The Fear of God in the Belly of the Beast Text: 1 Kings 18:1-16
Introduction: The Politics of Drought
We live in an age that has forgotten that the weather has a theology. We think of drought as a meteorological event, a matter of pressure systems and precipitation averages. But the Bible teaches us that the sky is not brass and the earth is not iron by accident. When God shuts up the heavens, He is making a political statement. He is declaring war on every tinpot idol that promises fertility and prosperity. In ancient Israel, the chief pretender to this throne was Baal, the Canaanite storm god. The worship of Baal was not simply a private religious preference; it was the state-sponsored religion, promoted with totalitarian zeal by King Ahab and his Sidonian wife, Jezebel.
So when the prophet Elijah declared that there would be no dew or rain except by his word, he was throwing a divine gauntlet at the feet of the entire apostate regime. For three years, the God of Israel demonstrated His absolute sovereignty over the creation by enforcing a crippling, nationwide drought. This was not random misfortune; it was a covenant lawsuit. God was proving that Baal was nothing more than a glorified garden gnome. He could not make it rain. He could not make the grass grow. He was impotent.
Our story today picks up at the climax of this divine judgment. The land is cracking, the famine is severe, and the king is desperate. Into this charged atmosphere, God sends His prophet to force a final confrontation. But the story is not just about the larger-than-life prophet Elijah. It is also about another man, a man caught in the middle. His name is Obadiah, and he is a high-ranking official in Ahab's corrupt government. He is a godly bureaucrat, a faithful man in the belly of a pagan beast. And in the collision between Elijah the outlaw and Obadiah the insider, we are taught a crucial lesson about the nature of true fear, true loyalty, and true courage in a world that has declared war on God.
The Text
Now it happened after many days that the word of Yahweh came to Elijah in the third year, saying, "Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth." So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. And Ahab called Obadiah who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared Yahweh greatly. And it happened that when Jezebel was cutting down the prophets of Yahweh, Obadiah took one hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave, and sustained them with bread and water.) Then Ahab said to Obadiah, "Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the valleys; perhaps we will find grass and keep the horses and mules alive, and not have to cut down some of the cattle." So they divided the land between them to pass through it; Ahab went one way by himself and Obadiah went another way by himself.
Now it happened that as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him, and he recognized him and fell on his face and said, "Is this you, Elijah my master?" And he said to him, "It is I. Go, say to your master, 'Behold, Elijah is here.' " And he said, "What sin have I committed, that you are giving your servant into the hand of Ahab to put me to death? As Yahweh your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent to search for you; and if they said, 'He is not here,' he made the kingdom or nation swear that they could not find you. And now you are saying, 'Go, say to your master, "Behold, Elijah is here." ' And it will be that when I leave you, the Spirit of Yahweh will carry you where I do not know; and I will come and tell Ahab, and he will not find you, and he will kill me, although I your servant have feared Yahweh from my youth. Has it not been told to my master what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of Yahweh, that I hid one hundred prophets of Yahweh by fifties in a cave, and sustained them with bread and water? So now you are saying, 'Go, say to your master, "Behold, Elijah is here" '; he will then kill me." And Elijah said, "As Yahweh of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today." So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah.
(1 Kings 18:1-16 LSB)
A Godly Bureaucrat (v. 1-6)
We begin with the divine command and the introduction of our two main characters in this scene.
"Now it happened after many days that the word of Yahweh came to Elijah in the third year, saying, 'Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth.' So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. And Ahab called Obadiah who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared Yahweh greatly...)" (1 Kings 18:1-3)
God's timing is perfect. After three years of covenantal judgment, He decides it is time for the confrontation. The command to Elijah is simple and direct: "Go, show yourself to Ahab." This is a command to walk into the lion's den. Ahab is not just an unbeliever; he is a man who has been personally and publicly humiliated by Elijah, and he has been hunting for him ever since. But Elijah's obedience is just as simple and direct: "So Elijah went."
But then the camera shifts. We are introduced to Obadiah, the man who runs Ahab's household. He is the king's chief of staff, his most trusted administrator. And the text gives us this crucial parenthetical note: "Now Obadiah feared Yahweh greatly." This is not a quiet, private piety that doesn't make waves. This is a robust, active, and costly fear of God. How do we know? The next verse tells us. When the wicked queen Jezebel began her bloody purge of God's prophets, Obadiah engaged in a massive act of civil disobedience and faithful subversion. He took a hundred prophets, hid them in two caves, and personally saw to it that they were fed and watered. This was not a low-risk venture. This was treason. If he had been caught, he would have been executed without a second thought. Obadiah demolishes the sacred-secular distinction that so many Christians use as an excuse for cowardice. He did not flee the corrupt system; he remained within it and used his position of influence to preserve the remnant of God.
