18 After many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth.” 2 18:2So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. 3 18:3And Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly, 4 18:4and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.) 5 18:5And Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the valleys. Perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive, and not lose some of the animals.” 6 18:6So they divided the land between them to pass through it. Ahab went in one direction by himself, and Obadiah went in another direction by himself.
7 18:7And as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him. And Obadiah recognized him and fell on his face and said, “Is it you, my lord Elijah?” 8 18:8And he answered him, “It is I. Go, tell your lord, ‘Behold, Elijah is here.’” 9 18:9And he said, “How have I sinned, that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me? 10 18:10As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent to seek you. And when they would say, ‘He is not here,’ he would take an oath of the kingdom or nation, that they had not found you. 11 18:11And now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Elijah is here.”’ 12 18:12And as soon as I have gone from you, the Spirit of the Lord will carry you I know not where. And so, when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have feared the Lord from my youth. 13 18:13Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred men of the Lord’s prophets by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water? 14 18:14And now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Elijah is here”’; and he will kill me.” 15 18:15And Elijah said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.” 16 18:16So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him. And Ahab went to meet Elijah.
17 18:17When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” 18 18:18And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. 19 18:19Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
20 18:20So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. 21 18:21And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. 22 18:22Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men. 23 18:23Let two bulls be given to us, and let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it. 24 18:24And you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the Lord, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.” And all the people answered, “It is well spoken.” 25 18:25Then 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 18:26And 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 18:27And 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.” 28 18:28And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. 29 18:29And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.
30 18:30Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down. 31 18:31Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name,” 32 18:32and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two seahs of seed. 33 18:33And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” 34 18:34And he said, “Do it a second time.” And they did it a second time. And he said, “Do it a third time.” And they did it a third time. 35 18:35And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water.
36 18:36And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near 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 that I have done all these things at your word. 37 18:37Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” 38 18:38Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 18:39And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.” 40 18:40And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there.
41 18:41And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of the rushing of rain.” 42 18:42So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. And he bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees. 43 18:43And he said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” And he went up and looked and said, “There is nothing.” And he said, “Go again,” seven times. 44 18:44And at the seventh time he said, “Behold, a little cloud like a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” And he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you.’” 45 18:45And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. 46 18:46And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
The confrontation between Elijah, the sole prophet of Yahweh, and the massed ranks of the prophets of Baal and Asherah occupies most of the rest of the chapter. The extended narrative very carefully builds the tension, painting a finely detailed picture of the events until it reaches a climax with fire descending from heaven in a most dramatic display of power, the confession of the people that Yahweh is in fact God (rather than Baal), and the execution of the idolatrous prophets by Elijah.
The final scene of the chapter sees the dramatic relief of the drought while heightening the anticipation of the response of Ahab and Jezebel to the fact that Yahweh has spoken dramatically through his prophet.
Response
This is one of the most dramatic chapters in the Bible, which makes it all the more remarkable that the chapter begins with a slightly tense encounter between Elijah, the eccentric prophet, and Obadiah, a godly but compromised civil servant at the heart of one of the worst regimes in the ancient world. But this is no accident.
Before we get to the dramatic intervention of God on Mount Carmel, our writer subtly works a helpful corrective into the narrative. We unexpectedly discover that, unknown to even Elijah, Ahab’s senior adviser, Obadiah, has quietly been harboring a hundred prophets of Yahweh in some caves. While Elijah has been fighting Ahab and Jezebel’s vileness head-on, this previously unknown civil servant has been doing a sterling job of keeping Yahweh’s prophets out of the royal clutches.
What is equally surprising is that there is no hint that, when they do meet, Obadiah and Elijah suddenly become lifelong friends. In fact, there seems to be tension between them. Elijah’s characteristic bluntness is matched in verses 7–16 by Obadiah’s fearful babbling. And yet God uses them both. Yahweh uses Obadiah behind the scenes to keep a hundred prophets alive. Elijah and Obadiah do not become friends or brothers-in-arms, but it is clear that God is using them both. This underwhelming, awkward conversation between these two servants of Yahweh makes it clear that there is no fixed template for the way in which God works.
