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let the prophets of Baal choose one bull for themselves, cut it into pieces, and place it on the wood but not light the fire. And I will prepare the other bull and place it on the wood but not light the fire. Then you may call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The God who answers by fire, He is God.”

The Israelites

And all the people answered, “What you say is good.”

Question

Quick question

Elijah set the terms of the contest on Carmel, and the people agreed.

Elijah said the true God would be the one who answers by what?

Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Since you are so numerous, choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first. Then call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.”

And they took the bull that was given them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, shouting, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no sound, and no one answered as they leaped around the altar they had made.

So they shouted louder and cut themselves with knives and lances, as was their custom, until the blood gushed over them.

Midday passed, and they kept on raving until the time of the evening sacrifice. But there was no response; no one answered, no one paid attention.

Late afternoon on Carmel: Elijah in his dark goat-hair cloak kneels to set the last of twelve rough fieldstones on a low, square altar, a fresh trench dug around it, Israelite men standing close and watching, the low sun long and golden.

Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people approached him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD that had been torn down.

And Elijah took twelve stones, one for each tribe of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come and said, “Israel shall be your name.” And with the stones, Elijah built an altar in the name of the LORD. Then he dug a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed.

Elijah

Elijah’s Prayer

At the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet approached the altar and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and have done all these things at Your command. Answer me, O LORD! Answer me, so that this people will know that You, the LORD, are God, and that You have turned their hearts back again.”

Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and it licked up the water in the trench.

Dusk on Carmel: the whole crowd of Israelites lies facedown in rows across the slope before a scorched, empty hollow where the altar stood, thin smoke rising and the trench dry and blackened, Elijah standing alone beside it with his hands lifted.

When all the people saw this, they fell facedown and said, “The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!”

The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!

1 Kings 18:39

Then Elijah ordered them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let a single one escape.” So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered them there.

The LORD Sends Rain

And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.”

A lone figure crouched in prayer on a mountain ridge, facing the sea, a small cloud rising on the horizon.

So Ahab went up to eat and drink. But Elijah climbed to the summit of Carmel, bent down on the ground, and put his face between his knees.

Elijah

“Go and look toward the sea,” he said to his servant.

Elijah’s servant

So the servant went and looked, and he said, “There is nothing there.”

Elijah

Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.”

Elijah’s servant

On the seventh time the servant reported, “There is a cloud as small as a man’s hand rising from the sea.”

Elijah

And Elijah replied, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’”

Meanwhile, the sky grew dark with clouds and wind, and a heavy rain began to fall. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel.

And the hand of the LORD came upon Elijah, and he tucked his cloak into his belt and ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.

0:16

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

The LORD, He is God

Thank God that He alone is God and that He still answers. Ask Him for an undivided heart that no longer wavers “between two opinions.” And ask for the persistence to keep praying, as Elijah sent his servant to look again and again, until the cloud rises.

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1 Kings 18

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A verse to carry with you

The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!

1 Kings 18:39

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