After Elijah’s visit to King Ahab there was no rain nor dew in all the land of Israel nor in the countries near by for three years. During that time the grass on the hillsides had withered and died and the fields everywhere had begun to look like waste-lands where nothing could ever grow again. The farmers could raise no crops or vegetables, and the people in the land were suffering from hunger. Many of their animals had died, and even the horses and mules that belonged to the King were gaunt, hungry-looking beasts.
Now Ahab was very sure that there might never be rain again until Elijah would return to announce it. And he wished to find where Elijah had gone, so that he could send and bring him back to his palace. Perhaps he thought he would punish Elijah in some cruel manner to force him to let rain come again. So he commanded his messengers to search everywhere for the missing prophet. But always the messengers returned with the same report: “We have found no trace of him.” No one seemed to know the least thing as to Elijah’s whereabouts.
One day Ahab called his chief servant Obadiah, a good man, and said, “We must find pasture-land somewhere for these horses and miles or else they will die. Now, we will divide the land, and you go one way while I go the other way to search for springs of water where grassy spots may be found.” So they two separated, each going in a different direction.
Obadiah had not gone far when to his surprize he met a stranger dressed in a hairy mantle. He knew at once that this stranger was Elijah, and he fell on his face before him, crying, “Are you my lord Elijah?” The stranger replied, “I am. And now hurry back to Ahab and tell him that I have come.”
Obadiah was very much afraid to obey the prophet’s command. He feared that Elijah would disappear as soon as he should turn back to speak to the King, and then he knew Ahab would become so angry that he might kill him. So he told Elijah how carefully the King had searched for him, not only in the land of Israel, but also in the neighboring kingdoms. And he said, “The King knows that I, his servant, fear the Lord, and if I tell him that you have come and then he can not find you, he will believe I have hidden you as I hid the prophets of the Lord whom Jezebel, the Queen, tried to kill. And he will surely take my life.”
Elijah spoke encouraging words to Obadiah and promised to show himself to King Ahab that very day. So the servant turned and ran hurriedly back to overtake his ruler and to tell him that Elijah had come.
When Ahab heard that Elijah had been found, no longer was he interested in finding pasture-land for his starving animals. Now he wanted to see the strange-looking prophet who, he believed, had dared to bring so much trouble upon him and upon his people. So he hurried back with Obadiah to the place where Elijah had met him.
Because Elijah knew God had sent him to speak to the angry King he was not at all afraid when Ahab came near and asked, “Are you the man who has been troubling my country?”
Elijah answered, “No, I am not the man who has been troubling your country; you and your father’s house are the guilty ones. You have forsaken the commandments of the Lord God and have worshiped the gods of the heathen, and by so doing you have brought this trouble upon yourselves.”
Elijah, instead of Ahab, seemed to be the chief speaker in this meeting, just as he had been in their first meeting three years before. Now he told the King to call all the prophets of the idol Baal, whom Jezebel had brought into the land, and bring them to Mount Carmel, and all the people of the kingdom, too. And Ahab hastened to do just as the prophet said.
When the great host of curious people came together at the meet-ing-place, there they saw the man whom their King had been searching for during the dreary years of famine. And they listened quietly while Elijah spoke to them.
“Why are you following first one god and then another?” asked the prophet. “If the Lord be the true God, why not follow him? but if’ Baal be the true God, then do not turn again to follow the Lord.” The people were not ready to answer Elijah, so he told them that he had come to prove to them that very day which is the true God. He said, “I and the prophets of Baal have met with you here. I am only one, and Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Now I ask that you bring two bullocks for sacrifices, and we will build two altars and will prepare our sacrifices and lay them on the altars, and the God who will answer by fire, let him be the God.”
Elijah’s words pleased the people, and they quickly brought the offerings for the sacrifices. They wished to see what would happen next.
Elijah then told the prophets of Baal to choose which bullock they wanted, and he took the one that Was left. He told them to build their altar and offer their bullock first, and call upon Baal to send fire from heaven to burn up the sacrifice that they offered.
There were many of Baal’s priests, and it did not take them long to prepare everything ready for the offering of their bullock. But when they began to pray to Baal, no answer came. They cried earnestly from morning until noonday, and still no fire fell. Elijah stood by, watching. He knew Baal could never send fire from heaven, and he said to the prophets, “Perhaps you should cry louder, for Baal may be sleeping. Or he may be gone on a journey, or he may be talking with such a loud voice that he can not hear your prayers.” The prophets cried louder than ever, and danced about their altar, cutting themselves with sharp knives until the blood streamed down their bodies. They thought perhaps their god would be moved with pity if he should see them suffering; but still no answer came from Baal and no fire fell from the sky.
By and by, when the time came for the evening sacrifice at the temple in Jerusalem, Elijah called the people to come near and watch while he should rebuild the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down at that place. He chose twelve rough stones and piled them together for the altar. Then he dug a deep ditch around the altar, and after he had laid wood upon the altar and the sacrifice-offering upon the wood he commanded the people to bring three barrels of water and to pour them over the sacrifice. They obeyed, and he sent them again and again for more water, until they had emptied twelve barrels of water upon the altar, and it had soaked the wood and the meat and had run into the deep ditch, filling it to the brim.
When everything was ready Elijah called upon the Lord, and fire fell from the sky and burned up the sacrifice and the wood, and even licked up all the water in the ditch.
The people stood by, looking on in amazement. They had never seen such a wonderful sight before. Now they knew that Elijah’s God was the true God, so they fell on their faces and cried, “The Lord, he is the God! The Lord, he is the God!”