A Journey Through The Old Testament - Elmer Towns

again appear in the sky and the earth would drink up the rain that would fall. As conditions
became more severe in the land, the search for Elijah intensified. Jezebel herself thought she
could eliminate the judgment of God by eliminating God’s prophets. She began to systematically
eliminate the prophets of Jehovah from the land. Those who were not killed escaped into hiding.
But in her search for the prophets of Jehovah, there was only one prophet the evil king and queen
really wanted to find.
The widow must have certainly been aware that the former princess of her city was
looking for the one who slept in her house. It must have been difficult for her emotionally to
understand how the prophet accused of bringing drought to the land was also the one who had
brought food to her house. But when she awoke one morning to find the corpse of her son lying
lifeless in his bed, she was certain she was somehow being judged for harboring a wanted man
named Elijah. “What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my
sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?” she demanded (v. 18).
Elijah took the body of the young man to his own room and stretched himself out over
the corpse. He began to intercede to God on behalf of the woman and her son. Three times he
prayed that God would restore life to the son. “Then the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the
soul of the child came back to him, and he revived” (v. 22). When confronted with her son alive
again, the widow was able to resolve the questions about Elijah which had been plaguing her
mind. “Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your
mouth is the truth” (v. 24).
“Now it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the
third year, saying, `Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth’ “ (18:1). Even
as God sent Elijah out looking for Ahab, Ahab himself was engaged in a search of his own. After
three and a half years without rain, the land had become so parched that pasturelands on which
cattle and other animals could graze were at a premium. Even Ahab and his trusted servant
Obadiah were engaged in the search for suitable pasture for the king’s horses and mules. The two
had gone in different directions, hoping to find the treasured field. Elijah chose to find Ahab by
finding Obadiah and sending him after the king.
Obadiah was a man caught in the crunch between two worlds. His name means “the
servant of the Lord,” and there was a sense in which that appears to have been true of his
character. At a time when Jezebel was committed to killing the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah
had provided sanctuary and provisions for 100 of them. Yet, on the other hand, Obadiah was also
the servant of Ahab, the most evil king in the history of Israel to that date. He served a royal
house that introduced the worship of the Tyrian Baal to the land of Israel. As one as
knowledgeable about the true religion of Israel as Obadiah, he must have recognized the conflict
of interest which that created. The conflict of two worlds was most evident as the royal servant
met the fugitive prophet. Though Obadiah was willing to recognize Elijah as his master, Elijah
reminded Obadiah he also had a royal master, Ahab. Elijah may have known of the work of
Obadiah in preserving the lives of 100 prophets, but like Jezebel, Obadiah had at the same time
silenced their voices and eliminated their effectiveness. Even at his meeting with Elijah, Obadiah
was reluctant to commit himself in obedience to the known will of God. Finally he yielded and
bore the message to his king: Elijah was found and wanted to meet with Ahab.
During the years of the drought, Ahab had not only searched his own land for the prophet
but also enlisted the aid of other nations in his attempt to find and exterminate the one he viewed
as the “troubler of Israel.” He did not have to be told twice of the presence of Elijah.
Immediately, he ran to meet and accuse the Prophet Elijah of being a “troubler of Israel.” But