first recorded act in Scripture is “prophet genocide.” False worship and true worship cannot coexist. One has to die for the other to live. The Bible says in 1 Kings 16:33: “Ahab [and Jezebel] did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.” Israel had God’s full attention.
Discovering the Spirit of Prophecy
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MEETING ON THE MOUNTAIN
T
he atmosphere that fateful day on Mount Carmel1 was charged, though an eerie silence hung above the assembly. In previous times this elevated mount was lush and beautiful, but all that had changed. What used to be green was now burnt and bare, the result of a painful threeand-a-half-year drought.
THE DROUGHT WITHIN
Perhaps greater than the physical drought that gripped the nation was the spiritual drought that left God’s people soul-thirsty and faith-depleted. Israel was ruled by the evil King Ahab and his wife, Jezebel, perhaps the worst choice ever in a mate. Ahab’s Sidonian bride had helped change his allegiance to God. Ahab’s small acts of religious compromise soon became full-grown apostasy. Ahab built Jezebel a temple to Baal in the capital of Samaria and erected an Asherah pole as well. Eight hundred fifty prophets led the pagan worship of these deities, but even this did not appease Jezebel. Her 24
November 2022 AdventistWorld.org
It was into this devastating spiritual crisis that God called the prophet Elijah, whose name means “Yahweh is my God.” God birthed Elijah for this moment! Of Elijah Ellen White comments, “There dwelt in the days of Ahab a man of faith and prayer whose fearless ministry was destined to check the rapid spread of apostasy in Israel.”2 When Elijah confronted Ahab, Ahab accused God’s prophet of troubling Israel. Perhaps that was understandable, for it was Elijah who declared that not a drop of rain would fall except at his word. Three years later Ahab’s resolve was broken. When Elijah ordered Ahab to
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