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Prophets and Kings
decided to unite personally with his servant in a search for some fa-
vored spots where pasture might be had. “So they divided the land
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between them to pass throughout it: Ahab went one way by himself,
and Obadiah went another way by himself.”
“As Obadiah was in the way, behold, Elijah met him: and he knew
him, and fell on his face, and said, Art thou that my lord Elijah?”
During the apostasy of Israel, Obadiah had remained faithful. His
master, the king, had been unable to turn him from his allegiance to
the living God. Now he was honored with a commission from Elijah,
who said, “Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here.”
Greatly terrified, Obadiah exclaimed, “What have I sinned, that
thou wouldest deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab, to slay me?”
To take such a message as this to Ahab was to court certain death.
“As the Lord thy God liveth,” he explained to the prophet, “there is no
nation or kingdom, whither my lord hath not sent to seek thee: and
when they said, He is not there; he took an oath of the kingdom and
nation, that they found thee not. And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy
lord, Behold, Elijah is here. And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am
gone from thee, that the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I
know not; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee,
he shall slay me.”
Earnestly Obadiah pleaded with the prophet not to urge him. “I
thy servant,” he urged, “fear the Lord from my youth. Was it not told
my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord, how I
hid an hundred men of the Lord’s prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed
them with bread and water? And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord,
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Behold, Elijah is here: and he shall slay me.”
With a solemn oath Elijah promised Obadiah that the errand should
not be in vain. “As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand,” he
declared, “I will surely show myself unto him today.” Thus assured,
“Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him.”
In astonishment mingled with terror the king listened to the mes-
sage from the man whom he feared and hated, and for whom he had
sought so untiringly. Well he knew that Elijah would not endanger
his life merely for the sake of meeting him. Could it be possible that
the prophet was about to utter another woe against Israel? The king’s
heart was seized with dread. He remembered the withered arm of
Jeroboam. Ahab could not avoid obeying the summons, neither dared