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Elijah Confronts King Ahab
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of Baal continued to call on their gods night and day to refresh the
earth. With a zeal and perseverance worthy of a better cause they
lingered alongside their pagan altars and night after night prayed
earnestly for rain. But no clouds appeared in the heavens, no dew or
rain refreshed the thirsty earth.
A year passed. The scorching heat of the sun destroyed what
little vegetation had survived. Streams dried up, and moaning herds
and bleating flocks wandered in distress. Once-flourishing fields
became like desert sands. The forest trees, gaunt skeletons of nature,
afforded no shade. Dust storms blinded the eyes and nearly stopped
the breath. Hunger and thirst affected people and animals with
fearful mortality. Famine, with all its horrors, came closer and still
closer.
Yet Israel did not repent or learn the lesson that God wanted
them to learn. Proudhearted, fond of their false worship, they began
[44]
to look around for some other cause to blame for their sufferings.
Determined to defy the God of heaven, Jezebel united with nearly
all of Israel in denouncing Elijah as the cause of their misery. If only
they could put him out of the way, their troubles would end. Urged
on by the queen, Ahab began a diligent search for the prophet. He
sent messengers to surrounding nations to seek for the man whom
he hated, yet feared. In his anxiety he required an oath from these
kingdoms that they knew nothing of the prophet’s location. But the
search was in vain. The prophet was safe from the malice of the
king.
When her efforts against Elijah failed, Jezebel determined to
kill all the prophets of Jehovah. The infuriated woman massacred
many, but not all of them. Obadiah, the governor of Ahab’s house,
“had taken one hundred prophets,” and at the risk of his own life
had “hidden them, fifty to a cave, and had fed them with bread and
water.”
1 Kings 18:4
.
Drought and Famine for Two Years
The second year passed, and still the merciless heavens gave no
sign of rain. Fathers and mothers were forced to see their children
die. Yet apostate Israel seemed unable to detect in their suffering a