Scripture Daily

Context No. 2992 of 4322 · 1 Kings

Context · Reflection

1 Kings 18:1-5: in context

1After many days, the LORD’s word came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab; and I will send rain on the earth.” 2Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria. 3Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly; 4for when Jezebel cut off the LORD’s prophets, Obadiah took one hundred prophets, and hid them fifty to a cave, and fed them with bread and water.) 5Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land, to all the springs of water, and to all the brooks. Perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive, that we not lose all the animals.”

After a long and severe drought, God tells Elijah to show himself to Ahab, promising to send rain. Ahab summons Obadiah, the steward over his household, and the text pauses to tell us something remarkable about this man: Obadiah feared the LORD greatly, and when Jezebel was slaughtering the LORD's prophets, he had hidden a hundred of them, fifty to a cave, and kept them alive with bread and water.

The surprising figure here is Obadiah, a God-fearing man serving in the household of the wicked Ahab and Jezebel. In a hostile court, at great personal risk, he had quietly rescued a hundred prophets from Jezebel's sword, hiding and feeding them. He shows that God keeps faithful people even in the most compromised places, doing courageous good in secret. You do not have to be an Elijah, calling down fire on a mountain, to serve God. You can be an Obadiah, faithfully protecting God's people from inside a corrupt system.

Am I faithful to God right where I am, even in a compromised or hostile place, doing quiet, courageous good like Obadiah?

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