TIME TO SPEAK OUT
Opening Prayer
Lord, give me a listening heart as you speak through your Word. Give me understanding and a willingness to apply what you teach me.
Read 1 KINGS 18:1–19
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Elijah and Obadiah
18 After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.” 2 So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab.
Now the famine was severe in Samaria, 3 and Ahab had summoned Obadiah, his palace administrator. (Obadiah was a devout believer in the Lord. 4 While Jezebel was killing off the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water.) 5 Ahab had said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs and valleys. Maybe we can find some grass to keep the horses and mules alive so we will not have to kill any of our animals.” 6 So they divided the land they were to cover, Ahab going in one direction and Obadiah in another.
7 As Obadiah was walking along, Elijah met him. Obadiah recognized him, bowed down to the ground, and said, “Is it really you, my lord Elijah?”
8 “Yes,” he replied. “Go tell your master, ‘Elijah is here.’”
9 “What have I done wrong,” asked Obadiah, “that you are handing your servant over to Ahab to be put to death? 10 As surely as the Lord your God lives, there is not a nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you. And whenever a nation or kingdom claimed you were not there, he made them swear they could not find you. 11 But now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’ 12 I don’t know where the Spirit of the Lord may carry you when I leave you. If I go and tell Ahab and he doesn’t find you, he will kill me. Yet I your servant have worshiped the Lord since my youth. 13 Haven’t you heard, my lord, what I did while Jezebel was killing the prophets of the Lord? I hid a hundred of the Lord’s prophets in two caves, fifty in each, and supplied them with food and water. 14 And now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’ He will kill me!”
15 Elijah said, “As the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today.”
Elijah on Mount Carmel
16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. 17 When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”
18 “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed the Baals. 19 Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘Rulers persecute me without cause, but my heart trembles at your word’ (Psalm 119:161).It takes courage to follow God in a culture where everything except God is worshipped (v. 12). It takes perseverance to keep your heart and mind focused on the Lord when your workplace is hostile to God (v. 13). It takes wisdom and discernment to know when to do what is right ‘behind the scenes’ (v. 4) and when to speak out (v. 16). But it is not easy! For Obadiah every day was a battle between faith and fear.
Elijah’s ‘chance’ meeting with Obadiah (vv. 1, 2, 7) was, of course, a God-incidence. As Ahab’s official, Obadiah’s duty was to arrest the nation’s most wanted man. Through Elijah’s request, God tested Obadiah’s loyalty, challenging him to make a choice. Was his priority God (and God’s prophet) or his earthly boss, King Ahab? Would he live by faith or fear (vv. 9, 14)?
For most of us, speaking up for God’s truth may not be a matter of life or death, but it may cost us a promotion, relationship, or our reputation. The question for Obadiah that day, as it is for each of us every day, was what was more important: his job, relationship, reputation, life… or God and his Word?
Apply
How is the Holy Spirit challenging you? Is he asking you to speak out where previously you have been silent?
Closing prayer
In the challenges that come against my faith in Christ, Father, I ask not so much that they be removed, but for courage to do your will and stand for what is right.
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