Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.” (1 Kings 17:1)

With these few words, Elijah stepped into the pages of the Bible, and right into the middle of a hornet’s nest. Israel’s economy was based on agriculture. Now, in response to Elijah’s prayer, God was about to withhold the seasonal rains. Why? As a wake-up call to His people. It was a moment of corrective judgment. Israel had fallen into Baal worship. The removal of rain in an already dry climate would be a crippling blow.

As the corrective hand of God fell upon His people, Elijah—a nobody from nowhere—stepped into the palace of King Ahab to speak truth in the halls of power.

 

AHAB’S SIN
The king of Israel had violated the first commandment of Moses. He was leading his own people back into idolatry.

This was not the first time God’s people would forget the One who delivered them from Egypt, provided for them in the wilderness, and led them into this Promised Land. From the days of Sinai and the golden calf to the time of Ezekiel and the idol-infested Holy of Holies, God’s chosen people were again seduced by the gods of the land.

In the 21st century, we may consider ourselves too enlightened to engage in something so primitive as idol worship. Yet, idolatry is nothing more than putting something else—anything else—in the place of God. Bible teacher Gene Getz suggests that we do this today on several levels. We have our:

  • Humanistic Gods. This includes a wide array of people such as sports stars, musicians, and leaders.
  • Materialistic Gods. “You cannot serve both God and Money” (Mt. 6:24 NIV), or the things that money buys.
  • Sensual Gods. “For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (Eph. 5:5).
  • Relational Gods. Even something as wonderful as healthy relationships can become idols. Jesus warned, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Mt. 10:37).

God confronted Ahab about what Paul warns us against in Romans 1:23—worshiping the creature instead of the Creator.

 

GOD’S RESPONSE

There shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word (v.1).

Bible teacher John Whitcomb wrote, “Like a meteor suddenly flashing across the darkened sky, Elijah appears on the scene without genealogy, without historical background, and without warning. One thunderous judgment from heaven through his lips, and he disappeared without a trace!” (Solomon To The Exile, p.50).

Elijah’s message to Ahab had a strong precedent. Years before, Moses had warned that national apostasy would cause the rains to cease (Dt. 11:16-17).

In the face of repeated warnings, Israel was unfaithful to her God. So, as promised, His blessings on the land would be suspended. Under Ahab’s watch, the land would experience more than 3 years of drought.

 

ELIJAH’S PRAYER
James 5:17-18 tells us that prayer was the means God used to signal and release these events of judgment. It’s amazing that a nobody like Elijah could have that kind of spiritual boldness and courage. He was a man like us, yet James says that remarkable results followed his prayer.

No mention is made of Elijah’s prayer in 1 Kings. But James tells us that he prayed “earnestly” for the rain to be withheld. And it was!

He also prayed very specifically. He prayed that it would not dew or rain—no moistening at all.

For 31⁄2 years, God used the prayers of a man like us to confront those who had drifted away from His love.

 

Applying It
Elijah understood the power of prayer, and he practiced it—giving us some key questions to consider:

  • Do we think that our effectiveness for God is dependent on our talents or position? Or are we dependent on God Himself?
  • Do we see the true God as the one and only object of our worship? Or are our hearts and minds clouded by other gods?
  • Do we live in the reality of the resource of prayer, through which God can do amazing things according to His will?