Study Desk

Elijah answered, "I have not made trouble for Israel. You and your father's family caused all the problems when you stopped obeying the Lord 's commands and began following the false gods.

At noon Elijah began to make fun of them. He said, "If Baal really is a god, maybe you should pray louder! Maybe he is busy. Maybe he is thinking about something, or maybe he stepped out for a moment! He could be sleeping! Maybe you should pray louder and wake him up!"

The afternoon passed but the fire still had not started. The prophets were out of control and continued to act this way until the time came for the evening sacrifice. But nothing happened—there was no answer from Baal. There was no sound. There was no one listening.

Elijah found twelve stones. There was one stone for each of the twelve tribes. These twelve tribes were named for the twelve sons of Jacob, the man who the Lord had named Israel.

At about the time for the afternoon sacrifice, the prophet Elijah approached the altar and prayed, " Lord , the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I ask you now to prove that you are the God of Israel and that I am your servant. Show these people that it was you who commanded me to do all these things.

and walked for a whole day into the desert. Then he sat down under a bush and asked to die. He said, "I have had enough, Lord ! Take my life. I am no better than my ancestors."

So Elijah got up. He ate and drank and felt strong. Then Elijah walked for 40 days and nights to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God.

Elisha turned away from him and went back. He killed the oxen and used the yoke for firewood. He boiled the meat, gave it to the people, and they all ate together. Then Elisha went to follow Elijah and became his helper.

So King Ahab called a meeting of all the elders of his country and said, "Look, Ben-Hadad is looking for trouble. First he told me that I must give him my wives and children and my silver and gold. I agreed to give them to him."

Then they came back with another message from Ben-Hadad that said, "I will completely destroy Samaria. I promise that there will be nothing left of that city! There will not be enough of that city left for my men to find any souvenirs to take home. May the gods destroy me if I don't do this!"

King Ben-Hadad was drinking in his tent with the other rulers when the messengers came back and gave him the message from King Ahab. King Ben-Hadad commanded his men to prepare to attack the city, so the men moved into their places for the battle.

Then a prophet went to King Ahab and said, "King Ahab, the Lord says to you, ‘Do you see that great army? I will defeat that army for you today. Then you will know that I am the Lord .'"

Ahab said, "Who will you use to defeat them?" The prophet answered, "The Lord says, ‘The young men who carry the weapons for the government officials.'" Then the king asked, "Who should command the main army?" The prophet answered, "You will."

So Ben-Hadad said, "They might be coming to fight or they might be coming to ask for peace. Capture them alive."

The Israelites also prepared for war and went to fight the army of Aram. They made their camp opposite the camp of Aram. The Aramean soldiers filled the land, but Israel's army looked like two small flocks of goats.

The armies were camped across from each other for seven days. On the seventh day the battle began. The Israelites killed 100,000 Aramean soldiers in one day.

So the prophet wrapped his face with a cloth. This way no one could see who he was. The prophet went and waited for the king by the road.

One day Ahab said to Naboth, "Give me your vineyard that is near my palace. I want to make it a vegetable garden. I will give you a better vineyard in its place. Or, if you prefer, I will pay you for it."

Jezebel answered, "But you are the king over Israel! Get out of bed and eat something, and you will feel better. I will get Naboth's vineyard for you."

This is what the letter said: "Announce that there will be a day of fasting when the people will eat nothing. Then call all the people of the town together for a meeting. At the meeting we will talk about Naboth.