Where is Yahweh, our God, working in our suburb, our city, our nation, our world right now? We do not always know. Yahweh is the kind of God who always has multiple plans going at the same time. At any moment, yes, Yahweh may be working in dramatic, attention-grabbing, large-scale, “significant” ways. But he will also be working in behind-the-scenes, quietly surprising, not necessarily noticeable ways. Thus we must never slip into thinking that we know everything that God is doing, or even whom he is going to use. There is no template for “people whom God can use.” Or, as Davis says, “Faithfulness is not so dull that it only comes in one flavor.”
God uses massively able people and relatively limited people. God uses highly articulate people and people who stumble over their words. God uses all kinds of people in all kinds of roles—and he uses them in the right places. How would it have gone if Elijah had been Ahab’s administrative assistant? Or if Obadiah had stood toe-to-toe with the prophets of Baal? Not well, I think. Of course, we are not all equally fitted for the same things. But we can take heart in the fact that Yahweh uses all kinds of people—and let us make sure that we are humble enough to recognize that no personality type, no skill set, no training gives us a monopoly on being useful to God. He works in all kinds of ways through all kinds of people.
God’s willingness and ability to use different kinds of people is augmented by the way in which he repeatedly does the unexpected in this chapter. What is surprising is that, by ancient Near Eastern standards, God does not play fair in the contest at Mount Carmel; he breaks the three basic rules of being a god! He refuses to be put in a box.
First, Yahweh breaks the geographical rule. It was an unwritten rule that, by and large, the gods kept to their own territory. Every so often, when there was a war, the winning side got to proclaim that their god was tops and to expand its territory for a while. But basically the gods were live-and-let-live kinds of beings who kept to their own turf. Except Yahweh. For a start, he sets up this contest on Baal’s home ground. In the Annals of Shalmaneser III from 841 BC (thus roughly contemporaneous with 1 Kings 18), Mount Carmel is called “The Mountain of Baal of the Promontory.” This is Baal Mountain. This is very definitely an “away game” for Yahweh—but that does not seem to stop him. Yahweh refuses to be a local deity. He insists that he is the God of all the earth.
Then God breaks the religious activity rule. All of the ancient gods knew how it worked. So did every ancient worshiper. When it comes to worship, you get out what you put in. High energy/effort/cost = high return. Low energy/effort/cost = low return. Except no one seems to have told Yahweh this. Or Baal, come to think of it (18:26–29). No amount of self-mutilation could elicit so much as a squeak from Baal. But Yahweh? He apparently speaks through his prophet at will. This Yahweh is wrecking everything!
There is also the easy get-out rule. All gods had to have one—a clause they could invoke when they did not come up with the goods. For Baal it was “I have been temporarily detained in the underworld by Mot, but I will be back soon.” Elijah has a different take, suggesting Baal might be sleeping or on a journey or in the bathroom! But Yahweh does not seem to need breaks, or exclusion clauses. In fact, Elijah goes rather out of his way to make things harder for Yahweh. And then what does he do? He prays two measly sentences. This speaking God, this Yahweh, breaks all the man-made rules. We are not king over him—he is King over us. He rules over us as the one and only God, and we must approach him on his terms, not ours.
Elijah on Mount Carmel is very clear on the fact that theology leads to discipleship. In The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer says again and again with consistent bluntness that Jesus Christ calls us to follow him; and if he is God, we have no option. This is basically Elijah’s message. As John writes, “Whoever says he abides in [God] ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (1 John 2:6). Are we doing this? Or are we messing around, hesitating between God and not-god? For Elijah it is make-up-your-mind time. Now that the awkward silence has passed, the people find their voices. But God’s demand is clear. He insists that his people choose him, obey him, and stick with him. The God of the Bible is incredibly demanding. The Father is demanding in the OT, and the Son in the NT makes no bones about the fact that if we want to come after him, we must die to ourselves (Matt. 16:24–28; John 12:24–26; cf. Eph. 4:22–24). Does the demandingness of God ever surprise us? Are we ever taken aback by the audacity of Yahweh? Perhaps we should be. Because our God is not made with human hands, that he should serve us (cf. Acts 17:25).
That truth is underlined as this epic chapter ends 15 miles (24 km) away, as Ahab reaches his front gate, only to find Elijah standing, silently watching. The prophet’s presence says in effect, “Now you must listen to the word of Yahweh—the awesome, demanding, category-shattering, extreme God.” Surely Ahab must listen. But the bedroom light is on, and Jezebel is waiting. Ahab has some explaining to do. What will happen next? Will he listen to Elijah and his God? Or Jezebel, his wife? Chapter 19 will reveal his choice, but in the meantime let us listen to the word of Yahweh, the God who works quietly and dramatically, who is so demanding, who breaks all of our rules but keeps his promises to rescue. This is theology. And theology always leads to discipleship.
