And it came to pass after many days, that the word of Jehovah came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself to Ahab; and I will send rain upon the face of the earth.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Elijah went to shew himself to Ahab. And the famine was severe in Samaria.
A long drought had shut the heavens over Israel. Now the word of the Lord sent Elijah back to the king who had outlawed him — and he went, while Samaria starved.
The same voice that once told Elijah to hide now tells him to appear.
At the beginning of the years of drought the Lord had said to Elijah, "Depart from here and hide yourself;" now the word is, "Go, show yourself." There is a time to hide ourselves and a time to show ourselves; a time to proclaim the word of the Lord from the housetops, and a time to go "apart into a desert place and rest a while." A time to pass through the land "as unknown," and a time to mingle with the crowd "as well known" (2 Cor. 6:9). Such changes are the common lot of all true servants of the Lord.
The verse records no debate and no delay.
A third time the word of the Lord comes to Elijah (v. 1; 1 Kings 17:2, 8); a third time Elijah obeys. Obedience marks the career of this man of God. May it mark us too! Only one time does Elijah go where his own heart directs him (1 Kings 19:3), and the thread of his career is interrupted.
The same writer traces that obedience back to its root.
Elijah obeys without arguing. His obedience comes from complete confidence in God, His authority, His power, and His goodness. Every disobedient act of a Christian shows a lack of appreciation of what God is.
God could have sent the rain without putting His servant in front of the king. Why this way?
In the eyes of the king, Elijah was an outlaw and a troubler of Israel. By human reason, showing himself to the king would be plain madness. Could not God bring rain upon the earth without exposing His servant to the anger of the king? No doubt He could, but this would not at all meet the circumstances of the case. God held the rain back at the word of Elijah in the presence of the king. So the coming of the rain must also depend on God's prophet acting in the presence of the king. Suppose the rain had returned without Elijah's public testimony. People would at once have written him off as a false prophet and a boaster. Worse still, the prophets of Baal would have credited the deliverance to their idol.
Halfway through the verse the narrative stops and the camera turns elsewhere — a detail worth noticing when you read the chapter.
A parenthesis interrupts the narrative, running from the middle of verse 2 to the end of verse 6. Its object is to bring Obadiah and his position to our notice. The curtain is lifted, so to speak. It shows us first the sufferings of Samaria through the famine, and then the steps Ahab took to save some of his cattle if he could.
The famine in Samaria was not just bad weather.
Israel had sinned, and Israel had to feel the rod of the Lord's righteous anger. What a humbling picture of God's ancient people, to see their king going out to look for grass! What a contrast between all this and the rich abundance and glory of Solomon's day! But God had been grossly dishonoured, and His truth rejected... Baal's altar had replaced the altar of God. So the heaven above was iron, and the earth beneath brass. The physical state of things was simply the expression of Israel's hardness of heart and low moral condition.
Three and a half years of hunger did nothing to the king except inconvenience his stables.
For three and a half years neither rain nor dew has fallen, and the famine is severe in the land. King and people are proving that it is "an evil thing and bitter" to forsake the Lord God and worship idols. But what of the king? Has this severe calamity softened his heart and brought him to repentance before the Lord? His thoughts are taken up with his horses and mules rather than his starving people; and far from seeking God he is merely seeking grass.
- Word. God's command reverses direction — hide, then show — and both orders come from the same authority.
- Went. Elijah answers by going. Obedience without argument grows out of confidence in what God is.
- Witness. The rain stopped at the prophet's word before the king. It had to return the same way, or Baal would have taken the credit.
- Wasteland. The severe famine in Samaria was the visible shape of Israel's hardened heart and low moral condition.
- Wake-up refused. Years of hunger left Ahab hunting grass for his animals instead of seeking the God who had shut the sky.
And Ahab called Obadiah, who was the steward of his house (now Obadiah feared Jehovah greatly;
Ahab was an idolatrous king, and famine had struck Samaria. Yet the man who ran his household feared the Lord — and the verse stops the story to tell us so.
The verse gives Obadiah's job first and his faith second. The two do not belong together.
"The famine was severe in Samaria. And Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household" — who, strange to say, "feared the LORD" — feared Him "greatly." The ways of the Lord are wonderful, and we are so little ready for them. The last place in this world where we would have looked for a servant of the Lord would have been the house of Ahab. Yet so it was. Do we not do well to enlarge our thoughts? We should take in the wonderful ways of God's wisdom, as well as of His goodness. God had a purpose there.
The note about his faith comes before anything he does. It stops us judging him by his master.
We might think badly of the man who was over Ahab's house, because he served such a master. So, as if to guard our minds, the Holy Spirit is careful to tell us: "Now Obadiah feared the LORD GREATLY." We may well, then, pause before we pass judgment on him... And the first act recorded of Obadiah is this: "when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water." It was a noble deed. Had Jezebel learned of it, it might have cost him his life.
The word "greatly" sounds like the end of the matter. One writer tests it against other verses about the fear of the Lord.
"Obadiah feared the Lord greatly" (v. 3). This might seem enough for a faithful walk, for "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Prov. 9:10). But we are also told: "Fear the Lord, and turn away from evil" (Prov. 3:7). And again: "The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil" (Prov. 8:13). One may fear the Lord greatly, and yet dishonour Him by being joined to the world that rejects Him.
The same writer finds one word that spoils the picture. Obadiah depended on Ahab.
Only — for there is an "only" — Obadiah was dependent on Ahab, and that was evil. If Ahab was his lord, how could he refuse his master's orders? And how could his life show the very opposite of what his faith taught him?
Obadiah's devotion was real, but he had to keep it hidden. One writer traces that to the house he served in.
Obadiah, the governor of Ahab's house, feared the Lord in the secret of his own spirit. But he was planted in a thoroughly unholy atmosphere... This hindered his service and testimony. He did what he did for the Lord in secret. He was afraid to act openly and firmly. Yet he did quite enough to show what he would have done in better soil... It was a most precious sign of a heart devoted to the Lord — a wonderful triumph of divine principle over the most unfavourable circumstances.
Some read Obadiah as a warning to Christians today.
It is true that he tells Elijah about it himself, and speaks of his worthy service to the prophets. But without God's own true testimony about him, we might have thought it impossible. How could a man who "feared the Lord greatly" hold such a post in the house of a king who had abandoned God for idols? ... Obadiah is a picture of that large group who are truly Christians, yet hold positions of ease and influence in the world. They fool themselves that they can use their position to help the people of God.
Others read him with more sympathy, and point to Daniel in Babylon.
It would be better to have Obadiah's care for God's people and his obedience to His word through the prophet, than to find fault with the servant rashly. Let us admire the grace that could keep the man in such a king's palace, just as it did Daniel when he was made "ruler over the whole province of Babylon."
- Placed — God had a servant inside the palace of an idolatrous king, where nobody would think to look for one.
- Proved — his fear of the Lord was not talk: it hid and fed a hundred hunted prophets at the risk of his own life.
- Hindered — he had to do everything for God in secret, because of the house he served in.
- Divided — Ahab was his lord, so his daily walk contradicted the faith he privately held.
- Weighed — commentators differ. Some see a warning about seeking influence in the world. Others admire the grace that kept him in that palace.
and it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of Jehovah, that Obadiah took a hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and maintained them with bread and water);
Elijah has vanished from Ahab's reach, and the story pauses on a man inside the palace who had saved a hundred lives. He worked for the very house that ordered the killing — so how did God keep His witnesses alive, and what do we make of their rescuer?
The verse sits in brackets, off to one side of the main action. One writer asks why the Spirit of God pauses to record it:
In a further aside, the Spirit of God describes Obadiah and the service he had given to a hundred of the Lord's prophets. They were in great danger, for Jezebel, in her zeal for idols, was seeking their destruction. Why is this account given? Clearly so that we might know that he was really a servant of the Lord — one who worshipped the Lord, as his very name means. It is true that he tells the fact to Elijah himself, and speaks of his service to the prophets. But without God's own true testimony about him, we might have thought it impossible for a man who "feared the LORD greatly" to hold such a post in the house of a king who had turned away from God to idols.
Obadiah risked a great deal, because the queen was hunting these men down:
Obadiah held a high position with Ahab, and he feared the Lord greatly. He belonged to the faithful remnant who did not bow the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19:18). He must have had severe tests of faith and much courage. Hiding the Lord's prophets showed faith and devotion. Jezebel, the wicked idolatrous woman, used the civil power to kill off the true prophets. Her aim was to wipe out completely the men of God who stood for the truth. Revelation 2:20 mentions her again. There she stands for Rome, the harlot, and her spiritual fornication and idolatry. Rome, like Jezebel, has persecuted the Lord's servants and killed them (Rev. 18:24).
