1 After several days (in the third year) Yahweh spoke to Elijah and said, “Go, show yourself to Ahab that I may let it rain on the earth.”
2 So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab.
3 Now the famine in Samaria was severe. Ahab therefore called Obadiah, who was in charge of the household.
4 (Obadiah was a faithful servant of Yahweh and when Jezebel slew the prophets of Yahweh he himself took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in caves, feeding them with bread and water.)
5 Then Ahab told Obadiah, “Let’s go and check all the watersprings and the valleys through the land, looking for grass so that the horses and mules may be kept alive and not perish.”
6 So Ahab and Obadiah divided the land between them and each of them went his own way.
7 As Obadiah was going his way, Elijah met him. Recognizing Elijah, Obadiah fell on his face and said, “Is that you, my master Elijah?”
8 He answered him, “It is I. Go tell your master that I am here.”
9 But Obadiah replied, “What evil have I done that you expose me to Ahab’s anger? Surely you want me to die.
10 By Yahweh, your God, there is no people or nation where my master has not searched for you and if they said, ‘Elijah is not here,’ he would make them take an oath that they had not found you.
11 Yet now as soon as I leave to inform Ahab of your presence,
12 the Spirit of Yahweh will transport your goodness elsewhere, and when Ahab fails to find you, he will kill me. But I have served Yahweh from my youth.
13 Do you not know that when Jezebel had the prophets of Yahweh killed, I hid a hundred of them in two caves and fed them with bread and water?
14 Now if I notify Ahab of your presence, as you want me to do, he will surely kill me!”
15 But Elijah said to him, “By Yahweh of hosts whom I serve, I will show myself to him today.”
16 So Obadiah went to give Ahab this message and Ahab came to meet Elijah.
The sacrifice at Carmel
17 On seeing Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, the plague of Israel?”
18 Elijah replied, “Who is troubling Israel? Isn’t it you and your family who have disobeyed the commands of Yahweh and followed instead the Baals?
19 Now, therefore, give an order for the Israelites to gather before me at Mount Carmel, together with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal who are sustained by Jezebel.”
20 So Ahab sent for all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets at Mount Carmel.
21 Then Elijah ad-dressed the people and asked, “How long will you follow two ways at the same time? If Yahweh is God, follow him; but if Baal is God then follow him.” The people remained silent.
22 So Elijah continued, “I am the only prophet of Yahweh left here to face Baal’s four hundred and fifty prophets.
23 Get us two bulls. Let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood and I will do the same with the other bull. But we will not set it on fire.
24 Then you shall call on the name of your gods while I shall call on the name of Yah weh. The God who answers with fire is the true one.” Then the people answered, “That is right.”
25 Then Elijah told the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many. Then call on the name of your god lest you are left without fire!”
26 So they took the bull and prepared it, and they called on the name of Baal, “Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice and no one an swered them while they went on dancing on one foot around the altar they had built.
27 By noontime, Elijah began to mock them, “Shout out louder. Baal is a busy god; or he may have gone out or perhaps he has gone on a trip, or he is sleeping and must be wakened.”
28 So they shouted louder gashing their skin with knives, as they are used to doing, until they bled.
29 It was already past noon and they were still raving on until the time of the evening offering. But still there was no voice; no one answered or gave a sign of life.
30 Then Elijah said to the people, “Draw closer to me,” and the people drew closer to him. He then repaired the altar of Yahweh which had been thrown down.
31 He took twelve stones corresponding to the number of tribes of the sons of Jacob whom Yahweh had addressed saying, “Israel shall be your name.”
32 With these stones, he built an altar to the Name of Yahweh and dug a trench around it that would contain about thirty liters.
33 He then arranged the firewood, cut the bull in pieces and laid them on the wood. Then, he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the firewood.”
34 He said, “Do it again”; and they did it again; “one more time,” and they did it a third time.
35 The water ran around the altar and filled the trench.
36 When the time of the evening offering came, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant, doing all these things at your command.
37 Answer me, O Yahweh, answer me so that this peo ple may know that you, O Yahweh, are God and that you are turning back their hearts to you.”
38 Then the fire of Yahweh fell and consumed the burnt offering, together with the wood, the stones also, and the dust; the water also dried up in the trench.
39 All the people witnessed this. Then they fell on their faces and said, “Yahweh is God! Yahweh is God!”
40 Then Eli jah commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal and let none of them escape.” And so they seized them. Then Eli jah brought them down to the brook Kidron and had them slaughtered there.
41 Elijah then said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for the sound of rain is rushing in.”
42 So Ahab went up to eat and drink. Elijah, in the meantime, went to the top of Carmel, bowed to the ground and put his face between his knees.
43 Then he said to his servant, “Go up and look in the direction of the sea.” The man went up, looked, and said, “There is nothing.” Then Elijah said, “Go again” and seven times he went.
44 At the seventh time, he perceived a little cloud, the size of a man’s hand, rising out of the sea. Elijah told him, “Go, tell Ahab: Prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.”
45 A little later the sky grew dark with clouds and wind and a strong rain fell. Ahab was riding on his way to Jezreel;
46 as for Elijah, the hand of Yahweh was on him, and tucking his cloak in his belt, he ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
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Comments 1 Kings, Chapter 18
• 18.17 The sacrifice on Mount Carmel is one of God’s great manifestations in the Old Testament. Yahweh takes the initiative to stir up an indifferent people.
Baal or Yahweh. The people do not see clearly the difference between the two. They consider them as two powers or persons endowed with different capabilities but equally useful. Yahweh is God of the race, a sure help in combat. While Baal is at the service of the peasant: through offerings and feasts, they ask him for rain.
How long will you follow two ways at the same time? Elijah obliges the Israelites to make a decision. The believer should not have two masters:
– God or money (Mt 6:24);
– for Christ or against him (Mt 12:30);
– cooperating member of the church or part of a lukewarm audience whom God will one day vomit out of his mouth (Rev 3:6).
The God who answers with fire is the true one. This will be the sign: the fire that destroys, purifies, transforms; the fire that effects the consecration of the sacrificial victims to God. Israel also needs to be transformed “by fire,” and later with Jesus, we shall be baptized, or rather purified and renewed “through fire and the Holy Spirit” (see Lk 3:16).
They called on the name of Baal… and no one answered them. We who read about Elijah’s mockery of Baal, are we convinced that God answers and hears our prayer? God is not obliged to satisfy all our desires, but we have the obligation to ask him in such a way and with such perseverance that he will manifest proofs of his presence among us.
You are the one who brings them back to you. The fire, the miracle, the rain have no other purpose: Yahweh loves Israel and wants to awaken their love once more. He does not want to frighten them or make them marvel, but rather to make this people discover that God lives and is concerned about searching them out.
The victory at Carmel is Yahweh’s victory. It is also Elijah’s victory. God needs prophets and saves through them. We are shocked at the massacre that follows; but Elijah lived in a violent world where death was the normal lot of those conquered, and his thinking was in accordance with those times.
Besides, this brutal punishment teaches us that to lose one’s life is not as serious as to lose oneself serving false values, deceiving oneself and deceiving everyone.