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

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I am going to mention Obadiah, who was over King Ahab’s household, because he protected one hundred prophets of God from persecution.  Obadiah served King Ahab, who promoted Baal worship, but Obadiah feared the Lord.  We learn from Obadiah that not everyone is called to be an Elijah, not everyone is called to confront those who do evil.  Some of us are called to quietly support and protect those who serve the Lord.  Which brings me to what Ahab said when he met Elijah.  Ahab called Elijah a “troubler of Israel”.  I do not think this was just because Elijah called the drought down on Israel (although he actually merely told Ahab what God was going to do).  Rather, I think Ahab called Elijah a troubler because he had been calling Israel to worship and follow God rather than Baal even before the drought began, while Ahab, at the behest of his wife, Jezebel, was promoting Baal worship.  In fact, I think that Ahab was trying to convince the people that Baal was just another name for God and that the practices of Baal worship were just another way to worship God.  Elijah responded to Ahab by telling him that it was he, Ahab, who was troubling Israel by encouraging them to abandon God’s commands and instead follow Baal.  We see something similar today when those who call for people to not sin are called intolerant and hateful by those who violently attack them for expressing their views.

I really love the story of Elijah and his competition with the prophets of Baal, and I love the account of God speaking to Elijah in a low whisper on Mount Horeb.  But I am not going to write about them today, please read about them in the passage.  However, I want to make a comment on Elijah calling Elisha to become a prophet of God after himself.  It struck me today that when Elijah called Elisha that Elisha had a business.  Elisha had twelve yoke of oxen which he rented out to plow for other farmers.  Elisha immediately left that business to follow Elijah, asking only for time to bid his parents goodbye.  However, Elijah felt guilty over Elisha giving up his business to be a prophet, so he sent him back.  Elisha’s response to being sent back was to sacrifice his oxen by cooking them over fires made from the yokes that he used to have them pull plows.  In a manner of speaking, Elisha “burnt to the ground” his previous life to dedicate himself to serving God.  He left himself no way to return to that life, but he did so in a way which left no hard feelings with the people he had lived it among.  I will note that he only did so after someone, in this case Elijah, tried to convince him to return to that life.

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