18:2b The narrator brings us up to speed on the realities of life in Israel under the curse, explaining that “the famine was severe in Samaria.” The withholding of rain has inevitably led to scarcity of food.
18:3–6 At this point in the narrative we are introduced to Obadiah, one of Ahab’s staff, “who was over the household” (cf. 1 Kings 4:6; 16:9; 2 Kings 10:5; 18:18, 37; 19:2), a role that would include maintaining the palace, staff, and livestock. This Obadiah lives up to the meaning of his name (“servant of Yahweh”), for he “feared the Lord greatly.” This is a rare commendation, presenting Obadiah in an immensely positive light and creating the expectation that he and Elijah should be kindred spirits.
This basic stance of reverence leads Obadiah to risk his life “when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord.” No further details of this attack are supplied, but presumably Jezebel is acting in retaliation for Elijah’s pronouncing God’s curse on the land. Unlike her husband, who struggles even to find Elijah, she is very effective in killing many. Obadiah took “a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.” In the same way that God provided for Elijah through the ravens and then the widow of Zarephath, these hundred prophets receive bread and water from the hand of Obadiah.
There is nothing in the preceding material to prepare us for the fact that Yahweh has his man on the inside, nor for the existence of at least another one hundred prophets of Yahweh (this does, however, give a context for Elijah’s later lament in 19:14 that he is the only one left!). The lack of detail here might be frustrating to readers who would love to know how Obadiah manages to achieve this and to hear a detailed explanation of the caves and the identity or source of these hundred prophets. But we receive no such detail—presumably because it is not the point.
The way in which the scene unfolds in verses 5–6 is comical: the king and the head of the Samaritan civil service are reduced to scouring the land for water and grass in order to save a few livestock. Driven to such desperate measures, the two senior figures in Israel “divided the land between them to pass through it. Ahab went in one direction by himself, and Obadiah went in another direction by himself.” The repeated phrase “by himself” paves the way for a private encounter between Elijah and Obadiah but also suggests that these senior figures are reduced to going out without substantial entourages. This desperate strategy leads to the “chance” meeting that follows. It is also striking that Ahab is more concerned with the potential killing of a few livestock than with the actual slaughter of the prophets of Yahweh.
18:7–9 The use of “behold” emphasizes the significance of this accidental encounter, which is charged with awkward humor. Obadiah’s response to the prophet is intriguing: “Obadiah recognized him and fell on his face and said, ‘Is it you, my lord Elijah?’” This could be genuine, or it may be an attempt to ingratiate himself with the prophet. At the very least, Obadiah seems oblivious to the tensions caused by the fact that he is employed by the worst king Israel has ever had, the one against whom Elijah has been commissioned to speak. Elijah’s response bears out the fact that the atmosphere between them is less than warm: “It is I. Go, tell your lord, ‘Behold, Elijah is here.’”
Elijah is quick to point out that Obadiah’s “lord” is, in fact, Ahab and that all Elijah wants from Obadiah is to make the king aware that Elijah is back in the game. Elijah is either unaware of Obadiah’s prophet saving or unwilling to give him any credit for his actions. Elijah is also either unaware or unconcerned about the possibility that Ahab might “shoot the messenger” who brings news of his reappearance! Thus Obadiah asks, “How have I sinned, that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me?” Obadiah seems genuinely afraid of how the wicked Ahab might react to the news of this encounter, leading to the overwrought tone of verses 10–14.
18:10–16 Obadiah presents a breathless argument against Elijah’s using him to convey news of Elijah to Ahab. He opens with a similar oath to those used by both Elijah and the widow in the previous chapter (“As the Lord your God lives”), this time to add weight to his slightly exaggerated claim that “there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent to seek you.” This fruitless search had apparently driven Ahab to distraction, to the point that anyone bringing news that Elijah has, in fact, been in Israel all along will be in a perilous situation. Such is Obadiah’s panic that he then begins to imagine a worst-case scenario, in which “as soon as I have gone from you, the Spirit of the Lord will carry you I know not where.” Obadiah is convinced that this would result in his immediate (and tragic) death at the hand of Ahab, not least because “I your servant have feared the Lord from my youth.”
