When we left Elijah, he was on his way to Ahab’s gate at Samaria, and at the same time, Ahab and his important servant Obadiah were heading out in different directions to find food for the animals.
7 As Obadiah was walking along, Elijah met him. Obadiah recognized him, bowed down to the ground, and said, “Is it really you, my lord Elijah?”
8 “Yes,” he replied. “Go tell your master, ‘Elijah is here.’”
The words “my lord” in verse 7 and “your master” in verse 8 are the same Hebrew term, adonai. It’s a title also used for God sometimes (Psalm 16:2). Since Elijah’s name means “The LORD is my God” and Obadiah’s name means “Servant of the LORD,” it’s a conversation with an undercurrent (almost a riptide) of God’s names and titles. But let’s not get carried away with this undertow.
9 “What have I done wrong,” asked Obadiah, “that you are handing your servant over to Ahab to be put to death?
10 As surely as the LORD your God lives, there is not a nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you. And whenever a nation or kingdom claimed you were not there, he made them swear they could not find you. 11 But now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’ 12 I don’t know where the Spirit of the LORD may carry you when I leave you. If I go and tell Ahab and he doesn’t find you, he will kill me. Yet I your servant have worshiped the LORD since my youth. 13 Haven’t you heard, my lord, what I did while Jezebel was killing the prophets of the LORD? I hid a hundred of the LORD’s prophets in two caves, fifty in each, and supplied them with food and water. 14 And now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’ He will kill me!”
15 Elijah said, “As the LORD Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today.” (NIV)
It’s possible, maybe even probable that Obadiah and Elijah had never met before. But it had been more than three years since Elijah had been in Israel at all—perhaps Obadiah just had trouble believing his eyes. Either way, his question showed that he knew that Elijah was a servant of God. But he wasn’t all that glad to see him. Hiding a hundred seminary students who wanted to be hidden was one thing, but Elijah was another matter altogether.
My youngest son has a form of autism that causes him to look at life differently than you or I might. One of the ways this shows up is in his volume. He doesn’t really have a sense of what we try to explain as an “inside voice,” and a whisper is usually out of the question. I think Obadiah was afraid that Elijah didn’t have an “inside voice” when it came to the Lord. What if Elijah started a loud, attention-getting sermon right then and there? King Ahab’s wrath would fall on them like a hammer, and poor Obadiah would be standing there when the hammer fell.
There’s no reason to condemn Obadiah for his attitude. Different believers can show their faith in different ways. Obadiah knew that for him, staying alive meant a hundred of the Lord’s prophets would stay alive, too. It’s one thing to trust the Lord and another thing altogether to put the Lord to the test.
Obadiah shows at the same time a profound understanding (and misunderstanding) of the Lord’s ways when he says he is afraid that the Holy Spirit might spirit Elijah away just as he goes to tell Ahab about the meeting. Obadiah knew that God could and would carry a man wherever he wanted him if it suits him. The Almighty, omnipotent God is able to do anything. But Obadiah also needed to know that if God wanted Elijah to see Ahab, then there was no stopping the meeting.
We serve God as best we can. Sometimes our efforts may seem ordinary, even meager, and sometimes my personal best may not hold up to somebody else’s standards of “okay.” But we keep serving, we keep loving. God knows what’s in our hearts, and it’s what’s there that counts.
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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