[Stuff we're skipping:
* God tells Elijah to go to Ahab, and He will being rain to the land. Ahab summoned a real prophet, Obadiah (this guy was hiding prophets from Jezebel because she was killing them all). Obadiah was supposed to be looking for grass for the king's livestock, when he saw Elijah. Elijah told to Obadiah to tell Ahab that he's in town. Obadiah was scared that he'd get killed for letting Elijah come around Ahab. Elijah said he won't be long in coming to Ahab.]
Ooooooh…I love this story. Maybe my top five in all of the Bible!
1. I love how Ahab thinks that Elijah is the problem. Hmm… Couldn’t be that chick he’s sleeping with, could it?
2. I wonder where Elijah got the number 450 from. That’s a lot of prophets. So…he’s begging for a showdown. Mano a 450 manos.
3. How long do you think it took for this to happen? Do you think that in the mean time of gathering all the prophets Ahab thought long and hard about killing Elijah then and there?
4. You know, it’s easy to pick on the Israelites for worshipping Baal and Asherah. But we worship other gods like Money, Lust, Power, Ego… If God is God, follow Him. Right?
5. Big crowd. No words. What could they say?
6. Interesting that Elijah says that he is the only one of the Lord’s prophets left. What about Obadiah? Is this just a figure of speech meaning, “Hey, it’s just me here.”
7. Anybody wonder if Elijah is doing that whole “putting God to the test” thing here?
8. “What you say is good.” Those “people.” Hmm…good like entertaining or good like this will make it so that we no longer follow a pagan god?
9. Junk talking #1: “since there are so many of you.” He he he…
10. Has Baal ever done this before? I mean, did the prophets really believe that they were going to be able to call down fire from heaven? Had they had meals from ravens?
11. Morning till noon. That’s like six hours. That’s longer than a church service in Mexico (inside joke for the mission trip team). Dancing too.
12. Junk talking #2: “Shout louder!” He he he…
13. #3: “Surely he is a god!” He he he…
14. #4: “Perhaps he is deep in thought!” Chuckle…
15. #5: “or busy…” He he he… Baal is not hear at the moment, but if you leave a message, he’ll be sure to get back to you.
16. #6: “or traveling” He he he…Baal is in the Virgin Islands this weekend. Sorry.
17. #7: “maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” So…the prophets of Baal end up trying to create a “holy” snooze alarm for their God. They also cut themselves up…I guess to show how willing they were to do anything for a sleeping god.
18. They went all day. All day. No response. No one answered. No one paid attention. He he he…I think the writer is getting a little sarcastic here too. Love it.
19. Four large jars of water! This is a drought! Is he crazy?
20. Again! Whoah!
21. Again! Nuts! Imagine how they all felt to see this guy doing this during a drought!
22. Boyscout tip #1: water doesn’t help wood burn.
23. I love that this is all about showing that God is God and turning people’s hearts toward Him.
24. And God sent fire. Wow.
25. The people fell on their stomachs and cried out that God is God. Hey, wouldn’t you!
26. There must have been a ton of spectators this day because it wouldn’t be easy to seize 450 men, no matter how cut up and tired they were.
27. Elijah had them all killed. Wow.
28. Then Elijah says rain is coming. And, although the “fire”works was something. This was what they really needed. And apparently Ahab was now a believer because he went and ate.
29. Elijah prayed. Then he sends his dude to check the weather report. And a cloud is coming.
30. Then Elijah does his Reggie Bush impersonation and jets down the mountain and beats a chariot to Jezreel. Crazy.
Dude…good times.
