Something Is About To Happen

“Something is about to Happen”

By

District Elder M.L. Maughmer, Jr.

1st Kings 18:41-46. “And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for [there is] a sound of abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, [There is] nothing. And he said, Go again seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare [thy chariot], and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not. And it came to pass in the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel. And the hand of the LORD was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.”

BACKGROUND: Ahab was the 8th king of Israel and Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. Not only that but he married the epitome of evil herself in Jezebel. Once he married Jezebel he really began to head to hell in a hand-basket. He started worshipping Baal and made a grove. In so doing he caused the children of Israel to sin.

This grove was used for the illicit sexual exploits done in the name of religion. Since there was no kind of birth control or precautions to take back in this time, there were a lot a unwanted pregnancies that occurred and as a result the babies were sacrifices to the idol god by placing the babies on the heated iron lap of the statue. This was the practice of the Ziodonians, from which Jezebel was from.

This provoked the Lord to anger so God told Elijah to go tell Ahab that ‘I the Lord God am angered with thee, thou hast caused the Children of Israel to sin and turn their backs upon God”. Therefore I am going to send judgment and no rain shall fall upon the land.

So Elijah went and told Ahab what the Word of the Lord was. Because you have provoked the Lord God to anger and caused the Children of Israel to sin against God there shall be no rain to fall for 3 ½ years.

Then in verse #3 the Bible says “Get thee hence and turn thee eastward and hide thyself by the brook Cherith. (PRONOUNCED – CARE-ITH) that is before Jordan.”

There was going to be a famine in the land, but God was going to take care of Elijah. At Cherith ravens fed Elijah. This is amazing because raven is the root word of ravenous which is to devour. Ravens are omnivorous. They will eat anything which is edible (and many things which aren’t). Legend has it that a raven’s favorite food is the body of a dead man, or of other dead animals, and that a raven will go first for the eyes of such a fallen creature. Here in Elijah’s case ravens help to sustain life and supply Elijah with food during a famine, at the brook Cherith. Soon the brook dried up because there was no rain, so God told Elijah to go to Zarephath for He has caused a widow woman to take care of him there. You know the story, the woman was gathering sticks for a fire, she was going to make her last meal for her and her son and then they were going to starve to death. Elijah said fetch me some water and bring me a cake and God will bless you and He did, her vessels of oil never ran dry during the famine and she was able to pay all her bills. She blessed the prophet and received a prophet’s reward. Pretty soon her son died, Elijah prayed and God revived her son.

The 1st verse of the 18th chapter says “And it came to pass after many days (the end of the 3 ½ year drought) the word of the Lord came to Elijah saying Go shew thyself unto Ahab and I will send the rain upon the earth”.

Now understand that Ahab had looked for Elijah for 3 ½ years because he felt that Elijah was to blame for the drought and famine in the land, but was never able to find him. Elijah goes to shew himself to Ahab and finds a man by the name of Obadiah and tells Obadiah to tell Ahab to meet him along with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets that eat at Jezebel’s table. You know the story God was as always victorious and 850 idol worshipping, whore-mongering prophets were killed. But Ahab Elijah told him to eat and drink for the sound of the abundance of rain is in the air.