BibleProject | One Story That Leads to JesusSample

Today, we meet the firebrand prophet Elijah, a covenant watchdog in Israel’s northern kingdom. As you’ll see in the video, Elijah boldly confronted idolatry and injustice in Israel. King Ahab and his wife Jezebel institute worship of the Canaanite god, Ba’al, all over Israel. Elijah won’t have any of that. He speaks truth to powerful people who don’t want to hear it.

Elijah challenges the prophets of Ba’al to a public showdown between their god and Yahweh on Mount Carmel. As a storm god, Ba’al should have no problem zapping their sacrifice (on a dry altar) with lightning. But no amount of praying or pleading with Ba’al helps. Nothing. Silence. Then Elijah pours 12 large jars of water on his sacrifice (so, not a dry altar). Yahweh rains fire down from the sky that burns everything, the sacrifice, water, soil, and even stones (1 Kings 18:38).

Awestruck and probably trembling after Yahweh’s fiery display, the Israelites need no further convincing. “Yahweh—he is God!”

After this mountaintop high, Elijah plummets into spiritual despair. A death threat from Jezebel pushes Elijah to the verge of giving up, not just on prophetic ministry, but on life itself. God gives the despondent prophet a hearty meal and a long nap. Then he invites Elijah to meet him on Mount Horeb (another name for Mount Sinai).

Like Elijah’s last mountain encounter with Yahweh, this one begins with a fiery spectacle: earth-shattering winds, searing flames, the ground shaking beneath Elijah’s feet. But now God comforts the despairing prophet with a gentle whisper. Yahweh isn’t giving up on Elijah. He’s not giving up on Israel, either.

Reflection Questions

• Notice that God sends Elijah outside Israel’s borders during the famine, instructing him to take shelter with a widow in a Phoenician town called Zarephath. What does God’s provision of food and life for this non-Israelite widow reveal about his relationship to ethnic outsiders?
• Compare Elijah’s mountain encounter with God in 1 Kings 19 to Moses’ encounter with God on the same mountain in Exodus 34. What similarities and differences do you notice? What do these connections reveal about the two stories?