The note of desperation persists, as Obadiah now seeks to convince Elijah that this would be a disaster, not least because he has “hid a hundred men of the Lord’s prophets by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.” Obadiah’s speech ends with plaintive fear: “And now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Elijah is here”’; and he will kill me,” repeating Elijah’s own words from verse 8.
Once more Elijah shows himself, in marked contrast to the babbling of Obadiah, to be a man of few words: “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.” The introduction of the title “Lord of hosts,” rare in 1 Kings (see also 19:10, 14), suggests that God and his armies are about to come to the rescue, easing Obadiah’s understandable fears. Yet the fact remains that, despite Obadiah’s concerns, events are coming to a head: “So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him. And Ahab went to meet Elijah.” At last the confrontation begins.
18:17 Ahab’s opening statement shows that he places the blame for the drought squarely on Elijah, asking sarcastically, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” The word “troubler” is strong, implying one who brings on serious consequences, as it does in the accounts of both Achan (Josh. 6:18; 7:25) and Saul (1 Sam. 14:29), both covenant breakers.
18:18–19 The irony, of course, is that the reader knows it is Ahab’s failure to keep the covenant that has brought on the covenant curse, and so Elijah’s response comes as no surprise: “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals.” Elijah now spells out the reason behind the drought and commands Ahab to gather all Israel, along with the army of prophets of Baal and Asherah sponsored by his wife, to meet him at Mount Carmel. Carmel is a seaside mountain near the Phoenician border (at modern-day Haifa) and is traditionally one of the most fertile places in Israel (cf. Isa. 33:9). Although once associated with the worship of Yahweh (1 Kings 18:30), in Ahab’s day it is a crucial cult center for the worship of Baal (cf. Response section below) and thus the perfect setting for this ultimate confrontation. So Elijah sets up this most famous of contests: “Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
In a small country, 850 is a large number of well-fed pagan prophets. Ahab had established a significant “idolatrous establishment.” Further, Baal and Asherah worship was not unattractive. For a start, it was state-sponsored. If one wanted to advance in Israel under Ahab and Jezebel, then being known as a Baal worshiper was a definite plus. In addition, Baalism was old. It was not some bizarre new cult; it went back hundreds of years to before the time Israel entered the land. And it was all about felt needs: to a Canaanite farmer, Baal the storm god looked after the weather, and crop fertility, and the number of children one would have—all very useful things. Baalism had a lot going for it, from a worldly perspective. But not according to either Yahweh or Elijah.
18:20 It is interesting that “Ahab sent to all the people of Israel” first, which underlines that the problem is not simply an idolatrous monarchy, nor even prophets of pagan gods, but a people who have broken covenant with Yahweh. So, even though prophets will take center stage in what follows, the ultimate issue is the state of the nation as a whole.
18:21 As Elijah’s God-imposed exile comes to an end, he approaches “all the people,” effectively to indict them for not only tolerating but even enthusiastically embracing idolatry. He asks, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions?” Verse 21 is not easy to translate, but the picture does seem to be of the people hobbling around on crutches. The language is graphic (it may mean “limping with two branches,” with the image being one of using crutches, or of hopping in a grotesque dance, as the prophets do in verse 26), depicting the people of Israel as weak, indecisive, and foolish, dabbling in idolatry without the courage of their convictions, seeking to hold onto the traditions of their fathers at the same time. In any case, it is clear that Elijah is warning of the dangers of vacillation. The prophet insists that the people must make a choice: “If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” It is a straightforward choice. And yet, after all that God has said (and done), the people’s response is silence: “The people did not answer him a word.” This refusal to pledge their allegiance to Yahweh is deeply ominous.
18:22–24 Again, it is important to see that, in the first place, Elijah dictates the terms of this challenge, but not before underlining its one-sided nature. At this point, the statement that “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord” primarily highlights that it is Elijah against the world; there might be a hundred Yahweh-prophets hidden in a cave, but in terms of those taking a public stand Elijah is indeed alone. And not just alone but fighting against Baal’s prophets totaling 450 men, placing Elijah at the greatest possible disadvantage. The description of the rules might seem curious at first: an animal is prepared for sacrifice but fire is not allowed. Verse 24, however, makes clear that the lack of a human-started fire is necessary to show how the winner will be determined: “And you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the Lord, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.” This test might seem to favor Baal, since he is the storm god and thus should be able to answer with fire (lightning) rather easily. But his failure—and Yahweh’s success!—will only underscore who the true God of heaven really is.
