“Choose”
Art thou he that troubleth Israel? —1 Kings 18:17
Read 1 Kings 18:17-21
Ahab was searching for Elijah, but not to kill him; Elijah was the only one who could pray to reverse God’s judgment. From the way Ahab addresses Elijah, he clearly did not recognize his own guilt. Ahab was quite influential even beyond the borders of his land. Even important dignitaries had to swear that they had no knowledge of Elijah’s whereabouts. Ahab refused to bow before the living God, and the great rulers of the earth are regarded as puny and insignificant by heaven.
Only after three and a half years would Ahab face his hated and feared opponent again. In Luke, we read, “But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout the land” (Luke 4:25). When Ahab finally meets Elijah, he doesn’t dare do what he really would like to. In-stead, he begins to rant and rave. How unjust, sinful, and disrespectful this was! Compare his language to the manner in which Obadiah addressed Elijah when he met him. Ahab agrees to Elijah’s proposal to call the people together, although he does so reluctantly. Many years earlier he had chosen to set up a national religion. On Mount Carmel, Elijah gives the people a choice: Serve Baal or the Lord. However, the people re-main silent, unwilling to accept the consequences of the choice they have made. And so they wait and think to themselves, “Let the one true God reveal Himself.
From what do we discern Elijah’s faith?