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1Kings 17 and 18 are companion chapters and ideally should be read as one story. (And 1Kings 18 is the traditional parallel passage, or haftarah, for Torah reading Ki Tisa, which covers Israel’s rebellion at the golden calf at Sinai.) The land had suffered from a drought for about three years by this time. That doesn’t mean there was absolutely no water in the land at all, otherwise they all would have died of dehydration within a few days.
This is not the first time a fire a spontaneous fire came from the Lord to burn up an offering, but it is the most dramatic offering. The Angel of the Lord returned to heaven in the smoke of the whole burnt offering that Manoah and his wife dedicated to the Lord in response to the Lord’s prophesy of the birth of Samson in Judges 13.
In this chapter, we meet a man named Obadiah. He was not a conniving or clever man, yet he was able to hide 100 prophets of Israel from Ahab and Jezebel’s death decree. He didn’t scatter them throughout the land or ship them down to Judah. Instead, he hid them in two caves, 50 men in each. Some caves in Israel can be quite large but that’s still quite a group to cover, protect and feed.
It appears from the text that Obadiah was one of Ahab’s most trusted servants, because Obadiah was the only other person besides the King himself who were searching the land of Israel water and green grass to feed the King’s horses, mules and cattle. Ahab did not call all of his army to this task, it was a task that Ahab did himself with only Obadiah, to assist him. Elijah’s overreaching goal is to bring the people’s hearts back to the Lord. Obadiah’s goal was to save the 100 prophets from Ahab and Jezebel’s fury. He was anticipating a profound change. Obadiah did not assume he would have to hide these prophets for decades or generations.
Ahab’s discernment was so poor and so weak, that he placed Obadiah, who’s heart and goals were the total opposite of Ahab’s, as the head of his entire household. Ahab treats Obadiah almost as his peer and equal.
When Obadiah meets Elijah on the road, Elijah speaks to him and tells Obadiah to go back to Ahab and tell him that he, Elijah, is back. Elijah’s request puts fear into Obadiah’s heart. He really believes that Ahab will kill him if he doesn’t bring Elijah with him right there. Obadiah asks Elijah, “What I have done to deserve death?” Elijah reassures him that he won’t die.
Obadiah’s question is a common question. I envision at times that if I do a really good God that God will pull me out of whatever misery I’m going through and I’ll be safe. However, sometimes, He tells me to go back into the misery to pull something else out. Just because someone is successful and follows God through out their lives, doesn’t mean that God will tell us, “Good job, now go out and play.” Many times, He says, “Good job, now go back because there’s more work to do.”
Obadiah, in 1 Kings 18:12 speaks a prophesy on Elijah, although he might not have realized it as such as the time, “It will come about when I leave you that the Spirit of the LORD will carry you where I do not know; 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.”
Elijah didn’t promise Obadiah that Ahab would spare his life. Elijah promises Obadiah that he will appear personally before Ahab and he will not run away. So Obadiah tells Ahab that Elijah’s back. Elijah appears to Ahab and makes a bold challenge in 1 Kings 18:19, “Now then send and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, together with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
What do you know about the Ba’al and Asherah? The Ba’al was a male god and the Asherah was a female goddess. The Ba’al was the husband and the Asherah was his wife. Anyplace where your bible refers to a “sacred pole” is a symbol of the Asherah. The references to the “high places” you find in the Judges and early Kings, are also Asherah worship places.
Queen Jezebel was the one who imported the worship of Ba’al and Asherah from her country to Israel. This is why the Bible refers to Jezebel as a “harlot.” She wasn’t called a harlot because she cheated on her husband King Ahab but because she was the primary reason that her husband and her husband’s nation turned away from God to worship Ba’al and Asherah.
Queen Jezebel and King Ahab did not invent the Ba’al and Asherah. They were around for many generations, centuries, even millennia before. It is Elijah’s goal to abolish the Ba’al and Asherah from the nation’s consciousness.
Ahab was not a shrewd person but his wife Jezebel was very shrewd and smart enough not to actually send her own favorite Ba’al prophets to this challenge that Elijah set up.
When Elijah set up the altar to the Lord on Mt. Carmel, 1 Kings 18:31-32 says, “Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, “Israel shall be your name.” So with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD,…”
This commentary seems somewhat redundant or remedial. Didn’t they already know this? No, they were lost, they had forgotten who their God really was and where they came from. They had forgotten where their national name, Israel, came from. Elijah was going back to square one to try to teach the people of Israel the basis of their national identity, which was in their ancestor’s relationship with the Creator God. Elijah is making the path clear.
People don’t like the fact that there was an altar to the Lord on Mt. Carmel. The standing rule is that the only altar to the Lord was to be in Jerusalem. We don’t know when the altar that Eljiah repaired originated. It could have been built during King Saul’s time or earlier.
The priests of Ba’al fail miserably in their efforts to call upon Ba’al to burn the sacrifice given to him. There was dead silence. Making the priests of Ba’al look silly was one of the goals of this confrontation.
At the conclusion of this confrontation, there was no doubt that God was real and the Ba’al was no god at all. Asherah had no role in this competition. There were no prophets of Asherah at this meeting, hence we see archaeological evidence in Israel of “Yahweh and His Asherah.” Asherah’s reputation was not affected by this confrontation.
It is currently a part of Jewish tradition that at the end of the Day of Atonement/Yom Kippur they would declare twice “The LORD, He is God; the LORD, He is God” just before the fast is broken. Why? Well, one of the reasons is that Yom Kippur is a fast. It’s a lack of food and water. Elijah only has an audience on Mt. Carmel because there was no food or water. That is the only thing on their mind, just as during Yom Kippur, by the end of the fast the only thing you are thinking about are food and water.
The more important symbol of Yom Kippur is repentance and returning to a state of cleanliness before God. It’s an opportunity to start over.
Obadiah and Ahab went in opposite directions. Obadiah finds Elijah and Obadiah has to return to Ahab and then Obadiah has to return Ahab to Elijah. Elijah’s goal was to return the people to God.
Speaker: Daniel. Summary: Tammy.
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