Bible Story: Elijah and King Ahab (Part 1)

God’s people, living in the land of Palestine, had gone away from Him and had begun to serve idols like the heathen nations around them. Because of this, God had allowed them to suffer many hard things. Their land was divided into two parts which were called the Northern or Israel, and the Southern Kingdom or Judah. In the northern kingdom the people were especially wicked and never turned back to God again.

They had bad kings who led them into wicked ways. Finally a king was crowned there who was very, very wicked. The Bible says, "And Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him." Long before this God had given them His commandment which said, "Thou shalt have any other gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image."

Ahab married a very wicked women from a heathen land. When he brought her to live in Samaria, he began to worship her gods. He built a temple to Baal, her heathen god. Then he made a great image of Baal before which people worshiped. Baal was a sun god and a god of fire. Thousands of people in Samaria began to worship Baal and many hundreds became priests of Baal and lived in his temple, leading the people in this sinful worship.

It seemed as if the whole country would follow the king in this wicked worship and forget the living God. They turned from His commandments. They wanted a god they could see and touch like the nations around them. God did not stop loving His people, even though it grieved Him when they sinned against Him. He sent a prophet to them. A prophet is one who is sent to the people to give them the word of God. They did not have copies of the Bible like we do today. Even though some parts of the Old Testament were written, there were very few copies and only the leaders could have them.

The prophets came to tell the people the message from God. Elijah was a prophet. He was a strong, rugged man who wore a leather girdle or belt. One day God told Elijah to go to King Ahab with a message. It must have taken courage for Elijah to go to the palace and into the presence of the wicked king with all his wealth and his soldiers and servants. Elijah’s message was from God. Many years before this, God told them in His law that, if they continued to love and serve Him only, He would bless their land with rain, so that they could have crops each year: but if they turned away from Him and served other gods, He would shut up the heavens so that there would be no rain and nothing would grow, Deut. 11:13-19.

Elijah knew this and he believed that God would do exactly as He had said. Suddenly he appeared before the king and said, "As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except as I say it shall come." Perhaps the king called to his servants to take hold of Elijah and have him punished because he had spoken so boldly, but Elijah turned and walked out of the palace without another word. He had given God’s Word to the king as God had commanded him.