Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 18-19.

I love today’s passage, there is so much to write about in it.  It starts with Elijah approaching Obadiah, King Ahab’s palace administrator to take word to Ahab that Elijah wanted to meet with him.  We are told that Obadiah was a devout follower of the Lord who had protected 100 prophets of the Lord from Jezebel’s campaign to kill them all.  Obadiah reminds Elijah that he had done this.  Yet when Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, he claims that he is the only prophet of God left.  Perhaps something had happened to those 100 prophets in between Obadiah protecting them and Elijah’s speech on Mount Carmel, or, perhaps Elijah was referring to himself as the only prophet of God willing to appear before King Ahab by that point.  While he was on Mount Carmel Elijah was the perfect example of the boisterous showman, playing to the crowd and capturing its attention.  A few days later, when he was fleeing from Jezebel’s threat to kill him, he exhibits the symptoms of someone experiencing depression, he had had enough and wanted to die.

Elijah flees through the wilderness for forty days and forty nights until he ends up at Mount Horeb.  When he gets there. God asks him why he is there.  To which he replies that he has been zealous for the Lord, but the people have not responded and now he is the only one left and they are trying to kill him.  Then God tells him, “Stand up for I am about to pass by.”  So Elijah stood up while God sent a fierce wind, an earthquake, and a mighty fire before arriving as a gentle whisper.  Once more God asked Elijah why he is there.  Elijah replies with the same answer he had just given.  Which leads God to tell Elijah, “Get over yourself.  You are still alive because I still have work for you to do.  And you are not alone.  I have reserved a multitude who have been just as faithful as you.”  Elijah had become depressed because he had exhausted himself and he thought he was alone in this world in being faithful to God.  He felt like it was all pointless, like he was useless.  God’s answer was that until you are dead, you are not useless, and none of us are alone.  The best treatment for depression is to seek, and perform, what tasks God has for you, and the company of those who love the Lord.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 18-19.

It is easy to overlook the significance of Obadiah in this passage, but we shouldn’t.  Obadiah was a devout follower of God, yet he worked as palace administrator for King Ahab, a dedicated worshiper of Baal.  From his position serving King Ahab, Obadiah was able to save 100 prophets of God from Jezebel’s effort to exterminate them.  We don’t know how Obadiah found himself as King Ahab’s palace administrator, but he used that position to serve God.  Let us strive to do likewise.  Then when Obadiah brings Ahab to Elijah, Ahab calls Elijah the troubler of Israel for announcing God’s judgement for the sins which Ahab was responsible.  All too often those who have rebelled against God will blame their troubles on those who pass God’s word on to them.  Let us pay no more attention to such accusations than Elijah did here.

After his great success on Mount Carmel, Elijah was greatly depressed by Jezebel’s threats against him.  He fled into the wilderness to Horeb, the mountain of God.  When God asked him why he was there, Elijah replied that the Israelites had rejected God and killed His prophets so that Elijah was the only one left.  Elijah felt like he was a failure.  He was sure that, despite his best efforts, the people of Israel had turned from God and chosen to worship Baal.  Elijah was ready to give up, he felt there was nothing left that he could do.  But God was not done with Elijah.  He sent Elijah to anoint Hazael king in Damascus and Jehu king over Israel.  In addition, Elijah was to anoint Elisha as his successor.  Elijah thought that the Israelites were done with God, but God told him that He was not done with the Israelites.  Elijah thought that he was the last remaining servant of God in Israel, but God told him that not only was there Elisha, who would succeed Elijah as God’s prophet, but there were seven thousand others who had not bent the knee to Baal.  Elijah thought the “culture war” was over and that the side of righteousness had lost.  God’s answer to him was, “Not so fast.  I have reserved seven thousand who are faithful to Me.”  It may seem today that the culture war is over and those rejecting God have won, but God’s answer to us is, “Not so fast. I have reserved those who are faithful to Me.”  And those whom He has reserved are a lot more than 7,000.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 18-19.

