Elijah: Prayer That Persists

Elijah’s Faith - 1 Kings 18:16-40

1 Kings 18:16–40 (NIV)

Elijah on Mount Carmel

21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” 

But the people said nothing. 

22 Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. 23 Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. 24 Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire—he is God.” 

Then all the people said, “What you say is good.” 

Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. 

27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 28 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. 29 Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. 

30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.” 32 With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed. 33 He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.” 

34 “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again. 

“Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time. 35 The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench. 

36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” 

38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. 

39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!” 

Elijah shows incredible faith here. Almost to the point of cockiness. He is so completely certain that God will come through that he trash-talks the prophets of Baal and pours buckets of water on his own altar. Elijah believes God’s promise and walks in obedience to Him.

Elijah’s Persistence- 1 Kings 18:41-46

1 Kings 18:41–46 (NIV)

41 And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” 42 So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. 

43 “Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked. 

“There is nothing there,” he said. 

Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.” 

44 The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” 

So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’ ” 

45 Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. 46 The power of the Lord came on Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.

1 Kings—Power, Politics, and the Hope of the World King Ahab Gets It (vv. 41, 42a)

Elijah had the ears of faith. His hearing was sensitized by the promise he had heard (18:1). He was hearing what had been promised, not because the rain was yet falling, but because he believed the promise. Indeed, we might say, the promise was the sound (voice) of the rushing of rain. Elijah invited Ahab to share his confidence in God’s promise.

1 Kings—Power, Politics, and the Hope of the World Concentrated Prayer (v. 42c)

The prophet who believed God’s promise (he could hear the sound of the rushing of rain) now gave himself to earnest prayer.

1 Kings—Power, Politics, and the Hope of the World Persistent Prayer (v. 43)

The lad climbed to the very summit and looked westward to the Mediterranean Sea. “There was nothing” introduces a note of tension. Strangely the Hebrew echoes the first word of the devastating phrases we heard earlier: “there was no voice, there was no answerer, there was no attentiveness” (18:29, AT). But that was Baal.

1 Kings—Power, Politics, and the Hope of the World Answered Prayer (v. 44a)

After more than three years of clear skies and the heavens shut up (8:35), the small cloud was a sight to behold. For the praying Elijah, it was the sign for which he had been waiting.

1 Kings—Power, Politics, and the Hope of the World King Ahab and Elijah (vv. 45b, 46)

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. (James 5:16b–18)

Elijah’s Despair - 1 Kings 19:1-5

1 Kings 19:1–5 (NIV)

Elijah Flees to Horeb

19 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” 

3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. 

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”

1 Kings—Power, Politics, and the Hope of the World From Jezreel to a Lonely Broom Tree (vv. 3, 4a)

This takes us by surprise. In one sentence Elijah covers more than 100 miles, taking himself right out of Ahab’s kingdom, all the way to Beersheba, in the southern extremities of the kingdom of Judah (as our writer carefully notes). Until now all of Elijah’s movements have been in obedience to “the word from the LORD” (to the brook Cherith, 17:2–5; to Zarephath, 17:8–10; back to Ahab, 18:1, 2). Even in the run back to Jezreel “the hand of the LORD was on Elijah” (18:46). Now, with no word from the Lord, Elijah took himself to the deep south.

1 Kings—Power, Politics, and the Hope of the World The Messenger (Again) with a Plan (v. 7)

“Too great for you” has the word Elijah had used in his despairing prayer (“enough,” v. 4). It is as though the messenger was saying, The journey ahead is too much for you, just as the disappointment you have suffered is too much for you. You need strength beyond yourself. Arise and eat. Perhaps strength for the journey would lead to strength to carry on through the disappointment.

1 Kings—Power, Politics, and the Hope of the World What a Journey! (v. 8)

This is a surprising journey. “Horeb, the mount of God” is Mount Sinai (see

God’s Provision - 1 Kings 19:5-9

1 Kings 19:5–9 (NIV)

5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. 

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. 

7 The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night. 

The Lord Appears to Elijah

And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

God’s Voice - 1 Kings 19:9-18

1 Kings 19:9–18 (NIV)

9 There he went into a cave and spent the night. 

The Lord Appears to Elijah

And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 

10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” 

11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” 

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. 

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 

14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” 

15 The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17 Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. 18 Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”

Not finished with Elijah yet. God still has purposes for him