God's rescuer was inside Ahab's own household. One writer finds both a surprise and an honour in that:
Ahab called Obadiah, who was over his household — and this man, remarkably, "feared the LORD," feared Him "greatly." So wonderful are the ways of the Lord, and so little are we prepared for them. The last place in this world where we would have looked for a servant of the Lord would have been the house of Ahab. Yet so it was… We are in danger of forgetting what is not before our eyes. We are in danger of failing to identify ourselves with what God is doing outside what I have no doubt is the more honourable path. It was a poor place for a servant of the Lord to be, in the house of Ahab. Yet it was a great honour too, for God gave him to feed these prophets by fifty in a cave, right in the face of Jezebel.
Elijah saw only his own faithfulness. God saw more:
Elijah was wholly taken up with his own faithfulness to God, and so he could not take account of what was not hidden from the eye of God. Obadiah, and the hundred prophets of the Lord whom he had delivered from the hand of Jezebel, were not men of the same stamp as Elijah. They did not have the same zeal for God, nor the same energy in testimony. Still, they were not to be counted among those who had thrown down the Lord's altars.
Obadiah fed the men in the cave, but he stayed in the palace. One writer sets him beside Moses:
Obadiah would befriend the prophets of the Lord. But he was not willing to leave Ahab's palace to share the cave with them (1 Kings 18:4). Moses did the opposite. He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and he threw in his lot once and for all with the people of God in their poverty and the contempt they suffered (Heb. 11:23-27).
Later Obadiah met Elijah, and pleaded that same kindness in his own defence:
Then Obadiah pleads his good deeds. Had not Elijah heard of his kindness in the past to the prophets of the Lord? But it was not a question of bad deeds or good deeds. All of Obadiah's trouble came from the false position he was in. He was a man of the unequal yoke.
- Sword. Jezebel used the power of the state to kill off the Lord's prophets. She meant to wipe God's witness off the map.
- Shelter. God answered the sword with a cave. He used a man inside the palace — the last place anyone would look for a servant of His.
- Bread. God gave Obadiah the honour of feeding fifty and fifty right in the face of Jezebel. It cost him faith and courage.
- Survivors. The hundred lacked Elijah's fire, yet they had not torn down God's altars. God counts the ones His louder servants overlook.
- Yoke. Obadiah kept the cave supplied but would not live in it. He later pleaded that kindness as his excuse. Good deeds never settle whose house you serve in.
and Ahab said to Obadiah, Go through the land, to all the fountains of water and to all the torrents, perhaps we may find grass to save the horses and the mules alive, so that we may not have to destroy some of [our] beasts.
Famine has gripped Israel, and its king now takes personal charge of the search — not for God, but for pasture. His orders to Obadiah show what a hard heart looks for when God's hand is heavy on it.
The drought was not random weather. It was God's answer to what Israel had done.
Israel had sinned, and Israel must feel the rod of the Lord's righteous anger. What a humbling picture of God's ancient people, to see their king going out to look for grass! What a contrast between all this and the rich abundance and glory of Solomon's day! But God had been deeply dishonoured, and His truth rejected... so the sky above turned to iron, and the ground beneath to brass. The state of the land was the expression of Israel's hardness of heart and low moral condition.
That the king himself took to the road says how far things had gone.
There is not a hint that Ahab cared for the suffering people, but he was troubled in case he should lose his horses and mules. So he arranged that he would go in one direction, and Obadiah in another, and find grass somewhere, if possible. The situation was serious indeed when the king himself took up the foraging!
Read Ahab's orders again and something is missing. He names the springs and the valleys, but never the One who shut the heavens.
There is not one word about God in Ahab's directions to his servants. He says nothing about the sin that had brought God's heavy displeasure and judgment on the land. No; the word is, "Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the valleys." Such was Ahab's thought, his poor grovelling thought. His heart did not turn, in true humility, to the Lord. He did not cry to Him in the hour of his need. So his word is, "Perhaps we may find grass." God is shut out, and self is the all-engrossing object. As long as he could find grass, he did not care about finding God.
Only hunger drove him out of doors at all, and even then he went after the symptom rather than the source.
He could have enjoyed himself among Jezebel's idolatrous prophets, if the horrors of famine had not driven him out: and then, instead of searching out the cause of the famine, in true self-judgment and humility, and seeking pardon and restoration from the hand of God, he goes out, in impenitent selfishness, to look for grass.
The animals in Ahab's order were an asset.
Ahab gave orders to Obadiah to search the land for springs of water or brooks that might still be running. The aim was to keep the horses and mules alive. He was more concerned for the horses and mules than for the people. They were a source of income for him.
While Obadiah counted pasture, there were homes he could have carried God's comfort to.
The land was no doubt full of stricken hearts; mothers not knowing how to feed their children; and everyone in despair. What precious words of comfort he should have been able to bring them from the heart of God! Instead, he was searching the land for food for animals to preserve the royal stables... Sorry words from the lips of Israel's king; paltry work for a God-fearing man to take on!
Obadiah feared the Lord — yet here he is, scouting for fodder on an idolater's orders.
Obadiah takes his orders from the apostate king. Elijah takes his directions from the Lord and moves and acts according to the Lord's commands. Obadiah, though he may indeed fear the Lord, is not used in the Lord's service, and gets no directions from the Lord. Ahab is his master, Ahab is the one he has to serve, and from Ahab he takes his directions. So in this time of natural disaster he fritters his time away in the trivial work of seeking grass for his master's beasts.
Commentators differ on how hard to be on him. One is gentler, noting that faith has survived in worse places:
One wonders how a man like Obadiah (worshipper of the Lord) came to hold office under such a lost idolater as Ahab. But there were "saints" in Nero's palace, and an apostle thought their greetings worth mentioning. Godliness, as someone has neatly said, "is a hardy plant, that can live among the frosts of persecution and the relaxing warmth of a corrupt court, and not merely in the greenhouse of a godly family."
The same road, the same day, two errands that could not be further apart.
Obadiah was out on a mission perfectly in keeping with the place he had come from, and with the person who had sent him; and so was Elijah. The first was looking for grass, if he could find it. His final aim was to keep Ahab's horses and mules alive. The second came to announce the Lord's certain purpose about rain. His final aim was to bring the nation back to its early faith and devotedness.
- Cause — The drought was the rod of God's anger on a nation that had rejected His truth. The iron sky showed the hardness of the heart below it.
- Search — Ahab searched every spring and valley, but never searched for the cause. He wanted relief from the judgment without repentance of the sin.
- Priority — His orders name horses and mules, not starving people. He protected his income and left the suffering nation out.
- Master — Obadiah feared the Lord, yet took his directions from Ahab. So he spent the crisis chasing fodder instead of carrying God's word.
- Contrast — Two men walked the same famished land that day. One hunted grass to save a king's stables. The other carried God's word about rain, to bring a nation back to Him.
And they divided the land between them to pass through it Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.
A whole land is starving, and the king's answer is a search party — not for God, but for grass. Ahab and his servant Obadiah split the country between them and take separate roads.
The plan says everything about what Ahab valued, and about the state of his kingdom.
There is not a hint that Ahab cared for the suffering people, but he was worried about losing his horses and mules. So he arranged to go one way and send Obadiah the other, to find grass somewhere if they could. Things were serious indeed when the king himself had to go out searching for animal food!
The famine had a cause, and the cause had a remedy. Ahab's instructions mention neither.
There is not so much as a word about God in Ahab's directions to his servants — not a syllable about the sin that had brought God's heavy displeasure and judgement down on the land. No; the word is, "Go to all the springs of water and to all the valleys." Such was Ahab's thought, his poor grovelling thought. His heart did not turn, in true humility, to Jehovah. He did not cry to Him in his hour of need. So his word is, "Perhaps we may find grass." God is shut out, and self is the one object that fills his mind. As long as he could find grass, he did not care about finding God.
Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. Yet Ahab chose the road he walked that day.
Obadiah takes his orders from the king who has turned away from God. Elijah takes his directions from the Lord, and moves and acts according to the Lord's commands. Obadiah may indeed fear the Lord, but he is not used in the Lord's service, and he gets no directions from the Lord. Ahab is his master, Ahab is the one he must serve, and from Ahab he takes his directions. So in this time of disaster he wastes his time on the trivial work of looking for grass for his master's animals.
Think of what a God-fearing man could have carried down those roads instead.
When Obadiah crossed Elijah's path, he was not busy with God's business. No doubt the land was full of broken hearts — mothers who did not know how to feed their children, and everyone in despair. What precious words of comfort he could have brought them from the heart of God! Instead, he was searching the land for animal food to keep the king's horses alive!
One writer sees this shared map as a picture of a believer who makes his plans with the world.
