Dive into the captivating story of Elijah, the prototypical prophet, as narrated by Ronald L. Dart. This episode unravels the intricate dynamics of Elijah’s life and his pivotal moments, especially his fearless confrontation with Ahab and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Through compelling narratives, understand how Elijah’s unwavering faith in God set the stage for one of the most dramatic divine interventions recorded in biblical history.
The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
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He is the archetype of all prophets. His name was Elijah. Probably one of the reasons he’s so well-known is because he is so persistent in the Bible. He keeps cropping up. He was to come just before Jesus. John the Baptist, everyone sees, fulfilled that. But most students of prophecy expect him to come again at the end time. And you don’t have to think twice to realize that means you’re going to get a lot of pretenders to being Elijah. I’ve actually met three or four Elijahs myself. If you do an Internet search on the name of Elijah alone, that’s all. Just put up Elijah. You will get 19 million websites. Seriously, almost get the feeling every website on the planet has got the word Elijah in it somewhere. I’ve seen some photos on the web of a putative Elijah. If you recall, there have been every once in a while somebody runs these cartoons where you see this guy in a long white robe and big long bushy beard and wild hair carrying a sign that says the end is near. That’s what this self-appointed Elijah looked a lot like. And self-appointed is the word. Most modern would-be prophets are self-appointed. Prophets, you know, are a dime a dozen. They even have a club. I don’t think you have to be a prophet to join. You may have to have a little money, but you can join this thing called the prophecy club. The real Elijah, the prototypical prophet, was not self. emphatically not self-appointed. God picked him out of his toolbox to say what needed to be said and sent him to say it. He was a member of a club of one. He stepped up to the plate, delivered one short sentence. As the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but by my word.” And then he disappeared for three and a half years. Not another word. You know, I encountered one of these self-appointed prophets a few years ago, and I couldn’t get him out of my hair. I don’t think I could have gotten rid of him with a flea comb. He only had one problem. He was wrong on every page. He was trying to tell me things about myself that were matters of verifiable fact, and he missed them. He couldn’t have hit the side of a barn from the inside with a shotgun. He really was no prophet. Fortunately for him, there is not the provision made that is in the Bible to stone a false prophet, but he was one. Now, as dramatic as Elijah may seem as you read the book, he was really a pretty simple man, a man of very few words, and he never, ever guessed. He had a sure word from God. Peter spoke about this briefly in his letter. It’s in 2 Peter, the first chapter. He said, Know this first. No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Now, there’s some really important stuff in that little short passage. Prophecy never came by the will of man. Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. and none of it was allowed to private interpretation. The word private is the Greek word idios, which means pertaining to the self. It’s the prefix for the English word idiosyncratic. What Peter means is that God controls the meaning of a prophecy. Neither you nor the prophet has the right to do that. Now back to Elijah. Elijah is a favorite character of mine because he is so real, so down to earth, so human. After he gave that famous one-line prophecy of his, nobody thought much about it for the first month or so. But at the end of the first rainy season, when there was not only no rain, there was not even dew on the grass in the morning, a few people began to wonder about Elijah. But there had been droughts before, and they had ended. By the end of the second year, people were starting to begin to think differently about Elijah. Well, it came to pass after many days, in fact, about three and a half years, in the third year, God spoke to Elijah and said, Go show yourself to Ahab. I’m ready to send rain on the earth. And so Elijah went his way to show himself to Ahab. And there was a sore famine in Samaria. Samaria, you may recall, was the capital of the ten northern tribes of Israel. It was in the tribal area of Ephraim and Manasseh. And Samaria was a city that Omri, I think it was, before Ahab, built. Ahab called Obadiah, who was the governor of his house, sort of his chief of staff. Now Obadiah, as it turns out, was a man who feared the Lord greatly. He believed in God. He would lay his life on the line for God. It would happen to be that when Jezebel, Ahab’s wife, cut off the prophets of the Lord, killed them, you know, got rid of them. As far as she could see, she got rid of everyone in the place. Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifty in a cave and fed them on bread and water. If he hadn’t have done that, who knows what would have been left in Israel of the prophets of God. Now, I should pause here and explain something about prophets and prophecy. There are two forms of literature that are often confused. One is prophecy. The other is called apocalyptic. The primary difference between these two is that apocalyptic is merely revelatory. It is about the what and when of future events. This is going to happen. This is what it’s going to look like, and it’s going to happen so many days from now, so many years from now, or at some particular point in time. And it’s what most people are talking about when they speak of prophets. They want to study prophecy. Well, they’re really talking about they want to study apocalyptic. They want to know what’s going to happen, and they want to know when it’s going to happen. Now, this is a big mistake when you think about prophecy, because real prophets are concerned less about the when and more about the why. Real prophecy includes moral teaching. In the case of Elijah, the moral lessons were hanging out for everyone to see, and he will specify them later. These prophets that Obadiah had saved were preachers. evangelists, if you will. They were exhorters. They were men who would come out and address the moral issues of the time. They weren’t so much concerned about what’s going to happen next year, next month, or any other time. That’s not the sense in which these men were prophets. They were preaching. Now, prophesying is a dangerous business in any age if you are telling the truth. No sane person is going to want to be a prophet. And I can assure you I’m sane. I have no interest whatsoever in being a prophet or being called a prophet. Well, Ahab said to Obadiah, go into the land, look for fountains of water, look for the drabrooks. Let’s see if we can find some grass somewhere to save the horses and mules alive so we don’t lose all of our animals. So they divided the land between them to pass through it. Ahab went one way by himself. Obadiah went another way by himself. And as Obadiah was in the way… Who should show up on the scene coming down the road toward him but Elijah? And Obadiah knew who it was. He fell down before him and said, Are you that my Lord Elijah? And he said, I am. Go, tell your Lord that Elijah is here. Now Obadiah was no fool. He knew Elijah by reputation, if nothing else. And he knew that he had given that one prophecy and then just disappeared and couldn’t be found. And so he said, what have I done wrong? What have I sinned that you would deliver your servant into the hand of Ahab to slay me? As the Lord your God lives, I’ll tell you the truth. There is no nation, no kingdom where my Lord has not sent to look for you. And when they said, he’s not here, he took an oath of that kingdom and nation that they didn’t find you. And now you stand here and tell me, go tell your Lord, behold, Elijah is here? Look, what’s going to happen here, as soon as I’m gone from you, the Spirit of the Lord will carry you away. I don’t know where you’re going to go. And I’m going to go tell Ahab, and then he can’t find you. Guess what’s going to happen to me? He’ll kill me. But I, your servant, I fear the Lord from my youth. Ever since I’ve been a kid. Didn’t you know or haven’t you been told what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord? She slaughtered them. How I hid a hundred men of the Lord’s prophets by fifty in a cave and fed them with bread and water. And now you tell me, go tell your Lord, behold, Elijah’s here and he shall slay me. Actually, Obadiah’s beginning to run off at the mouth a little bit. He’s beginning to jabber because he’s just so taken aback by what’s coming down here. And Elijah said, as the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today. Notice, he made the oath. He says, as the Lord of hosts lives, I’m going to do it. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. And the story behind this particular meeting is epical. We’ll talk about that. But first, grab a pencil and a piece of paper. I want to give you an address and a phone number and a free offer.
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The Real Profits series is available in album form. If you would like to get in on this story from the beginning, write or call and ask for your free CD titled Real Profits. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. or call toll-free 1-888-BIBLE-44 and tell us the call letters of this station.
