In the 3^rd year of no rain for Israel because they bowed down to bad ones, causing much suffering for the people, the Lord told Elijah to go tell king Ahab, I will send rain on the land.

The ground was real dry and there was almost no food to eat. The king sent his servant called Obadiah out to look for grass for the king’s horses and mules to eat.

The kings wife, Jezebel, bowed down to the bad one only and had tried to kill all the men of the land who told the people God’s words.

Obadiah bowed down only to the Lord. He greatly honored only Him. So he took 100 of the men who told the people the Lord's word and hid them in two caves and took them food and water.

And when Obadiah was out searching by the water fountains for grass for the horses to eat, he met Elijah on the road.

Elijah told him, Go tell your master king Ahab that Elijah is here.

Obadiah was real scared, The king will kill me, he said. The king has looked everywhere for you in every nation and kingdom on earth to kill you.

Did you not hear how I hid the prophets of the Lord when Jezebel tried to kill them?

Elijah said, As the Lord lives, I will show myself to Ahab today.

When Elijah met Ahab, the king said, There you are, the one making all this trouble for Israel.

Elijah said to the king, Not me! I have not caused trouble for Israel. It’s you and your father's family because you have turned from the commandments of the Lord and followed the bad ones.

I’ll prove it to you. Get the 450 prophets of the bad one and go up to Mt Carmel, you have more than 450 of them. So Ahab sent messages around all Israel and gathered all the men telling the words of the bad ones to the people.

And he gathered all the children of Israel. The whole nation was gathered on the mountain.

When they got there Elijah said, How long will you trip over your own feet thinking two ways? If the bad one made and controls everything, then follow him. If the Lord made and controls everything, then follow Him.

Set up two altars here, the way the Lord says to do it and put an offering on it and then call out to your god. Whichever one answers from heaven, he is God the Lord who made us and controls everything.

So the prophets of the bad one made an altar and put their offering on it and prayed begging the bad one to answer.

They prayed hard all day and nothing happened. They prayed and danced around and begged and hurt themselves, trying to get the bad one to answer. But nothing happened. There was no answer.

Then, in the evening, Elijah said to the people, Come over here. And he took 12 stones, one for each of the families of Israel.

He made the Lord’s altar and put on his offering that showed God’s great love for people. He dug a deep ditch around the altar and poured 4 barrels of water on the offering and the water soaked everything and filled up the ditch.

Then Elijah said one simple prayer. He said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, show today that you are God and that I am your servant and have done all these things because You told me to, so the peoples hearts will turn back to you.

Right then, the fire of the Lord fell out of the sky and ate up the offering and the stones of the altar and the dust and licked up all the water in the trench.

When the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, the Lord, He is God, the Lord, He is God.

Elijah told the king, Eat and drink for there is the sound of much rain.

Then Elijah went to the top of Mt Carmel

and started praying. After each prayer he sent his servant to look toward the sea for clouds.

After six prayers there was no rain, but after the seventh prayer the servant came back saying, A little cloud is rising from the sea about the size of a man’s hand.

Then Elijah sent his servant to tell the king, Get in your chariot and get off the mountain because big rain is coming.

As he went the sky became black with clouds and wind and there was a great rain.

So Ahab raced in his chariot to Jezreel.

God put his hand on Elijah and Elijah became strong and ran faster than the king’s chariot to Jezreel and was standing at the city gate when the king got there.