Even if he "greatly fears the Lord," a believer who is tied to the world, or dependent on it, acts by its principles. The Word calls this "the elements of the world." Such a believer will first of all be blind to this: God's judgment on man is absolute and final, and the wrath of God is already revealed from heaven against him. Second, he will try to improve the condition of the man who lies under that judgment. Those dear children of God who, like Obadiah, "divide the land" with Ahab to look for water and grass show the principles of the wicked king in their walk, and cannot avoid taking the responsibility for it on themselves.
God sent Elijah across that same land on the same day. Put the two errands side by side.
Obadiah was out on a mission that matched the place he had come from and the person who had sent him; and so was Elijah. Obadiah's immediate object was grass — if he could find any. His ultimate object was to save Ahab's horses and mules. Elijah's immediate object was to announce Jehovah's certain purpose about rain. His ultimate object was to bring the nation back to its early faith and devotion.
The same question reaches the Christian today.
Should "the mules and horses" of a godless world take up the thoughts and energies of the Christian, instead of the interests of the Church of God? No, it should not be so. The Christian should have a nobler aim in view — a higher and more heavenly sphere in which to use his energies. God, and not Ahab, demands and deserves our devotion.
- The cause — the drought came from God's displeasure at the nation's sin. Yet Ahab's orders hold "not so much as a word about God."
- The errand — the king searched for grass, not for God. He worried about his horses and mules, not about a starving people.
- The master — Obadiah truly feared the Lord, but Ahab set his route. He took his orders from the king, and spent the crisis on trivial work.
- The division — to "divide the land" with Ahab pictures a believer who plans with the world. He works by its principles and tries to patch up what God has already judged.
- The contrast — same roads, same day: one man looked for grass for the king's stables, the other carried God's promise of rain to bring a nation back. Our energies belong to God, not Ahab.
And as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him; and he knew him, and fell on his face, and said, Is it indeed thou, my lord Elijah?
Elijah has been in hiding, pursued and chased from country to country. Now he steps into the open, and the first man he meets is not the king but the king's steward — a man who fears God, yet falls on his face in alarm.
Obadiah is not out looking for God's messenger. He is hunting for grass to keep Ahab's horses and mules alive. One writer contrasts the two men by asking who gave each of them his orders.
Obadiah takes his orders from the apostate king. Elijah takes his directions from the Lord and moves and acts according to the commands of the Lord. Obadiah, though he may indeed fear the Lord, is not used in the service of the Lord, and gets no directions from the Lord. Ahab is his master, Ahab he has to serve, and from Ahab he takes his directions. So in this time of natural disaster he wastes his time on the trivial work of looking for grass for his master's animals.
Obadiah holds the higher rank. Yet he is the one on the ground, and the title he gives Elijah says who he thought was greater.
Although the one was a high government official and the other a humble villager, Obadiah trembled before Elijah. He fell on his face and said, "Is it you, my lord Elijah?" Fellowship with God and obedience to His will give moral dignity to anyone... Obadiah lacked this. With all his honours and high salary, he felt that the man who stood before him in rough clothing was his superior. Otherwise, why would he address Elijah as "my lord"?
Not every writer accepts the title. One reads it as respect carried too far:
He had a higher regard for Elijah than Ahab did — in fact a too exaggerated regard, for Elijah was not his lord. Still, he knew that Elijah was a true prophet of God. Obadiah was trying to serve two masters: he knew he ought to serve the Lord, but Elijah considered Ahab to be Obadiah's master.
The strangest thing about this meeting is what is missing from it.
Obadiah knew the prophet. As if troubled at the meeting, he fell on his face. He showed no sign of gladness at seeing the Lord's faithful messenger — a man who also feared the Lord greatly and proved it by holy obedience. Fear seems to have taken hold of his soul instead, as if he expected a warning or a rebuke. Elijah, too, showed no pleasure in meeting one who had not bowed his knees to the idol Baal. Was this because Obadiah's company, and his failure to separate himself from the world, had destroyed his testimony?
Elijah confirms who he is and sends Obadiah back to "your lord" — Ahab. One writer reads the distance as a loss on both sides:
Perhaps the awe-inspiring solemnity of Elijah's appearance and manner caused all this. Still, the thought forces itself on you: there ought to have been more holy openness between two servants of the Lord. Elijah too seems to keep this distance. "I am," he said; "go, tell your lord, Behold, Elijah is here." Elijah felt he was the keeper of the Lord's secret — a secret this fellow servant of God knew nothing about.
Behind the awkward greeting lies a deeper difference in how the two men had lived.
He feared the Lord greatly, yet despite this he was in the service of Ahab's house and did not testify against its evil. He did not bear the reproach of Christ. He was not like Elijah, pursued and chased from country to country. He did not know what it was to be fed by the ravens or by the widow; that is to say, he lived little by faith, and knew little of the ways of God. He lived at ease in the world. Ahab was his lord. But who was Elijah's? The Lord. Oh, what a difference! Obadiah knew the good things of the earth; Elijah, the good things of heaven.
Obadiah's care for the hunted prophets was real. One writer weighs it against what he would not risk.
He feared the Lord, but was too timid to confess Him. He sympathised with the hunted prophets, but lacked the faith to identify himself with them in their sufferings. His kindness will no doubt be rewarded in the day of Christ. But God would have been better pleased if he had stood with His servants, instead of being content to support them from a distance.
- Orders. Ahab gives Obadiah his directions; the Lord gives Elijah his. That one difference shapes the whole meeting.
- Dignity. Obedience to God gave Elijah a moral dignity that rank and salary could not buy. Obadiah felt it at once.
- Fear. Obadiah met the Lord's messenger with dread, not gladness. He expected a rebuke.
- Distance. Elijah sent him straight back to "your lord" — Ahab. Writers differ: did that coldness rebuke Obadiah's compromise, or did it cost both men something?
- Portion. Obadiah's kindness to the hunted prophets will be rewarded. Still, he knew the good things of earth; Elijah knew the good things of heaven.
And he said to him, I [am he] go, say to thy lord, Behold Elijah!
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Obadiah bows to the ground and asks if this is really Elijah. The answer he gets is short.
There was certainly no warmth in Elijah's greeting, but rather coldness and reserve. He simply answered Obadiah's question with a yes, and commanded him to go and tell his lord that the prophet had come. The Spirit of God gave him the words, and so he said of Ahab to Obadiah, "your lord," on purpose. What sharper rebuke could there be? The mismatch is obvious once you remember this: the Lord's prophet was outlawed and hunted with open, determined hatred, while Obadiah enjoyed the confidence and favour of the persecutor.
Elijah refuses to treat Obadiah as anything but Ahab's man.
Obadiah may live in the palaces of kings, and Elijah in the lonely places of the earth, the companion of the widow and the fatherless. Even so, Obadiah knows perfectly well that Elijah is the greater man. The high positions of this world may carry earthly honours with them, but they cannot give spiritual dignity. Elijah will not even admit that Obadiah is a servant of the Lord. To him he is only a servant of the wicked king.
Another writer notes that Obadiah had gone too far in the other direction — calling Elijah "my lord" — while Elijah quietly pointed him back to the man he actually answered to.
He had a higher regard for Elijah than Ahab did — in fact, too exaggerated a regard, for Elijah was not his lord... Obadiah was trying to serve two masters, because he knew he ought to serve the Lord, but Elijah considered that Ahab was Obadiah's master.
Elijah carried a message Obadiah could not have carried. Obadiah had never been where God gives such messages.
And how could he? Ahab's house was not the place to gain entrance into God's counsels. Obadiah was out on an errand that perfectly matched the place he had come from and the person who sent him — and so was Elijah. Obadiah's immediate object was grass, if he could find any, and his ultimate object was keeping Ahab's horses and mules alive. Elijah's immediate object was to announce God's certain purpose about rain, and his ultimate object was bringing the nation back to its early faith and devotion.
The same writer answers the obvious defence: Obadiah was only doing his job.
True, he was serving his master. But should Ahab have been his master? I think not. His service to Ahab did not come from communion with God. True, it did not rob him of his name and character as one who feared the Lord greatly; the Holy Spirit has graciously recorded that about him. But it was a miserable thing for someone who feared the Lord greatly to own the worst of Israel's kings — kings who had abandoned God — as his master. Elijah would not own Ahab as his master, though he was bound to own him as his king.
Elijah gives Obadiah one word of command. Elijah knew that word well himself.
"Go, tell your lord, 'Behold, Elijah is here.'" — that is the prophet's word. Elijah, as we have seen, was used to this word; he often heard a "Go," and he would go. "Go," he himself had said to the poor widow of Sidon, who then went and did according to the word of Elijah. With both of them this came from faith, which always obeys. But where is Obadiah's faith? A believer may fear the Lord greatly and still have an unbelieving heart... When it came to obeying Ahab, Obadiah raised no objection; but when it came to obeying God, he found objections to His word as the prophet presented it.
