Welcome back to Stories of a Faithful God for Kids… The podcast where we see God’s kindness and power through the things he’s done in the past.

I’m your host, Dave, and I can’t wait to get into the story today.

Before we do though, let me ask you… What are you afraid of? What scares you or worries you? Spiders? Bears? Monsters?

Maybe its getting up in front of your class to speak. Maybe your scared of not having enough friends. Maybe you’re scared of a person… like a bully at school or someone in your family.

I wonder if you’re scared… of God?

Some people are really scared of God. Other people are like, “What? You don’t have to be scared of God? He’s kind and loving. Why be afraid of him?”

Well let me tell you… the Bible shows us that there actually is a right way to fear God. But there’s also a wrong way to fear him as well. In fact… we’ll see both in today’s story.

You might remember from the last few episodes that God had sent a message to King Ahab of Israel. He’d sent the message through Elijah, saying, there’ll be no more rain or dew on the ground until I say. It was a punishment because they’d started worshipping Baal instead of God. But it was also a kindness. God was showing them that Baal can’t do anything and they really need to come back to him.

Well after Elijah gave the message, God told him to run away and hide. This is now the third year since anyone in Israel’s seen him. There hasn’t been a single drop of rain in all those years. There’s almost no food left for anyone.

But now… he’s coming back.

It’s time for our next episode… of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

MUSIC

In First Kings chapter 18 verse 1, we’re told this:

During the third year without rain, the Lord spoke his word to Elijah. The Lord said, “Go and meet King Ahab. I will soon send rain.” So Elijah went to meet Ahab.

This is great news! God’s going to send rain! He’s going to bless the Israelites again! Not because they deserve it. But because God is really kind.

But can you feel the tension in the air? This is the third year since Ahab’s seen Elijah. He might’ve laughed at Elijah at first… but he wouldn’t be laughing now. How’s he going to react when he sees God’s prophet?

Before we find out, we get to zoom in on what’s happening in Ahab’s capital city, Samaria. Verse 2 tells us that there’s no food left in the city. Imagine that! Have you ever had a situation where there’s no food in your house… AND no food in your neighbour’s house… AND no one at school has any food AND there’s no food in your entire town or city? Pretty scary.

So Ahab calls over a guy we haven’t met yet. Its really worth meeting him though. His name’s Obadiah.

God tells us a few things about him. First, we’re told that he’s in charge of the king’s palace. So… you know… he’s pretty important.

That’s not the most important thing though. The most important thing is that… unlike Ahab… Obadiah hasn’t given up on the Lord God. In fact… the Bible tells us that Obadiah fears the LORD. And that’s a really good thing. Because Fearing God actually makes him really brave. Does that sound weird? How can fearing God make you brave?

Let me explain. Do you remember Ahab’s wife. Jezebel? We haven’t heard too much about her yet but we know she’s bad news. Now we find out some more detail. It turns out… she’s been having all the prophets of God killed. She’s trying to get rid of anyone who supports the God of Israel.

Now… Obadiah… he has a choice. Who will he fear? He can either fear Jezebel… or God. Being afraid of Jezebel... That’s seems pretty natural, right? You can see her… she’s the queen… she’s got all this power… and she’s running around having prophets of the Lord killed. You’d understand why Obadiah might think… “I should help the queen otherwise I’m dead meat.”

But instead… Obadiah fears the Lord. You see… Jezebel can only kill his body. And then… what more can she do? Nothing. In fact… if he sticks with God, he’ll just raise Obadiah back to life when Jesus comes. So there’s no point fearing her. God can fix anything she tries to break.

What if he turns his back on God though? Well… we’ve already seen what’s happened to the Israelites who’ve turned their back on God. He’s switched off the rain as easily as switching off a light switch.

You see… God’s not mean or nasty. But when you say I don’t want God, you’re also saying I don’t want anything that he gives. And everything that’s good… comes from God. Happiness. Friendship. Love. Fun. Rain. Food. Drink. And even though now God’s being really kind and giving people lots of chances to come back to him… when Jesus comes again… he’ll give them what they’ve tried to have. He’ll shut them away from him… and all goodness… and happiness… and friendship… and love and fun. And he’ll do it forever. That’s really scary. That’s why God wants to warn Israel. That’s why he’s giving them so many chances to come back to him.

And Obadiah’s like… “I don’t want to be shut away from God. God’s so good.” And so he fears God in the right way and sticks with God.

A bit like if you went sky diving. That could be heaps of fun, right. It lets you see things in a way you’d never see them otherwise. But if you’re jumping out of a plane, you should be afraid of falling all the way to the ground and going splat. And your fear of that would make you wear a parachute. And because you’re wearing a parachute, you actually have nothing to fear.