Finally the people break their silence by affirming that they are happy with the rules. However, their expressed view that “it is well spoken” heightens the tension by saying nothing of whom they are supporting or even expect to win.
18:25–26 Despite his apparent numerical disadvantage, Elijah invites the prophets of Baal to go first. However, despite their best efforts, as they “called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, ‘O Baal, answer us!’” it has no effect. In marked contrast to the God of Israel, whose word has dominated this book, “there was no voice, and no one answered.” Davies suggests that the voice of Baal is thunder and his fire lightning, but, whatever the prophets hope for, the answer is silence. The writer mocks their attempts to elicit some action from their god. Like the people in verse 21, the prophets “limped around the altar that they had made.” But answers are in very short supply.
18:27–29 “At noon Elijah mocked them.” The book of Kings has no time for false gods or false claims about false gods. Elijah helpfully suggests reasons for the lack of response from Baal, encouraging the prophets to shout louder: “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.” Yahweh’s spokesmen offers several explanations: (1) Baal is distracted; (2) Baal is using the toilet; (3) Baal is on vacation; or (4) Baal is in hibernation (which in Canaanite thinking was the usual explanation for drought or famine, as Baal was believed to be held captive in the underworld by Mot until the growing season began again).
The cumulative effect is to demonstrate the utter foolishness of Israel in abandoning her God, Yahweh, for a non-god such as this. However, the cultic prophets throw themselves into ever more extreme rituals: “And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them.” The contrast between this manic self-harm (forbidden in Deut. 14:1) to twist the arm of Baal and the readiness of Yahweh to speak and act to display his glory and goodness is stark. However, in growing desperation, the cacophony grows until the clock runs out, as “they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation” (cf. Ex. 29:38–41; Num. 28:3–8). The verdict of the writer is blunt and telling: “There was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.” This god neither listens nor speaks.
18:30–35 In contrast to the massed ranks of gyrating prophets, Elijah’s actions are low-key and matter-of-fact. As befits a servant of the God who makes his presence known among his people, Elijah invites “all the people, ‘Come near to me.’” The people readily comply. At this point, Elijah pointedly “repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down.” We are given no further details about this altar, but its reconstruction is clearly a clarion call to Israel, urging the people to return to the God of their fathers, Yahweh, the God of the covenant. This call to return to covenant faithfulness is given “concrete” expression, as “Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob.” Like a new Moses (Ex. 24:3–8), Elijah builds an altar to the God who speaks, a point the writer is keen to underline: these are the people “to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, ‘Israel shall be your name.’” The narrator emphasizes that the God of their fathers is a talking God and that even their name is a reflection of that truth. The stage is set for the word of Yahweh, which has been so important in this narrative, to triumph yet again.
As the altar is constructed “in the name of the Lord,” Elijah goes out of the way to make things difficult for God to win this contest. He digs “a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two seahs of seed,” two seahs being about 3.5 gallons (15 l). After the offering of the bull is prepared, Elijah insists that the wood and sacrifice be doused with twelve jars of water, so that “the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water.” No explanation is given as to where such a large amount of water is found during a drought, but the stage is now set for a dramatic intervention by God himself.
18:36–39 As the clock runs down, rather than performing dramatic actions “Elijah the prophet” (so called for the first time) prays. His prayer is simple: “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 that I have done all these things at your word.” This contest rests on which god answers prayer. Elijah asks the God of Israel to vindicate him so that his people may know that God himself is addressing them. This prayer also assumes that Yahweh is a promise-keeping God. He is the covenant God. This is certainly how Elijah understands him. Elijah takes us right back to the promises Yahweh made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The second part of the prayer in verse 37 is slightly trickier: “Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” This chapter hinges on which god is able to “answer.” Elijah’s prayer asks God to reveal himself to his people once more and to bring them to repentance, turning their hearts “around” like the water flowing “around” the sacrifice. What happens next is not unexpected, but no less impressive: “The fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.” Everything is consumed as the fire of God himself falls from heaven.
