In the early days of his ministry, people in Nazareth were surprised that Jesus turned out to be a prophet. “Isn’t this Joseph’s boy?” It didn’t matter that his every word was brimming with grace and the mercy of God. He thought of Elijah, heaved a sigh their way and said: “I tell you the truth. No prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.” (Luke 4:24-26)
Zarephath sits on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea about fifty miles north of Mount Carmel. Between is the wonderful bay or gulf (I’m not sure what to call it) of Acco, with the only places to park a ship for many miles, until one gets down to Joppa. The land is rolling and pretty, if a little bare. Due west of the Sea of Galilee, Mount Carmel thrusts up and out into the Mediterranean, the only important break in the basically straight coastline. Here in 1 Kings 18, we will see Elijah journey from Zarephath to Samaria and then up to Carmel, to show King Ahab and all Israel what Baal worship was really worth.
Elijah and Obadiah
18 After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.” 2 So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab.
God works in his own time. The drought didn’t last three and a half years so that God could build up his strength. It went on that long to show that Baal, the rain god that Jezebel held to be so powerful and important, was utterly powerless and impotent. Off Elijah went, with his farewells to the widow and her son. He had been with them about as long as the length of Jesus’ ministry on earth.
Samaria is a long way from Zarephath—forty miles southeast of Carmel, so it was a hefty ninety mile walk, either for Elijah or his donkey. The going along the coast was probably nicer than the turn eastward and inland, but he probably followed the valley of the River Kishon, which is a wadi or rain-fed gulch, bone dry after so long a drought. Elijah would have made his way to the village of Dothan (Joseph was sold into slavery near there—was that on the prophet’s mind as he bumped along on his ride?), and from there the climb up to Omri’s new city would have been ten miles or so. Less than a day’s ride, even in the drought.
As Elijah approaches the gates of Ahab’s court, the author turns us away for a moment to fill us in about what had been going on in Samaria since Elijah had prophesied the drought and then stormed away…
Now the famine was severe in Samaria, 3 and Ahab had summoned Obadiah, his palace administrator. (Obadiah was a devout believer in the LORD. 4 While Jezebel was killing off the LORD’s prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water.)
This was not the prophet Obadiah, but a layman. Their names aren’t quite identical in Hebrew (here it’s obad-yahu; the Minor Prophet spells it obad-yah), that’s not the real issue (other names are spelled more than one way in the Bible). The prophet Obadiah dealt with an attack on Jerusalem and Edom’s involvement or collaboration. There are two possible dates for the prophet, but both of them come after this time. This man was palace administrator, which meant he had charge over Ahab’s personal household. He would have been a highly trusted and capable servant to the king; something like the butler on Downton Abbey.
Obadiah showed Jezebel’s own impotence and inability to carry out her murderous plan. Her own palace administrator hid a hundred prophets and hid them in a pair of caves right under her nose. The Holy Spirit is talking to you here. Don’t forget to listen to what he’s saying: Elijah wasn’t the only faithful believer in Israel. In Hebrew, verse 4 jumps out and grabs us with the word kûl (pronounced “cool”), “support, nourish.” This is the same word and exactly the same work we saw done by ravens and the widow of Zarephath in the previous chapter, where the birds were ordered by God to “feed” (kûl) Elijah, and the widow was also commanded to supply (kûl) him with food. The verb kûl in each case is an unusual doubled form called a pilpel, a kind a repetitive form that reminds me of a kindly grandmother saying “Eat, eat!” over the dinner table like it’s one word.
5 Ahab had said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs and valleys. Maybe we can find some grass to keep the horses and mules alive so we will not have to kill any of our animals.” 6 So they divided the land they were to cover, Ahab going in one direction and Obadiah in another. (NIV)
Another contrast between Jezebel’s work and that of everyone else is shown by Ahab’s desire not to have to kill off (Hebrew karat, “cut off”) any of their animals, while his wife was obsessed with killing off (also karat) the Lord’s prophets.
Can you imagine the feeling Obadiah had as he wandered away from his king, searching for fodder? Water was incredibly scarce, and it was getting so bad that they were in danger of killing their own animals. Yet Obadiah was supplying food and water to the prophets in the caves. Perhaps he was nervous because Ahab’s choice of direction might lead him near one or both of those very caves. The prophets’ lives were in danger, certainly, but Obadiah’s life would be over, too, if they were caught.
Before we return to Elijah approaching the gate of Samaria, we should look at the elephant in the chapter. Not a real elephant, but one of those obvious questions that needs to get asked. Where did a hundred prophets come from?
In the days of the prophet Samuel, we see a special assembly of prophets called a lahaqat ha-nebiim, “school of the prophets” (1 Samuel 19:19-20). We don’t have many details about that group, but we’re going to see more of them when we get to know Elisha later on. These were men who had probably been identified as having special spiritual gifts, perhaps of prophecy or interpretation (1 Corinthians 12:10; 2 Peter 1:20-21). Under a senior prophet like Samuel who would act as a teacher, these men would learn to understand the word of God that was already given to the people, especially the books of Moses. We might think of these hundred prophets as seminary students, or full-fledged prophets who had been taken in by Obadiah when the crisis fell.
Carefully and deliberately, the Holy Spirit has already shown us the impotence of Baal. But he’s not finished. He’s leading us to see the omnipotence of God, and to glorify him by recounting the showdown between Ahab and Elijah on Mount Carmel.
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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