1 Kgs 18:16-46 · Read 15 min · think and write 15 min
In the third year of the drought, “the LORD’s word came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, ‘Go, show yourself to Ahab; and I will send rain on the earth’” (1 Kgs 18:1).
The first time Elijah met Ahab, he said, “there shall not be dew nor rain these years” (1 Kgs 17:1). This time God said, “I will send rain on the earth” (1 Kgs 18:1). This lesson reads the day between those two sayings.
Obadiah, who was over Ahab’s household, went and told Ahab, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. (v. 16)
17When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”
18He answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house, in that you have forsaken the LORD’s commandments and you have followed the Baals.
Elijah told Ahab to gather all Israel to Mount Carmel, with the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of the Asherah. (vv. 19–20)
21Elijah came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you waver between the two sides? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” The people didn’t say a word.
22Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left as a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred fifty men.
23Let them therefore give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under; and I will dress the other bull, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under it.
24You call on the name of your god, and I will call on the LORD’s name. The God who answers by fire, let him be God.” All the people answered, “What you say is good.”
Elijah told the prophets of Baal to choose their bull first and call on the name of their god, but to put no fire under it. (v. 25)
26They took the bull which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, “Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice, and nobody answered. They leaped about the altar which was made.
27At noon, Elijah mocked them, and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is deep in thought, or he has gone somewhere, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he sleeps and must be awakened.”
28They cried aloud, and cut themselves in their way with knives and lances until the blood gushed out on them.
29When midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the evening offering; but there was no voice, no answer, and nobody paid attention.
Elijah called the people to come near and repaired the LORD’s altar that had been thrown down. He took twelve stones, one for each tribe of the sons of Jacob, built the altar, dug a trench around it, laid out the wood and the bull, and had water poured on the offering and the wood three times, until the trench was full. (vv. 30–35)
36At the time of the evening offering, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “LORD, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word.
37Hear me, LORD, hear me, that this people may know that you, LORD, are God, and that you have turned their heart back again.”
38Then the LORD’s fire fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust; and it licked up the water that was in the trench.
39When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces. They said, “The LORD, he is God! The LORD, he is God!”
40Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Don’t let one of them escape!” They seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and killed them there.
41Elijah said to Ahab, “Get up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.”
42So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he bowed himself down on the earth, and put his face between his knees.
43He said to his servant, “Go up now and look toward the sea.” He went up and looked, then said, “There is nothing.” He said, “Go again” seven times.
44On the seventh time, he said, “Behold, a small cloud, like a man’s hand, is rising out of the sea.” He said, “Go up, tell Ahab, ‘Get ready and go down, so that the rain doesn’t stop you.’”
45In a little while, the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel.
46The LORD’s hand was on Elijah; and he tucked his cloak into his belt and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
To read the whole passage: 1 Kings 18:16–46, 31 verses.
Who troubled Israel. As soon as Ahab saw Elijah, he said, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” (v. 17). Elijah answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house, in that you have forsaken the LORD’s commandments and you have followed the Baals” (v. 18). Elijah named the cause of the drought plainly: forsaking the LORD’s commandments.
Wavering. On Mount Carmel, Elijah said to the people, “How long will you waver between the two sides? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him” (v. 21). The passage adds only one line: “The people didn’t say a word” (v. 21). Elijah set the question before everyone, and no one answered.
No voice. The prophets of Baal “called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon” (v. 26); at noon, Elijah mocked them (v. 27). They “cut themselves in their way with knives and lances until the blood gushed out on them” (v. 28), on until the evening offering. Twice the passage records that there was no voice: first “there was no voice, and nobody answered” (v. 26), and the second time it adds, “there was no voice, no answer, and nobody paid attention” (v. 29).
Elijah’s prayer. Elijah “repaired the LORD’s altar that had been thrown down” (v. 30), built it with twelve stones, and had water poured on the burnt offering and the wood (vv. 31–35). The passage does not say these were conditions for the fire; it simply records what he did. At the time of the evening offering he called out: “let it be known today that you are God in Israel” (v. 36), and “that this people may know that you, LORD, are God, and that you have turned their heart back again” (v. 37). What he asked was that the people would know the LORD.
The LORD’s fire fell. “Then the LORD’s fire fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust; and it licked up the water that was in the trench” (v. 38). The fire was the LORD’s. The people fell on their faces and said, “The LORD, he is God! The LORD, he is God!” (v. 39). This chapter records what the LORD did; the passage does not write it as a set of steps for calling down fire.
At the brook Kishon. Elijah said, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Don’t let one of them escape!” (v. 40). He brought them down to the brook Kishon, “and killed them there” (v. 40). The passage records this as it happened and adds no explanation.
A small cloud. Elijah said to Ahab, “there is the sound of abundance of rain” (v. 41). He himself went up to the top of Carmel, “and he bowed himself down on the earth, and put his face between his knees” (v. 42), and sent his servant to look toward the sea. The servant came back and said, “There is nothing” (v. 43); Elijah sent him again: “He said, ‘Go again’ seven times” (v. 43). The seventh time, the servant said, “Behold, a small cloud, like a man’s hand, is rising out of the sea” (v. 44). In a little while, “the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain” (v. 45). What God had said earlier — “I will send rain on the earth” (1 Kgs 18:1) — came true.
Elijah built the altar with “twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob” (v. 31). The verse goes on: “to whom the LORD’s word came, saying, ‘Israel shall be your name’” (v. 31).
Elijah called on “the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel” (v. 36). The people standing on Mount Carmel were the sons of Jacob. Before their eyes Elijah repaired the LORD’s altar and called on the God of their fathers.
Most of us have never stood on Mount Carmel, yet ‘wavering between two sides’ is not strange to us: saying we trust God, while putting our sense of safety somewhere else, and never quite deciding.
This lesson does not teach you how to call down fire. The passage records what the LORD himself did. It also lets you see that after the fire fell, Elijah still bowed down on the ground and waited for a cloud like a man’s hand.
This week: Write down one thing on which you have been ‘wavering between two sides.’ Next to it, write Elijah’s question from verse 21, and ask yourself once: how long?
The letter of James speaks of this: “He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit” (Jas 5:18).
Kings records that Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, “and he bowed himself down on the earth, and put his face between his knees” (v. 42); James says he was praying. In Lesson 1 we read James’s sentence just before: “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours” (Jas 5:17).
Scripture: World English Bible.