In the verses that follow, Obadiah begs to be let off. His problem goes deeper than fear of the king.
This unholy association does more than keep Obadiah living in fear of the king; it destroys his confidence in God. He recognises that the Spirit of the Lord will protect Elijah from the king's revenge, but for himself he has no faith to count on God's protection. A false position and an uneasy conscience have robbed him of all confidence in the Lord.
One writer asks plainly whether Elijah was right to be so cold, and turns the question on the reader.
Elijah coldly replies, "Go, tell your lord, 'Behold, Elijah is here.'" He says, You go back to your lord. You have never sided with me. There is unmistakably a reserve, a coolness on Elijah's part. Was he right or wrong? Well, grace is a wonderful thing; but Elijah sensed that Obadiah ought to have come out boldly before now... I think some of us will be sorry later on that we have not been more wholehearted for the Lord than we have been.
- Position — Obadiah stood high in the palace, but high office in this world "cannot give spiritual dignity."
- Ownership — Obadiah had made Ahab his master, so Elijah would not own him as a fellow servant. Elijah owned Ahab as king, never as lord.
- Errand — Your master sets your mission. Obadiah hunted grass for horses. Elijah carried God's word about rain.
- Obedience — Obadiah obeyed Ahab's "Go" at once, then argued with God's. Faith always obeys.
- Cost — A false position and an uneasy conscience robbed him of confidence in God. He was sure God would protect Elijah, but not him.
And he said, What have I sinned, that thou givest thy servant into the hand of Ahab, to put me to death?
Elijah has told Obadiah, the manager of Ahab's household, to announce the prophet's arrival to the king. Obadiah's answer is pure alarm. He hears the errand as a death sentence. Why would a man who fears the Lord dread a message from God's prophet?
Elijah did not call Ahab "the king." He called him Obadiah's lord, and writers hear a rebuke in that word.
The Spirit of God gave Elijah the words of this command. So he said of Ahab to Obadiah, "your lord," and he meant it. What sharper rebuke could anyone give? What business had a man who feared the Lord from his youth in the house of such a king? That king had abandoned God and become His open enemy.
Another writer notes the same imbalance from Obadiah's side: he had just called Elijah "my lord," a title that was not his to give.
He had a higher regard for Elijah than Ahab did — in fact a too exaggerated regard, for Elijah was not his lord. Still, he knew that Elijah was a true prophet of God. Elijah told him, "Go, tell your master that Elijah is here." Obadiah was trying to serve two masters, for he knew he ought to serve the Lord, but Elijah considered that Ahab was Obadiah's master.
Obadiah's first move is to ask what he has done wrong. Writers read the question as a symptom of his condition.
Obadiah's reply (vv. 9-14) shows us the state of his soul. His inconsistent walk had cost him his confidence in God and given him a bad conscience at the same time. So fear grips him — fear of what would follow if he delivered Elijah's simple message. Three times over he says he is afraid Ahab will certainly kill him. So he begged Elijah to excuse him from such a dangerous errand... First, though, he asks how he has sinned, that Elijah should try to deliver him into Ahab's hands to be killed. Surely a strange question, coming from the governor of the king's house. Did he fear that everyone would now link him with Elijah, the Lord's prophet?
Obadiah was not an unbeliever. His problem lay in where he had chosen to stand.
It is very humbling to read all this eloquence, whose only aim was to keep himself safe... In other words, self, and self alone, was the burden of his speech... That he feared the Lord, we know on the authority of the Holy Spirit; but he seems to have feared Ahab even more. The secret of it all was this: he was in a false position, and so had a divided heart. Nothing drains the soul like trying to reconcile the service of God with the service of the world.
Obadiah's two answers make a test for any reader.
Obadiah did not object when it came to obeying Ahab. But when it came to obeying God, he found objections to His word spoken by the prophet... A man who can fit himself into Ahab's plans for finding food and avoiding death cannot rely on the Lord and trust Him with his life. How many souls are in this situation! When the word of God asks for simple obedience from them, they quickly find fault with it... And this is also why such souls are never set free. They are afraid — afraid of the world's opinion, afraid of difficulties, afraid of death: "He will kill me."
Elijah's return was good news for God's faithful people. Obadiah heard only a threat.
Could the news of Elijah's coming bring anything but joy to one who was faithful? Think of the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal. How they must have rejoiced at this news: "Behold, Elijah!" For them it meant the end of long suffering and the sure hope of better times. But it could not be so for Obadiah. He was too entangled with the world to rejoice at seeing its yoke broken.
Commentators differ on how hard to be on Obadiah. One writer defends him.
Was it wrong of Obadiah to wish not to throw away his life needlessly? Did not the Lord Jesus say to His disciples, "When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next"? And let us not forget what happened next. Elijah assured him that he would surely show himself to Ahab that day. Obadiah obeyed, and at once "went to meet Ahab, and told him." It would be better to have Obadiah's care for God's people and his obedience to His word through the prophet, than to find fault with the servant too quickly.
This scene holds a question for anyone who believes quietly.
Elijah was a bold man, and Obadiah was not. Was Obadiah a saint? I think he was. But he was a man who had never fully raised his colours. Deep in his heart he believed in the Lord, but he kept it quiet... You have the privilege of standing for the Lord in a day of decline, but the question is, are you a secret disciple?
- Position — Obadiah's fear starts with where he stands. Elijah's phrase "your lord" names Ahab, not God, as his master.
- Divided — He feared the Lord, and feared Ahab more. Serving God and the world at once drains the soul of strength.
- Obedience — He obeyed the king without argument. He found objections at God's word.
- Joy lost — The news that gladdened the faithful seven thousand only frightened him. He was too tied to the world to want its yoke broken.
- Mercy — Commentators differ. Some see plain unbelief. Others point to his care for God's people, and to his obedience once Elijah reassured him.
As Jehovah thy God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom whither my lord has not sent to seek thee; and when they said, He is not [here], he took an oath of the kingdom or nation that they found thee not.
Obadiah managed King Ahab's household. He meets Elijah during the famine. A simple errand draws out of him the story of a manhunt that crossed every border. His answer shows two things at once. It shows how hard the king had worked to find the prophet. It also shows how little the man who "feared the LORD greatly" trusted the God he swore by.
Obadiah's first reason is what the king had already been doing about Elijah.
The first was his master's known hostility to Elijah. Along with it he reveals that Ahab had been seeking the prophet for a long time. The king even sent messengers to all the surrounding kingdoms and nations to find where he was hidden. Ahab's aim, as Obadiah well knew, was to put the faithful messenger of the LORD to death. He wanted to be rid of this true and incorruptible witness. Obadiah knew nothing now of the secret of Elijah's strength. So he was afraid for himself, and he marvelled at the prophet's boldness.
The search was also formal and documented, not a rumour-chase.
Obadiah protested that Ahab had sent to all the surrounding nations to hunt for Elijah. He had also obtained sworn statements from them that Elijah was not in any of those nations.
Ahab could organise a hunt through every neighbouring kingdom. He never looked for the real cause of the famine.
He could have enjoyed himself among Jezebel's idolatrous prophets. Only the horrors of famine drove him out. Even then he did not search out the cause of the famine in true self-judgement and humility. He did not seek pardon and restoration from the hand of God. Instead he goes out in selfishness, with no repentance, to look for grass.
The size of the search explains something from earlier in the story. One writer reads Obadiah's words and sees why God fed His prophet as He did:
"How have I sinned, that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me? As the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent to seek you." We can understand therefore why Elijah was fed by ravens.
In this verse Obadiah calls Ahab "my lord," and Elijah had said "your lord" to him. One writer sees the whole problem in that one word.
No doubt he was serving his master; but should Ahab have been his master? I believe not. I believe his service to Ahab was not the result of communion with God. True, it did not rob him of his name and character as one who feared the Lord greatly, and the Holy Spirit has graciously recorded this about him. But it was a miserable thing for a man who feared the Lord greatly to own the worst of Israel's apostate kings as his master. Elijah would not have done so. He would not own Ahab as his master, though he was bound to own him as his king.
Obadiah swears by the living God. In the same breath he tells Elijah that Ahab will kill him.
This unholy partnership keeps Obadiah living in fear of the king. It also destroys his confidence in God. He recognises that the Spirit of the Lord will protect Elijah from the king's revenge. But for himself he has no faith to count on the protection of God. A false position and an uneasy conscience have robbed him of all confidence in the Lord.
The root of it, another writer argues, is a heart pulled in two directions.
