Through My Bible Yr 01 – October 08

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Through My Bible Yr 01 – October 08

1 Kings 17 – 18

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Through My Bible – October 08

1 Kings 17 – 18 (EHV)
https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/tmb-ehv/01-1008db.mp3
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Elijah Stops the Rain

1 Kings 17

¹ Elijah from Tishbe, one of the settlers in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the Lord lives, the God of Israel before whom I stand, there will be no dew or rain during the coming years, except at my word.”

² Then the word of the Lord came to him: ³ “Leave this place and turn east. Hide yourself by the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. ⁴ You will drink from the stream, and I will command the ravens to provide for you there.”

⁵ So Elijah went and did just as the Lord had said. He lived in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. ⁶ The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and in the evening, and he drank from the stream.

Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath

⁷ After some time the stream dried up because there had been no rain in the land. ⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to him: ⁹ “Get up! Go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there. I have commanded a woman there, a widow, to provide for you.”

¹⁰ So he got up and went to Zarephath. He came to the city gate, and there he saw a widow gathering sticks. He called to her and said, “Please give me a little water in a jar, so that I can have something to drink.”

¹¹ When she went to get it, he called to her, “Please bring me a piece of bread.”

¹² She said, “As surely as the Lord your God lives, I have no food except a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a pitcher. See, I am gathering a couple of sticks so that I can go and prepare it for myself and my son, so that we can eat it and then die.”

¹³ Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid. Go and do just as you said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from the flour and bring it out to me. Then go and make another for you and your son. ¹⁴ For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. The jar of flour will not run out and the pitcher of oil will not become empty until the day the Lord sends rain to water the surface of the ground.”

¹⁵ So she went and did exactly as Elijah said. He and she, as well as her household, were able to eat for many days. ¹⁶ The jar of flour did not run out, and the pitcher of oil did not become empty, just as the Lord had said through Elijah.

The Widow’s Son Dies

¹⁷ After these events, the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. The illness became worse until he stopped breathing.

¹⁸ Then she said to Elijah, “What is the issue between us, man of God? Have you come to remind me of my sins and to kill my son?”

¹⁹ He said to her, “Bring your son to me.” Then he took him and carried him to the upstairs room where he was living, and he laid him on his bed. ²⁰ Then he cried out to the Lord, “O Lord, my God, have you sent tragedy on this woman with whom I am staying by killing her son?”

²¹ Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times, and he cried out to the Lord, “O Lord, my God, let this boy’s soul ^[1] return to his body!” ²² The Lord listened to Elijah’s voice, and the boy’s soul returned to his body, and he came to life. ²³ Then Elijah took the boy and brought him down to the house from his upstairs room, and he gave him to his mother.

Elijah said, “See, your son is alive!”

²⁴ The woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is true.”

Elijah Confronts the Prophets of Baal and Asherah

1 Kings 18

¹ After a long time, the word of the Lord came to Elijah. (It was during the third year.) He said, “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain to water the surface of the ground.” ² So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab.

Now the drought was severe in Samaria. ³ Ahab had summoned his servant Obadiah, the palace administrator. Obadiah was devoted to serving ^[2] the Lord. ⁴ When Jezebel was exterminating the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah had taken one hundred prophets and kept them hidden in two caves, fifty in each cave, and he provided food and water for them.

⁵ Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs and all the streams. Maybe we will find enough grass so that we can keep the horses and mules alive, and we will not have to slaughter the cattle.” ⁶ In order to cover the whole land, they divided it between the two of them. Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.

⁷ While Obadiah was on the way, Elijah suddenly met him. Obadiah recognized him and fell on his face and said, “Is that you, my lord Elijah?”

⁸ Elijah answered him, “Yes, it is. Go and tell your master, ‘Elijah is here.’”

⁹ But Obadiah said, “How have I sinned that you would hand your servant over to Ahab for him to kill me? ¹⁰ As surely as the Lord your God lives, there is no country or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you. When they said, ‘He is not here,’ then he made that kingdom and nation swear that they could not find you. ¹¹ But now you are telling me, ‘Go, tell your master that Elijah is here.’ ¹² As soon as I leave you, the Spirit of the Lord will carry you to some place I do not know. When I go to tell Ahab and he then does not find you, he will kill me, even though your servant has been devoted to the Lord since my youth.