Obadiah fears God… and so he sticks with God… which means he has nothing to fear. If Obadiah sticks with God… then will God stick with Obadiah. And if God’s on Obadiah’s side, there’s nothing that Jezebel can do that God can’t make better.

So that makes Obadiah really brave. Instead of helping Jezebel kill the prophets of the Lord… He’s actually saved as many as he can.

He’s managed to get one hundred of the Lord’s prophets and hide them in two caves. 50 in one cave and fifty in the other. And he also managed to get food and water to them. Remember, they’re in a drought. The country’s running out of food. But Obadiah probably spends a huge amount of money… and risks being killed by Jezebel… all because he’s not fooled by Baal. He knows who the real God is. And Obadiah’s gonna stick with him,

Well… Ahab, who I assume doesn’t know what Obadiah’s done… calls him over. He says, “look, we’ve got to try and find some grass to keep at least some of our horses and mules alive. You go one way in the country and I’ll go the other way. Search in ever corner of every valley and every creek and every river. Maybe we’ll find something.” Do you see how desperate they are.

So they head off in different directions.

As Obadiah’s walking along… imagine his shock when… casually walking up the road towards him… is the man who everyone’s talking about. No-one’s seen him for almost three years! You can hear it in Obadiah’s voice in verse 7 when he says:

“Elijah? Is it really you, master?”

Elijah answered, “Yes. Go tell your master the king that I am here.”

That might sound like an exciting message to take… one that Ahab’s been waiting three years to hear… but it freaks Obadiah out. And here’s where he starts fearing God… in the wrong way. He thinks God will sort of… trick him.

He says… “what if I tell Ahab that you’re here and the then God makes you disappear? Ahab’ll kill me!” And he tells Elijah how he’s risked his neck to serve God. How he’s hidden 100 of God’s prophets away in caves and given them food and water. He survived so far… he doesn’t want to be killed now! And he’s afraid that God’s not going to look after him. Afraid that God won’t care about him. Afraid that God will make it look like he’s lied to Ahab.

God’s not going to do that though. God’s faithful and kind. You don’t ever need to be afraid that God is mean or nasty or trying to trick you. Obadiah doesn’t need to be afraid that God doesn’t care about him.

Elijah gives him a firm promise in verse 15:

Elijah answered, “I serve the Lord of heaven’s armies. As surely as the Lord lives, I will stand before Ahab today.”

So Obadiah… bravely trusting God… knowing that God isn’t going to trick him… goes to get the king.

Now… after almost three years… Ahab comes to meet Elijah. And he is ANGRY.

He puts all the blame for all the problems on Elijah. In verse 17… as he sees Elijah for the first time in ages, he calls out:

“Is it you—the biggest troublemaker in Israel?”

Its so easy to blame other people for the wrong things we do, isn’t it? “He made me eat all the ice cream in the fridge. She made me really angry.” Do you ever do that with your brothers or sisters or people at school? We don’t like admitting that we’ve done the wrong thing.

And Elijah could be afraid. He could be scared that Ahab’s gonna have him killed. But Elijah trusts God… so he’s not afraid of Ahab.

Elijah’s like… “me? It’s not me mate… its you.” He says in verse 18:

“I have not caused trouble in Israel. You and your father’s family have caused all this trouble. You have not obeyed the Lord’s commands. You have followed the Baals.”

Ahab didn’t fear God. He figured he could chuck God in the bin and go off to follow Baal… He didn’t think he needed God. But look where that’s got him. Stuck in a drought with no food left. Its really silly to think “I don’t need God.”

If you stick with God… you have nothing to fear. God’s stronger than anything in the world. You don’t need to be afraid that God won’t care for you. He loves you. He’ll look after you. And one day, he’ll take you to his home.

Elijah… he’s certainly not afraid of Ahab.

He says… “here’s what you’re gonna do. Get all the people of Israel to meet me at this place… Mount Carmel. And bring all those prophets of the other gods. The 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah. All those prophets who Jezebel’s fed and protected.” He can’t ask him to bring all the prophets of the Lord because… Jezebel’s had them all killed. The ones who aren’t hiding in caves, anyway.

And so all of Israel come to Mount Carmel. All the people who’ve treated God like he’s nothing. And all the prophets of Baal are there… and all the prophets of Asherah are there. And standing at the front… all by himself… looking weak and useless… is Elijah… The one and only prophet of the Lord God of Israel. It’s time for a showdown between Baal and the Lord.

But that’s a story… for next time.