That he feared the LORD, we know on the authority of the Holy Spirit. But he seems to have feared Ahab even more. The secret of it all was that he was in a false position, and so had a divided heart. Nothing drains the soul so completely as trying to serve God and the world at the same time.
- Searched. Ahab combed every nation and kingdom for one man. He took sworn statements to prove it.
- Missed. The one place he never searched was his own heart. He looked for grass and for the prophet, never for the cause of the famine.
- Hidden. The size of the hunt explains the ravens. God fed His servant out of sight while the world searched for him.
- Divided. Obadiah calls Ahab "my lord". A man can be a ruler's subject without making him his master.
- Fearful. He swears by the living God, yet expects to die. He believes God will shield Elijah, but not him. A divided heart drains the soul of confidence.
And now thou sayest, Go, say to thy lord, Behold Elijah!
Elijah meets Obadiah, an officer in the palace of King Ahab, and tells him to announce the prophet to his master. Obadiah repeats the order back in disbelief, certain that carrying it will cost him his life.
Elijah's wording is deliberate. He does not send Obadiah as a fellow servant of God but as an employee of the palace.
Obadiah may live in the palaces of kings. Elijah lives in the lonely places of the earth, a companion of the widow and the fatherless. Still, Obadiah knows full well that Elijah is the greater man. The high places of this world may bring honour on earth, but they cannot give spiritual dignity. Elijah will not even recognise that Obadiah is a servant of the Lord. To him he is only a servant of the wicked king, for he says, "Go, tell your lord, 'Behold, Elijah is here.'"
Obadiah took Ahab's orders without complaint. One writer sets that beside the way he answers the prophet.
"Go, tell your lord, 'Behold, Elijah is here.'" That is the prophet's word. Elijah was used to that word himself. He had often heard a "Go," and he went. With him it came from faith, which always obeys. But where is Obadiah's faith? A believer may "greatly fear the Lord" and still have an unbelieving heart. Obadiah is struck with dismay and terror. When it came to obeying Ahab, Obadiah did not object. But when it came to obeying God, he found objections to His word brought by the prophet... A man who can fit in with Ahab's plans for finding food and avoiding death cannot rely on the Lord and trust his life to Him. How many souls are in this situation! When the word of God calls for simple obedience on their part, they quickly find fault with it.
The message Obadiah dreads was the best news in Israel.
Could the news of Elijah's coming bring anything but joy to one who was faithful? How the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal must have rejoiced at this news: "Behold, Elijah is here." For them it meant the end of long suffering and the sure hope of better times. But it could not be so for Obadiah. He was too entangled with the world to rejoice at seeing its yoke broken. Is it not the same today when someone speaks to Christians about the appearing of the One who is greater than Elijah?... Obadiah saw nothing but the fate waiting for him with the king: "He will kill me." Because of his lack of faith, he thought that more certain than deliverance.
Obadiah's speech piles up reason after reason. One writer weighs the whole plea and finds one subject running through it.
It is very humbling to read all this eloquence. Its one aim was to keep himself safe, and to prove that no one should judge him by his circumstances... In other words self, and self alone, was the burden of his speech. In a day of ruin, when the people had turned from God, he showed no zeal for the Lord God of Israel. There was not even a trace of confidence in the protection of the One he claimed to serve. That he feared the Lord, we know on the authority of the Holy Spirit; but he seems to have feared Ahab even more. The secret of it all was this: he was in a false position, and so had a divided heart. Nothing drains the soul like trying to combine the service of God with the service of the world.
Commentators differ on how hard to be on Obadiah. One writer defends his caution and points out that his objection was not his final answer.
Was Obadiah wrong to want to avoid throwing his life away for nothing? Did not the Lord Jesus say to His disciples, "When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next"? And let us not forget what came next. Elijah assured him that he would surely show himself to Ahab that day. Obadiah obeyed, and at once "went to meet Ahab, and told him." It is better to have Obadiah's care for God's people and his obedience to His word through the prophet, than to pick holes in the servant.
- Fear divides. Obadiah feared the Lord, yet he seemed to fear Ahab more — and a divided heart drains the soul.
- Fear argues. He raised no objection to Ahab's errand. God's errand, brought by the prophet, is the one he argued with.
- Fear misreads. The faithful seven thousand would have rejoiced to hear "Behold, Elijah is here." Obadiah heard only "he will kill me."
- Fear pleads. His long defence, good deeds included, had one subject: his own safety. It showed no zeal and no trust in God's protection.
- Fear yields. Once Elijah gave his assurance, Obadiah went and told Ahab. His care for God's people and his obedience deserve more than easy criticism.
And it shall come to pass when I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of Jehovah shall carry thee whither I know not; and when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he will kill me; and I thy servant fear Jehovah from my youth.
Elijah has told Obadiah to announce his return to Ahab. Obadiah protests: God's Spirit may carry the prophet off somewhere unknown, Ahab will kill the messenger who cannot produce him — and so a man who had feared God since boyhood cannot trust Him with his own life.
The writers do not doubt his claim to have feared God all his life. What surprises them is where such a man turned up — and what God still did through him there.
Ahab called Obadiah, who was the governor of his house — who, strange to say, "feared Jehovah" — feared Him "greatly." So wonderful are the ways of the Lord, and so little are we prepared for them. After all, the last place in this world where we would have looked for a servant of the Lord would have been the house of Ahab. Yet so it was. … We are constantly in danger of forgetting what is not in front of our eyes. It was a poor place for a servant of the Lord to be, in the house of Ahab, yet it was a great honour, for God gave him a hundred of the Lord's prophets to feed, fifty at a time in a cave, right in front of Jezebel.
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Obadiah had gone along with Ahab's plans without objecting. God's word through the prophet was another matter.
But where is Obadiah's faith? A believer may "greatly fear the Lord," and have an unbelieving heart. … When it came to obeying Ahab, Obadiah did not object; but when it came to obeying God, he found objections to His word presented by the prophet… He who can adapt himself to Ahab's plans for finding food and avoiding death cannot rely on the Lord and entrust his life to Him. How many souls are in this situation! When the word of God calls for simple obedience from them, they quickly find fault with it.
Obadiah's reason for holding back is that the Spirit will move Elijah and leave him looking like a liar. One writer treats that suggestion as an insult to God.
Going along with the world harms the soul at all times. So Obadiah feared the wicked Ahab, while Elijah did not. … Worst of all, he even hinted that the Holy Spirit might act unworthily! … Elijah was perfectly straightforward in the path he was walking. Jehovah had charged him to see Ahab, and he intended to do so. The Holy Spirit, who delights to guide the servants of God, would never lead him to be false to a divine commission.
Notice what Obadiah assumes about Elijah: that God will carry him out of danger. He assumes nothing of the kind for himself.
Not only does this unholy association keep Obadiah living in fear of the king, but it destroys his confidence in God. He recognises that the Spirit of the Lord will protect Elijah from the king's vengeance. But for himself, he has no faith to count on God's protection. A false position and an uneasy conscience have robbed him of all confidence in the Lord.
Obadiah ends by pointing to his own record. The writers accept that it was true. They just think he should not have been the one to say it.
In this state of bondage to the world one feels it necessary to justify oneself by giving testimony about oneself… Obadiah adds: "I your servant have feared the LORD from my youth" (v. 12), and this was true enough, but it was not for Obadiah to state it. God had been pleased to use him, even in the wrong position he held. He could be sure that the Lord would not forget even a cup of water given to one of these little ones. But how much more pleasing it would have been to God to see Obadiah, full of trust and obedience, setting out at His command to carry out the mission to the king!
Everything in Obadiah's speech circles back to keeping himself safe, and the cause is traced to a heart pulled two ways.
That he feared Jehovah, we know on the authority of the Holy Spirit; but he seems to have feared Ahab even more. The secret of it all was that he was in a false position, and so had a divided heart. Nothing drains the soul so completely as trying to reconcile the service of God with the service of the world.
Elijah's reply, given in the next verse, sets the contrast in one line.
Whatever Jehovah might be to Obadiah, He was a living God to the outlawed prophet; and he was standing — that is, speaking and acting — in the consciousness of His presence.
- Position — His fear of God was real and lifelong. But he lived it out inside the house of Ahab, and that is where the trouble starts.
- Paralysis — A divided heart drains the soul; he feared God, yet feared Ahab more, and could not serve both.
- Pretext — He obeyed Ahab without a word. Asked to obey God, he found objections — even hinting that God's Spirit might leave him looking like a liar.
- Poverty — He trusted God to protect Elijah, but not himself. A bad conscience had emptied him of confidence.
- Plea — His good deeds were real, and God does not forget them. But a man who recites his own record has lost the simple trust and obedience God wanted to see.
Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of Jehovah, how I hid a hundred men of Jehovah's prophets by fifty in a cave, and maintained them with bread and water?
Elijah has just told Ahab's steward to go and announce his arrival to the king, and Obadiah, terrified, answers by reciting the bravest thing he ever did — sheltering a hundred prophets from Jezebel's killing and keeping them alive on bread and water. The deed was real and costly; the question the commentators press is why he is producing it now, as an argument for his own safety.
Obadiah managed Ahab's household, serving the king and his wife Jezebel. What he did for the prophets showed where his heart really lay.
Obadiah, the governor of Ahab's house, feared the Lord in secret, deep in his own spirit. But he was planted in a most unholy atmosphere. The house of the wicked Ahab, and his still more wicked wife, must have been a painful school for the righteous soul of Obadiah. And so he found it. He was hindered in service and testimony. What he did for the Lord was done by stealth. He was afraid to act openly and decidedly; yet he did quite enough to show what he would have done had he been planted in better soil... Hiding a hundred prophets by fifty in a cave and feeding them was a most precious sign of devotion of heart to the Lord. It was a blessed triumph of divine principle over the most unfavourable circumstances.
His speech has one aim: to keep himself out of danger. He offers the old rescue as evidence of his character.
It is very humbling to read all this eloquence. Its only object was to keep himself safe from danger, and to prove that he must not be judged by his circumstances. He seems to admit that present appearances were against him. But there was a deed in the past that would testify to his character beyond dispute. In other words self, and self alone, was the burden of his speech. In a day of ruin and falling away, he had no zeal at all for the Lord God of Israel. There was not even a trace of confidence in the protection of Him whom he claimed to serve.
A good work is one thing. A man's account of his own good work is another.
In this state of bondage to the world one feels it necessary to justify oneself by giving testimony to oneself... So many Christians report their own work, their own activity and its results! This gives a wrong impression, to themselves and to others, about their true moral condition. God had been pleased to use Obadiah, even in the wrong position he held. He could be sure that the Lord would not forget even a cup of water given to one of these little ones. But how much more pleasing it would have been to God to see Obadiah setting out at His command, full of trust and obedience, to carry out the mission to the king!
Obadiah trusts God to rescue Elijah. He does not trust God to rescue him.
This unholy association keeps Obadiah living in fear of the king, and it destroys his confidence in God. He knows the Spirit of the Lord will protect Elijah from the king's revenge. For himself, he has no faith to count on God's protection. A false position and an uneasy conscience have robbed him of all confidence in the Lord.
Commentators differ on how hard to be on Obadiah. One writer asks whether he was wrong to avoid a needless death.
The moment seemed to demand it, so he tells Elijah what the Holy Spirit also records about him in the story. Was it wrong of Obadiah to wish not to throw his life away for nothing? Did not the Lord Jesus say to His disciples, "when they persecute you in one town, flee to the next"? And do not forget what happened next. Elijah assured him that he would show himself to Ahab that day, and Obadiah obeyed at once: he "went to meet Ahab, and told him." Better to have Obadiah's care for God's people and his obedience to God's word through the prophet than to find fault with the servant so quickly.
Later Elijah told God that he alone was left in Israel. The men in that cave prove otherwise.
Much of this was true. But Elijah was wholly taken up with his own faithfulness to God, and could not take account of what was not hidden from the eye of God. Obadiah and the hundred prophets of the Lord he had saved from Jezebel were clearly not men of the same stamp as Elijah. They did not have the same zeal for God, nor the same energy in testimony. Still, they were not to be counted among those who had thrown down the Lord's altars.
- The deed — inside Ahab's own house, Obadiah hid and fed a hundred hunted men. Divine principle triumphed in the worst conditions.
- The plea — he brings that deed out to defend himself. Self, not zeal for God, is the burden of his speech.
- The telling — God never forgets a cup of water given to one of His little ones. But a man who reports his own record gives a wrong impression of his true condition.
- The root — a false position left him afraid of the king. He trusted God to protect Elijah, but not himself.
- The record — the hundred were still alive when Elijah said he stood alone. God counts faithful people the boldest servant never sees.
And now thou sayest, Go, say to thy lord, Behold Elijah! and he will kill me.
Obadiah has just told Elijah how he hid a hundred of God's prophets from Jezebel, and now he comes back to the errand itself. Why could a man who feared the Lord not carry one short message to the king?
Obadiah had already said almost the same thing two verses earlier. One writer notes that his readiness to move at a king's word ran out the moment God's word reached him.
When it came to obeying Ahab, Obadiah did not object. But when it came to obeying God, he raised objections against the word the prophet brought him. A man who fits in with Ahab's plans for finding food and escaping death cannot rely on the Lord and trust Him with his life. How many souls are in this situation!
Elijah's whole message was one word: "Go." The same writer recalls who else heard that word.
Elijah was used to this word. He often heard a "Go," and he would go. He himself had said "Go" to the poor widow of Zidon, who then went and did "according to the word of Elijah." With both of them this came from faith, which always obeys. But where is Obadiah's faith? A believer may "greatly fear the Lord," and have an unbelieving heart.
The message Obadiah dreads was the best news in Israel. One writer asks why it did not sound that way to him.
Could the news of Elijah's coming bring anything but joy to one who was faithful? How the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal must have rejoiced at this news! For them it meant the end of long suffering and the sure hope of better times. But it could not be so for Obadiah. He was too entangled with the world to rejoice at seeing its yoke broken.
Verse 14 closes Obadiah's long speech. One writer weighs what it was all aimed at.
It is very humbling to read all this eloquence. Its only object was to keep himself out of danger, and to prove that people must not judge him by his circumstances. He seems to admit that present appearances were against him. But there was a deed in the past that would undeniably testify to his character. In other words self, and self alone, was the burden of his speech. In a day of ruin and abandoned faith he had no zeal for the Lord God of Israel. There was not even a trace of confidence in the protection of Him whom he claimed to serve. That he feared Jehovah, we know on the authority of the Holy Spirit; but he seems to have feared Ahab even more. The secret of it all lay in the fact that he was in a false position, and so had a divided heart. Nothing drains the soul so completely as trying to combine the service of God with the service of the world.
Obadiah really had rescued the hundred prophets, and he offers that now as a reason to spare his life. Another writer sees a warning in it.
More than this, the Lord knew, and that should have been enough for Obadiah: there was no reason for him to tell Elijah of his good deeds. We may be too inclined to think that some good things we do will excuse our walking in wrong company.
Obadiah's excuse brought the Spirit of God into it. One writer counts that the worst part of his speech.
Going along with the world is harmful to the soul at all times. So Obadiah feared the wicked Ahab, and Elijah did not... and, worse than all, he even hinted that the Holy Spirit might act in a way unworthy of God! ... Elijah was completely straightforward in the path he was taking. Jehovah had charged him to see Ahab, and he intended to do so. The Holy Spirit, who delights to guide the servants of God, would never lead him to be false to a divine commission.
Elijah answers with one short sentence about where he himself stands.
But Elijah simply told him, "As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely present myself to him today" (v.15). Obadiah should not have missed the force of these words. Elijah stood before the Lord of hosts, but Obadiah stood before Ahab!
- Position — His problem was not fear of God but where he stood. A man in a false position ends up with "a divided heart."
- Fear — He stood before Ahab, so he feared Ahab more than the Lord. He obeyed the king faster than the prophet.
- Excuse — He made past faithfulness his defence. One writer warns that good deeds can become an excuse for "walking in wrong company."
- Loss — The news that thrilled the seven thousand terrified him. Get tangled up with the world, and you dread the day its yoke breaks.
- Remedy — Elijah stood before the Lord of hosts, and that made him steady. That is where Obadiah never stood.
And Elijah said, As Jehovah of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will certainly shew myself to him to-day.
Obadiah has just told Elijah he is too afraid of Ahab to carry his message. Elijah answers with an oath, and one phrase in it holds the whole difference between the two men.
Elijah had said the same thing when he first stood before Ahab. One writer finds the foundation of his whole service in these words.
There is great power in the words, "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand." They show us in a very special way what this outstanding servant of God rested his soul on. They also show the principle that kept him going in his service. He stood before "the LORD, the God of Israel," and standing there he could speak with a measure of power and authority.
The word "stand" is not about posture. It describes how Elijah lived.
Whatever the Lord might be to Obadiah, He was a living God to the outlawed prophet; and he was standing — that is, speaking and acting — always conscious that God was present.
Elijah calls God "the LORD of hosts." That name turns up at a certain kind of moment in Scripture.
