A Call for Repentance

With the crucial transition to kingship, and with Israel’s request for a king (1 Samuel 8), the time of the judges ended. But this change brought an even greater need for prophets to advise, to correct, and to rebuke the king, the nation’s leaders, and the people.

During the reign of Ahab, God sent Elijah with a message of judgment: there would be no rain because Israel had “ ‘forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals’ ” (1 Kings 18:18, NKJV). Rather than repent, Ahab tried to hunt down Elijah and kill him, but God protected him (1 Kings 18:10–12). When, in the third year of the famine, Elijah finally approached the king, Ahab blamed him for the lack of rain (1 Kings 18:17)!

Elijah then summoned all Israel for a final showdown between God and the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:19).

The divine act of fire falling from heaven, coupled with Elijah’s prophetic message, dramatically affected God’s people and led them to repent. Just as the Israelites were reluctant to make a full commitment to God, we live in cultures that do not acknowledge God as Creator and Redeemer. Rather than serve as God’s witnesses to urge others to be faithful to Him, we often shirk our calling by following our own desires, as Israel had done.

God warns that following our own desires will lead to brokenness, pain, and, eventually, death. But if we follow His voice, then the “ ‘Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail’ ” (Isa. 58:11, NKJV).

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Additional Reading: Selected Quotes from Ellen G. White

God would have been with Ahab if he had walked in the counsel of heaven. But Ahab did not do this. He married a woman given to idolatry. Jezebel had more power over the king than God had. She led him into idolatry, and with him the people. God sent Elijah to Israel with messages of warning, but neither king nor people would heed his words. They looked upon him as a messenger of evil. At last God sent a drought upon the land.
Did the people discern and acknowledge the object of this judgment and humble their hearts before Him? No; Jezebel said that the prophets of Jehovah had brought this calamity upon them. She said that all Israel was suffering because of their reproofs, and that there would be no rest or prosperity in the land until these prophets were put to death. Thus a feeling of anger was aroused against the men whom God had sent to entreat the people to repent of their wickedness. Many holy men died for their testimony. Elijah was preserved by a miracle of divine power, to proclaim before the king and queen the warnings and threatenings of God.
“Go, shew thyself unto Ahab,” God said to Elijah. When the king and the prophet met, Ahab said, “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” . . . But Elijah said, “I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim.”
He told Ahab to gather the prophets of Baal together; and then came a wonderful manifestation of the power of God. All day long the false prophets called upon Baal, but received no response. When Elijah appealed to the God of heaven, the answer was at once given. The prophets of Baal had prayed wildly and incoherently. Elijah prayed simply and fervently, asking God to show His superiority over Baal that Israel might be led to turn to Him. As his prayer ascended, the answer came. Fire descended from heaven and consumed the sacrifice and the water with which it had been drenched.
Seeing this wonderful manifestation of power, Israel cried, “The Lord, he is the God.” While their hearts were touched and softened by the miracle they had witnessed, Elijah took this opportune time to slay the false prophets.
However bold and successful and courageous the people of God may have been in doing a special work, unless they constantly look to God and continue to have confidence in the work He has given them, they will lose their courage. After God has given them a wonderful revelation of His power, bracing them up to do His work, circumstances will arise to test their faith, and they will fail unless they trust implicitly in the Lord.
Thus it was with Elijah. He had by the help of God defeated the prophets of Baal. But he was disappointed as to the results of the manifestation of God. Under the threats of the wicked queen he lost his courage and his faith. He lost sight of Him in whose keeping he was, and without being sent he fled for his life. He was terribly depressed, for he had hoped for much from the miracle wrought before the people.—Christ Triumphant, pp. 162, 163.