Notice the contrast in priorities. Ahab's concern is entirely pragmatic and materialistic. He tells Obadiah to go scout the land for any remaining patches of grass. Why? To keep his horses and mules alive. These were the instruments of his military power, the ancient equivalent of tanks and fighter jets. While God's judgment is falling, Ahab is worried about his arsenal. He is concerned with the machinery of state power. Obadiah, on the other hand, had been concerned with preserving the prophets of God, the very mouthpiece of truth. Ahab wants to save his horsepower; Obadiah saved the horsepower of the kingdom of God.
A Terrifying Errand (v. 7-14)
As Obadiah is carrying out the king's orders, he has a divine appointment.
"Now it happened that as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him, and he recognized him and fell on his face and said, 'Is this you, Elijah my master?' And he said to him, 'It is I. Go, say to your master, "Behold, Elijah is here." ' " (1 Kings 18:7-8 LSB)
Obadiah's reaction to seeing Elijah is one of profound respect and reverence. He falls on his face and calls him "master." He recognizes that he is in the presence of God's true representative. But Elijah's response is blunt and terrifying. He gives Obadiah a direct order that, from a human perspective, seems like a death sentence. To be the one to bring the news of Israel's most wanted man to a paranoid and enraged tyrant is not a task anyone would volunteer for.
And Obadiah's response is a masterpiece of logical, terrified protest. He is not being insubordinate; he is being entirely rational. "What sin have I committed, that you are giving your servant into the hand of Ahab to put me to death?" He lays out his case with clarity. First, he describes the sheer intensity of Ahab's manhunt. Ahab has not just searched Israel; he has conducted an international search, forcing other nations to swear an oath that they were not hiding Elijah. Ahab is obsessed. Second, Obadiah knows how Elijah operates. He knows that the Spirit of Yahweh has a habit of supernaturally transporting the prophet from one place to another. His fear is entirely practical: "I will go tell Ahab you are here, the Spirit will whisk you away to parts unknown, Ahab will come and find nothing, and then he will kill me, the messenger."
But his central appeal is to his own track record of faithfulness. "I your servant have feared Yahweh from my youth." He then provides the evidence: his saving of the hundred prophets. This is not a boast. It is a plea. He is saying, "Elijah, we are on the same team! I have risked my life for our God. Do not give me an order that will needlessly throw that life away." Obadiah is afraid, and for good reason. But his fear of God has already been proven to be greater than his fear of Jezebel. He is now asking for assurance that this is a command from God, and not a fatal miscalculation.
The Prophet's Assurance (v. 15-16)
Elijah does not rebuke Obadiah for his fear. He does not question his faith. He understands the predicament perfectly. Instead, he meets Obadiah's reasonable fear with a divine and binding assurance.
"And Elijah said, 'As Yahweh of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.' So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah." (1 Kings 18:15-16 LSB)
This is the key to the entire passage. Elijah gives Obadiah a solemn oath. But look at the content of the oath. "As Yahweh of hosts lives, before whom I stand." This is the source of Elijah's courage, and it is the foundation of the assurance he gives to Obadiah. Elijah does not see himself as primarily standing before Ahab, or Obadiah, or Israel. He understands that he is perpetually standing in the throne room of the King of the universe, Yahweh of hosts, the Lord of the armies of heaven. His entire life is lived in the presence of the true sovereign. Compared to this King, Ahab is a petty tyrant of a backwater province.
This is what banishes the fear of man. When you know before whom you truly stand, the threats of earthly potentates shrink to their proper size. Elijah's oath is his promise to Obadiah that this is not a fool's errand. God is in this. The confrontation is set for today, and Elijah will not disappear. This divine guarantee is all Obadiah needs. His fear is answered, his duty is clear, and his obedience is immediate. "So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him."
Conclusion: Ordering Your Fears
This story presents us with two faithful men and two kinds of fear. Elijah seems fearless, but his courage is not a personality trait. It is a theological conviction. He fears God so completely that there is no room left over to be ultimately afraid of Ahab. He has ordered his fears correctly. He knows who the real King is.
Obadiah is the man caught in the middle. He fears God, and he fears Ahab. And this is the position that most of us find ourselves in. We work in secular companies. We live under pagan governments. We have unbelieving neighbors and family members. We feel the pressure to compromise, to stay silent, to go along to get along. We are afraid of losing our jobs, our reputations, our comfort, our lives. That fear is real, and it is not necessarily sinful to feel it. Obadiah felt it.
The question is not whether you will fear, but what you will do with your fear. The question is which fear will govern you. Obadiah's story shows us the path of faithfulness. His fundamental, lifelong fear of Yahweh, cultivated from his youth, provided the foundation for his costly righteousness in hiding the prophets. And when faced with a terrifying command, he did not simply disobey. He brought his fear into the light and laid it before God's prophet. And when he was given God's assurance, his fear of God triumphed over his fear of Ahab, and he obeyed.
We must cultivate this fear of God in our own lives, from our youth up. We must learn to see ourselves as standing always before the Lord of hosts. It is this fear, and this fear alone, that will give us the courage to be an Obadiah in Ahab's court. It is this fear that will enable us to subvert the wickedness of our age, not by running from it, but by infiltrating it with the truth and grace of the gospel. For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and it is also the beginning of all true and lasting courage.