Heroic actions don’t always produce heroic faith.

1 Kings 18.1-14:

18.1 ‏ויהי ימים רבים	It is many days.
‏ודבר יהוה היה אל אליהו	The Word of Yahweh comes to Eliyahuα
‏‏בשנה השלישית לאמר לך	in year 3, to say to him,
‏הראה אל אחאב	“Appear to Achav.β
‏‏ואתנה מטר על פני האדמה׃	I give rain upon the face of the soil.”
18.2 ‏וילך אליהו להראות אל אחאב	Eliyahu goes to appear to Achav.
‏והרעב חזק בשמרון׃	The hunger is strong in Shomron.γ
18.3 ‏ויקרא אחאב אל עבדיהו	Achav calls to Ovadyahu,δ his butler.ε
	Ovadyahu is greatly afraid of Yahweh.
18.4 ‏ויהי בהכרית איזבל את נביאי יהוה	Itzevelζ is destroying Yahweh’s prophets.
‏ויקח עבדיהו מאה נבאים	Ovadyahu takes a hundred prophets.
‏ויחביאם חמשים איש במערה	He hides fifty men to a cave.
‏וכלכלם לחם ומים׃	He provides them bread and water.
18.5 ‏ויאמר אחאב אל עבדיהו	Achav says to Ovadyahu,
‏לך בארץ אל כל מעיני המים	“Go to the earth, to every source of water,
‏ואל כל הנחלים	and to all the wadis.
‏אולי נמצא חציר	Maybe we’ll find grass
‏ונחיה סוס ופרד	and our horse and mule will live
‏ולוא נכרית מהבהמה׃	and we won’t have to destroy our animals.”
18.6 ‏ויחלקו להם את הארץ	They divide for themselves the earth
‏לעבר בה	to pass over it:
‏אחאב הלך בדרך אחד לבדו	Achav goes by one road, alone.
‏ועבדיהו הלך בדרך אחד לבדו׃	Ovadyahu goes by one road, alone.
18.7 ‏ויהי עבדיהו בדרך	Ovadyahu is on the road.
‏והנה אליהו לקראתו	Look, Eliyahu comes to call him.
‏ויכרהו	He recognizes him.
‏ויפל על פניו	He falls to his face.
‏‏ויאמר האתה זה אדני אליהו׃	He says, “Is this you, my master Eliyahu?”
18.8 ‏ויאמר לו אני לך	He says to him, “I speak to you.
‏אמר לאדניך הנה אליהו׃	Say to your master, Eliyahu is here.”
18.9 ‏ויאמר מה חטאתי	He said, “How do I sin?
‏כי אתה נתן את עבדך	Because you give your slave
‏ביד אחאב להמיתני׃	into the hand of Achav to kill me.
18.10 ‏חי יהוה אלהיך	By the life of Yahweh, your God,
‏אם יש גוי וממלכה	there is no nation, nor kingdom,
‏אשר לא שלח אדני שם	where my master hasn’t sent someone there
‏לבקשך	to seek you.
‏ואמרו אין	They say, “He isn’t here.”
‏והשביע את הממלכה ואת הגוי	He makes the kingdom and the nation swear
‏כי לא ימצאכה׃	that they can’t find you.
18.11 ‏ועתה אתה אמר לך	Now you say to me,
‏אמר לאדניך הנה אליהו׃	‘Say to your master, Eliyahu is here.’
18.12 ‏והיה אני אלך מאתך	It is when I leave you
‏ורוח יהוה ישאך	that Yahweh’s windη lifts you up—
‏אשר לא אדע	to where, I don’t know.
‏ובאתי להגיד לאחאב ולא ימצאך	I go to tell, and he doesn’t find you,
‏ועבדך	and he kills me.
‏ירא את יהוה מנערי׃	I fear Yahweh since childhood.
18.13 ‏הלא הגד לאדני	It wasn’t told to my master
‏את אשר עשיתי בהרג איזבל את נביאי יהוה	what I do while Itzevel kills Yahweh’s prophets.
‏ואחבא מנביאי יהוה מאה איש	I hide Yahweh’s prophets, a hundred men,
‏חמשים חמשים איש במערה	fifty by fifty men in a cave.
‏ואכלכלם לחם ומים׃	I provide them bread and water.
18.14 ‏ועתה אתה אמר לך	Now you say to me,
‏אמר לאדניך הנה אליהו	‘Say to your master, Eliyahu is here.’
‏והרגני׃	He will kill me.”