¹³ “Has my lord not been told what I did when Jezebel was killing the prophets of the Lord? I kept one hundred of the prophets of the Lord hidden in two caves, fifty in each, and I provided food and water for them. ¹⁴ But now you are saying, ‘Go and tell your master that Elijah is here.’”

¹⁵ But Elijah said to him, “As surely as the Lord of Armies lives, before whom I stand, I will present myself to him today.” ¹⁶ So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and he informed him. Then Ahab came to meet Elijah.

¹⁷ When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is that you, the one who brings trouble on Israel?”

¹⁸ Elijah said, “It is not I who have brought trouble on Israel, but rather you and your father’s house, because you abandoned the Lord’s commandments and followed the Baals. ¹⁹ But now gather all Israel before me on Mount Carmel, along with the four hundred fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” ²⁰ So Ahab sent word to all the people of Israel, and he assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel.

²¹ Then Elijah said to all the people, “How long will you stagger around on two crutches? If the Lord is God, follow him. If Baal is God, follow him.” But the people did not answer him a single word.

²² Then Elijah said to the people, “I am the only one left of the Lord’s prophets, but the prophets of Baal total four hundred fifty men. ²³ Provide two bulls for us. Let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it up and place it on the firewood, but they are not to light the fire. I will prepare the other bull and place it on the firewood, but I will not light the fire. ²⁴ Then you will call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers with fire, he is God.”

All the people said, “This proposal is good.”

²⁵ Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull, and you go first because there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god. But do not light the fire.”

²⁶ So they took the bull which had been given to them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, “Baal! Answer us!” But there was not a sound. No one answered. So they staggered ^[3] around the altar which they had made.

²⁷ When noon came, Elijah mocked them: “Shout louder! He is a god, isn’t he? He may be deep in thought or busy or on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and will wake up!” ²⁸ So they cried out with a loud voice, and according to their practice they cut themselves with daggers and spears until their blood flowed. ²⁹ After noon, they kept up a prophetic frenzy until the time of the evening sacrifice, but there was no sound. No one answered. There was no response.

³⁰ Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” So 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 of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come and had proclaimed, “Your name shall be Israel.” ³² He built the stones into an altar in the name of the Lord. Around it he made a trench big enough to hold about twenty-five pounds ^[4] of seed. ³³ He arranged the wood, cut up the bull, and placed it on the wood.

Then he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the sacrifice and on the wood.” ³⁴ Then he said, “Do it again.” So they did it again. Then he said, “Do it a third time.” So they did it a third time. ³⁵ The water flowed all around the altar. It even filled the trench.

³⁶ When the time of the evening sacrifice had arrived, Elijah the prophet stood up and said, “O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and that I have done all these things by your word. ³⁷ Answer me, Lord! Answer me so that this people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you are turning their hearts back to you.”

³⁸ Fire from the Lord fell on the sacrifice and on the wood, the stones, and the dirt. It even licked up the water in the trench. ³⁹ When all the people saw this, they fell on their knees and said, “The Lord, he is God! The Lord, he is God!”

⁴⁰ Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let a single one of them escape!” So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the Kishon River and slaughtered them there.

⁴¹ Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for I hear the sound of a heavy rainstorm.” ⁴² So Ahab went to eat and drink, but Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel. He bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. ⁴³ He said to his servant, “Go up and look toward the sea.”

So his servant went up and looked, and he said, “There is nothing.”

But seven times Elijah told him, “Go again.”

⁴⁴ On the seventh time the servant said, “There is a cloud as small as a man’s hand rising from the sea.”

Then Elijah said to him, “Go up and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down so that the rain does not stop you.’”

⁴⁵ Meanwhile, the skies got dark with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. So Ahab got into his chariot and went to Jezre’el. ⁴⁶ But the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he hiked up his garments around his waist and ran ahead of Ahab until he came to Jezre’el.

Footnotes

1. 1 Kings 17:21 Or life, both here and in verse 22
2. 1 Kings 18:3 Literally greatly feared
3. 1 Kings 18:26 An insulting description of their dancing
4. 1 Kings 18:32 Hebrew two seahs

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.

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