Fire from heaven onto an altar has happened only three times before. The first is when Moses and Aaron get the sacrificial system up and running in Leviticus 9:24. The second is when David buys the threshing floor of Araunah/Ornan as a suitable temple plot and builds an altar (1 Chron. 21:26). The third is when Solomon’s temple is dedicated and the first offering made (2 Chron. 7:1). Now again the Lord God sends fire to demonstrate that he alone is God of heaven and earth.
The key thing, of course, is the response this provokes in 1 Kings 18:39: “And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, ‘The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.’” It is interesting that even at this climactic moment the confession of the people seems minimalist (the classic covenantal proclamation is “I will be your God and you will be my people”—packed with pronouns). But the fact that this response corresponds exactly to the way in which Elijah has set up the contest in verse 24 (and to the parallel in Deut. 4:35) shows that this is a genuine “Amen” to the prophet’s claims about Yahweh, the only true God.
18:40 For Elijah, however, this divine intervention must have instant consequences: “Elijah said to them, ‘Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.’ And they seized them.” The people summoned by Ahab now play a vital role in God’s judgment on Israel, as they corral the pagan prophets. But it is the prophet of Yahweh himself who takes the lead in eradicating this cancer from Israel: “Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there.” The word “slaughtered” is the normal word for killing a sacrifice (cf. Lev. 3:2; 4:24), implying that by making offerings to a non-god the prophets have effectively forfeited their lives (cf. Deut. 13:5–11). It is a punishment that fits the crime. The prophets are taken to the wadi at the foot of Mount Carmel and executed. It is clear that in Yahweh’s eyes apostasy among leaders is a desperately serious crime, deserving of the most severe punishment.
18:41–42a The outstanding business of this chapter is the response of Ahab to these events. The writer maintains the suspense by making no comment on the king’s reaction, instead moving straight to Elijah’s blunt command to the king: “Go up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of the rushing of rain.” Some interpreters think this is a covenantal meal, or it may just be dinner. Either way, to “eat and drink” is presumably a celebration of the removal of the curse and the end of the drought, which should lead to recommitment to the covenant (perhaps echoing Ex. 24:9–11, where embracing God’s covenant is signified in a meal). Promisingly, “Ahab went up to eat and to drink” in obedience to the instructions of the prophet.
18:42b–44 At this point Elijah “went up to the top of Mount Carmel” to look for evidence of the “sound of the rushing of rain” (v. 41) he has just heralded. Strangely, he “bowed himself down on the earth and put his face between his knees.” This seems to be a posture of submission: he knows that Yahweh alone can relieve the drought, and has promised to do so, and so Elijah waits. And waits, as he sends his servant repeatedly to check for rain clouds. Finally, on the seventh return trip, the servant exclaims, “Behold, a little cloud like a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” The artistry of the narrative is marvelous as the tension is finally eased, a cloud appears from the storm god Baal’s supposed domain (the sea), and the way is prepared for Elijah’s unfinished business with Ahab. The compliant king is now told, “Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you.”
18:45–46 As expected, the rains come, and “Ahab rode and went to Jezreel” to his palace, where Jezebel presumably is waiting for news of the triumph of her prophets. But there is still no clear answer to the question of Ahab’s response to the word of Yahweh. However, there is no escape from the word of Yahweh or his prophet, who, after what must have been a draining experience, is empowered to outrun the king: “And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.” The chapter ends 15 miles (24 km) away, with the prophet lurking at the gate of Ahab’s summer palace (cf. 21:1) as undoubtedly an unwelcome reminder to the king of the implications of the events at Carmel.
1 A seah was about 7 quarts or 7.3 liters
2 See Davies, 1 Kings, 341.
3 I suspect that this is the key to understanding Elijah’s deep disappointment in chapter
19: his prayer is not answered in the affirmative, as it becomes clear that, although God has revealed himself spectacularly once again, his people have not repented.
4 Each of the previous cases is associated with a place of atonement, although there is no direct reference to the theme of atonement in this passage (and, notably, the people’s response does not allude to themes of guilt or forgiveness).
5 I am indebted to Jay Sklar for this point.
6 James 5:17–18 makes explicit that this is a stance of prayer.
7 Davis, The Wisdom and the Folly, 233.