Just this week, after starting this post, I saw someone accusing Elijah of “pouting.” Some have even said that when God told Elijah to anoint Elisha as his successor, Elijah basically lost his ministry. Some teachers are very hard on Elijah here. How did Elijah go from facing down 450 false prophets to running from one woman? How did he go from the heights of such victory to the depths of wanting to die? When Jezebel, Ahab’s wicked wife, heard what had happened, she sent a message to Elijah threatening his life.Īnd Elijah was afraid and ran, asking God to take his life. That should have been that.īut it wasn’t. “And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, ‘The Lord, he is God the Lord, he is God’” (verse 39). Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back” (1 Kings 18:36-37).Īnd God did! Fire fell and consumed the bull, the wood, the stones, and all the water. Then Elijah prayed, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. He had men dig a moat around the altar and then pour enough water to soak the meat and altar and fill up the moat. They prayed, cried, cut themselves for hours, but nothing happened. They would each call on their God, and the one who answered by fire was the real God.Įlijah let the other prophets go first. A bull would be cut up and laid on their altars.

Elijah called for the 450 prophets of Baal to set up an altar, as would Elijah. Finally, after three years, God sent Elijah to confront Ahab. No rain meant no crops no crops meant famine. God had told the prophet Elijah to tell Ahab there would be no rain in Israel for three years. If you grew up in Sunday School or children’s church, I’m pretty sure you heard the story taught with flannelgraph figures.Īhab was one of the most wicked kings of Israel. You probably remember the big showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal from the Bible.

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