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It came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah, he said, Are you he that troubles Israel? Now, you’re in the 18th chapter of 1 Kings, if I haven’t told you that so far. And Ahab sees Elijah, and he blames Elijah for all their troubles. Elijah answered, I haven’t troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have. How? In that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and you have followed Baal. Now, you’ve got to love this man. He is talking to Ahab, who has the power to take off his head. He seems fearless. I mean, it’s just right back in his face. I haven’t troubled Israel. You have. I think, however, that confidence arises from the fact that God told him to get down there and tell him this. He didn’t really have any choice but to go and to do and to say. And interestingly enough, Ahab is actually afraid of Elijah. He’s intimidated by him. And Elijah goes on and says, okay, send and gather to me all the prophets, all Israel to Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal, 450, the prophets of the grove, 400, which eat at Jezebel’s table. Now, Jezebel was a big-time patron of the prophets of Baal. 850 of them formed part of her court. Actually, 450 were prophets of Baal. The prophets of the groves, to use that, I don’t know why the King James translators use groves here, because it’s the prophets of the Asherah, which basically is the feminine side of the goddesses. So we have the prophets of Baal, the male side, the prophets of the groves, the female side, altogether 850 of them that Jezebel supported. That they ate at her table means that she subsidized them all. So Ahab sent to all the children of Israel and gathered all the prophets together unto Mount Carmel. And Elijah came to all the people and said… How long are you going to halt between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. If Baal, then follow him. And all the people would do is stand there and look at him and stare. Now, there’s more here than meets the eye, because one of the things you can gather from reading this is that the people of the land worshipped the Lord and Baal. On the one hand, they thought they were worshiping Jehovah. On the other hand, they were using the methodology of Baal. And they sort of said, well, you know, I don’t want to make anybody mad, so I’ll worship both of these gods. And here comes Elijah and says, okay, you can do what you want to do, folks. If God’s God, if Jehovah is God, follow him. If it’s Baal, follow him. Let’s stop this wishy-washy going back and forth. And they wouldn’t answer. Then said Elijah to the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord. Baal’s prophets here are 450 men. So 450 to one are the odds here, folks. Let them therefore give us two bullocks. Let them choose one for themselves. Cut it in pieces. Lay it on the wood. Put no fire under it. I’ll dress the other bullock and lay it on the wood and put no fire under it. And you call on the name of your gods and I will call on the name of Jehovah. And the God that answers by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered, okay, that makes sense. That’s well spoken. We can accept that. Now, it’s notable at this point that the prophets of Baal didn’t say a word. I’m not so sure they were excited about this deal, except for the fact they figured it was going to be a wasted day. They’d never call down fire from heaven, and neither would Elijah. So Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Choose one bullock for yourselves. You dress it first. There’s a bunch of you. Let’s get this done. You call on the name of your gods, but don’t put any fire under it. So they took the bullock. They dressed it. They called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor anyone that answered. And they danced upon the altar that was made. Actually, King James says leaped. I think one of the other translations says limped around the altar. And the NIV says they danced. This was some spectacle these guys were putting on. A show worthy of Broadway with dancers leaping and jumping. Probably instruments and music and drums. Well, maybe off-Broadway. But there was no response from on high. Nothing. And the only noise that was being made was being made by these clowns who were pretending to call on their God, whom I doubt they believed in anyhow. This is one of the great choruses in Mendelssohn’s oratorio, Elijah. It’s called the Baal Chorus. I’d be afraid to sing it, but it is something else. And it’s punctuated by Elijah crying out, “‘Call him louder!’ It came to pass at noon, Elijah mocked them and said, cry aloud, get louder, he’s a god. Maybe he’s talking, maybe he’s out hunting, maybe he’s on a journey, prayer adventure, he’s taking a nap, and you have to wake him up. Now, respect is shown where respect is due, I suppose. This is not, just not, politically correct, what Elijah is doing here. Aren’t we supposed to respect other people’s religious beliefs? No, not necessarily. Respect is shown where respect is due. And if you’re a prophet of God and you see a fool, a clown, what are you supposed to call him? If you see people doing something stupid, what are you supposed to say? Well, anybody can do that and see whatever makes sense to you, whatever floats your boat. No, not Elijah. Well, they cried aloud, and they began to cut themselves after their manner with knives and lances, and blood was gushing out on their bodies. This is incredible, and I imagine people were standing around with their mouths hanging open watching this spectacle. It came to pass, when midday was passed, they preached there until the time of the evening sacrifice. There was no voice. There was not any to answer. No one paid any attention, as far as we could tell, from on high. And finally, Elijah said to the people, Gather round. And the people came near to him, and he repaired the altar of Jehovah that was broken down. Elijah took twelve stones. Notice he didn’t use the same altar, same animal at all. He repaired another altar, the one for God. He took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, Israel shall be your name. And with these stones he built an altar in the name of Jehovah. He made a trench around the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he put the wood in order, and he cut the bullock in pieces. He laid them on the wood and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. Then he said, Do it again. And they did it a second time. He said, Do it again. They did it a third time. And water was everywhere, all over the altar, all over the sacrifice, filled the trench around it with water. It seems to be that Elijah was going to say, There’s no trick here. We’re going to do all this, and there’s not going to be anybody who can say that I set some match to this thing. And it came to pass, at the time when the evening sacrifice would normally be offered, that Elijah the prophet came near. And he said, Jehovah, 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 everything I have done has been done at your word. Hear me, O Lord. Hear me that this people will know that you are the Lord God and that you have turned their heart back again. And when he finished this short speech, it takes so little time to read it. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the dirt, and licked up the water that was in the trench. This fire went down to bedrock. What a sight it must have been. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and I would certainly think so. I don’t know how anybody would have had any strength left in his legs or his knees after seeing this incredible fire come falling out of the sky on this chopped-up animal and the wood and destroy the wood, the stones, the animal, the dirt, and lick up the water in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, Jehovah, he is God. Jehovah, he is God. It’s not Baal. We can see that now. And Elijah said to them, take the prophets of Baal. Don’t let a one of them get away. And they took them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slew them there. No, this isn’t politically correct either. But these men needed killing. The sort of thing that they had done, the way they had misled God’s people, and all their dancing and all their clowning around and cutting themselves and bleeding, they hadn’t been able to produce anything, and they needed to be eradicated from the political scene in Israel. Now, what happened? First, listen to this brief announcement, and I’ll come back and finish this story.
