The prophets of Baal were defeated on Mount Carmel. They called out to Baal all day to send fire from heaven to consume their sacrifice. I think they shouted until they lost their voices, for at midday they began to dance around their sacrifice, then when that didn't work they started cutting themselves in the hope that Baal would be pleased with their blood. But Baal---who was ironically a weather god---did not answer.
By contrast, Elijah prayed a brief prayer to the Lord and fire came down. He had asked that water be poured all over his sacrifice; the bull, the wood, the stones, and the trench around the altar were completely saturated with water. (There were still some running springs here and there throughout the land in spite of the drought. You'll recall that King Ahab and one of his chief servants had been going about the countryside seeking these springs for the king's livestock. Rain had not been falling on the crops but drinking water could still be found from springs running out of the mountains.) So Elijah's sacrifice and everything around it was soaking wet, yet the fire burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, the dirt, and the water! There was absolutely not one molecule of any of it left by the time the holy God demonstrated His power!
At this astonishing sight, the people assembled to view the contest on Mount Carmel experience a momentary revival. "When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, 'The Lord---He is God! The Lord---He is God!'" (1 Kings 18:39) We won't find this revival to be longlasting, at least not for the majority of the citizens of the nation, but in this moment the people are compelled by what their eyes have seen to fall on the ground in fear and awe and to admit that the Lord is God. While they are in this spirit, Elijah commands them to carry out the penalty of the law upon the prophets of Baal. "Then Elijah commanded them, 'Seize the prophets of Baal. Don't let anyone get away.' They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there." (1 Kings 18:40)
There is no indication that the prophets of Baal are among those kneeling on the ground proclaiming, "The Lord---He is God!" Elijah speaks to the people assembled on the mountain as if they are a separate group from the prophets of Baal. I think this is because the prophets of Baal did not kneel before the majesty of the Lord. In fact, I think they may be in the process of running away when Elijah issues his order to capture them. Elijah is acting in obedience to the word of God who said in Deuteronomy 13:5: "That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. That prophet or dreamer tried to turn you from the way the Lord your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you."
The revival that has taken place on Mount Carmel will not spread throughout the entire nation and turn the hearts of every person back to the Lord. But I believe there must have been some people who witnessed the power of the Lord or who heard about the power of the Lord and repented and never returned to idolatry. On top of that, the idolatrous religious system has taken an enormous hit with the deaths of the prophets of Baal. Because some true repentance and some true justice have taken place, the Lord sends rain on the land. It has not rained for three and a half years because of the people's idolatry. The drought and resulting famine were intended to cause the people to remember that this is what He said would happen if they forsook Him in the promised land. The hardship was intended not to destroy them but to correct their wayward behavior. Now Elijah announces that rain is coming. "And Elijah said to Ahab, 'Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.' 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." (1 Kings 18:41-42)
Elijah assumes a posture of prayer. He told King Ahab three years previously that it would not rain again except at his word. The Apostle James, brother of Jesus, said of the portion of Scripture we've been studying, that Elijah "prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops." (James 5:17-18)
After Elijah gets into a prayerful position and calls out to the Lord, he asks his servant to check the skies. "'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.' 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.'" (1 Kings 18:43-44) After witnessing the slaughter of the government-sponsored prophets of Baal in the Kishon Valley, Ahab was instructed to refresh himself. He, like everyone else who had assembled on the mountain that day, had likely had nothing to eat or drink since daybreak or the day before. Now that rain is on its way, Elijah sends word to Ahab to get out of the valley before torrential rains begin pouring into it and before the rivers and streams rise enough to block the routes home.
Why were the prophets of Baal slaughtered but the wicked king who promoted them and supported them was not? Was Ahab one of the people who fell prostrate on the ground and declared the Lord to be God? If so, his repentance was brief. He did not turn his heart back to the Lord, abolish idolatry in the land, and encourage all the people to worship God only. He has a wonderful opportunity right now to do these things, and if he had done them I believe the Lord would have made a great dynasty out of his descendants, but instead a dire prophecy will be spoken against him later in his reign, just like the dire prophecy spoken against the northern kingdom's first king, Jeroboam. In the judgment Ahab will never be able to say the Lord didn't provide him with all the proof he needed to repent, be saved, and change his ways. Ahab's life was spared by the mercy of the Lord but he won't take advantage of this second chance to become a man of God.
Ahab ignored Elijah's warning three and a half years earlier that a drought was coming. After seeing fire fall from heaven, on this day he isn't going to ignore the prophet's warning that heavy rain is coming. He sets out for Jezreel, which was situated on higher ground than the valley in which the prophets of Baal were slaughtered. Although the capital city of the northern kingdom was Samaria at this time, scholars believe Ahab's palace must have been in nearby Jezreel. Estimates of the distance from Mount Carmel to Ahab's palace varies among scholars but it's generally believed to have been somewhere between a fourteen and seventeen mile journey. Although Ahab is traveling by chariot, the Lord endows Elijah with so much energy and strength that he reaches Jezreel on foot before Ahab gets there by chariot. "Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. 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 18:45-46)
When he arrives at Jezreel, Ahab will tell Queen Jezebel what happened on Mount Carmel. This is yet another example of a wonderful opportunity afforded to Ahab. He could have stood up for the Lord and for the Lord's prophet Elijah. He could have ordered that anyone who touches a hair on Elijah's head will be put to death. He could have stood up to his wife, for the Bible tells us he allowed her to influence everything he did. (1 Kings 21:25) Ahab's idolatrous foreign wife Jezebel is the true power behind the throne, at least religiously speaking, and Ahab could have taken control of the throne back in our text today. But he doesn't. Elijah expects or hopes to be vindicated when Ahab reports back to Jezebel everything that happened on this day. Instead, when Jezebel issues an order to put Elijah to death in tomorrow's passage, Ahab will not stand against her. Elijah will run from Jezreel as quickly as he ran to it.
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