We first find this title in the first book of Samuel, in the time of the judges, when every man did what was right in his own eyes, much as is the case today... Many of the prophets use the name, especially in days of weakness and failure. It is good to know that, despite man's failure, there is an all-sufficient God who has unlimited resources at His disposal.
Obadiah had begged Elijah not to send him. Elijah's reply set the two men side by side.
Obadiah should not have escaped the force of these words. Elijah stood before the Lord of hosts, but Obadiah stood before Ahab!
Obadiah was a believer, not an enemy of God. One writer finds Elijah's answer to him solemn for that reason.
How different Elijah's attitude is. He walks apart from evil, and he is full of holy boldness. Yet his confidence was not in himself, or in his own separate walk, but in the living God... How solemn that Elijah has to speak to a saint of God in the very words he had used on the king who had abandoned God (1 Kings 17:1; 1 Kings 18:15). Obadiah stands before the king, and he is full of the fear of death. Elijah stands before the living God, and he is full of calm and holy confidence. Faith in the living God made him warn the king of the coming drought. Faith in the living God sustained him in hiding through the years of drought. Faith in the living God lets him face the king once more and say without a trace of fear, "I will surely show myself to him today."
Commentators differ on the tone of the reply. Another writer hears reassurance in it.
Elijah reassures this poor, frightened, trembling man (vv. 15, 16). As surely as he stands before the Lord, he will show himself to Ahab that very day, for he has nothing to fear. God is with His servant; what is the power of the king compared to that of God?
Elijah's words are an oath. One writer weighs how serious that is.
An oath that calls on God's name is a most serious matter. Elijah made such an oath to Obadiah, "As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand" (1 Kings 18:15), and he kept that oath. But men often dare to use God's name when they do not even intend to keep their word. That is using it completely in vain, and it is a gross evil.
- Stand — To "stand before" God means speaking and acting while aware He is present; Elijah's confidence rested there, not in himself or in his own separate walk.
- Sustains — The same faith announced the drought and carried him through it. Now it sends him back to the king unafraid.
- Supplies — "The LORD of hosts" is the name for days of weakness and failure. Man has failed, but an all-sufficient God still has unlimited resources.
- Swears — The words are an oath, and Elijah kept it that same day. Using God's name with no intention of keeping your word is a gross evil.
- Sifts — One man stood before the LORD of hosts, the other before Ahab. That one difference explains why Obadiah trembled at a message and Elijah delivered it.
Then Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him. And Ahab went to meet Elijah.
Israel was in a long drought, and Ahab had sent his servant Obadiah out to look for food when Obadiah met the prophet Elijah. In this verse Obadiah delivers the message, and Ahab walks out to meet the man he blames for the nation's trouble.
Obadiah had just poured out every reason why delivering the message would get him killed. Elijah answered none of them.
Elijah did not reply to the arguments of poor, trembling Obadiah, but he calmed his fears only this far, with the assurance, "As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today." These were solemn words. They were meant to be solemn for Obadiah's conscience. Before whom did he stand? Before Ahab — every word he had spoken proved it. But to Elijah, who stood before the LORD, Ahab was nothing but the enemy of God. What a contrast between these two servants of the LORD! And Elijah's words condemn Obadiah's whole position! Whether Obadiah felt this we are not told, but he was silenced, and he went and told Ahab the prophet's message.
The message Obadiah had to carry was good news. Rain was coming. Yet the man carrying that news could think only of his own neck.
Elijah's coming, as we shall see in the rest of the chapter, meant deliverance for the little remnant of Israel through the judgment of Baal's priests... "Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth." Could the news of Elijah's coming bring anything but joy to someone who was faithful? How the seven thousand must have rejoiced at this news: "Behold, Elijah is here!" They had never bowed the knee to Baal. For them the news meant the end of long suffering and the sure hope of better times. But it could not be so for Obadiah. He was too entangled with the world to rejoice at seeing its yoke broken.
Obadiah ran the king's errand without complaint. God's errand he argued with.
But where is Obadiah's faith? A believer may fear the LORD greatly and still have an unbelieving heart... When it came to obeying Ahab, Obadiah did not object; but when it came to obeying God, he found objections to His word as the prophet presented it... The man who can fit in with Ahab's plans for finding food and avoiding death cannot rely on the Lord and trust his life to Him. How many souls are in this situation! When the word of God asks for simple obedience from them, they quickly find fault with it.
Elijah did not tell Obadiah to go to the king. He told him to go to his lord. Writers note that this was deliberate, and that the position itself — not Obadiah's piety — was the problem.
It may be said by some that Obadiah was as much in his place as Elijah, since he was serving his master. No doubt he was serving his master — but should Ahab have been his master? I believe not... It did not rob him of his name and character as one who feared the LORD greatly, for the Holy Spirit has graciously recorded this about him. But it was a miserable thing for a man who feared the LORD greatly to own the worst of Israel's apostate kings as his master. Elijah would not own Ahab as his master, though he was bound to own him as his king.
One commentator names what a position like this really amounts to.
When it becomes a question between God and Satan, even neutrality is unfaithfulness. To be identified in any way with the followers of Satan, as Obadiah was, is to stand in open hostility to God.
Ahab does come out. His first words are not repentance but an accusation.
Ahab goes to meet Elijah; he accuses God's servant of being "the troubler of Israel." This is how the world regards the work of the Lord's witnesses. To announce the judgment that must come is to stir up the world. So is declaring that there is no escape from it except in God Himself. So is standing firm for the Lord in the presence of evil. The world is asleep in false security, and it does not want to be woken.
- Standing. Elijah stood before the LORD of hosts; Obadiah stood before Ahab. Where a man stands decides where he will go.
- Oath. Elijah did not argue Obadiah out of his fear. He named the God before whom he stood, and that ended the matter.
- Divided. Obadiah feared the LORD greatly and still feared Ahab more — quick at the king's errand, full of excuses at God's. Where God and Satan are at odds, even neutrality is unfaithfulness.
- Entangled. The news that thrilled the hidden seven thousand only terrified the man in the palace: he was too tied to the world to enjoy seeing its grip broken.
- Confrontation. The king came out, but not humbled. He met the prophet with a charge — the world's standing answer to those who stand for God.
And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, Is it thou, the troubler of Israel?
After three and a half years without rain, the king and the prophet stand face to face at last. Ahab's first words are not a question about God. They are an accusation against the man. The whole verse turns on one word, "troubler," and on who deserves it.
The long famine taught Ahab nothing about where it came from. He never looked past the man who announced it.
Three and a half years of famine had not humbled Ahab enough to make him see that it was God, not Elijah, who had withheld the rain from heaven. But Ahab had no intention of recognizing God.
There is a reason a king could look at a ruined land and blame one man.
Ahab's greeting tells us a great deal. "Is it you, you troubler of Israel!" Here we see clearly how Satan clouds the minds and twists the judgment of men who do not believe. There really was trouble in Israel. But it seems it never occurred to Ahab to trace that trouble back to the idolatry which had spread everywhere. Temples, altars, prophets, and priests of an evil character covered the land.
Ahab's definition of "trouble" exposes him. Idolatry across the whole land cost him nothing. A drought that touched his own comfort cost him everything.
The land may be filled with idols and idol temples. Idol groves and idolatrous altars, served by idolatrous priests, may stand on every side. The people may have forsaken the Lord and followed the Baals. The king may be the leader in turning the nation away from God, and his wife a pagan murderess. None of these piled-up evils is any trouble to the king. But is there a drought in the land, and a famine in Samaria that spoils his pleasures and endangers his horses? Then it is a grievous trouble indeed, and the man at whose words the heavens are shut is, in the king's sight, a troubler.
In the next verse Elijah refuses the label. He points to what the king would rather forget: the nation had left God's commandments.
This was tracing the evil up to its right source. It was departure from God and His holy commandments that had brought all this trouble upon them. Men are always inclined to forget the sin that caused the trouble and to think only of the trouble. But true wisdom will always lead us to look past the trouble to the cause that produced it.
Ahab's label did not die with him. The world still resents anyone who disturbs its comfortable sleep.
To announce the judgment that must come, to declare that there is no help against it except in God Himself, to stand firm for the Lord in the face of evil — this stirs up the world. The world sleeps in a false security, and it does not want its sleep disturbed.
Notice who escapes the charge. Obadiah served inside Ahab's own household, and no one called him a troubler.
No one will call the worldly Christian a troubler. Obadiah, in his day, was so far from being a troubler that people saw him as a very useful member of society, and so he became governor of the king's household. The troubler is always the man of God who stands apart from the course of this world, who witnesses against its evil and warns of coming judgment — even though he proclaims grace and points the way of blessing.
Elijah does not flinch, and the king who had hunted him for years can manage only this one sour sentence.