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For a free copy of this radio program that you can share with friends and others, write or call this week only. And request the program titled, Kings Number 11. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44. And tell us the call letters of this radio station.
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By this time, Ahab is ready to do just about anything that Elijah tells him. Elijah says, go get something to eat. There’s a sound of abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to get something to eat and drink, and Elijah went on up to the top of Mount Carmel, and he cast himself on the ground and put his face between his knees. I guess he’s praying. And he says to his servant, go now and look toward the sea. And he went up and looked and said, there’s nothing. Go again. This happened seven times. He stayed there. He prayed. He’d send his servant. Nothing. He’d pray again. Nothing. It came to pass on the seventh time the servant came back and said, Well, look, there is a little cloud coming out of the sea about the size of a man’s hand. He said, Go quickly. Say to Ahab, Prepare your chariot and get down from here so the rain doesn’t stop you. It came to pass in the meanwhile that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. You know, after three and a half years and never seeing it rain, can you imagine how welcome a black cloud with lightning and thunder and rain out of it would have been? Ahab rode and went to Jezreel, and the hand of the Lord was upon Elijah. He girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. We’re in chapter 19 now in 1 Kings. When Ahab arrived, he told Jezebel all that Elijah had done with all how he had slain all her prophets with the sword. I mean, it was a bloody slaughter. Of course, Jezebel, you would think she couldn’t say much because she engaged in just exactly this bloody slaughter with the prophets of God. But Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me and more also, if I don’t make your life like the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. They give you 24 hours, you’re going to be dead. This expression, let the gods do to me and more also, is idiomatic of this period in Hebrew. It’s found only in Samuel and Kings, only once in the book of Ruth. And then it just passes out of use, it seems. If Elijah was not afraid of Ahab, well, he was afraid of Jezebel. This was a thoroughly bad woman. When he saw what she’d said, he arose and went for his life. He came to Beersheba that belongs to Judah, left his servant there, and he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. And he came and sat down under a juniper tree, and he requested for himself a that he might die. He said, it’s enough. Now, O Lord, take away my life, for I’m not better than my father’s. There’s a great aria of this passage in Mendelssohn’s Elijah. I did it once in recital, and it will break your heart. As he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, an angel touched him and said, Get up and eat. And he looked, and there was a cake baked there on coals. A cruise of water was at his head. So he ate and he drank, and he laid himself back down again and slept some more. And the angel says, You’ve got to get some more. Get up, eat, drink. And so he did. He said, The journey is too great for you. And when he had gotten plenty of nourishment, then he went on and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God, also called Sinai. He came there to a cave and lodged there. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said, What are you doing here, Elijah? He said, Oh, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, and the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant. They’ve thrown down your altars. They’ve slain your prophets. And I, I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. I said, you have to love this man. He was real. He was human. He was so human, in fact, that he was able, just like you and I do, to feel sorry for himself. And God says, I want you to come outside and stand on the mount before the Lord. Behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountain, broke in pieces the rock before the Lord. But the Lord was not in that wind. After the wind, there was a huge earthquake. The Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there was a fire, and the Lord was not in the fire. But after the fire, there was a still, small voice, and Elijah knew. When he heard that, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entering of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah? Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed the knee to Baal.
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