and . . . THEN --

It was a decidedly BAD day for the prophets of Baal! They had spent a long day screaming and jumping and cutting themselves with their swords to try to get Baal to send fire from heaven -- he didn't. Can you imagine..." 'Jump higher, scream louder!' 'Hey I had the last shift - you go jump and scream for a while.'  'I just did the sword-cut thing and did you not see that I am bleeding all over the place?' "  Adding insult to injury -- literally -- Elijah stands off to the side and does a "SaturdayNightLive-esk" routine at their expense. At the end of the day, Elijah calls the people, rebuilds the altar of God and simply says, as it were, "Would you please send fire, God?"

THEN . . . the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The LORD-he is God! The LORD-he is God!"
1 Kings 18:38-39
 
and
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

Yes...seriously bad day.

But Elijah had a great day:
watch prophets of Baal make fools of themselves -- and of Baal. Mock them, laugh at them. Rebuild an altar, call FIRE from heaven. {Seriously! Wouldn't you LOVE to do that??}
And THEN he orders the slaughter of 450 prophets of Baal.
But --
His day wasn't over. He tells Ahab, "you better go get dinner...while you can...cuz it is going to rain."
Elijah climbs back up to the top of Carmel where the whole 'fire-from-heaven' thing just happened. He crouches down, like sitting on his heels with his head between his knees (like women did, sitting on a birthing stone to deliver a baby). He tells his servant to go look out to sea. It doesn't say Elijah prayed. But I am guessing he did. His servant keeps coming back saying, 'nope...nothing -- just sky and water'. But Elijah KNOWS something. He has told Ahab to eat and drink "for there is the sound of a heavy rain." (1 Kings 18:41) Really?? "the sound" ? ? There are NO clouds in the sky -- nothing, clearly, as far as the eye can see. But Elijah hears it. HEARS it!! So he keeps sending his servant back -- 7 times. Finally the servant tells Elijah there is a cloud "as small as a man's hand rising from the sea." Elijah tells the servant to go tell Ahab to get in his chariot and ride to Jezreel 'before the rain stops you'.  WOW!
I mean, look at your hand . . . a cloud only that big rising from the sea.
But he is RIGHT! The sky gets black and a heavy rain comes. Ahab does get into his chariot and ride off to Jezreel -- which is about 20 miles away. . . nearly the length of a MARATHON. Why do I say that?
Well ... and then .  .  .



"... the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the LORD came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel. "
1 Kings 18:45-46

How much fun would that have been for Elijah!?! Running in the rain past Ahab!!!

I wish Spielberg or Jackson would make this movie! Imagine the look on Ahab's face as it begins to rain. He couldn't have missed the point God was making...he had seen the whole floor show the prophets of Baal put on. He had been watching them since Elijah first said "NO RAIN" three years previously.  He saw the fire fall from heaven. The people said, "The LORD (YHWH) -- He is God!" Did Ahab ... ? ? He heard Elijah give the execution order for the 450 prophets of Baal. He watched them get slaughtered -- and notice, he did NOTHING to stop it. Now he is riding 20 miles in the rain in an open chariot. Then he looks up and sees Elijah RUN past him.

Again ~ Why didn't Ahab repent?
But ~ why didn't God wipe him out with the prophets of Baal?

We are NOT done with this story.
More with Elijah
        More with Ahab and Jezebel.