I love the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel and the story of his trip to Mount Horeb.  However, I want to start by looking at Obadiah.  Obadiah was King Ahab’s palace administrator and a devout follower of the Lord.  This seems hard to reconcile.  How could a devout follower of the Lord serve as King Ahab’s palace administrator?  Nevertheless the passage tells us that such was the case.  More importantly, the passage tells us that Obadiah used his position to save 100 prophets of God from Jezebel’s persecution of them.  So, we do not know much about Obadiah except that he did this.  Not many of us are called to confront the powerful the way Elijah was, but we can at least be like Obadiah and use whatever power we have to aid others.

I also want to look at another part of this passage which is referenced a bit more than Obadiah, but even so not that much.  When King Ahab meets up with Elijah, he calls him a troublemaker.  I imagine that King Ahab did so because he blamed Elijah for the drought which he had predicted.  However, Elijah points out that King Ahab is the one bringing trouble on Israel because King Ahab has chosen to follow the path of idolatry rather than worship the Lord.  King Ahab’s Baal worship and support for Jezebel’s persecution of the Lord’s prophets was more disruptive to Israel than anything Elijah had done.    Similar things happen today.  Christians are often called divisive for calling people to traditional moral stances which have only recently been rejected,   If you are called, as Elijah was, to stand up and confront people over their moral failings, do not allow them to make you think that you are the one being divisive.  And, if you are called to be like Obadiah, do not let them convince you that the Elijah’s of the world are the one’s to blame.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Kings 18-19.

I am always struck by Elijah’s showmanship in this passage.  The prophets of Ball put on a great show as part of their worship, but Elijah manages to upstage them.  As a first step, Elijah let them go first.  The prophets of Baal sang and danced and  shouted.  They even began to cut themselves to work the people up.  Then comes the key to Elijah’s part of the show: he began to make people aware that for all of the show put on by the prophets of Baal, nothing happened.  Finally, when people were starting to think about dinner, after waiting all day for the sacrificial feast, Elijah calls them over to him.  Elijah starts his part of the show by making sure the people know he did not have any fire hidden in the altar.  Then, instead of a complex ritual to inflame the people’s passions, Elijah prayed a simple prayer which amounted to “God, show Your power!”  I will note that this approach has psychological power to effect people’s emotions.  Elijah put on this show to demonstrate that true worship does not need to be big and showy, that something simple and focused on God can be more meaningful.

In a way, the second part of this passage tells the same message on a more personal level.  Elijah had just put on the show of his life, getting the people of Israel to see the contrast between God and Baal.  Yet Jezebel was still Queen and more determined than ever to have him killed.  So, Elijah fled to Mt Horeb (where Moses received the Ten Commandments.  It is not clear if Mt Sinai and Mt Horeb are the same mountain, or if they are across a valley from each other).  There God appeared to him, but not in a loud, showy way.  God appeared to Elijah in a quiet whisper.  Then when Elijah complained that he was the only one of God’s prophets left, God told him to go and anoint Elisha as his successor (indicating that there were indeed other prophets of God remaining).  Further, God told Elijah that there were seven thousand in Israel quietly living their lives and worshiping Him, completely rejecting Baal worship.  Not all of us are called to loudly and brashly proclaim God as Elijah was.  Some of us are called to quietly live our lives, proclaiming our faith in God by our refusal to take part in the idolatry going on around us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 18-19.

I love the story about the competition Elijah sets up between himself and the prophets of Baal.  It shows how Elijah was a great showman and understood how to capture people’s attention.  It reminds us that there is nothing wrong with using showy techniques to attract people to follow God.  However, today I want to focus on some lesser things we can learn from this passage.  First, we have King Ahab.  He was responsible for the well-being of his people during a terrible drought, but what motivated him to do a desperate search for water and a place where plants were growing?  His people were dying of thirst and starving, but King Ahab was not motivated to make a desperate search for water until his horses were in danger.  Then when King Ahab met Elijah, Ahab called Elijah a troublemaker for having told him that there would be a drought.  Elijah accurately points out that it was King Ahab who had caused the trouble by disobeying the Lord and worshiping Baal.  We find the same sort of thing happening today.  For example, there were people who protested and made a big fuss accusing Samaritan’s Purse of bringing hate and vitriol to New York City during the pandemic because they opened an emergency tent hospital in Central Park.  The question is, who was spreading hatred and vitriol?  The ones who were treating the sick, all of the sick, who came to them for care?  Or the ones shouting and screaming because they did not like the beliefs of those providing care?