Some time later—it could be year 3 of the drought or year three of Ahab’s reign; the scripture doesn’t say, though James presumes it’s year 3 of the drought (Jm 5.17) —Jesus tells Elijah it’s time to go to Ahab and tell him He’s gonna send rain. Presumably Elijah is still living in Tsarfatha, Sidon, with the widow, but God promised her bread until the drought ended, so she’ll be okay when he leaves. God gives bread supernaturally, and not just to Hebrews anymore.

Elijah hits the road and runs into Obadiah, Ahab’s butler, who’s looking for grass before the king has to kill his starving horse and mule. Usually this is translated “horses and mules,” but the Hebrew is singular—Ahab might have been down to one of each by now. Note also that Hebrews are forbidden to breed mules (Lv 19.19) and the king was forbidden to overdo it on owning horses. (Dt 17.16) Ahab is a pagan; you can’t expect him to care much about God’s commands.

Obadiah immediately recognizes Elijah, bows before him, and calls him “master.” Yet this story indicates that he doesn’t entirely trust Elijah to stay where he is until Obadiah can go get Ahab. So I gotta come to the conclusion that Obadiah wasn’t supernaturally told that this was Elijah; he’s seen the prophet before and knows of him, even though he doesn’t really know him. A lot of preachers get the idea that Elijah just came out of nowhere to challenge Ahab, but from hints like these I get the feeling Elijah had been kicking around Samaria for quite a while before he announced the rain would stop.

It appears that while Elijah has been gone, things have become really rough for God’s prophets and followers. Jezebel has been “destroying” them—killing them. It’s interesting that the historian states she is killing them. Jezebel is not Israel’s anointed king. She’s the king’s Sidonian wife. There was no precedent in Israeli history for a co-regency; it wasn’t expected that she would run the nation with Ahab, or beside Ahab, or anything like that. She’s his wife—possibly one out of many, considering that polygamy was accepted back then. But she was taking it upon herself to kill God’s prophets. Likely she was taking advantage of the drought to develop an ancient form of McCarthyism—blame God for the drought and destroy His followers in response. What is also a strong possibility is that Jezebel was twisting God’s existing commands—as she later does in the case of Naboth(1Ki 21) —by demanding that God’s prophets undo what Elijah had done, and when they were unable, destroy them as “false prophets.”

Obadiah, then, was playing a deadly and expensive game. A hundred of God’s prophets were now stashed away in two caves, and he was feeding and watering them despite the inevitable famine that followed the drought. He likely used his position to find out which prophets were to be killed. His near-panicked response to Elijah indicates that he was desperately afraid of being found out and killed himself—or, for that matter, of doing anything that Ahab didn’t approve of. Israel wasn’t a safe place to live anymore.

Like the widow, Obadiah thinks calamity is going to happen to him because of some unknown sin (v9) that he needs to be punished for. Or maybe this is just a really common saying back then and I’m reading too much into it. But underneath common sayings is a common perception: Sin causes calamity. Sin causes death. It’s not a wrong perception. It’s just that sometimes other things cause calamity and death too. Jesus wasn’t killed by His own sin; He was killed by everyone else’s.

But notice Obadiah’s fear. True, he fears God; but he also fears the king. He’s rescuing God’s prophets because he fears God; he’s keeping it secret because he fears Ahab. Elijah appears to him and he’s scared to death that Elijah will disappear on him—it’s possible that Ahab has killed false messengers before. Obadiah’s faith, while obviously there, is obviously small. Persecution hasn’t made him strong in his faith.

We Christians talk about what great faith can be developed under persecution—and it definitely can. But for every great witness, we likely have a lot more people who hide in catacombs or who easily capitulate under pressure. People are weak. Obadiah is to be commended for what he’s done so far, but it didn’t turn him into a mighty giant of the faith like the usual clichés describe. He still worries and doubts and fears.

If you get the idea that acting in faith will make you never doubt again, or never worry again, or never have fears again—well, you have a pretty skewed perspective about Christianity. Elijah is gonna make a fearful run for it himself in just a few chapters. Everyone is capable of having tiny faith. The point is to hold onto it despite everything. Trust God—as well as serve God—with all your might. Serving God will only develop you as far as Obadiah could go. Trusting Him will get you further.

α. Elijah.

β. Ahab.

γ. Samaria.

δ. Obadiah.

ε. Lit. “which to the house.” Butlers run a house.

ζ. Jezebel.

η. Or “spirit.”