14 Days in the Company of Elijahનમૂનો

Day 4: Elijah, Obadiah, and Ahab (1 Kings 18:1–19)

In the long narratives of 1 and 2 Kings, not all the significant characters are named. Many of these faithful people of God remain anonymous, operating without applause or recognition in the giant shadows cast by Elijah and Elisha. But there are a few whose names and actions receive special attention, and one of the most interesting of these is Obadiah (1 Kings 18). He shows up right after the Sidonian widow declares faith, in the prelude to the famous Baal-Yahweh contest on Mount Carmel.

Just after the word of the Lord comes to Elijah, alerting him that it is time for a new face-to-face with King Ahab, we meet Obadiah, who seems to be inhabiting a very precarious space. On the one hand, because he greatly fears the Lord (1 Ki 18:3), he has done some very courageous undercover work, hiding 100 of Yahweh’s prophets in caves to save them from Queen Jezebel’s killing spree (1 Ki 18:4). On the other hand, he is intimately connected to Ahab’s court, where he oversees palace affairs (1 Ki 18:2), including Ahab’s obsessive and hostile pursuit of Elijah, the Lord’s anointed prophet (1 Ki 18:5–7). Some of the tension that characterizes this man’s existence —caught between prophet and king —is heard in Obadiah’s passionate response to Elijah. When the two meet, and the man of God sends Obadiah back to Ahab with a message about a rendezvous (notice that Ahab must come to Elijah, rather than the prophet to the palace,1 Ki 18:8), this beleaguered palace steward falls apart. “Sure,” Obadiah says. “Go tell Ahab that Elijah is here—easy for you to say! But just as surely as I do that, you’ll run off to some other location, and when the king can’t find you, he’ll kill me! Don’t you remember how I took care of those 100 prophets—shouldn’t that count for something? Why are you asking me to do something this dangerous?” (1 Ki 18: 9–14).

Perhaps the key to Elijah’s command lies in the opening lines of his encounter with Obadiah. When the palace steward recognizes the prophet, he addresses him as “my master” (’adôn, often translated “lord,” 1 Ki 18:7). In his response, Elijah directs Obadiah back to Ahab, his real “master” (’adôn, v. 8). Obadiah is faced with a choice of loyalties; he has to decide who will be the focus for his trust and confidence. His previous actions on behalf of the Lord and his prophets were genuine but covert; now, however, loyalty to the Lord and his messenger will mean a deliberately overt and potentially dangerous conversation with the “master” whose authority is at best penultimate and at worst utterly antithetical to the ways of the Lord. Verse 16 makes clear that, in the end, Obadiah chose well: “So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him” (NRSV). And his obedience paved the way for the dramatic encounter between king and prophet: “And Ahab went to meet Elijah” (1 Ki 18:16b, NRSV).