He knew the Lord had sent him, and that the Lord was with him and for him. So he bravely faced the king who had long been hunting for his life. And notice that Ahab was clearly in awe of the man he hated. All he could bring himself to say was, "Is it you, you troubler of Israel?" Ahab knew that Elijah was the servant of the Lord.
Later the same charge turns personal.
Like most wicked men when they are reproved, Ahab looked on the fearless messenger of God as an enemy. "Have you found me, O my enemy?" he asks. Here, when he can no longer link the nation with himself in his guilt, he acknowledges the personal character of the prophet's ministry, and calls him his (not the nation's) enemy.
- Cause. The famine came from God, not from Elijah. Three and a half years of it never made Ahab look at his own idolatry.
- Blindness. Temples, altars and idol priests filled the land, and none of it troubled the king. Only the hardship that touched his own pleasures did.
- Correction. Elijah sends the charge back to its source. True wisdom does the same: look past the trouble to the sin behind it.
- Cost. The world sleeps in false security. It resents whoever stirs it, even a man who brings grace and points the way to blessing.
- Contrast. No one called Obadiah a troubler inside the palace. The man who stands apart always gets the name, and in Ahab's mouth "troubler" hardened later into "my enemy."
And he said, I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of Jehovah, and thou hast followed the Baals.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And now send, gather to me all Israel to mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the Asherah four hundred, who eat at Jezebel's table.
Ahab has just blamed Elijah for Israel's troubles, and Elijah throws the charge straight back at the king. Then he names the terms of a public trial: the whole nation and every prophet of Baal must meet him on one mountain, and there everyone will see who the real God is.
Elijah does not argue with the king behind closed doors. He asks for a contest the whole nation can watch.
It was a challenge given — a fair and open challenge by the prophet. It was to be a question between God and Baal. Elijah on the one side and these prophets on the other were to settle it. So Ahab sends to all, and all gather together.
Notice who gives the orders here. The weaker man sets the terms for the stronger.
Think of Ahab. He is a powerful tyrant. The whole army of the kingdom is at his command, and a determined, ruthless wife stands behind him. Yet a weak man with no friends is all but ordering him to call the nation together! We have already noted the moral dignity that comes from close fellowship with God. We see it again here in Elijah the Tishbite.
And Ahab obeys.
Ahab gave in and summoned Baal's prophets at Elijah's command. That shows how fully God's own constraint had mastered him. Against his will, God used him to carry out His purpose. In this way the Lord made the wrath of man praise Him.
Elijah's demand is not theatre. It aims at the cause of the drought, and it excuses nobody.
Elijah shows the king there is only one way to end the famine and reach the day when the Lord will send rain on the earth. The sin that brought the judgment must itself be judged. So Ahab is told to gather all Israel to Carmel, along with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table. Everyone who had a share in this great sin must be there. The leaders and the people they led are to gather at Carmel. No privileges anyone enjoys, and no position, however high, will count as an excuse for staying away.
Elijah serves in the northern kingdom, yet he calls for all Israel. Later he builds his altar out of twelve stones.
But man failed. Sin and corruption came in, until Elijah, a faithful man, felt he stood alone in Israel. When the time came for him to build an altar to the Lord, we find he took twelve stones. And why? Because he knew that in God's mind the tribes were always twelve, however divided and torn apart they were then.
The verse identifies the false prophets not by their doctrine but by their dinner. That detail exposes what held the system together.
False religion has always looked for the sunshine of this world's favour. True religion has always been purer and more genuine when the world frowned on it. "The prophets of Asherah eat at Jezebel's table." If Jezebel had had no table, she would have had no prophets either. They were after her table, not her soul.
The verse names Jezebel, not Ahab.
She stands out as the spirit of that which always persecutes the witnesses of God. They did not eat at Ahab's table. It was at Jezebel's table.
Carmel is not a random ridge. Its name and its history matter.
The name usually carries 'the' in front of it, and it means 'the park' or fruitful place. Carmel is a mountain 12 miles long. It runs from the plain of Esdraelon in Galilee, north-west toward the Mediterranean. It was the scene of Elijah's contest with the priests of Baal, which led to their destruction. One part near its east end is still called Mukrakah, 'place of burning' — the traditional spot of that contest.
Elijah asks for two groups of false prophets. Later verses name only Baal's 450. Commentators differ on why.
We cannot be sure the prophets of Ashtaroth were there. Jezebel may have been able to shield her own favourites. Even so, the people felt too strongly for her to stop the gathering altogether. Elijah wanted both crowds of false leaders to come, but the record mentions only Baal's four hundred and fifty.
- Gather — the drought lifts only when the sin behind it is judged. So Elijah summons all who shared it: leaders and led, prophets and people.
- Gathered by whom — one weak, friendless man gives orders to a king with an army, and the king obeys. God uses Ahab for a purpose Ahab never grasps.
- Gathered as twelve — Elijah calls for "all Israel" and later builds with twelve stones. In God's mind the divided tribes were always twelve.
- Gathered around a table — the verse names the false prophets by where they ate. Take away Jezebel's table and her prophets go with it.
- Gathered for a verdict — Carmel, the "fruitful place," becomes the "place of burning." There the question of God or Baal gets one public answer.
So Ahab sent to all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel.
Elijah has just told Ahab that the real trouble in Israel is the throne, not the prophet. Now one man's demand turns into a national assembly, and the king himself does the gathering.
The plan came from Elijah, not from the palace. That is what makes the king's obedience so surprising.
Amazing, when we consider the relative position of the two men. Ahab was a powerful ruler. He had all the military resources of the kingdom at his disposal, and a determined and ruthless wife behind him. Yet now a weak and friendless man was in effect ordering him to call a meeting of the nation! We have already remarked on the moral dignity that communion with God gives. We see it again here in Elijah the Tishbite. The condition of things throughout the country was desperate. It could not go on forever. So the king agreed to Elijah's proposal for a meeting. He could not imagine how it would end, but he hoped there would soon be rain!
Ahab did as he was told. But the plan he carried out was not his own.
Ahab gave in and summoned Baal's prophets at Elijah's command. This shows how completely God's constraint had overpowered him. Against his will, God made him the instrument for carrying out His purpose. So the Lord made the wrath of man praise Him. The prophets of Baal were therefore gathered on Mount Carmel.
Another writer adds what Ahab could never have guessed about the numbers on his side:
God wants it so; whether Ahab wants it or not, this must be done. But no doubt the thought would never cross the mind of this godless king. His religion, with its eight hundred and fifty prophets, would be absolutely nothing before one single prophet of the Lord!
The summons went to "all the people of Israel" and to the prophets alike.
Everyone who has shared in this great sin must be present. The leaders and the led are to gather at Carmel. No privilege anyone enjoys, and no position, however high, will count as a reason to stay away. Those who feast at the royal table, and those who serve Baal, must be present with all the people.
Elijah had asked for two groups of false prophets. The record names only one group, and the reason is not certain.
It is not quite certain that the prophets of Ashtaroth were present. Jezebel may have been able to protect her own favourites, though feeling among the people was too strong for her to stop the gathering altogether. Elijah wanted both groups of false leaders to attend, but the record names only Baal's four hundred and fifty.
This meeting was not for debate. It put one plain question in front of the whole nation.
It was a challenge — a fair and open challenge from the prophet. The question was between God and Baal. Elijah on one side and these prophets on the other would settle it. So Ahab sends to all, and all gather together.
Another writer looks at the same scene and turns it on the reader:
Elijah's aim here is very clear. He stands for God, and wants the people's hearts for God. He wants the Lord to be known, and His name to be believed. Is the Lord God, or is Baal God? That was the serious question, and the great point to settle. Look at that man standing there all alone, while eight hundred and fifty haters of the truth surround Ahab. It is a grand thing to stand for God, whoever and wherever you may be.
One writer sets this gathering beside a later one, where a nation again had to choose.
We can only think of one gathering in the Holy Land more momentous in its results than that on Mount Carmel. All four Gospel writers record a crowd gathered outside Pilate's palace in Jerusalem. The highest religious leaders of the nation led them. A great decision had to be made. The people had to choose between Barabbas the robber and the blessed Son of God, Israel's Messiah. "Not this man, but Barabbas," was their united cry.
- Summoned. The gathering began as one man's demand. A hostile king carried it out. That is the moral weight of walking close to God.
- Overruled. Ahab acted against his own interest. God made him the unwilling instrument of His purpose.
- Assembled. No rank excused anyone. Leaders, false prophets and ordinary people all had to stand in the same place.
- Outnumbered. Eight hundred and fifty against one meant nothing. Numbers would not settle this question.
- Deciding. Carmel put one issue before a nation: the Lord or Baal. The same choice came again outside Pilate's palace, and there the crowd chose Barabbas.